Personalised Fuelling Plan | Fuel That New PB!
Food is fuel. What we eat and drink fuels us in our day-to-day lives, our growth and development but also plays a significant role in fuelling exercise; that’s why under-fuelling or misfuelling exercise can hugely affect our performance. But getting your fuelling right to improve performance can be challenging.
Join Holly (@fittolift) on her journey to understanding why her current fuelling strategy is causing her problems, how she can fuel efficiently and what she can do to give herself an edge in her next adventure!
Step One: Your Consultation
Fuelling correctly can be tricky. The way we metabolise carbohydrates can vary up to 5 times, even between similar athletes. Carbohydrates are the limited fuel source we use most during exercise, and carb use can range from as little as 20 g to well over 200 g per hour. This variation in carbohydrate metabolism is influenced by exercise intensity, genetics, diet, training, hydration, environment and many other factors.
This is why a generic, "one-size-fits-all" approach to fuelling doesn't work. At TrailMed, we work with athletes to create a personalised fuelling plan tailored to their specific needs, and a 1 to 1 consultation is the first step.
Watch the video to the right to preview Holly’s consultation with our Exercise Physiologist, Dan West. Holly and Dan discuss:
Current fuelling strategies
Lessons learnt
Carb intake queries
Managing stomach cramps
How you can train your gut
During this session, Holly is experiencing two Personalised Fuelling Plans for cycling and running.
She hopes to improve in both areas and reach her target of completing an Ironman!
After the consultation, we work with you to implement your plan for different exercise intensities and environmental conditions, creating a tailored fuelling plan for whatever challenge you choose to take on next.
Please note, usually, we offer only single sport plans unless you purchase the Personalised Fuelling Plan bundle, but during the blog, you will see that Holly is on the treadmill and the bike. We’ve done this to represent her experience best and showcase how we can support Personalised Fuelling Plans across both disciplines.
“My day at TrailMed HQ with Dan and the team was nothing short of brilliant. For those of us who love training, we’re always on the hunt for new ways to improve. And whilst we’re surrounded by data on Strava or our watches, it often lacks both clarity and someone to translate it in to an action plan to help us achieve that goal.”
Step 2: Warm Up
Next, it was time for the exercise to begin. Dan starts by taking basic measurements of height, weight, and resting heart rate before inviting Holly to warm up on the treadmill, starting at an easy jog and progressing to a fast run.
We use the warm-up for three reasons:
1) Warm up your muscles, get blood flowing and reduce your risk of injury
2) Identify the speed you’ll be running at for the whole test (based on heart rate)
3) Give you the chance to get used to the treadmill and the lab’s equipment
“Dan listened to exactly what I had in store for my training and guided me through my first fuelling test. He got the combination of push and reassurance just right, and it was awesome to test my potential out and see all the data ramping up alongside.
On the day, we talked through all the plots and about how things like carbohydrate and fat usage changed over the different work zones and where I passed each of my thresholds”
Step 3: Vo2 Max Testing
Following the warm-up, we fit the mask - this is how we collect all the good data! We measure the amount of oxygen you use and how much carbon dioxide you breathe out with every breath.
Once we have brought you up to the selected speed, the intensity gradually increases, with the incline increasing (treadmill) or the resistance increasing (bike).
As exercise intensity increased, we pushed Holly past her 1st and 2nd Lactate Thresholds until reaching her VO2 max. We recorded Holly’s heart rate throughout the test so we could give carbohydrate targets for different exercise intensities. This allows Holly to adapt her fuelling based on her session duration and how hard she’s working.
Before starting the tests, Dan and Holly discussed how they could best communicate while Holly wears the mask. This allowed Dan to check that Holly was okay and comfortable during the test. Being able to communicate during the test is so important so we can adjust the environment, e.g. open a window or turn up the fan, but also understand when you are at your exercise limit.
Step 4: Your Results
We provide test feedback in a two-stage process. Firstly, in the lab, we talk through your initial results, where we share your maximum heart rate achieved in the test as well as your lactate thresholds and your VO2 max.
Secondly, we write up a detailed report that has graphs, definitions, and actions for how you can implement your fuelling strategy. Your fuelling strategy will go into detail about the amount of carbs, timing, type of carbs, and different carb sources you can take during training and racing. The report discusses how you can fuel leading up to the event and how you can best fuel to optimise recovery.
Many endurance athletes face challenges with their gut when they are fuelling. In the report, we provide a personalised gut training program to help you build up to your race day carbohydrate targets without facing gut problems.
“Dan put his expert eye over everything we collected and matched it up to my goals, creating a personalised fuelling plan and heart rate training zones, so I knew exactly how to push myself to meet the next level of my goals.”
It’s fair to say that after Holly left the lab, she was pretty psyched to put her new strategies into action (just follow her on Instagram if you don’t believe us), and this was before she received her report.
TrailMed will provide you with your Personalised Fuelling Plan, it has been designed to be easy to understand and translate the actions into your training. We’ve included an example report below for you to see what this looks like :)
We’ve designed the report to allow you to go and put the output straight into use; however, if you would like a follow-up consultation with a member of the TrailMed Health & Performance team, these can be booked separately.
Our Fuel and Hydration Partner
TrailMed is partnered with Precision Fuel and Hydration to offer the best fuel and hydration supplements on the market. In your Fuelling Plan, we consider exploring some of these amazing products, such as the PF30 Gel with caffeine and carb and the carb & electrolyte drink mixes, to help hit your hourly carb targets. With this partnership, TrailMed provides a comprehensive approach to fueling and hydration, enhancing your training and race day performance.
“Having put the plan to test Dans advice has proven itself every training session, and I’m super excited to go back soon and see how the data aligns with progress!
If you’re looking for the next step in your training I can’t recommend Dan and the TrailMed team enough.”
Personalised Fuelling Plan | Recap
30-minute consultation helping us understand your sport, training, goals and current fuelling strategy
Treadmill or cycle stress test to measure your carbohydrate and fat metabolism across increasing exercise intensities
Training zones (5 zones) with Heart Rate range and pace/power output zones.
Full report explaining the results and how the data influences your fuelling plan
Tips on gut training, carbohydrate intake and pre-exercise loading
