If there is one thing you can do to improve your performance on the daily, it is fueling well. This piece from our 2024 Summer Catalog highlights the Top 5 Fueling Mistakes that athletes make –and you can avoid– for better training and racing.
1. Skipping Your Breakfast
We've all been there with early event start times. The nerves start to kick in, and logistics get in the way of having a proper breakfast. If you get stuck, always keep a Spring Energy Wolf Pack on hand. With 310 calories of slow-burning oatmeal, it’s easy to digest before a workout or race and gives you a boost of sustained carbs for long sessions.
2. Not Having Enough Sodium
The number one rule of sports hydration is, "don't get dehydrated." If you do, your day is over, and there is no chance to recover. Many athletes are losing too much body weight due to fluid loss. Super sweater or not, increasing your drink’s sodium levels will trigger your body’s "thirst" mechanism so you naturally drink more often. Mortal offers a "Salty" version of all its flavors packed with 900mg of sodium.
3. Ignoring Essential Nutrients
When you're training, your nutritional demands are higher, and you require more micronutrients and vitamins than what you can get from diet alone. The right combination of micronutrients can offset the decline in energy production, help avoid burnout, and speed up next-day recovery so you can function and perform optimally. Used by the best in the world, Pillar Performance offers a range of micronutrient products.
4. Not Having Enough Carbs
After countless webinars with teams and clubs, we can say with certainty that the vast majority of athletes are not getting enough carbs per hour. To make that easier, new high-carb gels make getting to the optimal level of 80g to 90g of carbs per hour easy. Just take one gel every 30 minutes.
In fact, just check out this TDF High-Carb Pack to get a taste of the best high-carb gels on offer!
5. No Post-Workout Strategy
That recovery window is real. You have 60 magical minutes post-workout to flood your recovering muscles with protein and carbs to rebuild and refuel for the next day’s workout. The hard part is wanting to eat something after a long, hard workout. This is where Victus AFTER comes in. With 21g of protein, essential electrolytes, essential vitamins and minerals, and 10g of carbohydrates, Victus AFTER replenishes your body while rehydrating you. It even includes key ingredients like L-leucine and tryptophan to enhance protein absorption. If you want to see the results of all your efforts, get this dialed.
