Um, you're probably going to get some flare fatigue as well, like nothing is going to sound good as opposed to thinking about food and anything sounding good, you know, in the underfueled side of things. Um, with power when you're overfueled, that's an interesting one, right? Because you have enough to to do the work. You have more than enough to do the work, but you're also compromising other systems that are impacting your ability to do the work. Yeah. I often find when I'm overfueled on the occasion I have overfueled, which is rare, but if I overfueled on the off-road, that seems to irritate me more than over fuel onroad because there's a extra component of concentration and I'm just kind of distracted by how I feel and I often take bad lines and Yeah. It it doesn't end well. Yep. Exactly. Your ability to show up mentally gets impacted there. But so if you have a client comes into you, I know you have a roster of amazing clients and they're saying like they're reporting I have no energy two to three hours into a ride and you're looking at their carbohydrate intake. How are you differentiating between this is somebody that is under fueling versus they have a gut absorption issue? Um, a lot of times I'm looking at what they've historically been doing in the past and what their output is to see if, you know, like the whole idea is are you fueling the work and if they're fueling the work adequately with the right amount of carbohydrate intake or around that, but they're still just feeling like they don't have it for some reason. Then I'm looking at, okay, is there an issue, you know, internally that's making it so that you can't that something is up, right? Like you said, the absorption issue. Um, we're also looking at hydration and electrolyte intake because that a dehydration can cause a lot of, you know, a lack of ability to just show up mentally as well as impact your overall performance. Is it a game of trial and error of trying to figure out what my optimum fueling is for zone 2, zone 3, zone 4? Like because we talked about more isn't better, but how do you think about setting up the guard rails for understanding where the limits are of high-end and low-end for each of these zones? Yeah. Yeah. Um, a lot of times I'm looking at averages of, you know, like what what this what the person is taking in first of all, what their current baseline is and what they're doing and figuring out. I mean, based on all the anecdotal evidence that I have of working with various athletes, right, I have a w this number bank in my head of kind of the low-end averages, high-end averages for many, many different types of athletes. So, that helps me inherently. What I'm also looking at is well, we can't rely 100% on what the, you know, Garmin heart rate data is telling us in terms of all that data is telling us in terms of how many calories we're burning per hour. We can take averages of say the same, you know, your Saturday effort for that zone two effort. We can take maybe three of those and average out the calorie burn over three of those to get a low-end range and a high-end range. And then we want to aim to replace around 50% of those calories burned per hour. And that's a great baseline to start with to kind of create a starting point in the first place. And you're replacing 100% of those calories with carbohydrates. Yeah. Okay. So 50% of my hourly calorie burn. That's early. Yeah. Are we differentiating between because I know this gets into something which is maybe quite nuanced for this and definitely goes beyond my comprehension like efficiency levels. Are we using kiloals and kilogjles in a onetoone relationship? Because I even I know speaking to some nutritionists measuring efficiency is quite hard and the delta between the most efficient and the least efficient. It's actually a wide enough bucket that it is meaningful. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean we have to kind of just account for the fact that there are going to be a lot of variables or there's going to be variables that come into play, right? And that's the whole that's that's what comes up so much in nutrition is that it's never exactly this or exactly that. So we have to account for ranges you know we for so for example if I have an athlete I'm like this is your low range it's not exactly 40 grams of carbohydrates per hour and your high range is not exactly 80 grams of carbohydrates per hour it's going to be you know 40 to 50 or it's going to be 80 to 100 and it's accounting for those kind of things that come into play and the fact that we are not machines right we can't only look at the numbers we have to look at hey how do we field, what's our RPE, you know, what is our desire to eat versus our lack of desire to eat, and all of these other components that help us make more informed decisions about what that person's needs are for any variable type of effort that they're doing.
Yeah, it's an interesting segue to what uh another area I wanted to finish up on and spend a little bit of time on. It's kind of the idea of we're in such a data driven culture, but there is a lot to be said and I know you've spoken really well and written about intuitive eating. Is this the bridge from these two topics here? I'm thinking is this intuitive drinking? If you're finding like you're getting through your bottles well enough and you're having those legacy issues like cramping or you know inability to pee in the afternoon that maybe you don't need to go and investigate these and if you're not such an intuitive drinker, maybe that's when you need to start thinking the next layer of analysis. Yeah. And well, so the idea is is that if you have the adequate sodium concentration and electrolyte concentration in your bottles, you can more accurately and confidently drink to thirst. However, the issue lies in that we have to figure out what your sodium and your electrolyte concentration needs to be. And that's different for each person. So, you know, the the average electrolyte drink, like 400 milligrams of sodium, for example, like that's based on the average sweat loss and and thus sodium replacement needs for the average person. Some people are below that average, some people are above that average. That's what we need to recognize that these products are not made for every single person out there. So, that the averages are so though, aren't they? cuz it's like the fat gamer who's sitting down playing World of Warcraft all day and taga like they're they're hardly the same species and to average out the two of those because they're two outliers on either end of the scales like the average maybe ends up not being very representative of you who ride 8 to 12 hours a week at all. Yeah. Well, right. Ideally, they're taking the average from athletes and people that are actually doing this on a regular basis as opposed to the massive outliers. Yeah. Like when you get your testosterone done and the doctor like, "Oh, you're just about average." And you're like, "Oh, I'm so screwed." Yeah. Yep. Yep. I do that. I have to do that a lot with my athletes when they're testing iron and feritin. And the range for feritin, for example, is huge. But that applies to the general population. It doesn't apply to athletes, even more specifically endurance female athletes. So that's a whole another thing. But yeah, you're absolutely right. You know, like we h we can look at these numbers, Anthony, but then I'm having conversations with my with my athletes and I'm saying like, you know, what is your craving for sodium? How often are you are you feeling super thirsty during your efforts? Are you that person that like in your group of friends that you ride with, are you like constantly sweating and you're like, why is nobody else sweating? Or are you like, no, I don't really sweat that much and I come home and I'm like pretty good. You know, so there's all these other components that come into play that are going to help me better figure out where my person lies and figure out if we need to get them a sodium lost sweat test or maybe if that doesn't necessarily apply to them. What do stage slayer Mads Patterson and half the professional pelaton have in common? Well, they're all turning to Nomio, the natural performance enhancer proven to reduce lactate buildup during intense efforts. In the 2025 Jiratalia, Person's form was undeniable. The Danish star surged to four stage victories. This was a major leap in form from his previous season. And a key part of this preparation and performance was Nomio. Developed by the same researchers who discovered the performance power of dietary nitrate. You know those beetroot shots that half the pelaton were using. Nomio is clinically proven to lower lactate levels, reduce oxidative stress, improve training adaptations, and deliver a noticeable boost from the very first time you take it. Riders are reporting bigger threshold power, fresher legs mid race, and quicker recovery. All from a formula made with just three natural ingredients: broccoli sprouts, lemon, and sugar. Whether you're racing at the front or you're smashing local segments, Nomio helps you get more out of every ride. Take it before key sessions or races for an immediate edge. Or take your training to the next level and get more out of your hard work. Go to drinknomo.com. That's n o m io and check out this gamechanging supplement. Details are in the episode show notes or description down below. I actually feel seen here. Sarah was asking me the other day like why do you keep buying a bag of salt and vinegar crisps after training? And it's only just dawned on me as you were saying that I was like oh no I'm that dude. she's talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. It's And she's like, I don't I don't want that kind of stuff, but you obviously do. Yeah. So, I should probably stick a second bottle cage on the bike. Yeah.