CCC by UTMB®

After a strong performance leading most of the way at Western States 100 earlier in 2025, before ultimately succumbing to the impacts of dehydration in the Californian heat, Martyna doubled down on the aspects of her race that had gone well. Fueling was one of them. At CCC, she built on that foundation with her highest carbohydrate intake to date, which was also the second-highest intake in our Case Study Database for a female ultrarunner over this duration. This was a clear step up from ~74g/h for the ~56 miles she ran at WSER and ~58g/h in her 2nd-place finish at CCC in 2024. Her intake came primarily from a mix of PF 90 Gels and PF 300 Flow Gels that she carried, supported by deliberate intake of PF 30 Chews at aid stations to help reduce flavour fatigue and boost her carb intake, without having to carry more fuel between aid stations. By maintaining such a high carb intake, she kept energy availability stable throughout the race and avoided potential costly dips in energy. Towards the end of the race, Martyna highlighted her flexibility and made the most of fueling and hydrating well up to this point, by choosing not to stop and refill her flasks or take her final gels in order to prioritise going toe-to-toe with Sylvia Nordskar, where she won by just 18 seconds! Intakes of 90g/h or higher can improve endurance performance when tolerated well, and Martyna’s steady progression across seasons is a textbook example of how gradually training the gut can be part of the solution to unlock better race performances.

Martyna’s Sweat Test showed she was a moderately salty sweater (losing 901mg of sodium per litre of sweat). At WSER, one of her crew discarded a bottle of electrolytes by mistake, which resulted in a lower-than-planned fluid intake, which in turn contributed to her performance decline and ultimately meant she couldn’t continue. Across WSER, her fluid intake was ~572ml/h in the 5-35ºC heat (~25ºC average). Since that race, she’s placed a focus on practising drinking higher fluid volumes in anticipation of a hot CCC to better support her high sweat rate and hydration status across long and hot events. Luckily, CCC was cooler than predicted, and in these conditions (~14ºC) she averaged a similar amount (~573ml) of fluid, meaning that she would have replaced a much higher percentage of her sweat losses here. This was partially thanks to the planned strategy of drinking more water and pairing that with 1–2 Electrolyte Capsules at each aid station. Between aid stations she mostly carried PH 1000 (Drink Mix) for that extra boost in carbs and some PH 1000 (Tablets) across both her soft flasks. By planning to conume more fluid and electrolyte at aid stations, this allowed her to carry slightly less between checkpoints without compromising hydration.

Martyna made the conscious decision to take her caffeine later on in the race to support her energy levels at the business end. Her caffeine plan (two x PF 30 Caffeine Gels) was spread across 2-3 hours, taken after Champex-Lac at 54.7km. Delaying her caffeine inake like allowed her to use her race energy in the early phases of the event and ensured her blood caffeine concentration remained in the optimal 3–6mg/kg range when she needed the performance enhancing effects of caffeine the most, climbing out of Vallorcine and powering towards Chamonix. Caffeine is a proven performance enhancer, but it’s crucial to get the timing right and ensure it works for you.