Fuel the Athlete

You cannot out-train a bad diet.

That is the line every great coach, every great nutritionist, and every parent who has ever watched a kid bonk in the third event of a meet eventually learns. Hydration gets the headlines. Food does the actual work.

Last week we covered hydration. This week we feed the athlete.

We will keep it simple. No tracking apps. No macros to memorize. No supplements. Just food, on a plate, at the right time.

Why Nutrition Is the Foundation

A 14-year-old in season is doing two jobs at once. Growing into an adult body and training like a competitive athlete. That stacks up fast. Bones, muscles, brain — all of it needs fuel.

Under-feed the athlete and the body steals from itself. Recovery slows. Mood tanks. Injuries creep in. The kid looks tired in week three and nobody knows why.

The fix is not complicated. The fix is real food, in the right amounts, often enough.

The Big Three

Three things make up every meal that matters. Carbs, protein, fat. Each one has a job.

Carbs are the fuel. They are what the body burns for sprint reps, long runs, jump approaches — everything explosive and everything endurance. Rice. Pasta. Bread. Oats. Potatoes. Fruit. Carbs are not the enemy. For a young athlete, carbs are the gas tank. Empty tank, slow athlete.

Protein is the rebuilder. It is what the body uses to repair muscle after practice. Eggs. Chicken. Beef. Fish. Beans. Greek yogurt. Milk. Aim for a palm-sized portion at every meal. Spread it across the day — the body cannot stockpile protein.

Fat is the long-term fuel and the hormone builder. Avocado. Nuts. Olive oil. Whole milk. Cheese. Eggs. Salmon. Fat keeps the body running between meals and supports the hormones that build strong athletes. A young athlete in season should not be eating low-fat anything.

That is the Big Three. Nothing fancy.

The Bulletproof Plate

Forget calorie counting. Use the plate.

Half the plate: carbs. Rice, pasta, potato, bread, fruit.
One quarter: protein. Meat, fish, eggs, beans, dairy.
One quarter: vegetables. Whatever the kid will actually eat.
A thumb of fat on top. Butter, olive oil, avocado, cheese.

That is the plate. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. If half the plate is fuel, the athlete has gas. If the protein quarter is there, the athlete is rebuilding. If the vegetables and fat are there, the athlete is covered on everything else.

Parents — this is the whole game. You do not need to measure. You do not need an app. You need to look at the plate and check the quarters.

The Plate Changes by Event

The shape stays the same. The size changes.

Distance athletes burn through carbs at a different rate than sprinters. A 13-year-old miler running 25 miles a week needs more total food than a 13-year-old jumper. Their plate is the same shape — half carbs, quarter protein, quarter vegetables, thumb of fat — they just need bigger portions and more frequent snacks. Pre-practice snack. Post-practice meal. Second dinner sometimes.

Sprinters and jumpers train shorter and harder. Their fuel demand is lower in total volume but carb timing matters more. A sprinter who skips lunch and shows up to a 5pm practice has nothing in the tank for the back half of the workout. Get the carbs in before practice, not just after.

Older athletes need more food, period. A 17-year-old sprinter is bigger, working harder, recovering from heavier lifts. A 13-year-old can eat what their body asks for. A 17-year-old often needs to eat past comfortable to stay ahead. That is normal.

Same plate. Different portion sizes. Different timing.

The Parent Traps

This is where parents get tripped up. Three traps to avoid.

Trap one: under-feeding. Growing athletes are hungry. Often. That is not overeating — that is the body asking for what it needs. If your athlete is asking for a second helping after a hard practice, the answer is yes.

Trap two: fearing carbs. Adult food rules do not apply here. Carbs are not making your athlete soft. Carbs are powering their workout, their recovery, and their growth. Bread is fine. Pasta is fine. Rice is fine.

Trap three: junk lunch. What the school cafeteria serves is often not enough. Pack the lunch. A real one. Sandwich on real bread, fruit, a protein, something with fat. Vending machine lunches show up as bonked workouts at 5pm.

You do not need to be a chef. You need to put real food on the plate, three to five times a day, and trust the system.

