IRONMAN 70.3® Luxembourg

Amy started her race day with her usual pre-race fuel: a chocolate chip brioche and a Red Bull. While she’s comfortable with this routine, she might benefit from adding an additional serving of simple carbs, such as a PF 30 Gel, shortly before the start to spike blood glucose and help preserve muscle glycogen for later. Over the race, her intake fell short of the recommended 90g/h for an event of this intensity and duration, due to a significant reduction of fuel on the run. She maintained a sensible ~86g/h on the bike, incorporating a variety of PF Fuel Products to prevent flavour fatigue but just ~29g/h on the run where she faced challenges. Due to the heat, Amy only managed to consume two PF 30 Gels and primarily focused on drinking water from aid stations to stay hydrated. With more preparation and gut training in hot conditions, Amy can better prepare her body for the demands of intense exercise in the heat, enabling her to consume the fuel her body needs on race day.

Given the high temperatures, Amy knew hydration would be key. She filled all her bottles with a mix of PH 500 (Drink Mix) and PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and after consuming these during the bike, she began craving plain water on the run. The relative sodium concentration of her bike fluids averaged ~951mg/L, which may have exceeded her actual sweat sodium losses as she believes she is not a very salty sweater. Amy would benefit from having a sweat test to determine her precise sodium loss per litre, allowing her to better tailor her hydration strategy for future races. Amy’s pre-mixed bottles may work well in milder conditions on the bike, but ‘decoupling’ her fluid and carbohydrate intake in hot races by including some water without fuel in it could be beneficial for future races.

Whilst Amy did pre-caffeinate before the race with a can of Red Bull, she could have benefitted from ‘topping up’ her caffeine dose as the race duration (~7 hours) exceeded caffeine’s half life of 4-5 hours, meaning that she was racing with very little caffeine towards the end. Practically, this could mean adding 1-2 PF 30 Caffeine Gels throughout to help maintain optimal levels of the stimulant in her bloodstream, aligning with the scientific recommendations of 3-6mg/kg, providing both mental and physical boosts.