127 | Dehydration, Race Day Nutrition Timing, Carb Calculators and Chews vs Gels

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Hi, this is Thompson Believe in the Run.

This is Megan with Believe in the Run.

And this is Megan with Phoenix Don Nutrition.

AKA Feather Duff Duff Duff.

You never know what you're going to get.

Try to come up with new stuff all the time, like you got to keep it lively.

And you're listening to Fuel for the Soul, the podcast where we talk all things,

hydration and nutrition and how it affects performance.

And today we are going to answer a bunch of listener questions.

I love listener questions.

But before you're going to like it to you, there's a couple of audio submissions.

I love that.

And a video with one of them.

Yeah.

I love it.

I hear that he's wearing an A6 shirt.

Yeah, smart.

Nice.

So it's his podcast.

He knows his audience.

Yeah.

A6, yeah.

All right.

But before we do that, of course, let's chat about our sponsor Runway.

And Megan, it looks like we've got some updates for you.

I had the pleasure of joining the whole Runway crew for part of their meeting one day.

And I got to, I didn't have the whole time.

And so I had to pop in for like 20 minutes.

So they wanted to give me all the updates.

And they were like, you know, they're not official.

But we feel like you and Megan Thomas should just share it.

So I was like, all right.

Let's do it.

So first and foremost is their foundation product, the very first one they came out with the collagen.

They're switching up the formula a little bit on that.

So if you buy the cherry flavor from them right now, you'll get the new formula.

The lemon lime has not been tweaked quite yet.

And you're probably like, well, what did they tweak?

We had a handful of people reaching out that it was causing a little bit of GI distress for them.

So they looked into what in the world could possibly be causing that.

And they think that it's the L carnitine.

So they're pulling out the L carnitine because they don't think that it's really all that helpful.

And if it is causing some people a little bit of GI issues, they were like, let's get it out of there.

So the new one won't have the L carnitine in it, which to me, I'm like, cool, get rid of it.

Like I didn't think that was a huge benefit to it anyways.

And then they're going to add some things for bone health.

So they'll be vitamin D and a little bit of vitamin K in there.

So if you remember the run rate foundation is mostly collagen and electrolytes is what I love about it.

But there are, there's like some B12 and now there's going to be a little bit of vitamin D, which we know most of us need anyways.

I take a D supplement.

So that would be helpful.

Exactly.

Exactly. So I think it'll be all good stuff.

So if you want to try the new formula by the cherry, the lemon lime, they need to run through their stock.

And then they'll update that formula as well once that one sold out.

All right.

What else is going on?

Yeah.

And then I think I can share this.

Cats out of the bag.

It's not.

They're going to have their complete protein in whole foods.

Oh, wow.

That's awesome.

Right?

I was like, who does that?

To be able to go to Whole Foods.

Yeah.

Pick up the protein.

Is it only going to be the protein or like for now?

But they're going to hopefully expand and have salty carbs and some other things there too.

Um, but they're really excited because there's really not a whole lot of like sports products there now.

Um, and I guess Whole Foods is nationwide.

It will be.

They're going to send a, they're going to put like a product locator on their website so you can see if your whole foods will have it.

Here's a great thing.

I will pack the protein so that I can do a shake after a workout when I'm traveling.

Or I'll carry the little travel pack.

But be nice if I forget that no matter where I am, I could go grab.

Right.

But it also has a creatine in it.

So I like, I like that double whammy.

Yeah.

So Whole Foods was stoked about the brewer's yeast protein that they use.

They don't stock anything like that now.

To my knowledge, uh, runways, the only, uh, protein or only company that has like a high quality brewer's yeast based vegan protein powder, which we know.

That protein is a complete protein, which most vegan proteins aren't.

So it's kind of exciting and, um, that's awesome.

It's cool when our, you know, friends over at Runway are making moves in the world.

So that was exciting.

Yeah.

So we'll let you know.

Yeah.

I was going to say this is probably not at Whole Foods quite yet.

Right.

Uh, but you can go get it online right now by going to runway.life.

That's R and w i dot life.

And you can use the code feathers 15 for 15% off your order.

Like, and you included something on here about drugs dot com.

What do we got?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Remember last episode, Thomas, you were like, there should be a product or like a website out there that can put all my medications, all my supplements into and they can tell me interactions, timing, all that kind of stuff.

