Episode 202 - Are You a Burnt-Out Triathlete? Answer These 3 Questions

Are You a Burnt-Out Triathlete? Answer These 3 Questions

Feeling like training is more grind than glory lately?

In this episode, I share the three key questions to help you figure out if you're sliding into burnout — or if your fuelling and recovery game just isn’t cutting it. Because let’s face it, dragging yourself through every session, craving sugar 24/7 or arguing over dirty laundry probably isn’t your peak performance mode.

You’ll learn how to spot the signs early, what to do if your hunger cues are all over the place, and how to finally start bouncing back from sessions instead of crawling into the couch cushions.

Links:

Check how well you’re doing when it comes to your nutrition with our 50 Step Checklist to Triathlon Nutrition Mastery

Start working on your nutrition now with my Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course 

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 202: Are You a Burnt-Out Triathlete? Answer These 3 Questions

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)
Welcome back to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. Today’s episode might hit a little close to home because I want to talk about something I see way too often with age-group triathletes—and that’s burnout.

Now, I’m not talking about the kind of burnout where you're sobbing into your goggles, throwing your swimsuits out, selling your bike, and quitting the sport altogether...

But the slow, subtle kind.

Where you're still training, still ticking the boxes—but feeling flat. You’re unmotivated. You show up to a training session, but you just can’t really be bothered.

You hide at the back of your swim squad lane.

You go for lighter weights in the gym or skip adding weight altogether when you know you should.

You don’t take your turn at the front of a group ride.

Sessions feel harder than they should. You’re not bouncing back. And food? Let’s just say you’re either winging it…

Or you’ve convinced yourself that more coffee is the answer to get through the day.

If that sounds even slightly familiar, keep listening,
because I’m going to ask you three simple questions to help you figure out whether you're actually burnt out… or just under-fuelled, under-recovered, or all three.

And if you’re already squirming in your seat, don’t stress.
You’re not broken.
But you are probably doing things the hard way.

That’s why I created the Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course, to help you stop winging it and start fuelling properly.

It’s a short, self-paced online course designed to give you the foundations of nutrition that every triathlete needs—what to eat before training, how to fuel during training, and how to recover properly afterwards. Plus, how to build your day-to-day nutrition strategy to actually support training for three sports.

So, if you’re ready to get out of the slump, head to dietitianapproved.com/kickstart and check it out today.

Alright, let’s dive into today’s episode:
Are you a burnt-out triathlete? Let’s find out and answer these three questions.

Question 1: How often do you feel flat before and/or during training?

Now, feeling tired every now and then is normal, especially during long, hard training blocks when you’re peaking for your A-race. That’s not what I’m talking about here.

I’m talking about that constant sense of heaviness—like you're dragging your arse through every session.
Your RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) is sky-high.
Your motivation? Rock bottom.
And your splits? Well... let’s just say they’re not your best.

If you’re always telling yourself “I’m just tired,” blaming the weather, or blaming your job being busy—it might be time to look deeper.

Because you shouldn’t feel flat all the time.
That’s not a badge of honour.
It’s a sign something’s off.

You could be overtrained… under-fuelled… or under-recovered.

Under-fuelling is sneaky. You might think you're eating enough but still not meeting your needs—especially if you're training heaps and not paying attention to timing and quality of nutrition.

When you’re not fuelling or recovering properly, training stops feeling good.
Your mood drops. You get snappy.
You feel irritable or low—even when life’s not particularly stressful.

Sleep? Out the window.
And you feel a bit... bleh all the time.

It’s not a willpower issue. It’s not your age. And no, you don’t just need to "harden up."

That low-level grumpiness and lack of motivation?
It’s often not mental. It’s metabolic.

It might just mean you need to eat smarter.

So, ask yourself: yay or nay to that question?

Question 2: How do you feel in the hours after training?

Do you feel calm and content—ready to smash the day and kick goals?

Or do you crash?

You know the feeling: brain fog, dragging yourself through the afternoon, totally wiped, craving sugar.
And if one more person asks, “What’s for dinner?” you might scream—especially if they follow it up with, “Yuck, I’m not eating that.”

That’s not “just training hard.”
That’s a sign your recovery is off.

If this happens multiple times a week, it starts to wear you down.
You can’t focus at work. You lose motivation to organise food or nutrition. You stop looking forward to training. And burnout sneaks in.

If your post-session routine is chaos—packing lunches, getting kids to school, rushing to work or that meeting—and your nutrition gets skipped because you’re “not hungry” or just grabbing whatever’s nearby...

Or maybe you hit the coffee shop with your training mates and convince yourself, “I’ll eat later”—then, friend, we need to talk.

Because what you do after training is just as important as the session itself.

You’ve just emptied the tank. If you don’t refill it properly, your body stays in the red zone. You’re missing the magic window to maximise recovery, rebuild strength, and actually adapt from your training.

I’m not saying you need a six-step smoothie with twelve powders and activated mint.
But you do need something with carbs and protein—soon after training.

The longer you wait, the longer your recovery takes.
And the more likely you are to crash, get hangry, feel tired, or snack randomly.

Worse still—it can affect your entire week… even your entire season.

This is something I address early in both the Nutrition Kickstart and the Triathlon Nutrition Academy programs—there’s a full module on recovery nutrition, tailored to you, and strategies to make it work in real life.

As a busy mum of three, I get the post-training chaos. But you need to be a bit selfish and make sure you’re fuelling you—because it’s critical to your performance.

So, if you’re riding the burnout line and want to fix your recovery nutrition, check out dietitianapproved.com/kickstart.

Question 3 (two-pronged): Are you always hungry—or never hungry?

This can go both ways, depending on your personality and training habits.

If you’re constantly thinking about food, grazing all day, craving sugar or salt, or reaching for that fourth coffee…

Or if it’s the opposite—you finish training and have zero appetite, skip meals, forget dinner, then suddenly inhale peanut butter straight from the jar...

Both are red flags.

They tell me your body isn’t getting what it needs.
Your hunger hormones are confused.
Your system is misfiring.

You train hard, but your intake doesn’t match your output. Your body goes into panic mode—cravings, mood swings, poor sleep, low energy, hormonal chaos.

This is one of the sneakiest signs of under-fuelling.
And it’s something I help fix in the Kickstart course.

When you start fuelling properly, your appetite makes sense again.
Cravings stop running the show.
You start eating to support training—not just to survive it.

So, if you’re stuck between always eating or never hungry, it’s time to bring balance back.

So, how did you go with those three questions?

Did one hit close to home? Or maybe all three?

If you’re nodding along—yep, Taryn, that’s me—know this:
You are not alone. You are not broken.

I’ve seen hundreds of triathletes doing all the training "right", eating what they think is right—and still feeling flat. Foggy. Frustrated.

It’s not laziness. Not age. Not lack of motivation.

You’re likely under-fuelled, under-recovered, and accidentally setting yourself up for burnout.

Burnout doesn’t always mean a full-blown meltdown.
Sometimes, it’s the slow slide—low energy, sugar cravings, lack of joy in training.

But the good news? It’s totally fixable.

With the right fuelling and recovery strategy, you can turn this around—fast.
You’ll enjoy training again. You’ll get through the day without a nap.
You won’t snap at your partner for leaving clothes next to the basket or using a new tube of toothpaste before finishing the old one. (Seriously, why?!)

If those little things are starting to set you off, it’s time for a change.

So if this episode gave you a bit of a wake-up call—take it as a gentle nudge.

It might be time to stop winging it—and start fuelling like you mean it. 

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!