1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:04,760 Hello and welcome back to Get Strong and Prosper. 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:08,560 The podcast where we help you move strong, fuel well and 3 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:12,600 perform with confidence is real coaching for real people with 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:14,920 real results. And today I want to talk about 5 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:19,600 something that I see constantly in my coaching and I think 6 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:23,400 catches a huge number of runners off guard because it doesn't 7 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,240 always show up the way that most people expect it to. 8 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:30,080 And that is under fuelling. And when we think about under 9 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,920 fuelling, the picture that comes to mind is sometimes obvious, 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:36,760 right? You have hunger, you have 11 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,560 cravings, A growling stomach, low energy that feels obviously 12 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:44,520 connected to not having eaten enough. 13 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,160 And if that is the picture that you're holding in your mind and 14 00:00:47,160 --> 00:00:54,000 expecting under fuelling to always feel like that, then you 15 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,120 know, it's easy to look at your own training and think, Oh well, 16 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,480 I'm not under fuelling. I don't feel hungry. 17 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:01,560 I eat regularly. That's not my issue. 18 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:04,760 But what I've learned from years of coaching runners through this 19 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:11,360 exact thing is under fuelling isn't always obvious in terms of 20 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,720 the tell tale signs of you might not feel hungry, you might be 21 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,520 eating regularly. Far more often it disguises 22 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,920 itself as something else. It can show up as a hard 23 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,760 training block that just won't use up as recovery that's taking 24 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:30,080 longer than it used to is motivation that is quietly 25 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,480 draining over time and you think there's but can't understand 26 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,560 where the causes coming from. It might show up with heavy legs 27 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:41,200 even on days where the effort is meant to be an easy effort. 28 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:45,560 And those signals can get misread a lot by runners and 29 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:48,240 sometimes by coaches too. Like sometimes we also get it 30 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:53,680 wrong and it can sometimes get misfiled as overtraining or 31 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,360 stress or poor sleep or maybe just a rough day. 32 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,520 And to be very clear, sometimes that is exactly what is going 33 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:01,360 on, right? That's why it's important when 34 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,120 we're seeing these signs like legs that keep feeling heavy all 35 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:08,160 the time or motivation draining. You don't really have a cause 36 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,280 and recovery is still being. That's where we have to look at 37 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:14,720 the whole picture, right? If you are overdoing it on the 38 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:18,600 mileage and just keep adding and adding, right, that might be the 39 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:22,680 fact that, oh, OK, you are actually overtraining, right? 40 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:24,680 If you have a particularly stressful week, you might look 41 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:26,960 at that and be like, oh, OK, let's move these finger around. 42 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,000 Let's see if we can ease up. And when there's less stress, 43 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,000 you're like, oh, OK, yeah, it was that. 44 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:34,840 So these things, it can be what's going on. 45 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:39,520 But very often when I look at what someone is eating around 46 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:44,040 their training, that also forms part of the picture where they 47 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,520 might be sure even eating more than they had previously, but 48 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,400 they might still not be eating enough for their particular 49 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:52,480 goal. Or they might be eating well 50 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:54,800 through the week, but they're not actually fuelling their 51 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,960 sessions well. So all of that to say, it's 52 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:02,160 important to always look at the bigger picture and see what is 53 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:04,360 going on and how we can adjust things to make it better. 54 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,720 But I do find that underfuelling has sometimes been overlooked 55 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,680 because it's not always showing up as these obvious hunger 56 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:13,960 signals that you might be expecting. 57 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:20,840 But the positive is that it's a very fixable area to work on 58 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:24,200 once you've identified it. So today I want to walk through 59 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:28,640 what under fuelling can actually look like, feel like, and why 60 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:31,040 it's one of the most commonly missed factors in a runner's 61 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:35,200 performance and recovery. So let's start with why this 62 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,680 gets missed so often, because understanding the why can help 63 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,640 us know how we can improve and work on this in our own 64 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,080 training. So hunger is a relatively 65 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:48,840 obvious signal, right? It's your body's way of telling 66 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,280 you that it needs food right now, in this moment. 67 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:55,520 But the kind of underfuelling I'm talking about is the the 68 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:59,600 chronic accumulated energy deficit that builds up across a 69 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:05,120 busy training block. And it might operate on a longer 70 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:10,200 time scale, less obvious scale than what you're used to, being 71 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:12,320 very hungry in the moment and knowing you're hungry. 72 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:17,040 So it's not about just a single meal or any single day. 73 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,279 It's about a sustained gap between what your body needs to 74 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,560 support its training load and what it's actually receiving day 75 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,880 after day, week after week. So when we have this gap, your 76 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:31,920 body doesn't necessarily respond with loud hunger signals. 77 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:33,840 Sometimes it does, but not always. 78 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,800 And in fact, for a lot of people, chronic under eat 79 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:40,400 fuelling and high training stress can actually suppress 80 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:43,360 appetite at times, right? You've got certain hormones 81 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,640 involved in appetite regulation. If they get disrupted under 82 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:51,040 sustained energy deficit and physical stress, that can mean 83 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,720 that you can be significantly under fuelled and not 84 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,600 necessarily feel particularly hungry at all, right? 85 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,200 The hunger cue that would normally prompt you to eat more 86 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,840 simply might not be picking up that signal as well as it does 87 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:05,720 previously because it's been suppressed slightly in some way. 88 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:09,880 So instead of hunger, what you get is your body quietly 89 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,040 starting to ration its energy, right? 