Julie Hawker kicks off our 2016 workshops
We held the first of our 2016 workshops on Monday January 4th – and what a way to start the year!
For this workshop, we had the pleasure of welcoming Julie Hawker along as guest speaker. Julie is a registered Nutritional Therapist and gave everyone the facts on how the right food and drink strategy can aid performance, and also how the wrong choices can affect performance.
As a group (including parental involvement), different strategies were discussed, including aspects of timings as well as how different food groups play a part in performance. It was interesting to hear that many have a good understanding of food types, portions and timings that are already worked into both training and racing – although hopefully the rider who has a post-ride meal of a “Crunchie” will be changing his ways!
The hot topic of gels and caffeine generated healthy debates. Of course the overriding principles of a) eat natural where possible and b) avoid caffeine as a youth shone through. The main message of eating a “Balanced Diet” was understood without question.
As a follow-up, Julie has provided a handy ideas lists for meals here, and the Slipstreamers entry point for external links can be found here.
Next few workshop topics include “Doping in Sport” on the 11th January, and “Race Preparation” on the 18th January – keep an eye out on Twitter and the Calendar for the latest updates.