• Brett suffered a hamstring injury a couple of weeks prior to toeing the line in Swansea and was a little apprehensive about how it would respond to a hard race
• Fortunately he was able to swim and bike hard, before his pre-race fears came true and he was forced to run much slower than he’d have liked and allow the race to go on without him in the mix, sensibly not wishing to worsen his injury
• Brett’s fueling and hydration on the bike was good, and would have set him up for a strong run performance, and he’s taken a lot of confidence from that

Hydration

• By preloading the night before and the morning of the race with 500ml/16oz of PH 1500, Brett will have optimised his blood plasma volume and reduced his cardiovascular strain as a result
• Brett did drink a relatively large quantity of plain water the morning of the race (~1L/32oz), and therefore will have reduced the relative sodium concentration of his morning preload
• As a habitual caffeine drinker, Brett had two black coffees with his breakfast which will have increased his alertness and reduced the perception of effort starting the race
• During the bike, Brett’s 750ml/24oz bottle had two PH 1500 (Drink Mix) packets in. He also picked up ~300ml/10oz plain water from the on-course aid station to top up his fluid intake
• This gave him a total fluid intake of ~1,050ml/35oz, with a relative sodium concentration of ~1,429mg per litre. Averaging just ~441ml/15oz per hour on the bike is quite low, but as temperatures were mild (13-20℃/55-68℉), and Brett’s self-perceived sweat rate is fairly modest, this will likely have replaced a good proportion of his sweat losses
• On the run, Brett ran out of T2 with a 500ml/16oz bottle of PH 1500 which he held onto until kilometre eight, where after drinking ~350ml/11oz of it he discarded and switched to plain water and Coca Cola
• In total, Brett drank ~1,270ml/43oz of fluid and ~766mg of sodium, which equates to a relative sodium concentration of ~603mg/L. Brett’s sweat sodium concentration is 573mg/L and therefore he did a solid job of replacing his losses

Fueling

Conclusions

• In all, Brett was “pretty pleased” with his race in Swansea, showing he could mix it with the front guys on the bike, and but for a niggling injury he was prepared to run hard too
• With an average carb intake of ~82g/h across the whole race, Brett’s gut training in recent months is paying dividends, but could benefit perhaps by slightly reducing his intake on the bike so he doesn’t experience any stomach discomfort in the early stages of the run
• Brett added that despite not having the race he planned, he’s in good spirits heading into another block of training, thanking himself that he backed off and didn’t worsen his hamstring injury