Within endurance nutrition the vast majority of discussion is understandably almost always around what amount and of which type of fuel is needed for different types and duration of endurance events.
To properly answer the question “how much of what should I eat for my event?” the answer should ideally comprise 3 component parts that separately deal with (i) Preparation, (ii) Event Fuelling and (iii) Recovery. For many amateur athletes however, preparation considerations often do not stretch beyond questions about the 24 hour window before the event (if even), with the recovery element (apart from what to eat in the few hours after the event) also frequently being side-lined.
Many amateur athletes are busily juggling work and family lives and may find it difficult to eat well even if they didn’t pursue endurance sports as a pastime, therefore the sometimes sole focus on race day fuelling in that context makes sense. Most endurance athletes love their sport and so the goal is often to just get through the event by whatever means necessary, often without any broader consideration of their overall nutrition status or indeed health situation.
Preparation nutrition and recovery nutrition is important. The day-to-day diet and lifestyle pattern is REALLY important, as this plays a key role in detemining a person's overall nutrition and health status, which in turn impacts performance. Not only that, but for some people there may also be underlying nutrient deficiencies, health issues or health niggles at play that are intermittent, not understood, or undiagnosed that can hamper performance.
The more common issues that amateur athletes (and sometimes professional athletes) face include gut problems, poorly regulated blood sugar, thyroid or other hormone issues (particularly females), fatigue, upper respiratory tract infections following heavy training/competition, food intolerances and food cravings. These issues sometimes don't feel bad enough to warrant visiting a doctor but there is sometimes a niggling sense that things just don't feel right.
A few questions we might ask ourselves:
What if we paid more attention to getting our nutrition needs met in a broader sense beyond race day fuelling considerations? Do we understand the impact of our daily diet pattern on our performance and on our health more broadly?
What if we had a better understanding of our nutrition status and that of the health of our gut and hormones? Are there factors within our body that is impacting our performance, how we convert fuel to energy and how well we recover from training and competition?
When it comes to race day fuelling, is enough thought given to the timing of our fuel intake? Many athletes are unaware that getting the timing of carb intake wrong on event day can significantly impact performance.
I offer the following points to ponder and consider:
If you want to make your training feel easier and perform at your best over the medium to longer term, your primary focus should be on getting the basics of sleep, day to day nutrition and stress management right. These foundational elements need to be given priority over decisions around this gel or that gel. Got a race this weekend? OK…..focus on which gel…..but beyond imminent event commitments it makes sense to put some effort into improving these foundational elements over time, even if it involves needing to knock down a few bricks and partly rebuilding your training and race day strategy from a sturdier foundation.
There was an old saying that “you are what you eat”. Instead, I propose that that you are what you absorb and efficiently metabolise. Putting petrol into an un-serviced car engine will not give you the miles per gallon that it would had the car been serviced. The car will be sluggish and it will cost more money to travel less miles. The same logic can be applied to your "metabolic engine". There are a myriad of factors impacting your body’s ability to absorb and efficiently metabolise fuel, but the health of your gut and your insulin sensitivity are significant factors. If you regularly experience bloating, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhoea or energy highs followed by energy crashes then this is a sign that something is not right. An imbalanced and poorly functioning gut may significantly impact your performance and recovery given the key role of gut bacteria in functions such as digestion, energy production, blood sugar balance, regulation of immunity, regulation of inflammation, production of vitamins in your body (your gut bacteria manufactures vitamins!) and even regulation of mood. Investigating and resolving the underlying causes of poor gut health will impact positively on not only your performance but on all aspect of your life.
Your micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) status can materially impact your performance. Two good examples are Vitamin D and the B Vitamins. Research[i] from Liverpool John Moores University showed that 62% of athletes living in northern climates such as the UK and Ireland had inadequate vitamin D levels (<50 nmol/L) and that inadequate vitamin D levels are "detrimental to musculoskeletal performance in athletes". If your muscles are not functioning optimally, how are you going to perform at your best? A vitamin D self-test is cheap and easy to perform at home. It is worth checking to see what your baseline Vitamin D levels are, as this will guide you as to what supplement dosage you need. I constantly encounter clients who despite spending time in the sun and supplementing are still vitamin D deficient when we run testing. When it comes to supplements it is possible that either the dosages they have been taking are too low relative to the level of deficiency, they have a gut issue that is preventing proper absorption or they may be using low quality supplements that are not well absorbed. I would never recommend taking high doses of vitamin D without testing as vitamin D can be toxic/harmful when taken in excess. Test, don't guess. Test kits available online are usually only around £30/€30. B Vitamins are also worth mentioning as they are intricately involved in the energy production cycle, otherwise known as the Krebs Cycle or Citric Acid Cycle, where the purpose is to produce ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) which is the energy currency for our cells and muscles. While research has shown that mild B Vitamin deficiencies are very unlikely to have any meaningful impact on energy production or performance, moderate to severe deficiencies are much more likely to cause issues. If you eat a poor-quality diet, have poor digestion/gut issues or are vegetarian/vegan then you are much more likely to develop micronutrient deficiencies. The diagram[ii] below, while quite technical, is provided to illustrate the role of the individual B vitamins in the energy production cycle. In this diagram we can see where each B Vitamin fits into the overall energy production process (labelled B1 – B12 in the circles). Having an efficient energy production “engine” in our cells requires that we do not have material underlying nutritional deficiencies, or that our energy production process is not compromised by hidden infections or a toxic burden.
It is worth considering investigating any potential micronutrient deficiencies and having them addressed for the benefit of not only your performance but for your general health. Apart from performance considerations.
Vitamin D is involved in everything from immunity to bone health to heart health to hormone function, plus many other functions.
B vitamins are involved in mood, fertility, hormone metabolism, drug metabolism, liver function, oxygen transport, detoxification and many other functions.
Other important factors that can impact performance are your level of insulin sensitivity, and your hormone health. If you are piling sugars and gels into your body is your body capable of efficiently handling them? Poorly regulated blood sugar over the longer term is a risk factor for heart disease not to mention diabetes. Changes to the daily diet patten can really help better manage blood sugar and help prevent energy and mood dips and spikes. For women in particular, hormone imbalances can really impact energy levels, mood, concentration and performance. Poor nutrition and poor gut health can be a significant driver of hormone dysfunction, particularly when combined with excessive training loads and general life stress.
I hope that this article provides some food for thought as we enter into a new year full of opportunities to take on new challenges. In the coming weeks and months I will be writing and releasing more videos about these and related topics.
If you have any questions or comments or would like personalised support on any of the topics mentioned above, please feel free to get in touch for a free introductory call.
Paul Kinsella,
Registered Nutritional Therapist
BANT Registered Nutritionist
Copyright, 2023.
www.optimal-health.ie
[i] Close, G.L. et al. (2013) “Assessment of vitamin D concentration in non-supplemented professional athletes and healthy adults during the winter months in the UK: Implications for skeletal muscle function,” Journal of Sports Sciences, 31(4), pp. 344–353. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2012.733822.
[ii] Kennedy, D. (2016) “B vitamins and the brain: Mechanisms, dose and efficacy—a review,” Nutrients, 8(2), p. 68. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8020068.
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