A blog to help you optimize your full-body and life performance

At InsideTracker we believe that eating is training. Eating is not only critical for workout fueling, but also for post endurance training recovery. Beyond what our biomarkers tell us, we recognize that it is important to eat to support training sessions and the recovery process in between.

This brings us to one of the most frequently asked questions sports dietitians hear, especially from those in the endurance sports world: "What should I be eating before and after my workouts?"

From CrossFit’s finest, to world record-holding triathletes, to pro ballers, we work with some of the best athletes in the world. They inspire us to make InsideTracker the authority on what the body needs to train properly, recover effectively, and most importantly, perform at 110% when it comes time for the main event.

They also inspire us on a personal level. No, we’re not going for Olympic gold anytime soon. But a noteworthy finish line is certainly on our horizon – we’re headed for Ironman Maine 70.3 this August. So please consider this post your official invitation to join us for the training ride as we – Ross and Ashley, InsideTracker's own amateur triathletes – share weekly recaps of our progress (and pain) right here on the blog!

At InsideTracker, we are all about personalization. Personalized nutrition, personalized lifestyle changes, and personalized supplement recommendations. But even while personalization is the name of our game, we know that sometimes, it’s important to take a look at the broader picture in addition to the details.

What do we mean by that? Well, take the Coeur Ambassador Group for example. Each team member wants their own personalized approach, but how about their captain and leaders? For them, clicking through account after account could be a never ending task, but with InsideTracker, they can take a look at the group as a whole. From there, they can provide tips to help everyone on the team reach their goals.

We sat down with Coeur Co-Founder and Team Captain, Hailey Manning, to find out why Coeur decided to partner with InsideTracker, and what a difference it can make when a team takes a scientific approach to training.

She started caring for you even before you were born. Eating the right foods, avoiding the bad ones. Monitoring every step of her pregnancy to ensure you were a happy, healthy baby. And that didn't stop once you were born. As is often the case, her life likely became a whole lot more about yours. So now that it's her big day, Mother's Day, how do you say thank you to mom?

Stevie Lyn Smith is an InsideTracker athlete and Registered Dietitian who jumped at the chance to give more than flowers. Stevie is always worrying about her mother’s health, thanks to a bit of sub-par family health history, and she decided that giving InsideTracker to the woman who gave her life was a good way to show how much she cares about her.  

I had the pleasure of chatting with Stevie to discuss all things InsideTracker and triathlon training – she shares both with her mom, Lisa Beaser – and most importantly, how they laugh their way through it all.

Swim. Bike. Run. Easier read than done. Especially when you're talking about the IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. This race, The Big Show - The Grand Finale - The Super Bowl of Triathlon - whatever you decide to call it, is iconic and will test your mind, body, and soul like never before.

This year 2,401 athletes competed from 64 countries for the chance to be deemed an IRONMAN at the memorable World Championship finish line. Among those athletes were four InsideTracker athletes: Kevin Portmann, Jeremy Behler, Erin Klegstad, and James Piper, and three of them were first time Kona qualifiers.

Nine hours, twenty-eight minutes, and twenty-nine seconds. When is the last time you did anything for that long? No, really. Have you even slept that long lately? Well, that's how long it took InsideTracker athlete, Kevin Portmann, to cross the finish line of Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

By crossing the finish line in personal record time and nearly 10 minutes faster than the runner up, he not only punched his ticket the Ironman World Championship in Kailua Kona, he also grabbed his Pro Card - a feat by any measure.

After this triumphant win, our colleague, Mariah Bridges, caught up with Kevin to talk about his training, nutrition, and the role InsideTracker plays in all of it. View the video below, or read the Q&A instead!

Professional triathlete Sarah Haskins has certainly been busy these past few years! She competed in her first triathlon shortly after graduating from the University of Tulsa in 2003, and has been going the distance ever since. Haskins, a St. Louis native, competed in the triathlon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and is the 2011 Pan American Games Gold medalist. Despite her grueling schedule of swimming, hiking, and biking, she knows proper nutrition is key to optimal physical performance. Check out what Sarah has to say about InsideTracker and the ways in which healthy eating impacts her results.

When I talk with athletes, they always wonder how fast I can go and how many watts I push. I get a lot of questions about power meters and GPS devices. But those are just tools to measure outcomes of a few factors; good training, good equipment and good body chemistry.