Sophie Wright
Wish One Millau Gravel
Sophie's headline numbers
Sophie's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Sophie's race morning breakfast of cornflakes, rice cakes and jam, followed by a PF 30 Caffeine Gel and PF Carb Only Drink Mix in the final 30 minutes, set her up well to hit the ground hard. During the race, Sophie drew almost all of her carbohydrate from bottles of PF Carb Only Drink Mix, supplemented by a PF 30 Gel and a few jelly babies, averaging ~83g/h across the 4.5-hour effort. Liquid carbs are a popular choice at high intensities and over rough terrain, where solid foods can be harder to tolerate and more challenging to open. Additionally, Sophie's stomach comfort throughout the race reflects how well this approach suited her. This is a small reduction in carbohydrate compared with her previous race intakes but worked well to support her performance on the day as she took the top spot on the podium.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Sophie’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as her higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn moreRacing in warm conditions that peaked at ~25°C with low humidity, Sophie averaged ~773ml/h across the race - a solid intake given the environment and effort level. She made a tactical adjustment as predicted temperatures climbed, adding PH 1500 to her final two bottles to increase her sodium replacement during the hotter back half of the race. This brought her overall relative sodium concentration to ~961mg/L, comfortably in line with her sweat sodium concentration, suggesting she replaced her losses well.
Caffeine
Beyond the Three Levers of Performance (carb, sodium and fluid), caffeine is one of only a few substances that is proven to improve performance for most endurance athletes as it can help stave off mental and physical fatigue.
Sophie started the day with a coffee at breakfast before taking a PF 30 Caffeine Gel within 30 minutes of the gun. Across the race itself, her caffeine intake came from one caffeine gel and totaled ~1.85mg/kg, which is below the recommended range to maximise ergogenic benefit during the effort. Adding one or two PF 30 Caffeine Gels throughout would help her maintain circulating levels of the stimulant to sustain the performance and focus benefits across the full 4.5 hours.
How Sophie hit her numbers
Here's everything that Sophie ate and drank on the day...
Sophie's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HSophie's full stats
Data Confidence?
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands flavours quantities plausible estimations of volumes). However there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.