Threshold Performance Club | The fitness newsletter

Threshold #18 | Do you want to win? Nutrition is everything.

How to win. ⬇️

Nutrition can be the decider of success and perceived failure.

A wrong turn with a new gel. Accidentally forgetting to mix your electrolyte drink with the correct potassium dose. Forgetting to carb load with 24 hours to go.

There are numerous ways nutrition can be the deciding factor between success and failure.

But why is it so crucial?

The Main feature

Leg one: Keep nutrition simple

Race day reveals itself. New gels are added to the bike.

Oh no.

This is what goes through many peoples minds 50% of the time during an endurance event. The next mental comment is “why did I do that”.

Nutrition is notoriously difficult to calculate. When to eat, what to drink, why now. Yet it can be so simple.

The simple nutritional advice is do not try anything new on race day. Follow this rule and all will be well. However as competitive humans we have a tendency to want to try a new thing we’ve just learned about on the off chance there’s a 1% performance gain. It happens to all of us but try to avoid it.

Simplicity trumps any marginal gains on the day of a race because you’ll have peace of mind that what you have tested in training is going to work on race day. Having a clear mind is very hard during a big event such as Ironman, removing one mental headache is a great addition to the day.

With many different avenues to take with nutrition, keep it simple. You need glucose stores in your body to be high, so make sure your pre-race meals have ticked these boxes. During training test out many different variations for fuelling before and during a session. You’ll be amazed which foods, supplements & gels work for you and which don’t. Maybe you dislike a flavour or texture profile. The goal is to test these out in training so you feel happy with anything to choose on race day.

It is important to keep things simple, but adding in a glucose tracker is a great way to enhance your understanding of what food does to you. Supersapiens & Levels are two of the leading brands to use. I can vouch for them as a user.

Having simple data to analyse is a game-changer when trying to understand what nutrition is best for you.

T-1

Leg two: Pre-race fuelling.

What’s the secret to race day performance? Pre-race fuelling.

Whether you prefer pizza, pasta or sweet potato, carb loading is imperative.

There are exceptions, perhaps you’re a fat-adapted athlete and fuel from your body’s surplus fat storage. Even then, the process of energy creation is the same as carb loading, glucose is created.

You need glucose stores in your body to be high so that when exercise is started the tank can be drained from the point of being full. There is nothing worse than starting off on a long run, cycle or swim only to realise 10 minutes in energy levels are lacking. It becomes very hard to regain energy, even taking onboard gels will provide a temporary glucose hit - not a permanent energy boost.

To avoid this, carb loading is vital. Depending on the race you are going to take on, your coach & nutritionist (if you have one) can provide detailed advice on what food to consume. For Ironman half and full distance, 48-72 hours before hand carb loading should begin. For a shorter race maybe 24 hours will do.

To ensure you know what to expect from your carb loading, treat training with the same intensity. Plan major training sessions with detailed nutrition. Work out what food works best for you, and repeat.

T-2: Gear to change in to

• Canyon Speedmax CFR Disk Etap. Shop here.

• Lululemon Blissfeel 2. Shop here.

Leg three: race fuelling

It’s no secret race day is the day everyone wants each aspect of a race to go perfectly. Freak accidents happen, other athletes can get in the way but the one thing which is annoying and inexcusable is getting nutrition wrong.

It’s annoying and the most unavoidable mistake to make.

Yet it is so common. I for one have felt far too sickly before consuming multiple gels. The main piece of advice for race day is do not do anything new. The race should be cruise control from learnings generated in training. There are too many variables outside of your control on race day, make sure you control the ones you can.

Here’s the list to follow for race day:

• 1x water bottle

• 1x water bottle with electrolyte

• 1x pre race gel

• 4x race gels

• 2x solid bars (for transition to mix up fuel sources)

Tick this list off when prepping for the main day and you’ll be in a strong position to be well fuelled throughout the race.

Remember, control the variables in your control - and then you stand the best chance of winning.

That starts with a solid nutrition plan.

So, that’s how to maximise nutrition for an endurance event.

Aid station: Listen whilst you recover

• Huberman Lab: How to optimize your water quality & intake for health. Listen here.

• The Greg Bennett Show: Transition from elite triathlete to elite runner. Listen here.

• Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu: The insane diet and nutrition guide to ending inflammation & reverse ageing with Dr Steven Gundry. Listen here.

Shop natural supplements formulated to enhance performance: 

🌱💊 542 Performance Nutrition Daily Green’s ultimate super greens capsules are a perfect blend of superfoods, vitamins, minerals and wholefood-sourced ingredients enhancing your immune system to help you perform in training.

🍄 542 Performance Nutrition Mushroom+ capsules are single-ingredient, high-strength mushroom supplements, helping you deliver energy to your body for training.

💪 542 Performance Nutrition Marine Collagen is the highest quality, and most bioavailable source of collagen available, helping to provide structural integrity to joints and bones.

💤 542 Performance Nutrition Ashwagandha+ (KSM66) is formulated with Cordyceps & Ginseng to help combat stress and adrenal fatigue, while also supporting the immune system, energy levels & mental performance. 

🏋️‍♂️ 542 Performance Nutrition Plant Protein delivers 17g of premium vegan protein per serving with just 1.5g of carbs, 88 calories & no artificial sweeteners.

🏋️‍♂️ 542 Performance Nutrition Whey Protein delivers 22g of premium whey protein per serving with just 1.2g of carbs, 108 calories & no artificial sweeteners.

Coaches Corner

WOTW: workout of the week

Build the base bike

Warm up:

• 5 minutes @ 100-150 watts

• 10 minutes @ 170 watts

Main set:

• 30 minutes @ 160 watts

Warm down:

• 15 minutes @ 100-125 watts

Finishing line: races next week

• Ironman 70.3 Lanzerote: March 18th. Here.

• Ironman 70.3 Puerto Rico. March 19th. Here.

Tweet-athlon

MemeOTW

Once again thank you for reading this week’s newsletter. It’s a new format, more in depth, more entertaining.

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Have a great week,

Robert