Black Canyon 100km

Lucie hit nearly every fueling interval she’d planned, alternating between a few different sources (including PF 30 Gels and Chews) to successfully attenuate the flavour fatigue many athletes encounter during ultra distance events. However, her carb intake was still fairly low, even considering her bodyweight. The scientific literature doesn’t seem to indicate that smaller athletes need less fuel, and in fact, the relative impact of a higher carb intake could instead work to their advantage. The hip pain Lucie experienced was definitely a factor in her perceived energy levels, but training her gut to tolerate more carb while working at a higher intensity will enable her to increase energy availability in future races.

Even with the 2.5 hour delay, the race started out cold and snowy, though it did warm up a bit by the midpoint. Lucie isn’t an extremely heavy sweater, but with the sheer pace that the athletes kicked off with, her fluid losses likely accumulated faster than expected. Her relative sodium concentration was adequate for her losses, but at each crew station, her bottles still had a fair amount of fluid remaining in them. Considering her high sodium losses and struggle to keep up with her planned fluid intake, it may be helpful to increase the relative concentration to encourage her body to hold onto more water alongside being more proactive with her drinking.

Since Lucie’s a habitual coffee drinker and tolerates a high amount of caffeine, her intake isn’t something we’d change in her strategy, especially for a race of this duration. She didn’t experience any negative effects from going slightly over the general recommendations, and appropriately incorporated PF 30 Caffeine Gels at specific intervals – immediately, 3.5 hours and 6.5 hours in.