Robyn Cassidy
Lakeland 100
Lake District1stRobyn's headline numbers
Robyn's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
T - 15mins: Took in a final dose of carb
"I felt good pre-race, my stomach felt fine and I had solid energy levels (9/10) up until the halfway mark at Dalemain. Then I started to feel pretty hungry and my energy levels fell slightly to a 7 and then dropped again in the last 25km to a 5 or 6."
Robyn tested out the PF 300 Flow Gel for the first time by having two Flow Flasks, one for the first half of the race and one over the second half. She mixed in gels, chews and a few ‘real food’ sources after halfway to keep her energy intake topped up. Robyn mentioned that just after the 100km mark she ‘lost her rhythm’ of fueling and the ‘wheels started to fall off’ possibly as a result of flavour fatigue. Robyn hit her usual ~60g/h, but may wish to proactively include more real food, bars and chews earlier on in the race to avoid her intake being impacted by such prolonged use of gels. It would be helpful to practise this in training to continue to build her gut tolerance to these quantities and types of carbohydrates and ideally improve the consistency of her carb intake across such long race durations.
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.
Robyn573mg/L
Robyn has been Sweat Tested to dial in her hydration plan
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 Robyn's losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreT - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
"I was happy with PH 1000, which is always easy to get down, and I find that also taking in plain water helps. I probably didn’t drink enough total volume over the race, but the ratios felt good for me."
With a later start time of 6pm, temperatures were cool for the majority of the Lakeland 100 and therefore Robyn’s sweat rate would’ve been on the lower end of her personal range. Despite this, over such long durations, it’s common for fluid and sodium losses to accumulate and reach a threshold of race-impacting dehydration. To avoid this, Robyn did well to consistently hydrate with two soft flasks, one containing PH 1000 and the other plain water, which allowed her to listen to the dictates of thirst whilst nailing her sodium intake, consuming a concentration matching her lower-than-average sweat sodium losses. She topped up one of her flasks at each aid station to make sure she never ran out of fluid and drank a similar volume to her last race in cool conditions. She peed a few times throughout, indicating she drank enough fluid to avoid excessive dehydration whilst avoiding the extra weight associated with carrying additional fluid.
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.
Consuming caffeine in the hours before the start may have increased perceived energy levels
Robyn took a higher total dose of caffeine over the first half of the race (~4.5mg/kg), which covered the overnight hours, in an attempt to fight her circadian rhythm which she followed up by drip feeding caffeine until the end of the race (~2.7mg/kg) to slightly exceed the scientific recommendations in total. Considering the race was ~23 hours and the half life of caffeine is ~4-5 hours, the doses she consumed will have been sufficient to top up her body’s level of the stimulant and maximise the ergogenic effects.
How Robyn hit her numbers
Here's everything that Robyn ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“This is only my second time doing a 100 miler so this is a really good learning point for me! I was super happy up until ~100-120 km, as the fuel and hydration was going down well and I had lots of energy, but then the wheels started to fall off and I lost my rhythm of fueling every 30 minutes. But, the Flow Gel was such a game changer!”
Robyn“Robyn had an excellent, podium-topping performance across 100 miles in the Lake District. Over the 23 hours, she used a well-refined hydration strategy to meet her individual sweat losses considering the cool conditions and nighttime racing. Her fueling strategy kept her energy levels up for the most part but was put to the test over this distance, demonstrating how more gut training and a broader range of carb sources starting earlier on in the race may be beneficial considering the long duration.”
PF&HRobyn'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.