In this episode of the Female Athlete Podcast, I talk with professional trail runner and exercise scientist Keely Henninger. We discuss community and competition in trail running, and Keely shares strategies for optimizing performance, as well as handling unexpected challenges like injuries and race DNFs. Keely and I explore nutrition culture in trail running, how fueling enough improves how you feel and perform, as well as debunking the fear of overfueling. Keely touches on her nutrition journey, from underfueling and injuries, to eating poptarts on the trails and winning National Championships!  More than a runner, we talk about Keely’s career in exercise science, first researching biomechanics and female athletes for Nike, and now exploring the intersection between how athletes’ actually fuel, their performance, and exercise dependency. We highlight the performance gains to be made from proper nutrition, and how current fueling guidelines and sports nutrition companies’ recommendations may be wrong. Our advice to listeners is that unnecessary suffering can be avoided by fueling enough, and athletes’ should be more afraid of underfueling, not overfueling! TOPIC TIMESTAMPS: 8:45 Trail running and community  12:45 Strategies for competition: controlling the controllables and dealing with uncontrollables 16:00 Unnecessary suffering in sport and nutrition  22:00 Keely’s nutrition journey: from underfueled and injured to winning National Championships! 25:20 The fear of overfueling 27:35 Nutrition culture in trail running 30:55 Keely’s fueling favorites (poptarts FTW!) 34:00 Researching exercise science, female athletes, and nutrition 38:40 Looking at athletes’ fueling habits, performance, and exercise dependency 41:35 Unpacking fueling guidelines and sports nutrition companies  44:10 Improving performance through fueling  49:50 End of the podcast questions  Follow Keely on Instagram and Twitter @runwidkeel and me, your host Lindsey Cortes, on Instagram @female.athlete.nutrition  Keely shares our mission of empowering female athletes through her own Trail Society podcast, worth a listen for everyone: https://open.spotify.com/show/54hL2RFrTeWKSV2VGn9DlN   If you find value in this podcast and would like to support the show, join our patreon community! Become part of our Fiercely Fit and Fueled community today, and receive bonus episodes, merch, monthly recipes, access to an exclusive community message board, and have the chance to ask Lindsey your questions and get a podcast shoutout, and more! Head to patreon todaypatreon.com/femaleathletenutrition Your support means a lot! THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Previnex: https://www.previnex.com/ use code RISEUP for 15% off at checkout InsideTracker: www.insidetracker.com use code RISEUPNUTRITION for 20% off the entire store  THIS PODCAST IS ALSO SUPPORTED BY: Orgain, head to www.orgain.com and use the code RISEUP30 for 30% off your first order. Repeat customers can use the code OA2203 for 25% off future orders. Practice Better Click the link below to view plans and get a 14-day free trial. Then use the code RISEUP20 for 20% off your first 4 months: https://practicebetter.grsm.io/runp  Jen & Keri:https://jenandkeri.com/use code RISEUP10 for $10 off your order