NUTRITION

Your choice of breakfast on race-day morning can make all the difference to your performance. Here are four recipes that will set you up for a great day

Have you ever completely nailed your race-day breakfast? It’s something many of us struggle with. Oh yes, the theory all makes sense – carbohydrates, once consumed, are converted into blood glucose and used for energy or stored as glycogen in the liver and muscle. Your body can then store enough carbohydrate to keep you going for

about 90mins. With your taper, a good night’s sleep, and some last-minute tweaks to the diet during the few days before your race, you should have your glycogen stores pretty much at their optimum. All you need to do on race day is to top these up.

For many of us, though, pre-race nerves can play havoc with our insides. So it’s best to discover what works for you as

an individual by testing out your pre-race brekkies in training as much as possible.

Firstly, why not try my new ‘Bircher-with-benefits’ recipes: Beetroot bircher and pomegranate bircher. In addition to the many antioxidant benefits of both beetroot and pomegranate, they also contain nitrates, which convert to nitric oxide in your body and open blood vessels, allowing more blood and oxygen to be delivered to the muscles. If you like a bit of pink to cheer your race morning, then these are a winner!

Next up, these Oat banana buttermilk blinis are light and easy to digest yet sustaining and packed with the good stuff. They’re an all-time pre-race favourite in our household. Either serve hot with your favourite toppings – we like Greek yoghurt, almond butter and fruit – or sprinkle with sugar, wrap in foil and take with you if you’re racing away.

I’ve always liked the idea of Kedgeree for breakfast, but find it hard to stomach smoked fish so early in the morning. So I’ve omitted the fish from my recipe. It’s none-theless delicious and packed with slow-releasing carbohydrate and the full spectrum of amino acids. You could prepare this in advance to take with you for away races too.

And lastly, no pre-race breakfast should ignore the magic of a bowl of oats. But it doesn’t have to be boring. Try this delicious Spiced orange porridge, rich in slow-releasing carbohydrate to keep you going that extra mile. Enjoy!

Nutritionist and keen amateur athlete Kate Percy set up the #GoFaster campaign in 2009, and now has a website (gofasterfood.com), several books and a new range of Go Bites - allnatural energy balls.