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Fuel Smarter, Race Better with Jan from INFINIT Nutrition
20 Plays17 days ago
In this episode of UK Tri Chat, Scott Hill is joined by Jan from INFINIT Nutrition to dive deep into the world of endurance fueling. From his journey into triathlon and building INFINIT in Europe, to practical advice for athletes of all levels, this conversation breaks down how to simplify your nutrition and improve performance.
They explore why so many athletes struggle with fueling, how to avoid common race-day mistakes, and why practicing your nutrition strategy is just as important as training itself.
Key topics covered:
- Why nutrition is the “fourth discipline” in triathlon
- The biggest fueling mistakes endurance athletes make
- How to plan your nutrition for race day (and stick to it)
- Carbs, hydration, and electrolytes—what you actually need
- The importance of recovery and why it’s often overlooked
- Custom vs. off-the-shelf nutrition strategies
- How to adapt your fueling for different race distances and climates
Follow INFINIT on Instagram
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Transcript
Introduction of Jeanne from Infinite Nutrition
00:00:01
Scott Hill
so Hi there, welcome to another episode of UK Tri Chat with myself, Scott Hill from TriWolf Triathlon Coaching. I'm pleased to say that we've got Jeanne from internet Infinite Nutrition on the show today.
00:00:11
Scott Hill
so Welcome, Jeanne. Thank you for joining us. um yeah
00:00:15
Jan - INFINIT
Thank you very much for the invitation. Pleasure to be here.
Career Transition and Joining Infinite Nutrition
00:00:18
Scott Hill
Rather than me introduce you, i think it'd be good for you to introduce yourself and just tell me who you are, where you're from and obviously your involvement with Infinite Nutrition at this stage.
00:00:27
Jan - INFINIT
Okay, thank you. i think... ah Okay, I'm Czech. And i regarding my sport career, i used to play volleyball professionally.
00:00:40
Jan - INFINIT
And um after after stopping playing volleyball, I went to to financial sector, to bank, and I spent nearly 30 years in the in the banking sector, ah working in Czech Republic, abroad. I had nice four years in London and and Zurich.
00:01:00
Jan - INFINIT
And roughly seven years ago, i left after this this banking sector and and we started to think about the next project.
00:01:13
Jan - INFINIT
And I have to say that that I started triathlon roughly 10 years ago.
Expanding Infinite Nutrition to Europe
00:01:19
Jan - INFINIT
so at the beginning, at the beginning i used regarding nutrition, I used nearly everything that was available.
00:01:29
Jan - INFINIT
But after two years ah in triathlon, I started to have American coach, my friend, and they used infinite training.
00:01:40
Jan - INFINIT
i am in US and and I started to use infinite and I was quite satisfied because infinite has a long long history in US.
00:01:55
Jan - INFINIT
And one day we discussed, and that's because we always had had to bring Infinite to to Europe. And we discussed discussed ah with some friends and and and with my family. And I said, how about to bring Infinite to Europe? Because at that time, I already spent two, three, four years and to be heavily involved in nutrition.
00:02:19
Jan - INFINIT
And so I discussed with Michael Fallon, who is who is the um infinite founder in the US, s and we agreed to bring infinite ah infinite ah in in Europe and we started to build ah to build ah infinite infinite presence in Europe.
00:02:36
Jan - INFINIT
This is roughly my story.
00:02:36
Scott Hill
Yeah. So obviously Infinite's been going quite a long time, you mentioned, in the USA, but also I believe in Australia as well. Yeah.
00:02:44
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah, yeah, you are absolutely right.
00:02:45
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:02:46
Jan - INFINIT
We have, Infiniti has like 20 years or 21 years at present in US. And I think 20 years in Australia, they have they have also a very strong presence in Australia.
00:02:59
Jan - INFINIT
And it was it was quite interesting because they are ah driver famous in in in US and Australia and there there was no presence in in in Europe. so so So therefore we were quite pleased.
Production and Market Strategy in Europe
00:03:14
Jan - INFINIT
to have a chance, opportunity to bring this these great products to to Europe.
00:03:20
Scott Hill
So the European distribution then is from your hometown, Prague, I believe in the Czech Republic. So that's kind of head office for Infinite in Europe then.
00:03:28
Jan - INFINIT
Yes, yes.
00:03:29
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:03:30
Jan - INFINIT
And it's not only distribution, because from the beginning, when we discussed together with with with Michael, we said we cannot we cannot um import US products to to Europe.
00:03:48
Jan - INFINIT
So at the beginning, ah we spent like one year preparing factory, preparing everything for production.
00:03:54
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:03:56
Scott Hill
yeah
00:03:57
Jan - INFINIT
and ah and everything what is distributed within the Europe ah is prepared and mixed in in Czech Republic and and
Nutrition in Endurance Sports
00:04:10
Jan - INFINIT
distributed. you know It is also one of other reasons is that you have a little bit different legislation for American market and European market. So we have to fulfill European market ah requests.
00:04:25
Scott Hill
Yeah, I see that. And you mentioned there that you your background is volleyball. um
00:04:31
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:04:32
Scott Hill
I guess many years ago now, and you say 10 years, you've been dabbling the triathlon world, but infinite nutrition is not just for triathletes, is it? you you do You distribute it to a multitude of different sports, not just triathletes. I guess there's, know I've seen stuff across social media, but there's a whole range of sports that you supply it for, and it's not a a one-stop shop for triathlon. It can be available and it is good for all sports. I'm right in thinking that.
00:04:57
Jan - INFINIT
Yes, you are you are absolutely right. the point is that ah of Why endurance sports are in the first place? The main reason is ah that if you do endurance sports, you have to pay attention to nutrition. you know I remember myself when during my my volleyball career.
