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.

Local Street 'O' in the dark

School holidays bring the closure of the local high school gym where Walton chasers hold their Tuesday night circuit training sessions so for this week we had a street orienteering event conveniently starting about 250metres from my front door.
Billed as an urban with a bit of parkland run, 3.5km and 5 km courses were on offer and I was confident that there would be nowhere on the map that would be unfamiliar and I must do better than Sundays poor effort.
For a few minutes I thought nothing was going to happen as I ran over to the allotments car park 5 minutes after the start time of 6:45 and found 2 people there but no sign of anything being organised.  I ran over to the main Wildwood car park where there was another 2 who I sent over to the allotments although one who was our chairman decided there was nothing going on and went home.  About half an hour later the Stodgells turned up, all the controls were out and the event was back on.
A good turn out of 13 runners started at staggered intervals.  A quick scan of the 1:4,000 map and I was off down towards the allotments where I walk Fly most days.  I went way too fast and consequently slid right on my arse in the mud, got up and ran straight past the first control.
I managed a decent pace all the way round after that only losing time on 5 and 6 in a tight wooded section where I had trouble seeing the tracks with my fading headtorch.  Maybe 2 minutes lost.   Then at 11 where again the track was not very visible.
Between 11 and 12 is where Iain Stamp, the eventual winner caught me up and it was all I could do to try and keep with him, which I managed for three or four controls but then decided to go a different way on one at which point he started to get away.
Quite pleased with a second place even if it was on home turf.  Just a bit disappointed that I followed someone past the tracks to no6 when I knew it was the wrong way.  Don't think it would have made any difference though.

Trouble is with being a non school night the local youth were out getting beered up and wanting to take on the world resulting in one control going missing.  Bloody morons.

Splitbrowser here
Routegadget here

Let them run free

"Did you have a good weekend?"

"Yeah, it was o.k. got wasted Friday night and just chilled out for the rest of it.  What did you do?"

"I took my 8 year old Henry orienteering and let him do a course on his own with no help and without anybody following him and he didn't get lost"

"Yeah, but the route was marked out for them wasn't it?"

"er no"

" So you give him a mobile to call you if he gets lost?"

"er no, just map & compass"

"That's stupid.  What if he got lost?  Does anybody else do that?"

Last Sunday saw another Walton Chasers orienteering event take place, this time nowhere near Cannock chase but in Pelsall Common just outside Cannock.  A middle type event, I was expecting a small course with close controls but lots of them.  I entered the black course (the longest) and was given a control description list as long as my arm with 33 controls. 
I entered Henry on the yellow and followed him round but I was a bit too over cautious in his abilities and ended up intervening at almost every control.  Should have left him to it. Afterwards we got him entered on the easier white course and let him off on his own while I tackled the black course.
I did a middle race a few months back but this was way tighter and more intense.  From the start I never got the hang of it.  The map scale was 1:5,000 and I over shot everything never really getting the hang of the vegetation boundaries.  The estimated winning time for black was 35 minutes so I gave myself an hour to get round.  No chance, with the hour fast approaching I knocked it on the head at control 19 and walked back to see Henry at the finish greeting me with "you've been ages".  Yeah I would have been a lot longer as well if I'd have carried on.

The conversation starting this thread was one I had with a work colleague on Monday morning.  The child protection nanny state has got to everyone.  I'm sure if he would have got lost there was someone about that would point him in the right direction.

Suppose I could remove the risk and just stay at home and chill out!

What the HELL is this?

I was hoping to give some pearls of wisdom on recovery from the cycleshak lecture but Barry has fallen off his bike and broken a collar bone,  quite badly apparently.  So get well soon Barry I hope the talks will continue soon.  meanwhile...

Saturday afternoon didn't look too bad weather wise so it was decided that me and my son Henry would venture out on the mountain bikes around part of the chase follow the dog trail.
Just pulling into chase road corner in the car we were greeted with dozens of dishevelled looking muddy runners all carrying nice little goody bags and foil blankets.  Then it dawned on me that this must be the Hellrunner trail race.  I'd heard rumours that this was going on but instantly dismissed it when I'd seen the cost of entry, £30!!, for 10 miles  That's more than the Fellsman, and the Fellsman is six times longer.

