Episode 196 - Why Troy’s Training Didn’t Truly Work – Until He Fixed This

Why Troy’s Training Didn’t Truly Work – Until He Fixed This

Troy Bauerle is back — and this time, he's got results that prove just how much of a game-changer nutrition can be. Since finishing the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, Troy has gone from consistently injured and flatlining performance… to back-to-back podium finishes and smashing personal bests. He raced a 4:25 at Geelong 70.3 and followed it up with a 2:01 Olympic distance at Wollongong, placing third in both races.

In this episode, we unpack what changed. From fuelling long rides, perfecting his homemade gels and finally carb loading properly, to feeling confident, unbreakable and recovered enough to chase even bigger goals — including his first Ironman and possibly even Ultraman. If you’re training hard but not seeing the gains, this is the episode that might finally click it into place for you.

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It’s for you if you’re a triathlete and you feel like you’ve got your training under control and you’re ready to layer in your nutrition. It's your warmup on the path to becoming a SUPERCHARGED triathlete – woohoo!

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Episode Transcription

Episode 196: Why Troy’s Training Didn’t Truly Work – Until He Fixed This

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

Taryn Richardson (00:00)
If you've ever wondered what happens when a triathlete really gets their nutrition sorted, today's episode shows you exactly what's possible. Troy Bauerle is back on the podcast, but this time he's fresh out of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program and has been putting everything that he's learned into practice so far. And the results, honestly, they speak for themselves. In March, Troy raised Geelong 70.3 and absolutely smashed it, finishing in 4 hours and 25 minutes and landing third in his age group. Then just a couple of weeks later, he backed it up with the Wollongong Olympic distance race with a two hours and one minute finish and another third place podium. So in today's episode, we're going to chat about what's changed for Troy since being inside the Academy program and how he's feeling smarter, recovering faster and not injured to see some of the results that match the effort that he's putting into training. This guy is a weapon if you follow him on Strava. We're gonna talk some of the practical strategies that he's been doing, maybe even some of the mindset shifts for him and the confidence and why nutrition is the missing link for so many triathletes that they just overlook that part of the triathlon puzzle. So if you're on the fence about where the nutrition really makes that bigger difference, then this conversation might just tip you over the edge. Let's dive in. Welcome back, Troy.

Troy (01:30)
Thanks, Taryn. Thank you for the introduction.

Taryn Richardson (01:33)
Last time we chatted back in episode 155, you were just six weeks into the TNA program. You were fresh meat and you'd just finished racing long course worlds in like one of the fastest times I've ever seen somebody do that event, even though you only came sixth in your age group. So like absolute weapon. Fast forward to now though, you've just podiumed two big races back to back, Geelong 70.3 in March, and then backing it up with the Wollongong Olympic distance race in April, both securing you a beautiful bronze medal. How are you feeling, Troy?

Troy (02:11)
Feeling great. Yeah, everything's come together, I didn't expect the progression to be this much, but yeah, it's amazing. Love it.

Taryn Richardson (02:20)
Yes. What do you think has made that biggest difference then in those performances and how you feeling?

Troy (02:26)
I think being able to get a good solid base of training in without interruption through being able to keep fit, healthy. It's been a combination of everything all being put together. Whereas before it was just training. Now with the nutrition side of it as well, on top of that, it's really made a massive difference.

Taryn Richardson (02:44)
Yeah, training availability is one of your key things to get fitter and faster, right? The more you can be consistent with training and back up blocks time after time without getting injured is where you're going to actually propel forwards. And as a fellow swimmer, you know, running is always going to be the hardest and most injury prone so for you, like when was the last time you were injured?

Troy (03:06)
Yeah at Townsville last year so I just started this program but since then I haven't had any any niggles any injuries so being able to put in consistent training for 12 months whilst on this program has been amazing.

Taryn Richardson (03:23)
Wow, that's huge. And have you ever had a period of training availability that big?

Troy (03:30)
I don't think so. no, I can't recall. There's always been something that pops up. For example, I just finished a three week block and I would like 20 hour weeks for three weeks. It's always a big block just before an event. Normally at the end of these big blocks that I do, I'm just about broken. I feel like I'm on the cusp of just something's going to break. This time, which it only finished last week, that block, I felt amazing. I felt like I could do another three week block. It was crazy.

Taryn Richardson (04:02)
Yes! That's what I call supercharged. Like now that you know what that feels like, I feel like that word just encompasses everything that you feel when you get your nutrition right.