90 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:16,360 Calories is energy. I mean, energy to fuel our 91 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:19,600 everyday function and movement as well as the activity we want 92 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,680 to do outside of that. So your body starts deciding 93 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,320 behind the scenes which processes get the resources they 94 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:28,840 need and which ones need to get deprioritized. 95 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,120 And the processes that get deprioritized first are usually 96 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:35,960 never the ones that are going to keep you alive and function 97 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,120 day-to-day, right? It's always going to function 98 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,840 keeping you alive and everyday function first and foremost, 99 00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:43,920 right? They're the ones that's the ones 100 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:48,920 that are most vital for you. So that means where it can't do 101 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:50,920 everything, it's got to prioritise that. 102 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,480 So what starts getting deprioritised is the things like 103 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:58,680 the adaptations and that resilience needed for things 104 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,480 like you're running and running improvement, right? 105 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,520 It takes away some of that extra energy it might have had to help 106 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:07,880 fuel that performance because it needs to freshen it to keep you 107 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:09,840 alive and do the basic everyday stuff. 108 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:13,240 So This is why underfuelling shows up as a training problem 109 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,240 often rather than a hunger problem because your stomach is 110 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:18,960 not giving you the signal. Your training is actually 111 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:23,400 telling you like, oh, I don't actually have the extra energy 112 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,600 or resources to fuel this extra effort in session. 113 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:28,960 So those legs start to feel heavier. 114 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,960 You start to think, oh, I just don't have the motivation here. 115 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:34,880 All these little things where your body is trying to reserve 116 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:38,040 that energy. And as I mentioned with, that's 117 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,600 why we look at the full picture because it might actually be 118 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:43,200 multiple things. Might be you are under fuelling, 119 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:45,640 but also you're training too much, right? 120 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,360 And not fuelling the extra training, but it's also 121 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:54,760 important to look at, you know, and work on this area that is 122 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:58,200 not being identified, right. We still have to address if are 123 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,720 you fuelling enough for your goal. 124 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:05,080 So let's walk through some of the specific signals because I 125 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:09,000 think hearing them laid out clearly can be really useful. 126 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,560 And a lot of runners may well recognise themselves in at least 127 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:16,280 one of these. So the first is signal can be 128 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:18,760 sessions that feel heavier than they should. 129 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:23,160 You might go out for a run, and by pace and distance you should 130 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:25,160 feel comfortable based on your current fitness. 131 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:27,640 But it doesn't feel comfortable, right? 132 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:30,600 Your legs are feeling sluggish, your effort feels 133 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:34,000 disproportionate to the pace, and you finish feeling like you 134 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:39,280 work far harder than the numbers suggest you should have, or how 135 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,280 that effort felt previously. It feels a lot harder now. 136 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,240 This can get blamed on a bad day, right? 137 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:48,120 If this is a moment in isolation, then it might be, you 138 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,480 know what, it's just been a stressful week and this wasn't 139 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:52,680 your day-to-day. You might be extra tight, but 140 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:57,280 the problem is when it is happening more regularly, right? 141 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,480 And again, that could be accumulated fatigue from 142 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:02,760 training and sometimes that will be accurate. 143 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:05,760 We have to look at what you're doing right now and what's what 144 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:10,600 is what is happening for you personally, but it also is that 145 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:14,160 classic sign that your body doesn't have the fuel available 146 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,040 to perform the way your fitness should allow. 147 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,200 And when we're seeing this and if we go and look at your 148 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:23,560 calories and what you're actually consuming and what you 149 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:27,760 need calorie wise to actually, you know, function every day and 150 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:32,280 fuel your activity, I often find that the numbers aren't quite 151 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,600 there consistently that they need to be. 152 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:38,679 The 2nd signal can be recovery that is taking longer than it 153 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:40,120 used to. You might use being able to 154 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:42,799 bounce back from a hard session with a day or two and now it's 155 00:08:42,799 --> 00:08:46,240 taking three or four days because you feel before you 156 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,400 actually feel ready to train hard again. 157 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,920 And that is one of the obvious signals of underfueling because 158 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:56,240 recovery is an enormously resource intensive process, 159 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:57,760 right? You've got muscle repair, 160 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:02,200 glycogen replenishment, the various hormonal processes that 161 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,760 Dr adaptation, all of that requires energy, requires 162 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:09,560 nutrients. And if those aren't sufficiently 163 00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:13,800 available, of course recovery will take longer no matter how 164 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:16,200 much you are resting. So if you find you're actually I 165 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:19,600 am genuinely resting, I think I am being sensible about my 166 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:22,200 training. Normally I would rest this much 167 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,320 and it's been fine before, but now it just feels like it 168 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:26,960 doesn't matter how much rest I get, I'm just not recovering 169 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:28,960 enough, right? I just still feel that 170 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,240 lethargic. I still think everything's taken 171 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:35,760 a lot longer. Your calorie intake could be 172 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,760 something to look at. The third sign can be motivation 173 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,320 that is quietly seems to just be dropping in the background 174 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,600 without an obvious reason. And this can catch a lot of 175 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,400 people out because it feels psychological right rather than 176 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,000 physical, and therefore it can get treated as a mindset issue. 