What's your favourite running tipple?

Rick Yates probably has more fast twitch fibres than any endurance runner. He is a 400m hurdler who represented England at the Commonwealth Games this year. He takes 4 pro plus caffeine tablets about 1hr-1hr30 before a race to ensure that he is completely alert and focused throughout the warm up and on the start line. His recovery will depend on whether he has a final the next day. If so he will generally eat pasta and chicken being careful that there is a good balance between replacing the nutrients and energy whilst not making himself too heavy for the race the next day. If there is no final then he eats whatever he wants and this sometimes includes chocolate, cake and pizza although he stresses that he maintains a healthy balanced diet!

Lee Merrien has represented Great Britain on the roads and cross country. He is from Guernsey and has also represented his country on the track at the Commonwealth Games. He likes to have a strong black coffee before his key workouts but stresses that he makes sure he is well hydrated before consuming it. He says he has used flat coke in the marathon before for the energy and caffeine effect late into the race. "When I get to 30k in the race and start to feel the race bite I certainly look forward to it!" He has used a range of different recovery shakes after hard workouts and believes that making sure he gets a fast source of carbohydrate alongside good protein makes a big different to how he feels later that day, especially after really tough sessions. "On the rare occasions I haven't consumed a recovery drink after hard training or have gone longer than 30mins after training without food I certainly pay for it later that day!" he warns!

Sarah Tunstall won a silver medal at the European Cross Country as an under 23. Two weeks later she ran a personal best for 10K (34:41) on Boxing Day after celebrating with a few pints of cider on Christmas Day! (Maybe it was carbohydrate loading!!)

Hatti Dean finished 4th in the European Steeplechase final this year and 7th in the European Cross Country Championships. On race days she sticks to toast with honey and peanut butter and lots of tea. Occasionally she has a small piece of chocolate before a race or training, which she feels gives her a bit of a psychological boost. She explained that she only supplements with Vitamin C and iron and believes there's a huge number of supplements out there that have no evidence behind them and just increase the risk of taking a contaminated product. She went on to say "I think that claims about certain supplements helping performance that are made without proper research and just based on individual experience are really unfair and misleading, when probably all [the runner] is experiencing is a placebo effect or [they] have improved their training in another way." For recovery she likes electrolyte and light recovery drinks like 'Hydroactive' as well as dried banana chips, toast, peanut butter, and a nice cup of tea!

Steve Vernon has represented England and Great Britain at Cross Country and Mountain Running. He was rushing off to the cross country in Brussels when I spoke to him but had time to tell me "I have 'For Goodness Shakes' for my recovery and 'Cherry Active Concentrate' to keep the colds and flu at bay!" (BTW - he has a great run at Brussels and finished 9th!)