Seb's headline numbers
Seb'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.
With this being Seb’s first ultramarathon, he was very composed when he felt slightly hungry and low on energy during the first 1-2 hours. He decided to increase his carb intake from his pre-planned ~75g/h to greater than 90g/h by bringing forward his planned PF 90 and PF 30 Gels, so he consumed much more than he initially planned. He never felt any stomach discomfort, and had much more stable energy levels for the remainder of the run. As he prepares for his next 50k, three weeks after this attempt, Seb will look to hit a higher carb intake from the start to prevent these symptoms.
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.
Seb had a pre-race plan to drink ~500ml per hour with the help of his bike supporter. Other than a brief moment when they ‘lost’ the bike support, Seb managed to drink fairly close to this, and felt like he balanced his thirst and sweat losses well. Whilst we don’t know Seb’s sweat sodium concentration, his subjective feedback suggests the ~1,283mg of sodium per litre of fluid he averaged was sufficient to replace his losses, without ‘over-salting’ so that he was craving plain water.
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.
Seb chose to omit caffeine as he’s had negative previous experiences with it, and didn’t want to roll the dice this time round.
How Seb hit his numbers
Here's everything that Seb ate and drank on the day...
Seb's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HSeb's full stats
Data Confidence?
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.