Welcome to Episode 33 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast! Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by Nathan Fa’avae, elite adventure racer and longtime captain of Team New Zealand, one of the most dominant teams in the sport’s history.

Nathan is a true legend in the world of adventure racing, with an athletic career spanning nearly two decades. He has led Team New Zealand to six World Championship victories, proving time and again that he thrives in some of the most grueling endurance challenges on the planet. Most recently, he captained his team to victory at World’s Toughest Race – Eco Challenge Fiji, a must-watch documentary on Amazon Prime. (If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend watching before listening—this episode contains spoilers!)

If you’re unfamiliar with adventure racing, it’s arguably the ultimate test of endurance. Teams race continuously for up to a week, navigating through rugged terrain while tackling multiple disciplines, including trekking, paddling, mountain biking, climbing, white-water rafting, and more. With limited sleep and extreme conditions, fueling properly is not just important, it’s essential for survival and success.

After watching Eco Challenge Fiji, I had SO many questions about the logistics of nutrition in adventure racing. I was eager to deep dive into how he and his team manage their fueling strategy, energy needs, and overall nutrition. So, naturally, I had to bring him on for an Athlete Nutrition Profile!

This episode is packed with fascinating insights, behind-the-scenes stories from Eco Challenge, and decades’ worth of wisdom from one of the most accomplished adventure racers of all time. Nathan’s love for the outdoors and adventure is contagious, and by the time we wrapped up, I was ready to plan my own expedition!

I hope you enjoy this deep dive into the fueling, mindset, and endurance strategies behind one of the toughest athletes out there.

More on Nathan Fa'avae:

•  Nathan’s Website: https://nathanfaavae.nz
•  Follow on Instagram and Facebook

Other Links and Announcements:

•  Watch World's Toughest Race: Eco Challenge Fiji
• Please SUBSCRIBE to and rate/review the show if you're enjoying these episodes!
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations.

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 32 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring Senior Peloton Instructor and Masters World Champion track cyclist, Christine D’Ercole.

Whether you're a Peloton rider already familiar with Christine or new to her story, I’m beyond excited to share her powerful nutrition journey today. Christine refers to herself as a storyteller, and she truly lives up to that.

Over the course of our 2+ hour conversation, she shared so many personal and inspiring stories - I honestly felt we could have kept going!

In this episode, we dive deep into Christine’s evolving relationship with food, how she learned to embrace and celebrate it, and why there’s so much more to food than just nutrition.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• The arc of Christine’s diverse career - from young ballerina and actress to competitive track cyclist and cycling instructor
• Her personal battle with bulimia during her teenage years
• How cycling helped transform her relationship with food and body image
• Becoming a mom in her late 20s and raising a body-positive daughter
• Returning to competitive sport and discovering how to fuel her body for success
• Shifting her mindset from fighting her body to learning to “embrace her build”
• The powerful origin of her signature mantra: “I am I can I will I do” and how it relates to nutrition and body image
• The ins and outs of competitive track cycling, including how to fuel for performance
• The journey to becoming a Peloton instructor
• What Christine’s everyday nutrition looks like now
• Tips for building confidence, nourishing your body and mind, and rejecting the harmful messages from diet culture and the media

A huge thank you to Christine for sharing her story with us, for showing us that change is possible, and for inspiring all of us every day on the bike.

Links:

• Christine’s Website: https://christinedercole.com 
• Join my new monthly membership service, Fuel for Life Crew, for just $30/month (cancel anytime)
• Check out my free nutrition downloads
• Fill out a new client inquiry form if you’re interested in 1:1 nutrition coaching
• Join my Patreon community
• Get in touch at [email protected]
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade

Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations. If you'd like to work with me for individualized nutrition support, please reach out!

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 31 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast! Today we welcome elite ultrarunner and low-carb high-fat athlete, Mike McKnight, back to the show to chat about two epic things that he recently achieved. In May, he ran 100 miles on ZERO CALORIES in 18 hours and 40 minutes. Then, in late September, he set the men’s supported FKT on the Colorado Trail, which is 485 miles, in 7 days and 13 hours.