So one of our listeners reached out and said it exists at drugs dot com.

So of course I went on there to give it a whirl and see what happened.

And I was like, create a whole account and that felt like too much.

So I didn't actually go through the process.

But apparently there is something like Thomas was requesting last last show.

Yeah.

Excellent.

It also has a pill identifier.

Right.

Oh, yeah.

Compare drugs.

Yeah.

It looks like you can probably do all that.

I mean, I'm not going to lie.

I found my dog playing with pill one day.

And I was, I went to a pill finder because I was like, uh, what'd she get into?

It was just an allergy pill.

Wait, you're just playing with someone.

Yeah.

Why not?

What is this?

It was like, he just played with it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She was just like calling around.

Yeah.

Crazy girl.

All right.

Let's go ahead and get into our listener questions.

I'm ready.

This first one is from Meredith.

And yeah, it's an audio submission.

Hi, feel for the soul friends.

I have a question about race day hydration.

I don't know if you have any other advice you can offer, but figured I'd give it a shot.

I ran my second marathon in Philadelphia in November and had so much support from my friends

from Believe in the Run.

However, I did pass out at the finish line.

They sent me my medal later because I went straight to the medical tent.

I have no memories of passing out.

Very dramatic, but I went to the hospital, got all the tests done, everything seems normal.

So it really seems like this was a hydration thing, which I say because I am so sweaty.

And I fear I may even be sweatier than I ever thought.

I always am very adamant about bringing hydration on runs.

I actually was so nervous looking at the map and how few water stations there are towards the end of the race

that I brought to water bottles, one larger one that I tossed on the route,

and then a smaller one that I had clipped on the back of my sports bra

to be able to use towards the end of the race because I know even from long runs

that I get very, very, very thirsty at the end of runs.

I am drinking far more on the second half of a run than I am on the first half.

So I used salty carbs for these.

Right now I'm thinking that maybe I did more like one scoop

and I really need to be doing the two scoops to do all of the sodium as well.

I also stopped at most of the water stations towards the end.

I was really just hanging on for dear life and I missed one of them.

But I really stopped at most of the water stations.

I wasn't too precious about getting water versus the electrolyte mix.

But it just feels like was I really so, so close, you know,

that that one extra cup of water really would have prevented me from passing out.

It just felt so dramatic when I had tried so, so hard to bring all of the hydration

that I was going to need.

So I don't know if you have any other advice for me.

I don't know if there's anything I can be doing during training.

But please is there anything I could do to be less sweaty as a person?

I have definitely noticed that even running in the winter now,

I see salt marks on my sweatshirts.

So I am just, I fear I'm a very sweaty person.

Thank you for any help that you're able to offer.

I don't know what more I can be doing.

I'm a little bit afraid to train for another marathon before I figure this out.

There's two things.

First off, Meredith, I'm also a sweaty person.

So I appreciate that probably sweatier than you and a man.

Who is to blame?

Mom and dad?

Is that genetics?

Okay.

For sure.

Go after your sweaty relatives.

Okay.

I think it's because I'm like northern European that you're not used to,

you know, getting in the heat and exercising.

I think my jeans are like, what's going on?

And then I just, I turn into a sponge.

But the second thing is I really feel like we need to create,

recreate a finish line experience for because that was our first marathon, right?

And she came across the line and doesn't know what happened, you know?

Right.

Yeah, that's crazy.

All that work.

Yeah.

I know.

That's crazy.

But Meredith, me and I feel yeah, my,

it was 41 for my long run this weekend.

And I was in a tank top gloves and shorts.

And I came back and I was soaked and covered in salt.

And both my kids were like, you're disgusting, mom.

And I'm like, well, you're my genetic offspring.

Yeah.

Good luck to you too as well.

So yeah, we were Megan.

I were running the other day.

I was wearing a navy jacket.

She goes, is that jacket navy and black?

And I'm like, no, I think it's just navy.

She goes, are you sweating?

And I'm like, yeah.

I was like freezing.

It was like 30 degrees.

And he was like buckets.

It's like, wow.

I know.

So Meredith, there's nothing we can do to make you sweat less.

That's the first one.

Can I take a guess on Meredith?

