The No Fuel Triathlon

“In theory, everything works in Practice”

Yogi Berra

First of all I understand there will be a lot of nay-sayers or people trying to dismiss or disprove this and I’ll admit some of it is a work in progress. Probably cause it goes against everything that you have been led to believe in books, magazines, seminars or what you have tried for yourself.

Second of all I can’t fully explain the mechanism of action of all of these products or techniques. I reflect back on the study that a Swiss professor did in the 1930’s on how bumblebees fly and showed that, in fact, bumblebees can’t fly (this study is often incorrectly accredited to NASA). Just because the theory isn’t clear doesn’t mean you should discount the fact the outcome worked.

Thirdly I studied and am certified in Sports Nutrition and know what you ‘should’ do.

And therein lay the issue.

Sports nutrition, especially for endurance events such as triathlon, focuses on inputs and specifically max inputs. Things like the maximum amount of glucose or fructose that can be absorbed by specific receptors such as the Glut II (Fructose / Glucose / Galactose) and Glut IV (Glucose) receptor. They focused on managing gut issues based on maximum inputs and how to manage that by looking at things like combining minerals to enhance absorption, balancing osmolarity etc. etc. They focus on managing the bi-products or damage from burning sugar. In short trying to overcome some of the issues of trying to take in large amounts of sugar based fuel. There are also issues around the impact of heat on digestion of sugars and generalisations on what the brain and muscles need. 

Too many athletes have their day ruined by gut issues due to having to consume large amounts of gels etc.

As an ageing athlete who was working to regain health I was also concerned with the long terms dangers of high sugar diets and the impact of glycation end products both for my clients and myself. Everything from tooth decay to Type II diabetes - even cancer. This created a contradiction as to how to live sugar free but train the stomach to utilise gels and sports drinks when competing. This is a very common dichotomy for athletes balancing long term health with athletic performance.

So overall, as Albert Einstein said, you can’t solve a problem using the same thinking that created it.

As a coach I read a great amount of articles and studies and a number of articles had attracted my attention. One in particular talked about how different fibre types used different fuels. That is, that fast twitch fibres burnt exclusively glycogen whereas slow twitch fibres burnt fat. A separate, but related study, which formed the basis of my article here talked about how higher cadence used predominantly slow twitch fibres which mean by utilising a higher cadence I could spare the biggest limiter to aerobic performance - glycogen.

Glycogen is stored in our muscles and liver and typically provides around 1200 calories worth of energy. The issue is that once this store is exhausted then it takes time to reload - around 24 hours. In the past I have experienced ‘dead-legs’ on rides. Looking at these studies showed that these dead legs were caused by:

a) Relying on fast twitch fibres

b) Running out of fuel (glycogen) to power them.

So if I could do the ride using a higher cadence I could spare glycogen for the run.

The second article(s) were from people like Tim Noakes around the Central Governor theory and how fatigue comes from the brain before the muscles. Many studies such as this one had shown, for example, increased time to fatigue in cyclist using BCAA’s. I extrapolated that into a theory namely: -

The brain is focused on self-preservation. If it is breaking down its support system (the muscles) then a self-protection mechanism kicks in to slow the body down - fatigue. BUT - the body uses protein (amino acids) to rebuild so by providing these it would placate the brain. That is, the brain would think “Well I am breaking down my vessel but I’m getting the building blocks I need therefore it’s all good” Or thoughts to that effect...

So putting these things together meant that by focusing on slow twitch muscles I could manage glycogen and by placating the brain with amino acids I could mitigate fatigue.

So where does sugar come into this?  What about fueling the muscles with gels etc. that we all know is mandatory. Short answer is that gels and sugar doesn’t play a part in this strategy. Muscles can be fuelled by fat as part of the standard Kreb cycle by converting fat into Acetyl CoA and even as a lean athlete (more about that later) I still knew I had about 63,000 calories available as stored fat including about 3000 stored in inter muscular fat. Far more than the 1200 calories in glycogen. If people think that fat isn’t stored in the muscle go have a look at a sirloin steak at your local butcher..

This is not something I decided on race day (and I would strongly suggest that you DON’T just try this). This formed the basis of a two-month plan that was incorporated as part of a training, nutrition and supplement strategy. I should mention that prior to starting this I basically hadn’t trained for ten months due to an Achilles operation and excess cortisol from stress that had created related issue around blood sugar (and weight gain)

Training.

Training was focused on two things.

