Strawberry & Coconut Recovery Shake: My Tastiest Creation Yet!!

If you are looking for a low calorie low fat drink then stop reading now as this is not the smoothie for you. This creation is low sugar high protein & healthy fat recovery drink. It gives your body what it needs after exercise in a natural and healthy way. And the best part is, its tastes magnificent!!

Ingredients:
- Hemp Milk (Almond or rice milk would do).
- 3/4 Frozen Strawberries.
- A few Chunks of fresh Coconut.
- Handful of Almonds.
- Handful of Macadamias. 
- 1-3 small dates for sweetness.
- Tablespoon of Chia seeds.
- Ice cubes are optional.

Pop all of these ingredients into a good powerful blender. I have a Ninja Nutri Bullet, it has a 1000w motor which breaks down anything and everything. I have no link with this company and I gain nothing from endorsing it. The reason I love this blender is you will struggle to find such a powerful and effective blender for under £100. In my option the next serious step up from this would be a Vitamix which will cost hundreds!

After a minute or so you have a super tasty smoothie. Just bear in mind this a recovery drink or a meal replacement rather than simply a snack, as it packs a fair few calories.

Enjoy!

Frittata: A Great Recovery Food That Helps Finish Fridge Left Overs.

I have recently rediscovered frittata and have really been enjoying experimenting with it, plus its a healthy and tasty meal/snack that can be made to last the week. Eggs the building block of this dish are full of protein, low in carbohydrate with a good measure of good fat. You can then add to this great base in any way you choose!

First of all let me list of some ingredients that i have used in the past that I find work really well in a frittata then I'll pop down one tried and tested combo. I would emplore you to experement, plus just use up left over ingredients in the fridge so nothing goes to waste!

Tasty Ingredients:
 Red, white and spring onion, chorizo, asparagus, pepper (red looks most appetising), roughly chopped steamed broccoli, mushroom (don't over cook it so juices start running), steamed spinach (pile it in, its great!), sweet and regular cubes of  cooked potato, halloumi cooked first), ricotta, cheddar and feta cheese, bacon (cooked first), ham....... you get the idea!

My favourite:
White Onion, chorizo, asparagus, red pepper, steamed spinach and fried and diced halloumi, then depending on my training for that week I may add a little extra carbohydrates in the form of a boiled and diced potato. Ill make this often during the week and it will see me through until Sunday, its also great over the weekend as you sometimes need a quick snack post work out and you have a ready made recovery meal waiting for you in the fridge!

To cook:
 I fry the onion for a couple of minutes before adding the chopped chorizo (and cooked potato cubes if you choose) so it browns off a little.  I then add in the halluomi and fry until chorizo and halloumi are nicely browned off. Then in goes the asparagus which has been sliced up the middle and chopped to speed cooking along with big chunks of red pepper. This is all cooked for a couple of minutes on a fairly high heat, the vedge should still have a nice bite to it.

While i am doing this I steam a bag of spinach then chopped it  a little with a pair of scissors. I then add this to my whisked 8 eggs (the number of eggs will depend on the size of your frying pan and eggs, remember you can always top it up with more eggs when its in the pan.) By doing this you are warming the egg a little with the steamed spinach speeding up the cooking.

Then the egg and spinach all goes into a good non stick frying pan already containing the other ingredients. My method from here is to turn the temperature down to low/medium and gently still the mixture so it starts to scramble a little. Once this has happended turn the heat down and allow it to sit pressing down the mixture. Now turn on the grill onto a medium heat. Once the bottom looks to be a turning light brown and the fritatta is starting to firm up finish under the grill, keeping an eye on it so it does'nt burn. Then leave to stand and cool, and touch wood any last little bits of runny egg should cook while it stands. It can be a little trial an error on the first couple.

Voilà, a frittata that depending on its size, your training and self restraint should last you the best part of a week. Enjoy!!

ÖTILLÖ: The Swim-Run World Championship

ÖTILLÖ: The Swim-Run World Championship

 “The ÖTILLÖ is a unique race in a unique environment” reads the information page on the race website. And that it was! The Ö TILL Ö was one of the most fantastic yet grueling races either myself or Hamish have competed in. However, whilst preparing for the race we found training advice, equipment information and tactics very hard to come by and so thought we would share our experience with anyone else who might be considering entering this brilliant event.