177 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:56,720 But energy availability has a direct relationship with mood, 178 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,640 motivation and mental drive. If you've ever been angry, 179 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:02,720 right, you'll know this. You're just like, why is this 180 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:05,560 day so terrible? Why is everyone the absolute 181 00:10:05,560 --> 00:10:07,240 worst today? And then you go have a sandwich 182 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:10,480 and then you're like, Oh my goodness, the world is glorious. 183 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:13,520 I feel like a new person. You realise that you know what, 184 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,080 some people are terrible in this world, but actually most people. 185 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,680 All right, I realise I actually maybe was just hungry and I 186 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:23,560 needed the sandwich. Sometimes it's it's not to the 187 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:25,360 other side. You're like, oh, you know what? 188 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,480 Gosh, yeah, I really do need to be on top of my eating because 189 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:31,800 it really is a game changer. We can often forget that. 190 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:34,880 So if you've ever been hungry, you'll know the huge 191 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:38,400 psychological difference that can be when when you are not 192 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:41,480 eating enough. And but when we're doing this 193 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:43,840 all the time and there's just maybe even just by a little bit, 194 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:48,000 like I said, might be fueling like eating regularly, but maybe 195 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:49,880 it's just not quite enough for your goal. 196 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:54,480 It's that compounding over time that starts to have this sort of 197 00:10:54,680 --> 00:11:01,080 negative sliding effect and you don't often always notice it's 198 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:02,920 happening until it starts to build up. 199 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:06,160 And then it feels like, it's like confusing, right? 200 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,640 Because it feels like it's come out of nowhere, but actually 201 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:11,600 it's something that's been building up in the background. 202 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,560 And when the body is under resourced, the brain, which is 203 00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:18,080 also dependent on how to quit fuel, doesn't have what it needs 204 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,800 to maintain the drive and enthusiasm that training 205 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:23,160 requires. So what can feel like a 206 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:28,120 motivation problem can actually be a fuelling problem wearing 207 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:33,440 this psychological disguise. The another signal is legs that 208 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:37,040 feel tired even on days where your training is actually meant 209 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:39,120 to feel quite easy. And it might have felt easy in 210 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:44,320 the past, but when that training load genuinely doesn't justify 211 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:45,760 that fatigue right, you go out for it. 212 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:49,600 Easy run might be quite short 1 and you're like I this I should 213 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:53,040 not have this heavy legs or feel this tired. 214 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:57,040 That is a quite a telling sign because easy days are 215 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,000 specifically designed to be low stress. 216 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,400 If you are running within zone two to three, they are meant to 217 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:06,520 be easy recoverable runs. And if your body can't recover 218 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:11,440 enough between sessions to make an easy run feel easy, that is 219 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,160 another indication that something's not quite right. 220 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:17,200 When you look at sort of stress, we can look at timing of 221 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:19,480 sessions, you know, are you actually getting enough recovery 222 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:21,520 in between? But when we think of recovery, 223 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:26,240 we also have to think about fuelling to aid that recovery. 224 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,560 And fuelling can be a missing piece. 225 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:33,040 We can very quickly go to physical and that can be part of 226 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:35,760 the equation, but we need to be looking at the fuelling side 227 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:40,120 here as well. And another signal which I've 228 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:45,080 seen very often in busy runners specifically is a kind of low 229 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:48,480 grade like persistent fatigue that sits underneath all. 230 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:54,280 It doesn't fully resolve with sleep and there's mornings that 231 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:58,240 make the whole day feel like it's been live for a slight fog 232 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,760 and busy people managing careers, families and training. 233 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:08,120 Often it's it's often you're able to like you, you think, Oh 234 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,240 well, I'm just you know, I'm busy person right and that's 235 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:14,360 what it can get blamed down to of like, well, of course, of 236 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,480 course I've got this persistent fatigue because I'm just 237 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,520 constantly on the go in stress again, ballot that on his own 238 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:24,120 can be an absolute valid reason. And this is where we want to do, 239 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:28,360 we notice this, we want to adapt our, our training, our physical 240 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:30,360 training around this to better support it. 241 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:34,120 But we also want to look at you're a busy person doing a lot 242 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:36,080 of things. Your brain is having to work 243 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:40,120 hard and that needs adequate fuelling to do what it needs to 244 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,280 do. And your body is on the go and 245 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:43,760 that needs adequate fuelling too. 246 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:47,920 So we want, don't want to forget the impact that nutrition 247 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:53,400 fuelling has in that picture, because being busy is genuinely 248 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:55,160 tiring. That's valid on its own. 249 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,440 But when busy life is combined with inadequate fuelling around 250 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:03,280 training, inadequate hydration, the fatigue compounds in a way 251 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:07,760 that simple tiredness from a packed schedule doesn't fully 252 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:12,680 explain the whole picture. And none of these signals, as 253 00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:16,000 I've mentioned, are exclusive to training, to under fuelling. 254 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,520 My overtraining, poor sleep, life, stress, illness, they can 255 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:24,560 all produce similar results, which is why underfuelling gets 256 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,760 missed so often. It's so easy to go to the 257 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:31,840 physical and yeah, it's often there, hiding in plain sight. 