Sam Holness is an autistic Ironman triathlete who has struggled with gut issues for most of his life. His father, Tony, explains how the family has evolved his everyday and in-race nutrition to help improve Sam’s performance and make life on the race course much more enjoyable.
Sam is an endurance athlete whose career is focused on long distance triathlons that cover a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a marathon. What’s unique about Sam is that he is autistic.
Now aged 31, Sam’s had to combat GI issues, IBS and being gluten intolerant through most of his life. In addition - and not uncommon with autistic children - he had a limited diet and spent most of his formative years with a preference for eating processed foods and a lack of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
When he took up triathlon, Sam’s IBS resulted in constipation, diarrhoea and bloating during races. However, none of this was his fault as GI issues are two to three times more prevalent in adults with ASD (Adult Autism Health Resources).
You would think that his autism and IBS would put him off tackling triathlons and other endurance sports because 70% of endurance athletes cite they have suffered from GI Issues when racing (Dietetics 2023).
Fortunately, it didn’t. Because of his newfound love for endurance sports - Sam thrives on the repetition of training - we embarked on a process to find foods that would not upset his stomach and allow him to train harder and process carbohydrates during races.
In Sam’s own words: “I think that I have only finished a handful of 10km, half-marathons and triathlons without some form of GI issues, like bloating. During one of my most challenging races at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, I had to visit the loo at least six times and could barely keep any carbs or fluids down.”
It continues to be a challenging journey, from smuggling vegetables into spaghetti bolognese to his dad convincing him to eat fruits like dates to help reduce constipation, hot peppers and spicy food for vitamin C, the release of dopamine and endorphins, and even to help him make smarter decisions. (Dr. Paul Rozin of the University of Pennsylvania has a theory that might explain why there is a link between intelligence and love for spicy food.)
Sam has completed over 12 full or half distance triathlons and a couple of standalone marathons. His best results include completing the London Marathon in a time of 2 hours 57 minutes and 33 seconds and a sub 5-hour Ironman 70.3 in Portugal. These are two of the recent races where he had minimal GI minimum issues.
So, how was it achieved?
We embarked on a mission to find solutions that would allow Sam to train harder and complete races without any gut issues. I started by investigating the fructose to maltodextrin ratios in sports gels along with other additives to determine the impact on Sam’s training regime and results. We also wanted to determine if Sam was fructose intolerant. Products also had to be gluten-free.
Trials started with 10km treadmill runs on an empty stomach. Sam would take a gel before the run and if he had any GI issues, like bloating, would stop immediately. We went through around 10 different offerings - this is where The Feed with their vast range came in helpful - before we narrowed the list down to a couple that were easier on the gut. Sam also started eating cake, gels and bars based on Cassava, a root vegetable native to Central and South America, as a source of carbohydrates both in and out of racing.
The concern with this trial is that Sam’s meals weren’t consistent before training because he started to add Kimchi and Sauerkraut, for probiotics, to his meals. Because Sam wants to excel in triathlon, helping him understand the link between healthy nutrition and performance has been a boon in improving his diet.
The other variable is that Sam’s gut might now be trained to digest gels and chews. However, while a more structured approach for testing is probably needed, it still provided helpful insight.
This is why the Feed has been so helpful, a one-stop shop that allows Sam to choose a range of products and create the right mix to fuel effectively and minimise GI issues.
I think we may have found a solution to his gut issues and can now embrace it. We now know which gels work during training; the next step is to take this knowledge to races. That’s the exciting part as we believe that Sam can improve his race times by up to 15% if he can complete his races without any GI Issues.
Sam's Recent Success and Fueling Strategy
Sam recently completed Challenge Roth and T100, setting PB’s for both distances.
As an example at T100 London sam fueled with:
Pre-start: Maurten Gel 100g (before swim start)
During 3 x 160 Maurten Gel (during bike and run)
2 x 750ml bottles with Precision Fuel and Hydration 1000mg Hydration Tablets (Though they bounced out of the frame on cobbles)
More about Sam and Tony:
Sam Holness Sam is on the path to becoming the UK’s first professional endurance
athlete with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In 2022, Sam, from London in the UK, made history by becoming the first Athlete with ASD to compete at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. On a global stage, Sam is challenging the stereotypes for those with neurodiversity, while tackling one of the world’s toughest endurance sports.
Tony Holness
Tony is Sam’s father who gave up a successful career in IT and banking to become, in his own words, Sam’s triathlon coach and taxi driver. As an impassioned and articulate public speaker, Tony excels in giving talks about how his own family continue to break through barriers, explaining why sport and training for triathlon perfectly complement Sam’s outlook on life, and how the life-limiting prognosis for those living with autism can be turned around.
