MCC by UTMB

Iris began the MCC more slowly than her previous race three days earlier, in which she set off too fast and suffered later in the race as a result. She paced the race better in Chamonix, and gradually made her way through the field to take victory. She arrived at the start line with fully topped up glycogen stores, following a decent weekend of recovery and carb-loading. She consumed around a quarter of a PF 90 Gel pre-race as a final dose of carbs before the gun went off. Iris felt her energy levels were consistent until the final hour of the race, when they really dropped off. This may be because of her slightly lower than recommended carb intake mid-race, taking just ~58g per hour. Adding a couple more PF 30 Gels to her running belt would help her hit the ~75g/h target for a race of this intensity and duration and help her keep pushing harder for longer.

Warm conditions on race day (~22℃ / 72℉), coupled with Iris’s moderate sweat volume and sodium losses, meant her net fluid and electrolyte losses were not insignificant over this duration of race. Ahead of her next race, she may look to pre-hydrate more appropriately and also rehydrate more effectively from her previous race by reducing the volume of plain water she drinks the evening and morning before. Instead of drinking plain water, she could implement a preloading protocol using a high-strength sodium drink. Her mid-race strategy was likely appropriate, but her dehydrated state on the start line likely contributed to her thirstiness on the finish line. Perhaps reducing the ‘saltiness’ of her drinks slightly mid-race to more closely match her sweat sodium concentration could also help with this.

Iris had a double espresso around two hours before the race began, which has roughly the same caffeine content as one of our PF 30 Caffeine Gels at ~100mg. This, combined with her Caffeine Gel mid-race, meant she likely had an adequate amount of the stimulant in her system to reap the associated ergogenic benefits.