Yeah.

Let's do this thing here.

Okay.

So one of the clues that I'm going to pick up on.

She says during the second half, she drinks a lot more.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

And what I'm thinking is it's kind of like that hunger thing.

Once you hit a certain level, you can't fill the tank back up

when you're trying to get hard to.

Yeah.

I'm thinking, maybe she's not, she may think she has enough water

in the beginning.

But maybe she's waiting too long to get that hydration.

I would think I'd want to know like what she's doing pre-race the day before.

Is she doing that, you know, the, uh, electrolytes in the,

right in the, you know, high, high volume of like getting some hydration in there.

Yeah.

No.

So I think the biggest thing here, Meredith, is like we've all been joking around.

Our sweat rate and sweat composition is genetic.

So there's really nothing we can do to change it.

So now that we know that you are very, very sweaty,

we need to dive into this much, much deeper.

So if, if I were you, and I had had an event like that at the end of a race,

I'd be diving into everything to try to learn more about me, my sweat rate,

sweat composition.

So I don't necessarily think everyone needs to do this.

But for somebody like Meredith that has had a massive episode that landed

in the hospital after a marathon, I do think she should look into her sweat rate,

which would be calculated for that on the website,

which literally you just weigh yourself before and after like an hour run to see,

like how much are you actually losing and you can repeat that in different weather conditions

so that you can learn.

Like I sweat this much more in this weather,

so that you can be a little more strategic about how you're taking your fluid.

And then too, I do think for somebody like her,

I'm wondering if she didn't get enough sodium.

But I would have thought that the hospital would have told her if she had hyponeatremia,

which is where our blood sodium is too low.

But I wonder if maybe that's why she passed out.

And in that case, we need to dial in sodium.

And if she's as salty as she thinks she is,

we may need to do like a sweat composition test like through levelin or through one of the precision devices

that different places own around the country.

So you actually have to go to their office to get that done or the levelin when you can do it home.

So that she can really dive into like how much salt am I losing per amount of sweat

and then do some different way.

And so I really think she needs to take a deep dive and get real nerdy here.

So that she feels comfortable and has the tools to kind of tweak the amount of fluid and sodium to your point, Thomas,

from the get go of race,

rather than just kind of strategically sipping on a bottle and thinking that's good enough.

I think just like we have carb goals per hour,

she's going to need a fluid goal and a sodium goal per hour,

and some people don't, if they're not a heavy sweater, but somebody like her,

I think she really needs to play around with that and dial that in more.

Now I'm not a doctor, but Megan, I've been watching the pit.

So I feel like I could probably diagnose her if she came running in a gurney in the emergency room.

We'd be like, let's check out her sodium level. She was a marathoner.

Right.

I would think that they would have tested that,

but she said everything came back okay,

but I don't know Meredith if you're listening and you have access to your labs,

you could check and see if your sodium was too low.

And that would for sure tell us like this,

we need to play with sodium more and get a little more aggressive.

And then she also mentioned one scoop of runway,

which we know runway salty carbs doesn't actually have a scoop in it.

So part of me wonders if she wasn't even putting a full quantity,

because it's three tablespoons.

Right.

So if she's only putting one scoop,

she may only be getting like a third of a quote unquote dose of the runway salty carbs.

So I do wanted to look into that too and see if she's even getting as much sodium as she thinks she is out there.

Let me get a clarifier in there for you though.

You talk about the sweat test.

And you know, a lot of us were out running, especially if it is warmer.

We're going to be drinking water while we run or whatever.

If you're doing specifically a sweat test for to try to figure out how much water you're losing,

is the idea to not like go out there.

You know, you can leave the house with water or whatever,

weigh yourself after you drink the water or whatever.

Go do the run, then come back without drinking any more water or anything like that.

Then weigh yourself.

She could drink during it,

but she would want to make sure she knew exactly how much she drank.

So we could account for it.

So like if she has a 12 ounce bottle,

I would just say during the bottle before you hop back on the scale.

So you know, we need to account for that 12 ounces.

But I don't recommend that people do that sweat rate test on the long run,

because you're taking gels.

You're probably stopping to go to the bathroom.

Like I think if we keep it to like 45 minutes to an hour,

there's less variables there that we have to account for,

because we want kind of the cleanest way and way out possible.

