Three-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Uses Potatoes To Fuel Training

Kristin Armstrong, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion cyclist, is a strong believer in eating real foods to fuel her body during her rigorous training, rather than relying on sports bars, gels or other high sugar-content products.

Armstrong: "You need need to fuel your body the way you want perform and train. In order to do you have to have even energy levels. What I find is if you ingest something during training that has high sugar, you actually are going to have these spikes up and do. So one of the ways I train and fuel myself is through potatoes. I often find myself with tinfoil and a potato cut up —might have salt and pepper, might have parmesan cheese or it might have oil olive. When I'm out on an 80-mile ride or four hours, it is something I look forward to. I look forward to my real food."

Armstrong continue with an additional benefit of eating potatoes while training

Armstrong: "We talk a lot of fuel and food for energy — but you can't forget when you are out you're also hydrating. And with hydration it is interesting because a large portion of potato is water so there is a hydrating factor in there. A lot of common problems we have as endurance athletes are with potassium and cramping, iron levels. So there are a lot of nutrients that are packed into potatoes and other real foods that are important to athletes."

Armstrong was signing autographs at the Simplot/Innate booth during the Potato Expo.