Are you surviving the cold weather? Here in Victoria, it has been bitingly cold and it reminds me of my childhood in Europe a lot.stef-plus

This week, the focus will be on nutrition and on how not to comfort eat (or on how to do it in a healthy way) plus how to snack for training.

I have big chocolate cravings – just like every Belgian has –  but know I need to stay away from white and milk chocolate. White chocolate does not contain cacao solids but it does have lots of dairy and sugar. Eating dark chocolate will help you with a lot more antioxidants, a lower sugar level and a lot more cacao solids. The dark chocolate I eat is usually about 60 to 70% cacao but you can eat up to 99% pure dark.

Another way to help my cravings is to eat Guilt Free chocolate hazelnut bars. They taste great and contain very little carbs and calories.

For your main meals, try and eat lots of warm and hearty meals. There is nothing better than a home made soup, a slow cooked piece of lamb with lots veggies or a home made stir fry with chilli. These type of food will help you fight the cold weather and will make you feel full with a feeling of satisfaction and health.

Regarding snacks, if you are very hungry before training, have a piece of toast with honey, peanut or vegemite. It is actually better to eat while training to pick up your metabolic rate and to keep your insulin levels low. Whatever you eat during training will burned off. Have a gel while training or a healthy muesli bar or even a banana if you can deal with the fibre.

Please do 5 to 10 min easy jog warm up and warm down & keep running every second day only.

If you want to do extra activities in the middle of those two days, pick something like yoga, Pilates, aqua jogging, swimming, walking or riding…

Monday 60min easy jog on grass

Wednesday 90min easy on the soft surface please inc 5kms as 400m max + 200m easy and record your 5kms time

Friday 30min easy jog on grass

Sunday 90min easy on the soft surface please inc 15x60sec as 20sec tempo, 20sec hard and 20sec max x120sec easy

Tuesday run 60min including 10x30sec accel each 10sec on the flat & 90sec easy jog on the flat

Thursday 60min easy on the soft surface please like grass

Saturday run 90min in the flat 5x1000m hard = 95% please & 500m steady jog recovery like your marathon pace please = 85%

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