In this episode, we cover his prep for each event, how he fueled (or did not fuel) himself, how he felt during his runs, and his recovery. We also went off on a few tangents, dug into some of the media attention he received, and chatted about what’s next for him.

Before you listen to this episode, check out Mike’s Athlete Nutrition Profile that I recorded back in September 2019 (Season 1, Episode 8) to get his full story and see how these accomplishments were years in the making.

DISCLAIMER: Based on the current evidence available, as a Sports Dietitian I do NOT recommend a low-carb high-fat diet for endurance performance. I  firmly believe that foods containing sugar can be included in a healthy diet, and do not need to be strictly avoided. For MOST people, restrictive diets (or “lifestyles”) are not sustainable and do not lead to longterm change (they can, however, lead to mental and/or physical harm, especially if someone has a history of disordered eating or an eating disorder, or is at risk of developing one). Furthermore, running 100 miles on zero calories is very risky and I do not recommend it, nor do I recommend consistently fasting for long periods of time generally. 

So you may be wondering, why am I featuring Mike AGAIN if I do not agree with his fueling strategies? Why am I bringing more attention to low-carb eating in the endurance world, which so many sports dietitians work hard to fight against?

It comes down to this - what Mike accomplished was unique, and shows just how incredible the human body truly is. His goal was to test his own limits, and his success is worth exploring and celebrating!

Also, this show is about demonstrating the many different ways to fuel exercise. Mike has figured out a way of eating that works for him, at least for the past three years, that has brought him success in 200+ mile distances (he’s still trying to figure out how to fuel “shorter” runs of 100 miles without any GI issues). So, despite my own practices as a dietitian, I still admire his accomplishments, and was curious to hear more about what he did and how he did it.

Mike - a HUGE congrats to you on the 100 miler and the FKT, and thanks for chatting with me again. Excited to see what you get up to next!

Learn more about Mike McKnight:

•  Mike’s Website: https://lowcarb-runner.com
• Follow on Instagram

Other Announcements:

• Unfortunately, my voice quality wasn't great in this episode. I'm exploring some recording alternatives to prevent this next time! 
• Please subscribe to and rate/review the show if you have a minute!
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Season 3 is finally here!! Or at least this short episode with yours truly is, giving you a little update on what I've been up to these past couple of months, and a preview of my plans for this season of the show. 

After a two-month break from recording to head back to NYC and settle back into the working / watching the kids / crazy Covid life, I’m finally starting to record episodes again and get some interviews lined up. I have a lot of emails out there waiting for responses, and many guests who have agreed to come on the show and just have to get on my schedule. It’s been particularly slow-going lining up schedules with such limited work hours on my end and my guests having crazy schedules as well. Client work always takes priority for me (need to make a living!), which doesn't leave much time for the show, but I'm doing my best to get things going. I wanted to at least get a quick intro episode out before any more time passed!

One goal I have for Season 3 is to broaden the type of athletes I feature. It’s been largely running focused so far because I’m a runner, and also that’s where I have the most connections. But as a dietitian, I work with a wide variety of athletes, and I want to bring that variety to the show. I hope to interview a prominent triathlete, adventure racer, olympic skier, and cyclist, among others. Plus some more runners because, well, I love running! 

Another goal is to get more feedback from YOU - my listeners! If you have any specific nutrition topics that you’d like me to cover in a solo or RD guest episode, or a person or type of athlete you’d like me to interview, please let me know. As much as I do this show for myself because I love to do it, I also do it for you. Your feedback is important to me!

So along those lines, if you enjoy my show, can you please help me get the word out? Please share with your friends and training buddies, and give me a rating / review on iTunes if you haven't already. I  want to keep it going, and your support is much appreciated. 

Lastly, I finally have the Spring Energy code that I mentioned in Episode 29 - it is “EATFORENDURANCE” and gets you 10% off. I love their real-food based sports nutrition products (I used on my trail runs all summer), if you’re looking for something new to try! In full disclosure, I do get a small commission when you make a purchase, which is appreciated since this show is currently not sponsored.

Thanks again for your support and patience. I look forward to sharing Season 3 with you all! 

