Pistachios and black coffee for breakfast

Sunday, Hard, Austria, Lake of Konstanz alias Bodensee
Yesterday evening I arrrived here at my father’s home. It is my place of birth, and, it is currently the place where Chris McCormack gets prepared for Hawaii. For those who might ask, »what the heck is that fuss about Hawaii. Hawaii is »the« triathlon code word. It stands for the triathlon long-distance world championship in Kona, Big Island, Hawaii, where all the big cracks race.

This morning was a rainy, windy, rather cold day for August, a day where almost everybody prefers to sleep in, even our champ Chris and his training partner Kieran. But then, it was already 9:30, I started to wonder. Are they gone already?
I knocked the door. Both guys were still there. The body takes what it needs, this time it was a good sleep, the two gave in. There they were, having breakfast. You want to know what they ate? Kieran had some cereals, quite normal stuff, little bit dry perhaps but reasonable, and Chris, the big champ, was eating pistachios, a big pile of shells was already lying in front of him on a plate, with black coffee without sugar and milk.
I was amazed, »you are going to run with pistachios on an empty stomach and black coffee on top of it?« »Yes», he said, »no problem.» I started to think it over. I had just read a paper on the sensitivity of the stomach, the delayed gastric emptying under and after intensive exercise. One more example for the fact that there don’t exist straight forward scientific data that apply to everybody.

There is obviously much more to consider than a linear correlation between food and performance.