Your Bank Holiday fuelling reset
With school and university starting back, work routines changing and autumn training and racing picking up again, this is a good time to prepare for the reality of your week.
Not a perfect week.
Your actual week.
Here are a few things you can do before Monday:
1. Know your “high-demand” days
Look at your week and highlight the days where fuelling is likely to need more attention.
Long sessions?
Hard sessions?
Double sessions?
Early-morning training?
Training straight after school, university or work?
Long days away from home?
These are the days where it helps to be proactive rather than waiting until you’re exhausted and hungry.
2. Work backwards from training
Don’t just ask:
“When am I training?”
Ask:
“When will I last eat before training?”
“When will I next have access to food?”
“Will I be able to eat afterwards?”
This can quickly show you where the gaps are.
For example:
School finishes at 4pm.
Training starts at 5pm.
You probably don’t want your entire fuelling strategy to depend on having time for a full meal between the two.
That’s where a carbohydrate-rich snack can make life much easier.
3. Create a “training bag food” stash
Keep a small selection of foods you can grab without thinking.
Bananas.
Dates.
Pretzels.
Crackers.
Cereal bars.
Bread or sandwiches.
Dried fruit.
RED-Scue bars.
The exact foods will depend on what you tolerate and what works for you.
The important thing is having something available.
4. Have a “leaving the house” rule
Before you leave for a long day, ask yourself:
“Have I got something to eat with me?”
If the answer is no, grab something.
You don’t need to know exactly when you’ll eat it.
You just need to make sure you have the option.
This is especially useful when travelling to training, racing, university, school or work.
5. Pack more than one option
Different situations call for different foods.
You might want something quick before training.
Something easy to eat during a longer session.
Something more substantial afterwards.
And something for when lunch gets delayed.
Having a couple of different options means you’re not relying on one food, one timing window or one perfect plan.
6. Build a “minimum fuelling plan”
When your day gets chaotic, identify the meals and snacks you really don’t want to miss.
For example:
Breakfast.
Lunch.
Pre-training snack.
Post-training meal.
This isn’t about creating a rigid schedule.
It’s about protecting the basics when your timetable gets messy.
7. Don’t wait until you’re starving
Feeling extremely hungry, shaky, exhausted or unable to concentrate before you eat can be a sign that you’ve left a gap that was too long.
Athletes often get caught here because they’re busy.
School runs late.
A meeting overruns.
A lecture finishes late.
The commute takes longer.
Training starts immediately.
Having a snack before you reach that point can make fuelling much easier.
8. Fuel the commute
If you regularly travel straight from school, university or work to training, treat the journey as part of your fuelling plan.
Keep something in your bag.
Eat on the journey when appropriate.
Don’t rely on getting home first.
A 60–90 minute commute can turn a manageable gap into a very long one.
9. Have an emergency option
Every athlete should have a “things have gone completely wrong” option.
Missed lunch?
Training moved?
Train delayed?
Shop closed?
Forgot your food?
Know where your emergency carbohydrate option is.
It could be a bar, banana, dried fruit, pretzels, bread or something else you know works for you.
The aim is not perfection.
It’s avoiding an unnecessary fuelling gap.
10. Keep recovery food easy
Don’t make recovery dependent on preparing the perfect meal.
Have foods available that can be eaten quickly when you finish training.
Think carbohydrate + protein as a simple starting point.
For example:
Cereal + milk or yoghurt.
Toast + eggs.
Rice + chicken or tofu.
Pasta + a protein source.
Fruit + yoghurt.
A sandwich + fruit.
The “perfect” recovery meal is less useful if you never have time to make it.
11. Prepare for the session you expect — but respond to the session you actually do
This is an important distinction.
You can prepare for an hour-long session.
If it becomes 20 minutes, you don’t need to panic.
If it becomes 90 minutes, you need to be able to respond.
That’s why carrying flexible fuelling options is so useful.
You prepare ahead of time, then adapt based on what actually happens.
12. Don’t compensate for yesterday
Had a bigger training day yesterday?
Don’t automatically restrict today.
Had a rest day?
You still need to eat.
Training cancelled?
You still need your meals.
Ate more carbohydrate than planned?
That doesn’t mean you need to “balance it out”.
Look at the bigger picture rather than trying to correct every individual day.
13. Make your home environment work for you
Put easy-to-grab foods somewhere visible and accessible.
Keep snacks in your training bag.
Keep breakfast options stocked.
Have quick carbohydrate sources available for busy days.
The less effort required to access food, the less likely you are to accidentally miss it.
14. Use your calendar as a fuelling tool
If your week is busy, put your fuelling into the same planning system as your training.
Not calorie targets.
Not rigid eating times.
Just reminders such as:
“Pack pre-training snack.”
“Take food to university.”
“Prepare post-training meal.”
“Pack race-day fuelling.”
Sometimes the problem isn’t knowing what to eat.
It’s remembering to make it available.
15. Have a Plan B — and a Plan C
Your plan might be:
Training at 6pm → snack at 4pm → dinner after.
Plan B:
Training moves to 7pm → snack stays with you → dinner later.
Plan C:
Training cancelled → eat your normal meal → recover and move on.
The more options you have, the less likely one change is to derail your entire day.
And one final tip…
Stop measuring whether you “deserved” the food by how much training you completed.
Food isn’t a reward for completing a workout.
Carbohydrate isn’t something you have to earn.
And a cancelled session doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong by preparing for it.
You made a fuelling decision based on the information you had at the time.
Then the plan changed.
That’s normal.
Good sports nutrition isn’t about predicting the future perfectly.
It’s about being prepared enough to adapt when the future inevitably changes.
So this Bank Holiday:
Look at the week.
Identify the gaps.
Pack the food.
Plan your back-ups.
Protect your meals.
Fuel your training.
Fuel your recovery.
And leave some room for real life.
Because the most useful fuelling plan isn't the one that works on your perfect day.
It’s the one that still works when your day changes.
Back to routine ≠ back to restriction.
Flexibility is a skill.
Fuel the athlete, not just the workout.
Fuel Without Fear.
RED-Scue®