00:05:19
Jan - INFINIT
It was a long, long time ago, but we had to ah we ah we sometimes we had only water during during one and half, two hours of practice. But endurance sports and especially endurance races,
00:05:29
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:05:32
Jan - INFINIT
you have to pay attention pay ah pay attention ah to nutrition. At present, the situation is changing now because athletes most of athletes, even um from other sports, they understand how how nutrition is important. And we you are right. so ah Yes, we cooperate with triathletes a lot. On the other side, we cooperate with baseball players, we cooperate with rugby players, you know. some with some tennis tennis players so we can cover nearly every sport with infinite nutrition.
00:06:12
Scott Hill
Yeah, and I think most people in their head, they think, you know, we need nutrition whilst we're doing sport. But, you know, we all say in triathlon, the fourth discipline, you know, is nutrition, especially if you're racing long course, then it does play like that pivotal role.
00:06:26
Scott Hill
But with education out there that's all across social media today, it's quite important to highlight that um nutrition is important, you know, the before, the during and the after. So it's about preparation as well as recovery and during the sport as well.
00:06:39
Scott Hill
And I think that's where, infinite nutrition has got a range of products that kind of falls into each one of them categories. And I can see someone that the shelf behind you there, you've got the cold coffee, I believe, which is a,
00:06:48
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:50
Scott Hill
you have there But it's it's educating athletes and making sure they're aware that they need to be working on their nutrition for everything, not just during exercise, but also before and after, making sure they're fit for the next rugby game or they're fit for the next baseball game or the next triathlon or the next training session. So it's not it's nice to see that the education's out there, people are listening and people are taking more involvement in training in that side of sport rather than thinking I need to hit swim, bike and run and that's it.
Recovery Nutrition Essentials
00:07:21
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah, Scott, you mentioned one one ah very important point and it is recovery part. you know A lot of people, they understand that that I need to eat something during the race. you know Even hydration before the race is good.
00:07:37
Jan - INFINIT
But a lot of people, they don't pay attention to recovery. But if we look at the these three, let's let's say, periods, you know before, during and after, the after,
00:07:50
Jan - INFINIT
ah nutrition is probably the most important for improvement of your performance. you know and and and yeah And you ah athletes should pay also attention. it It doesn't mean that they always need to take ah like like special repair or something like this. They just need to eat something think you know after the after the practice. you know And if they if they know they have dinner already,
00:08:18
Jan - INFINIT
quite ah quite close to to finishing point. They just need bananas or something easy after the after the training and go for dinner. But if they don't, if they have like gap two, three hours, they need to take some like recovery drinks because it is helping helping them to move ahead.
00:08:33
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:08:40
Jan - INFINIT
And another point just to add, a lot of people, they they believe, okay, after the after the practice, I need to get some protein, okay? and ah But the most important for them, for athletes is to get to get carbs after the after the practice. to recover your glycogen, to add your energy for your body and also protein part, but definitely carbs also. So therefore, I think it's important to mix mix carbs and protein for the recovery period.
00:09:17
Scott Hill
So we're just looking at where people have stretched their body and the recovery side of it, you know it's the it's the recovery, it's the food, it's the sleep, by that is what I mean there.
00:09:26
Jan - INFINIT
Absolutely.
00:09:26
Scott Hill
it's It's ensuring that we are giving our body the best possible chance to repair itself as quick as possible to go again. And that's where that's where development happens. So yeah, recovery
Jeanne's Role and Day-to-Day Responsibilities
00:09:35
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:09:35
Scott Hill
is hugely important, we know that.
00:09:36
Scott Hill
So obviously you brought Infinite to Europe, you the either the distribution and factory within from Prague and the rest of Europe and everything else. how How does that fit into your day-to-day role then? What do you what is your day-to-day role as such?
00:09:50
Jan - INFINIT
ah Apart from like like overall management of the company, i mainly ah mean I'm mainly involved in the sales side, you know, to talk to our partners, to talk to our our top athletes, because we have we have ah on the on on the sales side, main we have ah three main distribution channels.
00:10:02
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:10:15
Jan - INFINIT
We have our B2B partners, traveling shops, cycling shops, running shops, some nutrition platforms. But ah also another channel is is clubs.
00:10:30
Jan - INFINIT
And we love this because we cooperate with directly with c clubs. We are able to provide them some, some let's say, educational levels through webinars and through communication directly with so with athletes. So this is second channel and third channel is is ah coaches.
00:10:48
Jan - INFINIT
where coaches, they have their own groups of athletes. So we also cooperate with them. And we are usually we we are in the in the relationship that we tell them, OK, you are responsible for coaching. Leave us responsibility for nutrition and nutrition education. And we try to we try to to take care of the athletes through through direct communication with them.
00:11:14
Scott Hill
Yeah, i think ah over the years I've seen you um doing quite a lot of stuff with triathlon clubs um when they've gone on training camps and stuff like that. And that's how we first met originally.
00:11:24
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah, yeah.
00:11:26
Scott Hill
I think it was Lanzarote.
00:11:27
Jan - INFINIT
Yep.
00:11:27
Scott Hill
Yeah, Lanzarote wasn't at the time. So it's great to see that you're out there, you know, in amongst it with the clubs, because, you know, that's where obviously we see and encourage the grassroots for athletes get involved in sport and triathlon, especially.
00:11:30
Jan - INFINIT
yeah
00:11:40
Scott Hill
it Well, I'd say typically we majority of them are older athletes anyway. So recovery and nutrition, everything else is really important. But we're seeing more and more younger athletes that I guess over
Philosophy and Product Customization
00:11:54
Scott Hill
the generations, these are children of triathletes of old.
00:11:56
Scott Hill
So we're seeing youngsters now that are, fitter and faster than ever come through the sport so so they've been educating and learned and developing so early on and learning about all this important stuff really early which I think is really good and really interesting and i'm positive for the future of the sport not just triathlon but all sports so it's quite good um so what makes infant nutrition different to all the other products do you think
00:12:02
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:12:25
Jan - INFINIT
I think if I should describe ourselves, I would use three ah two words, complexity and simplicity. you know We are not providing to athletes any supplements like salt, magnesium or something like this. We try to give them overall complex nutrition for their ah for their performance.
