Melinda Marchal
Ultra Volcanique
Volvic2nd, F50-54Melinda's headline numbers
Melinda's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
T - 15mins: Took in a final dose of carb
"At around 7.5 hours, I had a lull in energy and I didn't really want to eat. I forced myself to eat something and alternated 2 mins of walking after every 5 mins of running and half an hour later was back to normal. Also, my legs felt heavy in the first hour or two, but I put this down to the ascending up the mountains and my shoes not being done up tightly! "
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.
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.
T - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
"I think it was great considering the cold weather and slow pace, which meant I wasn't sweating that much. I knew I was well hydrated from the day before and I was getting salts in my drink and snacks. I only peed once in nearly 11 hours, though, so perhaps I could have drunk more, but I never felt extremely thirsty."
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.
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.
T - 0-4hrs: Had a final hit of caffeine
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.
How Melinda hit her numbers
Here's everything that Melinda ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“I would have liked to have been faster, but this early in my training season I knew it wasn't going to be my best event of the year. The icing on the cake would have been to keep my top 10 place; I was overtaken in the last 20 minutes but I just couldn't keep up with her. I only let the gap open up by five minutes, so I'm happy with my 11th place, and really can’t complain. ”
“Mel had a strong race in Volvic without reporting any hydration or fueling issues. Despite reaching above the caffeine recommendations, for a race of this duration, and with her high caffeine tolerance this woulldn not be ill advised. Going forward, it’d be helpful for Mel to understand how her sweat rate varies in different conditions so she can adjust her hydration strategy regardless of the climate. ”
PF&HMelinda's full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands flavours quantities plausible estimations of volumes). However there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.