Guides

Practical, sourced guides on fueling and training for running, HYROX, lifting, climbing and more.

Every number on these pages comes from published sports science research, linked on each page. Pick your sport below.

Consistency

Tracking

• General fitness Calorie tracking apps compared. What each one gives you free, what you pay for, and which fits how you train.
• General fitness Best food logging app for weight loss, by situation. Which app fits how you actually log.

Consistency

• General fitness How to stay consistent when motivation fades. Motivation gets you started. Habits, plans and a rule for bad days keep you going.

Running

Race fueling

• Running How to carb load for a half or full marathon. It’s two days of eating, not one pasta dinner.
• Running What to eat before a race. How much you can eat depends on when you eat it.
• Running How many carbs per hour during a race. Count grams per hour, not gels.
• Running Marathon race week nutrition: a day-by-day timeline. What to eat and drink from a week out to the finish line, plus how a triathlon week differs.
• Running Half marathon fueling plan. What to eat before, during and after 13.1 miles, by finish time.
• Running Marathon fueling plan by finish time. Carbs per hour, grams for the whole race, and when to take them.
• Running What to eat before a 5K or 10K. Short races need less than you think: a good breakfast and nothing fancy.
• Running Best foods for carb loading. Carbs per serving for ordinary foods, so you can hit your number.
• Running Why do runners carb load before a race?. What glycogen is, what happens when it runs low, and which races it matters for.
• Running Carb load snacks: what to eat in the 48 hours before your race. Grams per snack, low-fiber picks you can buy or make, and when to eat them.
• Running Carb load meal plan: 3 days with gram targets. What to eat, in grams, for the three days before a half or full marathon.

Training nutrition

• Running Carbs on training days vs rest days. Your food should move with your training.
• Running How much protein do runners need?. A daily range, which end of it fits you, and how to spread it across the day.
• Running Caffeine before running: how much and when. Your pre-run coffee has a dose and a timing.
• Running What to eat after a long run. The 30-minute window matters less than you’ve heard, except on one kind of day.
• Running Do you need to fuel a 1-hour run?. Short runs are fueled by the carbs you’ve already stored, not by gels.
• Running Should you eat before a morning run?. It depends on how long and how hard. Here’s how to decide.
• Running What to eat the night before a long run. A normal dinner done well beats a giant one.

Tracking

• Running How to track food during marathon training without burning out. A system you can keep for 16 weeks, not 16 days.
• Running How to tell if your training is working. A 10-minute weekly check-in instead of guessing.

Training

• Running Strength training for runners. Heavy, low-rep strength work, in a set order.

HYROX

• HYROX HYROX training: what predicts your finish time. Half the race is running, and the research says train it like it.
• HYROX HYROX fueling: what to eat before and during. No study has tested HYROX fueling yet. Here’s what endurance research suggests.
• General fitness Can you lift and run in the same plan?. Yes, for muscle and max strength. Explosive power is the part to protect.
• HYROX How HYROX works. Eight 1 km runs, eight stations, the same race everywhere.

Weight training

• Weight training How much protein to build muscle. Per day and per meal, worked out for your body weight.
• Weight training How many sets per muscle per week?. More sets help, up to a point. How often you train matters less.
• Weight training Creatine: how much to take. 3–5 g a day works. Loading is optional, just faster.
• Weight training Mind-muscle connection: what the research says. Focusing on the muscle turns it up a little. Focusing on the lift tends to give more force and reps in the moment.
• Weight training How to bulk. Your surplus, protein and weekly weight gain, worked out.

Climbing

• Climbing Do climbers eat enough?. In every diet study we found, many climbers ate less than the benchmarks those studies used for their training.
• Climbing Hangboard training: what the studies tested. Short blocks of 4–8 weeks, and the load decides what you build.
• Climbing Strength training for climbers. Strength training reliably makes climbers stronger. Better climbing is less certain.

Swimming

• Swimming What to eat before and after swim practice. In one elite college group, early sessions were where the gap was.
• Swimming Does dryland training make swimmers faster?. Added to pool training, it helped sprints most. Fast, specific work transfers best.

Tennis

• Tennis Tennis hydration and fuel. What to drink at changeovers and between sets, and what changes when you play twice in a day.

Golf

• Golf Strength training for golf: does it add clubhead speed?. Power goes with clubhead speed. Flexibility doesn’t, in the research so far.

Cycling

• Cycling How many carbs per hour on a long ride?. Ride length sets the number. Your body weight doesn’t.