Covid has brought our fast moving world a stand still. After a year of uncertainty with many fitness goal posts being revised, moved or adapted, the countdown has begun to gyms reopening and from this week training groups can reform outside. An exciting time as it marks the beginning of the end of another 3 months lockdown in the UK, but for a lot, it probably also brings some anxiety…. and that’s ok, you’re not alone! Based on an online survey, people who were already highly active before COVID and those who used to exercise with friends or in sports clubs self reported to exercise less in l ..read more

I wrote a brief nutrition Q & A for the Guardian newspaper a while ago on delayed on -set muscle soreness or as most of us know it DOMS! The journalist wanted to now if you could tweak your nutrition to help reduce the muscle ache and stiffness some of us experience after a particularly hard or new session. DOMS result from a number of factors and will mainly occur 1-2 days after we have performed a new or more intense that usual session. This pain we feel is tiny, microscopic damage to the muscle fibre and not a build up of lactic acid that many think it is. Although it may not feel like ..read more

Sometime called the “Sunshine vitamin”, Vitamin D is involved in so many physiological functions, when looking at the detail , you almost wonder if there is anything this Vitamin doesn’t do! It has received increased attention in last 10 years, with many people taking daily supplements as part of their everyday routine. Vitamin D is normally obtained through exposure of the skin to UVB through sunlight. This is great in the Summer months, but during the Winter, when days are shorter and exposure to sun is less, we run the risk of developing vitamin D deficiency. This is quite widespread in th ..read more

This article will be open to many comments and criticism I know, but I feel it’s something I need to write. I love milk. It’s my chosen nectar as it provides a world class mix of carbohydrate, protein and hydration in one swift hit and, best of all, it’s convenient. Not everyone though shares my passion. The UK’s consumption of milk has decreased drastically in the past 20 years. More often than not, with my athletes, I am seeing cows milk being replaced with milk alternatives. Almond, coconut, rice,soya, hemp..you name it. Although milk alternatives have a rightful place in some diets, many ..read more

Due to the nature of my job, I reflect a lot on my race nutrition post event. I have done many a marathon and every single one has been different from a fuelling perspective. Over the 20 years of running, I have trained my gut to be pretty robust. It didn’t start out that way though. I did my first 4 marathons between between the years 2000 - 2004 and I can hand on heart say I took only water and a few swigs of lucozade. Over the years I have worked and worked to tolerate anything from sports drink to pasta whilst on the move. The new challenge I had for London marathon 2019 was fuelling at a ..read more

Tart cherry juice has become popular in the past years. It is classed as one of the sporting worlds “superfoods” as the proposed benefit from consuming this natural product is quite impressive. They are considered risk free alternative to pharmacological supplements. A study in 2006 found that people who drank Montmorency tart cherries had less muscle soreness after a hard bout of arm exercises (1). Moving on 13 years, at least 7 other studies have found equally convincing results. Most conclude that if you take tart cherry juice after mechanically or metabolically challenging exercise, it wi ..read more

This probably wasn’t the second blog you expected but with only 10 weeks to go, you need to get on with this now. Race nutrition is an aspect of marathon nutrition many leave until too late. I get quite an influx of emails with only a few weeks to race day to go wanting to discuss a fuelling strategy. Big no no! This is far too late. You need to start now. Why Carbohydrate? It is well documented that the main cause of fatigue in exercise over 60 min is diminishing energy stores. Our body mainly uses carbohydrate and fat for energy. Although we use a mix of both energy sources, carbohydrate is ..read more

It’s the beginning of the year and motivations are high (hopefully!). Many start the New years with new intentions and goals. As a runner, it is likely that you have your goals set out already, whether it’s to break your 10km PB, run your first 5km or a Spring marathon. I get many emails from marathon runners far too close to their event wanting to work out their race nutrition or loose weight with the hope they will race better. For you to succeed in your sporting goals there are three pillars to your success, training, rest and nutrition. Far too many don’t consider the later and if they do ..read more

How we recover is paramount to overall performance. Just as important as that Sunday long run and Tuesday track session. The reality is, if we recover better we train harder. It is this that makes a huge impact on performance not just by getting us back to previous form but can make us even stronger. When a session is done or race completed, many of us switch off too early. Understanding a little more about how we can help our bodies recover better after hard training sessions and races will make you a better runner. Nutrition plays a pivotal role in this process. Providing the body with the ..read more

A good performance is heavily influenced by fluid intake and taking simple steps to get intake right could be the fine line between success and failure. Water makes up over half of our bodyweight and we simply cannot survive without it. It is used for many essential processes, controlling temperature, removing waste products and transporting nutrients and oxygen around the body. Regular ingestion of fluids is not only vital for normal functioning of the body, it is also vital for optimal sports performance. Performance & Dehydration During prolonged exercise athletes are at high risk of d ..read more