Most triathletes think race day nutrition is the key to performance.

It’s not.

Race day nutrition doesn’t save your race - it exposes how well you’ve actually prepared.

In this episode, I break down why focusing on gels, carb loading, and race morning tactics often misses the bigger picture - and what actually determines whether your fuelling holds up when it matters.

We cover:

• Why daily fuelling matters more than race day strategy
• The role of carbohydrate availability in performance
• Why gut training is often overlooked (and where races are lost)
• The common mistakes triathletes make in the final week

This is part one of a two-part series. In part two, I’ll show you how to approach carb loading properly - without overcomplicating it.

If you’d like help applying this to your own training and nutrition, you can book a free call here:

https://calendly.com/jamiemleighton-cqw/brainstorm-session

Does fat loss really get harder as you get older?

In this episode, I break down why body composition can feel more challenging as you age - especially for triathletes balancing training, work, family life, and recovery.

We cover what actually changes with age, why many athletes get stuck using outdated strategies, and how to improve body composition in a way that supports performance rather than drains it.

You’ll learn why the answer is rarely more cardio or eating less, and why strength training, smarter fuelling, and recovery become even more important over time.

If you’re a triathlete who wants to get leaner, perform better, and do it sustainably, this episode is for you.

If you’d like help applying this to your own training and nutrition, book a free call here:

https://calendly.com/jamiemleighton-cqw/brainstorm-session

£50 on gels. A cupboard full of bars. Electrolytes in every bottle.

It looks like commitment - but it’s often not the thing improving your performance.

This episode challenges the habits triathletes believe are “good nutrition” and explains why real progress comes from your day-to-day eating, not what you stock up on.

“Alcohol is poison” is a popular message right now - but it’s not the full picture.

In this episode, I explain why most triathletes aren’t being held back by alcohol itself, but by patterns of excess and poor decision-making around it.

If you’re trying to improve body composition and performance without becoming overly restrictive, this will help you think about alcohol more clearly.

You’re training 10+ hours a week.
So why are you not getting leaner?

Because more training isn’t the solution - and in a lot of cases, it’s part of the problem.

In this episode, I break down why triathletes often gain body fat or stall their body composition during high training loads.

We look at the patterns that get overlooked:

Overfueling low-intensity sessions.
Treating fueling during training as the priority… and ignoring the other 22 hours of the day.
Confusing fatigue with the need to eat more.

This isn’t about eating less or restricting harder.

It’s about understanding how your nutrition actually needs to work if you want to improve performance and body composition at the same time.

Because if your system only works during training… it doesn’t work.

Many triathletes are afraid of bonking - running out of energy during training.

But that fear can sometimes push athletes in the opposite direction: over-fuelling sessions that don’t actually require it, which can gradually affect body composition and performance.

In this episode, I explain why this happens, how excessive fuelling habits develop in endurance sport, and how to think more clearly about the difference between race fuelling and everyday training fuelling.

The goal isn’t eating less - it’s fuelling your training in a way that supports both performance and body composition.

Most triathletes can lose weight.

Very few can do it without losing power.

In this episode, I explain how I’d lose 10kg while keeping training quality high, protecting lean mass, and improving performance.

We cover fuelling, strength training, sleep, daily movement, and why aggressive dieting is the fastest way to stall progress.

Most triathletes don’t struggle because they snack too much.
They struggle because their meals aren’t doing enough.

In this episode, I break down a pattern I see every week:
underpowered meals, accumulating hunger, and reactive snacking - especially around training.

This is a structure issue.

We talk about:

• Why eating “often” isn’t the same as eating enough

• How bigger, more purposeful meals improve fuelling and recovery

• Why this is a performance strategy first — with body composition as a byproduct

If you’re constantly hungry, snacking reactively, or feeling under-fuelled in training, this episode will give you a clearer framework to work from.

Ironman training is demanding.

More volume, more sessions, more fatigue.So when athletes gain weight during prep, it’s confusing - and often frustrating.

In this episode, I explain why weight gain during Ironman training is so common, and why it’s rarely a sign of poor discipline or overeating.

We cover:

• Why endurance volume without strength can work against body composition
• How midweek underfueling leads to weekend overeating
• Why Ironman training isn’t automatically a fat-loss phase
• The signals your training and nutrition are actually sending your body.

This episode is for triathletes who want a better return on their training - not more restriction, guilt, or guesswork.

If you’re serious about improving performance and body composition, this will change how you think about fueling and training during Ironman prep.

Zone 2 training is often described as “easy,” which leads many endurance athletes to assume it requires little thought when it comes to fuelling.

In reality, Zone 2 fueling is far more context-dependent than most people realise.

In this episode, I talk through why session length is the biggest driver of fuelling decisions, why fuelling often starts before the session rather than during it, and how longer Zone 2 sessions should be approached differently from shorter ones.

We also cover common mistakes around intra-fueling, why copying race-day carbohydrate numbers doesn’t make sense for low-intensity work, and how to think in terms of calories per hour without overdoing it.

The goal isn’t rigid rules or universal formulas - it’s understanding how to fuel Zone 2 in a way that supports training quality, recovery, and body composition over the long term.