Triathlon Nutrition for Age Group Athletes: The 4 Foundations You Must Fix First

You’ve got a structured training plan.
You know your 100m pace, your FTP and your 5km PB.

But when it comes to nutrition?

It’s a bit of a DIY situation.

If you dropped into my world tomorrow as an age group triathlete and needed help with your nutrition, there are four things I would fix immediately. And no, it’s not your supplement stack. It’s not your race day gel strategy. It’s not your power to weight ratio.

These are the big rocks of triathlon nutrition. The foundations. The things that make everything else work.

Almost every triathlete I work with gets at least two or three of these wrong.

If you’re training hard but feeling flat, constantly hungry, struggling with body composition or plateauing in performance, keep reading.

Here’s what I’d fix first.

1. Recovery Nutrition: Stop Winging It After Training

This one is huge.

I see athletes absolutely nail their swim set or long ride… then completely brain fade in the two hours afterwards.

Recovery is not just:

• Necking a protein shake

• Grabbing whatever’s in the fridge

• Ordering whatever looks good at the café

Proper recovery nutrition includes:

1. Carbohydrate to refuel glycogen stores

2. Protein to repair and adapt

3. Fluid to rehydrate

4. Electrolytes and micronutrients to support recovery and immune function

5. Timing that supports your next session

When you get this right:

• Energy levels increase

• Cravings and snack-cidents reduce

• Sleep improves

• You can back up session after session

Most busy triathletes juggling work and family fall down here. Not from lack of discipline, but from lack of structure.

And you cannot build performance on top of chaos.

2. Pre-Training Fuel: Especially for Morning Triathletes

If you train early, you’ve already been fasting all night.

Rolling into a quality interval session underfuelled and hoping for the best is not a strategy.

Your pre-training nutrition should be about strategic carbohydrate timing.

That might look like:

• Toast with honey

• A banana

• Oats

• A simple liquid carbohydrate option

Low fat. Low fibre. Easy to digest.

Yes, sometimes fasted training can be appropriate. But it needs to be planned, not accidental because “I can’t eat that early”.

When pre-training fuel is dialled in:

• Session quality lifts almost immediately

• Power and pace are more consistent

• RPE feels more manageable

• You adapt better

It’s like flipping a switch.

3. Your Daily Triathlete Plate: Not Just “Healthy Eating”

This is where so many triathletes go wrong.

They eat “healthy” but not performance-focused.

Or they swing wildly:

• Big salad with protein and barely any carbs

• Massive carb bowl with minimal protein and no micronutrients

Neither works.

A proper triathlete’s plate should include:

• A carbohydrate base scaled to your training load

• A solid serve of protein to hit daily targets

• Colourful fruit and vegetables for micronutrients

• Healthy fats for health and energy

And most importantly, it should change depending on your training.

A double session Tuesday does not look like a rest day Friday.

If you don’t periodise your nutrition to your training load, you are leaving:

• Performance

• Recovery

• Body composition

• Longevity in the sport

on the table.

Many triathletes have never been shown how to build a weekly nutrition structure to match their swim, bike and run load.

So they copy what their mate is doing. Or what Instagram says.

That’s where things unravel.

4. During-Training Fuel: Long Sessions Are Not a Guessing Game

This is where piecemeal nutrition really shows up.

Long rides. Long runs. Long bricks.

Common mistakes I see:

• Too little carbohydrate

• Or chasing the trend of “more, more, more” without knowing your targets

• Waiting until you’re hungry to fuel

• Getting sodium wrong because everyone says you need more

• Training on different nutrition to race day

If you’re in season, your long sessions are race rehearsals.

During-training nutrition should be:

• Carbohydrate matched to session duration and intensity

• Sodium matched to your sweat rate and conditions

• Practised consistently

When this isn’t right:

• Energy tanks

• GI issues creep in

• Cravings increase later

• Body composition goals feel impossible

When it is right?

You feel supercharged at the end of the week instead of wrecked.

What Happens When You Nail These Four Foundations?

They’re not sexy. But they change everything.

When recovery, pre-training fuel, your daily plate and during-training targets are aligned:

• Energy stabilises

• Session quality lifts

• Cravings reduce

• Sleep improves

• Body composition shifts without extreme dieting

• Consistency becomes easier

• Longevity in the sport improves

Most triathletes jump straight to the “advanced” stuff. The supplements. The race day hacks.

But you cannot build performance on top of chaos.

You need structure.

Ready to Fix Your Foundations?

If you want these four fundamentals laid out step by step in practical, triathlete-specific language, that’s exactly what I teach inside the Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart Course.

Inside, you’ll learn:

• How to build your performance plate

• Exactly how much to eat before sessions

• Your carbohydrate and sodium targets during training

• How to create a personalised recovery plan

• How to read food labels and understand what you’re actually putting into your body

• How to systemise it across your entire week

And if you’re not sure where you stand right now, start with the Triathlon Nutrition Checklist to see how well you’re nailing the foundations

Fix the big rocks first.

Everything else gets easier from there.