I enable endurance athletes to overcome lack of energy and gut upset so that they can fuel their bodies with confidence and race to their full potential. Subscribe to my weekly 'Fuelling with Purpose' newsletter to receive endurance nutrition insights directly in your inbox.
Fuelling With Purpose — 17 March 2026
💡 Fuel For ThoughtThe work before the work: What a big weekend reminded meThis 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 to date. Training, mental toughness, and a whole lot of grit got those athletes through. But nutrition was also in the background of every one of those performances, and that's exactly how it should work. A backyard ultra doesn't reward the fastest. It rewards the most consistent. The athletes who go the distance are the ones who spend weeks building systems that hold up under accumulated fatigue, hour after hour. By race day, eating and drinking aren’t a source of stress or decision-making. They are just part of the rhythm. That consistency doesn't show up by accident. It's the result of slow, unglamorous preparation. Troubleshooting what doesn't work, practising fuelling under fatigue, and making nutrition a trained skill rather than an afterthought. The great days aren't built on race morning. They're built in the weeks leading up to it. And that's worth sitting with for a moment: what would it look like if your nutrition was as well-prepared as your training? 🚀 Endurance Highlights1️⃣ Sodium for athletes: Separating strategy from marketingSodium is consistently the electrolyte that gets the most airtime in endurance sport nutrition, and for good reason. While all electrolytes matter, sodium is lost in the greatest quantities through sweat, and its relationship with fluid balance has real implications for health and performance. This 2025 review by McCubbin set out to examine the rationale behind common sodium strategies across all phases of exercise and, where possible, to provide more specific, evidence-based guidance. The review challenges several widely held beliefs. First, most athletes already consume well above the recommended daily sodium intake through food alone, and there is no evidence that daily supplementation is necessary. During exercise, the picture is similarly nuanced: sodium intake can support fluid balance and help prevent exercise-associated hyponatraemia in ultra-endurance contexts where athletes are replacing more than 70% of fluid losses, but there is no evidence that it improves performance independently of fluid intake. The core message of this review is that the sodium strategy should never be planned in isolation from the fluid strategy. For most athletes in most training scenarios, seasoning food to taste and using sodium-containing sports nutrition products as needed is sufficient. 2️⃣ Protein vs omega-3 vs creatine for strength, endurance and recoveryOmega-3, protein, and creatine are among the most researched and widely used supplements in sports nutrition, but most athletes choose them based on habit or general advice rather than outcome-specific evidence. What this review set out to do differently was pit all three against each other, comparing the effects of protein, creatine, and omega-3 supplementation on muscle strength, endurance performance, and recovery. Creatine came out on top for muscle strength, which aligns with what most athletes already know. Protein supplementation ranked highest for endurance performance, ahead of both omega-3 and creatine. The likely mechanism is protein's role in supporting mitochondrial adaptation and protecting muscle mass during high training loads. For recovery, omega-3 led convincingly, with the strongest effect size of any supplement across any outcome in the review. One limitation worth noting: most participants were young, resistance-trained males, so the findings may not translate directly to all endurance athletes, particularly female athletes or those deep in high-volume training phases. 🕵🏻♀️ Retail Finds*This week's product review: Cocobella Coconut Water ChocolateIt's time to review a backyard ultra favourite Features & benefits
Things to keep in mind
Final take Even though other drinks like carb mixes, chocolate milk, or soft drinks are more carbohydrate-dense, this product can support hydration with a pleasant taste that doesn't feel overpowering, reducing the likelihood of flavour fatigue. Being vegan and dairy-free makes it a suitable alternative for athletes with dietary restrictions or intolerances. 👩🏻🍳 Kitchen CreationsI'm committing to sending the most valuable endurance nutrition newsletter. I want to make sure that every piece of content you receive includes information that helps you on your journey toward achieving your personal best. Happy fuelling! Gaby | Endurance Nutrition Specialist 🏃🏻♂️ Want to work together?When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
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Gaby Villa
I enable endurance athletes to overcome lack of energy and gut upset so that they can fuel their bodies with confidence and race to their full potential. Subscribe to my weekly 'Fuelling with Purpose' newsletter to receive endurance nutrition insights directly in your inbox.
💡 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...
💡 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...
💡 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...