00:12:49
Jan - INFINIT
So we are our products are are are ah prepared to to to give them, let's say, information. Okay, for how long you do a sport, for short, medium, or long, long period, and intensity, and after that, they take they take ah our products and one portion roughly for one hour and they know they in the in the bottle they have everything seen we do only we do only liquid nutrition so we don't have any any any gels any any bars
00:13:28
Jan - INFINIT
ah One of the reasons for this is that we believe that that ah regarding digestion and all this stuff, ah liquid nutrition is is the future and is it's a trend ah for the for the future. and And I mentioned simplicity and what I mean is that that that I think athletes should not should not think a lot about nutrition.
00:13:53
Jan - INFINIT
They should pay attention to the basics, to the, okay, how many calories I should roughly get per hour, how much sodium or electrolyte I should get. And that's it. They should not they should not you know calculate and specifically all this stuff. And therefore, are, therefore we are, aware therefore we build the products that they can, let's say, concentrate on the sport performance and not not to think all the time how I should use nutrition.
00:14:28
Scott Hill
So you are...
00:14:28
Jan - INFINIT
This is why I believe that we are a little bit little bit different compared to compared to our competitors. On other side, ah to ah to be quite quite clear, each of us is different.
00:14:42
Jan - INFINIT
And I am not saying, okay, infinite is the only or the best or something like this, you know, because because I believe that each athlete should practice practice ah different nutrition and they have to they have to find out what fits for them, you know, because because you know ah you are different than me, we are different than somebody and somebody else and the practice is is quite quite important for for the nutrition area.
00:15:19
Scott Hill
And I've made you infinite nutrition helps athletes find what's good for them and mixes for them. And you actually, i know you you've done this for me in the past where I've got a ah different, a different mix I use for cycling, which has been blended for me, which, because I i personally have, I get a hunger feeling when I'm doing long course stuff.
00:15:32
Jan - INFINIT
Thank you.
00:15:38
Scott Hill
So you added extra protein in my mix from a bike to sort of get rid of that craving of hunger. Although it wasn't necessarily a, um, I needed the food because I was getting it from the product but because my stomach didn't have a solid object in it it was it was making me feel hungry so you you added protein into my into my bite mix which is obviously eradicated that feeling for me so I'm still performing relatively well as a age group athlete I'm no professional but as an age group athlete in the field
00:16:10
Jan - INFINIT
But very good age group athlete.
00:16:13
Scott Hill
I keep trying. I keep trying, but I'm getting older as well. um But I guess that's something you do that's very different to a lot of the other products out there is you you have capacity to work with athletes and work what's good for them and make a product for them.
00:16:17
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:16:24
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:16:25
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:16:25
Jan - INFINIT
yeah we ah you Yeah, you are you youre mentioning, like I would say, second our second pillar, custom blend. Because we have we have a first ah pillar of our products is like ah preset products.
Importance of Practicing Nutrition Plans
00:16:41
Jan - INFINIT
They are built based on our long-term experience how for short, medium and long-term long-term ah performance. And custom blend,
00:16:53
Jan - INFINIT
is specifically done for for athletes ah and and also for, ah for example, specific weathers or if somebody is going, ah let's imagine, let's talk about Ironman. And ah if somebody is going for Ironman five hours ride, you know, or bike, ah you you want to have ah you don't want to of as for strong flavor, for example. So we in custom blend, we are decreasing level of flavors. Somebody is traveling to Nice, where is the really, really warm weather.
00:17:34
Jan - INFINIT
It means that that you need more electrolytes than usual, if you for example, if you race in the UK or in in Finland or something like this. And these kinds of differences we try to ah we try to, let's say, discuss with our athletes. Because generally, ah athletes, they if you are preparing for Ironman or Half Ironman, you are practicing 12, 15 hours per week.
00:18:05
Jan - INFINIT
You spend so much time practicing and it is really important to pay attention to nutrition because ah during the race, you know you can lose everything and your stomach is is like like a He is just coming back if if you don't do proper nutrition, you know, you can you can destroy your race just because of this.
00:18:30
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:18:30
Jan - INFINIT
So so we try to we try to somehow manage with athletes.
00:18:35
Scott Hill
I think it's a bit of a misconception there as athletes, you know, you mentioned training sort of like 12, 15 hours a week. And if we look at a race as such where athletes are out there for, again, an Ironman event, you know, we're looking at eight hours plus all way down to the cutoff point and some past
Nutrition Strategies for Triathlon Events
00:18:53
Scott Hill
that.
00:18:53
Scott Hill
Yeah. people are doing People are having nutrition for the races, but then when it comes to their training, they're not having nutrition as they would in races. it might be because, you know, they've got up in the morning, they've had their breakfast, they've let it settle.
00:19:07
Scott Hill
They've gone out and done their ride at hour an hour, an hour and a half, and they haven't taken any nutrition. And then they've come back and they may have had their lunch and they may have done something else and even a meal or a swim. So you're actually having normal day-to-day food around their training, which they're not fueling for specifically as they would for the race.
00:19:27
Scott Hill
So then when they come to the race, they've actually, they haven't trained the nutrition they would need for the race because they fit their training around their normal three square meals a day, which is possibly in some cases, yes, it's important because it's food and it's fuel.
00:19:40
Scott Hill
but they haven't been specific in fueling for the training session in the way they should do for the race. So, um, yeah, think it's a, and that's really common.
00:19:48
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah. Absolutely. I think if you ask me the biggest mistake, this is the one of biggest mistake, not to practice properly.
00:20:00
Jan - INFINIT
And i don't i don't think that you need it you need to practice every month or something like this, but preparing for Ironman, for example, or or even half Ironman, if it is your first half Ironman, you should ah you should ah spend the time and preparation to practice twice, three times before the race exactly how you do during the race.
00:20:24
Jan - INFINIT
This is this is absolutely critical.
