Running from Zombies

Ally has written a post about supplements for sports and that has prompted me (in the sense we started writing at the same time) to write this one. It’s not so much about food as it is the products I use.

So, a little bit of background. I never really ate ‘badly’, but then I never did as much exercise as I’m doing now. Sporadic exercise and poor diet in the first year after I moved out saw me go from around 135lbs to verging on 160lbs (I’m 6′ tall for those that don’t know me) and I had to change back to more sensible food when I started running. Now I’m eating less junk (save for the odd pizza), drinking less alcohol, and having good quality main meals – chicken stir fry and pasta being favourites when I’m training.

It’s largely recognised that the body needs a combination of 70-80% carbohydrate and 20-30% protein to properly refuel after training, though I never really saw myself as needing to pay any particular attention to recovery food and only started looking into it when I was trying to lose a few pounds for the adidas 5k in 2008. In fact, I was generally under the impression that only body builders had protein shakes…

I had come across Maximuscle products before, and decided to give the Promax Diet bars a go. They’re 200kcal, have 20.3g of protein and 18.4g of carbs (with CLA and green tea extract to help burn fat, hence the ‘diet’ part of the name). I would have one after training and then a smaller later lunch. It worked well – I was able to train easier on consecutive days and I lost over 10lbs in 4 months. I always struggled to eat stright after training though, and the Promax bars had the consistency of cardboard and the cost of gold bullion (currently £23.48 for 12). After the 5k I ate them less and less after training and more as a snack when I didn’t have time for anything else. They stayed in the car for when I needed lunch on the go, and at home for when I needed an afternoon snack.

This year, I stepped my training up a notch. Training on consecutive days is the norm and so there’s a need to be refuelled properly for the next day. I started buying the odd For Goodness Shakes drink in Sainsburys and having it after a longer run, but they were so nice and much easier to drink that the Promax bars, that I ended up buying more and more. Before long I was having one after every training session.

I have the chocolate malt flavour shake, which is 350kcal, with 16.7g of protein and 59.1g of carbs. However, the drink is 91% actual milk, whereas the Promax bars are who-knows-what. Goodness Shakes also have ‘Nutrimix’, a pretty good combination of vitamins and minerals, as an added bonus.

It’s also worth mentioning that, to their benefit, For Goodness Shakes have recently launched a members area of their website which makes ordering in bulk much easier and cheaper. When I was buying single bottles from Sainsburys they were £1.28 each (cheapest I’ve found in a supermarket). The last order I got from the website worked out at £1.19 a bottle, including delivery and a free t shirt. Shakes also get cheaper the more you buy (over time) so soon enough I’ll be getting a 17% discount on rrp.

The latest addition to my sports food arsenal is breakfast cereal. I always eat breakfast, and if I’m training in the morning I’ll always have breakfast before I go out. Up until very recently my cereal of choice was Coco Pops (they turn the milk chocolatey you know!), but Ally introduced me to Kellogs Start. It’s a multigrain cereal, with more protein and fibre but less calories than Coco Pops. There doesn’t seem to be much in it, but it makes me feel healthier :-)

I think that’s pretty much it with regards to how I supplement my meals. Water is, as ever, a staple part of every day. Other than my breif experience with Gatorade at the asics British 10k I haven’t tried any sports drinks and probably won’t until next summer, when I’ll be doing some longer runs. The same goes for gels – I won’t bother experimenting with those until my long runs are over a couple of hours.

If you’ve found anything particularly good for training then please leave a comment! Thanks.