東京でのマラソン・陸上・駅伝・・・・・体を鍛えて、環境を守ってエコマラソン

Runner's foods: My best coaching advice

A talk about this with Owain inspired me to start this forum. People who know me also know that diet is one of my main concerns with regard to being a successful age-group runner. I have been running injury-free for more than 20 years, and I think one of the reasons is my diet. One more facto I would like to mention is sufficient sleep and my practice of Tai Chi (Chinese martial arts), but these will not be topic of this forum. Owain mentioned that he had recently included Korean mixed grains into his diet, they are available at most supermarkets and are the equivalent to the Japanese "mugi" or "jusankokumai" which you can sometimes even order at family restaurants. As you may know, I run a business selling grain mills (http://www.hikiki-organic-label.jp/), but fortunately, you don't have to buy an espensive grain mill to healthy grains. An easy way is to boil them and have them with rice or porridge. Or you can try to grind them in your mixer, if you have one, then soak them in yoghurt for 20 min.to maximum 8 hours, and have them with fruit or more yoghurt. As opposed to milk, yoghurt will prevent bacteria because of it's acids, if you don't have yoghurt, well, just use water and keep the soaking time short.

This was my little bit of advice for today, I will continue with recipes and update you on the not always runner-friendly food I encounter when travelling. The picture shows my "Mexican" breakfast, well, that's definitely not on my list of recommendations. I will look out f

or those magic Tarahumara grains!

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Permalink Reply by Tetsuya Kato on August 18, 2010 at 8:53am

Chemical (MSG, flavour enhancer, amino-acid) free soba stand ... kano-ya

This chain soba noodle stand (with seats, though) is kano-ya (かのや). They do not seem to have a website but you often see them in town (not at stations, I think). There is one in Shinjuku W near the Yodobashi Camera, below

http://gourmet.livedoor.com/restaurant/12417/

The quality of the soba and the source for this price is simply impossible (mori soba is only 290 yen)....yes, no MSG.

Make sure you choose soba, not udon. Why?....udon is made from refined starch (just like pasta and white sugar), which is not only
deplete in minerals but also consume minerals during digestion, depleting the body of minerals. Soba on the other hand contains more minerals (except the cheap ones that are mostly refined starch).

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Permalink Reply by juergen wittstock on August 24, 2010 at 12:15pm

And yes, I made it to Kanoya the other day, there is one in Ueno, Jay and I ran in Ueno Park and then went for a healthy, and very cheap meal! It was just about 500/600 Yen per head! One of the signs says: "No preservatives".

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Permalink Reply by Tetsuya Kato on August 25, 2010 at 12:24pm

Juergen

I am happy that you made it, and took all these photographs ... not bad for that price I think.

Tetsuya

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Permalink Reply by juergen wittstock on January 3, 2011 at 11:32am

Power-food: Oat-Nigiri

Lamma, the quiet, car-free island we are having our training-camp, provides for lots of healthy ingredients for home-cooking. Oat-NIgiri are made from locally available brown/wild rice, muesli, oats, peanuts, bananas, peanut butter and raisins. Just boil the rice, mash everything, and add oats until the dough becomes dry enough not to be sticky. Eat them raw, or toast them. If raw, better keep them in the fridge, if very long-term, freeze them and toast them before eating! Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by Jon Holmes on January 3, 2011 at 1:48pm

Very interesting Juergen.

I would be interested in hearing more on what you eat.

Certainly a lighter body weight often equals a faster race time....but I am not sure if any particular food is that much better than any other (excluding the junk foods of course).

Being injury free is something I only dream about!

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Permalink Reply by juergen wittstock on January 3, 2011 at 3:31pm

I do agree that there is a lot of good food around, basically, anything natural is good, whereas, in my opinion, heavily processed food is not so good for you. Francis always talks about his Kenyan "Ugaili", I'm curious to taste it!

Also, that guy sleeps at lot! Every night, he is in bed around seven, getting up at nine the next morning! And taking naps in the daytime! Even when he is working in Kenya, he says he is in bed by 8pm, gets up at 6 to run, and works from 9! Sleep is definitely a factor with regard to injury, recovery, and even body fat. I strongly believe that a lack of sleep can lead to over-weight, if you sleep after a work-out, your body will partly replenish its carbo from body-fat, ultimately leading to a lower bmi! Sleep off the kilos!