258 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:35,440 So what I'm saying is take the time and these things are 259 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,680 happening if you're this episode, hopefully if you're 260 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,480 training alone, this gives you some things to think about and 261 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:45,320 go through like, yeah, OK, what is my training schedule like 262 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,120 right right now? Am I maybe too, too much? 263 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:52,600 But also regardless of what I change it, am I fueling myself 264 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,840 enough for what I need day-to-day and what I need every 265 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:56,920 day? And if you've got work from the 266 00:14:56,920 --> 00:14:59,720 coach, this is definitely a really good topic to speak to 267 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:02,280 them about and get some support with. 268 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:11,080 And it's also important to look at the pattern that I see with a 269 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,400 lot of busy runners, right? Because they're people managing 270 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,400 demanding careers, families in a generally fall life and they're 271 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:20,000 running consistently and training hard. 272 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,320 But and with all that packed schedule and trying to fit 273 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:28,960 everything in, I get that that how easily eating well enough 274 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:31,520 can get deprioritized around training. 275 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,000 And it often isn't a conscious decision. 276 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,640 People rarely are there thinking, you know what I'm 277 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:40,840 going to tutor to and to eat. It's far more often a 278 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:46,120 consequence of a day that is so full that food becomes an 279 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:49,000 afterthought or you forget most of the day and then you're 280 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,880 trying to cram it all in at the end of the day and maybe not 281 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:54,840 making the best choices that work for you right now. 282 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:59,360 So a busy day can look like, you know, breakfast getting skipped 283 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,080 because the morning was rushed, lunch, eating quickly at the 284 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:03,600 desk. We're not even really paying 285 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:07,680 attention, and it's smaller than it should be, and it's more out 286 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:11,120 of habit than genuine planning. And then dinner, the main adept 287 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,160 vent of the day by which the body has already been running on 288 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:18,680 insufficient fuel for hours, is then sort of squeezed in. 289 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:21,960 And a ran is squeezed around all this, sometimes fasted, 290 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:25,360 sometimes under fuel beforehand with minimal thought giving to 291 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,920 refuelling properly afterwards because the next thing on the To 292 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,680 Do List is already demanding attention. 293 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,400 I feel exhausted even recalling all of that. 294 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:36,440 But I bet so many of you are nodding your head. 295 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:40,880 And I'm nodding my head because, you know, I run my own business. 296 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:44,440 I work with a lot of runners, and it's a lot, right? 297 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,440 Every day, helping other people. And I have to keep myself in 298 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:51,560 check sometimes because I'm also, you know, taking care of 299 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,120 my loved ones and family. I've also got things that I need 300 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:56,320 to prioritise. I'm running a full business 301 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,760 completely my own myself, wearing all the hats and trying 302 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,480 to fit in my own training. And it's very, very easy to just 303 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,880 get cracking on with the day. And by 4 I know it, it's 3:00 PM 304 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:07,720 and I still haven't eaten yet. And that's something I really 305 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:12,960 have to practise what I preach myself and be on it because it 306 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:15,520 shows up in the day and it doesn't even feel it like at the 307 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:17,200 time, just going from motion to motion. 308 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:20,920 But when you actually do fuel properly and get consistently 309 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,720 into that, wow, the difference you realise like you're starting 310 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,560 off your day, not an immediate brain fog and things just feel a 311 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,280 lot easier. And then you're going into those 312 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:34,360 runs well fuelled, a lot more energy and satiated and the 313 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:36,760 energy is keeping up throughout the day and not just these 314 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:44,360 spikes and then immediate dips. We want try and have some 315 00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:46,200 thought around this. And then when you add training 316 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:50,600 on top of an already demand in life, the energy requirements 317 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,400 then go up significantly. But the time and headspace 318 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:58,680 available to plan and prepare food often then goes down 319 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:03,760 because everything else is competing for the same limited 320 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:07,000 bandwidth that you have. And that's precisely the 321 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,960 combination that creates chronic underfuelling, right? 322 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:14,200 It's not this dramatic, obvious restriction where you've made a 323 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,520 choice to do so or you know, some people might, but often 324 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:20,280 it's happening by accident. It's just this quiet 325 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:23,680 accumulating gap between what's needed and what you're actually 326 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,800 getting in. And that's why it's really 327 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:31,160 important to address this because the very group of people 328 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:32,880 most likely to be under fielding, right? 329 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:37,400 Busy high achieving time for individuals also the group most 330 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:41,800 likely to interpret the resulting symptoms as a normal 331 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:45,760 consequence of being busy rather than as a fixable fuelling 332 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:47,240 issue. Right. 333 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:50,120 The fatigue, the slower recovery, the harder sessions 334 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:53,640 that all gets absorbed into, well, you know, I'm just 335 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,400 stretched really thin right now. When in fact, for a meaningful 336 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:01,760 part of that, it could actually be addressed by simply eating a 337 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,320 little bit better, more consistently around training. 338 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,080 When I say eating better, the first place to start is eating 339 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:08,040 enough. It doesn't matter. 340 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,880 You could be eating impeccably, right? 341 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,080 But if you're still not eating enough of it for your body's 342 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,400 demands and needs, everything else suffers. 343 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:24,640 So why this matters so much psychologically is important, 344 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:26,560 right? Your body is in there, in a 345 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:30,280 sense, always making resource allocation decisions. 346 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:34,200 So when it when energy is abundant, it can support 347 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:37,960 everything it needs to tissue repair, immune function, hormone 348 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:41,000 production, the metabolic processes that drive training 349 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,800 adaptation and the basic day-to-day function. 350 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:48,680 When energy is consistently insufficient, the body has to 351 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:52,600 prioritise and it prioritises survival functions first. 