Andrew Hall: From Hormone-Depleted Triathlete To Thriving Ironman Amateur Champion, With Bonus Sports Nutrition Plan!

July 1, 2022
-:--

Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by the UCAN Company, the fat-burning fuel of choice for metabolically efficient endurance athletes and health enthusiasts.

UCAN products are powered by SuperStarch, a unique, low glycemic complex carbohydrate that delivers long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crash, keeping your blood sugar steady. It’s the perfect complement for the healthy metabolically efficient athlete. Whether you’re racing fast short-course events or grueling Ironmans and ultra runs, UCAN products have grown so much over the years, as well, to fit your needs, with everything from drink mixes to their popular EDGE gels. 

Athletes from all types of sports and levels are using UCAN these days, with top-level and pro triathletes, runners and even Crossfit athletes are using UCAN to fuel their best performances. But, UCAN is also a fantastic product for non-athletes and/or outside of training too.

Many UCAN products are offered in both plant-based and whey protein options, all with SuperStarch, including plant-based bar flavors cherry berry almond, salted peanut butter and chocolate almond butter, as well as a variety of energy + protein powders—great for those of you athletes looking to gain or maintain strength. 

Best of all: EP fans get 15% off everything UCAN offers, click to activate your discount and shop now. You can also use the code ENDURANCEPLANET2021 if you’re shopping at ucan.co for that same 15% discount.


Sponsor:

Thorne supplements help athletes meet their unique needs and we have everything Thorne offers available to you over at our shop page, endurance planet dot com slash shop or link through the show notes. When you shop through us you support the podcast, a win win.

Thorne products are shipped around the world and they ensure quality control over summer months when it’s super hot outside: Before they launch a new product, they subject it to accelerated stability testing and the product formula must demonstrate stability. If the formula fails, then the product is reformulated and the accelerated stability testing is conducted on the new formula. 

Whether you’re looking to heal from issues like gut dysbiosis, hormonal imbalances like low sex hormones or imbalanced stress hormones, or just looking to improve performance, maintain a strong immune system and get that extra edge, Thorne has so many formulas to fit you needs or bundles to cover even more bases. And many of Thorne’s supplements are NSF certified. If you’re curious on what supplements might be a good fit for you, just ask us! Send us an email to questions at endurance planet dot com telling us about yrouself and where you think you might need to fill in some gaps. 

Thorne now even offers health testing such as a convenient budget-friendly gut health tests! So starting shopping with the best there is, you can find Thorne over on our Shop page, and like we say about all supplements: when you buy from the source you ensure higher efficacy and proper handling of your supplements plus you support the podcast!


On this episode we welcome Andrew Hall, 36, an elite triathlete from Salt Lake City, UT. Andrew joins us to candidly share his journey from the health and hormonal issues he faced during his early years in triathlon to adopting a new approach and pursuing a level of healing that’s not only allowed him to fix the issues that ailed him, but also has led him to performing as a top amateur triathlete at the Ironman distance. Follow along with Andrew’s triathlon journey at @andrewtrihall.

Getting into sport, stepping up to 70.3s, being self-coached, slightly obsessed, probably taking the wrong approach to training and racing and noticing things were off by end of 2016.

What Andrew thinks he did that ultimately led to health issues, namely low testosterone and hormonal imbalances, dangerously low body mass, and more.

Signs and symptoms, how he became more aware of what exactly was going on, and what actions he took. 

Working with sports med doctors at first, but then being coached by triathlete Matt Bach for a more holistic approach.

His approach toward healing and rebuilding what he’d lost, under Matt’s guidance.

Healing took about two years of work and trial and error. For a while, cut training by 2/3… meanwhile a heightened focus on sleep, strength training, etc.

What did he learn about himself during that time of intense healing? 

The rebuild back into specific training, utilizing MAF, and then the pandemic and how that played a role.

With everything he’s learned, Matt shares his approach to balancing performance and health.

Tackling the Ironman distance with immense success at IM CdA 2021, as well as IM StG 2022.

And as promised in the interview, here is a breakdown of Andrew’s sports nutrition plan he uses for Ironman:

Ironman sports nutrition plan:

Breakfast:
2 serving of UCAN Lemon
1 serving of vanilla whey protein
Blueberries
Mixed in almond milk
Scratch lab hyper hydration mix
2 UCAN edge prior to swim
Bike*:
2x bottles with 5 servicing of UCAN with a salt stick pill and alt sur red tablet mixed in
1 bottle of UCAN hydrate
3x sis gels with 2 contain caffeine from 75-200mgs
Run*:
Water and other drinks (red bull/ Cola) as wanted/needed
2-5 Maurten gels as needed, usually not the full gel is consumed.

*Add more electrolytes as needed and based on heat/weather conditions.

Add your thoughts

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.