Let's

take a couple examples and I will preface this and you can fix this preface using your own words if you want. But Meredith obviously works with people on an individual basis, so I'm going to give her some hypothetical examples. But if you're listening, that doesn't mean that even if this applies to you, you should go out and get these things. You should probably talk to your doctor. Yes. I'm trying not to get either of us sued here, although I don't think people who listen are likely to do that. But so say you have someone who is like regular is an active person, they're working out three or four times a week, but they decide, okay, I want to do a marathon. And so they get a marathon training program, they're running four to five miles a week, sorry, four to five times a week, they're getting up to 35, 40, maybe 45 miles a week, they're doing 12 to 16 weeks. Like, that's person A. And then person B, maybe it's the same person, but they're running their second marathon. Now they're like, okay, I'm gonna do a 16-week program, I'm gonna incorporate some speed work, I'm gonna incorporate some lifting, I'm maybe gonna get up to 65, 70 mile weeks, I'm gonna try to hit, like, I'm gonna try to BQ. Are there, as you're going from, like, active persons to type A and from type A to type B, are there certain supplements that could benefit those potential representative people?

Yeah, I kind of love this question. So, basically, if it's like your first marathon ever, and you're really like, again, going back to what is this person's goal, right? So, their goal is probably just to make sure they can finish it, have a good time, like check that off their list. Smile. Smile a little bit, have some fun, not die. So in that case, like, these don't often get thought of as dietary supplements, but having like carbohydrate based products and like gels and chews and sports drinks, those are the quote unquote supplements that are going to most benefit that person because likely in their day-to life before they didn't need that added like straight up gel, straight up sports drink most of the time. But as their demands come up and they need to be able to fuel over the course of four, five, six hours if it's their first time. That's a really long time that you need to support that demand. And I think I have a lot of clients who are in that space and they're like, well, I'm not an elite runner. They're going so much faster than me, so I don't need as much fuel as them. But our sports nutrition recommendations are based off of time. And so you might be running much slower, but the total amount of time that that person's out there, energy expenditure can actually look fairly similar from like an elite athlete who's finishing in like, you know, less than two and a half hours versus someone who's out there for five, six hours. Like that elite athlete is not doing that. And they're more efficient at that pace. So again, like energy expenditure is a little different. So I'd say that person they probably just need to make sure they're eating enough to support their new training demands. Potentially, I guess I would say a multivitamin while they are doing something new and making sure deficiencies don't develop, potentially some protein powder for, you know, training is time consuming. We maybe are on the go going to work. And we do want to make sure that muscle is recovering well and that we're getting that like training adaptation. And then I would say really dialing in like your fueling and hydration protocol versus now, okay, say they did it, they finished and now they're like, okay, I have a better goal. I want to perform better. I think like you mentioned, they're lifting. So like that protein powder piece will still play a role potentially to optimize muscle response to strength training. I think timing in general is maybe an important part here. That probably, again, lower on that period that I might touch first before I go to supplements. I think caffeine can be really helpful in marathon and endurance performance. So taking it before, taking it during, taking it when you anticipate fatigue to set in. We know that caffeine can be an tool for many people. Some people don't respond well, some people have GI issues with it, some people are already kind of a nervous and anxious athlete. So it's just going to exasperate that before. So there are, again, considerations with that. But I think if your goal is that performance, we need to talk about caffeine and see if you want to use it. I would say that's probably the first one I would use. Like there's some interesting people looking at creating an endurance performance. of been seen as you know, it causes a little bit of like mass gain. So it's not beneficial for endurance athletes. But if you think about potentially like if there are if you're like kicking to the end where now you've been out there for four or five hours and you haven't really like used that anaerobic system potentially if there's like or Even thinking about like cyclists where there are short periods of intense bursts throughout an endurance activity. There's potentially some benefits there Yeah, so I think like those might be some I know Like beet juice got a lot of interest for endurance exercise a few years ago. And really where the research has landed is that it's, it seems to be more beneficial for where oxygen availability is lower. So like typically at a marathon pace, it is far more aerobic, oxygen availability is higher versus more of a mid-distance runner or rower or cyclist. Again, like a swimmer, shorter bursts where oxygen needs to catch up. I think that's where beet juice would be most impactful performance-wise. But again, if you're thinking like, it's probably a low risk supplement for someone because it is just beet juice. So potentially has helpful impacts on blood pressure and other things. So it wouldn't be the end of the world if someone wanted to take that. But yeah, just considering kind of the nature of that event. With

caffeine is that one, I mean, I drink like three coffees a day. So if I'm running, hopefully run a Chicago marathon, like, should I lean off coffee in the weeks before and then use it strategically? Or is it something that can still help me even if I have like a, quote, unquote, tolerance to caffeine, if that's even a thing?

a bit now where it seems that you don't need to abstain from it ahead of the race, which is such a great thing for those of us that love our coffee. It's kind of funny. Researchers sound that the actual, like, withdrawal, like the negative withdrawal symptoms are just like sadness for not being able to have your coffee, like these typical habitual things, like, can potentially be negative for your performance. And then the other thing is, like, replace that volume of fluid with like water or like something else. And so that actually can impact hydration status too. So you don't need to abstain from caffeine to still have the performance benefit from caffeine. I think you potentially would take your caffeine before and then how I would use it is probably about like in a full marathon for example around like 13 to 16 take another like even much smaller doses seem to have a beneficial effect to delay that fatigue and improve like focus and help you sustain your pace for longer.

Okay.