Ruth Camps
Run to the Sea Bournemouth
Ruth's headline numbers
Ruth's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Going into her first 50km ultra, Ruth maximised her glycogen stores by consuming ~8g of carb per kilogram of body weight each day in the 48 hours beforehand - which falls nicely within the scientific recommendations of 8-12g/kg for carb-loading. She continued to follow the scientific guidelines for fueling on race morning by eating a carb-rich breakfast, before taking an additional 30g carb dose within the 30 minutes before starting. On the move, Ruth had a clear fueling plan where her fuel was split into individual bags for each hour - this approach made it easy for her to monitor what she was taking on to reach her 75g/h target, which she nailed. A combination of PF 30 Gels, PF 30 Chews, PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and real foods provided her with sufficient energy to keep smiling all the way through, while also preventing flavour fatigue. Ruth had practised her fueling extensively in training so was confident that she wouldn’t experience any GI issues with this quantity or types of fuel, and she didn’t, which emphasises the importance of gut training and not trying anything new on race day.
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.
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 Ruth’s losses are on the moderate side, getting her hydration strategy right is still important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreRuth had a clear hydration plan that focused on replacing her sweat sodium concentration - Ruth loses 983mg of sodium per litre of sweat. She carried two ~500ml soft flasks which she filled with PH 1000 (Tablets), Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix or plain water. When she was not taking on sodium through her flasks, she made sure to use Electrolyte Capsules to maintain the relative sodium concentration she was consuming. Sticking with her plan of finishing one flask every hour meant Ruth drank an appropriate volume of fluid for her individual losses given the intensity, duration and conditions of the event and so avoided any symptoms of dehydration.
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.
Ruth knows that she is caffeine sensitive and therefore doesn’t consume caffeine in her daily life. As a result, she chose to leave it out of her race strategy. Whilst caffeine can provide ergogenic performance benefits for most athletes, it’s not tolerated by everyone, so kudos to Ruth for recognising that it wasn’t for her.
How Ruth hit her numbers
Here's everything that Ruth ate and drank on the day...
Ruth's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Ruth
PF&HRuth's full stats
Data Confidence?
There is good confidence in the accuracy of the data reported. An athlete feels that the numbers closely reflect what they consumed despite a couple of estimations which may carry some degree of error. The majority of what was consumed is recorded to a high level of specificity (most volumes are known through the use of bottles brands quantities flavours). The numbers are very plausible and align with previous data recordings (if an athlete has collected data previously).