Javelina Jundred

Lauren approached her race at Javelina Jundred this year with a more assertive fueling strategy compared to her 2024 performance. While using similar products, she stuck to her strategy and consistently fueled each lap of the 5-loop, 100 mile course. As Lauren usually does, she consumed a combination of gels and drink mixes to hit her fuel intake of ~81g/h, which is up ~9% compared with 74g/h last year as a result of slightly less time on course, and more fuel in the first couple of hours. Despite this and similarly to her efforts previously, her intake started off stronger when carbohydrate absorption and oxidation efficiency was greatest, but as the race progressed and her gut comfort decreased, her intake dropped off from ~100g/h (for the first lap), to only ~30g/h for the final lap - a 70% decrease. Positively, her subjective energy levels were higher than in 2024, and she felt no notable dips in energy. Moving forward, maintaining her carb intake more evenly throughout will likely help sustain her performance better from start to finish.

Despite a positive jump in Lauren's fueling, her hydration strategy ultimately became the main limiting factor in her race. Not because she failed to replace enough sodium, but because it’s likely she didn’t consume enough fluid to both absorb what she was taking in, and replace enough of her sweat losses to avoid excessive dehydration. The temperatures were a little cooler than in 2024, but still hot, dry, desert conditions. Her fluid intake was slightly lower this year, so as temperatures rose throughout the day, the gap between what she drank and what she would have been losing through sweat increased. This likely reduced gastric emptying due to limited fluid availability. Additionally, heat-driven shunting of blood away from the gut toward the skin for cooling would have further impaired gut function. Together these factors likely created conditions on loops two and four leading to GI issues. In future, drinking some plain water or fluids with a lower concentration of electrolytes and carbs would be easier on the stomach and activate some sodium-glucose co-transporters to help absorption, hopefully helping to combat some of these issues and allow her to consistently fuel throughout.

Despite coping well with a high caffeine intake, there is some evidence to suggest it can affect core body temperature and increase the risk of GI issues, both things she wanted to avoid here in Arizona. She strategically layered PF 30 Caffeine Gels at regular intervals, one per 20 mile loop, to maintain focus and energy levels. This approach appeared to serve its purpose and despite battling some gut discomfort, she found this physical and mental boost to be helpful.