Barry Murray nutrition talk - Recovery

Optimum nutrition for sport

With Barry's broken collar bone on the mend I received information on Tuesday night that the fortnightly talks where back on at the cycle shak in Heath hayes.
Arriving at the shop there was a slightly lower turn out than for the weight management talk but the usual spread of keen road riders and triathletes looking for that extra edge in performance.
The information given was all very exact with the amount of carbs to eat straight after a session and what times to eat them.

Barry's take on it was a 2 phase approach. Phase 1 simple fast carbs to be consumed within 10 minutes of finishing a session and Phase 2 about an hour later, eat a main meal of 70g carbs, 30g protein and alkalising greens.

The quantities for phase 1would vary depending on the intensity of the training session
for an easy session Phase 1 consume 0.5g per kg body weight carbs
for a medium session Phase 1, 0.5-1g/kg carbs + 0.3g/kg protein
for a hard session phase 1, 1-1.5g/kg carbs + 0.5g/kg protein

How you get these foods in is up to the individual but for me weighing just under 75kg my 0.5g/kg for an easy session could be covered by a banana or 300ml of fruit juice.  its only when you get to the hard session that the amounts get a lot more and become difficult to consume or would seem un-natural to eat so much.

A way around this is to use good old protein powder in the form of natural whey, brown rice protein or interestingly pea protein and for the quick carbs dextrose powder is really cheap and easy to mix both can be bought from Myprotein.

So the real crux of it is to get the high GI carbs in quickly which is pretty much known anyway, this is just a more exact way of doing it and remember that you don't need the same amount for a 45 minute easy session as for a 5 hour endurance run or ride.

I had a chat with Barry after the session and it turns out he has entered the Lakeland 100 as well and has actually won 2 of the might contain nuts ultra series races but will unfortunately not be doing the next one because of the collar bone.  So I will be picking his brains on what to eat during ultras in the next few talks.
One tip he did recommend was something that has been in the news quite recently.  Beetroot shots.  He tried one before his last ultra and found a noticeable difference in performance,  It encourages blood flow and increases oxygen uptake.  may be worth a go, as he says there is nothing to lose.

Just a couple of things from comments given about my last nutrition post.  Dawn pointed out the 80-10-10 diet.  I had a quick look at this and it seemed to be a lot of fruit eating and not much else although I may be wrong.  I know of a few American ultra runners who are complete fruitarians  I can see a benefit in not eating as much stodgy grains but 80% carbs does seem a little out of balance.
Steve.  I like the fish & chips nutrition idea washed down with a real ale.