Hayden's headline numbers
Hayden's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Hayden took the unusual approach to pre-race fueling by inviting his son to choose the meal, and he opted for some carb-rich pancakes with fruit. Having reliably tried and tested his fueling plan, Hayden aimed to repeat his strategy from the Kosci 100. This plan was designed to provide 90g of carb per hour, something he’s trained his gut to tolerate comfortably, and his support crew were able to make it readily available for him. To enhance this strategy, we’d usually recommend a final glucose hit to peak his blood glucose ahead of the race start, so perhaps this is something to consider for next time. Hayden is comfortable his fueling strategy wasn’t to blame for what he felt was a suboptimal 2nd place finish, but took great comfort from the fact that he was able to tolerate this high intake so easily how easily.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Hayden’s losses are on the moderate side, getting his hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as his higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn moreHayden wasn’t anticipating particularly warm temperatures on race day, so the night before he chose to drink ~500ml of plain water with his dinner, but preloaded effectively on race morning with ~500ml of PH 1500. During the race, Hayden’s plan was to use his support crew to provide him with 500ml of PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix each hour. Unfortunately, the course was changed at the last minute due to landslides along the route, and access to his support crew was reduced. As temperatures and humidity rose during the “jungle-like” sections, his sweat rate was higher than anticipated, and he became increasingly thirsty as he was unable to access additional fluids from his crew. At ~5 hours, he decided to stop at an aid station and rapidly consume ~1L of plain water in an attempt to rehydrate, and soon after he did feel a resurgence. Logistically, carrying an extra bottle may help in these situations where he can’t access his support crew.
Caffeine
Beyond the Three Levers of Performance (carb, sodium and fluid), caffeine is one of only a few substances that is proven to improve performance for most endurance athletes as it can help stave off mental and physical fatigue.
Hayden didn’t use caffeine during this event. This is something that Hayden may look into in future, because of an emerging bank of scientific literature suggesting that caffeine can be beneficial for endurance performance. However, it’s important to recognise that caffeine doesn’t always work for everyone, so this is something Hayden could look to experiment with in training.
How Hayden hit his numbers
Here's everything that Hayden ate and drank on the day...
Hayden's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Hayden
PF&HHayden's full stats
Data Confidence?
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).