CONVENTIONAL WISDOM DICTATES that achieving elite performance requires eating ‘clean’. But athlete, adventurer and author Ross Edgley is anything but conventional. Whether he’s swimming the length of mainland Great Britain, completing an Olympic distance triathlon attached to a 45 kg log or training up in Scotland to swim over 1,000 miles around Iceland’s coastline, nothing – not burgers, cheesecake or a baguette wrapped in pizza – is off the menu.
Men’s Health: What did you have for dinner last night?
Ross Edgley: Since being in Scotland it’s been about 90% burgers and 5% deep-fried haggis, but last night I veered off course and had steak. We all joked that I needed to diversify my sources of beef.
MH: You’re known for eating a massive amount of calories. Have you always had a big appetite?
RE: Bizarrely, it’s kind of my superpower. Growing up in a big family – my mum had four brothers, and I’ve got two myself – it was just sport and food all the time. Martin MacDonald, one of the best nutritionists in Europe, explained that what I developed was ‘nutritional plasticity’. Some elite athletes grow up eating very clean – rice, oats, chicken – and when you give them anything else, their bodies don’t know how to process it. I’ve always had variety: burgers, rice pudding, cheesecake, junk food, so my body’s used to it. It adapts. I joke that pizza is an energy substrate my body knows how to use. In fact, I’d order delivery to the side of the pool during training.
MH: Have you ever tracked your carb intake?
RE: I have, but more through experience than strict data tracking. During the Great British Swim, I was eating constantly and trying to force food down at every opportunity. It became a perpetual carb-loading phase. One of my go-to meals was a 12-inch baguette wrapped in a pizza, which I called a baguette calzone. It sounds ridiculous, but I could eat that and then swim six hours straight.
MH: Do you enjoy food, or has it become purely functional during training?
RE: On most days, it’s functional. It’s porridge, rice, chicken, oats – big, bland bowls. When I’m eating on a plan, food becomes fuel and the excitement fades. That’s one of the things I look forward to post-Iceland: eating food because I want it, not because I need it. To sit down and stop eating when I’m full? That sounds like a holiday.
MH: How should regular people fuel their swim training
RE: First off, I’d say trust your physiological and nutritional intuition. We’ve weirdly lost that. People are so focused on data and plans that they forget to listen to their bodies. You could read a world-class study that says you need to eat X, Y and Z, but if it doesn’t agree with your gut biome or taste buds, you’re not going to stick to it. Unless you’re doing very long sessions, you probably don’t need to eat during swims either. You’ve got plenty of muscle glycogen stored to handle an hour or so of training. It’s only beyond that where intra-workout carbs become necessary.
MH: Do you drink alcohol? How does it fit into your training and recovery?
RE: Rarely. Not because I’ve got anything against it, but because I’m always training for something. If you said, ‘Ross, let’s go out for a beer,’ I’d probably reply, ‘I’ve got a 20k swim tomorrow.’ I can’t afford to feel sluggish. It’s not worth the impact on my performance. That said, I’m not militant about it. If it’s a mate’s wedding or a special celebration, I’ll absolutely raise a glass. But that’s about sharing the experience. When I swam around Great Britain, I had whisky shots around the Isle of Skye. Because I was so exhausted and dehydrated it went straight to my head. But now? Not a chance.
Interview courtesy of BMW, official sponsor of The Great Icelandic Swim
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
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How Chris Hemsworth inspired Ross Edgley’s latest feat: a 1,000-mile swim around Iceland
