The Gralloch

Ben rolled up to the start line of The Gralloch with one of his most aggressive fueling plans to date: 360g of carbohydrate across just over three hours (including the 30g of carb he had pre-race), which averaged out at ~115g/h. His strategy started on race morning, with a familiar carb-rich breakfast and a PF 30 Caffeine Gel just before the start. From there, it was a combination of high-carb bottles (two one litre drink mixes delivering 90g of carbs each) and four gels spaced evenly that kept his energy flowing. Ben’s subjective feedback suggested that until the final sprint, his energy levels weren’t the limiter, and his fueling strategy gave him the chance to race aggressively at the front.

Hydration often gets overlooked when temperatures are moderate, but it remains just as critical for performance, so Ben didn’t leave it to chance. With a well-thought out hydration strategy, which saw him drink a total of ~2.5L of fluid and ~2500mg of sodium, his intake was sufficient and well-matched to his known sweat fluid and sodium losses. Although a slightly higher relative sodium intake than his losses, this would have helped him retain more of the fluid he consumed and set him up well for the high core temperature associated with intense exercise and racing. Swapping the PH 1000 for PH 1500 with his breakfast will be a more effective pre-loading strategy ahead of future races.

Ben’s caffeine strategy was fairly simple. He took two PF 30 Caffeine Gels, one before the gun went off and one mid-race. That gave him 200mg caffeine total, or ~2.9mg/kg, just slightly below the threshold for performance benefits. Given the duration of the race, this would have been sufficient to boost his perceived energy levels whilst avoiding the negative side effects sometimes associated with caffeine.