Rachel Armstrong

26/11/2025

Every time. It comes down to nailing the basics. Recover as hard as you train and give your immune system the tools it needs to take care of you.

If you’re struggling with this I’d love to help you. There’s nothing that sucks more than constantly missing out because of illness!

19/11/2025

I asked one of my masters athletes this week to estimate how much protein she eats in a typical day.

She reckoned about 100g

When we looked at her day in more detail, it was actually closer to 60g!

For her goals, she actually needs to aim higher, around 120-140g!

We agreed that for the next week it would be really helpful for her to use a food tracking app to keep a closer eye just on protein intakes.

Not forever, just long enough to check she’s on course and to help her build the habits that will support her longer term goals.

Yes there are other ways to improve nutrition without tracking but sometimes a few days of data can be a useful tool.

Social media loves to polarise.

You must track all your food every day
V
Tracking encourages a poor relationship with food and disordered eating.

A good coach knows whether tracking is appropriate or not for a particular client. The reality is that it’s neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’.

It can be really useful for some people, some of the time.

08/11/2025

Pre race fuelling for 11k sculling race. If I was running a 10k event I’d do similar. No need for a full on carb load as the race will (hopefully!) take less than an hour. But it will be at threshold and a pretty full on effort so I’ll need to start with full glycogen stores (the muscles’ fuel tanks)

I’m aiming for around 6g per kg/bw carbs today so for my 68kg that’s around 400g carbs. Even at that level it’s not something I find easy to do without feeling stuffed! So I’m keeping choices easy to digest and familiar. Today isn’t the time to be stressing over whether it’s ultra processed or not 🙄 Food Police influencers you can get in the bin!!

Lower fibre is fine for one day and will mean I can eat more before feeling full. Protein, which is also quite filling, will also be slightly lower to allow for the extra carbs.

So bananas, cereals, cakes & breads, pasta (be rude not to in Italy!) fruit juices are all sound choices for today! 😋

03/11/2025

Do you train early and struggle to eat beforehand?

And does it even matter?

Yes and no....

If you’re training at lower intensities/shorter durations eg, your easy runs or cycles, technical rows etc, you’ll likely do just fine to eat straight after your session as there’ll be some glycogen in your muscles from yesterdays food.

But, if you’re heading out to do a spicy interval session things could start to get a bit ugly and here’s why...

Overnight, your livers glycogen stores become pretty depleted, as the liver works overnight to keep blood sugar stable.

So when you start training early doors at those higher intensities, and you’ve not eaten, your liver is already on the back foot. So when you ramp up the intensity or duration that’s then a bigger ask.

The result is a drop in blood sugar, along with your training splits!

Now, your body CAN just start to use more fats for fuel BUT it’s an inefficient process compared to burning glucose and not ideal if you want to get the most from your session.

So what to do?

The good news is that you can train your gut to tolerate food early, much like you can train it to tolerate food during training.

Start really small ...

A bit of banana
A tiny piece of toast & jam
Few mouthfuls of sports drink
A fig roll or date
Even 2 or 3 jelly babies

Even just a small amount 10-20 mins before, can make a difference, not just physically but mentally too.

If this is something you struggle with, give this a try before some of your early sessions and let me know how you get on!

29/10/2025

I’d say most people I assess are taking more supplements than they need in a bid to feel better, have more energy or more focus. And I get it. Who wouldn’t want those things!

But when I look at bit deeper, they’re dehydrated, not sleeping well and don’t have their nutrition foundations in place.

On top of that they’re run ragged trying to keep up with work, family and training commitments.

When we start working on the basics with consistency, it’s amazing how quickly everything else falls into place.

You don’t need the latest over hyped supplement, you just need to work on being ruthlessly consistent with the boring basics! 🤷‍♀️

19/10/2025

16/10/2025

Yep. I do. ‘Even’ at my age! 🙄

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of room for fun it’s not all ‘serious’.

But the time and energy involved in prepping for events is not insignificant. Why would you not want to bring your A game and show up as your strongest self!

So yes, I’ll plan my food, hydration, and recovery around a 7-hour flight - better than arriving tired, hungry and dehydrated right!!

……£3.50 for a bottle of water though!! 😳

12/10/2025

Your brain literally wires itself around the thoughts you feed it.

So make sure you talk to yourself like someone you want to believe in!

10/10/2025

I’m not against wearable tech, it has a place but now almost every morning…

“How’d you sleep?”

And instead of saying “yeah good thanks” it comes out as

“Lemme just check….1hr 57 mins deep, 4hrs light, 1hr 28 REM, and my HRV was 70…You?”

At what point did I lose the ability to know and trust whether I slept well or not!! 🤔🤣

08/10/2025

You don’t always need a number pinned on your back to be high performance. Being healthy and strong can benefit so many other areas of your life.

Like being able to do the stuff you care about with energy and a big ol’ grin on your face.

I’m always telling my guys n gals they’re athletes, and they’ll often laugh at that, but it’s true!

Whatever it is that’s your thing, whether it’s running a business, to playing sports to doing cool stuff with your family & friends you want to bring your best energy right?

Act like an athlete. Challenge your body, fuel appropriately, recover as strong as you train, and keep showing up for yourself …..even when you don’t feel like it.

And see what happens 😊