To fuel or not to fuel?

                                                

The off-season/foundation phase presents itself with a unique opportunity in your season where training volume and intensity is relatively low and thus, you don't expend a great amount of calories. This is a perfect time to break away from relying on engineered sport nutrition products to get you through your workouts and to see your daily diet as the fuel for your workouts.
In other words, sport nutrition will play a very small role in your training routine. 

However, I feel this is where many athletes eat and train with confusion.

I'm sure you have been told that you don't need to eat before a workout in the off-season/foundation phase or you should avoid all sport nutrition during workouts, to burn more fat, in the off-season/foundation phase.

While there's scientific research to support that working out fasted has an extra metabolic response where you metabolize more fat, improve insulin sensitivity and increase lean muscle mass, it's important to remember that scientific research is great for providing results but not every research study may apply to you.

As an athlete, your best performance enhancement is having consistently great workouts where the body is not limited in energy but also being able to maintain a healthy diet, all day, every day.

There are several types of athletes who I feel will receive no benefit from fasted workouts as they can actually cause a cascade of negative health and performance issues.

Do you/Are you....
-Experience hypoglycemia during a workout
-Overcoming an eating disorder
-Struggling with disordered eating
-Struggling with body image issues
-Overeat later in the day
-Experience great carb cravings later in the day
-Fast for reward food/overindulging after a workout
-Have never trained the gut to tolerate food before the workout
-A new athlete who is trying to develop consistent training and healthy eating patterns
-Struggle to get through workout without feeling lightheaded/dizzy/moody/low energy
-Experience a blackout/foggy sensation during workouts
-Get sick easily (weak immune system) or get injured easily (fragile body)
-Experience great hunger during a workout
-Diabetic athlete
-Health issues (organs, bones, heart, brain, etc.)
-You've tried it before and you feel you perform better and make better food choices when you aren't fasted

Sadly, many athletes in the above category are brainwashed to believe that they must perform fasted workouts to become more fat adapted and thus all symptoms will improve, paces will drop, heart rate will be more controlled and fat will melt off the body. And, if athletes are still feeling issues by performing a workout fasted, they aren't doing it right, they need to give it more time or it's proof that they are a horrible fat burner.

So what do you do if you are one of the above types of athletes I listed and you need to eat before a workout and maybe even take in a little extra energy during your workout?

Will it ruin all of your hopes and dreams for your 2017 season if you chew on a few energy chews during a run or sip on a 100 calorie sport drink during a 90 minute bike ride?

Believe it or not but Karel and I eat before all of our workouts, 365 days a year.
We also continue to use engineered sport nutrition products for our longer (60+ min) workouts (or intense short workouts), throughout our entire season. 

Does this make us unhealthy?
Are we inefficient at burning fat?
Are we overlooking the best way to take our performance to that next level?

Ironically, we don't bonk in workouts or in races, we don't experience GI issues in training or on race day, we never get sick, we don't overeat, we have great consistency in our diet, we have never had a stress fracture and we have great consistency in our training.
I'd say we are doing something right and that's because we have figured out what works best for us. We are one of those athletes in my above list, in that we have better workouts when we eat before our workouts.

I'm not anti-fasted workouts but I believe that it's not for every athlete and certainly, it's most appropriate to apply in the off-season/foundation phase for only the easy workouts.
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NEVER take in calories before or during a workout less than 90 minutes!!!!
I often shake my head when I read statements like this, from coaches and nutrition experts to never ever take in calories before or during workouts less than 90 minutes - "you simply don't need them", says the expert. 

You certainly do not need the same calorie intake before and during your workouts in the foundation phase/off-season as you would peak season (as that is the basis of periodizing your sport nutrition) but statements like this confuse athletes because there could be times during your off-season when it would be of value to take in calories during the workout AND you could be an athlete where fasted workouts will be of no benefit to your body right now in your development.

I understand that the topic is confusing, especially if you are looking to the off-season to change your body composition or to break yourself from a long season of sugary sweet sport nutrition concoctions and there's so much talk on metabolic efficiency.

