What is three-thirty-itis?

• Have you ever experienced a slump in energy after lunch? Where you feel tired and would love to take a nap?
• Or maybe you crave sweets here to give you a pick-me-up thanks to the sugar rush and just can't stop nibbling.
• Or maybe, you're the person who reaches for another coffee to get you through.

Chances are if any of these things sound familiar – your nutrition needs a shake up.

What causes three-thirty-itis?

When it comes to the afternoon slump, typically the cause is what you've done, or not done with your nutrition earlier in the day

How do you prevent three-thirty-itis in your triathlon diet?

Without knowing exactly what you eat, here are some general guidelines to get to the bottom of why you fade in the afternoons. Let's start with lunch and work backward to the start of the day.

Triathlon Nutrition - Lunch

• Is your lunch balanced? Does it contain all the macro and micronutrients you need to perform at your best?
• Is your plate...

 Hot Tip - Don't leave it too late

Often triathletes leave it way too late. They’re a last minute Larry and end up winging it. 

• They are not prepared
• They have not rehearsed – and that's my number 1 rule of race day!
• The result is often a horrible race. No energy on the run. You bonk or vomit. And you don’t race as well as expected/or as well as you're capable of 

Stop and think for a second – aren’t we doing all this training to piece it together into a decent race? And that doesn’t necessarily mean a win or get a spot to Kona – simply doing better than the last one, or having a good time or not bonking.

If you want to be successful on race day – whatever that looks like for you – start preparing early. The more time you have, the better. 

You don’t want to get to race week and go ‘oh shit’ – I’m out of sports drink powder. Or I should probably think about CHO...

If you're new to the sport or you’ve stepped away from triathlon training for any period of time, you may not realise how important managing your nutrition is for your return.

It's a big stress on your body to go from not doing anything to suddenly doing something again. So we need to be really mindful of our nutrition in this key window.

If you’ve stepped away from triathlon, perhaps because of:

• Sickness
• Injury
• You’ve just done a big key event – multiple weeks off
• Drama in your personal life that puts a handbrake on training
• Taking a break
• Holidays, OR
• You’re just starting out and you’re new to training

 you need to ensure your transition back into training is managed correctly.

My Top 5 Strategies for Managing your 'Return' to Training 

1. Match your Daily Fuelling to your Training Load

It's really important you quickly align your day to day nutrition to your change in training routine to...

Understandably, ex boxer, turned triathlete, Michael Welsh, who was a completely different athlete to Jason (who we spoke to last week), had a very different race nutrition plan.

Here is Part 2 of our podcast mini series where we lifted the curtain on athletes’ race nutrition plans for Sunny Coast 70.3.

Michael came to me because his old plan, from another dietitian, was super complicated, hard to remember and hard to get down! Only his third 70.3 but by making some changes he managed to smash his goal of going under 4 hr 30 mins.

This week I spoke to Michael where he compared what he used to do to what he does (now that he knows better) and the difference it's made to his performance. 

Michael also shared some of the fundamentals he took care of with his new plan. Namely: 

• His race nutrition plan
• How he practised his nutrition in lead up events
• His pre-race nutrition – his carbohydrate loading
• The bike and run fuel plan we designed to cater to his need...

When building a race nutrition plan – no two plans are the same.

Every athlete needs to tailor to their specific needs based on their size, their race speed, the event and what actually works for them.  There’s no one size fits all when it comes to race nutrition plans.

To demonstrate how different the race nutrition needs can be from one athlete to the next, I recently interviewed Triathlon Nutrition Academy member, Jason Currie. We talked about his race nutrition plan for Sunny Coast 70.3 - where he smashed out a 1 hour PB!! 

In Jason’s case, despite having done a crazy amount of racing (including 10 x Ultra marathons, 2 x half Ironmans, 1 x full Ironman and several short races in the space of 12 months!!), he had NEVER had a race nutrition plan prior to joining the Academy . 

