James Norbury
Ultra Trail Cape Town TM35 by UTMB
Cape Town17thJames' headline numbers
James' strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
James would benefit from taking in a final dose of carb <30 minutes before
"I stuck to my plan perfectly and was completely self-sufficient. That was possibly the best I have ever felt during any run!"
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.
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.
James655mg/L
James has been Sweat Tested to dial in his hydration plan
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 James's losses are on the low 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 moreT - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
"I don’t think I would change anything, I was a little dehydrated by the end and I didn’t pee during. I got to the end and had no issues though. If I took on more water I may have been running heavier or got a stitch."
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.
How James hit his numbers
Here's everything that James ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“I did minimal training to get by, put the plan together to run sub 5 and ran 4:53. The only thing which didn’t go to plan was my legs being so tired in the final hour, but there’s nothing I could have done differently on the day! I finished way better than I thought I was going to do in a pretty deep field.”
“James executed a superb strategy for him during this race, balancing his carb, fluid and sodium intake to keep his engine running right until the finish. Some lower training volume in the lead-in meant his final kick wasn’t as strong as he’d have liked. Working on training his gut to increase his hourly carb intake could help tackle this from an energy perspective and will undoubtedly improve his performance once he’s back to full training again.”
PF&HJames' full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands flavours quantities plausible estimations of volumes). However there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.