Martina Cambruzzi
Manchester Marathon
Martina's headline numbers
Martina'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.
Martina hit the recommended pre-race carb guidelines with a healthy portion of porridge and an energy bar, ensuring her glycogen stores were topped off and she could toe the start line optimally fuelled. This helped fuel her PB performance, but unfortunately, her mid-race intake was slightly below the recommended scientific guidelines for a race of this duration and intensity. Martina did mention she experienced some gastrointestinal discomfort during the race, and said that this is a very common occurrence in both her training and racing. Reflecting on the race, Martina reported that she hadn’t practiced her fueling in training enough, so to alleviate her GI issues, she plans to undertake some structured 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.
Whilst Martina’s losses are on the moderate side, getting her hydration strategy right is still important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreMartina planned to pick up plain water at the aid stations to support her hydration throughout the race. Although we don’t have data on Martina’s sweat rate, she felt that the mild race conditions meant that she could rely on drinking to thirst. Reflecting on the race, Martina felt she could have drank a little bit more earlier on in the race. This may have helped her avoid the feeling of thirst she felt towards the end of the race, where she ended up trying to ‘catch up’ and drink extra at the last three aid stations. Martina didn’t take any sodium on board during the race, as she felt her moderate sweat sodium concentration and the mild conditions (therefore not eliciting a high sweat rate) meant her net sodium losses wouldn’t have been extensive on this occasion. Adding some Electrolyte Capsules may have helped her drive to drink earlier in the race, so perhaps including some in future marathons is worth considering.
Caffeine
Beyond the Three Levers of Performance (carb, sodium and fluid), caffeine is one of only a few substances that is proven to improve performance for most endurance athletes as it can help stave off mental and physical fatigue.
In addition to her carb-rich breakfast, Martina had a black coffee prior to the race. Caffeine has a half-life (time it takes for the concentration consumed to decrease by half) of ~4-5 hours, so it will have been in her system during the race. In races lasting more than four hours, Martina may benefit from topping up her caffeine levels during the event, but considering Martina was out on course for a little over three hours, she didn’t feel she needed any additional caffeine during the run.
How Martina hit her numbers
Here's everything that Martina ate and drank on the day...
Martina's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HMartina'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).