#909 – Nutrition and Hydration for Training, Racing, and Life

Crushing Iron Triathlon Podcast

Mike Tarrolly

Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 739 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Struggling to dial in your nutrition? We have you covered . . . well, sort of. Nutrition and hydration vary greatly between athletes and we'll give you a LOT to think about as you train and prepare for your race. We'll look at high carb, low carb, and maybe more importantly, the right carbs. We'll talk sugar and sodium. We get into the concept of "over-fueling" and why it may be more common than you think. We get into your "work rate" and why it might be the most important variable. We look at sweat rates, when caffeine is a terrible idea, and why the swim is much more important than most people give it credit for. We talk about daily nutrition and why that sets the most important tone for everything you do in training.

Come join us at one of our awesome Camps:

Nashville, May 13-17 - https://runsignup.com/Race/TN/Nashville/2026Camp

Madison, Wisconsin, July 30-Aug 2 - https://c26triathlon.com/camps/triathlon-camp-wisconsin-2026/

Topics:

Do you take in too much nutrition?
Popping gels as a habit
High Carb - Low Carb - The Right Carb
Why you have to experiment
Carbs/Sugar is a polarizing topic
Use carbs as a booster not always the fuel
How high is your "work rate?"
Dehydration impact
What is my hourly calorie and carbohydrate goal for the bike and run?
Overfilling on the bike?
Gut training??
Is it nutrition or not training properly?
How much sodium or electrolyte intake is necessary per hour, and how should I carry it?
Sweat rates vary greatly
Doing your own sweat test
What are common race-day nutrition mistakes, and how do I avoid them?
Why caffeine when you're tired is a bad idea
Don't be afraid of deviating from your plan by listening to the body
Why the swim is SOO important
How do I effectively practice my race-day nutrition during long training sessions?
Why you get behind the 8-ball and can't get out from it
How long can you fend off that feeling of being in the negative?
More chicken, less sauce

Mike Tarrolly - mike@c26triathlon.com

Robbie Bruce - robbie@c26triathlon.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Good morning.
0:20.0	I don't know. I don't know.
0:22.4	Sometimes my brain goes crazy when that music comes on.
0:25.6	I just pictured the Muppets band playing that for some reason.
0:31.1	Which Muppet were you?
0:33.2	I wasn't any of them, but I was just looking at like, you know, furry creature just whacking away on the drums.
0:42.2	I actually made a Muppet reference last week to one of the kids that came in for us.
0:46.1	I was like, yeah, there was like this plant.
0:47.9	I was like, it kind of looks like Beaker's hair.
0:51.0	And they had no idea what I was talking about.
0:53.4	I don't know.
0:53.8	I think Muppets are pretty much irrelevant.
0:56.5	But hopefully we're still relevant is it's a, well, it's gloomy, but you know, who cares?
1:03.3	It's a March 3rd, 2006.
1:06.4	Welcome to everybody.
1:07.6	You listen to the Crushing Iron Podcast.
1:09.0	This is episode 909, nutrition and hydration. Oh, that's just good. Wait, I know, like I'm so on that. But still, honestly, like, is this the first pre-show meeting, like, outlaw we've ever had with, like, a podcast number? And, I mean, I know we're not going to title us probably but maybe I just
1:28.0	did but that we ever like had before we went live oh I know no no we've had a few
1:33.9	that's true we've had a few I mean to be honest we they they do seem to work but so I mean it
1:40.5	is true but sometimes I feel like it I mean hell we probably could have talked for two and a half hours of the topic we had before rolling.
1:48.2	I'm not sure that would fall in line with the, well, actually probably would, with the trathlon.
1:54.9	Yeah, well, it probably would resonate more than nutrition and hydration with most people.
	...

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