Latest News
07 Sep 2007
On-Board Refuelling
Ann Ashworth, MSc RD R.SEN Accredited Sports Dietician and Registered Sports and Exercise Nutritionist has given us advice on how to prepare for our event and how to fuel ourselves throughout our 'ordeal'...
Ann has recommended that on the day before the challenge we take in low fat, carbohydrates:
"Think about your diet the day before you go -
Obviously a huge fan of indian cuisine, this last suggestion didn't go down too well with me, but I will probably reward myself on the finish with a nice chicken dhansak or something.!!
On the subject of hydration throughout the event:
"Try 500-1000mls per hour to start with BUT fluids should contain some carbohydrate and sodium, not just water. This is really important - marathon runners who just drink water over-dilute their blood and get ill (hyponatraemia). Try keeping cycle bottles in your hulls, which should keep them cool. Buy as big as possible - I found some one litre ones from JJB Sports. If you can screw some matching cycle bottle holders to your mast or anywhere, then that would be great - you can grab the bottles with one hand and drink without having to unscrew bottle tops. Your support boat could keep a further supply in a cool box and swap over the empties as needed.
Take sports drinks, like Lucozade Sport, or High5, or Gatorade, or SIS, or make your own. It is just a question of preference. The most important thing is to try them whilst sailing to see if you can drink them or not - some people just can't get on with them.
My favourite at present is diluted orange juice:
300mls UHT unsweetened orange juice (buy one litre cartons from any supermarket)
700 mls water
pinch of table salt
This gives about 30g carbohydrate. Athletes need about 30 - 60 g carbohydrate per hour, so one litre of this plus a large banana, or a few dried apricots, depending on how hard you are both working. I also have a Ribena recipe if you prefer...You might need a few different ones - drinking the same drink for hours could be tedious!
The Camelback idea is good, but not if it interferes with your mobility on the boat, if you are already wearing a lot of stuff. Make yourselves drink according to your own needs, as calculated above.
You could try some of the special carbo gels and energy bars from sports/cycle shops - these are just concentrated carbohydrate so need to be taken with some fluids. However, they are light and come in waterproof wrapping and easy to keep on board. Cereal bars are also easy to eat with one hand, but look for low fat ones, such as Alpen Groove or Sainsbury's Balance Bars. Also try low fat biscuits such as Jaffa cakes or low fat digestives and a few sweets - such as jelly beans or jelly babies."
If you would like advice on your dietary needs for your sporting event, Ann can be contacted on annashworth @ btinternet . com (please remove the spaces, we don't want her getting lots of spam because we have published her email address....)
Thanks Ann!
Matt & Simon
"Think about your diet the day before you go -
- Breakfast: Choose from: cereals with low fat milk, bread, toast, bagels, jam, marmalade, honey, fruit and yogurt
- Lunch: sandwiches with low fat fillings, fruit and yogurt or low fat ice cream or jacket potatoes with low fat fillings,
- Evening meal: lots of pasta/rice/potatoes with small amounts of lean meat, chicken or tinned tuna and just a tomato based sauce.
Obviously a huge fan of indian cuisine, this last suggestion didn't go down too well with me, but I will probably reward myself on the finish with a nice chicken dhansak or something.!!
On the subject of hydration throughout the event:
"Try 500-1000mls per hour to start with BUT fluids should contain some carbohydrate and sodium, not just water. This is really important - marathon runners who just drink water over-dilute their blood and get ill (hyponatraemia). Try keeping cycle bottles in your hulls, which should keep them cool. Buy as big as possible - I found some one litre ones from JJB Sports. If you can screw some matching cycle bottle holders to your mast or anywhere, then that would be great - you can grab the bottles with one hand and drink without having to unscrew bottle tops. Your support boat could keep a further supply in a cool box and swap over the empties as needed.
Take sports drinks, like Lucozade Sport, or High5, or Gatorade, or SIS, or make your own. It is just a question of preference. The most important thing is to try them whilst sailing to see if you can drink them or not - some people just can't get on with them.
My favourite at present is diluted orange juice:
300mls UHT unsweetened orange juice (buy one litre cartons from any supermarket)
700 mls water
pinch of table salt
This gives about 30g carbohydrate. Athletes need about 30 - 60 g carbohydrate per hour, so one litre of this plus a large banana, or a few dried apricots, depending on how hard you are both working. I also have a Ribena recipe if you prefer...You might need a few different ones - drinking the same drink for hours could be tedious!
The Camelback idea is good, but not if it interferes with your mobility on the boat, if you are already wearing a lot of stuff. Make yourselves drink according to your own needs, as calculated above.
You could try some of the special carbo gels and energy bars from sports/cycle shops - these are just concentrated carbohydrate so need to be taken with some fluids. However, they are light and come in waterproof wrapping and easy to keep on board. Cereal bars are also easy to eat with one hand, but look for low fat ones, such as Alpen Groove or Sainsbury's Balance Bars. Also try low fat biscuits such as Jaffa cakes or low fat digestives and a few sweets - such as jelly beans or jelly babies."
If you would like advice on your dietary needs for your sporting event, Ann can be contacted on annashworth @ btinternet . com (please remove the spaces, we don't want her getting lots of spam because we have published her email address....)
Thanks Ann!
Matt & Simon
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matt
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