British Gravel Championships

Amelia’s carb-rich breakfast and snacking on sweets on the drive to Scotland would have helped stock her glycogen stores and prepare for the big effort she managed on race day. In training, she has been working hard to practise tolerating higher volumes of carb whilst riding at a high intensity. Her gut training definitely paid off at the champs as she comfortably consumed over her target of ~100g/h! Since she had some of her carb in her bottles, Amelia’s conscious effort to stay hydrated actually helped her fuel more consistently, a win-win situation for her energy levels and hydration status.

After a history of struggling with cramp, incorporating electrolytes into her strategy has been a gamechanger for Amelia. Her Sweat Test revealed she’s a very salty sweater, so adequately replacing the fluid and sodium losses during a race is critical to support her performance. While she didn’t have any dehydration-related symptoms this time, the weather was fairly mild so her total losses wouldn’t have accumulated too much. Considering her high sweat sodium concentration, it’d be beneficial to incorporate a bit more sodium into her bottles, using more PH 1500 (Tablets) to better match her losses. Since she noticed a bit of thirst, the increase in sodium may help quench this, but it could also be helpful to undertake some sweat rate testing to make sure she’s consuming enough fluid for how much she’s losing in certain weather conditions.

Since Amelia had a PF 30 Caffeine Gel in the last 20 minutes before the start, she likely would have reaped some of the benefits of the stimulant about half an hour into the race. However, her intake fell below the recommended dosage for the ‘full effect’ to improve performance, so as long as she continues to tolerate caffeine well, she could swap one of her gels during the race to a caffeinated one.