Katie Schide
Maxi-Race Marathon
Katie's headline numbers
Katie'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.
Katie’s carbohydrate intake came from PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, PH 1000 (Drink Mix), two PF 90 Gels, a pack of energy chews and some Cola later in the run. This was a good variety of carb sources and products, and many athletes find that a variety of fuel options is important in order to avoid flavor fatigue during endurance events. Also, she suffered no gastrointestinal issues at all whilst averaging around 80g/h, in part due to her implementing and testing out her fueling strategy in race-intensity sessions to increase her tolerance; a practice that we call gut training.
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.
Given Katie’s losses are Very High (1,515mg/L), nailing her hydration strategy remains important, even when it’s Mild.
Learn moreKatie recognised that her sweat rate was particularly high on the day and drinking just under ~500ml/h (16oz/h) was a proactive strategy which would likely have allowed her to keep up with those losses over the 4 hour race; positively she peed once during the run which indicated she didn’t under do her fluid. Despite being just outside of her recommended sodium intake, Katie still managed to consume a solid amount of electrolytes to keep up with her losses over the race, which allowed her to avoid any issues such as cramping. Going into longer and hotter races this season, she may want to keep some Electrolyte Capsules on hand so that she can up her sodium intake when her net sweat losses are even greater.
How Katie hit her numbers
Here's everything that Katie ate and drank on the day...
Katie's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HKatie'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).