00:20:25
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:20:27
Jan - INFINIT
And because generally ah you, during Ironman, you are always somehow surprised. Every Ironman, and you know you know, Scott, you did a lot, you know, and me as well.
00:20:42
Jan - INFINIT
you Something always happens. Something always happens. but you try to limit surprises as as much as possible. And even during <unk>ri ah even in nutrition areas, always something happens. But if ah the more you are prepared, the the more you limit surprises. And I think it is absolutely critical to practice, practice, practice, because your stomach is used to ah to to have this this, let's say, level of performance. And as you described, you know ah during the race, your adrenaline, your performance is always on the top and it's extremely difficult to to practice it ah during the training, but everybody should try it, somehow to should try it to test how it works.
00:21:38
Jan - INFINIT
And also it from the mental point of view, also it helps because if something going during the race, ah you can think about it and you say, okay, but i what I did when I was practicing, what happened? after Very often very often what what is happening is that ah you're starting to feel really bad.
00:22:02
Jan - INFINIT
and and and you you feel, okay, okay, I'm tired, you know, and i after maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes, your body is starting to recover as well, you know, you are back. And this is this is practicing you you can do during the training as well.
00:22:20
Scott Hill
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we quite, one of the key topics we always talk about is Ironman because it's an easy one to talk about. But if we look at the other end of the scale for sprint triathlon, you know, for most people, most people in sprint triathlon is over an hour and that's still classed as endurance sport.
00:22:30
Jan - INFINIT
Mm-hmm.
00:22:35
Scott Hill
I think some people neglect that sprint triathlon for most people is still endurance sport. um And it's really important that people are looking at fueling for that side of the scale as well, not necessarily all the way up at the Ironman and plus.
00:22:49
Scott Hill
So they need to ensure they're working on that area. And I know Infinite have got a few products as well that are for that side of the scale for food the nutrition and hydration.
00:22:59
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah, ah if we compare like sprint and Ironman, for example, or Olympic and Ironman, the different story is how you work as an athlete, because in sprint triathlon or Olympic triathlon, you are mostly in anaerobic situation. okay In Ironman, you are ah very often in aerobic area.
00:23:25
Jan - INFINIT
So ah for the short races, In my view, the critical is ah hydration, hydration, proper hydration with a good level of electrolytes and with a reasonable amount of energy.
00:23:44
Jan - INFINIT
Because you need certain level of energy, but because the race is one and a half, sometimes one and a half hour, you know, ah two hours, your body is equipped with energy, but you have to you have to be sure that you hydrate properly and you get enough electrolytes, you ah For the long distances, as we discussed, it's important to regularly too regularly to add energy to your to your body. yes
00:24:14
Jan - INFINIT
Simply said, you can survive half Ironman on the water. You will survive. You will finish probably half Ironman.
00:24:24
Jan - INFINIT
If you drink only water, you will finish. but your your performance will be miserable. you know Probably you are able because you have still your body has certain sources of energy you know from carbs, from glycogen, from fat and that you will finish. But it is not about to finish.
00:24:44
Jan - INFINIT
It's about to to do a good performance. Therefore, for half Ironman and for Ironman, you need to add additional energy for sprint.
00:24:54
Jan - INFINIT
it's it's very It's relatively short, so you need to hydrate properly and to add enough electrolytes and certain portion of energy. Yeah, we have we have some products for these short short-term races as well.
00:25:08
Scott Hill
Yeah. And everyone's, um everyone's performance is relevant to them, isn't it? It's not necessarily, we don't have to pro athletes. you're going to finish at a faster time, you know, all the way down to the other end of the scale, but it's relevant to each person's individual performance. And it's it's about that individual getting the best performance they can out of their ability on
Optimal Nutrition Intake During Events
00:25:26
Scott Hill
the day.
00:25:27
Scott Hill
And fuel is important for that naturally. Yeah.
00:25:30
Jan - INFINIT
yeah
00:25:31
Scott Hill
So if we were looking at, let let's look at a 70.3 bike course where an athlete is going to do that in three hours. What are looking at for for sort of like bike mixes then for on the bike? What would you recommend for an athlete to have?
00:25:44
Jan - INFINIT
yeah if ah If you look at the bike course, I think ah it is it is we are back to the the level of performance, the level of of of the ah the quality of athletes. ah if we are If we have, let's say very good um that's age group athlete,
00:26:08
Jan - INFINIT
ah we should they should have roughly around 65 to let's say 80 grams of carbohydrates per hour.
00:26:20
Jan - INFINIT
And in comparison, for example, some pro athletes, they usually use like 90 grams or top top age group athletes. Top age group athletes also 90 grams. Some of athletes, they they use ah they they need even more, grams of carbohydrates.
00:26:43
Jan - INFINIT
We are back to the to the basic ah discussion that you have to practice because ah because we have ah you have social medias, you have all the information yeah around you and ah And if you if you if you compare, you mentioned pro athletes, if you compare pro athletes and you look at them, they they they have completely different level of performance. So so they need different level of energy intake ah compared to compared to ah even top top um age group athletes. So i am we are...
00:27:26
Jan - INFINIT
ah through our consultations, because we have a lot of consultations with athletes, we try to explain them that it doesn't work. The more carbs, the more ah the better performance.
00:27:40
Jan - INFINIT
It is more like optimal ah to find out optimal level of carbs towards your ah your ah performance. Because still, if you eat carbs,
00:27:51
Jan - INFINIT
more carbs, you have to digest these carbs. and um So you recover your glycogen and if you do if you don't need um the additional carbs, it's useless to to get them.
00:28:03
Jan - INFINIT
so So we try to find out find out this level.
00:28:05
Scott Hill
yes and I guess that falls into you know what we said before, what you said before about we need to practice in training. And if, and if you look at a pro triathlete, you know, they are training, recovering, training, recovering.
00:28:19
Scott Hill
And you look at an age group athlete, they're going to work.
