Badwater 135

Simen averaged ~87g of carb per hour, slightly below the 90g/h target but still very much within elite endurance fueling guidelines. To fuel his impressive ~22 hours in Death Valley while avoiding the heat mirage, he consumed almost 2kg of carbohydrates. To hit this huge quantity of fuel, he ate a mixture of PF 30 Gels, PF 30 Chews, PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, and he relied on a stellar support team to hand him what he needed, and ‘force’ feed him (at times). As an ultra runner who typically isn’t that excited to eat real food, he made the effort to adjust plans for this race by including some real food; such as turkey sandwiches and a bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato wrap, which helped to add variety to the taste and texture of the fuel he was consuming. The strategy of rotating through sports nutrition products at regular intervals across each hour will have also helped prevent palate fatigue and meant that Simen could continue to hit his carb targets. Simen saw some peaks and troughs in his carb intake across the race, but held it relatively consistent, especially the first 14 hours. He achieved his planned average of ~114g/h for the first 14 hours, and then his intake slowly dipped as the fatigue set in. In the remaining ~7.5 hours, his intake dipped to ~81g/h, which may have contributed to his slowing pace in the final few hours. Toward the end of the race, Simen leaned more on PF 30 Chews for no reason other than he felt like he preferred this source of fuel, in the late stages of the race, over gels.

Heat training

Simen was proud that he achieved “Heat champion” status within the CORE Software. In previous years, he has been able to stay in Dubai in the weeks leading up to Badwater. This year, however, he wasn't able to make it there ahead of Badwater. This is where the ability to use the CORE device in the weeks before the race, combined with the use of the CORE suit alongside regular Finnish saunas, was key to Simen’s heat training success in the almost 50°C conditions this year at Badwater. To help manage his pacing, Simen was glued to his core temperature reading and slowed down when he noticed he was getting near to 38.5ºC. He managed to complete the race with an average of ~38.1°C core body temperature, and only peaking at ~38.8°C - well within expected ranges during heat-adapted endurance performance - and would have avoided significant impacts of elevated body temperature on his performance, which tend to become pronounced beyond 39ºC for most individuals.

Hydration

Hydration was a standout success for Simen. He consumed ~19.8L of fluid over ~22 hours, with a relative sodium concentration of ~950mg/L, allowing him to replace a large proportion of his sweat sodium losses. A staggering ~12.5L of that fluid was PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix, and the remaining majority was mixed with PH 1000 (Tablets). This approach helped offset sweat losses in the extreme heat, consistent with recommendations for maintaining plasma volume and mitigating thermal strain. Similar to the downward trajectory of his carb intake, Simen drank more fluid in the first ~14 hours, averaging ~1,241ml/h. This intake would have replaced a decent proportion of sweat losses with his higher pace during that time (10.72 km/h) relative to his pace for the last 8 hours (8.22 km/h), where he averaged a lower fluid intake of almost half of that (615ml/h). Although his intake of fluid was sufficient to achieve the race-winning result, he may have benefited from an increased fluid intake across the final third of the race to better support his hydration status.

As race durations increase, athletes tend to develop individualised strategies for their caffeine intake. Some may choose to take caffeine from the start, leave it until towards the end of the race, or time their caffeine intake to coincide with the natural dips in energy at night. With the evening start, Simen chose to have a nap during the day to help his energy levels overnight and delay his caffeine intake until the next day. He took his first dose of caffeine through a PF 30 Caffeine Gel at 1:30 pm (after ~13 hours of racing) and then continued with three more PF 30 Caffeine Gels until the finish. This strategy worked well for Simen as he reported feeling “like he was on cocaine”, extremely energised by his ~7.5mg/kg dose of caffeine throughout the back half of this race.