Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Athlete Q&A: Katrina Mercer Part 2

Last week we introduced you to Katrina Mercer, an elite triathlete sponsored by Sports Fever. Here's part two of our chat as Katrina shares her nutrition and training routine.

What is your nutrition like on a normal day? 

Nutrition on a normal day includes a lot of carbohydrate and protein based foods. I tend to limit saturated fat intake. I need to make sure I eat certain foods before, during and after training sessions to ensure proper recovery – especially as at the moment as I am training for the Busselton Half Ironman and a lot of the sessions are 2 – 4 hours twice a day.

The type of foods I eat include wholegrain cereals, breads, rice, lots of fruit and vegetables, red meat (for iron), fish, chicken, tofu, low fat yogurt and diary, most days will also include a treat too!

What is your training routine like? 

A typical training week will be about 12 – 14 sessions broken into 4 swims, 4 cycle sessions, 4 run sessions & some yoga/core strength work.

Swimming: each session is about 4km in duration and focuses on speed, endurance, open water swim skills.

Cycling: the sessions vary from 50km – 120km. Some will be endurance sessions, which involve rides to the hills or down the freeway. Others focus on strength & speed and will be intervals or hill climbing.

Running: varies from 10km – 25km. Some will be longer endurance runs for up to 2hours and others are focused on strength & speed. My runs are usually around Kings Park, Nedlands, Perry Lakes & Cottesloe.

I also attend two yoga classes per week and practice core strength exercises to ensure I recover well and don’t get any injuries.

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