00:28:20
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:28:22
Scott Hill
They're then training. They're then eating their lunch. They're going back to work. So the lifestyle is totally different. So it's incorporating the nutrition in with probably their day-to-day general food in, um you know, the lifestyle, whereas the pro athletes are very much,
00:28:39
Scott Hill
practicing, training, nutrition. So they're building their life around that performance more so than an age group athlete who's got to live and pay the bills and work and you know they're eating and everything else.
00:28:51
Scott Hill
So the digestion system and training calendar for the week and the months is all very different. So it's a bit more specific. So yeah, I think i think for we see all this stuff on social media where this athlete's taking 120 grams and then A lot of age group athletes are thinking I need to do that as well.
00:29:10
Scott Hill
Well, in reality, do you need to do that?
00:29:11
Jan - INFINIT
yeah
00:29:13
Scott Hill
Or do you need to have the best performance and and nutrition plan for you around your lifestyle, which is potentially totally different?
00:29:23
Jan - INFINIT
Absolutely, absolutely.
00:29:23
Scott Hill
It's,
00:29:23
Jan - INFINIT
I i fully i fully agree. And it is it does also, a i know that we we are talking a lot about practicing, but ah imagine imagine racing day.
00:29:37
Jan - INFINIT
and you are coming you are ah you are coming to to the to the um to the beginning or to the start and you are looking around and you are getting a lot of information, you are nervous, you know, and and you start to talk to people and they say, okay, what kind of, what do you eat this, that, you know? And I think i think what is important is that if you practice, if you have your plan,
00:30:05
Jan - INFINIT
ah regarding your plan for the race, but also your plan for the for the nutrition. Stick with your plan.
Pre-Race Nutrition Considerations
00:30:12
Jan - INFINIT
Don't look to right, left and stick with your plan.
00:30:12
Scott Hill
Yeah, yeah. yep
00:30:16
Jan - INFINIT
This is this is this is so the most important point.
00:30:19
Scott Hill
I had this i i this last week with ah an athlete that i coach. He's actually doing a half marathon this weekend. and He was like, what should I eat in the days running up to the event? i was like, no different to what you have in all your training. The only thing I'd recommend is don't go and have a vindaloo the night before. but you know You've been training. Do the nutrition you've been training. Eat how you've been eating. Don't all of a sudden change your diet in the three days running up to a race because your body's not prepared for that. and Then you're going to change you you know, what's going in your body and your body will be like, what's going on?
00:30:51
Scott Hill
And you'll confuse it and you'll have, you end up with issues. So it's, yeah, it falls into that part.
00:30:55
Jan - INFINIT
Yes, yes.
00:30:57
Scott Hill
Yeah. um So I guess, I guess, you know, we've touched on different races. We've got a different climate. So it's all very different. You know, and we, again, we typically see some athletes will go to different, if it's a hotter climate, they'll go a week, two weeks prior to sort of get used to the climate as well. But potentially in the nutrition might have to change in that environment as well. you know and i think Earlier on you touched on sodium and that's obviously due with the the salt that we lose from our body and typically in hotter climates you lose more salt.
00:31:28
Scott Hill
So I guess that's something point people need to factor in as well if they are, especially coming from where I am the UK and where you are, which relatively cold. right now as we're coming out that other end. If you were to fly out to America and go and do Ironman Texas, for example, your nutrition slam nutrition plan might have to be factored in and be slightly different for this.
00:31:50
Jan - INFINIT
ah Absolutely. Absolutely. But there are some important points. ah Sodium is key element for cramps, for sure.
00:32:02
Jan - INFINIT
There is another key element and it is hydration. No. So a first sodium. ah if If there is a climate like UK, Czech Republic or normal normal climate, 20 degrees, 22, 25 degrees,
00:32:20
Jan - INFINIT
ah roughly 400 milligrams, around 400 milligrams of sodium should be absolutely okay for most of the athletes. And if if athletes are our athletes are traveling to Nice, to Abu Zhabi, to Dubai or somewhere, you know ah we are we are talking to them and we are we are usually we increase level of sodium to to ah
00:32:50
Jan - INFINIT
550, 600 milligrams plus other electrolytes. I'm talking about only sodium, but we always add magnesium, potassium, calcium as well. So usually, usually if it is 500, 500 milligrams of sodium, overall level of electrolytes is like 800 grams or 850 grams of electrolytes.
00:33:11
Jan - INFINIT
ah Why I'm mentioning ah the upper part is that ah I'm very often getting information. Okay, I'm heavy sweater and I did measurement and i um am i lost 1000 milligrams, you know, and I need to replace everything. This is not true.
00:33:34
Jan - INFINIT
This is not true. There is no evidence. There is no, let's say, ah proven evidence that that ah more than 600 milligrams per hour will help you against cramps.
00:33:50
Jan - INFINIT
You know, so, so and and if you can imagine that that if you have 800 milligrams of sodium or even 1000 milligrams of sodium, it's relatively difficult to to drink.
00:34:02
Jan - INFINIT
First, it is not isotonic drink, it is hypertonic drink. You need to add a lot of water apart from your drink and it it doesn't help. It doesn't help.
00:34:14
Jan - INFINIT
So I, in my view, The upper upper level ah for sodium, if it is really, really warm weather or hot weather is something between 550, 600 milligrams milliggams of sodium per hour. And I mentioned second second important point and it is hydration because, you know,
00:34:39
Jan - INFINIT
you need to hydrate properly if it is hot weather. Because you know it's your body your body needs water, always needs water. And if it hot weather and and your your body doesn't have enough water, you don't properly ah ah hydrate properly, your body says, okay, I need water.
00:34:59
Jan - INFINIT
And and they it it takes water from your muscles, you know and and and and you have you are in the trouble. So, so hydration is sometimes even, even more important against the crumbs than, than, than, than sodium.
00:35:16
Jan - INFINIT
But as
00:35:16
Scott Hill
Yeah.
