💡 Fuel For Thought

A race plan is only as strong as the preparation behind it

Last week I shared a paper exploring durability as part of why runners hit the wall during a marathon. This week, I want to pull on one specific thread from that idea: your fuelling strategy has to work alongside your race preparation.

You can have a beautifully calculated carbohydrate target, but it can’t completely compensate for arriving at the start line underfuelled, poorly recovered or insufficiently prepared for the demands of the race.

Equally, a target of 90–120 g of carbohydrate per hour is only useful if you’ve trained your gut to tolerate it while running hard, and practised how you’ll actually consume it when fatigue, heat and discomfort enter the picture. The paper highlights that fuelling needs to be practised during marathon-specific training, and that the “optimal” intake is individual rather than simply the highest number you can chase.

“Preparation precedes performance” is a concept I frequently share with my clients. Your everyday nutrition helps build the body capable of doing the work. Your training nutrition helps you adapt to that work. And your race nutrition helps you express that preparation when it counts. Those pieces work best as one system, not three separate strategies.

🚀 Endurance Highlights

1️⃣ Hydration and carbohydrate use: why fluid intake affects fuelling

Water plays a central role in digestion and nutrient delivery, and new research suggests that when fluid intake drops, so does your ability to use the carbohydrate you're taking in.

In this study, nine trained male cyclists and triathletes completed 160 minutes of cycling while consuming 60 g of glucose per hour, either with enough fluid to maintain hydration or with restricted fluid intake that produced a ~2.8% loss of body mass.

When participants became dehydrated, average oxidation of the glucose they consumed was around 16% lower, despite identical carbohydrate intake. The researchers could not identify the exact mechanism, but suggest that lower fluid availability may have slowed delivery and absorption of glucose from the gut and/or altered how muscle used it.

Even though this was a small study, this reinforces that carbohydrate and hydration strategies shouldn't be considered in isolation: consuming enough carbohydrate is only part of the equation if dehydration reduces how effectively it can be used.

2️⃣ Ashwagandha and exercise performance

In recent years, ashwagandha has been gaining attention as a potential performance supplement, particularly for its proposed effects on stress, recovery and endurance. Unlike supplements such as caffeine, with a direct acute effect, any performance benefit from ashwagandha is more likely to come from supporting recovery and adaptation over time. This new systematic review and meta-analysis combined 13 randomised controlled trials involving 599 participants to examine its effects across different types of exercise performance.

Overall, ashwagandha produced a small-to-moderate improvement in performance, but the clearest and most consistent benefits were seen for aerobic endurance, including measures such as VO₂max and time to exhaustion. Effects on strength were promising but less certain.

This makes ashwagandha interesting, but not yet a clear-cut recommendation. The evidence base is still relatively small, and studies varied considerably in dose, product formulation and quality. The most evidence-supported range was 500–600 mg/day, but the authors emphasise that benefits are not consistent across everyone or every performance setting.

🕵🏻‍♀️ Retail Finds*

This week's product review: Nerds Gummy Clusters vs Allen's Speckled Snakes

A few weeks ago I talked about the Speckled Snakes, let's see how they compare against their closest competitor.

Final take

Gram per gram they're very similar to each other and taste is quite close as well. Biggest advantage from my point of view is that the Speckled Snakes offer more carbohydrate per piece but I still would consider this a tie. ​​

👩🏻‍🍳 Kitchen Creations

​Download the recipe​​​

Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken & Veggies with Rice Here's another complete and balanced meal perfect for meal-prepping or a tasty dinner.

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Happy fuelling!

Gaby | Endurance Nutrition Specialist

🏃🏻‍♂️ Want to work together?

When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. ​Take the FREE Endurance Nutrition Audit. Not sure if your fuelling strategy is working? This quick 3-minute audit will reveal exactly where you stand and what adjustments could help you perform at your best.
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