Words: Conan Marshall

Do you put time and effort into your sports nutrition to improve performance? Knowing how to fuel for peak performance is a crucial part of being able to compete at your best.

Claire Fudge is a sports dietitian and performance nutritionist who has worked with athletes of all levels. Claire is an Ironman finisher and founder of the 4th Discipline Triathlon Nutrition Hub, an online nutrition service offering personalised guidance to triathletes, cyclists, runners and swimmers.

We talk with Claire about sports nutrition, the athlete’s shes worked with, and 4th Discipline.

What made you interested in becoming a clinical dietician and creating 4th Discipline?

I love answering this question as it makes me think about what it was that made me the clinician that I am today! After 17 years as a clinical dietitian, I still believe the same as the day I stepped foot into Kings College London. I want everyone to enjoy food, not just for fuel but for health, wellbeing, socially and for performance. Food is to be enjoyed, not feared to feel guilty for and to share with others. I was lucky to have enjoyed quality foods during my childhood. Which meant that I gained a deeper understanding of how and where it comes from. Having grown up in a thriving family food business, quality and simplicity were at the heart of our upbringing.

I have always loved taking part in sports. Whether it was galloping around the countryside on ponies as youngsters, swimming in the sea or taking to my bike for the hills, this was my passion. This fused my love of nutrition, health and sport over the years!

It is a privilege supporting people with clinical, medical conditions; and it is with this knowledge that I have been able to shape and impart knowledge to athletes. 

Can you share a bit about your story of how you became an Ironman athlete?

I remember walking around our local town of Sherborne where Ironman UK used to take place; watching the cyclists ride throughout the village and cheering them up the finish line at the castle. 

I always said I would compete one day “just to finish”. Now 17 races later and I continue! I guess there was the small story of Claire vs Oil Tanker one year in the Yorkshire Dales that kind of stopped me fell running; the recovery process made me take to the local pool which I dreaded every day and then the trip to a triathlon store to buy a bike. The recovery process and the determination to race and run again made me survive the long recovery. 

This accident gave me a whole new world of fantastic athletes and adventures as I commenced my quest into triathlon racing and then the Ironman I had always said I would compete.

You’ve found the 4th Discipline Triathlon Nutrition Hub, can you tell us about what is on offer for members? 

The 4th Discipline Triathlon Nutrition Hub is a personalised nutrition service designed for triathletes, cyclists, runners, swimmers, and other athletes of endurance sports. The service provides access to exclusive nutrition guidance, tools and privileges, to help members achieve their fitness goals. 

Members will be able to use a one-stop education resource, where they can find the tools and information they need to realise their nutrition goals.

Could you highlight some of the high-performance athletes that yourself and 4th discipline have worked with?

I am truly privileged to have been able to work with so many fantastic and talented athletes on their quests and journey in triathlon. It's been exciting to work alongside Sophie Cook (UK Pole vaulter), who is a fellow healthcare professional. Alysha Kryall is a USA pro triathlete who never ceases to amaze me with the endurance and crazy events that she takes part in alongside her triathlon career in the USA. 

Recently I have loved working with USA Pro athlete Morgan Pearson. Morgan has been so fun to work with. Like all the pros I am currently working with including some high profile age group athletes, they all engage and trust in the process and more importantly in our relationship together as part of the team! Neither one of them is the same, nor is their racing or their nutrition. 

I am always so proud to be a part of their journeys and am super excited to support them into the season of 2021… We hope! 

You have worked with athletes who have experienced Relative energy deficiency (RED). Could you tell us about REDs and the dangers of overtraining/under-fuelling?

REDs is a consequence of low energy availability which is not sufficient to meet the basic physiological demands of the athlete. Over time changes in hormones such as oestrogen, testosterone and Insulin growth factor 1 (IGF-1) can affect the musculoskeletal system including bone health increasing the risks of stress fractures and injury; changes in appetite hormones, gut permeability and gastrointestinal distress, effects on the cardiovascular system and immune function are just a few of the examples of the consequences of low energy availability. 

One thing that I always stress to athletes, parents and athletes is that there is indeed a fine line between training to high performance and competing level, pushing the limits of what is truly possible and health. Over train or overload, just a fraction too much for too long whilst under-fuelling can spark a whole host of hormonal, phycological and physiological changes manifesting in REDs. It is often quite difficult to persuade and educate an athlete and a coach about the dangers, both acutely and chronically, when under fuelled. Whilst in the moment of slight under-fuelling may produce some performance benefits such as the greater running economy for example. Unfortunately, this is short-lived.

It is great that slowly the athlete and coaching community is becoming aware of REDs and how to identify it. 

You talk about things to consider when fuelling around training (intensity, environment, duration, type of exercise, body composition and goals), could you explain these points further?

Simply put; there is no one diet that we can hand out to all athletes and expect them to perform and be healthy. We need to think about the athlete as an individual; all with personal goals and nutritional requirements to excel. For example, an athlete may be training at an altitude camp one week, racing in the heat on another or struggling to maintain weight during periods of high training loads. So we must always think about all the environmental and individual factors that affect the day to day and periodisation of an athletes nutrition across each training cycle. 

In terms of diet and micronutrients, what can people do to support their immune system? 

Let’s keep the message simple. Having a healthy balanced diet should supply all the nutrients that we need as athletes. We shouldn’t have to supplement. However, this time of year everyone can optimise their vitamin D by taking Vitamin D3 from September to march whilst sunlight is limited.

Many athletes forget that by ensuring that we fuel sufficiently, and include carbohydrate will also support immune health during the window of opportunity after intense or prolonged exercise.