 

 

THE TEAM

 

 

A NEW CHALLENGE

It all started around a year before the event when Hamish suggested that we should look to enter a slightly different race as a pair for the following year. Having both competed in various triathlons and Ironman’s across the globe we were looking for a real challenge, and something that could really test both of our limits. The ÖTILLÖ seemed to tick those boxes – a race whereby teams of two run and swim together 20 plus islands in the Stockholm Archipelago. The total distance is 75 kilometers; of which 10km are swimming and 65km are running. I had heard a few mutterings around this race on various social media sites about this ‘tough’ race in Sweden but hadn’t really given it too much thought. So after a quick chat, Hamish and I entered through the normal channels – merit and ballot. The merit is free to enter and the decision is based on your previous sporting accomplishments whereas the ballot costs around £20 to apply, but gives you a second chance if you are not initially successful via merit. 

TRAINING FOR THE UNKNOWN

 In February we found out that we had been successful – we were in through merit! We paid our entry fees and continued with our regular training. Both Hamish and I had Ironman races at the end of June and so that was the key focus until July. Once the Ironman’s were under our belts and we had rested up, it was time to train for the unknown. So how do you train for a race where you are expected to run in your wetsuits and swim in freezing waters in your trainers?

We chose Shepperton Lake which is just out of London as our main training base. As well as the lake with options of 750m and 400m laps it offered a handy grass loop a couple of km long. We then proceeded to swim and run around the lake more times than either of us care to recall! This started with a couple of hours on Monday and Wednesday evenings and then in the last month we added in Saturday mornings which enabled us to test our endurance over longer sessions.

THE KIT

·         Invo-8 X Talon 190 Trail Shoes (light weight orange ones) with elastic laces.

·         Ankle socks: They help with grit you might pick up and you can always take them off.

·         Wetsuit, cut off above the knees and just above the elbows, if you are worried about the cold then leave the arms on. Also make sure your zip is straight forward not one of the quick release ones. Head also do a swim-run specific suit.

·         Pool Buoy: Drill holes into it so it can be attached using bungie cord to the top of the left or right leg, this then can be used during the swim and pushed round to the outside of the leg during the run.

·         Extra Neoprene Hat: We took these but did not use them in the end as the weather was nice, however if you are worried about the cold grab them.

·         Vaseline: We were recommended something called ‘Bag Balm’ which is very similar but designed for cow udders?!? It worked great though.

·         Hand Paddle: We used some Speedo ones, which worked really well, they also come in different sizes. We used the medium ones however I bought a set of the large ones to sometimes use during training. You would need to be super buff to use them during a race though!!

·         Mandatory Kit: Pressure bandage, small compass, waterproof map case, transceiver, which they give you and two whistles (one whistle each).

·         One or two energy gels to have before the 1^st feed station.

·         Anti mist spray: This goes on the inside of the goggles and helps prevent fogging up.

·         Orca Neoprene Vest: You can buy these on Wiggle and they are roughly 1mm thick. We both suffer from cold and did not have great wet suits so this extra layer really helped keep us warmer on the long swims and we did not find that we overheated during the runs. For £35 its well worth it and is also really useful during the early tri season when open water swimming.

·         Garmin 910XT: We had written all the distances on our hand paddles then with the use of the watch we knew during the runs when to start putting our wet suits back on before the next swim. Heart rate monitor didn’t really work as you are too wet most of the time.

·         Open Water Goggles. Just make sure they are not too big and interfere with your swim hat.

·         Compression Socks: I wore these Hamish did not. I can suffer from calf cramps, plus they helped when running through brambles, which definitely happens.

 

CHALLENGES AND RACE TACTICS

The main challenge we faced was getting used to swimming with hand paddles and swimming with your shoes on. Swimming with hand paddles and shoes saps your strength quickly if you are not used to it and so we quickly realised that the most important thing to focus on was our strength endurance in the swim. We also discussed heading to the gym as this was recommended for building the muscles needed to use the hand paddles. A little gym work occurred but perhaps in hindsight this is something to really get to grips with in the base phase.

One of the many aspects which makes the ÖTILLÖ quite so challenging and unique are the transitions. You will complete 38 transitions in and out of the water over the course of the race and so it is fundamental that you can be quick entering and exiting the water. However, our training had taught us how hard it was to swim in shoes and so during the swims which were over 1500m we took our shoes off and popped them down the back of our wetsuits. Our reasoning was that the time spent taking off and putting on our shoes would be made up by the time we saved swimming shoeless. Swimming shoeless for the long swims would hopefully also help take some of the load off the shoulders. This tactic was probably most noticeable by the second of the longer legs - the infamous ‘pig swim’ – a 1500m island crossing across the coldest water and where strong currents (thankfully not this year) can play a big part.

We also copied a tactic we had seen by teams in previous years. On our hand paddles we wrote the distance of each run and swim – this really helped mentally prepare at each swim entry and exit to know what distances we had coming up. This info was also handy for training sessions to replicate different sections of the course! Besides this our only real race specific tactic was to start steady and hopefully reel in a few teams as the day progressed.