But you are in control of your body. I say this with sincerity because whatever fuel strategy you choose in the foundation phase, it should help you move closer to your performance goals. And that means training consistently and eating well, on a daily basis.
Never should you "not fuel" for the sake of losing weight or because someone told you not to fuel. If you are an athlete and you want to get the most out of your body, even in the early phase of training, consider using food to help you have great workouts and to encourage healthy eating throughout the day.

Although this blog post started as an off-season topic, I find this "fuel smart" topic more relevant for the Foundation phase or your "post season/first phase" of training as this is often the time of training when you are easing back into structured training, your workouts are specific, you can start training your gut to tolerate food before and during workouts, you need to stay healthy to stay consistent and your focus is on getting stronger and fine-tuning the basics before you next more intense phase of training. 

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picture source

The big takeaway from this blog is to not let scientific research, a nutrition expert or an article tell you what you should or shouldn't do as it relates to nourishing or fueling your body.
While there are many sport nutrition recommendations available, it is important that you listen to your body and understand your own body signals, to figure out what works best for you.
Also, be mindful that a past version of you may be different than a new version of you. So if you are hanging on to old nutrition strategies, you may need a nutrition professional to help you figure out your new/different metabolic needs.

Even if someone tells you that you don't need to fuel before and during a workout, it's OK if you decide to go against the crowd and do what works best for you.
As an athlete, you need to make choices that keep you healthy and you move you closer to your health and performance goals.

If you are still confused on fueling in the foundation phase/off-season, let's work together.
By reviewing your current training and eating strategies, we can quickly figure out which workouts require fuel during and how much to eat before and after workouts.

Trimarni Nutrition Consult

Do you really need to strength train?

Are you once again neglecting strength training in your cardio training?

As a triathlete, runner or any other type of cardio-focused athlete, strength training has an important role in your cardio-focused training regime. 

While you likely know that you should strength train, it's common for athletes to think that any time spent away from swim/bike/run (or your sport of choice) in order to strength train will slow fitness gains. But actually it's the opposite. By making strength training part of your cardio focused training routine in the early phase of your season (remember, strength training needs to be periodized, just like your sport), you are setting yourself up for big fitness gains later on, when your training advances in intensity and volume. 

As you integrate functional strength exercises into your early phase of training, you can improve your imbalances and weaknesses, which may otherwise come back to haunt you when you place added intensity and volume stress on your body in the spring and throughout the summer. Sadly, it's very hard to return to a foundation phase of training when you are in peak training.

Lifting weights just to be strong will be of little value compared to performing sport-specific movements that help improve mobility, stability and eventually power and explosive strength.

For many years, Trimarni has believed in the purpose of strength training for the main fact that I spent much of my higher education focusing on strength and conditioning (throughout college and during my Master degree program). Creating strength training plans is a passion of mine as I have been strength training since I was very young (around 12 years old) and have experienced great benefits of regularly strength training.

As you transition from your off-season to more specific power/endurance/speed phase of training, I encourage you to appreciate the role of strength training as a triathlete, swimmer, cyclist or runner.
 
Karel and myself, including our athletes, all perform a "foundation" phase of training immediately after the off season.

For many years, we have called this our "Transition" plan but this word is interchanged with foundation, as you are simply building a strong foundation to work from as the season progresses.

Because we find this phase of training so critical, we have continued to update our 8-week Transition plan every year to ensure that we are keeping up with current trends and methods of training.

If you are confused as to how to properly transition yourself from the off-season to your more specific triathlon training OR if you are susceptible to injuries and health issues and want to ensure consistency in your first 8 weeks of training (and onward), we have a new 2017 8-week Transition plan and we are offering it to you to help you build a strong body for your 2017 season of training and racing. 

You can learn more here, 2017 Trimarni Training Plans.

So, to answer if you really need to strength train....the answer is yes.
Chasing watts and speed is not relevant right now.
It's impossible (and not necessary) to maintain peak race fitness all year long.

While your swim, bike, and/or run cardio sessions are important, give strength training a high priority role in your early phase of athletic development.

A strong body now will better tolerate the added stress that you will place on it as your training volume and intensity increases. 

A body that stays weak, delicate or fragile as you progress into higher intensity/volume training, will slowly deteriorate with health and injury issues as the season progresses.

Check out some of my strength training exercises to improve your stability, posture and balance.

Thanks Men's Fitness​ for the interview.

The best leg workout for runners and cyclists.