Troy (04:16)
One of the rides I think I had to do a four and a half hour ride and I ended up doing extra half an hour because I felt good which is like that's just stupid on the trainer like. No, no, it's all good. It was all just low endurance stuff

Taryn Richardson (04:28)
Did you get in trouble for that?

Yeah, wow. Go you good thing.

Troy (04:37)
It was weird I've never felt like that not on a trainer like you just want to get off it. But I was like jeez I feel good. Okay. ⁓ Yeah, it's great

Taryn Richardson (04:44)
Yeah, well, that's amazing.

So now that you finished the Academy program, what are some of the things that you're doing differently with nutrition? Like before training, during training, after training, and even racing.

Troy (04:57)
So now I'm my recovery, like we touched on, eating the right recovery fuel food and knowing what to eat, when to eat. And even dialing in, like I've got shortcuts now, like if I'm rushed for time, I know a quick way to do things if I'm not organised. just having little hacks like that's been, been great.

My fuel for racing is that's been next level. Being able to carb load properly, that's been massive, that's life changer. And with my gels as well that I've been making, the confidence to use them properly and I've really dialled that in now.

You know down to the gram it's made such a massive difference on race day. It's incredible and with training with that too like now I can actually train properly and my guts now trained like I think we've brought it up to well it's nearly 115 grams now so which is yeah that's gone up quite a bit it's taken a you know quite a while but I've done it properly and

Taryn Richardson (06:00)
Wow.

Troy (06:08)
and my gut handles it really well now, it's awesome.

Taryn Richardson (06:12)
So good. if you haven't listened to the previous episode I did with Troy a while back or Troy is the example that I use for the guy that was making his own gels in training, but then racing with something different. And I was like, dude, what are you doing? You're like, why would you do that? And that was because he just didn't have confidence in his own homemade concoctions that now he's fully confident with. So he actually races and trains with the same thing. It's like a big light bulb moment.

Troy (06:28)
He he.

Yeah, I remember telling you that and you're like, why the hell wouldn't you use the same gels that you're training with? I'm like, well, they're only ones that I've made, so they're no good. And you're like, well, no, they're not. They're fine. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm real chef now with that. I've got different flavours and try new flavours all the time. In training, it's great. Love it.

Taryn Richardson (06:52)
Let's make them good.

I love it.

And you need the drug dealer scales to be able to do that fine-tunely as well. Yep.

Troy (07:06)
Yeah I've got that. The

scales are spot on. I've even got the scales like, yeah I've got the numbers. I took photos of the number it is on the scales like so I can go back and double check that it's right so they all fit into the flask properly and that's great.

Taryn Richardson (07:20)
I love it.

I have to start like a Troy Bauerle production line. You could black market them for people who don't know how to do it.

Troy (07:29)
No, I'm just happy to do me on that's fine. That's enough time.

Taryn Richardson (07:31)
No time for that.

Is there any other examples like that that you used to do before and you look back and you just make you laugh looking back at that and going, why on earth was I doing this? That one's a great one. Anything else?

Troy (07:47)
The carb loading one was the one I was doing completely wrong. I laugh at that now because I thought I was doing the right thing but it was completely the opposite of what I needed to be doing and the difference it made was incredible. yeah that was a big one. Recovery fuel was big as well. Yeah I wasn't doing anything.

Let alone in the right time frames. If I was eating something half okay, I wasn't doing it in right time frames or anything like that. So that's been huge.

Taryn Richardson (08:22)
Yeah, you're not alone in not doing either of those things, right? I find a lot of triathletes think that they do a good job of recovery and carb loading and it's not until they get educated properly that like, man, I was like, I was so far off. And carb loading is one of those things that I don't know, you can't Google a plan and follow a plan. You actually have to understand the science behind it and then build something that is custom and specific to you. And it is not just going nuts at the pasta party before your event.

It actually needs to be way more strategic than that. I remember trying it for the first time with you at Townsville Long Course Worlds. And that was before we'd actually done that masterclass. And I just, we fast tracked you through that right in the beginning so that you could do that for that race, and like the look in your eyes and the feeling that you felt, you were like, my God, this is like rocket fuel.

Troy (09:10)
Yeah, that's been the biggest thing with that is so from that day that I tried that at Townsville when I think I described it as waiting for that crash and it didn't come, I'm like, I can keep going here. What I was doing, I can probably go a little bit faster if I want. And every race I felt exactly the same, but just upped it like this, got the confidence to go a little bit quicker, a little bit quicker. I think like

what was it? Geelong just recently. I took like six minutes off my runtime, like off my fastest bike ever. So now, still felt like negative split the run. So again, next race I'm feeling, okay, I can go a little bit quicker here. Just the confidence is growing and growing with that. It's.

