Nutritionist Cáoileánn Conway has your perfect pre and post Moy Park Belfast City Marathon recipes

We have teamed up with Moy Park and nutritionist Cáoileánn Conway to bring you your perfect pre and post Moy Park Belfast City Marathon meals. We will have you sorted for the big day on the 5th of May and to help you with your recovery!

Cáoileánn is a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist and founder of Be a Better You. With a bachelor's degree in Dietetics and a postgraduate diploma in Sports & Exercise Nutrition, Cáoileánn understands the crucial role that nutrition plays in optimising performance so she is the perfect fit to help you fuel your preparation and recovery.

She's got two fantastic recipes for you below so don't forget to bookmark this one!

PRE MARATHON RECIPE:

Our key focuses the days before

1. Carb loading is the most important thing in the 48 hours leading up to your marathon, think of all those miles you’ve covered so far, only to not have enough fuel in the tank on the day! When we are fully carb loaded, this stocks the skeletal muscle and liver with glycogen, which will be enough energy for ~90-120 minutes meaning you are setting yourself up for success early then utilising your fast acting carbs during the marathon to get you the rest of the way.

We are aiming for around 10-12g per kg of body weight for carbohydrate intake (i know, it’s a lot of carbs!) so we need to focus on higher carbohydrate based meals that are easy to digest as well as liquid carbs to achieve this, as an example if you are around 80kg you are aiming for around 800g carbohydrates in the days leading up to the marathon especially the day before

2. Hydration is key! Aim for 35ml times your bodyweight

3. Reducing protein and fat, and fibre intake day before to prioritise carbohydrate intake. Foods higher in protein and fats typically take a longer time to digest, for us to get enough carbohydrates in we want to give our digestion very little work to do.

RECIPE: CREAMY SWEET CHILLI CHICKEN PASTA (Serves 2):

• 160g fresh egg tagliatelle (this is dry weight)

• 2 Moy Park chicken fillets (250-350g)

• 200g broccoli

• 200g Lightest Philadelphia

• 100g sweet chilli sauce

• Seasonings: Aromat, pepper, paprika, honey, soy say and italian herb, frylite or olive oil to pan fry

• Optional side: Garlic Bread

What to do:

1. Add chicken to the pan with all your seasonings and fry lite and cook until white the whole way through 2. Whilst this is cooking, chop and add your broccoli to salted boiling water.

2. Add tagliatelle to the saucepan with salted boiled water (this only takes 3 mins, so do it when chicken is cooked!).

3. Add philadelphia and sweet chilli to the pan with the chicken and then your pasta with a little pasta water if you find it very creamy to bring it down to desired sauce thickness.

4. Plate up and enjoy. Add some garlic bread on the side for extra carbs to get you ready! Recipe notes: Feel free to add extra philadelphia/sweet chilli to achieve desired creaminess.

MACROS for 1 serving:

• 645kcal

• 79.5g Carbs

• 63.4g Protein

• 7.8g Fat

POST MARATHON RECIPE

Key Focuses:

• REHYDRATING - Ideally throughout your marathon you’ve been utilising the hydration stations and electrolytes throughout but you will still need to replace everything that was lost post marathon so ensure you have electrolytes on hand for afterwards as well as water to prevent dehydration and kick start the recovery process. Utilising something such as Lucozade sport, a sports drink that contains carbohydrates and electrolytes.

• REPLENISHING - Remember all those carbs we consumed to use during the marathon? Well they’re all gone now, you just ran 26.2 miles! Our key priority is to replenish your glycogen stores again. Appetite might be a little suppressed immediately after the marathon so make use of the chocolate milks, granola bars, sports drinks, bananas you will find in your bag post marathon and then get a meal when your appetite has come back around containing carbohydrates and protein.

• REBUILDING - We want to repair those muscles, they’ve just carried you across serious miles so we need to ensure we have enough protein onboard to start rebuilding them. Ideally having the protein plus carbs within 30-60 minutes after the race will be the most optimal such as the drinks we discussed in the replenish section and then following on with a meal that contains carbs, protein and nutrient dense foods like vegetables to get everything back to baseline and set yourself up for optimal recovery. We are ideally aiming for 20-40g of protein post race.

RECIPE: PIRI SPICED CHICKEN BOWL (Serves 2)

• 2 Moy Park chicken fillets (360g)

• 260g broccoli

• 250g rice (I went with egg fried uncle bens)

• 160g peas

• 50g Perinaise

• 20g light mayo

• Seasoning: paprika, honey, soy sauce, Italian herb, aromat and pepper

What to do:

1. Add all seasoning to a small bowl with a little perinaise and mix, coat chicken fillets with sauce mix and place them into the air fryer at 190 for 10-15 minutes or until fully cooked through

2. Chop broccoli & boil in salted water, microwave rice & peas

3. Plate up, enjoy & top off with a little sauce perinaise and mayonnaise. Easy as that!

MACROS for 1 serving

• 561kcal

• 42.5g Carbs

• 55.8g Protein

• 16.2g Fat

Both Belfast Live and Moy Park will be at the Moy Park Belfast City Marathon and the pack collection so come find us for a chat and some free samples. You can find out about all Moy Park products right here.

Keep up to date with all of Cáoileánn's advice on her socials:

Insta: @be_betteryou

Tiktok: @caoileannconway

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