Fueling Endurance - Nutrition for Runners, Cyclists & Triathletes

An exercise physiologist, lecturer, researcher & cycling coach, José has travelled the world. Whilst working in Norway he completed a study summarising ~50 years of research on carbohydrate loading and the carb requirements of athletes into one comprehensive research paper. We discuss this research, the situations where carb loading may beneficial, and some of the practical considerations for doing it properly.

Ellie Pashley has represented Australia in the 10,000 m & half marathon at World Champs. She's also finished top 10 at the 2019 New York Marathon, and currently aiming to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic team in the marathon. Ellie discusses her battles with iron deficiency, her experiences with supplementation and iron infusions, and her approach to supplementation for altitude training.

Pete's both a researcher at the University of Western Australia and a physiologist at the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS). We discuss recent advances in our understanding of iron deficiency in athletes, when to supplement, and the safest and most effective way to do so.

An incredible story from Spanish pro triathlete Eneko Llanos. After several years struggling to finish Ironman races, Eneko was finally able to determine the cause of his gut problems, put the appropriate strategies in place, and got back to the top of his game. We discuss this, how trial and error didn't work for him, and what's involved in assessing it properly.

A very common and frustrating issue, especially for runners and long-course triathletes. We're doing this one in-house given it's Steph's area of expertise. We unpack the actual causes of gut issues during exercise, why trial and error rarely works, how to figure out the cause, and what to do about it.

Our athlete perspective this week with Chris Ord who wears many hats - an outdoor/adventure journalist, founder & original publisher of Trail Run Magazine (Aus/NZ), race director, adventure running tour guide, and trail runner in his own right. We also finish with an easy guide for assessing the credibility of scientific information, to help your BS detection skills.

At the heart of many of our podcast topics/questions is confusion, misconceptions and misinformation. We chat to Dr Tim Crowe about why there are so many mixed messages in nutrition science, the role of the media and social media, and tips for developing a good BS detector. Tim's also a marathon runner, so we chatted about his own experience and what he learnt from experience that science couldn't teach him.

Our combined athlete perspective episode for the last two topics. Marathon runner and dual Olympian Jess Stenson joins us to discuss the evolution of her preparation for hot races, from the 2013 Moscow World Champs, to the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games & the follow up Gold Coast marathon a few months later.

The 2nd half of our chat with Prof. Ollie Jay (University of Sydney). We cover myths, facts and sucessfully used cooling strategies from professional sport, whether you should drink or pour water over yourself, the difference between actual cooling & the perception of feeling cooler, and heat acclimation.

Is it genetics? Body fat? Or completely random? Prof. Ollie Jay (University of Sydney) joins us in a fascinating discussion about how our bodies figure out how much sweat to produce during exercise, why it varies so much between people, as well as from day-to-day within the same person. A bit technical in parts, with an easy-to-digest summary at the end.