Cocodona 250

Rachel’s main takeaway from her last race two months prior in Chianti, was to implement a more scientific carb load ahead of her third Cocodona 250 miler. She did just that with her highest and most disciplined carb intake the day before a race, consuming ~7.7g carb per kg bodyweight on Sunday with the help of PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, falling only just shy of the 8-12g/kg recommendation. Then on race morning she, once again, consumed her highest pre-race carb intake to set her up nicely for the days of racing to come.

Rachel leant on her past experiences in Cocodona and her recent race strategies to build her fueling plan. She aimed to hit ~60g/h using predominantly gels, PF 30 Chews and plenty of Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix alongside real food carefully prepared and handed off by her crew at aid stations, including mashed potatoes, broth and oatmeal. Using this strategy over the immense 56 hours of racing, her intake averaged out at ~49g/h; hitting over 60g/h up to mile 75 by which time she had taken the lead and was 90 minutes up on her previous record. Her intake then fluctuated section by section, as you would expect for a race of this duration. She hit her highest ~72g/h after the first night as she started using more real food at crew stops on top of continued use of PF 30 Gels and PF 90 Gels between stations. Rachel’s lowest carb intake came during the early hours of the second night, dropping to ~31g/h at mile 212. This decrease came alongside the freezing temperatures when she was drinking fewer carbs from her flasks and her gel intake was slowing this far into the race. Despite these lower points, her intake was always consistent and she brought it back up to ~54g/h between mile 228 to 235 and then ~40g/h for the final 19 miles. Experiencing no gut issues whilst maintaining this intake across a 250 mile race is testament to the work she has been doing in this area and therefore the gut tolerance she’s built up. This fueling strategy supported her course record breaking performance, taking the overall win!

Temperatures were cooler than anticipated on the first two days of racing in Arizona meaning Rachel drank less than initially planned (300 to 800ml of fluid per hour). Her highest intake came in the first 7 hours, where temperatures rose to >20℃ (70°F) and athletes are required to carry 4L of fluid after the 7-mile water stop. In comparison, over the last 100 miles Rachel’s intake never climbed above 250ml/h. Though on the surface this seems low for a race of this duration, the low relative intensity she was working at coupled with sections where temperatures dropped to 0℃ / 32F with rain and hail overnight, meant this was suitable to keep up with her low sweat losses and maintain performance.

Another new element of her strategy at this year's Cocodona was to use Electrolyte Capsules alongside any plain water she was drinking to not dilute the relative sodium concentration of her intake early in the race as she had before. Rachel used Electrolyte Capsules, PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and salt from real foods like broth, potatoes and pretzels to do this and more closely match her high sweat sodium concentration. Though the relative sodium concentration of her intake varied from section to section as a result of when she was eating saltier real foods at crewed aid stations and when she took her capsules, she never went too long without taking sodium alongside her fluid. This matches her subjective feelings on how her hydration went, and is shown by her average sodium concentration being within 200mg/L of her sweat losses.

Rachel’s caffeine intake for Cocodona is on the lower side to what many would expect for almost three days of racing. Coming almost entirely from small volumes of cola drank at aid stations in the overnight hours, her caffeine intake came to just ~230mg during the race. This equates to ~4.5mg/kg or, put another way, less than 25% of the level of caffeine Rachel’s crew drank to keep up with her across the race! Caffeine tolerance is highly individual and Rachel's restrained, targeted approach suited her well for this race. Alongside three short ‘dirt naps’ which totalled 19 minutes, the small, strategically timed doses and sleeps will have helped to manage her alertness without triggering the peaks and troughs that larger or more frequent doses can produce.