Andy Sloan's scorecard
Atlantic Coast Ultra
Saturday 9th October, 2021
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
- 89gCarb per hour
- 734mgSodium per hour
- 666mlFluid per hour
- 1,102mg/LRelative sodium concentration
- 1.51mg/kgCaffeine per bodyweight
How Andy hit those numbers
Before race (>30mins)
500ml x PH 1500 (Tablet)
1 x Porridge pot
330ml x Energy drink (155mg caffeine)
150ml x Energy drink mix (35g carb)
Race - During
1.75L x PH 500 (Tablets)
1.5L x PH 1500 (Drink Mix)
4 x PH Electrolyte Capsule
12 x PF 30 Gel
300ml x Additional fluid in mixed drinks
1 x Energy gel (23g carb)
1 x Energy chew packet with caffeine (48g carb, 100mg caffeine)
300ml x Cola
- Andy had a successful race at the Atlantic Coast Ultra in St Ives coming in second in a time of 5 hours and 47 minutes. Although being beaten, he did break the old course record with his impressive time. He doesn’t think he could have done much better and rated his race satisfaction as 9 out of 10
- Coming off the back of two ultras that hadn’t *gone the way* Andy had hoped, quite literally considering in one of them he went the wrong way, he said he ‘needed a good race’. Which is what he did, smashing his goal time of six and a half hours
Hydration
- On average, Andy consumed ~666ml/23oz of fluid per hour across the race. He did this primarily by drinking from a 1.5L/53oz bladder containing PH1500 and filling up his two 500ml/16oz flasks (containing gels to begin with) twice each with on course PH500
- This fluid volume looks to be an adequate amount considering the mild conditions but Andy does report having a high sweat rate and peeing once which was dark. This could suggest that he under hydrated slightly, a little more plain water could be beneficial due to all his fluids containing strong electrolytes or carbs
- Andy agrees, saying specifically he needed another 1-1.5L/35-53oz water but didn’t fancy refilling his bladder during the race, and rating his hydration strategy around a 7 out of 10
- Andy took on board a decent amount of sodium. The relative sodium concentration of his intake was ~1,102mg/L which is slightly higher than his sweat sodium concentration of ~859mg/L but taking into account his reported high sweat rate this is an appropriate concentration
- Andy has a history of bad cramps when racing. In this race however he did not experience any severe cramp. He did start to feel twinges in his Adductors during the later stages of the race so chose to take some salt capsules in an attempt to ‘fend it off’ which seemed to work as the cramps did not develop further
Fueling
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30gcarb 30 mins before
60-90gcarb per hour during
- Before an 8:15am race start, Andy had a good pre-race meal of porridge and some energy drink mix high in carbohydrate to maximise his endurance performance. He also drank a strong caffeine drink to increase his perceived energy levels at the start
- The Quick Carb Calculator would recommend Andy consume 30g of carb in the final 30 minutes before the race, however this practice comes down to an athlete’s personal preference. If an athlete has fuelled effectively prior to the race as Andy had done then this reduces the need for this final carb dose
- Evidence suggests that the higher carb intake that can be achieved, the greater performance benefit and Andy was able to reach an impressive ~89g/hr. This is pushing the upper limit of our recommended range and is therefore an excellent intake for a long event while experiencing no GI issues
- Andy got the majority of his carbohydrate from PF 30 Energy Gels. As we would expect with such a solid carb intake, Andy had really good energy levels which were ‘decent the whole time’
- Andy had a small caffeine dose during the race but alongside his pre-race caffeine drink had a total dose of around ~3.4mg caffeine per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg BW). He is accustomed to using caffeine and says he ‘normally has a lot more caffeine before’. But overall, this was a good dose that falls within the recommended range of 3-6mg/kg BW for performance benefits
Conclusions
- Overall, Andy had an excellent race at the Atlantic Coast Ultra 40 miler, breaking the course record and coming in second. He stuck to his plan which he had run past the PH team pre-race with the only change being he chose not to refill his bladder instead topping up his two flasks
- In future races, especially in hotter conditions, a slightly higher intake of water could be beneficial and is something Andy agrees he needed during this run
Key info
Andy Sloan
Male82kg
Result
Position2nd
Overall Time5:47:27
Event information
SportRunning
DisciplineUltra
EventAtlantic Coast Ultra
LocationSt Ives, England
Date9th October, 2021
Total Distance64.0km / 39.8mi
Race conditions
Weather ConditionsMild
PrecipitationNo Rain
Min Temp15°C / 59°F
Max Temp16°C / 61°F
Avg Temp16°C / 61°F
Humidity75%
Athlete feedback
Race Satisfaction9/10
Hydration rating7/10Needed about 1L more water
Energy levels8/10
Toilet stopsYesOnce and it was dark
GI comfort10/10
CrampingTwinges but not full-on cramps
Data Confidence
1
2
3
4
5
There is good confidence in the accuracy of the data reported. An athlete feels that the numbers closely reflect what they consumed despite a couple of estimations which may carry some degree of error. The majority of what was consumed is recorded to a high level of specificity (most volumes are known through the use of bottles brands quantities flavours). The numbers are very plausible and align with previous data recordings (if an athlete has collected data previously).