Jason explained that through the support and knowledge he garnered from being within the  Triathlon Nutrition Academy,  he was able to not only develop...

When it comes to body composition - so we're talking muscle mass, body fat, visceral fat, BMR and bone mineral content, there is absolutely no point in measuring something if it cannot accurately track progress. That's why Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) scans are NOT the best tool.

When I was at the gym last week, I decided to do a spur of the moment experiment on myself - I did a BIA scan right before a gym session & again straight after.

Not planned – the machine just happened to be available – I thought it would be fun. And I knew it would highlight how easy it is to manipulate these types of scans.

So, a disclaimer – this was not a controlled experimental study by any means:

      didn’t measure my sweat losses

      didn’t empty my bladder before

       was not fasted

       glycogen levels – normal CHO stored in muscle

     ...

If you are a triathlete who counts calories this is important to know so you can ensure you’re getting the kilojoules you need when consuming nuts.

The Atwater System (introduced over 100 years ago) is the system used globally for calculating the total energy value (kcal/kJ) of foods.

• Measures available energy of a food – they burn it in bomb calorimeter and factor in faecal and urine losses
• It determines kilojoules (kJ) based on grams of fat, protein, carbohydrate and alcohol in a particular food
• Carbohydrate and protein ~4kcal/g : CHO (3.87 – simple sugars) (3.57-4.12 – complex CHO) rounded to 4
• Fat 9kcal/g
• Alcohol 7kcal/g

However, new research out of the University of Wollongong (and presented at the Dietitians Australia conference last month) found that the actual kilojoule, or calorie content of nuts, that we actually absorb in our body, is significantly less than what's on the food label - up to 26% less calories!

They found:

• Almonds had 18...

 When it comes to pushing yourself as a triathlete, the Ultra355 is up there!

It’s a 3-day endurance event not for the faint-hearted. Over three big days, you swim 5km, ride 300km, and run 50km.

Recently Triathlon Nutrition Academy athlete, Jody Walker, competed and not only finished as the first female overall, but also smashed a bunch of course records in the process.  Woohoo!!

When she was preparing for this race, she found there wasn’t a lot of information out there about the Ultra355 (race reports or interviews), so naturally, we asked her to jump on the podcast and share her experiences with you.

What made her want to do Ultra355?

      A goal/deadline - motivation to recover from an injury

What type of training prepares you for a 3-day endurance event?

      Training - anything from 16-18 hours to 20 -21 hours

      Taking nutrition seriously – getting professional advice

 ...

Rather than count calories, I’d suggest you learn to eat to fuel your body, without having to track everything you put in your mouth!

Counter intuitive for many triathletes I know - those over-achieving personality types who love data, numbers, keeping track and keeping control.

I’m not saying stop if you are currently tracking and love it BUT you don’t need to track or start tracking. You can lose weight/drop body fat without having to count calories. 

What to consider when counting calories:

• Limitations with recording – Label tolerance – did you know the labels can state 20% on either side - different from actual?
• The accuracy when estimating portions. When you eat at home you can weigh – but when you eat out you have to estimate.
• Research shows that by tracking what you eat when you record, you can change your habits BUT are you being accurate and truthful when you record?
• There are limitations with estimating expenditure...

When it comes to nutrition, triathlon is different to any other sport because you're training and fuelling for 3 sports not 1!

When you have that dialled in – you will have more energy, get to your ideal body composition, recover faster, perform better in the second/third session for the day and not be stuck on the couch after long rides – SUPERCHARGED!

The BIGGEST mistake triathletes make when it comes to their nutrition? To be honest, there are MANY! But I think the top three biggest mistakes triathletes make are:

Recovery nutrition

• Most triathletes suck at recovery (no offence)
• You need to understand how to receive properly for you
• You might think you do alright, but once you understand what you need for you, it’s often not dialled in.

Not fuelling properly during training

• Different strategies for different types of sessions, seasons and goals
• Triathletes often under fuel thinking this will help with fat loss. Wrong!
• Often triathletes wing it...