Distribution Challenges in the UK
00:35:17
Jan - INFINIT
you said, ah if I think it is really important to pay attention, and to attention where, where I am traveling, what is expected, whether there, and, and, and again, we are back to the, to the, to have a plan.
00:35:33
Jan - INFINIT
you know because there is a not magic magic level of i need to drink this level or i need to drink that level it's it's always something you're feeling somehow but ah but it is important to to understand both both uh important points level of sodium as well as as a hydration yeah
00:35:54
Scott Hill
I think that's really really key for people to understand and don't think that um because that person or that athlete's taken that I need to take that and do that as well so it's working out what's right for you um something we're seeing in in the I tell on social media quite a lot the minute is the UK needs to join the EU again all the time and I'm aware that
00:36:03
Jan - INFINIT
Thanks.
00:36:14
Scott Hill
I know why the Brexit brought a whole load of issues with supply chains and everything else to the UK and even people like me that like to buy things, you know, helmets and stuff and all this other things as well. It's caused issues. And it was all a great idea at the time where everyone thought, yeah, this would be amazing. But actually came with lot of complexities. And this has come around nutrition as well. And the UK market is very big on sports and sports nutrition. and obviously with yourself being European distribution hub from Prague, but getting into the UK, how have you tackled that and how are you getting your product into the UK and how can people find your product today?
00:36:55
Jan - INFINIT
yeah Yeah, you mentioned you mentioned exactly. okay UK is a great market, okay? Big market. I don't want to judge brexit Brexit. This is not on me. But I spent lovely four years in in London during my banking career.
00:37:12
Jan - INFINIT
And I love UK. I love UK. 68 millions of people, you know? And I think it's a very sportive country, you know?
00:37:19
Scott Hill
you
00:37:24
Jan - INFINIT
and what is What is also, i think, important is that, is in my view, it is the most competitive competitive market in in Europe.
00:37:37
Jan - INFINIT
help Nearly all brands are there in the UK. For us, the the biggest challenge was, and and i still I think it's a it's a continuous work, is brand awareness.
00:37:51
Jan - INFINIT
It's a brand awareness. We are still five years in Europe. It is very short period. and And also u k UK u k has a tradition. And, you know, ah at the beginning when we said, okay, let's go to UK, we thought, okay, we will put some advertisement on social medias and nothing happened.
00:38:17
Jan - INFINIT
Nothing happened. Why? Because... People didn't want to go to European website from UK. Why they should go to European website if they if they usually go to UK websites, ah nutrition websites?
00:38:31
Jan - INFINIT
First point. Second point. Why should I pay in euros? i I usually pay in pounds, you know, so, and and even we provide but provided did like like free delivery, you know, as it as we are talking about competitive market, people are used to get, you know, ah the package the package next day for free, you know, so so if you count all these together, you easily understand that that ah that ah you you need to change approach towards u k compared to other European countries.
00:38:49
Scott Hill
Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:11
Jan - INFINIT
you know There is a, in financial, In financial world, there is a special expression, don't fight the market. yeah if you If you trade the stocks and bonds on the like stock exchange, there is a magic sentence, don't fight the market.
00:39:27
Jan - INFINIT
and And I use this so for UK nutrition as well. Don't fight the market. You know you either want to be there or or you lose. So ah we we agreed with XMiles.
00:39:42
Jan - INFINIT
X-Smiles is a great um nutrition retailer directly in directly ba based in the UK. It is managed by Anthony, who is a well-known runner, who was well-known runner, and and they provide a service directly nutrition service like Feet, for example, in the US, in the UK. So we cooperate with them quite closely. And so no our athletes can purchase our preset products directly in Xmile's website.
00:40:24
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:40:24
Jan - INFINIT
And regarding custom custom blend ah blended products, it is still done on our website. So we have a lot of athlete athletes. they They still work directly with us. But usually with custom, as as we discussed before, usually we are in the close contact with them. So they understand the situation and we cooperate with them on regular basis. But locally with Xmiles, custom blend directly with us.
00:40:54
Scott Hill
Okay, so then obviously athletes that are listening then, if you want to have a look at Infant Nutrition, head over for your custom blend to the European website, Infant Nutrition.
00:41:01
Jan - INFINIT
Yes. Yeah.
00:41:02
Scott Hill
And if you are in UK distribution, go to Xmiles for UK website and they can distribute it from there for you as well.
00:41:02
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:41:09
Scott Hill
And we've actually got a discount code that we can use, which is Scott10 to get 10% off from Xmiles.
00:41:16
Jan - INFINIT
yeah
00:41:17
Scott Hill
So fantastic. um So what would you say for, if we're looking at age groupers, because let's say the majority of people out there racing are age groupers, what would you think would be the top three tips we'd give an age age group for nutrition and during their triathlon?
00:41:33
Jan - INFINIT
ah
00:41:37
Jan - INFINIT
Okay, let's start ah but let's start with
Top Nutrition Tips for Athletes
00:41:40
Jan - INFINIT
the nutrition before the race. A lot of people, they are changing they are changing normal normal food, like three, four ah four days before the race. My view is don't change anything.
00:41:56
Jan - INFINIT
Don't change anything. Because as you mentioned, your stomach, your microbiome is somehow set. And can you imagine that you are nervous and you are changing your food and something like this is, is is is it's quite difficult for your body. So don't change don't change anything. yeah In the morning before the race, you wake up earlier, you take normal breakfast, you take coffee. you know It's a funny it's it's it's a funny when people change food,
00:42:26
Jan - INFINIT
you know and they try to avoid vegetable or apples or everything, cannot to have, let's say, you know the troubles to go to toilet or something like this.
00:42:34
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:42:37
Jan - INFINIT
And they wake up in the morning ah during the race day, they take coffee and they cannot go to toilets because they don't have normal food. so So it's again, you know it's it's like it's like this. So I would say the less changes, the better. This is this is my personal view.