You know, take the clothes off.

So you're not weighing in with some sweaty afterwards or drive beforehand.

And like I said, all of those parameters, if you will,

are all on the website with the calculator.

And she could just kind of play around with that herself if she wants.

Yeah.

Is there any other reason someone passes out after a marathon,

other than like malnutrition or, or, or yeah.

Like not hydration.

Yeah, hydration.

I mean, low blood sugar could do it,

but I think they would have caught that.

Some people do have when they stop running,

their blood pressure drops real quick.

If you see people who get like dizzy when they stop,

or some people will pass out just because it's more of,

like almost just like a response that some people have,

their blood pressure just drops way too quick,

which is more common if we're under sodium, under salted.

So again, that kind of just goes hand in hand with what I'm wondering about here.

But also certain medications can make it harder for us to stay hydrated out there.

So I've had a lot of specifically women come to me,

taking a medication called spironolactone that they take either for acne or for thinning hair.

And it is a diuretic.

So it makes it really hard to stay hydrated.

So, you know, just making sure that it's not that,

or we do, we have some newer resource to show that certain antidepressants

of anti-anxiety medicines can mess with our hydration.

So I would want to just triple check that she's not taking anything that would make this even harder for her to stay well hydrated.

Again, obviously, if a doctor's prescribed a medication,

talk to them before you would stop anything,

but just making sure that there's not another element in here that we need to be aware of.

Maybe she has that thing that those goats have,

those goats that just freeze and follow.

The fainting goats.

Yes, the fainting goats.

That's not my algorithm.

Maybe the marathon, it will be now.

I'm going to send you all a bunch of them.

Maybe the marathon finishes.

She doesn't realize that she's a fainting goat until she gets the end.

Yeah, I don't think that's it.

It's the best feather.

I can't wait to send it to you.

It's going to break your day.

It looks like the Boston marathon finish line last year with all the people going down.

Oh, man.

It's better than that because they don't throw up first.

Just go a little cleaner.

The Boston marathon ones are like slow falls.

You see the person cross.

You see him start to wobble.

It's like the wobbles.

Yeah, who was it?

Who was it that we saw?

Mary Johnson.

Yeah, that's right.

She looked at us like she was totally coherent and then she was just down.

It almost looked like a fake.

But it was not fake.

When it was wrong with her.

It was a hydration thing.

Yeah, she was very open about the exact same thing.

Yeah.

No, she was very open about some of the mood medication she was taking.

She thinks we're a big part of that.

She talked about that openly on social.

Yeah.

So always good to look into these things.

But Mary, let's get serious here.

Yeah.

And not the goats, but let's get serious about our hydration and sodium.

And see if we can make you more confident that you've got a handle on this.

Because that would be scary if the last marathon you don't remember the end.

You know, it would be hard to then get into another one.

But there are some things she can do to kind of feel like she's got that control back and make sure she's doing the right things to keep her body safe.

All right.

We have another audio submission.

You're actually it's a video submission from Mike.

So let's play that.

Hey, fuel for the soul team.

This is Mike from Fargo, North Dakota.

And I have a fueling comparison question that I love your thoughts on.

How does taking something like an A-max turbo gel mid workout?

And then sipping on water with about half an element team mixed in.

Compared to using something like runway salty carbs where you're slowly sipping carbs and sodium consistently throughout the session.

If the total carbs per hour and sodium per hour end up being rough with the same.

Is it essentially equivalent from a physiology standpoint?

Or is there an advantage one way or another to gradually sipping carbs versus taking a gel bolus?

And then just hydrating with electrolytes?

Does the delivery rate matter for absorption, GI comfort, insulin response and performance, especially in threshold or marathon pace efforts?

And how does that compare with easy long runs?

Or does it simply just come down to personal preference?

Really appreciate all you guys do and thank you so much.

So Mike's question is interesting because I feel like I've heard mixed science on this so I'm interested in what you're going to say.

Yeah, I love this question from Mike and I'm not sure we've ever dived into this on the podcast.

So hi Mike, I know his wife, hi Heidi.

And we'll take a look here at what's going on.

So basically Mike's wondering.

Is it more beneficial to sip carbs slowly over the hour or have a bolus of like 35 grams of carbs or 30 grams of carbs.

