We discuss the following

• Why meal planning and prep is so important
• How it can help save time and money
• What happens when we don’t plan ahead
• It does not have to be perfect. There is all this stuff on instagram of people prepping perfect meals and putting the meal portioned out perfectly in a tupperware for the week. This is not necessary! Don’t overthink it!
• Steps for meal prep including planning, prepping grocery list and shopping
• Tips for meal planning from apps you can use to how to make it easier and less time intensive
• Bulk cooking and how meal planning my look for different types of schedules and preferences. Some people are okay with leftovers or eating the same meal over again and some people prefer more variety.
• Convenience options such as Greek yogurt, Rotisserie chicken, canned beans, pre-cooked rice, pre-cooked hard boiled eggs, cooked shrimp or salmon, pre-cut fruit or veggies, or cottage cheese.
• Combining bulk items with convenience options with some quick meal ideas to make meals for the week.
• Other considerations with meal planning including how to allow for some flexibility

Sometimes being an endurance athlete requires an advanced degree in time management. You may be the parent of small children or very active children. There are no “bonus points” earned by missing out on important events or opportunities to be active in your kid’s lives simply so that you can get your workout in.

Once you find a race distance that fits easily into your life (notice I said easily and not possible), then you can go about structuring your training to meet whatever your expectations are of yourself.

Not only should you find a race distance that fits into your life, but the expectations you form on how you want to perform should also fit into your life. Expecting podium results without the ability to train for that kind of performance is going to get you injured, frustrated, or alone or some combination of those. We discuss questions you may need to ask yourself when picking a race.

We discuss several different types of lifestyle challenges and some may overlap.

Working parent/stay at home parent with younger kids: We discuss challenges which may include having to wake up early before the kids wake up to workout or doing the workout later in the evening when the kids are in bed. This is a balancing act of figuring out how to fit in the workout around the work schedule and your partners work schedule.

Several strategies are discuss to fit in the workout including being creative with how and when you do the workout.

Working parent/stay at home parent with school age children and teenagers: As kids get older, they start to become more active. Sometimes this requires a little flexibility and creativity when it comes to time management. As kids reach those teenage years, you start to gain a little more flexibility in terms of being able to leave them at home while you head out for a long workout. However, the level of activities and commitments tend to be greater as kids get older.

Strategies are suggested including slit training sessions and trying to get in a workout while the child is at an activity.

People who work shift work or extended shifts like nurses: The main thing these athletes tend to struggle with is quality sleep. This is especially true if the shift work is on a rotating schedule. With the disruption or poor quality sleep, the ability to recover from training sessions can be slowed.

We discuss strategies for shift works/12 hour shifts including scheduling the bulk of training on non-work days, getting shorted workouts on work days and being creative with how they do the workout.

Tips for shift workers working the night shift: For night shift workers, training will typically need to be structured either after the shift and before sleeping for the day or after waking up before starting the next shift. It might be most ideal to schedule the exercise after getting some sleep and before you start your next shift.

Expectations for this type of schedule and trying to train might need to be adjusted due to issues with sleep and disruptions in circadian rhythm.

Service workers with atypical work schedules: Most of the time, these types of athletes are your “night owls”. So structuring a training plan where you may be prescribing morning and evening sessions is not going to work for these types of athletes. This is a very challenging schedule due to lack of consistency.

People who travel for work: For athletes like this, it can be challenging to get in consistent training especially if your focus is on triathlon. Bike and swim training are the most challenging to get in while on the road.

Suggestions for this type of scheduling including researching the hotel and location of travel ahead of time to see if there is a gym available or safe paths or parks for running.

Recovery Part 2: Nutrition Strategies for Recovery

The foundations of recovery include adequate nutrition to support training and recovery. Getting the right quantities of macronutrients and specifically protein and carbohydrates.

Once the timing and intake of these nutrients are optimized then it is important to look at other factors including micronutrients and supplementation.

Justin and Katie share their own experience with recovery

The 4 R’s Framework for recovery: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7796021/

Rehydrate, Refuel, Repair, Rest

We review why carbohydrates are so important for recovery from exercise. Following endurance training, replenishing muscle glycogen is critical, especially when there is another training session within 4-6 hours.

Katie discusses how the muscle and liver cells are very sensitive to insulin after exercise and therefore when we consume carbohydrates and elicit an insulin response there is a greater rate of carb intake into glycogen storage. This allows for the body to quickly refuel or replenish glycogen stores that were depleted during exercise. Insulin also helps transport nutrients to the muscle cells. This is why it might be helpful to have carbs in addition to protein for muscle recovery. The insulin might be helpful for anabolism or the rebuilding of muscle post exercise. https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article-abstract/478/21/3827/230182/Interactions-between-insulin-and-exercise?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Katie shares her experience using a continuous glucose monitor and how this has helped her figure out how to fuel with carbs post exercise.

Protein is also important! Carbohydrate consumed with protein after exercise may enhance glycogen synthesis but only if the protein is added is not in replacement of carbohydrates.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10054587/

Katie recommends consuming most of the daily carbohydrate intake before, during, and after exercise. Then having lower glycemic, high fiber carbohydrates the remainder of the day to maintain balanced blood glucose levels.

Hydration is discussed and what to do when there is a lack of appetite post workout

• Dehydration can disrupt performance, but dehydration can delay recovery.

Nutrition strategies/supplements and recovery- as mentioned already- eating a proper diet and getting enough carbs and protein, etc is going to be foundational. No supplement is going to help you if you don’t eat enough to promote recovery.

Here are some of the supplements discussed:

• Curcumin (turmeric)
• Tart cherry juice
• Creatine
• Micronutrients- zinc, vitamin C, magnesium, or just take a good quality multivitamin. Consider testing for nutrient deficiencies such as an iron panel. Low iron can cause fatigue and poor exercise performance. Magnesium may reduce soreness and promote recovery
• Adaptogens- ashwagandha, rhodiola, CBD etc. Might help modulate cortisol levels and some may have potential anti-inflammatory effects.
• Others such as L-carnitine, L-glutamine, Taurine, HMB (beta-hydroxy methyl-buterate).
• L-theanine- might be be helpful in promoting relaxation and reducing stress or reducing the mental load of training
• Ketones- There is some research here but not a ton. May alleviate the sensation of fatigue post exercise and may have other impacts on muscle protein synthesis and insulin which can help glycogen re-synthesis.