00:42:54
Jan - INFINIT
oh During the race, please, please stick with your nutrition plan. this is It looks so simple. It looks so simple. But plan before, ah agree with either with us directly or with your coach about how you do your nutrition and stick with the plan. Because what happens very, very often is, especially during Ironman,
00:43:22
Jan - INFINIT
that you are tired during the run. Okay, you are on the bike, you will survive nicely, 180K is done and you are starting to run. First half is absolutely fine, but you are tired more and more and more.
00:43:39
Jan - INFINIT
But if you stick with your plan, you know that you have enough energy it and it is and you don't feel good because you are tired, not because you don't have enough food. And very often what happens is that athletes believe, if I eat more, I will be less tired, which which is not true. And what is what is, I have to say, very often happening is that people starting to run through A stations and they try to eat as much as possible.
00:44:12
Jan - INFINIT
And at one point, stomach say it says, okay, no, no more, nothing. you know And and and it is it's a pity, but I think I read some study about, about i don't know where where it was, but there was ah disgust or or they they look at the people, they didn't finish Ironman because of nutrition and most of them, the reason was that they they ate a lot, they they ate more than they needed.
00:44:46
Scott Hill
Yeah.
00:44:46
Jan - INFINIT
you know so so And therefore, Stomach said, no no no, no, no, no more. So stick with your stick with your plan and and and you will have a nice race.
Common Mistakes and Caffeine Use
00:44:59
Scott Hill
I think one one thing that it kind of popped in my head then, we're talking about nutrition and food stations, did it? um When we go through these feed stations, you always see water, you know electrolytes, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, stuff like this. And I think, okay, I get it. I get the principle of it, but who Who goes out training and does their brick sessions and goes through feed stations and tar starts taking cups of Coke, Coca-Cola and things like that?
00:45:26
Scott Hill
um and and And to me, ah and then I think i've seen I've seen videos on Instagram of people cleaning toilets with Coca-Cola because it froths up.
00:45:36
Scott Hill
You know me pouring, it froths up and it does all that. So for me, I'm thinking, well, they're chucking water in and then electrolytes and then Coke. What's going on in their stomach when they do that? It's just going to...
00:45:46
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:45:46
Scott Hill
start fizzing up and cause problems then you get gi issues and then you go well what did you take why did you get gi issues oh well i took red bull i took coke i took electrolytes i took water i'm like when would you normally chuck all of that in your stomach um a feed station you don't do it in training so we don't practice it don't get me wrong a on a on an iron man for example i will take coke but it'll be on the last the last bit of the very end when I just want that quick high and I've taken water and the let light until then, and then it's the last bit of the race. I'll take coat because I know as soon as I'm finishing that race, I'm in the loo.
00:46:25
Scott Hill
And I think, I think this is a bit what people don't quite understand. You know, we talk about this practice, this practice that, but then when they get to the course, like, Oh yeah, had to go to the port-a-loo four times.
00:46:36
Scott Hill
Like we probably chucked all these products into your stomach and it was just like a big pit of evolving liquids that all, they They don't mix well together, do they? you know this's just They just combust and up.
00:46:47
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:49
Scott Hill
are
00:46:50
Jan - INFINIT
You are absolutely right Scott. The the the point is that, and you, You mix everything in your stomach and you are running. So your stomach is doing like this. So you are mixing mixing everything together.
00:47:03
Jan - INFINIT
on other side, I think you mentioned quite important point that Coke is magic. Coke is magic for the last maybe 2K or 3K if you really feel, okay, I need something. I'm always saying, okay, if you are three k to go or two miles to go, you know you can start with the Coke. But I think what is important to understand that in Coke, you have fast sugars.
00:47:29
Jan - INFINIT
So you really need to take small s sips of Coke and you have to, you have to take it every agitation, but you can survive, but don't mix everything.
00:47:31
Scott Hill
More.
00:47:37
Jan - INFINIT
As you mentioned, it's, it's, it's the biggest mistake in my view. Yeah.
00:47:41
Scott Hill
Yeah, like a chemical factory in the stomach.
00:47:44
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah. Yeah. yeah that's true
00:47:49
Scott Hill
So and you mentioned you mentioned coffee as well there, you know, people having it before the race to hopefully help them to the toilets and stuff. Last year, i did a couple of races and what I noticed at the hotels and what I noticed at breakfast time was more and more athletes are eating a bowl of rice for breakfast.
00:48:07
Scott Hill
Now, three, four years ago, you wouldn't have seen that, but now more and more people doing it. and And again, I think, is that something they do at home? Do they have a bowl of rice? And then do they go and train? Probably not. So, you know, i don't get me wrong. I'm sat there in my coffee and I'm eating my jam on toast and, or peanut butter on toast, but that's exactly how I would eat at home and then train.
00:48:28
Scott Hill
I wouldn't all of a sudden on race day morning have a bowl of rice because I've seen it on social media.
00:48:28
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:48:34
Scott Hill
That's what that pro athlete's doing or that's what that dietician, if you're doing that, you've got to be doing it weeks and months in preparation for that event, not just race morning, you know, I'm going to have a bowl of rice.
00:48:46
Scott Hill
So,
00:48:48
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah. Coffee. you mentioned You mentioned coffee. Coffee is magic. magic But again, we are back. you athletes should understand that if if they drink drink coffee regularly, like me, for example, you know, it's it there is no difference.
00:49:01
Scott Hill
makes no difference yep
00:49:06
Jan - INFINIT
And it is not booster. it's It's fine. Your body is used to have enough coffee. It's fine. And if you want to be to have a booster, you have to stop drinking coffee like two, three weeks before the race, which I am not ready to to do
Infinite Nutrition Product Range and Future Plans
00:49:22
Jan - INFINIT
it. but ah But coffee, for me, the question, coffee, yes, no, why not? If I drink coffee every morning, I will take coffee even before Ironman in the morning, no problem. And if I, if i ah let's say, have a chance to take coffee,
00:49:41
Jan - INFINIT
like coffee drinks for example we have jet fuel with coffee uh coffee inside ah so i can you i can use it but i cannot expect if i am coffee lover i cannot expect the big booster from coffee side you know
00:49:57
Scott Hill
I tend to put this into three categories. If you're someone that never drinks coffee and has caffeine and you had caffeine, you would get a high. if you're someone that intermittently has it, yes, you would get a spike depending on when and when you've had it. But if you drink and take caffeine regularly, the likelihood of having a high from caffeine is is pretty is pretty slim.