1. Recruiting more slow twitch fibres

2. Emptying the glycogen tank to make the body more efficient at using fat to reload it and to fuel performance.

Therefore my training incorporated heavy, supersetted weights. This meant that I was burning glycogen but also that the fast twitch fibres were fatigued. Then, and this part was NOT fun, I would go ride long steady hills on the bike. Without fast twitch fibres I forced my body to recruit more slow twitch (or fall over). This was definitely a case of check the ego at the door. Similar with the run my focus was on functional strength rather than volumes. As mentioned I had been recovering from an Achilles op

Prior to the event, my longest ride in training was 30km. My longest continual run was 4km. The race distance was a 90km ride and a 21km run.

Nutrition.

Nutrition was based primarily on hormones. Insulin is quite an anti social hormone. Hormones and enzymes like Hormone Sensitive Lipase, Lepton, Testosterone, HGH are all happier when insulin (or elevated blood sugar) isn’t present. So my diet wasn’t Paleo, ketogenic or anything like that - it was purely focused on keeping my blood sugar down and therefore insulin down so the hormones and enzymes I wanted would come out to play. Keeping my blood sugar down also helped with making my brain less reliant on glucose for mood. I also used a high amount of protein. Firstly to help build muscle/strength post weights and strength sessions but also to make the body more efficient at gluconeogenesis - producing the blood glucose it does need from protein.

I also incorporated intermittent fasting again to drain glycogen and enhance fat utilisation but also to balance hormones, enzymes and inflammation. Ironically the fasting day (Monday) was also my hardest training day including the hilly bike ride, a weights session and also a short power swim.

Supplements

I used three supplements.

Carnitine. Shown in some studies to increase fat utilisation. In my reading I saw articles dismissing it based on the fact there were ‘No long terms studies proving its effectiveness’. But there weren’t any disproving it and it makes sense that a relatively new (for endurance sports) product won’t have any long terms studies.

Branch Chain Amino Acids.

To test the theory/effect on fatigue and make sure they didn’t cause any gut issues. I used these during my weights sessions and also during bike ride. The difference in my strength during weights was immediate. I knew, metabolically and physically I wasn’t suddenly stronger (unlike creatine etc.) so knew this was an increase in ‘brain’ strength.

Apple Cider Vinegar

This has become a new super food for me. Assisting digestion, lowering blood sugar and providing additional aminos all made this a ‘no-brainer’ for me. Even when I had a cheat meal with my friends like a pizza (we all need to live..) I would accompany with a glass of diluted apple cider vinegar to blunt the blood sugar response.

I followed this plan for 9 weeks. Was I 100% compliant?  No. Like I said we have to live (not to mentioned Christmas and New Years Eve in that time..) but was pretty close. What I found interesting was that I dropped 10kg of body weight over that time BUT virtually all of that was body fat. I only lost about 1kg of power producing muscle. I normally don’t recommend trying to lose weight so close to an event as most people drop muscle and end up weaker but this high protein, high fat strategy teamed with the listed supplements seemed to work well !

Come race day my strategy was simple. I never recommend using speed on the bike as you never know what the conditions are going to be like. And the conditions couldn’t be worse !  30-50km winds on the bike. I’d made the mistake of only driving over (the race was 700km from where I live) with a disc wheel that messed with my head a bit but a short ride the previous day in the same wind settled those nerves. On my Garmin 510 I had two metrics displayed. My cadence and what gear I was in. I love the way the Garmin 510 can display gears from the Shimano DI2 system. My strategy was simple. When my cadence dropped below ninety (which I knew meant glycogen) I changed to an easier gear. When my cadence went above 100 (neural fatigue) I changed to a harder gear. In my water bottles (two) I had 6000mg of Branch Chain Aminos mixed in 750ml of water. Every ten minutes I had a big swig of the mixture. My average cadence ended up being 94 but with very little deviation.

The one thing I noticed after riding the 90km on the bike was how fresh my legs felt. I believe this is due to exclusively using slow twitch fibres and never muscling the bike plus the brain placating BCCA's. I had recently switched to shorter cranks using 165mm cranks which meant less load on my hip flexors and quads.

When I got off the bike I looked at the clock and worked out if I ran my ‘normal’ run I could go sub 5 hours but that wasn’t the point of the test (but it will be the point of my NEXT race). Again focusing on leg turn over rather than speed and the same water BCCA mixture. But in hindsight I realised that if I still had a ‘full’ glycogen tank then running a sub 100min half marathon was realistic.

After completing the race I noticed two things. My stomach felt perfect - no bloating or compelling need to hit the port loo from excess sugar. No muscle soreness or fatigue. I put this down to the fact that burning fat produces very different bi-products than sugar so I had less oxidisation and glycation of cells.

