London Marathon

Adam nailed his energy provisions for this marathon, coming within 1g per hour of the Fuel & Hydration Planner’s recommendations. Having access to elite bottles on course made this slightly easier as he didn’t have to rely on gels and risk dropping, or not entirely finishing them. He did find that he was quite hungry, so has since started to experiment with adding a small source of protein into his standard pre-race porridge. Because protein is satiating and can slow the digestion and release of carbs, he has been feeling a bit more 'full', so is likely to carry this plan forward to his future races.

Because Adam was running for less than two and a half hours and in mild conditions, his body didn’t have the opportunity to accumulate enough dehydration to negatively impact his performance. However, to ensure this was the case, he still drank ~275ml of fluid per hour, though it was used mainly as a vehicle for carb and electrolyte intake. With no hydration-related issues, we wouldn’t recommend that he changes this part of his strategy going into future events in similar environmental conditions.

The caffeine from Adam’s morning coffee before the race will have directly impacted him during the race itself, resulting in approximately ~2mg/kg of caffeine circulating in his bloodstream. Still, this would be below the scientific recommendations for an event of this intensity and duration. Ahead of his next race, we would encourage Adam to trial using PF 30 Caffeine Gels during some of his longer sessions to work out whether incorporating this into his fueling strategy will work for him.