Enduro MTB British Championships

For this multi-stage race, Hattie rode for four and a half hours, with five timed technical downhill sections throughout. She focused on fueling the day before with high-carb foods like rice, pasta and some sports nutrition products. Then, during race day she took small, frequent doses of carb to top up her circulating glucose levels. Since Hattie’s intake fell below the general recommendations of ~60-75g per hour for a race of this duration and intensity, she has room to improve this part of her strategy. The logistics of this race, including frequent technical sections and some stop-start points, necessitated easily digested carbs like sports nutrition products, so Hattie could increase her intake by incorporating more of these. She could also consider taking a PF 30 Gel or Chew immediately before the gun goes off to boost her energy levels, helping to kickstart her fueling strategy and prevent the slow start she experienced.

Hattie isn’t a very heavy sweater and has only moderate sodium losses, so whilst it was humid on race day in Scotland, she didn’t feel like her sweat losses were excessive. She managed to drink frequently and refill her bottles twice during small breaks, using PH 1000 (Drink Mix) and some PF Carb Only Drink Mix to maximise ‘bang-for-buck’ in her bottles. This likely replaced a large enough proportion of her sweat and electrolyte losses and helped her avoid any effects of dehydration.

Hattie missed her pre-race coffee so decided to take some caffeine gum shortly before the race began to have the stimulant circulating in her blood. Along with a mid-race top up using a PF 30 Caffeine Gel, she achieved the minimum effective dose to obtain performance benefits including increased focus, giving her the edge on the technical timed sections by minimising mistakes whilst at high speeds.