Ultra Trail Cape Town TM35 by UTMB

James headed to South Africa for this race fresh off the back of completing his 30 peaks challenge here in the UK, where he set a new record for the fastest cumulative time. His nutrition plan for this race was completely ‘decoupled’, keeping his three levers (carbs, fluid and sodium) separate. He set a timer on his watch to remind him every 40 minutes to either take a sip of PF 90 Gel or have a PF 30 Chew. He targeted ~50g per hour, which for someone relatively new to taking on carbs during races, would help him avoid potential GI distress. This strategy worked perfectly for him, as he mentioned passing several athletes in the second half and had sky-high energy levels right until the end. It’s important to balance the potential performance benefits associated with high-carb intakes, with the risk of GI upset from taking too much through trial and error in training. James has already made plans to train his gut in long, high-intensity runs to tolerate closer to the recommended 90g/h.

As temperatures hit 28℃ (82℉) up some of the climbs, James thanked himself for his aforementioned ‘decoupled’ strategy, as he drank more than he initially planned. Having done a practice run on the route to familiarise himself with what was to come, James had experienced some pretty severe muscle cramps and knew his hydration strategy wasn’t quite up to scratch. He found some streams to fill up his Soft Flasks with water and consumed Electrolyte Capsules to balance his relative sodium concentration even when drinking higher volumes of water. As a result, he avoided cramps during the race and rated his strategy a perfect 10/10.