Don’t skip fuelling stops! by Coach Tommaso @br_triathlon_coach_tc

You have heard it many times “Nutrition is the 4th discipline in Triathlon”, but regularly I have athletes telling me about their workouts or competitions...“I started strong and then I faded, I skipped a couple of fuelling stops... maybe that was the cause (?!?)”.

Apart from calories and energy calculation, first, I’d like to clarify my interpretation of the whole 4th discipline terminology.

Nutrition

It is a comprehensive term which I apply not only to the sport activities, but also to people lifestyle.

It includes meals and snacks, fuelling, hydration.

Meals and snacks

They are the timely pauses from your daily activities where human beings ingest the main amount of nutrients. 

Fuelling

It’s that part of nutrition, which is specific prior, during and after the activity (either workout or competition). It’s generally the ingestion of solid food even though the line between liquid and solid is nowadays very thin due to the type of products which are sold to athletes for the purpose.

Hydration

It’s that part of nutrition which considers the fluids and electrolytes needed prior, during and after the activity.

As mentioned, it’s nowadays difficult to distinguish what you eat and what you drink while you exercise, because fuelling products come into gel and a large number of calories and sodium can be loaded into fluids. For this reason, allow me to use the term “fuelling” for both solid and hydration products. I would also be curious to know if athletes look into what’s in the gels.

I’m not talking about specific brands, but what is on the label of nutrients (sometimes it is really blurry).

Let’s get back to our topic…

Don’t skip fuelling stops!

Why do fuelling stops matter?

We can agree or not on low carb, high carb, philosophies, but what is most important is the individuality of nutrition, hence fuelling.

Individuals get to triathlon from different paths that it doesn’t make sense, as a coach, to put all your athletes under the same umbrella of “1 gel per hour, 1 bottle of electrolytes per hour, 500 mg of sodium”. It does not work.

What works as a coach (and the athlete can follow for knowledge this process) is following three steps in planning and three steps in execution.

Planning

1. Execute a sweat test which will give the athlete an idea on the amounts of fluids, calories and sodium required to sustain intense and long workouts.
2. Take into account the athlete’s diet and lifestyle (vegan, paleo, omnivore, hi carb, low carb etc…).
3. Make a fuelling strategy.

Execution

1. Tailor fuelling strategy to specific workout or race (day temperature, humidity, distance)
2. Set up the alerts on your watch. Most of the multi-sport watches allow to set up alerts which remind you when and what you are required to ingest to fuel your workout or competitions.
3. Train like you race... fuel your workouts like you would fuel your race

Through the training cycles, athletes will test, assess and go back to Step 1 of planning if required.

Note: It’s very important during the planning to consider, not only the quantity and quality, but also the timing. Proper time space between the ingestion of our “fuel” is crucial to balance the intake and to avoid gastrointestinal issues.

Why do athletes skip their fuelling stops? Or better, was there a specific reason why athletes decided to skip their fuelling stops?

Unless something goes wrong and beyond our control (gastro issues, sudden weather change) there are no reasons why we shouldn’t pick up our bottle or stop for few extra moments at the aid station to collect what our body requires. Sticking to our fuelling strategy means effectively reducing the variables and making sure that we are in control.

So the answer to the previous question is “99% of the times, stick to the plan!”.

Remember though, that human beings are so creative and making a bullet proof strategy is based on knowledge and also a little bit of your coach’s magic!

1% better everyday

Disclaimer: I am not specifically trained in nutrition so what you read here is a general guidance, fruit of my experience in training and in racing, both as an athlete and a coach. For a full advice and meal plans it’s always best to look for a nutritionist.