New Year, New Fueling Practice

Further Journal 24.1

Annnd we’re back! Hope you all had a chance to make some pleasant memories over the holidays. In order to give more structure to these posts that hit people’s mailboxes, I’m setting out to make them mimic the stage or season your training is probably in. 

For most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, that means shorter days (sunlight) and more time in the gym doing engine building or on a bike trainer, or the dreaded treadmill. 

What tends to happen in these scenarios is that we go through our established routine, check the box, look at power numbers or the scale and hope for incremental progress until we get back outdoors and focus on racing or our main spring event. 

The flaw in this situation is we aren’t feeding or fueling ourselves like we would “in season”. We might run an errand, then spend 30-40 minutes on the treadmill or an hour on the trainer and drink some electrolytes, then shower and run and run another errand. Suddenly it’s been a couple hours since we’ve eaten anything of value. Maybe then we feel peckish and eat lunch or an energy bar. 

That is most assuredly not how your usual race day will unfold chronologically.
Race day you will be a bundle of energy and nerves, your sleep schedule is probably a tiny bit off (ok probably off by a LOT), and you’re suddenly eating energy blocks or a banana, probably a little coffee… see the point? Situation A and B are nothing alike from a fuel standpoint. 

I’m not suggesting you need to slam coffee, half a banana and a handful of chews right before you hit the weight room, but if your goal is be comfortable in an event or endurance training then you need to get that stomach trained as well. Otherwise bad things happen (no need for visuals!).

Some simple combination of sugar/salt with a tiny bit of fiber before and immediately after your session goes a long way. Start this practice with something fun that doesn’t feel like work- maybe three or four Saltine Crackers and some peanut butter 20/30 minutes before your session and some toast with berries or easy to digest fruit immediately after. Can’t do nuts? What about some banana and honey? Or toast and honey? Make it fun. A couple handfuls of raisins or rolled fruit with a couple scrambled eggs can go a long way. The point at this phase isn’t necessarily the type of fuel - it is that we are reminding ourselves to fuel. But we do want it to lean a little heavier on carbs and sugars than proteins/fats, unless you’re a fat adapted athlete working towards an Ultra. But that’s not most of us. And by all means, keep that drink bottle with the electrolyte by your side the entire time. If you tend to take in electrolytes every 30 minutes in your endurance efforts it’s easy to then mimic that practice. 

We’ll aim to provide some more practical examples in the days ahead. But for now - get out there, have fun and don’t dread the work!