I need a “love” button, Discourse!!
Thank you @whatsername, that means a lot.
To my knowledge it hasn’t been studied in athletes, but anorexia nervosa (=energy restriction) is well-known to worsen sleep parameters; consequently, it’s likely that RED-S is harming sleep in athletes (cue vicious cycle).
I look at it more as a scientific rigor issue. So many studies account for the cycle really poorly, and if you do it right, it’s wicked expensive per participant, so your n naturally drops. Luckily, we now have a playbook: Methodological Considerations for Studies in Sport and Exercise Science with Women as Participants: A Working Guide for Standards of Practice for Research on Women - PubMed
Agreed. Sleep hygiene is also miserably bad among athletes who also work FT or have families / children. Combine those two and you have a recipe for a disastrously under-recovered athletes.
Solid!
Agree with @whatsername. It’s not an issue I have to deal with myself, but I’ve seen the pernicious effects of over-training/under-fuelling in my other sport, rowing. At uni level coaches are very quick to pressure women to “turn light-weight”. Awful story I heard this morning of a woman who was advised that she’d get her period back by simply taking the pill. Problem solved, nothing to see here.
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I’ve read ROAR by Stacy Sims - hot damn what a game changer! I’m training for an Ironman with my partner (who’s male) and it explains why I feel flat some days. I’m now tracking my menstrual cycle using the app Wild.ai
But I’m not sure about Stacy’s nutrition advice of ‘hydration in your bottle and food in your pocket’.
I currently have about 65g of carbs (maltodextrin/fructose 1:0.8 ratio) per hour on the bike in my bottle, and Stacy says Fructose is a no go for digestion, but most advice is that fructose is the best? On my last half Ironman I had some GI distress, but the idea of carrying and eating so much food doesn’t sit well with me.
Does anyone have any success with other GI friendly carb mix or with following the fuelling from ROAR?
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I don’t subscribe to what Stacy says about nutrition advice. I will do a combination of fuel in my bottle and also solid fuel, but also a bottle of plain water because I want to just wash things down cleanly. I think you just need to try fructose and see if it works for you. I think even some guys have issues with fructose. Personally, I just use maltodextrin and sodium citrate, with a product like Skratch or Fluid ORS for some flavoring. (For solid fuel I use medjool dates and maple sugar candies.)
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Sims has consulted/worked for a number of hydration companies and is consequently incentivized to say this.
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Having some plain water to wash down solid food is a great idea. Did you find you had issues with fructose?
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I haven’t tried the malto/fructose combination personally. I have no issues with dates, which have fructose in them. I generally just put malto in my bottle, but I have tried plain table sugar (glucose/fructose) and didn’t really like it as much as malto. It’s pretty sweet.
I do use the Saturday app (also other info here) to figure out my fueling. It’s helped me TREMENDOUSLY.
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+1 - Skratch high-carb mix, plain water to wash it down, salted medjool dates and/or various energy bars are my go-to’s. The drink mix isn’t the sole source of fuel, but usually about half and half with solid foods.
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How do you salt your medjool dates? That sounds interesting!!
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I just throw ‘em in a bag, sprinkle with some sea salt, shake 
The salt balances out the sweetness and provides an electrolyte.
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HAHAHA! Ok, got it! Yeah, they can sometimes get a little sweet. I can totally see how this would be DELICIOUS on a hot summer day in particular! I’ll have to try this. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Yes, dates are the ideal desert food!
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I also do one bottle of carbs (~40g malto; 20g sugar; pinch+ of salt; lemon) and one bottle of plain water. Not really trying to avoid fructose–I just like this mix because it isn’t super sweet. I’ve then been experimenting with pure maple syrup as my additional fuel for hard rides over 2 hours. I have a friend that suggested watering it down a bit and adding salt to curb sweetness, and I may try that.
I can’t handle stuff that makes my mouth dry (waffles… cliff bars) during the ride, and I can’t stand stuff that gets my fingers sticky (fruit leather, gummies, molasses chews), so liquid calories it is. Seems to be working.
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I tried out the Saturday app over the weekend and it’s GREAT. It covered me for a 2 hour run and 3.5hour ride. Going to start upping my sodium intake and fuelling during my swims. Thanks a mil!
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This is the pro tip I am most excited about!
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I sprung (sprang?) for a nutritionist last year to prep for Unbound and SBT.
There is definitely a place for food in the pocket for big, loooong endurance rides when I start out with “real foods” first and as the hours tick by, the fuel transitions to bottles.
But big events aside, I’ve become a huge fan of the ease of liquid calories/electrolytes at 60g carbs/bottle.
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Thank you both for sharing here. I’m so glad it’s been helpful. My heart is melting over here! 
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No thank YOU! 
I did find on a 3.15hr endurance ride this weekend I was a little under-fuelled following Saturday. I’ve been good with the 40g suggestion for 1 hour turbo sessions but it said to have 77g carbs per hour for 3.15hours (I had a mix of fructose/maltodextrin in my bottle and energy bars).
My max carbs per hour is set at 100g, should I increase this?
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