352 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,440 Like keeping your heart beating, keeping your brain functioning 353 00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:00,000 as well as it can, your basic, keeping everything those basic 354 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,360 systems online and going. And the things that get rationed 355 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:08,000 are the processes that end up mattering enormously for long 356 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:11,600 term health and performance, but they aren't immediately life 357 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:15,200 threatening if they're reduced. So your body will deprioritize 358 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,080 them. And tissue repair is one of the 359 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:19,560 first things that can suffer, right? 360 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,480 The micro damage that happens with every training session 361 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:27,280 needs to be prepared for repair. Sorry for you to come back 362 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,680 stronger. And when energy is short, that 363 00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:36,000 repair process starts to slow down because less energy is 364 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:38,240 becoming available to it. Or it might not even be able to 365 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:41,640 complete straightaway because less energy is available for it 366 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,000 to do so. Which is part of why recovery 367 00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:49,800 takes longer and why niggles that should results quickly can 368 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:53,520 start to linger it again. That can be affected by physical 369 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,080 decisions. If someone's trying to heal and 370 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,120 you keep overdoing it, over stretching it, it keeps getting 371 00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:01,320 sort of broken, like the damage keeps getting damaged more 372 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,200 before it's able to repair properly. 373 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:08,320 That is part of it, but also so is fuelling the recovery and the 374 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:12,200 pro repair process. Well, hormonal function 375 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:15,440 regulation is significantly affected, right? 376 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:22,720 A range of hormones involved in reproduction and metabolism and 377 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:26,200 stress response and recovery. Metabolism. 378 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,280 That's it. Like there's I, I have dyslexia, 379 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:33,000 I know today and some times you ever see where you're like, I 380 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,360 know this word in my head. How like, how does this word 381 00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:38,680 work? Again, metabolism. 382 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:41,640 There we go. So you know, reproduction, 383 00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,040 metabolism, stress response and recovery. 384 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:47,320 They are sensitive to energy availability. 385 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:52,040 When the body senses sustained energy deficit it can down 386 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:54,800 regulate these systems as a protective measure which has 387 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,160 consequences not just for performance but for your long 388 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,160 term health. Right bone density that is 389 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:04,320 important takes energy to do that and also overall hormonal 390 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:08,160 balance. Immune function is another major 391 00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:11,880 area that is affected. The immune system requires 392 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,960 significant energy nutrients to operate effectively and under 393 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:21,600 conditions of an energy deficit. That will also get the proto 394 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,920 overtize right. Your, it's your body's going to 395 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:25,240 be like right, we've got to keep you beating. 396 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,040 We've got to keep you alive. And these other areas are 397 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,360 starting to going to get less and less energy to run. 398 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,080 And this is part of why athletes who are under fuelling often 399 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,080 find themselves getting sick more frequently, especially 400 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:42,360 around periods of heavy training or racing, which is exactly the 401 00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:45,280 times they most need to stay healthy. 402 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,800 And training adaptation itself, which is the entire purpose of 403 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:51,480 all the effort you're putting in, right? 404 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,120 You want to be able to progress every run. 405 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:57,400 You're getting slight, you know, damage that you're repairing. 406 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:02,200 It comes back stronger every strength session, right? 407 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,960 Your muscles breaking down for you to then repair it again, 408 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,120 come back stronger. It's the whole point. 409 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:08,640 We're doing this. We want that training 410 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:13,440 adaptation. The adaptation itself depends on 411 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:17,120 the body having the resources to respond to the stimulus that 412 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:20,960 training provides and to then be able to recover from it. 413 00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:23,320 Training stress about adequate fuel. 414 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:26,640 The support adaptation doesn't produce the fitness game that 415 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,960 should, and you can be doing everything right in terms of 416 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:33,960 sessions and structure and state, still not see the results 417 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,960 you'd expect if it's not given enough of that energy for the 418 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:44,120 adaptation to occur because just enough resources aren't 419 00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:46,320 available. And this is the core of what I 420 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,640 mean when I say food is not separate from training, it is 421 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:54,320 part of the same system. Training provides the stimulus, 422 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,680 fuelling helps provide the resources to respond to that 423 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,360 stimulus. Without both pieces present in 424 00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:05,240 the right amounts, then the system does not function well in 425 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,560 the way it is designed to. So if you recognise some of 426 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,600 these signals in your own training, what is the practical 427 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,040 path forward? Well, the first step is simply 428 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:18,280 to look honestly at your training and what you're 429 00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,280 actually eating relative to your training load. 430 00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:25,360 So not what you think you're eating, but what's genuinely 431 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:28,360 going in to your body across a typical week. 432 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,760 Because for a lot of busy runners, this alone can be very 433 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:33,440 revealing. When you actually sit down and 434 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:35,160 look at this, you're, oh, you know what? 435 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,560 I thought I was getting in more calories than I was. 436 00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:41,120 When I actually sit down and work it out and, you know, track 437 00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:45,000 it for a week or so, I'm actually getting a lot less than 438 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,840 I thought. So that in itself can be very 439 00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:49,760 revealing. And the gap