Forty-eight hours post race I felt full recovered with no muscle soreness.

As mentioned this was a case study of one and I am sure people will pick holes in my theories but the one thing I have taken away from this is how good I felt during the event (despite the worst conditions I have ever experienced) and how good I feel afterwards. The next step is to use this strategy to hit a top 10 age group finish.

I don’t expect this strategy will necessarily lead to faster times - although people tend to run better when they don’t have gut issues, but if it means less long term damage to the body then maybe it is worth exploring further ?

Maybe it is time we started to look at sports nutrition based on what our particular cells (muscle and brain) need rather than trying to solve the problem of what is the maximum amount of sugar and other damaging products we can put into it ?

Reticular Activation System and How You Look at Life.

Ever heard of the Reticular Activation System (RAS) ?

Before you start making cuckoo sounds the Reticular Activation System is basically the brains filter to stimulii.  For the geeks it is the Extrathalamic control module system consisting of the Midbrain, Memencephalic Nucleus, Thalmic Intralaminar Nucelues, Dorsal Hypothalamus and Tegmentum.

For the not so geeky...  Neurons provide stimulus from all of our sensors as well as the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.  They transmit literally billions of messages a second to the brain. The RAS filters these so that only the important message or, what we want to focus on, gets though.  The RAS changes and we can control what does and doesnt get through which is the point of this post.

Want a simple example of how we change the RAS ?  Have you ever decided to buy a new car - for example a Volkswagen ?  Have you noticed how you now notice so many more Volkswagens on the road now ?  Have people suddenly all gone out and bought Volkswagens ?  No - they were always there.  The difference is you have now changed what 'messages' pass through the RAS so suddenly you can 'see' all of those Volkswagens.

In fact I often call this the "Red Volkwagen' filter

Thinking about this for racing.

1.  Racing.  The RAS filters through ALL messages - what you see, what you hear and what you feel.  You need to think of pain as an email from your body to your brain - it is a message.  Like email do you choose to believe all emails you receive ?  If you do I have a relative in Nigeria that wants to wire you a lot of money.  Start classifying messages as to whether they are legitimate or spam.  If you step on a nail the message is real - if you feel like you cant keep going or are 'about to' cramp should you give the message all your bank details or send it to the junk folder.  A lot of times when racing and I felt like the going was tough I would ask myself specifically WHY it was tough and 99% of the time it was my brain telling the body not the other way round.  A common message I see is when people say that they couldnt hold their current pace for another 10km.  What this thought is doing is opening up the RAS to these types of messages - essentially removing the filter.  Creating this junk mail folder teaches the RAS to automatically filter out these messages - if they aren't being 'seen' they become like the volkswagen was before you chose to get one and are automatically filtered out.

2.  Life. If you choose to have a negative outlook then you are literally opening up the RAS to only see negative things.  Forest for the trees, glass half empty etc are all 'views' of the world which means how you have set up your RAS.  Like the volkswagen if you program your RAS to see positives and opportunities that is what you will see.  For those that studied electronics energy flows from a positive charge to a negative one - life is the same.  Positive people give off energy, negative people suck it in from others.

Treat physical feelings and thoughts as emails and decide what should get through your junk filter and what should get sent directly to trash.

Training with Your Friend

No ladies  - I am not talking about going for a bike ride with your BFF.  I’m talking about your other ‘friend’ - you know the one that visits you once a month.  You know….

The Painters and Decorators are in.

Aunt Flo is visiting

Clean Up at Aisle One.

Come on - it could be worse.  I could be making puns about PERIODization Training..

But from a training and racing perspective does it make any difference ?

Here’s why it does.

Your typical cycle is 28 days long and so your first day of menses would be considered day 1. You typically complete that by about day 5-7 and then the mucosal lining of your uterus begins to rebuild and proliferate in preparation for the potential of an egg implantation. From day 1 all the way up to ovulation, which is usually about day 14-15, is called your follicular phase and then you move in to what’s called the luteal phase

You’ve got your follicular phase; you’ve got your luteal phase. During these phases you have different levels of hormones based off the need or the lack thereof to repair the endometrial lining in the uterus. As a lot of women know, there are different symptoms that can accompany this cycles and some women don’t get any of those symptoms, some women get lots of these, some women get some pretty significant discomfort.  From a training and racing perspective however it’s just not changes in your mood or the way that you feel. There are also some pretty significant changes in exercise performance and also the way that you respond to fats and proteins and carbohydrates based off of where you’re at in your menstrual cycle. 