I think the A-max gels are.

Which I think is a great question and we have looked into this a little bit more and do have some research on it.

But I don't think we have enough.

I think there's a little bit of personal preference in there so we can kind of talk through it all as well.

My number one goal for people is to have a certain amount of carbs that they need to hit per hour and to hit that.

So that's first and foremost.

But once we figured out we need X grams of carbs per hour to feel good in our workouts and in our long runs.

Then we can start thinking about how should we distribute that over the hour.

And I think part of it depends on the type of workout.

So if Mike's headed to the track and he's doing a high intensity workout like on off kind of like, you know, like interval type stuff.

Sipping something like runway over that period is probably going to sit better in someone's GI tract.

But when we're looking at something like well over an hour, like a half marathon or a marathon.

We know that larger doses at once probably impact performance better than like a slow trickle, if you will.

So for example, there was a research study that looked at giving five grams of carbs every five minutes versus 20 to 30 grams of carbs every 20 minutes.

And it actually found that performance was better with the 20 to 30 grams of carbs every 20 minutes that the slow trickle wasn't quite as good for these longer distances.

When we put more carbs into our body at once, we tend to then increase what's called glucose oxidation.

So we are utilizing that those carbs more readily when we're giving our body a little bit more at once.

But there's also some studies that show too many carbs at once, like 60 grams of carbs at once, often is not tolerated and increases the risk of GI issues.

So as you can see, it's kind of a delicate balance. And then everybody is probably going to respond a little bit differently to what amount at once triggers issues for them.

So it's kind of trying to find that.

But we also know that maintaining a steady blood glucose during a marathon is incredibly important for performance, both mental and physical.

So if we're taking way too much at once and then going 45 minutes to an hour without taking more, we don't want that for sure.

But we're also not sure that we want just the slow trickle over the hour.

So I would tell him that probably what he's doing with a bigger bolus of like a 30 gram MX gel more frequently throughout the hour is probably the best bet for him.

But my only caveat to that would be those shorter like one hour workouts interval workouts at a track, maybe something like the runway salty carbs, just sipping that over the hour, maybe a little bit more beneficial.

Do you remember what I did for the Chicago marathon?

You took gels, right?

With a bottle of runway.

So I had on top of it, right?

Salty carbs that I was sipping on.

And then yeah, had my gels every 25 minutes.

Yeah, I think that's ideal personally.

Yeah.

That was a good mix for me.

Yeah, especially you got a little warmer towards the end of that race.

Maybe it's just psychological, but I was like, I've been sipping on lecture lights, you know, I had a full 16 ounce bottle of runway over the course of the marathon.

I'm not sure if I refilled or not.

I think I just did the one bottle.

Well, and I think like to tell Mrs. Point and what I like about sipping on carbs, even if it is for like, and this is on top of the gels every 30 minutes.

And the thing is, you get like the, I think it's like you, you talked about this.

It's like a psychological like sensation of when you drink carbs, like even just having them in your mouth, like gives your body.

Like the idea that it's taking in more carbs.

And your friends like energy's coming.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

So I feel like the long haul that combo is money.

I agree, I agree.

I definitely like frequent gels two or three times an hour.

With a little bit of carb over top of it.

I think if I had to create like the ideal plan, that would be it.

But if he likes the element with the a max gels, if he's taking one of those every 25 to 30 minutes, that would probably do the same thing.

But I do think this is really interesting and we have started to do some research to look at what is optimal here.

And I think he's he's almost thinking ahead of some of the knowledge that we have so far.

So, you know, I think there's there's something to putting a larger amount of carbs in our stomach at once that's going to help with that exogenous glucose oxidation, which is what helps our performance.

So we don't necessarily want to slow trickle throughout an entire race.

We do want a little bit of a bullness in there.

So I think if he has found that a max gels plus the element on top of it work for him, I would say stick with that.

Unless it like I said, it's a short or more intense like track workout.

All right, question for you hypothetical for both you.

If you could attach something to your body that would bypass your mouth and just shoot the carbs right into your system, like you wouldn't have to take like a gel.

Like you could just have like a pouch and like every 25 minutes it automatically just shoots 30 carbs into your system.

