I’m hungry all the time. It’s a well-known fact about me.
It means being prepared before an event is critical to make sure I can make the proper decisions to get me to the finish in a good position.
Preparation and recovery, especially at a week-long event is especially important, since the longer the event, the longer you have to maintain your fitness for.
For me, the most common week-long event I do is the UK national championships.
During racing, all the food gets kept on a coach boat so we have to take it out in a dry bag. Sometimes we team up, so one of us takes it out in a big bag to the coach.
A typical morning there would be to start the day with a pot of porridge with a banana, while getting chicken rolls and pasta ready for on the water.
Once I arrive at the club, I eat half of the pasta and drink a bottle of water while I rig. Especially in summer, drinking enough is one of the most important things to remember because being dehydrated can be risky out on the water.
After launch it’s time for one of the rolls, a cereal bar and half a bottle of water with a Science in Sport tablet mixed in. SIS makes you feel like you’ve just downed 14 shots of espresso and really helps power you through the racing.
After race 1, I’m back for another cereal bar, a roll, the other half of the pasta and the rest of the first water bottle.
By the end of race 2 just an hour later, I’m usually starving again so, while I’m on the long sail in I have one last roll, any extra cereal bars floating around in my boat and a whole bottle of water.
As soon as I’m finished de rigging for the day, I’ll go and grab some of the so-called “sailor pasta” which the hosting club usually provides for us because that helps me begin my recovery phase before the next day.
Maintaining fitness and energy throughout a week-long event is sometimes one of the hardest things to do and trust me, no one eats as much food as sailors.
Team GBRn't 