Next Monday

We move to myths. The biggest lies still floating around track and field — stretching before sprints, lifting will slow you down, no pain no gain, and a few more. Some of these you have probably heard from people you trust. Most of them are wrong.

See you Monday morning.

The Standard is the Standard.

Hydration Starts Monday

Most young athletes show up to a Saturday meet already behind. Not because they did not eat right. Not because they slept badly. Because they tried to hydrate that morning.

That does not work.

Hydration is not a Saturday thing. It is a Monday-through-Saturday thing. Same principle football coaches have been preaching for decades — if you want to perform Friday night, you start drinking Monday morning. Track is no different. With three events spread across five hours of summer heat, it matters even more.

Let's break down what actually works.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

A 2% drop in body water tanks performance. That is it. Two percent. For a 130-pound athlete, that is about 2.5 pounds of fluid loss — easy to hit on a hot meet day.

The first thing to go is not your legs. It is your brain. Focus drops. Reaction time slows. Decision-making gets sloppy. You feel "off" before you feel tired. That is dehydration whispering.

By the time you are actually thirsty, you are already behind.

The Monday-to-Saturday Plan

The body absorbs about 800 milliliters to 1 liter of fluid per hour, max. You cannot catch up the morning of a meet. You build a tank during the week and protect it on race day.

**Monday through Wednesday — Baseline.**
Drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day. A 120-pound athlete drinks 60 oz. Spread it across the day — morning, lunch, after school, dinner. Do not try to slam it all at practice.

**Thursday and Friday — Top off.**
Same baseline plus an extra 16-20 oz. Start adding electrolytes once a day. Salt the food more than usual at dinner Friday night.

**Friday night.**
Big glass of water with dinner. Electrolyte drink before bed. Glass of water on the nightstand for any wake-ups.

**Saturday morning — Race day.**
60 to 90 minutes before warmup, drink 16-20 oz of water with electrolytes. Then sip — do not chug — through the day. Between events, small sips of water plus electrolytes. Keep the bottle in your hand, not in the bag.

Athletes who pound water Saturday morning are already cooked. Athletes who started Monday are ready.

Salt and Electrolytes — What, How Much, When

Water alone is not enough. Sodium is the most important electrolyte for performance, and it is the one young athletes are most often short on. Especially in summer.

Sodium holds water in your bloodstream. Without it, you pee out most of what you drink. With it, your body actually keeps and uses the fluid. That is the entire game.

**The DIY route.**
16-20 oz of water. A pinch of real salt — Real Salt brand, Himalayan pink, or any unrefined sea salt. About 1/4 teaspoon. Squeeze of lemon to make it drinkable. Costs pennies. Works.

**The packet route.**
LMNT, Liquid IV, or Re-Lyte. Pre-measured. Easy to throw in a meet bag. LMNT in particular delivers 1,000 mg of sodium per packet — what an athlete actually needs in heat. Pick one, keep a box in the pantry, keep a few in the meet bag.

**During the week.**
One electrolyte drink a day on training days. Two if it is hot. Salt the food at meals. Do not shy away from it — young athletes lose more sodium than they think.

**On meet day.**
One electrolyte drink 60-90 minutes before warmup. Sip more between events. Pair with plain water — not one or the other.

**What to skip.**
Gatorade as the only tool. It is mostly sugar with a little sodium. Fine for between events. Not a substitute for a real pre-meet drink. Energy drinks before competition are a hard no.

How to Spot Dehydration Early

You do not need a fancy hydration tracker. You need three things.

**Urine color.** Pale yellow is the target. Dark yellow means you are behind. Completely clear means you are overdoing plain water — add salt.

**Headache or brain fog.** First warning. If your athlete shows up to warmup feeling "off," it is almost always hydration before anything else.

**Cramps in the calves or hamstrings late in a meet.** Usually a sodium issue, not a water issue. More plain water will not fix it. Electrolytes will.

Thirst is the last warning, not the first. By then, performance is already taking a hit.

The Parent's Role

This is where parents win or lose the hydration game for their athlete.

