6: Off Season Nutrition: How to set yourself up for success for your next race season

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Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Fuelled Triathlete. My name is Andrea and today’s all about off season nutrition. So I’m recording this at the beginning of November. Some of us may have already finished our last race of the season, or it may be coming pretty close.

And I want to talk about today how should your nutrition needs change, or how should your focus change on your nutrition in this kind of in-between transition period? So right now you probably don’t have a race right on the horizon and we’ve kind of adjusted our training a little bit. For me personally, in the off season, I’m focused on straight training.

I’m doing more strength training, lifting heavier than I would closer to a race and focusing on building strength and injury prevention. For my swimming, biking, and running, I’m still doing that, but the time and intensity is lower than it was when I was building and training for my race. For my swims, I’m more so focused on improving my form and my technique.

So workouts a lot different in the pool doing a lot of drills, which tends to be lower intensity. And kind of using this time to have a little bit fun, try something new. Trying pilates reformer and doing some spin classes to mix up being on the trainer at home.

So with that in mind, if you think about what kind of your goals are in the off season that’s going to help guide you a little bit towards what your, how your nutrition is going to change. So you may be looking to build muscle, build strength, maybe you’re looking to lose some body fat, maybe you’re just looking to maintain. Regardless, your training is probably a lot different than at other times of the year. So I want to talk about how, at this time, what you can do in terms of your day to day nutrition, what to focus on too, and then also how your race nutrition.

So I know we, like don’t have those races on the horizon, but what you start to do now in terms of fueling your workouts can really get you prepped and ready for the race season, that’s coming up. So really, this is a good time to think about nutrition. You probably have more time, you have more effort that you can put into it, and you can start to build some really good habits that are going to help you in the in season and help you be their best and healthy and perform. So first off, starting with our day to day nutrition habits. So if you think about the in season, your training intensity is higher, number of hours at your training is higher and compared to now, then our carbohydrate needs are going to change. So, I like to kind of use this analogy of carbohydrates being like gas in her car. So like gas fuels our car to help us drive. We’re going to need a lot more gas if we’re someone that maybe commutes to work, or if we’re going on a road trip versus just driving in and around the city. So, carbohydrates, how does that change? It’s probably going to come down. It doesn’t mean that you want to do low carb or no carb, but we want to adjust our carbohydrates based on our training. So, I like to use with my clients is plate analogy as one tool to think about how to adjust your carbohydrates. And on a rest day or a very easy day or a light workout, how your plate may look is that you have half a plate of vegetables covering the plate, a quarter of your plate or about a fist coming from carbohydrates or grains and starches, like breads rice cereals, pasta, and then a quarter of your plate being a protein. So the majority of your plate is vegetables to help fill you up, feel satiated, give you a lot of good vitamins and minerals to stay healthy in the off season, but the carbohydrates are not taking up a major part of our plate. Now when you’re in the in season and your higher intensity training, your body’s requiring more carbohydrates. Your plate may look more like the vegetables and carbs are flipped, so half that plate of carbohydrates, a quarter plate vegetables and a quarter plate of protein. That’s a kind of plate for getting ready for a long workout in the meal before, doing some carb bloating, that kind of stuff. Now, maybe in between would be more of like a quarter plate protein, about a third carbohydrates and the third vegetables.

So think about, you know, what that looks like and maybe start to re proportion your plate. In the off season, if your training is lower or on those lighter days, fill up most of your plate with vegetables, about half a quarter protein and a quarter carbohydrates. Now, if you do still have some high-intensity training sessions or a long run or a long bike, then definitely before the meal, before those, switch up your plate a bit.

Cut back on the vegetables and add those carbohydrates back in. So you want to start to get in that habit of adjusting your carbohydrates to your training. And using this kind of plate model is a good way to kind of visually start to do that. Now in the off season, you want to also probably add more vegetables or says I talked about, right.

We’re adding more vegetables into our diet and trying to get fruits and vegetables with each meal and even maybe some snacks as well. We want to make sure we’re getting enough protein. So really prioritize getting protein at every meal.

It’s going to help with muscle building and recovery and immune health too.

Your protein needs can really kind of depend on what your goals are. But if you are someone who in the off season has a goal of weight loss, or gaining muscle you want to probably to about 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight to about 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

So to figure out your weight and kilograms, you’re going to take your weight in pounds and divide that by two point two. Then, what you do is take one of those numbers in the range and multiply your weight in kilograms by 1.8, two or 2.2. And that’s going to tell you how much protein you want to have through the day. And really work on kind of spacing that throughout the day. So getting into this habit of adjusting your intake based on your training can be helpful because as your training ramps up, then you can start to readjust your plate to.