THE RACE

The race itself begins in Sandhamn, an island in the Stockholm Archipelago. This means that teams meet at the port in central Stockholm the day before and a ferry transports you the 3 hour trip out to the island. This provided a great chance to meet fellow competitors and take in a unique way to see Stockholm. There was some good banter as competitors mingled and sized each other up!

On race day alarms went off at 4.30am and we headed straight to a breakfast of porridge, jam and boiled eggs. This was all washed down with typically strong Scandinavian coffee which served two key purposes: (1) Waking you up (2) Clearing those bowels!!. Then it was final checks, and off to the start area where we grabbed our GPS tracker.

 

The first half of the race was taken steadily. It can be a little hard to keep your heads initially, as after the starting gun goes off there is the jostle for positions and then you have a chopper flying over your heads for the first hour. It made you feel like you were an escaped convict on the run as it buzzed the trees above, all adding to the adrenaline. However we stuck to our guns and kept the heart rate steady. There is a prize to the first Red Bull aid station however this was neither a realistic goal nor an objective. So it was steady running, disciplined swimming/drafting (following Hamish a stronger swimmer) and taking on nutrition whenever possible at the stations as again this is crucial when you have a daylong event.

By the end of the pig swim which signals the half way stage we were hurting. Both our shoulders were feeling the effect of the hand paddles and our slight triathlon frames were feeling the effects of the 10 degree water temperature. But the one benefit of the long swim was that were able to see that a sizable gap had opened up between us and the next team. We muddled through a quick series of shorter ins and outs and before we knew it we were at the longest run of the day. A 12km run to a checkpoint then another 8km run.

Alan was definitely the stronger runner in this section and it was times like this a cord between us (which some of the teams were using) would have been a godsend. Thankfully once we got off the trails and onto the open road sections we started to even up. As we came out of the checkpoint we caught up to the first team we had seen in several hours. Definitely built like a couple of swimmers, the two young lads had been right at the pointy end of the placing's early in the day but were running out of gas. A few pleasantries as we passed them and then back into the grind looking forward to the next swim section after nearly 2 hours running in the wetsuit.

The final section of the race is a series of very short runs and swim. Some of the swims are less than 50m as you bunny hop across islands which is both mentally and physically draining as you will yourself towards the finish.

The final 3km is a steady run along road/flat trail and after the punishment of the day it was a welcome respite (until we got to the stairs at the bottom of the hill which leads to the finish line!). As we came across the line it was all smiles and the post race endorphins really kicked in. We finished in a time of 9 hrs 23 mins in 6^th place and were the first non-Swedish team home.

 POST RACE

All that was left to do was to enjoy the ÖTILLÖ branded beers and cheer home the remaining competitors. The sunshine, which had stayed around the entire day was still beating down on us heavily so there really was no better way to spend the afternoon after a solid day’s effort.

As a footnote, although we got away relatively unscathed there were a few casualties from the day with various injuries and people not making the cut-off times which are strictly enforced. A few teams we spoke to suffered broken ribs or sprained ankles which forced early retirements.  It does seem like the event where if things aren’t going your way it can quickly cut your day short.
 
Our favourite story of the day though was Amy and Olivier who we had met training out at Shepperton Lake back in the UK. They were having a tough day of it and was touch and go whether they would make it to the final checkpoint before the final 6pm cut-off time was enforced. As they made their way through thick forest they heard Race Director Mats’ voice in the distance encouraging them that if they picked up their pace they would indeed make the final cut-off and be allowed to continue. They were greeted at this point by Mats and an entourage. As the final team to make the cut and in the fading light they would have an official team of escorts for the remainder of the race. This comprised of a swimmer at the back and a swimmer at the front leading the way with a boat crew close to hand as well. It sounded like a cool experience and the story just added to the many great aspects of this crazy event.
 
Another feature is that it is a really great race for the spectators: The race is streamed live on the internet with dedicated live video and commentary, as well as second by second tracking of each team’s progress thanks to the transceivers that each team carries. Before the race we both posted on Facebook and Twitter that If…. You were bored at work on Monday morning then tune into the race to see how we both got on.  It was only after the race that we realised quite how entertaining the race was. The commentary is great, your team might get occasionally shown on TV and you can see the live leader board as teams jostle for position. The next day I got a message from, auntie saying it was the “most fun I have ever had in front of my computer”!?!? So although it’s not a race I would recommend attending as a spectator, your friends and family will get a great days entertainment from the comfort of their homes….. Or the office ; )

The phrase gets used a lot these days but this truly is a “bucket list” event and if you are lucky enough to get a spot we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
 

 

Alan and Hamish

Clapham Chasers