Pack the bottle. Every day. A big one. The bottle that lives in the bedroom is doing nothing — put it in their hand.

Salt the food. Especially the night before a meet. Do not be scared of it.

Keep a box of electrolyte packets in the pantry. Keep a few in the meet bag.

Make it boring and automatic. Hydration is a habit, not a heroic effort. The athlete who casually drinks 80 oz a day without thinking about it will outperform the athlete who panics on Saturday morning. Every single time.

Stop the fight. Do not nag. Build the system, then trust the routine.

Next Monday

We move to nutrition. What to eat to fuel sprints, jumps, and distance — without overcomplicating it. The plate that works for a 13-year-old miler is not the plate that works for a 17-year-old sprinter. We will lay both out.


**The Standard is the Standard.**

Welcome to Bulletproof

The Standard is the Standard.

Five words. They run through everything we do at Bulletproof Track Club. They are the reason we exist. They are the reason this blog exists.

We are based in Chatham, Illinois. We have been building athletes since 2022. But we are not just building athletes. We are building confident young people — on the track and off it.

That mission is why we hold a standard. And the standard does not bend.

The Standard for Athletes

It starts with attitude. Behavior. Before times, before medals, before personal bests.

You will win with class. You will lose with class. No matter what.

The race did not go your way? Stand tall. Shake the hand of the kid who beat you. Walk off the track with your head up. The race went exactly as you planned? Same energy. No taunting. No look-at-me. No matter what.

And one more thing. You are accountable to you. Not your coach. Not your teammates. Not your parents. You.

That is the standard.

The Standard for Parents

This part is for the moms and dads. It may be the most important thing you read all season.

Be your athlete's biggest cheerleader. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Tell them good job.

After a tough meet, get them ice cream. After a great meet, get them ice cream. Same scoop. Same smile.

Do not talk about the performance. Do not critique the second 200 of the 400. Do not analyze the run-up. Do not replay the third attempt in the long jump.

Talk about the day. Recap what the family did between events. Remember the goofy thing the little brother said in the bleachers. Ask who they sat next to during the wait.

The performance belongs to the coaches and the athlete. The day belongs to your family. Protect it.

That is the standard.

Why This Matters Beyond Track

Here is the truth nobody puts on a recruiting flyer.

Track is not the point.

The point is the human walking off that track when the season ends. A kid who knows what resilience feels like. A kid who is prepared, because they put in the work. A kid who can stand on top of the podium without ego, and stand at the back of the field without shame.

Resilience. Preparedness. The ability to accept victory and defeat with grace.

Those are the traits that build great humans. Track is just the place we practice them.

The Bulletproof Philosophy

If you take one thing from this blog, take this.

We prioritize process over outcomes.

Outcomes are loud. They are scoreboards and ribbons and personal bests. Outcomes feel great — or they sting. Either way, they pass.

Process is quiet. Process is the warmup you do when nobody is watching. The water bottle you finish before lunch. The eight hours of sleep on a Tuesday night. The mental rep you take in the car on the way to a meet.

Outcomes are a result. Process is a choice. You make that choice every single day.

We train the body. We also train the mind. One without the other gets you halfway there. We are not in the halfway business.

The Standard is the Standard.

What You'll Get Every Monday Morning

This blog runs all summer. Wake up every Monday morning to something new from Bulletproof.

Sometimes it will change the way you think about a topic. Sometimes it will confirm what you already believed. Every week, you walk away with at least one useful thing you can put to work — that day, that practice, that meet.

It is written for athletes. It is written for parents. Both of you have a job to do this season.

We will cover hydration. Nutrition. Strength training. Recovery. Race-day mindset. The myths that still trip up smart athletes. How to peak for Nationals.

Bookmark this page. Share it with a teammate. Forward it to a parent who needs to hear it.

Next Monday

We start with hydration.

It is the single most underrated lever in a young athlete's performance. Most kids walk into practice already behind on water — and they do not even know it. We will break down what actually matters, what to ignore, and how to dial in a plan that takes about ninety seconds a day.

Set your alarm. We will see you Monday morning.

**The Standard is the Standard.**