In simple terms we’ve got our low hormone phase, which occurs early in the cycle, and a high hormone phase, which occurs later on. In the High hormone phase women produce a lot of estrogen and estrogen will decrease how much you rely on your liver’s storage carbohydrate, your muscle storage carbohydrate and increase your use of fat. This means that when you’re producing a lot of estrogen, you have a bigger capacity for burning fat and for sparing muscle and liver carbohydrate or what’s called your storage glycogen. When you want to go up to a very high intensity during exercise such as for HIIT sets, swim sprints, TABATA etc., when you’re in that high hormone phase you might need a little bit more carbohydrate. During the low hormone phase, when you are producing less estrogen, you can ingest less carbohydrate because you’re going to tap into your liver and into your muscle carbohydrate a little bit more efficiently.

During the high hormone phase (day 14 - 28) you may need more carbohydrate in order to support HARD interval sets.

It is also why you might feel flatter doing exactly the same set later in the cycle (high hormone) than earlier (low hormone) as you are less efficient at tapping into the 'fast' energy source - glycogen.

The other really interesting thing that happens is that during that high estrogen phase you’re using more fatty acids. This means you return to your pre-exercise metabolic rate much more quickly with the impact on training being that your post exercise feeding window when insulin sensitive is high is much shorter.  You should prioritise your post workout meal to get it in right after you finish your workout when you’re in that latter phase of your cycle if you want to optimize restoration of things like your storage glycogen or restoration of amino acids. Whereas men might be able to wait a good 2 or 3 hours because their metabolic rate is still elevated and they’re still able to restore a lot of those metabolites, Women, especially during their latter phase when in their high hormone phase, have a much smaller window and should aim to refuel as soon as possible after the session.

Whilst I’ve spoken about Estrogen and its impact on glycogen usage there are actually other hormones that cycle through the time frame. During the high hormone phase you not only have high amounts of estrogen but you have a high amount of progesterone as well. Progesterone increases how much protein is used during exercise which means if you’re going to use amino acids you'll most sensitive to them during the High Hormone phase.

What does this mean? 

During days 1-14 (Low Hormone Phase) you might do better with higher intensity or harder workouts as you are better able to tap into storage glycogen, less reliant upon amino acids and less efficient at burning fat as a fuel. Once you shift into days 14-28 you might do better during longer workouts where you’re actually got more estrogen to be able to tap into fat more efficiently, you’ve got more progesterone and you’re able to utilize amino acids more efficiently and that might be a better time to do your longer slower workouts. 

Hydration is also important here.  When you have elevated level of progesterone you’re baseline body temperature is increased significantly and when your baseline body temperature goes up not only you’re going to sweat more but you’re also going to need more fluid typically to maintain body temperature. Now when you get high estrogen AND high progesterone you get a reduction in your plasma volume and that’s why you get a lot of swelling a lot of times during the latter phases of your cycle. A lot of the volume from blood plasma goes between cells instead and causes bloating that you typically experience. Because of this blood volume drop, you might need a little bit more water and a little bit more electrolytes when you are in that phase of elevated progesterone and elevated oestrogen (High Hormone phase)

Due to this reduction in blood volume during the High Hormone phase you might find that you tolerate hot exercise a little bit less and when you go for a run or a ride you need a little bit of extra fuel, you might do better with a little bit more electrolyte intake like salting a little bit more of your food during that part of your cycle. 

Finally, when you’re producing more progesterone and more estrogen, you are also going to get increased production of specific hormone called relaxin and relaxin is something that pregnant women are gonna produce in high amounts but also that you’re gonna produce towards the latter phase of your cycle in higher amounts and this is responsible for softening and relaxation of ligaments especially the pubic symphysis (hips). When you have a high amount of relaxin circulating in your bloodstream, it can do things like weaken your spine a little bit so you’re unable to withstand impact and twisting forces quite as much. You might get increase propensity for knee injuries or hip injuries or ankle injuries so once again during the high hormone phase you MAY want to drop the weight slightly or, more importantly, be super careful with technique knowing that your body is a bit ‘looser’ and less able to protect itself.

In summary

Days 1-14.  Better suited to high intensity exercises, weights

Days 14-28.  Better suited to longer sessions but be conscious of lower blood volume (heat sensitivity) and shorter refueling window.

Childlike Running

"What's the Difference between a Terrorist and Two Year Old ?"

"You can negotiate with a Terrorist"

Although a joke a typical child does not START to develop the ability to reason until at least 3 1/2 years old and not start to make decisions based on conscious thought until they are around seven.

