Sports Nutritionist Meghan Stock

1) Following fad diets

Maybe it’s intermittent fasting, going keto, or any other restrictive eating pattern, but none of them work on a long-term basis. Sure, you likely follow an athlete on social media who is doing crazy training sessions while following some fad diet, but if it is true, they’re an outlier.

For the majority of endurance athletes, restrictive eating of any kind will only lead to decreased performance, injury, or worse. Training for triathlon puts a lot of strain on your body, so you need to provide your body with the building blocks it needs to repair and strengthen itself, which means food.

To optimize performance and long-term health, focus on the basics;

• 🏋️ Healthy protein (animal or plant, or both!),

• 🥦 Lots of vegetables and starch at each meal,

• Eating healthy doesn’t need to be complicated; it’s like training; consistency pays off!

2. Under or over hydration

The focus on hydration has been getting increasingly popular since I started practicing, to the extent that I’ve seen clients who are overhydrating. This can lead to low salt in the blood, meaning tiredness and poor performance.

You can get into the weeds with hydration (and it may help once you nail the basics), but a good starting place is to look at the colour of your urine. Doing this each time you go to the bathroom will give you real-time feedback on your hydration status allowing you to adjust.

You should be aiming for a light yellow colour, similar to lemonade, if it is, you’re adequately hydrated! If your urine is clear, you’re likely over-hydrated. In this case, take a break from drinking to concentrate your urine a bit. This won’t be a big deal since you’ll be peeing frequently anyway!

If your urine is darker, like apple juice, you need to drink as soon as you leave the bathroom. Keep taking drinks frequently until your urine returns to a light yellow colour.

Sports drinks and other fluids have their place, but for hydration, water is best!

3. Not prioritizing recovery

The best way to get the most out of your training sessions is to make sure you provide your body with nutrition to build on the work you just did. This means restoring glycogen stores, replacing fluid and electrolytes, and encouraging protein synthesis for repair and muscle adaptation.

After each session, plan to eat something that contains carbohydrate and protein. The timeline is important, try to do this within an hour of finishing your session. Depending on your schedule, this might mean bringing something to the track or pool if it’ll be more than an hour before you’re able to eat or drink.

Consider the session too, if it’ll be hard track workout, eating can be difficult; you may need to drink your recovery. Knowing yourself and your schedule is key to nailing your recovery.

4. Underfuelling

Training for triathlon means eating a lot and eating throughout the day. On top of your three meals and recovery nutrition, you might need additional snacks to meet your caloric needs.

If you’re training for long distance racing or have a high training load, you might feel like you’re eating all the time! It can be helpful to plan out your meals and snacks based around your work/study/training schedule to ensure you’re getting enough in. Then, think ahead. Keep snacks in your swim bag, your car and maybe even your desk at work so a healthy, well-balanced snack is available when needed since no one makes healthy food choices when they’re hungry!

A sports dietitian can be helpful too, consider booking a session to work out a schedule and the foods that you need. Prolonged training without adequate fueling can result in RED-S, which can ruin your season or career. You put in so much work to train for your race, you need to support it with eating enough.

Meghan Stock is a Registered Dietitian at MLS Nutrition. She helps athletes optimize their performance by developing individual nutrition plans. She has worked with endurance athletes, powerlifters, alpine skiers, and hockey players.

Website: www.mlsnutrition.com

I’ve been a registered dietitian for over 15 years and have focused on sports nutrition, primarily endurance athletes. Over these years, the same issues come up over and over again, which means that eating to support triathlon training is hard. Below are the four most common mistakes I’ve seen, with the basics on how to fix them. Obviously, these recommendations are general. If you’re interested in knowing more, reach out to a Registered Dietitian for individualized advice, it can make a huge difference in your performance.