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10 FUELLING LESSONS WE’VE LEARNT FROM ATHLETES & COACHES
From RED-S and carbohydrates to race-day fuelling, early starts, solid food and what athletes actually want to eat.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from taking RED-Scue to races, speaking to coaches, chatting to athletes and simply listening to the people actually doing the training, it’s this:
Fuelling sounds simple until real life gets involved.
You can know that carbohydrates matter.
You can know that you need to eat enough.
You can know that fuelling before, during and after training is important.
But then you have work.
A 5am alarm.
A two-hour commute.
A session straight after school.
A long run on a Sunday morning.
A race where you’re standing on the start line at 7:45am wondering when you were supposed to eat.
And sometimes, you just want someone to tell you:
“What do I actually eat?”
That’s what we wanted this blog to help with.
Not another complicated nutrition plan.
Not another list of rules.
Just 10 lessons we keep coming back to, and some practical ways to think about fuelling on both training days and race days.
1. FUELLING HAS TO FIT AROUND REAL LIFE
This sounds obvious.
But it’s one of the biggest things we hear.
Athletes don’t live in a performance laboratory.
They work.
They study.
They commute.
They have children.
They travel.
They have early mornings and late nights.
Sometimes training happens at 6am.
Sometimes it happens straight after work.
Sometimes you realise at 4pm that you haven’t eaten enough since lunch.
So the “perfect” fuelling plan isn’t always the most useful plan.
The best plan is one you can actually follow.
What does that mean?
Instead of thinking:
“What should I eat immediately before my session?”
Think:
“How have I fuelled across the whole day?”
If you know you don’t like eating close to training, you can work backwards.
Breakfast.
Snack.
Lunch.
Snack.
Pre-training food if needed.
Training.
Recovery.
The goal isn’t to cram everything into the hour before your session.
It’s to give your body the fuel it needs across the day.
WHERE RED-SCUE FITS
That’s one reason we created RED-Scue as a practical food-first option.
A bar can sit in your gym bag, work bag, car or race kit.
You don’t need to cook it.
You don’t need a fridge.
And you don’t have to wait until you’re starving to start thinking about food.
Make fuelling easier to actually do.
2. YOU DON’T HAVE TO EAT A HUGE MEAL RIGHT BEFORE TRAINING
One of the biggest misconceptions around fuelling is that you have to eat a huge meal immediately before exercise.
You don’t.
And for some athletes, eating a large amount very close to training simply doesn’t feel good.
That doesn’t mean the answer is to train without fuel.
It can mean working backwards.
If you have a 6pm session and don’t enjoy eating at 5:30pm, think about what you’ve eaten at breakfast, lunch and your afternoon snack.
You can build towards the session rather than trying to fix everything at the last minute.
This is particularly relevant for people who say:
“I always feel sick when I eat before running.”
Sometimes the question isn’t simply what did you eat immediately before?
It’s:
What did you eat during the hours leading up to it?
A simple way to think about it
Training later in the day?
Don’t leave fuelling until the final few minutes.
Training first thing?
Have a plan for what works for you before the session.
Don’t like a big meal?
A smaller, easier-to-eat carbohydrate option may work better.
RED-Scue bars were created with exactly this kind of flexibility in mind.
3. YOU TRAIN MORE THAN YOU RACE
This one sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget.
We can spend weeks thinking about race day.
The kit.
The shoes.
The route.
The taper.
The weather.
The breakfast.
The gels.
The start time.
But you might race once every few weeks while training several times every week.
So why would fuelling only become important on race day?
Your training deserves fuel too.
If you’re doing intervals, a long run, a long ride, a brick session, strength work or another demanding session, your body still needs energy.
And your recovery matters too.
Think:
BEFORE → DURING → AFTER
Not just:
RACE DAY → FINISH LINE
This is a huge part of the RED-Scue mission.
We want athletes to have practical fuel for the sessions that actually make up the majority of their sporting life.
4. PROTEIN ISN’T THE WHOLE STORY
Protein has become a huge part of sports nutrition.
And for good reason.
Protein plays important roles in the body, including supporting muscle maintenance and repair.
But sports nutrition is not just protein.
Different nutrients have different jobs.
Carbohydrates are an important fuel source for exercise, particularly as exercise intensity and duration increase.
Yet sometimes the sports nutrition conversation can become:
“How much protein is in it?”
Rather than:
“What do I actually need for this session?”
If you’re heading into a hard or long session, carbohydrate availability matters.
And if you’re recovering afterwards, your overall nutrition matters too.
This is one of the reasons RED-Scue is deliberately carbohydrate-focused.
We aren’t trying to make another protein bar.
There are already plenty of those.
We wanted to make something for athletes who need practical carbohydrate-rich fuel.
5. SOLID FOOD GIVES ATHLETES MORE FLEXIBILITY
There are now loads of options for fuelling exercise.
