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International Travel - Carb Loading Foods

Are you racing internationally?Traveling to new places can be stressful but carb loading doesn’t have to be. Choose foods that are: ✅ Easy to digest ✅ Low fiber/low fat ✅ Carb-dense - Ideal for saturating glycogen stores before race day.  Thankfully, your favorite, carb-rich staples are likely to be found anywhere around the world. If you know your go-to carbs might not be available, be sure to pack familiar packaged foods that you’ve trained with for a well-fueled body and happy gut.
Recent posts

IM 70.3 World Championship (Marbella) nutrition tips

Cooler weather triathlon races bring unique challenges when it comes to clothing, pacing and mindset. But fueling mistakes are some of the most overlooked. Key considerations for include: ▶Cool enough that thirst/appetite may be suppressed, increasing the risk for bonking and dehydration. ▶A demanding/hilly bike requires a somewhat elevated effort and increased energy cost - alongside more time out on the bike course. ▶A flat run course - with "perfect" weather may feel great in the early miles but falling short on bike nutrition can lead to early fatigue.

Off-season nutrition tips

The off-season is a critical part of an athlete’s yearly cycle—a time to refuel, recover, reset and reset. For many athletes, the off-season is challenging because it brings anxiety about losing fitness or gaining weight. Your daily diet should never be a source of stress. By prioritizing nourishment over restriction, you can give your mental and physical health a boost before you begin your next phase of training. Here are some tips on how you can navigate off-season eating with confidence.  

Heat Related Illness in Sport

The Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii consistently highlights the significant impact of heat and humidity on human performance. Despite being prepared with your hydration and cooling methods, ALL athletes are at risk for a heat-related illness. As an athlete, it's critical to understand thermoregulation, the impact of heat on the body during exercise, heat related symptoms, risk factors, what to do if you suffer from it and how to reduce your risk. Stay smart, stay hydrated, stay cool and stay aware. Your health depends on it. Thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the maintenance of internal core body temperature by balancing heat generation with heat loss. 98.6 F (37 C) is the accepted norm for human body temperature. Hyperthermia occurs when your body absorbs or generates more heat than it can release. Your body is always adjusting to keep your body in homeostasis. Muscle contractions product heat as a by-product of metabolic processes. Because the body is very inefficien...

Is it ok to comment on an athlete's body?

In a world where elite athletes push the limits of human performance, people still feel entitled to comment on the bodies of athletes. From social media to sports commentary, athlete bodies are constantly judged, praised, picked apart, or criticized. Too often, weight and appearance overshadows performance.Here's the truth: this obsession with how athletes look is harmful and needs to stop. Athletes Are Not objects Athletes train to perform, not to conform to body image standards. Their bodies are shaped by the demands of their sport, proper fueling, and genetics, while maintaining optimal health - not by trends or ideals. Commenting on how those bodies look— muscular, lean, heavy, not "feminine" or "masculine" enough—devalues their hard work because of superficial judgment. Focusing on an athlete's appearance or weight detracts from their performance, leading to a skewed perception of what success truly means. Damaging to Mental Health No athlete is immune ...

High Carb Gut Training

Earlier this summer, I was quoted in an article from Outside Run titled " A Sports Dietitian’s Guide to High-Carb Drink Mixes. " With the recent hype of professional endurance athletes consuming between 120-180g of carbs per hour while racing, it's important to know that more is not always better.  Like your muscles, the gut is adaptable. You can train your gut to increase its ability to absorb and tolerate carbs when training and racing but it takes time and repeated exposure.  Don't expect your stomach to tolerate 100g carbs per hour on race day if you have only been training with 50g carbs per hour.  For more info, check out the article here.

Will Fasted Running Make You Faster?

Just because you can run fasted doesn’t mean you should.  The ongoing debate "to fast or not to fast" sparks passionate discussions within the running community, with proponents highlighting benefits like improved fat adaptation and weight loss, while opponents raise concerns about performance, health, and weight gain. Pro ultrarunner @kilianjornet has publicly discussed occasional use of fasting before easy, low-intensity runs to understand how his body adapts to running with depleted glycogen (carb) stores. Meanwhile, other elite ultrarunners, like @mountainroche attribute the “high carb revolution” as the primary catalyst for the increasing rate at which endurance running records are being broken.So, what’s the real story behind fasted running, and is it a strategy worth considering for your training? Check out my full article at Outside Run .