Would you go with that even if it required a little bit of surgery to get the thing in there or stick to just eating like packet surgery.

I think I'm out with the surgery.

I mean, I'm talking like a little maybe not surgery. Maybe like an you'd have to run with like an IV almost.

Oh gosh, that sounds dangerous.

Yeah, sure does.

I wouldn't do that.

I think I would take the field.

Yeah, I think I'm just going to take the field.

I think if I could like not have to think about it and it just automatically discharge into my system.

That's you just have to run Megan and then she just tells you when to do it.

That's the key.

But sometimes I have trouble.

It's the getting it down.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like you guys have more practice with that.

Yeah.

Well, I do know there was like a professional alter marathoner that was disqualified because someone caught him taking an IV.

Yeah.

Partway through it.

Like he stopped.

Wow.

To like rehydrate with an IV and.

Oh, yeah.

Totally illegal.

But.

Yeah.

I don't know.

That also feels like that would take a long time.

Right.

Like you got to put an IV in and then I don't know how much liquid you need, but it feels like a lot.

Was it like an Ironman or something?

Some alter race.

Yeah.

I remember which one it was.

I don't know.

I mean, you can sit down in 10 minutes.

So you can get like a bag down, I think.

I don't know.

If the gut works, use it.

Yeah.

So we're going to go ahead and keep using it.

All right.

Let's answer another listener question question.

This is from Becky from England.

She said, I've been listening carefully, nodding along, believing I already knew all about the car bloat, but I just used the calculator on feathers website and I am shook.

The calculator said I should aim for almost 700 grams of carbs per day for two days before a marathon.

How on earth would anyone do that on the typical day?

I may be getting 150 grams of carbs.

My mind is blown.

I'll be honest.

I struggle a bit with food.

I always worry I'm eating too much and I want to lose weight, but I know I can't do that when I'm training.

The calculators and AI say I should eat more, but I eat three square meals.

I don't feel hungry very often and I feel like I'm putting on weight.

Oats for breakfast with protein, collagen and creatine, thanks to you guys.

Two eggs and toast for lunch and probably a stew for dinner.

Sometimes I have some chocolate, but not much else.

I am 100% bonking during and after my long runs and I know I haven't got fueling or hydration right.

This is what made me take a look at your calculator and now I'm confused.

How does anyone eat 700 grams of carbs?

Did I use the calculator wrong or have I misunderstood carb content through all my googling help?

Help.

Help.

Well, let's do an unpack here, Becky.

First and foremost is I can't do a two day carb load either.

So that's why there's a three day button on there so that you don't have to eat 700 grams of carbs in two days.

You can eat a more modest amount over three days.

So I would suggest for her the three day carb load versus the two.

But then also she did give me her stats or age or height or weight, which I took out.

And 150 grams of carbs is not enough for any runner, especially with the stats that you know she gave me.

So I often see the people who have the most trouble with carb loading are the people who are undercarved on a daily basis in their training.

The discrepancy between adequate carbs on a daily basis and the carb load is huge for people who are under fueling.

I think she's nailed it. She said, you know, her Google searches say she's underfueling the numbers that she's giving me tell me she's underfueling.

She's blocking in long runs doesn't sound like she's recovering too well.

So first and foremost, Becky, let's not worry about carb loading.

Let's try to make sure that you're fueling your body well for what you're asking it to do.

We know we cannot always rely on hunger as a cue for us.

You know, but we know we need more like four or five grams of carbs per kilogram of body weight while we're training.

And there's no chance that 150 grams of carbs is cutting that.

So I think she should work on the daily basis of trying to slowly scale those carbs up and training.

Plus then she's not going to bonk and long run she's going to be able to gain more fitness.

She's going to be doing so much better in her training.

And then the leap to the carb load won't look so big for her.

Where would you say is like maybe the easiest next step to add some more carbs in.

Would you say like try before runs or after runs or.

So I think the easiest way she gave us kind of an idea of what she eats like in her oats.

She could put some maple syrup, some honey, some dried fruit, some sort of concentrated carb source that won't drastically increase the quantity, right?

Like the volume of which she's eating people can have success that way.

We also know drinking carbs doesn't make us feel as full so she could put a glass of orange juice or apple juice along with her oats.

