NDURANZ Podcast

Everyone knows what Zone 2 is. Or do we?

In this episode of the Nduranz Podcast, Alex Rhodes and Dr. Tim Podlogar are joined by Aitor Altuna, cyclist and PhD researcher at the University of Exeter, to make sense of training zones and what they actually mean in practice.

They discuss why Zone 2 can mean different things depending on the model you use, the difference between polarized and pyramidal training, why perceived effort still matters even when you have power, pace or heart rate data, and how nutrition should support the purpose of each session.

You’ll also hear why making every workout harder isn’t necessarily better, how low-intensity training helps you accumulate more sustainable training load, and what amateur athletes commonly get wrong when structuring their week.

Lactate has long been blamed for muscle burn, fatigue, and declining performance. Now, some athletes are consuming it as a potential fuel source. Alex and Dr Tim Podlogar break down what lactate actually does in the body, why it is not simply a waste product, and whether the latest performance claims are supported by science. They also explore the potential problems with lactate supplementation, from gastrointestinal issues to questionable benefits when carbohydrate intake is already high.

Alex and Dr. Tim Podlogar break down what really happens when you race in the heat, why performance can drop so quickly, and how to prepare before temperatures become a problem. From heat acclimation and smarter pacing to hydration, carbohydrate intake, and caffeine, they explain the key mistakes athletes make in hot conditions and how to adjust your strategy so you can keep performing when the temperature rises.

In this episode of the NDURANZ Podcast, Alex and Dr. Tim Podlogar break down the fueling behind the sub-2 marathon, looking at how much carbohydrate the top athletes reportedly used and whether 70g, 100g, or even 120g of carbs per hour can make a real difference.

They also explain why marathon fueling starts before race day, how carb loading and low-fiber eating can help, and what everyday runners can learn from elite marathoners without blindly copying them.

 As AI becomes more common in training and nutrition platforms, we decided to put it to the test. In this episode, we compare AI-generated answers with real sports nutrition practice, looking at questions around race fueling, coffee rides, and cramp prevention. Some of the advice is reasonable, but much of it lacks the context, nuance, and practical detail needed to make it truly useful for endurance athletes. 

 In this episode of the NDURANZ Podcast, we break down fat metabolism, fasted training, and whether burning more fat actually improves endurance performance. We also discuss fat adaptation, metabolic flexibility, and why athletes should focus less on fat-burning numbers and more on training quality and fueling appropriately. 

A new review paper by Tim Noakes has reignited the debate around carbohydrates, fatigue, and endurance performance. The paper proposes that maintaining blood glucose during exercise may be more important than maximizing glycogen stores, and that relatively small carbohydrate intakes could be sufficient to support performance.

After reviewing the arguments and the studies cited, we see several limitations in how the evidence is interpreted and how the conclusions are applied to real-world endurance sport. While the importance of blood glucose regulation is well established, performance in training and racing is influenced by multiple factors, including intensity, variability of effort, total energy demands, and recovery, making the picture more complex than a single mechanism can explain.

Science progresses through debate and critical analysis, and our aim is to examine these ideas in context and compare them with the broader body of research and practical experience in endurance athletes.

Study discussed:
https://academic.oup.com/edrv/advance-article/doi/10.1210/endrev/bnaf038/8432248

Henrique Avancini made plenty of nutrition mistakes throughout his career and learned from every one of them. Over time, he realised that nutrition is not an area where experimentation comes without consequences. Once you find what works, changing it just for the sake of change can hurt performance. Training, on the other hand, allows room for experimentation, because mistakes are easier to recover from. With nutrition, a single wrong decision can break your performance.

Fueling timing isn’t just about how much you eat, but when you take it. This discussion breaks down what the research shows when total carbs are matched, comparing steady intake with front-loading and back-loading. It covers impacts on performance, exogenous carbohydrate oxidation, and gut tolerance, with practical takeaways for building a race-day fueling plan that works in the real world.

Tim's Carb Distribution Study https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/aop/article-10.1123-ijsnem.2025-0059/article-10.1123-ijsnem.2025-0059.xml

How do Type 1 athletes actually fuel long days? Dr. Simon Helleputte joins us to show how to hit 90–120 g/h with T1D. Although he does not have type 1 diabetes himself, he has extensive expertise in the topic. He explains when to trust your CGM, how to adjust insulin, and how to minimize hypoglycemia without compromising speed. We also tackle the big worry: do gels and sports drinks cause Type 2 diabetes?