Ultra Volcanique

Melinda had a solid fueling strategy for this ultra and it is one that she has practiced multiple times in previous races, hitting exactly the same carbohydrate intake per hour at a 50 miler in Snowdon. She stuck to very similar products throughout, and still managed to stave off any flavour fatigue. Apart from the slight lull in energy 7.5 hours into the race, she stuck to her strong fueling strategy and altered her pace experiencing no GI discomfort.

With a race like this in cool temperatures, it’s important to drink little and often and listen to your body. Mel has a fairly good estimation of her sweat rate and felt she wasn’t losing a huge amount of fluid. Therefore, even though her intake was on the lower end compared to other ultra running Case Studies we see, she likely replaced the majority of her lower losses similarly to her last race. The fact that she didn’t report any hydration related issues and didn’t feel thirsty throughout supports this assumption, along with the way she appropriately preloaded to start hydrated. For races with warmer temperatures, we’d advise Mel to dial in her sweat sodium losses with a Sweat Test and measure her sweat rate in warmer climates to determine it's upper range.

Mel used PF 30 Caffeine Gels immediately before and during the race to reap the ergogenic benefits of caffeine. Although she was slightly over the scientific recommendations for caffeine for someone of her body weight, the duration of this race (>10 hours) explains the practical usage of more caffeine (it’s thought that the current scientific guidelines are more targeted towards ‘shorter’ endurance events). Furthermore, given Mel’s positive subjective feedback and regular caffeine tolerance, we wouldn’t recommend any changes at this point.