What’s new? Dear Reader, The challenges we face in the world of nutrition are often complex, multifaceted and everchanging. The dark shadow cast over all industries in the last couple years in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic, has changed the way many companies and industries operate. None more so than the health sector, an so concurrently the world of nutrition which has been very versatile and stretched in the last couple of years attempting to provide professional and up to date advice with limited access to people. Abiding to the varying guidelines set by different countries. However as restrictions have gradually been relaxed worldwide, normal service has been resumed in many ways but also remained the same in others. The bombardment of conflicting and often unclear information has been challenging to digest and follow for professionals, and so these clouded forms of communication have seen many misconceptions around the nutritional practices of the general public. This is a frightening thought, and so one of the major challenges we face in the world of nutrition today is around communication. Both in regards to how this information is communicated but also around the governance from the top to regulate the misguided information that is being advocated by profit seeking organisations. The future of nutrition is spearheading toward the realm of personalised nutrition, yet the practicality of cost and time consumption required to roll out such an extensive concept suggests although there is a beacon of light at the end of this befogged tunnel that is the world of nutrition, there may still be many hard yards to cover. Nevertheless this theme of profit seeking organisations with a colossal conflict of interests providing misinformed and ambiguous information that lacks true transparency in regards to the service they are offering their customers for often extensive price. Often once you submerge yourself into the intricacies of the small print that is concealed in the services these companies offer the scientific evidence is often scarce.

In turn it is the duty of the trained professionals to translate this information uniformly and objectively with no hidden agendas solely a focus on health promotion. Following on with this premise of misinformation, athletes in particular are increasing susceptible to products that are pushed by profit driven companies often neglecting health in their pursuit of optimal performance, at least in season. In turn, nutritional support to complement the strenuous training schedules of athletes is unquantifiable both in regards to their overall health and supplementing their recovery and performance goals. With the ironman Lanzarote projected to commence this summer, we take an in depth look of how nutrition can support athletes employing a integrated periodized approach to dovetail the diverse training stages that is typically advocated for athletes participating in an ironman event. The guide will consist of flexible meal plans, detailed sports nutrition practices as well as guidance on how to repel the elements of a blistering Lanzarote summer through proper hydration techniques and race day nutrition tips. Your Editor in Chief, Luis Murphy

Dont worry, it’s not as complicated as it seems ! What is periodisation? There has been many different definitions put forward to simplify the concept of nutritional periodisation. The term is ultimately used to describe changes in nutritional intake in response to certain periods of training (Mujika et al., 2014).

Why periodise? It has been suggested that by careful planning and integration of nutrition and training, the longer-term training adaptations might be improved (Jeukendrup, 2017).

Integrated periodisation? Work over 20 years ago remains true today as Bompa (1999), indicated that integrated periodization combines all the training components into a whole dictating the diet and the psychological skills best suited for a given training phase. This process is built to build up an athlete to peak condition toward a specific event, in this context the Ironman Lanzarote.

Adaptations, initiated by exercise, can be amplified or dampened by nutrition. (Jeukendrup, 2017)

“A key feature of the traditional periodization method was the early emphasis on high training volume" (Mujika et al, 2018).

“Nutrition has often been considered the 'fourth event' in ultra-endurance competition” (Costa et al., 2018).

The taper phase will be focused around fine tuning the physical adaptations you will have acquired during the build phase. Time for you too work smart and this will mean continuing to train at a high intensity whilst reducing your volume as race day approaches. It is likely that your daily energy expenditure will lessen during the this mesocycle, so it is important your energy intake is altered correspondingly to prevent unnecessary and unwanted weight gain (Mujika et al., 2018), as race day approaches. There is no secret formula in this respect, monitor your intake carefully and try not to stress out too much! There should be a lot of focus on your recovery during this period to prevent burnout, this includes your nutrition. Replenishing CHO stores, adequate protein consumption to stimulate optimal MPS as well as obtaining your micronutrient requirements through a diverse diet.

Hydration Fluid intake enhances endurance performance in the heat (Cheuvront and Kenefick, 2011), but it is also important to implement your hydration strategy into your training. Typical recommendations are to avoid body mass losses of 2% during exercise (McDermott et al., 2017; Thomas, Erdman, & Burke, 2016) although care should be taken when replacing this fluid loss as too much fluid could result in hyperhydration. Hypohydration can also be detrimental to health, particularly in such heat so it is important to find the right balance to remain adequately hydrated. One way to help do this is to start exercise in an euhydrated state.

“Taper periods are introduced to diminish the detrimental impact of training while the physiological adaptations achieved during intensive training are further enhanced” (Mujika et al., 2018).

Metagenomics is the study of gut microbiome (The entirety of organisms that colonize individual sites in the human body.)

References