• Germain Grangier, a French ultra-trail athlete, kept up his winning start to the season by topping the podium at the Swiss Canyon race - finishing over 40 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor!
• Germain completed the 83.5km course (which included 3,450m of elevation) in 7 hours and 34 minutes, averaging a pace of 5:27min/km. Throughout the race, he used a range of products to replace ‘The 3 Key Levers’ of fueling for endurance performance - namely carbohydrates, sodium and fluid

Hydration

• Following advice from the PF&H Sports Science Team, Germain preloaded with PH 1500 both the night before and a small volume again the morning of the race, maximising his blood plasma volume to help with cardiovascular function
• Then during the race, Germain’s hydration strategy involved using 500ml/16oz flasks of energy drink mix which he refilled multiple times throughout and complemented with bottles of PH 1000 he had pre-prepared and placed at aid stations. In total, he drank ~4.3L/145oz of fluid which averaged as ~565ml/19oz per hour
• As the race conditions were reasonably hot and humid (20℃/68°F, 70%), Germain put together a proactive strategy to apply on the day, although he unfortunately got slightly lost after ~6 hours and couldn’t find a couple of aid stations. As a result, he ran out of water for a period of the race and reported that he was on the edge of not being well hydrated which caused him to slow down
• Without data on Germain’s sweat rate, drinking over 500ml/h (~16oz/h) is on the surface a decent volume and peeing three times in the race does indicate that he didn’t significantly under hydrate. In an ideal world, Germain would have stuck to his more aggressive hydration strategy in the heat (closer to 750ml/25oz per hour), but he made the best of an unfortunate situation, and managed to consume a decent amount of fluid and sodium when he could
• In terms of sodium, Germain consumed an average of ~362mg/h from PH 1000, energy drink mixes and a few gels. In relation to the fluid he took on board, the relative sodium concentration of his intake was ~641mg/L. Although, Germain hasn’t been able to undertake a Sweat Test yet, initial patch testing has indicated that he has a low sweat sodium concentration (in the region of~300mg/L) and therefore that he would likely have been replacing a good proportion of his losses
• Positively, Germain didn’t cramp at all during the race; saying “I always have cramps for the first long race of the season at this time of year, as it starts to get warm, but I didn’t have any this weekend - so that’s great”. There are a variety of theories as to why cramps can occur, but being more proactive with his sodium replacement (by preloading and using PH 1000) likely played a part in resolving the issue this time out

Fueling

Conclusions

• Despite missing some aid stations at the Swiss Canyon race, Germain was able to put in an excellent performance and use his fueling and hydration strategy to hit impressive carb numbers and replace a proportion of his sodium and fluid losses
• In future hot and humid conditions, Germain should continue to preload pre-race and could aim to drink the full ~500ml/16oz of PH 1500, as recommended, to make sure he starts optimally hydrated. Then, Germain, should continue to drink higher volumes of fluid throughout to avoid the slight decrease in pace he experienced for a period of this race
• Next up for Germain is Val d’Aran in July, his first 100 miler of the season, where he’s aiming to apply a similarly structured hydration and fueling plan, albeit adapted for the longer duration and different race conditions