00:50:15
Scott Hill
And that's how I put people into three brackets of that.
00:50:15
Jan - INFINIT
is business loyal.
00:50:19
Scott Hill
Yeah, so it's good. So um how many, i don't know if you know this off top yet, but how many products has Infinite Nutrition got?
00:50:27
Jan - INFINIT
Biden, sorry?
00:50:28
Scott Hill
How many products do Infinite Nutrition have? Is in what ranges? Hydration. We've spoke about...
00:50:34
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah, yeah, we have we ah we have we We try to cover short-term performance like hydration. We have hydrate, hydrate is caffeine, where you have you have like 200 calories, you have a certain amount of electrolytes.
00:50:51
Jan - INFINIT
And this this hydrate is is um suitable for, for example, if you go for swimming, if you go to gym, if you go to for the run for um up to one hour, 90 minutes, you know, it's it's enough. It's just easy isotonic drink. that just Just don't drink water, just just drink If you go up to three hours, we have ah we have um speed and jet fuel. The difference is only caffeine on jet fuel. But three hours is is is a period where you need to add a a little bit of energy or certain level of energy. Or if you go two hours and you have interval straining or something like this, you know, and speed, we have 58 grams of carbohydrates inside. We have 400 milligrams, roughly 400 milligrams of sodium inside. and and you can you can use it as ah as an energy drink. What is the beauty on this is that still the osmolality around 280, which is isotonic drink. So you don't need to drink any additional water and it is it is quite ah quite okay for athletes. And if you go for, let's say, long bike or run three hours plus or four hours bike you know during the weekend, we have go far where you have 68 grams of carbohydrates. You have 400 milligrams of sodium. And as you mentioned in the beginning, we also add four grams of protein.
00:52:39
Jan - INFINIT
And the and the and the the reason for this is is not to be hungry because protein should not be taken as a source of energy, but it is mainly not to be hungry during long rides, you know.
00:52:55
Scott Hill
Yep. Yep.
00:52:55
Jan - INFINIT
on the On the recovery side, we we have, let's say, two main products. We have repair, vanilla and chocolate, where we have three different proteins.
00:53:09
Jan - INFINIT
All the proteins are protein isolates, which is top quality proteins. I think this is it is also important because you can have protein concentrate and protein isolate. We have 60 grams of of ah carbohydrates in in the repair.
00:53:24
Jan - INFINIT
This is what I mentioned. It is important to recover your glycogen immediately after the after the after the practice or the race.
00:53:26
Scott Hill
Thank you.
00:53:32
Jan - INFINIT
And we have amino acids there and all the other stuff for the suitable for the recovery. ah We have also nighttime a ninetime recovery drink, Nocturne.
00:53:45
Jan - INFINIT
It is with only 25 grams of carbohydrates, because over the night you don't need a lot of carbohydrates. We have two ah two different proteins, but also we have tryptophan.
00:53:59
Jan - INFINIT
Tryptophan is the ingredients helping to ah to produce melatonin. And melatonin is is nice for for the for the for the sleep. And what is what is good is that both Ripper and Nocturne can can mix with water or half and half water milk, you know, and it's delicious. I would say it's delicious.
00:54:22
Jan - INFINIT
And the last ah product, our hopefully our favorite is cold brew.
00:54:22
Scott Hill
Yep.
00:54:32
Jan - INFINIT
Cold brew is performance coffee with 19 grams of protein in one portion. with real coffee inside, with real instant coffee inside. And you can use it as a recovery drink as well as, as ah as ah let's say, liquid with food if you do not have enough time, for example, for your breakfast, for your... your if you If you are coming from the work and you have practiced in one one hour, you know you cannot eat normal food, you need to get a certain level of energy, so you can use also cold brew.
00:55:06
Scott Hill
Fantastic. So ah complete suite of products there we've gone over, Jeanne.
00:55:08
Jan - INFINIT
Yeah.
00:55:10
Scott Hill
So everything from short distance to long distance, recovery, a bit of coffee in there.
00:55:14
Jan - INFINIT
um
00:55:16
Scott Hill
So as we mentioned earlier on, you know if people want to check out the products, they can go along to Infant Nutrition Europe. You can just look at the Google search and they'll see that one. But also if they want distribution within the UK, they can go on the Exmiles website and they can find products on there as well. And on that website, if they type in Scott 10, they'll get 10% off of the products from that website.
00:55:38
Jan - INFINIT
Yes, yeah, thank you.
00:55:40
Scott Hill
Thanks very much. It's been great talking to you today, Jan. Thanks very much for your insight into Infinite Nutrition. um Again, at some point in the future, hopefully we'll get you back on and we can talk some more. I'll be using Infinite Nutrition personally this year in my racing calendar as well. So we can even we can even discuss that as in a pre, during and afterwards as well and sort of highlight what I've done in races and talk about Infinite Nutrition a bit more throughout the year. That'd be fantastic.
00:56:07
Jan - INFINIT
Scott, thank you very much for invitation. it was a really pleasure to talk together. And I wish you i wish you and all athletes a successful season, 2026. Okay.
00:56:18
Scott Hill
Thank you very much.
00:56:18
Jan - INFINIT
Thank you very much.
00:56:19
Scott Hill
Thank you speaking to us today. um Well, that's another episode from UK Tri Chat with myself, Scott Hill from triw wolf Tri Wolf Triathlon Coaching. If anyone is looking for a coach this year within triathlon, then please reach out to myself. We do have a couple of slots available for the year.