Fueling Endurance - Nutrition for Runners, Cyclists & Triathletes

It’s called the sunshine vitamin, and given we’re just coming to the end of winter here in the southern hemisphere, our Vitamin D stores should be at their lowest point of the year. So what exactly is this nutrient that we can get without eating any food? Why is it so important to runners, cyclists and triathletes? How much Vitamin D is enough, when should you get tested, and when, how much and what type of supplements should you take to prevent or correct a Vitamin D deficiency? Today, we’re speaking to researcher Dr Dan Owens from Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, whose research is aiming to answer these and more questions about Vitamin D for athletes. We’ll also discuss the different types of Vitamin D in food, supplements and the body, ethnic differences and their relevance to Vitamin D testing, and how much sun exposure is enough to meet your Vitamin D needs.

In our last episode, we discussed with Dr Dana Lis how to decipher sports nutrition information you come across, and Dana shared with us her five step process for filtering that information. One of those steps was to figure out what is the cost and benefits of different nutrition strategies, your Return on Investment if you like. So today, we’re going to have a look at some of the most common nutrition strategies that can be employed to improve performance on race day. We’ll discuss some of the practical pros and cons, and find out what the science says about quantifying the actual performance benefits you might expect from each one.

As runners, cyclists and triathletes, you often come across new information about nutrition for your sport. It can come from anywhere - a fellow athlete, a coach, an article you saw online, or even this podcast. But how do you filter that information and decide if it’s valid, useful, and most importantly, worth implementing for yourself? In this episode we’re joined by Dr Dana Lis, a Canadian sports dietitian based in California who’s constantly asked this question with the athletes she works with: the EF-Tibco-SVB pro cycling team, and the Golden State Warriors (NBA). Dana will give you a framework to use when you encounter new information about nutrition for your sport, that you can use to decide whether it’s worth pursuing or not.

We often hear the message that plant-based protein sources are inferior to animal sources, and recommendations from sports nutritionists often emphasise the use of dairy and other animal-based protein foods. In this episode we speak to protein researcher Dr Alistair Monteyne (University of Exeter) who’s done of the more recent animal vs non-animal protein comparisons. We’ll look at where this common belief came from about animal proteins being superior, how the research has evolved just in the last few years, and what that means for this common sports nutrition assumption.

We’re joined by British ultra-trail runner and writer Damian Hall, who shares his personal journey to discovering the environmental impact of his running (including nutrition choices), the changes he's made as a result, and what he learnt along the way. We also chat about the Barkley Marathons which he ran earlier this year, and his recently published book, 'We Can't Run Away From This - Racing to improve running’s footprint in our climate emergency'.    To learn more about Damian's books, blog, etc: https://www.ultradamo.com/   Our World In Data - information on food & the environment discussed in the podcast: https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food#explore-data-on-the-environmental-impacts-of-food    To find out about The Green Runners: https://thegreenrunners.com/    Follow Damian: Instagram: @ultra_damo Twitter: @Ultra_Damo  

We’ve answered almost 60 common questions about sports nutrition to date on this podcast, but one thing we don’t often consider is the environmental implications of our advice. Are we inadvertently contributing to climate change and destruction of the very environments we love to train and race in? Can we be good athletes and good global citizens, or are we facing an uncomfortable conflict of values?   We're joined by Dr Alba Reguant-Closa (Agroscope, in Zurich, Switzerland), one of the only sports dietitians in the world who is actively working in this area. We’ll unpack and simplify the complex relationship between food and the environment, discover which food choices have the biggest environmental impact, look at the impact of sports-specific nutrition strategies on the environment, and finish with the 3 things athletes should do from a nutrition perspective if they care about reducing their environmental impact.   Alba's research publications on this topic: Meyer & Reguant-Closa (2017). "Eat as If You Could Save the Planet and Win!" Sustainability Integration into Nutrition for Exercise and Sport. Nutrients; 9(4):412. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9040412   Reguant-Closa et al. (2020). The Environmental Impact of the Athlete's Plate Nutrition Education Tool. Nutrients;12(8):2484. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082484    Meyer, Reguant-Closa & Nemecek (2020). Sustainable Diets for Athletes. Curr Nutr Rep.; 9(3):147-162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-020-00318-0   

It seems every second runner, cyclist or triathlete you meet is taking, or talking about, magnesium. Ask them why and you often get some vague kind of answer - for recovery, for muscle function, or something a bit more specific like cramping. But when you delve into the sports nutrition guidelines, there’s no mention of magnesium in there. Literally nothing. So are athletes a step ahead of the science here, or have they been duped by the lure of a supplement that uses terms like “nervous system” and “muscle function” that are taken from a symptom list of clinical magnesium deficiency? In today’s episode, we’re joined by Dr Sophie Killer, a sports nutritionist and researcher who did some of the very few studies of magnesium and athletes during her time working with UK Athletics. We’ll look at what magnesium does in the body, how to know if you’re deficient in magnesium, whether deficiency is common in athletes, whether supplements can improve performance or reduce cramping, the benefits and risks of magnesium supplementation, and whether we should think about magnesium as a daily supplement like iron, or something that specifically needs replacing during exercise like sodium. Sophie's study looking at magnesium testing in UK track and field athletes over an 8 year period: https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2019.1691953 

Many runners, cyclists and triathletes, male and female, can find themselves struggling to perform, or to recover, from training. Or they may have other health complications, like loss of their menstrual cycle for females and low testosterone in males, loss of bone density, effects on mental health, and constantly getting sick all the time.  In this episode our guest is Tina Muir, former elite distance runner who represented Great Britain. Tina suffered with amenorrhoea for 9 years, and although she didn’t realise it at the time, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). We chat to Tina about her realisation that energy availability was behind her lack of a menstrual cycle, some of the common symptoms of RED-S that she experienced but aren’t mentioned in the official guidelines, her decision to quit the sport at the peak of her career, her journey to recover from RED-S, and her ongoing work to support athletes (especially women) in understanding and recovering from this condition. Useful resources mentioned in this episode:  Tina Muir - An Open Letter to Runners With Amenorrhea - Self Magazine (2017) - https://www.self.com/story/letter-to-runners-with-amenorrhea-tina-muir Tina's YouTube Channel (expert interviews about RED-S and recovery from it) - https://www.youtube.com/@TinaMuir/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=1

In previous podcasts we've talked about the issue of low energy availability and the health and performance problems it can cause for athletes. But what if you're in that situation right now? In this episode Bronwen Lundy (Rowing Australia) joins us to outline the strategies that athletes can use to recovery from Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).

If you ever wanted to hear how strong is the link between nutrition and bone fractures, this is the story. We chat to Bobby Clay, former Under 20 European Champion in the 1500m, whose career took a sudden and unexpected turn. Many in the running community will already be familiar with Bobby's story after she wrote about her experience in Athletics Weekly in 2017. With the benefit of hindsight Bobby explains more about what went on at the time, what happened next, where she's at now, and most importantly the lessons that all athletes (or parents of young athletes) can take away from her experience. ** We want your feedback! Complete a short survey with your thoughts on the podcast - 3 people who complete it will win a copy of our new eBook when it launches in a few week's time. Survey link: http://ow.ly/AaZ050NRsNP **