And then lunch she can add some extra toast had a banana to that, you know, just really try to kind of scale up that quantity in a way that feels good.

A lot of stews don't have a whole lot of carbs in them, right?

There may be some potatoes or something in there or maybe some beans, but maybe she needs like a big hunk of baguette on the side of her stew.

Or maybe she needs to throw some snacks in here or like Thomas was saying, do we need to eat a little more before our runs a little more after our runs, you know, I would kind of try to sprinkle it in pretty evenly throughout the day.

And kind of make some changes with which she's comfortable with which I smirk when I say that because no one's ever comfortable increasing their nutrition when they're worried about things.

But then when we're under fueling like this, your metabolism takes a hit, your muscle mass takes a hit.

So as you start to fuel adequately, your body typically figures out where it needs to be from like a body composition standpoint, but I would venture to guess that she's pretty under fueled right now.

Alright, so say she's required to you have 700.

Yeah, and you're saying move to a three day, so let's split that it's basically then for 450 or whatever.

Yeah, what does that look like in food?

Yeah, I typically try to get people to get like 100 grams of carbs per meal and then fit the rest in as little like 25 to 15 grams snacks throughout the day.

So 100 grams of carbs at a meal would be like two cups of cooked pasta, a little more than two cups of cooked rice, three cups of potatoes.

And a cup is like the size of your fist on your plate, like if we don't want to be measuring things.

But two cups of rice is huge.

I don't think it is.

Think of your plate, think of your plate, two cups of rice, like I don't think that looks all that crazy.

I don't know.

Or if you're having like a sandwich with two big slices of bread, you could have a banana and a serving of pretzels on the side, and that would get you to 100 grams.

So it's just kind of looking at what are you comfortable with eating and do we scale up that quantity, do we add another things like we said before, do we add in juice or a higher cart beverage, something like that.

Okay.

Yeah, I just went to your website and used a carb calculator and changed it from, from a two day to a three day, and it makes a substantial difference and feels way more manageable.

So what would, what would mine be?

You'd have to go there and fill it out.

It's like just to wait in a stop.

You'd probably be like eight hundred eight fifty for two days.

It's a lot.

So I want to do the three day.

And it'll probably drop down to like six hundred or something.

Yeah, five five five six hundred.

Yeah, it would be my guess for you.

Yeah, all right.

I might still have to up my carb loading on races.

I think that I'm doing it because I try to trash in some snacks and stuff, but I'm not very.

You may not be totally getting that Thomas just for being with you race weekends.

Yeah, you may, you may have room for a little more.

Yeah, although I don't know.

When we were in New York, didn't you grab a big old bag of hair booths and crush those that night before?

That'll give you like a hundred extra hundred fifty.

Yeah, New York wasn't the greatest.

She got to win a little better.

But Becky, I'll do it if you'll do it. How about that?

Teamwork.

I'm not even try your accent.

I don't know if you're from the east side or west side.

Hackney.

Yeah.

All right, let's answer one final question here.

She's from Julia.

She said hello friend Julia S actually so no hello friends.

Thanks so much for the great show.

I need some help deciding between whether to use gels or shoes for my upcoming marathon.

I much prefer shoes for basic training because they don't give me any GI issues.

And I like the experience of eating them more.

But I find gels much much easier to use during a race because I don't have to bother chewing them.

And you get more fuel with less volume.

The problem with gels is that they almost always give me a side stitch a little while after.

I have them even after just one.

Do you think this is just a matter of needing to build up a tolerance for them?

Or could it have something to do with the brand, which is goo?

Basically, I'm trying to decide how to commit to choose since I know they don't bug my stomach.

In which case, I'd love some tips on best brands and timing of use or just to keep trying to practice with gels.

Maybe from another brand.

I mean, you know what the answer is here.

But tell us, you used Goose in Berlin.

You bought like 18 flavors and you were fast because I but I also mixed it with Mortens.

You did.

No, you left your Mortens at home.

I think you used solid.

Or Robbie did that.

I know Robbie did all.

Goose.

Look, you goose.

It's not.

I don't believe.

I feel like it's the McDonald's of energy gels.

Like you can get by with it.

It will do it.

But it's not.

Is it because of the flavors?

I think it's the flavors.

But it's also the the makeup of it.

I don't know that it's as great as.