Taryn Richardson (09:43)
It's huge.

Troy (09:59)
been a game changer.

Taryn Richardson (10:01)
Yeah. And that is a big shift, I think having that confidence to push hard at the end when you're used to fading and used to dying in the arse. Like you're, you're a great athlete and you're like get in the hurt locker and stay in the hurt locker and punish yourself type person. Can you talk a little bit more about that confidence and how getting your nutrition right has helped you to build that?

Troy (10:21)
Yeah, well, like I said, just having the confidence in my body that I'm not going to feel shit like with six Ks to go. Whereas, you know, now going, I can really push this is it's huge for confidence. And seeing the results at the end of the day, you know, makes my confidence even, you know, more so for the next race. I think every race that I've done since being on this program, I've had PBs every race, like it's just getting lower and lower and lower. And the confidence grows more and more and more. And I'm like, well, where does this end? I'm really excited because it keeps you going. You know, I was looking, I was at the stage where I was looking for one percenters, you know, trying make things a little bit more aero or whatever, but this is like, I don't know what percentage it was for me, Geelong this year to last year, but it was like nine minutes off, which is, I thought, but my aim was actually just to go under 430. That was the big, you know, the next big thing to tick off. And I did that, you know, by five minutes, which is when I looked up at the clock, I'm like,

Taryn Richardson (11:20)
Well.

Easy.

Troy (11:34)
This is crazy. Yeah, so yeah, I was super pumped.

Taryn Richardson (11:39)
We'll have to work out the percentage because that is big. When you're like, you're a really high performing athlete, right? Like you're the pointy end of the field, you're on the podium and you know, chasing to win always. Troy doesn't race to not win. But you know, looking at those like tiny little one percenters that might make tiny little gains to things and then like not even addressing nutrition. Like how, at what point were you like, okay, I now need to work on my nutrition. This is the thing.

Like what made you decide that that was the, going to have the biggest impact.

Troy (12:13)
Well, I didn't realize it was going to have a big impact. It was just a 1 % of that I was looking for. And yeah, it's been more than that. That's for sure. Yeah. Now that I'm actually going back, doubling up on races, you know, from last year, after doing a full year of this program, it's been, yeah, that's been, been able to see it the most anyway. Those, the percentage of that I've lost in time is

Taryn Richardson (12:41)
Mm.

Troy (12:42)
crazy.

Taryn Richardson (12:43)
And there's no ceiling yet. We're still chasing the end. When does it ever end?

Troy (12:46)
Well that's the thing, still...

Yeah, yeah so it keeps you excited, it keeps you motivated. You know, I suppose when you reach that plateau you sort of, yeah I'm just gonna go out and do another race but now it's still like, what can I do? What can I, where can I go? So yeah, it's exciting. When I first started I was like, oh, top 20 would be nice, top 20 and now it's sort of

Taryn Richardson (13:03)
where next.

Troy (13:11)
then it got to top 10, think, and I thought, oh, top five. Never get on the podium. I couldn't see where I could drop that time. Like, how am going to drop nine minutes in a race just in one year? And it's happened, so yeah. So just keep the goals. Just the goalposts keep changing.

Taryn Richardson (13:33)
I love that. you know, Geelong was the exact same course, exact same athlete. Did you have the same bike?

Troy (13:39)
Yeah, yes, yeah, did actually. Yep, yep, same thought.

Taryn Richardson (13:41)
And so the only difference in that is nutrition.

Troy (13:44)
The conditions were very similar. They were great conditions. Yeah. It's great.

Taryn Richardson (13:50)
So you train hard, like you're doing a lot of hours, plus you also have a very demanding job. You're a plumber by trade. You've already worked for multiple hours this morning on the weekend. How has your energy on a daily basis and recovery changed to help support, you know, heavy workload at work and then doing a lot of training outside of that?

Troy (14:14)
Yeah. Well, normal now is, is just feeling good. Like normal before was getting home from work. Try not to fall asleep on the couch. Just get into training straight away. So I didn't fall asleep. But now feeling good is just normal. And the thing is to if I now, if I don't feel good, what's wrong, something's wrong.

It's just become normal. Just feel good all the time.

Taryn Richardson (14:41)
That's so good. And good that you can dial in and fine tune it too if you're starting to feel a bit like what sort of things do you do to change that or pull yourself out of that so that you're not feeling like that for long.