Gels.
Gummies.
Chews.
Drinks.
Powders.
Bars.
And they can all have a place.
But something we hear again and again is:
“I want something solid.”
Not everyone enjoys the same texture.
Not everyone wants to consume everything as a gel.
And not everyone wants to drink their fuel.
For longer sessions and races, having different formats can make fuelling more manageable.
Think about your own preferences.
Do you want something you can:
hold?
chew?
carry?
eat gradually?
recognise as food?
That flexibility matters.
And food-first doesn’t have to mean anti-gel.
Gels have their place.
Drinks have their place.
Chews have their place.
Solid food has its place too.
Athletes deserve options.
6. LONGER EVENTS CHANGE THE CONVERSATION
Something might sound great for a 30-minute session.
But would you want to eat it after two hours?
That’s a different question.
When athletes are training for longer distances, fuelling becomes about much more than the number on the packet.
You need to think about:
Can I carry it?
Can I open it?
Can I eat it while moving?
Can I digest it?
Do I actually like it?
Will I still want it later?
Because when you’re several hours into an ultra, marathon, long ride or endurance event, the novelty has worn off.
You need something you can actually keep eating.
That’s one of the reasons we focused so much on texture when developing RED-Scue.
Smooth.
Easy to eat.
Not designed to fall apart in your hands.
And something that feels like actual food.
7. THE SPORTS FUEL MARKET NEEDS MORE FOOD-FIRST OPTIONS
There are loads of gels, gummies, chews, drinks and protein products available.
But we kept asking:
Where are the food-first options?
Where is the solid fuel that actually feels like food?
Because a lot of sports bars can be incredibly dense, dry, crumbly or chalky.
And if you’re going to eat something repeatedly during training, taste and texture matter.
We also think it’s worth asking what we’re putting into our bodies regularly.
Recent independent testing has raised concerns about lead and other heavy metals in some protein powders and shakes. That doesn’t mean every protein product is unsafe, but it does reinforce the value of looking beyond marketing claims and considering the ingredients and testing behind the products we use.
For us, that comes back to a simple idea:
Can sports fuel be both practical and food-first?
That’s what we wanted RED-Scue to be.
70g of solid, smooth fuel.
Made from ingredients including:
-
Cassava
-
Plantain
-
Dates
-
Maple syrup
-
Nut or seed ingredients depending on flavour
-
Natural flavour ingredients
And around 38g of carbohydrate per bar.
The aim?
Food that works as sports fuel.
Not sports fuel that feels like a completely different category of food.
8. BREAKFAST DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN OVERNIGHT OATS
Let’s talk about the 5am alarm.
Your race starts at 8am.
You need to leave the house early.
You don’t have much appetite.
And someone tells you:
“Just have overnight oats.”
Great.
If you like overnight oats.
But what if you don’t?
What if you’re travelling?
Camping?
Racing abroad?
Staying in a hotel room without a fridge?
Leaving before the café opens?
You need something that fits the situation you’re actually in.
That’s why we created RED-Scue Breakfast Fuel.
The idea is simple:
Prepare it.
Grab it.
Take it with you.
No kitchen.
No kettle.
No fridge.
It was created specifically around that early-start problem.
Because the race might start at 8am...
But fuelling starts much earlier.
9. FOOD-FIRST DOESN’T MEAN ANTI-GEL
We want to be really clear about this.
RED-Scue is not here to tell you that gels are bad.
Or that everyone should eat solid food.
Or that there is one perfect fuelling strategy.
There isn’t.
An athlete might use a gel during a short, intense section.
A drink might be easier when it’s hot.
Chews might work brilliantly for someone else.
A solid bar might be exactly what another athlete wants.
And you might use more than one format during the same event.
The point is to have options.
We want RED-Scue to sit alongside the sports nutrition products that already work for you, not tell you that you have to throw everything else away.
Food-first means giving food a seat at the table.
10. FUELLING IS ABOUT LONGEVITY, NOT JUST PERFORMANCE
This might be the biggest lesson of all.
Sport is not just about one race.
Or one PB.
Or one training block.
It’s about being able to keep doing something you love.
That means thinking beyond the finish time.
How are you fuelling your training?
How are you recovering?
Are you eating enough across your day?
Are you giving your body the energy it needs?
Can your fuelling approach work for months and years, rather than just one race?
RED-S, or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, is a reminder that insufficient energy availability can affect much more than performance.
It can have consequences across multiple areas of health and physiological function.
And yet awareness is still not where it needs to be.
That’s why RED-Scue exists beyond simply making an energy bar.
We want to make fuelling easier to understand.
And easier to actually do.
SO, WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IN REAL LIFE?
Because this is where nutrition advice can become complicated.
So let’s make it simple.
A TRAINING DAY
Think about your whole day.