between perceived 440 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,760 intake and actual intake is often bigger than expected, 441 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:56,160 especially when meals are roughed, skipped or eaten 442 00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,920 without much attention. The second is to prioritise 443 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:03,200 eating enough across the whole day, not just around training 444 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,160 sessions, although of course it's very important to feel well 445 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,920 around your training sessions. But if you're not fuelling 446 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,840 yourself well for most of the week and then only start really 447 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,360 thinking about eating well just before your big run and during 448 00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:20,760 your long run, you're starting on the back foot. 449 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,320 We want to be looking and prioritising eating well across 450 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:25,920 the week. A common mistake is focus 451 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,000 heavily on pre and post run nutrition while still under 452 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:30,560 eating across the rest of the day. 453 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:34,200 Total daily energy intake matters enormously. 454 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,200 Your body needs consistent fuel throughout the day to support 455 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:42,720 both training and everyday life, not just a concentrated window 456 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,840 around your run. Quite often they get asked by I 457 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:47,920 work with a lot of runners coming back from injury and 458 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,120 often they're like, Oh, well, should actually should this be a 459 00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:54,360 time where I massively reduce my calories, It'd be good to, you 460 00:25:54,360 --> 00:25:57,680 know, go on the big fat loss goal because I don't really need 461 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,040 them right now because I'm not really training and it's like, 462 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,280 but you do still need them. We might, yes, have to adapt the 463 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,000 the the goal and target slightly, but your body is still 464 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,400 working really, really hard to recover. 465 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:16,040 It's sending a lot of NGA lot of resources to your around your 466 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,880 body to try and repair that injury and get back stronger. 467 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:24,120 So you that's you need to still be fueling that. 468 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,560 Similarly to that I get often asked, oh, should I have higher 469 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,760 calories on my training days and I'll do a lot less calories on 470 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:32,600 my recovery days because I don't really need them. 471 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,560 But what do we know about this? We know that training is the 472 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:39,920 stimulus and recovery in where adaptation happens. 473 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,480 So you might not physically in terms of like obviously taking 474 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,480 action, going for a run, but your body is still physically 475 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,360 working hard. It's still sending, it still 476 00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:53,160 needs to send nutrients, it still needs to send calories 477 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:58,480 direct, you know, direct calories, Direct Energy to the 478 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,920 areas of body. It needs to help do that repair 479 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,800 and come back stronger. So energy intake is so important 480 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,360 to think about these things and it's not just about fuelling the 481 00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,760 obvious action stuff. You need to remember that your 482 00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,000 body is working hard all the time in different ways and we 483 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,240 need to be able to fuel that. So it's really important not 484 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:24,320 just considering the physical obvious sessions itself, like 485 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,240 the run itself, pre and post, but also how you're feeling 486 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,400 yourself across the week. And another thing you can work 487 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:35,200 on is making sure that your protein is genuinely adequate, 488 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,720 adequate and present at regular intervals through the day, which 489 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,200 helps support the repair process that training depends on. 490 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,240 And alongside that, also making sure that your carbohydrate 491 00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:49,520 intake is sufficient to fuel training and replenish glycogen, 492 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:51,240 right? This is an area where a lot of 493 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,840 busy health conscious people can inadvert the en route because 494 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:59,240 carbohydrates have been unfair fairly demonised in a lot of 495 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:03,320 nutrition messaging, when in fact they're essential fuel for 496 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:05,640 a training runner and for everyone, right? 497 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:10,040 We shouldn't be demonising any particular food group and we can 498 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,560 go to extremes with this. What I say is a starting point 499 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:15,640 for all of the runners I work with. 500 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,520 I work with a Food First approach is first and foremost, 501 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:23,840 are you getting enough calories in to support your everyday 502 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,680 function and also your goal? And that's why it's important to 503 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,560 look at the individual because your bodies are going to be 504 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,560 different shapes and sizes, different heights. 505 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,080 You're also going to have a different daily energy 506 00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:39,200 expenditure depending on your job. 507 00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,520 Some people's jobs are very physical, some are less. 508 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,440 Some people walk a lot more than others, some a lot less. 509 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,760 What are you training for in particular? 510 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:48,760 All of these things need to be considered. 511 00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:53,400 We need to be looking at that certainly for you and then but, 512 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,640 and, and also what is your goal? Are you trying to go in a little 513 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:59,040 bit of a fat loft phase? Is that the right goal for you 514 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,600 right now compared to what else you're training for? 515 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,120 But also some people are trying to build, build muscle on. 516 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,120 Some people are just trying to like they don't, they want to 517 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,360 try and maintain their weight, but also feel athletic 518 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,000 performance. So being clear on what you as an 519 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,240 individual needs is a good starting point to actually first 520 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,640 and foremost, are we getting enough calories in for your 521 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,600 daily function and what your personal goal is? 522 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,960 Start there. Because if we can over 523 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,520 complicate that right from the start, but it doesn't matter how 524 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,560 good quality the calories are etcetera. 