Troy (14:54)
I know that I'll need a hit of you know, what food I need, you know, if I need some more carbs or whatever or if I do feel that way, I know that I've you know, missed out on something during the day like I've missed lunch or you notice the difference. Now I've got little hacks that I can, you know, if I am not organised and miss lunch, whatever, I've got little hacks, little supplies that I've got that gives me a quick hit. You know, because I get home and have a big training session so I need to keep those energy levels up.

Taryn Richardson (15:29)
Well, you've just done Cairns 70.3, know, big, three big races in a row. What was your focus heading into that race? And did you do anything differently this time around for this preparation block?

Troy (15:43)
Not so much anything differently, sorry, differently as in the training has been the same, but the training block leading into it has been just different from a consistency perspective. I think last year I didn't even train, I couldn't run before Cairns because I had a stress fracture. So this year having that training block, that's probably been the biggest thing.

Taryn Richardson (16:08)
Consistency in that block so you can actually build and peak and have that flow rather than being interrupted.

Troy (16:12)
Yeah.

Yes, yeah, that's been huge. I haven't had any interruptions. I pretty much after... Oh, Geelong went straight into Wollongong. Wollongong didn't stop training through that. Normally I have like a week off or something, but it was like, no, I feel great, so let's just keep going. Geelong was the same, didn't stop, just kept going through because it felt great. So that's been a game changer, definitely.

Taryn Richardson (16:33)
It's.

Yeah, wow.

And you've obviously tapered for Cairns because it's your A-Race for the year.

Troy (16:48)
I've actually my tapers started earlier than normal which normally I'm putting that to obviously having that big been able to complete that big block I've got a bit longer of a taper. So It's great. Although not feeling

Taryn Richardson (17:02)
And did you do a reverse taper or just a longer extended taper?

Troy (17:08)
Just a longer extended taper. Normally I don't get, normally, I hate it. Yeah. Especially now, like I used to love rest days. Can relax and, you know, do nothing or whatever. But now I'm like, walking up and down the, pacing up and down the house. ⁓ It's not great. Like I need to do something else, but it's like

Taryn Richardson (17:12)
How'd you go mentally with that?
Too much energy to burn.

Troy (17:36)
yeah, I'm not supposed to.

Taryn Richardson (17:38)
Maybe you need to pick up another hobby in those periods of time, like start knitting or puzzling or build something with your hands, keep yourself entertained. Yeah.

Troy (17:43)
Sudoku...

No... It's... This is... I felt it the most with this... with the lead-up to cans, with the taper. That's the worst I've felt for... you know, having so much energy, needing to get rid of it. And those...

Taryn Richardson (18:02)
Yeah.

Troy (18:04)
you know when I just started to like a rest day I was just so looking forward to even if it was just a little bike ride the next day it sort of made me feel normal again, just get rid of some energy

Taryn Richardson (18:15)
Yep. Well, what are we going to do with you? We can't have that happening every time you taper and it need to come up with a some sort of taper strategy so you're not jumping out of your skin.

Troy (18:19)
no.

I don't know what to do.

Taryn Richardson (18:28)
Did you have any hobbies before triathlon?

Troy (18:32)
No, no, I always just had I was played team sports. So Yeah, that was that took up my time but No Yeah, probably should do that. I never get it done. Yep

Taryn Richardson (18:40)
Do some cooking, do some home maintenance.
That never ending adulting that you just never get to the bottom of. I hate that list.

So the big goal for you, I think it's kind of public knowledge now. It was a little bit on the DL last year when we spoke, but it's a bit more out there now is that your big goal is to complete a full distance event for your 50th in a year or two. How...

Troy (19:12)
Yep, I've just turned 48 so

yeah.

Taryn Richardson (19:15)
How are you feeling about tackling the marathon now that you've got like a solid base of fueling knowledge and you know you can piece together big blocks of training?

Troy (19:25)
Yeah, I know I can do it now. I was shit scared. Because it's obviously the natural progression and everyone keeps asking when you're going to do the Ironman, when you're doing the Ironman. It is. And yeah, it's always in the back of your mind. But now I'm confident that,  I can't wait to do this now. Yeah, the run was always going to be a massive issue. But now...

Taryn Richardson (19:35)
It's so annoying.

Troy (19:50)
I'm confident I'll get off the bike feeling fine that I can do it. I'll know that I'll be able to put a solid training block together, look after myself and smash it.

Taryn Richardson (20:01)
What's been your longest run you've ever done?

Troy (20:03)
That's 30k is in their worlds.

Taryn Richardson (20:06)
Yep. And in training, have you ever run close to a marathon?

Troy (20:09)
No, no, I think the longest training run I've ever done is like 22 or 23k's.