BREAKFAST
Start with a proper meal that works for you.
Think carbohydrate + protein + fats + fruit/vegetables where appropriate.
LUNCH
Another proper meal.
Don’t save your food for after training.
PRE-TRAINING
If you need something before your session, choose an option that works with the timing and your appetite.
This could be a banana, toast, porridge, rice, a RED-Scue bar or another familiar carbohydrate-rich food.
DURING
For shorter, easier sessions, you may not need to take fuel with you.
For longer or harder sessions, plan what you’ll need rather than hoping you’ll be okay.
AFTER
Eat again.
Think about carbohydrates, protein and overall food intake.
The aim isn’t perfection.
It’s making sure fuelling is part of the training plan.
A RACE DAY
THE NIGHT BEFORE
Yes, your pre-race meal matters.
But don’t suddenly try to eat an enormous amount of food because you think you have to “carb load”.
Keep it familiar.
Think about carbohydrate-rich foods that you know you tolerate.
Pasta.
Rice.
Potatoes.
Bread.
Fruit.
And whatever else works for you.
RACE MORNING
Your start time matters.
An 8am race is very different from a midday race.
If you have an early start, plan ahead.
Prepare your breakfast the night before.
That could be Breakfast Fuel, porridge, toast, banana or another familiar option.
The important thing is to have a plan.
BEFORE THE START
If you need another carbohydrate-rich option closer to the start, keep it familiar and practical.
This is where a RED-Scue bar can fit.
DURING
For longer events, plan your fuel before you start.
Don’t wait until you’re exhausted and then decide what you’re going to eat.
Pack what you know you can eat.
Gels.
Chews.
Drinks.
RED-Scue.
Or a combination.
Know your plan before the gun goes.
AFTER
You’ve finished.
But fuelling isn’t finished.
Eat.
Drink.
Recover.
And then get back to your normal meals.
WHY RED-SCUE?
RED-Scue started with a problem I knew personally.
I was a young athlete training hard, and I didn’t understand how important fuelling was.
I trained a lot.
I pushed hard.
And I didn’t always give my body enough fuel to match what I was asking it to do.
I eventually tore my Achilles at 17, an injury I associate with years of underfuelling and overtraining.
That experience completely changed how I thought about sport.
I didn’t want other athletes to have to learn about fuelling because something had already gone wrong.
And when I started looking at the sports fuel market, I kept seeing the same thing.
Loads of products.
But not necessarily something I wanted to eat.
So RED-Scue became my answer.
Food-first sports fuel.
Natural ingredients.
Plant-based.
Carbohydrate-focused.
Smooth.
Solid.
Practical.
And most importantly:
Something you actually want to eat.
WHY CARBOHYDRATES?
Because carbohydrates are not something athletes need to be scared of.
They are an important fuel source for exercise.
And if you’re asking your body to run, cycle, swim, lift, race or train hard, you need to think about where that energy is coming from.
Our bars contain around 37.8g of carbohydrate per 70g bar, using carbohydrate sources including cassava, plantain, dates and maple syrup.
We deliberately wanted the bar to be carbohydrate-rich while still feeling like food.
That means you can use it as part of your wider fuelling plan rather than treating it as another protein product.
WHY FOOD-FIRST?
Because food gives you flexibility.
It gives you variety.
It gives you different textures and flavours.
And it can help bridge the gap between everyday eating and sports nutrition.
Food-first doesn’t mean food only.
It means asking:
What does this athlete actually need?
Sometimes that’s a gel.
Sometimes it’s a drink.
Sometimes it’s a banana.
Sometimes it’s toast.
Sometimes it’s a RED-Scue bar.
Sometimes it’s all of the above.
THE RED-SCUE APPROACH
We keep coming back to four simple ideas:
MAKE IT PRACTICAL
You need to be able to use it in real life.
MAKE IT ENJOYABLE
If you hate the taste or texture, you’re less likely to want it again.
MAKE IT FOOD-FIRST
Give athletes solid, carbohydrate-rich options alongside the huge range of sports products already available.
MAKE IT SIMPLE
Athletes shouldn’t need a nutrition degree to work out what to eat.
Before. During. After.
Training day. Race day. Early start. Long session.
Know your fuel.
Pack your fuel.
Fuel the sport you love for life.
RED-SCUE: FUEL WITHOUT FEAR
The whole reason RED-Scue exists is because we don’t want athletes to be scared of food.
Not scared of carbohydrates.
Not scared of eating before training.
Not scared of eating during a race.
Not scared of needing fuel.
Fuel is not something you have to earn.
You fuel to do the activity, not do the activity to earn the fuel.
And sometimes the most useful thing we can give an athlete isn’t another complicated rule.
It’s a simple option.
Here’s your fuel.
Here’s when to have it.
Now go and do the thing you love.
❤️ Fuel Without Fear.