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

I’m particularly excited to share Episode 29 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast with you all, as it’s a more personal episode in which I share my own recent running and nutrition experiences, and I also introduce you to my fellow adventure-seeker and running buddy for life - my husband Eric.

My goal for this episode is to demonstrate that running (or whatever sport you enjoy engaging in) is not cancelled! I know how disappointing race cancellations have been this year, but that does not mean that you can’t get out there and create your own adventures for yourself. I wanted to use my own experience of choosing my “event” as a case study of sorts - how we picked our target run, trained, created our nutrition plans, picked the right gear, dealt with childcare challenges etc. I also finally share my running background in more detail, especially related to running postpartum. There’s so much left to say, but it was nice to chat briefly about it and I hope it resonates with some of you. Suffice to say, I finally have my running mojo back! 

We hadn’t expected to have the opportunity to run anything too long when we planned this trip, so it was such a pleasant surprise when we discovered later in June that my parents were on board with watching both kiddos all day so that we could have a big running adventure! We are fortunate to live very close to the most gorgeous redwood forest with miles and miles of beautiful trails - Nisene Marks in Aptos, California. We were perfectly happy running 1-2 hours there once a week with some shorter beach runs thrown in, but with the possibility of something bigger in the picture, we immediately thought of the Skyline to Sea trail (my local bucket list item), which is just slightly further North of where my family lives in Santa Cruz. 

Have a listen to learn more about how we chose our route, trained in Nisene, created our nutrition plans, and much more. We had so much fun recording this episode outside on my deck! And FYI, it’s broken up into three parts:

• August 10th - Pre-run discussion including our running backgrounds, choosing our target route, nutrition planning, gear, etc. This is the longest section (about one hour)
• August 12th - Short voice memos recorded from the trails - we had to capture things in the moment!
• August 14th - Post-run recap, with a big focus on nutrition and how recovery is going

The scary part of this is that just over a week after running this route in Big Basin, the whole area is now on fire. Thankfully our home here in Santa Cruz is safe, but the air quality is poor and ash is everywhere. We are staying inside for the time being. My heart goes out to everyone affected more deeply by the fires! I’m hoping that our beautiful State Parks will be okay too.  With that said, I really hope you enjoy this episode that celebrates our beautiful State Parks, and wraps up Season 2 of the podcast!

Announcements:

• Please SUBSCRIBE to and rate/review the show if you're enjoying these episodes!
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations.

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 28 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring Anne Mauney, MPH RD.

Anne is a DC area based Registered Dietitian as well as a mother, a runner, and a lover of travel, adventure, the great outdoors, and healthy recipe creation. She has a blog called fAnnetastic food and she has her own nutrition counseling private practice to help clients improve their relationships with food via an intuitive eating approach.

This episode covers a topic that many athletes and especially runners have likely experienced at some point in their training and/or events - gastrointestinal (GI) issues. It’s a very common complaint, and obviously can result in inadequate fueling and reduced performance. I know in-person races have been cancelled, but many people are still training hard (myself included), racing virtually, and/or challenging themselves in other ways. So, I thought that this would still be a great topic to cover with another RD! It can be daunting trying to figure out the “right” combo of what to eat before, during, and after workouts and events, with all the products on the market and a variety of (often conflicting) info floating around out there. Our discussion really only scratched the surface, but I hope it still helps some of my listeners who are struggling! And of course, if you ever need professional and more detailed, individualized assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or another Sports RD for help.

I recorded this episode exactly two months ago, right before I headed out to Santa Cruz, CA to be with my family for the Summer. After so many months being stuck inside in our tiny NYC apartment, it’s been AMAZING to be back in nature. E and I have been able to run together and reconnect with our beloved trails in the Redwood forest - we hadn’t done either in over a year, and it's been very special. We're training to do a big chunk of the Skyline to Sea trail in mid August - stay tuned for my next podcast episode detailing our training, fueling, and how our “event” goes!

More about Anne:

• https://www.fannetasticfood.com
•  Follow on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter 
• Her Nutrition for Runner’s program with Jason Fitzgerald

Announcements:

• Please SUBSCRIBE to and rate/review the show if you're enjoying these episodes!
• If you can afford to donate a few bucks to help support the show financially, please visit my Patreon page
• You can also support me by visiting my Amazon storefront  
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations.