Look, maybe I'm partial to Morten now because I've seen like the science they put behind it and what they're doing.

And maybe I'm brainwashed that they're.

Well, no, the hydrogen.

They're science behind that concept that it doesn't.

Not just the high season, but like even the fact that like when they say this is how many calories are in the pack.

Carbs.

Carbs.

The they test it.

Yeah, right.

This is exactly how much is in there.

And so I just kind of trust.

It's like a clean kitchen.

I trust it.

And I also I would recommend.

And this might be different than you guys.

But.

The shoes I I couldn't do because we talked about breathing and stuff like that.

I think it interrupts.

With your breathing too much for me.

But have I don't always take the goo and like.

Drop the whole thing in my mouth and swallow it down.

Well, I'm curious is do you think that's what is causing the side stitch is the actual goo.

So I mean, it could it could be something else, but you guys we've all had go.

Everyone listening has had a goo sometime in their day, right?

It's a very small pouch.

It is very, very thick and very concentrated, which is nice because then it's a small package.

But when that hits your stomach, it needs diluted with fluid.

Of all the gels, I think goo is the one that's probably the most important to make sure we wash that down with a couple ounces of fluid.

It could be an electric drink, water, whatever you prefer.

But if she's not diluting that, that is going to sit like a rock in her stomach, which could feel like a side stitch, right?

So part of me is like if she wants to try gels.

And she wants to she has some goo still on her hands, like try taking three ounces of fluid right after you take it and see if she tolerates it better.

Like I'm wondering if that's the issue here.

Wait till the water stop to take him.

Right, right, or like we were saying switch to a gel that isn't quite so concentrated.

Like Morton doesn't need water with it.

Never second doesn't need water as I asked does it like there's some gels that you can take that don't require water at the exact same time to dilute it.

So she could try something like that, but I also am not opposed to shoes as long as she's getting enough, which is what I come across sometimes.

Some people just can't chew enough to get the grams of carbs per hour that they need to sustain their performance.

My other thought was like does she start with shoes when her perceived exertion is lower and then switch to gels for the last hour hour and a half and find some that work for her at that point so that she's not sick of them.

Think about carrying shoes though, like.

If you're.

Yeah, but you also under fueled like so like if you were taking them every 25 minutes and getting those cars, how many.

How are your pockets possibly so my for you guys a good diet.

I need to find a picture of this.

My first sub three was.

Is it right before COVID?

Yeah, it must indeed 2019.

I think it was.

I was only using shoes, but I wanted to make sure I got enough.

It opens all the bags and put the number of shoes I needed to take per hour in three individual bags.

And I knew I needed to finish this bag by one hour this bag by two hours to like keep me on track without having to count.

So I had these three bags, one of them I shoved in my glove and the other two I shoved in the front of my sports bra.

So it was like this lumpy mess, which you know works out. It's fine.

So like I said, there's ways to do it to make sure you're getting enough, but it is a lot to chew.

Like I think I ended with a few shoes. I don't think I got them all in the third hour.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I would recommend going with Megan's first suggestion of either swapping out the gel for one that doesn't require liquid or taking the goose with water at the same time or an electrolyte drink.

Yeah.

All right.

I think that does it for this week.

If you have a question that we haven't answered, you can send us an email at fuel for the sole podcast at gmail.com.

You can send us a video of voice memo, which we'd love to play here on the show.

See your face and hear your voice.

Or you can just send us a regular email and type your question. That works as well.

You want me to finish this?

Yeah, typically.

All right.

All right.

All right.

All right.

I got it.

You ready?

Peace and care.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Oh man.

Oh man.

See you later.

See you later.

Bye.

Okay.

Thomas, what the hell?

Can you put down your phone?

Something on his phone.

He's like on Instagram right now.

Like for fuck's sake.

There's one where they're doing yoga and the coach up on the lead.

It's been like, are you doing yoga?

I don't know.

I'm not going to use that.

It's just something that's bad for you.

It's just something that's bad for you.

That's why I'm thinking about it.

It's bad for you.

It's bad?

It's okay.

It's bad for you.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It's bad.

It says it's only when something surprises them.

Oh, yeah.

They get scared.

This is sad.

Oh my gosh.

I think they're good. I think they're good for