525 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:36,040 If you're not getting enough calories for your needs, the 526 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,480 rest doesn't matter because you're going to not feel good 527 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:40,760 and it's going to take you away from. 528 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,320 But first and foremost, let's consistently get enough calories 529 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,400 that you need on top of that. But let's see, can we improve 530 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,160 your protein just a little bit more than you're doing before? 531 00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,480 You know, if we were to use online calculators for a lot of 532 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,320 people, their protein would skyrocket. 533 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:00,120 And yes, that might be truer to where your protein should be. 534 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,880 But if you're barely having enough, you're having only about 535 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:06,640 30-40 grammes of protein per day. 536 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,600 And then, you know, you put it through a calculator and all of 537 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,200 a sudden you're meant to be having 160 grammes of protein 538 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,280 today. Although that might be close to 539 00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:19,040 the truth, going from 40 to 160 every day is going to be really, 540 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:23,200 really difficult and a big, big change in your daily eating 541 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,640 habits and feel miserable. So and like, does it need to be 542 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,480 that high to be optimal for you? So again, that's what I look at 543 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:35,080 like can we improve your protein just a little bit more than what 544 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,720 you're doing calorie currently? Can we put that up by, you know, 545 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,440 30 to 50 grammes of protein to start with, depending how you 546 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,720 know, if you're really hitting your goal nice and easy, great. 547 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:47,920 But can we just improve that a little bit? 548 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:50,360 That's going to help with satiating throughout the day. 549 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,000 It's going to keep help keep that energy level throughout the 550 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,000 day, but also it's going to help with that repair process as 551 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,240 well. And then with the rest of how 552 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,480 you make up the rest of the calories, can we just be 553 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,880 sensible with carbs and fat, No extreme low carbs and high fats 554 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,600 or the other way around. Both carbs and fats can be 555 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,720 important and just get them in in a way that feels good for 556 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:13,320 you. Once we've got that stuff 557 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:18,280 consistent, then we can look more into, you know, timings and 558 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,360 you know, maybe you work better a little with a little bit 559 00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:23,520 higher carbs and fats or vice versa. 560 00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,320 And you know what, like go even more into the quality of food. 561 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,920 But let's start with those levels 1st and get them in a 562 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:36,320 consistent place and then start complicating the process as you 563 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,920 go further or if it as you see if there's a need to. 564 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:45,440 And another way of a fourth way of sort of then adding to this 565 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,800 and improving, particularly for busy people, is building systems 566 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:52,560 that make adequate fuelling easier rather than relying on 567 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:56,400 willpower in that moment. This is something that is huge 568 00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:59,000 for the people I work with you someone who's quite quite a busy 569 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:00,680 schedule, you're juggling a lot of things. 570 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,000 Remove the friction, right? If you can sometimes take an 571 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:11,040 hour in your week to and I think even that like start with less 572 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,320 than even if an hour a week feels like that you have not 573 00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:17,480 really got back to spare. Could you spend even like I, I 574 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:23,000 did a whole webinar on this for my members the this month. 575 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,480 That was what it was about is meal planning and like there is 576 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:32,160 such a spectrum of meal planning right where you can go from. 577 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:36,440 You know, you spend a good chunk of your Sunday planning and 578 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:39,680 prepping food for the entire week, which can save you so much 579 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,360 time, money, energy. Brilliant, right? 580 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:46,000 And it can keep you on track. But not everyone has that time 581 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,840 or necessarily want all of the meals planned out for the whole 582 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:50,600 week. But it can be really useful. 583 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,080 But meal planning also can be completely the other end where 584 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:56,480 you don't actually prep anything at all. 585 00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:00,880 You just spend 10 minutes one day a week actually planning 586 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,360 what you're what you're going to do for breakfast and lunch and 587 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:06,160 then maybe dinner. You live, there's a bit more of 588 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,800 a surprise or plan dinner. You might not have bought the 589 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,520 ingredientship, you might not have made it. 590 00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,200 But even that, just not having the brain fatigue of every day. 591 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:16,720 What are we going to have for dinner today? 592 00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:19,840 Even just spending 10 minutes planning a week and thinking 593 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:21,720 right, how can I best feel myself this week? 594 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:26,840 And making the plan can be such a game changer and save you so 595 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,960 much time in decision or last minute decisions that aren't 596 00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:34,400 best for you during the week. You don't want to just have to 597 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:36,880 rely on willpower in the moment alone. 598 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:40,280 Whereas simple repeatable meals that don't require much decision 599 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:44,280 making be really helpful preparing food in advance where 600 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,320 possible. Something I'd point out too is 601 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,080 another easy way of doing this is a lot of people might have a 602 00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:53,320 bit more freedom choice for their dinner is if you're 603 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:57,320 cooking for the family, make it a little bit bigger so there's 604 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,160 an extra portion and save that portion for lunch the next day. 605 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,880 If it was good enough to eat for dinner, it's probably good 606 00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:04,600 enough to eat for lunch the next day. 607 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:06,480 They're not. Maybe not everyone want to be 608 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,400 satisfied with that, but for so many people that is just an 609 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:11,360 extra meal you don't have to think of. 610 00:34:11,679 --> 00:34:14,040 And that's lunch the next day. Sort of if you're busy and 611 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,400 you're is at your desk and you keep forgetting your food and 612 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,760 then last minute you're having to go to the canteen and find 613 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,320 something and spending a lot of your break doing