Now another thing I think is really good to work on in the off season is starting to learn to meal prep or batch cook if this is not something that you’re doing already. There’s so many different ways to do this and I’ll talk about what I find works for me, and then also some other strategies. But it’s, you know, when we get into the in season, we’re training a lot. We’re really focused on getting our workouts and getting our training in, and maybe don’t necessarily prioritize nutrition as much.

And I think now in the off season, if you can start to build that habit of each week doing some type of meal prep or meal planning, it’s going to be kind of a seamless transition into the in season. It’s going to be something that you’re already doing. So one way that I really like to meal prep, and this works for me all year long is kind of doing what I call ingredients prep.

So I talked a little bit about earlier, we think about a balanced meal, we want to include carbohydrates, we want to include protein, you want to include some fruits and vegetables as well as healthy fats. But I want you to think about one or two carbohydrates that you can prep. One or two proteins and then a couple of vegetables. So what this looks like is for me, I’ll pick some proteins.

So one week I’ll cook up some chicken breasts and I’ll cook some cubed tofu. And then for carbohydrates, I’m going to pick two carbohydrates. So I’ll cook a batch of brown or white rice, and then I’ll either, dice some potatoes and, air fry, those or I might kind of just bake some whole sweet potatoes. And then for my vegetables, I tend to make a bunch of different salads, basically one salad that I’ll pre-portion into little containers, and then I’ll probably stir fry some frozen vegetables.

But basically this kind of ingredient prep allows you to have all the foods that you need ready to go.

And what you can do is mix and match based on how you’re feeling that day. What are you craving on Monday? And so you can take one of your proteins. Maybe we make some chicken, rice and vegetables, almost like a stir fry. You can switch it up and use tofu. Maybe you also bought some pita and then a salad, make some wraps. So it really allows you to mix and match with those different ingredients.

And it also allows you to adjust the portions. Sometimes if we make a meal and then pre-portion everything into these containers, we might be making every meal the same, every portion, the same. When, as we learned a little bit earlier, we want to adjust our nutrition based on our training. So that’s something that works really well for me.

And I like it because you can multitask, you’re using different cooking utensils or tools at the same time. So you can cook it all at once. So while my rice is going in the rice cooker, I’ve got chicken in the air fryer and then vegetables on the stove. So utilize different, things in your kitchen. And again, if you’re super new to this, this is a great time when you probably have a little bit more time to start building the habits and you will get faster over time. So that’s one thing that I liked to do. I do also like to pick at least maybe one or two meals that I can batch cook.

So it’s not the ingredients, but it’s a whole meal and it’s something that I can have either for lunches or dinners through the week. So this sometimes is requiring maybe a little bit of creativity. You’ve got to find a recipe that you like. But things I find work for me really well are stuffed peppers, lasagna skillet, I do like a Mexican skillet with like rice black beans, taco seasoning, ground Turkey. I might do a Shepherd’s pie. So both of these are things I like to do. Another thing that works really well is a sheet pan meal. So on a baking sheet, you can all-in-one cook your protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables.

Breakfast can also be a really great meal to meal prep, especially if you’re someone who, trains in the morning and you go straight to work.

So instead of skipping breakfast or not having a balanced breakfast or stopping through the drive-through, getting into the habit now of finding some good breakfast that you like to meal prep. So you can take those with you to the gym or into the pool in the morning. So things that I find work really well for myself and my clients are overnight oats, greek yogurt parfait, smoothie bags, hard-boiled eggs.

So meal prep is really one of the big foundations that I teach my clients.

I figure out based on what their skills are, based on what time they have, what style of meal prep is going to work the best for them. And then all my clients receive a big database of recipes that they can choose from that are going to provide the nutrients that they need.

Another good thing to do in the off season is get some blood work done.

Especially if you haven’t recently, you can check your iron, B12, vitamin D levels and see what you may be, lacking in to be able to correct any nutrient deficiencies.

Off season cold and flu season as well. So this is a good time to start having some immune boosting foods and incorporating these into your diet on a regular basis so that you’re staying healthy, trying to fight off colds. Couple of foods that are kind of your most immune boosting foods are the following:

So one ,vitamin C. So vitamin C rich foods would be things like strawberries, peppers, citrus, broccoli. Brussel sprouts, Kiwi. You also want to make sure we’re getting enough vitamin D. Vitamin D is really important for immune health. As again, off season it’s winter, we’re not getting as much sun. And vitamin D is really difficult to get through food alone. You have to eat something like 23 egg yolks a day or salmon every single day or a litre and a half of milk every day to get your vitamin D needs.

Mushrooms are also a pretty good source, but I think it’s about four cups of cooked mushrooms every day. So a lot of these foods, very difficult to eat and I’m wouldn’t recommend eating that many eggs. So it’s a good time said, look at taking a vitamin D supplements, at least 1000 international units per day. 1000 to 2000 could be good.

