29029 Mont-Tremblant

For Hannah’s first event requiring her to exercise throughout the night, she seeked advice from the Sports Science team to get ahead and plan accordingly. Hannah had a strong start at 29029 Mont-Tremblant, sticking closely to her pre-event plan to consume 45-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour. She used the three aid stations on the mountain to hit ~52g/h on the first few climbs, leaning on palatable options such as PF 30 Chews, banana, and peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

That intake tailed off overnight. Through the night hikes on day one it dropped to ~17g/h, then fell further to ~11g/h by day two - well below the lower end of her target. Her energy rating tracked the decline closely: 9 out of 10 at the start, down to 5 out of 10 by the end of day one, and 3 out of 10 by the end of day two.

Struggling to eat overnight is one of the most common problems in multi-day ultra events. Sleep deprivation disrupts the hormones that regulate hunger and satiety, and can push athletes toward craving energy-dense, palatable food even as their motivation and coordination to actually eat it drops. At the same time, hours of continuous exercise reduce blood flow to the gut and slow gastric emptying, so food that sat fine on the first climb can feel much harder to tolerate eight or ten hours later. Add flavour fatigue from eating the same few foods for 20-plus hours, plus the practical challenges of unwrapping and chewing food in the cold and dark while moving, and it's easy to see why carbohydrate intake so often collapses overnight.

Hannah's early race strategy was strong; the challenge is sustaining it across the full ~28 hour event. Prioritising easy-to-tolerate, high-carbohydrate options such as PF 30 Chews and PF 30 Gels through the night, alongside a period of gut training to build tolerance to higher volumes without bloating, would give her a better chance of maintaining her fuel intake as fatigue builds. As with any fueling change, what works varies athlete to athlete, so it's worth trialling in training first.

Hannah maintained excellent fluid levels throughout, staying in tune with her body and catching up hydration when she noticed she wasn’t drinking enough. During the day 1 hikes, she was carrying one soft flask with plain water and another with PH 1000, and her average fluid intake was ~686ml/h, a sensible volume to suit the conditions. The relative sodium concentration of the fluid she was drinking on the first few hikes came to ~650mg/L, which replaced her 757mg/L sodium losses well in the heat of the day. The real challenge came on day 2 when Hannah had some flavour fatigue from repeatedly consuming the same flavour of drinks, and so she made the decision to switch to plain water. Her fluid intake dropped to ~400ml/h and sodium intake to ~309mg/L. She tried to offset the drop in intake with a handful of salty crisps, although another option Hananh could consider in future is drinking plain water with Electrolyte Capsules.