• Precision Fuel & Hydration’s Head of Athlete Support, James AKA “JP” and his swimrun partner Ant won the second edition of the 2022 Mad Hatter Swimrun series, this time the Roseland in Cornwall.
• Having finished on the top step of the podium at the Hokey Cokey Swimrun also run by Mad Hatter earlier this summer, James and Ant were using Roseland as a “test-run” for their A-race of the season - the upcoming ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championships
• Due to the increasing prevailing wind along the Cornish coast, the final two swim sections were cancelled and replaced with extra running. With this adjustment, the pair ended up swimming a total of 6km and running 30km, but managed to adapt their fuel and hydration plan accordingly

Hydration

• James’s sweat sodium concentration falls in the ‘very high’ category at 1,850mg/L, and he knows all too well how poor hydration can affect him when racing in the heat, having suffered with painful cramps and nausea in the past
• With this in mind, JP preloaded the night before and the morning of the race to optimally top up his sodium levels and increase his blood plasma volume, thus reducing the load on his cardiovascular system
• With PH 1000 being available at the on-course aid stations, it was easier for JP to meet his sodium and fluid needs. In total, he drank ~2L/64oz of fluid throughout the race by regularly filling up his soft flask at aid stations which he carried with him throughout the race. He also took six Electrolyte Capsules with him to top up his sodium intake whilst drinking plain water
• This gave JP an average fluid intake of ~381ml/13oz per hour, which is much less than we’d recommend for someone with a sweat rate as high as him (~2L/64oz per hour in hot conditions)
• Given the logistics of a swimrun event, where aid station fluids are the only opportunity to drink, James did a decent job of drinking when he could. He rated his hydration strategy 6 (out of 10) and said “I should have had more to drink, but my intake wasn’t structured enough to keep track of on-the-go”
• JP’s sodium intake totalled ~2,750mg, which equates to ~524mg/h, and gave him a relative sodium concentration of ~1,375mg/L. This is a decent concentration of electrolytes to have consumed over a ~5 hour race, and would have replaced an adequate proportion of his sweat sodium losses
• Achieving this relative sodium concentration with a greater hourly fluid intake would have ensured JP replaced a larger proportion of his losses, and could have reduced the likelihood of experiencing “semi-cramps” in his feet during the swim sections
• The field James faced at Roseland was slightly lower than he will be up against at the World Championships, and therefore he didn’t feel like he needed to push himself enough to justify a more aggressive fueling and hydration strategy, saying “perhaps if I was racing on the limit I’d have been more tuned into hitting a particular fluid/fuel strategy”

Fueling

Conclusions

• James and his swimrun partner, Ant, had a “fairly good day” at the Mad Hatter Roseland Swimrun, taking the win and rating their race satisfaction 7 out of 10
• The regular navigational mishaps during the race meant his “competitive instinct” was diminished as the race went on, and he felt his fueling and hydration strategy reflected that
• Ahead of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championships in September, James should be looking to dial in his strategy and hit a slightly higher fluid intake, and perhaps consider bumping up his carb intake towards the upper end of the 60-90g recommendations