And again, if you get some blood work to see what your levels are, you may need, you may see if you potentially need more than that. Vitamin E is also another antioxidant like vitamin C, which is good for keeping our immune system healthy. These are in foods like sunflower seeds, almonds, peanut butter, avocado, and wheat germ. We also want to make sure we’re getting enough zinc. So this is a mineral found, the highest food it’s found in is an oysters. It’s probably not a huge part of our, most of our regular daily diet, but you can get it in beef, pork, hearts of Palm, turkey, baked beans and lentils. And then lastly, another good thing that’s really important for, immune system is probiotics. So probiotics are the healthy bacteria in our gut. And these are found in things like yogurt, kefir sauerkraut, tempeh and miso and sourdough bread.

And lastly, when it kind of comes to your day to day nutrition, these are some good things to think about, but maybe do some reflection, do some evaluation. What are the things that you could work more on? So I find clients come to me and they’re not super great always at recovery nutrition, getting some food right in their body as soon as possible after workout. So I do have a podcast all about that.

Podcast number two is all about recovery and post-workout nutrition. So now is a good time to start kind of building that habit. Or you may not be drinking enough water. So right now is a good time to start thinking about your daily nutrition habits. Don’t wait until it’s race time because, or it’s close to race season because you’re getting busier.

You’re going to be focused more on your actual race day nutrition, but your day to day, nutrition habits are so fundamental to helping you to race day as well. So try some of these tips kind of for your day to day nutrition. But also know that everyone is super unique, everyone has different goals in the off season. So if you do want a bit more of a personalized advice, reach out to a dietician. I offer one-on-one nutrition counseling all throughout the year that, and it may be of something of benefit to you.

So now the last part of this podcast is all about things that are going to help prepare you for figuring out a race day nutrition plan. And, and also things that kind of relate to fueling your actual workouts. So the first thing is that in the off season, now’s a good time to use alternative fuel sources to gels, sports, drinks, all that kind of stuff.

So I really recommend my clients, a couple months out from the race that they’re really starting to kind of start to use the products that they want to use

on race day, dialing in the race nutrition plan. But right now you don’t have a race right on the horizon. So maybe start to use a little bit more foods during, during training.

So some examples of foods you could use during longer runs would be like candy. so like gummy candies or jujubes, I would just avoid not using like chocolate. Applesauce or baby food pouches are awesome too. There’s a nice screw cap on there. Fruit snacks, dried fruit, or even looking to some like homemade sports drinks as well. For biking, long bike ride on a trainer, you can use any of those, items that I talked about to feeling long runs, but you could also use like baked potatoes with salt.

You can use pretzels, just regular salted pretzels, or like those peanut butter filled pretzels could be great. You can make a sandwich like a peanut butter and jam or a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Banana.

Now in the off season is a good time to train your gut and training your gut just means training your digestive track to be able to absorb a higher amount of carbohydrates and utilize those carbohydrates during your training. Don’t wait until you’re super close to your race and start to train your gut, use your off season now. In half and full Ironmans, I have some of my clients taking a hundred to 120 grams of carbohydrates per hour, and it yes is possible and can improve your performance. But if you’re someone who’s right now really only training with about 30 to 40 grams of carbs, if you wait until too close to your race, you, you may not be able to build up to that amount.

So, you know, you don’t have to do this super early in the off season because you may not be having such long training sessions, but later into the off season. Start training your gut. So what that means is, on your weekend long runs or your long bike rides, where you’re going to be fueling, add an extra 10 carbs, 10 grams of carbs per hour each week.

So let’s say you go out on a two hour bike ride, or a two hour training ride. And you know, my max is 40 grams of carbs per hour. That’s all I can tolerate. What I want you to try to do is the next week, build it up a little bit. So maybe you try 45 grams of carbs per hour or 50 grams of carbs per hour on that, and then build up gradually each week from there and doing it slowly is a good way to, again, train that gut. As opposed to doing huge jumps week to week, you may start to have some GI symptoms.

And you can use it again either with your sports products or those foods that I talked about. The off season can also be a great way, not just to fuel with food, but perhaps you want to try out new fuel sources in terms of like sports products and maybe you were someone who used, a certain type of sports drink or a certain type of gel and you want to transition to trying something new for next year. Start to give some of that a try and see what you like so that when it does come time close to your race, you know what you want to use. We’ll, we’ll talk about probably closer to race season, how to, how much carbs you need per hour.

Okay. So these are things to focus on in the off season. So when it comes to our day to day nutrition, I want you to kind of think about, what are some habits that I have that I want to maybe break or some habits that I want to start to build that are going to help me keep healthy, reach my goals and help with my performance into the next, into the next season.

And then also think about kind of your race nutrition. So maybe reflect on how the nutrition in your last race went. Do you need to start training your gut? Do you want to try a new fuel source or just for anyone in general, you know, you can put away some of those sports products and move into fueling with some foods to change things up and save some money as well. So thanks for tuning in today and have a great day!