💡 Fuel For Thought The missing piece in your training puzzle I talk to endurance athletes every day who feel they have done everything right. They're running the kilometres, wearing the watch, tracking the zones, following the plan. They've invested in the gear that tells them exactly how hard they worked and how well they slept. They know their VO2 max, their heart rate variability, and their weekly load. And yet, something isn't adding up. Performance has plateaued. Recovery feels harder...
13 days ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Stable isn't boring. Stable is the point. What am I supposed to feel when I take a caffeine gel? A client asked me this at one of our group sessions last week. And it's one of my favourite questions because the answer surprises almost everyone. Nothing. You're supposed to feel nothing. If you've ever played Mario Kart, you'll know the moment you hit one of those star power-ups, suddenly you're invincible, untouchable, flying through the track. That's the expectation most...
20 days ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought History was made on Sunday. Here's how nutrition was part of the story. Photo credit: Sky Sports What a time to be alive! This past weekend at the London Marathon, we witnessed one of the most extraordinary days in the history of endurance sport. On the men's side, Sabastian Sawe ran 1:59:30, becoming only the second person in history to break the two-hour marathon barrier in a sanctioned race, with Yomif Kejelcha following in 1:59:41. All three men on the podium ran under...
27 days ago • 4 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought The gap your training plan can't fix Last week, a clip of fitness influencer Joe Wicks went viral. In a podcast interview, he mentioned running a marathon with no water, no food, and no bathroom break, and suggested: "We probably don't need as much nutrition as we've been told". The clip has since been deleted, but the damage lingers. What bothered me most wasn’t the claim itself. It was the footnote. He briefly added that this doesn't apply to elite runners, as if fuelling...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought The gap your training plan can't fix Yesterday I received this email from a client: "It makes such a huge difference to fuel properly… especially during my longer runs. I feel so good for the rest of the day. Compared to the old days when I was soooo overtired and struggled with fatigue." One month in. That's all it took. What worries me, and why I keep coming back to this, is that the exhaustion she described isn't unusual. Constant fatigue, heavy legs, and struggling to...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Here's why you're hungrier on rest days I see this pattern constantly in practice: an athlete trains hard all week, hits a rest day, and suddenly finds themselves hungrier than usual. Their normal meals don't seem to cut it. They eat, and an hour later, they're back in the kitchen. And more often than not, they can't figure out why. Does this sound familiar to you, too? Here's what's actually going on. Physical activity has a suppressing effect on appetite. It's almost like...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Last woman standing, and what got Tammy there Last week, Patto from the Backyard Ultra Podcast sat down with IntensEAThlete and Fuel To Thrive Academy graduate Tammy Lovett, who has now completed three backyard ultras, breaking 24 yards every single time, including a top 10 Australian performance at Red’s Backyard Ultra last year. In this episode, Tammy shares her journey through backyard ultras and how nutrition became an asset in taking her PB from 25 to 38 yards. She...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Your brain runs on glucose. Are you feeding it? Your brain runs on glucose. Not motivation, not grit, not a good playlist. Glucose. This is a fact I wish more athletes could keep in mind (pun intended). When you're training or racing, your muscles and your brain are competing for the same fuel. And your muscles are loud, they demand glucose fast, and they usually win. So when supply runs low, your brain doesn't wait it out, it starts pulling the emergency brake. That...
2 months ago • 4 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought The work before the work: What a big weekend reminded me Left to right: Aaron Young, Thibault Delacroix, Gemma Gore, Jamie Oborne, Brad Halls, Gaby Villa, Colin Moulden, Shane Aris, Craig Maluish & Brian Hurt This past weekend, many of the athletes I work with competed at Herdy’s Backyard Ultra, and it was a big one. By the end, Colin was the last man standing, and Tammy the last woman standing. Eight others ran personal bests. Ten athletes, some of their best performances...
2 months ago • 3 min read