James Bailey: A Typical Day, Diet-wise

Recently the World Class development programme has been getting a lot of input from a nutritionist, this maybe of some interest because we haven’t had a lot of input on sports specific nutrition. The main aims for me were to build muscle bulk in order to gain strength and therefore power.

For this I was doing four sessions in the gym per week and was advised to up my intake of protein around these and any sessions in the boat which weren’t endurance based, so I had to drink a pint of milk or equivalent in other protein rich foods (yoghurt, ham sandwiches) before and after (within 15 mins) of each session. For endurance based sessions I had to take in carbohydrates around 2 cereal bars and a banana or 4 sandwiches within 15mins of the start and finish of each session. I also had to increase my overall amount of food, so I had to eat larger portions at lunch and dinner and also eat another bowl of cereal before I went to bed at night.

It was also suggested that a creatine supplement may help me so I have tried this and found it very effective. Basically creatine adds phosphate to the muscles so they produce more ATP (energy), therefore you can train harder, e.g. more reps in the gym so you can get better strength gains from better training. You go though a loading phase and then maintenance and as the results show it was very effective for me but doesn’t work for everyone. Another important note is that if not properly hydrated it can cause cramp, so I have to drink 5 litres of fluids per day. The water retention adds body weight and I have risen from around 65kg to 69kg, I am currently off creatine to see what weight loss is incurred through less water retention. Also I have to point out that the creatine I use is batch tested by the EIS, however commercially available supplements cannot be 100% relied on not to contain a banned substance much in the same way many breakfast cereals say ‘may contain traces of nuts’.

A Typical Day's Diet

7:30 Breakfast
Large bowl of fruit and fibre, semi skimmed milk, glass of orange juice.
10:30 Snack
Sandwiches, peanut butter, jam, marmite x6
11:15 – 12:30 Full runs session
12:30 Snack
1 banana, 1 nutri grain bar.
1:30 Lunch
Cheese and ham toasted sandwiches x8, yoghurtx1, pear x1.
4:30 – 5:45 Cycling
6:00 Dinner
Macaroni cheese, sausages, sweetcorn, peas, broccoli and a yoghurt.
8:00 Apple
9:00 Orange
9:30 Snack
Large bowl of fruit and fibre with semi skimmed milk and creatine.

Race day diet

7:30 Muesli, toast x2, scrambled egg
8:30 pre warmup
9:00 cereal bars x2
10:30 1st run
11:00 1 whole malt loaf
12:00 Jam sandwiches x4
1:30 2nd run
2:30 another malt loaf
3:00 Team run
3:30 Peanut butter sandwiches x4
5:30 cereal bars x2
7:30 Salmon, jacket potato, cabbage, peas and carrots.
9:30 cereal bars x2

You can read more about life in the World Class Academy in James Bailey's Profile