that, spending 614 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:26,199 extra money, such an easy and cheap way of having lunch the 615 00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:30,000 next day sort of picks up. So there really is a spectrum 616 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,360 for these things. So find whatever works for you. 617 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:36,040 But it's essentially the point here is find where the friction 618 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:39,320 is and just see, is there any little things you can do on this 619 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,840 spectrum of meal planning from just deciding what you might eat 620 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,560 even the next day to prep in the whole week? 621 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,520 Are there any things you can do to just reduce some friction to 622 00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:54,040 make fuelling yourself better through the week just that 623 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:58,880 little bit more accessible? And treating fuelling as a 624 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,240 genuine part of training, as important as the session itself, 625 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:06,320 which it is, rather than something to be figured out 626 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,640 reactively after the fact, can be an absolute game changer. 627 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,600 And if you've made these adjustments and the signals are 628 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:15,360 still there, that's the point where it's worth getting a more 629 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,520 detailed look at your overall energy balance and working with 630 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:22,440 someone who can help you understand exactly what your 631 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:26,040 training is demanding of you. And saying right now this feels 632 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:29,120 consistent is a better place. First of all, have we got the 633 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:31,280 right targets for you? Is that right? 634 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:33,720 And working is are we doing this consistently? 635 00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:36,680 And also are there other areas, you know, of the training that 636 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:38,600 maybe aren't quite working? We can just that. 637 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:44,560 So to recap, under fuelling doesn't always feel like under 638 00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:49,760 the sometimes it just feels like a hard season of training that 639 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:52,960 just feels pretty relentless. And if that's been your 640 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,480 experience, I would genuinely encourage you to look at your 641 00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:01,200 fuelling before assuming the problem is purely about effort, 642 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:05,280 sleep or stress. Often it's some combination, but 643 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:09,920 fuelling is the piece that I find gets missed most often and 644 00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:12,520 it's also the one that's most fixable, which is why I wanted 645 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,080 to put it under a bit of a spotlight today. 646 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:19,160 And so remembering that food is not separate from your training, 647 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,120 it's part of the system that makes your training actually 648 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:23,920 work. And when the system is properly 649 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:28,080 resourced, the difference in how you feel and how you perform is 650 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:31,920 very significant often. And if you would like help 651 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:36,200 understanding what adequate fuelling actually looks like for 652 00:36:36,240 --> 00:36:39,680 your training in your life. If you're not quite sure if 653 00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:43,480 you're you've got your target right or how much you need, I 654 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,080 would love to put to you. I'd love to try help make this 655 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,520 process easier. The application form is in the 656 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,680 episode description. It takes 2 minutes to fill in 657 00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,160 and I will be in touch with you personally to have a proper chat 658 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:59,720 and see if I can be helpful and if Strong and Prospect is the 659 00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:02,920 right fit. These calls are not sales calls. 660 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:07,120 There's no pushy sales from me. Anyone who has attended these 661 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,680 calls before, we'll be able to attest to that. 662 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,240 I don't even bring up because if you don't, it is purely an 663 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:18,160 opportunity to get to connect with you, get to chat in more 664 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,800 detail about where you're currently out and where you want 665 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,040 to be and where the gap is. It's very hard to do that back, 666 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,040 back and forth from comments sections. 667 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:30,360 So it's a way for us to connect, see where the gap is and see if 668 00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:33,160 I can be helpful in bridging that gap for you. 669 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,560 And my biggest hope for that call is you can finish that call 670 00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:40,600 theme like it was worth your time and that you are coming 671 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,840 away with it with a greater clarity on how you can bridge 672 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:48,840 that gap and what could be your first step to improving that. 673 00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:50,960 So if that sounds like something that would be particularly 674 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:52,760 helpful to you, especially in the context that we just 675 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:56,400 discussed today in terms of adequate fuelling and knowing if 676 00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,200 you're getting an app from where those targets could be, fill in 677 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,480 an application form that will give you access to book a free 678 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,160 discovery call for me and we will go from there. 679 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,280 So thank you so much for listening today. 680 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:11,520 If this episode was helpful and you got a lot of value from it, 681 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,280 please do share it. One of the things I love the 682 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:18,280 most about running is the community, and I really think 683 00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:21,880 it's such a beautiful part of running and seeing other runners 684 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:25,000 really look out for each other and sharing resources and 685 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:28,360 wanting each other to grow. So you sharing the podcast 686 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,960 really, really does make a huge impact in getting it to more 687 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:38,080 people who could really benefit from this free resource and have 688 00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:41,000 little tips, a little advice here to improve their own 689 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:42,680 training and improve their own running. 690 00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,720 So if you feel this is useful, I would never ask you to pass it 691 00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:47,400 on if you didn't. But if you do feel like this 692 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,240 episode is useful and its value or just the podcast in general, 693 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,800 I would so, so, so appreciate you sharing it. 694 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,360 Feel free if it's easier to tag me on Instagram and share it 695 00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:01,400 that way and I will repost it post it on either way. 696 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:03,320 Thank you so much for listening today, I really really 697 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:07,080 appreciate it. Make sure that you are fuelling 698 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:11,920 the system itself and not just the run and I will see you in 699 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:13,080 the next episode.