💡 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...
8 days 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...
15 days 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...
22 days 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...
29 days ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Yes, your nutrition is causing your gut issues... but not in the way you think I often meet athletes after a race that fell apart because of their gut. They’ve tried everything: every gel brand, every carb mix their friends swear by, even the “real food vs sports products” experiment. By the time they come to me, they’re frustrated, confused, and sometimes even wondering if they should quit the sport altogether. Nutrition is often part of the problem, but rarely because of...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought When "normal" isn't actually normal I was speaking with a client recently who had a lightbulb moment on a business trip. Over the past month, we’ve made small, practical changes, adding carbs back into lunch, fuelling before easy runs, and eating more consistently across the day. Nothing extreme. Just enough to match his training load. Then travel happened. Missed meals. Grab-and-go options. Long gaps between food. He slipped back into his old patterns. In his words: “When...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Have you been training with the handbrake on? Most athletes come to me saying, “I need help with my race nutrition plan.” They want the perfect gel timing, the right electrolytes, the ideal pre-race meal. And we absolutely work on that. But nine times out of ten, the biggest gains have nothing to do with race day. That was true for Tammy. After completing 25 yards at a backyard ultra, she was determined to go further. She assumed her race plan was the limiter. But when she...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought Nutrition should be the fuel that keeps you going, not the obstacle that keeps you from finishing I recently spoke with a friend who attempted a backyard ultra-style training session. Their legs were holding up. Their mindset was steady. But once their gut started to spiral, they made the call to stop. What struck me most wasn’t that they pulled the pin, it was that they decided a backyard ultra might just “not be for them.” And that’s the part that deserves attention. So...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
💡 Fuel For Thought The science and art of open water fuelling While much of the ultra-endurance nutrition conversation typically focuses on running, swimming is an area that deserves far more attention, especially when we shift from the pool to open water. Open water swimming brings a unique set of fuelling challenges, largely because eating and drinking in the water isn’t exactly straightforward. You can’t just reach into a vest pocket or grab a gel at a traffic light. Fuelling becomes...
2 months ago • 3 min read