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 27 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring Ali Feller, host of the Ali on the Run Show.

I’m embarrassed to say that it’s taken me over two months to edit and publish this episode! The joys of working and parenting in these crazy times, that’s all I can say. Podcasting has had to take a bit of a backseat to everything else unfortunately, but I’m still recording episodes whenever I can!

You probably know Ali from her podcast - and if you don’t, check it out! She has interviewed so many incredible athletes and other guests. Ali grew up dancing, and found running after college while living in NYC. Like many running stories (mine included), she quickly became hooked, and started training for her first of many marathons! What makes her story different is that she was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at the age of 7. The disease did not seem to affect her too much when she was younger, but her symptoms have become much worse in recent years. Runners and other athletes have enough GI concerns as it is - adding Irritable Bowel Disease to the mix makes sports nutrition (and life, generally speaking) extra challenging, as you can imagine. It’s something that she has discussed at length on her own show, but I wanted to dig further into her experiences, specifically to see how Crohn’s has affected her nutrition and training. Ali also is a (relatively) new Mom, so we of course chatted about motherhood and how she has coped with Crohn’s flares while caring for her daughter. 

I hope you enjoy this episode! Ali was so much fun to talk to - not a surprise at all, if you’re familiar with her show. As you will hear her say, energy is not something she usually is lacking!

More info on Ali:

• Website: https://www.aliontherunblog.com
• Follow Ali on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter 

Announcements:

• Please SUBSCRIBE to and rate/review the show if you're enjoying these episodes!
• If you can afford to donate a few bucks to help support the show financially, please visit my Patreon page
• You can also support me by visiting my Amazon storefront  
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations.

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 26 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring elite ultrarunner and (mostly) vegan athlete, Mike Wardian.

If you haven’t heard of Mike, he’s a beast of an athlete and also one of the nicest, down-to-earth guys you’ll meet in the running world (and elsewhere). The number of back-to-back races, Fastest Known Times (FKTs), and other events that he participates in - and conquers - seemingly every week is superhuman. Most athletes would take a bit of a break after running (let alone winning) a major event - but not Mike! He’s always hungry for more, and it’s truly inspiring to watch.

Mike follows a mostly vegan diet (he eats eggs and honey), and I was so excited to get him on the show to hear more about how he fuels his amazing and diverse athletic accomplishments. We recorded on April 14th, about a week after he won the Quarantine Backyard ultra. If you’re not familiar with this event, it’s a last-person standing race (in this case, a virtual competition with runners around the world), and Mike won it running 262 miles in 63 hours around his neighborhood, just shy of the world record!!

Mike races pretty much every distance out there on both road and trail, and has made the podium for many half-marathons, marathons, 50k, 100k and 100 mile races. He has set a number of world records, including the fastest time for 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days, fastest marathon as Spider-man and Elvis, fastest time for the Abbott World Marathon Majors, fastest 50k on a treadmill (he is attempting this one again in early June), and fastest marathon pushing a jogging stroller. He also has set many FKTs around the world, including the Israeli National Trail in 2019. All in-person events have been cancelled, but that hasn’t stopped Mike - he’s been setting FKT after FKT on the trails near where he is based in Arlington, VA, and hopes to run across America later this year.

But what’s even more impressive is that he does ALL of this while working a full time job and with two kids. As you can imagine, he’s not getting all that much sleep, but somehow he is able to put in all those training hours and perform at an incredibly high level.

I hope you enjoy my chat with Mike - I certainly felt inspired after our interview, and love following along his adventures on social media, especially these past few months of quarantine.

Hope you are all continuing to stay safe and healthy! Thanks again, Mike, for taking the time to chat with me!

More info on Mike:

• Website: http://mikewardian.com
• Follow on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter 

Announcements:

• Please SUBSCRIBE to and rate/review the show if you're enjoying these episodes!
• If you can afford to donate a few bucks to help support the show financially, please visit my Patreon page
• You can also support me by visiting my Amazon storefront  
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replac

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 25 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring Pediatric Dietitian, Pegah Jalali, MS RD. 

