Ashley Reaver, RD, from Inside Tracker, talks about how endurance athletes monitor their biochemical and physical markers and how you can too. Go-to, real-food dietitian Serena Marie, RD, talks about blood sugar and a new product that can help monitor your blood sugar levels. She also discusses pre-prediabetes. Runner of the Week, Marla Lenox, talks about why she started running, and how her running has influenced others. She also provides a race recap of the Big Beach Marathon in Gulf Shores, AL.
Featured Guest: Ashley Reaver, RD
Ashley Reaver, RD, from Inside Tracker, works daily with endurance athletes to better their nutrition. The Inside Tracker “platform tracks and analyzes key biochemical and physiological markers and applies sophisticated algorithms and large scientific databases to determine personalized optimal zones for each marker,” according to the company’s web site.

Inside Tracker’s work with markers sets it apart from your normal clinician’s tests and results, since your primary physician is simply scanning for disease and to make sure you aren’t dangerously approaching a disease state.
Most of Inside Tracker’s clients are what Ashley calls “worried well”—which means generally healthy athletes who want to have more information on themselves.
The levels of biochemical markers that might keep you out of a diseased state aren’t necessarily the same levels of those markers that you would want for optimal performance.

Example: Prediabetes starts at around 100 mg/dL, and your primary physician most likely won’t alert you that anything’s wrong until 99 or 100 mg/dL; when in fact you might be at 98 mg/dL and would have the opportunity to turn the situation around.


Ashley gives clients nutritional and supplement advice on how to optimize their health.
Kari had a test in February 2015 through Inside Tracker, and compared her results then with her results after running three marathons in six weeks to see if the results differed.
Kari’s glucose is a little higher than what Inside Tracker’s optimal range is, but this is typical for endurance athletes (but not to the prediabetic level).
This is because muscles’ primary/preferred source of fuel is glucose, and that’s what many athletes choose to fuel with.
Ashley suggests that the best time have a sugary fuel (sports drinks or gel, fruit) is right before, during, or after a workout, because your muscles are craving that fuel source.
After running three marathons, Kari’s glucose was 94 mg/dL.
Ashley’s glucose used to be around 96 mg/dL, but once she cut down on bananas after her own Inside Tracker test, it’s been in the 70s ever since. Her body doesn’t metabolise bananas well, and that’s something she found out after using Inside Tracker’s knowledge.
Iron is another vitamin that many endurance athletes are deficient in. The clinical level of deficiency is very low. Inside Tracker also tests a marker called ferritin, which is the storage form of iron. It is the biomarker that you want to have your finger on the most, because it’s the best indicator of iron status overall. Ferritin is something your primary doctor might miss.
Women under fifty years old lose more iron than men of the same age (and even more so women who are vegetarians or who don’t eat much red meat). They can include more leafy greens, shellfish, fortified cereals, and so on to help improve iron levels.
Ashley says that ferritin is like filling a swimming pool with a garden hose—it takes a long time for your body to feel comfortable storing iron away. The lower the ferritin marker, the longer you’re going to have to take a supplement in order for your body to start raising your iron level in subsequent tests.
Kari saw a nice spike in her iron levels, and she thinks it might be because she started using a cast iron skillet.
Hemoglobin levels can also play a factor in how much energy endurance athletes have. It’s a molecule on the red blood cells that help transport oxygen to our working muscles. You may have