Taryn Richardson (20:16)
There you go. Well, with, you know, good preparation and some strength training and lots of run focus for the next two years, I have no doubt you go out there and smash that.

Troy (20:25)
Yeah, that's the hard bit. I never wanted to do one because I was worried about having a really bad time. So, which is, that's just the way I think. But now I'm confident I can, if I have a good race, if, you know, besides anything else that goes wrong, yeah, I can put together a good time and have a good race.

Taryn Richardson (20:45)
And what about beyond that? Have you got any aspirations to go to Kona, do Ultraman, do some crazy off-road racing? Like there is, there is no ceiling for you Troy. So where, let me pick your brain. What are you aiming for?

Troy (20:53)
You

Well maybe Ultraman's been in my thoughts just a little bit. I always had it there after a mate did it back in 21, I think it was. Yann C and Leanne from the program do it this year and yeah got a bit of FOMO there so yeah I think that's definitely something that's on the radar.

Kona, I don't know, with Kona, that sort of thing, it's so expensive. That's probably the thing that will keep me away from there, but we'll see. Maybe one day.

Taryn Richardson (21:22)
Mm. What if you got a spot for Kona at your 50th Ironman?

Troy (21:33)
don't know, I don't know I haven't thought that far in advance one race at a time

Taryn Richardson (21:38)
Okay, one step at a time.

And I have no doubt that you wouldn't smash Ultraman. I think, you know, you it's perfectly designed for you for the first two days, at least like big swim and then, you know, good solid writing. It would just be the double marathon that you'd need to like in your focus block for Ironman be really focusing on, on run and strength to get you through that.

Troy (22:03)
Yep, yeah for sure. But I'm confident that I could do it, so.

Taryn Richardson (22:09)
Which is so interesting because you weren't confident in that before. So that's a big mindset shift for you.

Troy (22:12)
No, wasn't confident in running the marathon before and now we're talking maybe double. It's funny how you change.

Taryn Richardson (22:19)
Yeah.

And is that just a difference in having confidence in your nutrition?

Troy (22:30)
Yeah, definitely. Like I said before, it's a combination of everything. Everything's just snowballing together. You you sort of can't have one without the other. I can have good nutrition and not train and be no good. I'd be healthy in life, or, you know, vice versa. But put them all together. Yeah, it's things are on a good trajectory.

Taryn Richardson (22:51)
What would you say to somebody then that's training really hard but hasn't yet invested in their nutrition? Is there anything you would tell, you know, old Troy before TNA?

Troy (23:00)
You got to get the most out of it. Like I said, yeah, you've got to combine the two. There's no point doing one or the other. They need to go hand in hand. Yeah, I don't know where I would have been. I probably would have plateaued by now if I hadn't have done this. But still on that, you know, still getting faster and faster and...

which is just incredible. I thought as you get older you're to get slower and slower but it's going the other way. So yeah, that's incredible.

Taryn Richardson (23:29)
No midlife crisis for you.

Troy (23:30)
No, not yet.

Taryn Richardson (23:32)
Not yet anyway.

Troy, it's been so good having you back on the podcast to share your journey from right, like we talked to you right in the beginning where you were, you know, fresh and green and now you've come all the way out the other side and to see you just go from strength to strength has been amazing. You've come so far since we last spoke. And I know that this is honestly like you just scratching the surface and this is just the beginning for you.

Troy (24:00)
Let's hope so. Thank you.

Taryn Richardson (24:01)
So if you've been listening along thinking, man, I trained so hard like Troy too. Maybe you do 20 hours a week in big blocks or maybe even half of that. But if you're not getting the results that you feel like you should be, then maybe it's time to actually tackle your nutrition and do that properly. And that's exactly what we do inside the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program. It's not about cutting carbs, counting calories, or having to track everything day in, day out. Troy has got no time for that.

He just eats and knows how to eat and then also how to fix things or plan Bs if life throws you curve balls. So it's about feeling smarter so you can train harder and recover faster, back up quickly and perform to the best of your ability on race day. So if you want to come and join us, doors are opening soon and you can register your interest at dietitianapproved.com/academy. I would love to help you smash it as long as maybe you're not in Troy's age group.

That'd be good. Nobody in the 45 to 49 age group, Troy.

Troy (25:03)
Yeah, that's fun.

Taryn Richardson (25:06)
Highly competitive you are.

All right, thank you so much for joining me, Troy. I look forward to seeing how you go in the future.

Troy (25:13)
Thank you.

Taryn Richardson (25:15)
EW!

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!