Yep, I’m taking a little break from my usual sports nutrition programing to focus on infant and toddler nutrition! It may seem unrelated to talk about general nutrition for kids on this podcast but really, it’s not. Many of my listeners and clients are parents, and as parents, we of course want to do our best to keep our entire family healthy and to cultivate positive relationships with food (and exercise) for life. I sometimes get nutrition questions about babies and toddlers, and that is not my specialty, so I figured it was time to bring on an expert!

I also wanted to do this episode for personal reasons. With a 7-month old who recently started solids and a 3 year old who can be challenging to feed, infant and toddler nutrition is very much a part of my daily life. I was excited to get a refresher on some things I forgot from my older daughter (hello, baby brain!) and to learn some new strategies that I could immediately work into my day to day. 

Here are some of the topics that we cover in this episode:

• Breast and formula feeding - things to keep in mind, whichever you choose 
• Weight and growth charts - just like with adults, weight isn’t everything!  
• Starting solids - Purees? Baby led weaning? When do you even start? 
• Feeding toddlers - picky eating, snacks, treats, role modeling, and more
• Using food as a reward (especially with sweets)

If you're looking for nutrition advice for slightly older kids, definitely check out Episode 7 all about fueling young athletes (also includes general nutrition advice for adolescents, teens, and college kids). 

We had a few technical issues including a mic fail that diminished the sound quality, but I think you’ll enjoy the content and find it valuable, assuming of course that infant and toddler nutrition is relevant to you. If not, skip ahead - I have an awesome athlete nutrition profile coming up! Also, I think it makes sense to time stamp things in the post-Covid world, so FYI, this episode was recorded on April 13th.

Thanks for your time, Pegah, and hope everyone (especially my fellow parents of little ones) are hanging in there during these difficult times.

Announcements:

• Please SUBSCRIBE to and rate/review the show if you're enjoying these episodes!
• If you can afford to donate a few bucks to help support the show financially, please visit my Patreon page
• You can also support me by visiting my Amazon storefront  
• Have nutrition questions, a guest or topic request, or any other feedback? Email me - [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations.

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).

Welcome to Episode 24 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring Elite ultrarunner, Courtney Dauwalter. 

Welcome to Episode 24 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring legendary ultrarunner, Courtney Dauwalter. 

Courtney is one of the best ultrarunners competing right now. She’s not just coming in as first female and setting course records at races like UTMB, Western States, and Hardrock; she sometimes dominates races outright. I wanted to get her on the show to dig into how she fuels her training as well as her incredible race performances. 

Courtney is known for her love of beer, nachos, and candy as well as her laid-back and cheerful demeanor. She’s also a fierce competitor and incredibly tuned into her body. 

As you’ll hear in this episode, there’s no one big “secret” to her success. It’s years of experimenting with her fueling (she has learned the hard way, like many of us), putting in the miles, remaining flexible with both food and training, and problem-solving when things inevitably go wrong. 

Courtney has her sports nutrition go-to’s (Tailwind, Honey Stinger waffles and chews, and instant potatoes, for example) plus several “safe” meals she chooses prior to a race. Mostly though, she listens to what her body craves.

Tune in for the rest of Courtney Dauwalter's nutrition story, including some of her favorite nacho toppings and candy. 

PLEASE NOTE - this episode was recorded on March 10th, so keep that in mind when listening (we touch on Coronavirus briefly at the end, but obviously much has changed since then…).

Links:

• Follow Courtney on Instagram
• Check out my free nutrition resources
• Use code PODCAST for 10% off my course, Peak Performance
• Sign up for my email list to download my FREE fueling before exercise guide
• Fill out a new client inquiry form if you’re interested in 1:1 nutrition coaching
• Join my Patreon community to support the pod while getting free merch, special discounts, and other perks for just $6/month
• Please subscribe or follow the show and rate/review it wherever you listen
• Get in touch at [email protected].
• Music Credit: Joseph McDade

Disclaimer – all information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is in no way meant to replace individual medical and nutrition recommendations. 

Want to get in touch? Send Claire a message!

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook (@eatforendurance).