We parked up opposite the Tackeroo campsite which was the official parking area by the looks of it and I was dismayed at the amount of litter that was being left around, foil blankets, for goodness shakes bottles, coffee cups, and most disturbing of all socks and trainers.  I saw at least three pairs of road shoes just left on the car park.  I presume that for some the race was a one off and the thought of actually cleaning the shoes didn't register.  The cost of the race must partly be for the litter pickers as when we'd finished our ride an hour later all the litter had gone.  This must be a road running thing as I did feel uneasy when running the Edinburgh marathon a few years back and the streets were littered with cups just chucked on the floor.  Completely different to the take your litter home attitude at your average fell race.

Taking the bikes off the roof the distant sound of thumping music over by the quarry had us heading over for a nosey.  The now waterlogged old working quarry was being used as part of the race and was all taped off so the runners had to go through the thigh deep water.  The music was coming from the start/finish area right over by the mound by the old army rifle range.  We were too late to see any action but there were a few tail enders coming in looking really rough and taking it impossibly slowly down the quarry slopes.  A slow ride around the course to the finish area and the clear up operation was in full swing and more indication as to were the money went.  A massive blow up start/ finish banner, about 30 portaloos and a huge marquee.

This is trail running but not as I know it.  It almost gives you the feeling that all the bells & whistles are to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible and gives the impression the participants have never known life outside of a risk assessment.  That said it did look a good course and was probably great fun just not for that price.

All seems a bit unnecessary for something as simple as running in the dirt.

Protein. How much is enough?

This belated post ponders this question I've been asking myself since starting regular long runs of 20 miles+ a few years ago.  After these runs my day to day life was a mixture of weakness, tiredness and feeling not fully recovered for the next training session.  I also quickly lost all my muscle mass gained through years of 'casual' weight training which did leave me a bit hacked off when everybody was saying I've lost loads of weight, like it's a bad thing.

So,  A couple of years back I decided to educate myself on sports nutrition and as you do searched the internet for information.  I eventually came across this book on amazon and up until now has been my 'go to' read for advice.  It basically says carbohydrate should be your main source of fuel throughout the day and pushes the benefits of using the nutrition pyramid as your bible.  All pretty standard stuff for a healthy lifestyle but I began to feel I was missing something.


A few weeks ago while chatting to Mark Stodgell he mentioned there was a series of nutrition lectures taking place at a new nearby bike shop in Heath Hayes,  Cannock.  The cycleshak is owned by a work colleagues girlfriends brother and I was keen to take a look, not just at the shop but to see if I could learn anything new.

The lectures are held by renowned sports nutritionist Barry Murray of Optimum sports nutrition  and are held every fortnight on Wednesdays.  I missed the first talk on Immunity which would have been great for me as the kids are always bringing home colds and bugs so I can't really say a lot about that one except Barry still pushes the idea of dosing up on vitamin C at the first sign of a cold to shorten the time you are 'out of action'.

The lecture I attended was entitled 'Weight management' and I was immediately drawn in when Barry said 'this is what a normal persons eats during the day',  Cheerios for breakfast,  biscuits for snacks, maybe a banana, cob roll for lunch etc.  Not wishing to copy Stodges blog but I thought he'd been spying on me as well as it was almost exactly what I'd eaten that very day.  He proceeded to say why this was not an optimum way to feed the body, there was too much carbohydrate and sugars compared to protein and would cause insulin spikes and dips throughout the day, instead recommending things like egg on wholemeal toast,  cottage cheese and full fat yoghurt.   Full fat!  yes , apparently anything that says low fat, muller light, healthy choice etc is the devil and should be avoided at all costs,  instead go for full fat options wherever possible this will give the body fuel from fat,  just as important as fast burn carbs.

Eat 'whole foods' as they come out of ground get picked off the tree etc or in other words no processed foods.  That partly includes orange juice.  It is better to eat a whole orange than just squeeze the juice out and miss out on the fibrous pith which would help slow the sugar release.

Snack on nuts, they contain good quality fats.  Barry produced a box of shopping from Raleigh pro cyclist Dan Fleeman with a big bag of 1.5kg nuts which Dan said would last him a week and a half also in the box were spelt pasta, brown rice, peanut butter, almond butter, Rye bread, omega 3 tablets.  All low GI stuff.

Another gem of information was to do with a bolognese.  A good dinner with good fats and wholemeal or spelt pasta can be ruined by the inclusion of garlic bread giving the aforementioned rapid insulin spike.

I sort of knew that the missing link was not enough protein but in just this last week I've increased my intake and am noticing a difference already, mainly in my willingness to actually go out and train,  I seem to have more energy but am probably eating less carbohydrate.  I will certainly be reading up a bit more on this and will be going to the next talks on recovery and supplements a fortnight later.

Thanks to Barry Murray and Cycleshak for enlightening me.