Happy Friday! Have you been enjoying the Olympics as much as I have? We have been tuning in every night, especially for alpine ski, cross-country ski, snowboard, biathlon, and speed skate.
Fuel
“The Simple Meal That’s Powering Team USA” from Michael Easter for Outside.
A common misconception about elite athletes is that they eat restrictive diets and trendy superfoods – when the reality is quite the opposite. According to this article from Outside, a majority of American athletes at the Olympics rely on oats, eggs, and coffee to power through their performances and competitions. Nothing fancy – just some good carbs, protein, and caffeine.
Eat
Speaking of performance foods, I tried the Picky Oats from this month’s StrideBox. These satisfied my post-run hunger and tasted flavorful without being too sweet like other pre-packaged oats. Definitely worth eating, especially for race mornings, travel, or backpacking!
Read
“What Olympic Cross-Country Skier Jessie Diggins Eats during Training” by Elizabeth Narins for Cosmopolitan (yes, you read that right)
Jessie Diggins, one half of the team that won the first-ever gold for the U.S. in cross-country ski, shared a peek into her training and eating for both a training day and rest day. I find it so fascinating to see how athletes eat, especially with such high training volume (such as 3.5 hours workout in the morning, followed by an hour in the afternoon!).
Watch
The first ever American gold in cross-country skiing was won with an epic strong finish in the last few meters. Her final push is incredible – I can’t stop watching it!
Run
After watching the Olympics, it was extra fun to play in the snow in Bend this past weekend. While I will retreat to the treadmill at the first sight of ice, I actually enjoy running in snow – especially on a dirt trail along the Deschutes River.
[Tweet “All things Olympics in this week’s #FridayThrive from @thisrunrecipes #WinterOlympics “]
What has been your favorite moment in these Winter Olympics?
What’s your favorite meal for performance?
14 Responses
The picky oats were so good! I actually haven’t been watching the Olympics this year but it sounds like there has been a lot of excitement happening! Have a great weekend!
This was a year worth watching – the replays are still up so you should try to catch some!
As you know, I’m a huge fan of the Olympics and absolutely loved the finish (really, the whole thing) of the women’s cross country ski team!!! Just amazing. I’m also glad to hear you love the Picky Oats as much as I do and that the American Olympians are keeping their eating habits simple. People think it’s so hard to eat “right” but it’s really just that simple!!
I’ll have to read the Cosmo article while in VT this weekend pretending I’m Chloe Kim 🙂
Your photos from Vermont made the snowboarding weekend look so fun! I hope you channeled your inner Chloe Kim 🙂
That cross country skiing win was so epic. I am so happy for them! GO USA
They defined epic these Olympics!
I loved those oats too! And there have been so many good Olympic moments. That finish with Digger pushing for the win was incredible!
It was incredible! Definitely a win to inspire digging deep in a race!
I love to have good packets of oatmeal on hand, especially for when I travel! that way I don’t have to make my own little baggies of oats mixed with cinnamon and raisins (although that option works too lol).
We take packets of oatmeal for camping and it’s such a convenient option! I am tempted to do that with hotels also because when we were in Bend, they ran out of oatmeal in the hotel breakfast by the time we finished our run.
I love steel cut oats for performance and I am intrigued to try the picky oats! Sounds like a good fuel option.
I think they would be! The beet flavor is intriguing for fuel, since beets are so good for performance.
Mile says, thank you for this post. Its very inspiring.
Thank you!