Five Habits of Triathletes Who Reach the Start Line Ready to Race

Are you actually going to hit the start line ready - or are you going to arrive having done all the training but undone the work in race week?

Taryn is recording this one live from Cairns, where the TNA crew has flown in from all over the world to race the 70.3 and Ironman. Every single one of these athletes had their race nutrition dialled in months ago. Not this week. Not over last night's bowl of pasta. Months ago.

In this episode, Taryn shares the five habits that separate triathletes who arrive on race morning topped up, adapted and confident from those who roll up to the start line under-fuelled before the gun has even gone off.

What you'll learn:

• Why race week is not the time to train harder or eat less - and what the taper trap actually does to your fuelling
• How recovery nutrition session by session is what makes the hard work stick
• Why rehearsing your race fuelling on long sessions is non-negotiable (and what happens when you wing it on race day)
• The one habit that quietly takes more athletes out of their A-race than any fuelling mistake out on course
• How to carb load properly - because no, it is not a giant bowl of pasta the night before

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction — Live from Cairns

06:37 Habit 1 — Bank the adaptations and protect the taper

09:11 Habit 2 — Recover from every session

12:38 Habit 3 — Rehearse race fuelling on long sessions

15:02 Habit 4 — Protect your immune system

17:48 Habit 5 — Plan and practise your carb load

20:14 Race Day Pack List

21:40 Summary and close

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Recovery Accelerator - the exact framework Taryn teaches TNA athletes for what to eat after every training session and every race (the four R's, when to eat, what to eat and when to prioritise it). You can get through it all in one trainer session or one long run

Free Race Day Pack List - everything you need for swim, bike and run, plus before and after your race, ready to print and reuse for every race

STUDIES MENTIONED

Gunzer, W., Konrad, M., & Pail, E. (2012). Exercise-induced immunodepression in endurance athletes and nutritional intervention with carbohydrate, protein and fat: What is possible, what is not? Nutrients, 4(9), 1187-1212. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu4091187

Knowledge of carbohydrate requirements does not predict carbohydrate intake around competition in endurance athletes. PMC11451575

(2025). A review of carbohydrate supplementation approaches and strategies for optimising performance in elite long-distance endurance. Nutrients, 17(5), 918. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17050918

Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Dietary carbohydrate and the endurance athlete: contemporary perspectives.

If you want to toe a start line with the TNA crew somewhere in the world, get your name on the Triathlon Nutrition Academy waitlist at dietitianapproved.com/academy. You'll be first to know when the next cohort starts.

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