Rachel Stringer
Rachel Stringer, 22, is a British athlete specialising in the 800m. She holds the junior national indoor record for this distance and has twice been Champion at both the English Schools and Junior National Indoor events.
Her biggest achievement to date has been a Silver medal behind Caster Semenya (the Olympic silver medallist) in the Commonwealth Youth Championships in India in 2008.
She was chosen from hundreds of young people from around the world to take part in the Samsung Global Blogger Programme, and was invited to the capital to the experience the London 2012 Olympic Games first hand. She’s had the chance to meet and interview elite athletes including Phillips Idowu, and has been uploading her blogs and webisodes each day on the Samsung Global Blog portal.
Here she gives Female First an insight into her experiences as a Samsung Global Blogger, her training tips for aspiring athletes and her hopes for her own future in athletics.
My training diet
I like to eat healthily, although I’m also lucky to have a slight frame, which runs in my family and is well-suited to middle distance running.
I’m not a great fan of unhealthy foods, so I’m never tempted to eat junk food. I like to start my mornings with a drink of hot water and lemon, or a fresh orange juice with half a lemon squeezed into it. Many people don’t realise that lemons have such healthy properties; they are very high in antioxidants which help to fight radicals in your body, and also against infection.
On a typical day, my favourite healthy breakfast is porridge or yoghurt and super food berries. For lunch, I like to have is chicken and pita bread with a tahini spread – a kind of healthy peanut butter – then for dinner I’ll often eat salmon fillet with new potatoes and steamed vegetables.
My top training tips
- Always try your hardest with every single training session
- Mix your training up; I tend to get bored training on a flat track all the time, so I like to head out and train on the hills too
- Try new routes; I’m always finding new routes I’ve never run before, I often get lost but I don’t mind as it takes my mind off how long I’ve been running and the pain in my legs
- Set a clear training schedule; this means that you’ll know exactly what you need to do and want to achieve in each session, and this helps you plan around your everyday schedule so that you can find a balance
- Most importantly when training, make sure that you relax and enjoy it
The Olympic athletes
The athletes competing in the London 2012 Olympic Games are extremely fit, both physically and mentally. I’ve really felt for the unfortunate few who have picked up injuries prior to the start of the Games and have seen it hamper their performance. To train so hard for four years and see a last minute injury affect your performance when it matters most would be devastating.
As part of the Samsung Global Blogger programme I was lucky enough to interview the Team GB triple jumper Phillips Idowu before he competed. It was great to meet one of the main competitors to get an insight into his mindset prior to taking part in a home Olympic Games, especially with him being from Hackney.
The athlete that I believe has the best fitness level at this Olympic Games is Great Britain’s Mo Farah. Competing in both the men’s 10,000m and 5,000m and having to run three rounds within one week will have put a lot of strain on his body but he did fantastically to win both, and to do it all with a smile on his face.
My ambitions
I’ve had to deal with injuries myself in every senior track season that I’ve competed in so far, so my short term goal is to compete at 800m throughout this summer track season without any injuries or illness, and within that goal I’d like to run a personal best.
My long term ambition is to compete for my country on British soil at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Watch this space!
Take a look at Rachel’s blogs at: www.samsungglobalblogger.com