Triathlon has a fuelling problem the other endurance sports don't: you can't eat during the swim, you're moving too fast on the bike to think hard about it, and by the run your stomach has usually had enough. Most guides treat "eat during exercise" as one instruction. Triathlon needs three separate plans stitched together.

The swim: there is no plan, and that's fine

You cannot fuel during the swim leg, so don't try. What matters is what you did in the hour or two beforehand — which is really the start of the bike plan, not a separate thing.

T1 to the bike: your best fuelling window

The bike leg is where most of your calories should go. You're seated, your hands are relatively free, and your stomach can handle solid food better here than it will later on the run.

This is exactly the use case one of our customers described in a review:

"Always use your bars during the bike ride of the triathlon. It's easy to eat and digest and tastes really great." — Gareth E.

For anything over about 90 minutes of bike leg, start eating early rather than waiting until you feel low, and keep topping up at regular intervals rather than in one go. Our Salted Caramel bar carries 40.2g of carbohydrate in a 62g bar — roughly an hour's worth of fuel for moderate effort, which is a useful mental unit to plan a bike leg around.

Unwrap before you need it. On a bike, anything needing two hands mid-ride is a problem. Open the top and have it ready before you're in the aero position, not while you're in it.

The run: smaller, and only if you need it

By the run leg your gut has had a long day and intensity is usually higher, so this is where most people scale down to gels or nothing at all rather than a full bar. If your run leg is long — half or full distance — a few bites of something familiar can still help, but this is not the place to try something new. Whatever you carry on the run should already be proven in training.

Practise the whole thing, not just the parts

The gut can be trained for triathlon specifically, not just for cycling or running in isolation. What sits fine on a training ride can behave differently after a swim, and what works on a run alone can feel different after hours on the bike. Rehearse your actual race-day fuelling — in the actual order — during a brick session, not for the first time on race morning.

After: recovery starts as soon as you're out of transition

Once you're done, protein becomes the job. Our High Protein range carries 13.2g to 16g of protein per bar depending on flavour, and the entire range is Informed Sport certified — every batch independently tested against the WADA prohibited list before release, which matters if you race under a federation that tests.

If you're managing a nut allergy alongside triathlon training, every Get Buzzing bar — energy and protein — is made in a dedicated nut-free bakery, not just labelled nut-free on a shared line.

A simple way to plan it

Fuel every leg. Energy bars for the bike → · Protein bars for after →

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