Why Eating Healthy Isn't Enough to Fuel a Triathlon with James Anderson

You can eat really good food all day long and still have no idea how to fuel a triathlon.

Dr James Anderson is a dentist, a Triathlon Nutrition Academy athlete and one of the most organised humans you will ever meet. Smoothie bags prepped in the freezer. Snack bags packed for every work day. Quality food, every single day. He was still eating the wrong things at the wrong time for three sports, and he had no idea until he went looking for the gaps. In this episode James shares what changed between joining the Academy and crossing the line at his first 70.3 in New Mexico, including the quadrathlon that scared him into taking the detail seriously, what carb loading and sodium loading did for his cramping and headaches, and the moment on the run where his fuel stopped working and he had to think his way to the finish line.

WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY

Why eating healthy and fuelling for triathlon are two completely different skills What being super organised with food still misses when you are training for three sports How conflicting advice online leaves smart, capable athletes stuck in paralysis by analysis What carb loading and sodium loading did for a big athlete racing at altitude How to troubleshoot on course when your race nutrition stops working, instead of taking a DNF Why James is leaving his bike computer and Strava behind next time TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Eating well and fuelling for triathlon are not the same thing

00:33 Meet Dr James Anderson, dentist and TNA athlete

01:47 The bike shop moment and a very optimistic swim time

05:26 Fitting three sports around a full time job and a business

06:40 The Apple Blossom story

09:04 Organised, disciplined and eating the wrong things at the wrong time

10:40 Why a smart, capable guy could not work it out on his own

12:51 The Mount Taylor quadrathlon reality check