As my long runs have steadily increased in mileage over the last few weeks, I have been trying out some different breakfast 'strategies' to see which can fuel my legs the best. It didn't take long to work out that my favourite Sunday fry-up was not quite up to the job - I may not run out of fuel after a huge pile of sausage, bacon, beans, egg and toast, but 10 minutes into the run my body would protest and give me a crippling stitch, slowing me down to the pace where I would actually be overtaken by people walking (yes that actually happened - possibly one of my worst runs ever to date that one!) and giving me a rather strange gait at the same time! Other options that haven't worked are the 'light' cereals (think special K type's - taste good but try to go more than 3 miles after and I just run out of steam!), a banana (healthier, but again just not enough!), marmite on toast - which weirdly also always gives me a stitch - and croissants (probably self-explanatory!).
So, what does work for me? For shorter runs, I am still liking the smoothies I started having on the Zest Super Cleanse - they seem to wake up my body and are great for anything up to about 6 miles. Anything over that, I am so far finding a bowl of shreddies or, my favourite on an icy morning, a big vat of porridge! Now, I had given up eating porridge ever since Uni, when, having 'slightly' mis-calculated my budget for the month, I found myself hideously overdrawn 3 weeks before my next pay day (yes, I had managed to spend it all in the first week..!!). Having not much more than porridge in the cupboards, that was what I ate. Breakfast, lunch and dinner... for 3 weeks! By the end of that, I couldn't even look at a bag of porridge oats without my stomach groaning at me - and so, despite the huge amount of people telling me it would be great for my running, I put off going back to the oats.
However, as marathon training progressed and the importance of correct nutrition became more and more evident, I reluctantly convinced myself to give porridge another go. Still not able to face the 'plain' version of simple oats and milk, I dug around for some ideas on how to spice it up, made of the list of the versions I thought I could stomach, stocked up on a huge bag of oats (still so much cheaper than buying cereal!), and got cooking!
Surprising myself, I found I actually liked the majority of the 'flavours' that I tried - and yes, for anyone who hasn't tried it before a long run it does do an excellent job of keeping you going, as well as warming you up for winter mornings! My absolute favourite way of making it though is my fruity nutty porridge.
For this, I mix 50g of porridge oats with 300ml soya milk (I find this makes it much creamier, which I like, but you can use water or skimmed milk if preferred!) and simmer for a few minutes. Then I add a tablespoon of chopped nuts (hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts are my favourite) and a tablespoon of mixed seeds (pumpkin, sesame and sunflower - sometimes just sunflower as I like the taste!) and a tablespoon of chopped dried dates and apricots. Simmer for 3-5 more minutes, until fruit has warmed through and softened and the porridge is at the right consistency (I sometimes add a little more milk at this stage). Then spoon into my bowl, grate over hald an apple and drizzle with honey (go for manuka honey for an added boost to your immune system). YUM!
Other versions I like are cinnamon and banana - I make this in the slow cooker, adding a few cinnamon sticks to the porridge and milk mixture, then mashing in a banana at the end, and (slightly less healthy!), golden syrup :-)
Anyone have any other good porridge recipes I can try - or any other good breakfast ideas?
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