Until then they have two modes - Do or Do Not.  There are no other thoughts in terms of decisions.

A lot of athletes are at the other end of the scale - they are constantly having 'discussions' with themselves trying to rationalise whether to keep going or not.  Coming up with justifications, worrying about what-if, thinking about how, calculating times etc etc.  I often see statements in race reports starting with "I thought...".  I thought I was going too hard, I thought I was going to cramp.

Champions run like a two year old.

Understand (based on training/testing) what you can do, what pace you can hold, when you need to fuel etc.  Even take this 'thought' away by setting zones, alters, autolap etc on your device

Then, to quote Nike, Just Do It.

If you find yourself negotiating with yourself then be conscious of this type of thought.  This takes practise - to identify when your 'inner voice' is trying to rationalise/justify an outcome.  But when you identify this put those thoughts to the side and be in the moment.  There is a reason why, for most people, the last kilometre of an event (even a marathon) is their fastest - they stop negotiating and 'just run'.

When training, try doing some longer runs without an MP3 player.  Music can often drown out the inner voice which detracts from developing the skill of identifying and 'dealing' with it.  Plus all triathlons and a lot of running events ban MP3 players anyway.  The skills of identifying the inner voice and knowing how compartmentalise or respond to it is key in longer events.

So next time you are running practise Childlike Running - catch those thoughts and throw them away and just 'Do' like the 2 year old in the video below.

Would you make the team ?

When I was a teenager I played a lot of team sports - specifically cricket.  The cricket season meant a consistent pattern each week - practise with the team 2-3 times, practise by myself and then play both days on the weekend.

Practise with the team meant a couple of things but one of the main goals was quite simple - impress the coach enough to get selected for the team.  Show them not only your technical skill but your attitude and enthusiasm.  I used to look for Friday's paper excited to see whether I had been selected.

After cricket I moved to martial arts.  Martial arts is much more like triathlon - you train each week and then periodically there is a test of what you had learnt.  These tests for the higher ranks could be years apart.  There was no weekly team, no one really cared if you turned up or not.  Training was more about the process (and perfection) and is why I have the Japanese symbol Keizen on my left ankle.  Keizen means "Always Moving Forward" and the left side of the body, in Martial Arts, is the spiritual side.

For some people that come from team sports this difference in mentality - of not being 'selected' each week is a very different mindset.  The triathlon equivalent of a Martial Arts grading is obviously a race but these can seem a long way off (fortunately not years like in Martial Arts but in the case of a bad injury this may even be the case).

The trick is to treat each training week as a match week.  Have you done enough so that the coach will 'select' you ?.  Have you trained consistently - have you demonstrated the right attitude and enthusiasm for the game that would make the coach want you on the team.  Think back to your team sport and remember the feeling of making the team or missing out.

For people coming from team sports like Cricket and Football this change of mindset can make a big difference.  Make one day of the week 'selection day' - take a step back and give your training week a score out of 10 and ask yourself...

Would you make the team this week ?.  

Pick out the Brown Smarties.

We've all heard the stories of demands 'Divas' make - Mariah Carey demanding 2 dozen white roses and no patterns on the couches in her dressing room, Jennifer Lopez demanding an all white dressing room, Madonna demanding a brand new toilet seat..  But maybe there is more to it than just being a tad eccentric..



For those that grew up in the 80's you will remember David Lee Roth.  He was the lead singer of Van Halen and also had a successful solo career.  In his contract conditions he demanded a bowl of smarties with all of the brown smarties removed.

Diva right ?

When asked recently about this he explained it was actually a quality control check.  What he meant was that if he walked into his dressing room and found a bowl of smarties without brown ones he knew that someone had read his contract in detail and that he didnt need to worry about as much about all the important requirements he had around staging, water, security etc.  If he found brown smarties he knew that the quality of everything else would also need to be checked to make sure nothing impacted the standard of the show.

You may train, you may watch what you eat, you may look after your equipment - but do you pick out the brown smarties ?  Do you make sure, when you go into a session, that the little details are right to get the most 'quality' out of the session ?  In some sessions the duration of the interval and the recovery time is critical to get the best bang for buck out of the session.  Mucking around with shoe laces, watch settings, chatting to your mates can all mess up these timings meaning the metabolic goal of the session cannot be met - it is a wasted session purely through lack of attention to detail.

In business there is an expression called The Six P's.  Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Next time you are heading to the track, the pool, the gym ask whether you have picked out the brown smarties - have you done those small things that mean that you get the best out of the session.