Claire Cashmore
World Triathlon Para Championship
Claire's headline numbers
Claire'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.
Pre-fueling is the key to success in an event of this duration, and Claire did exactly that by having a carb-rich breakfast to top up her glycogen stores. We would typically advise athletes to have a final 30g dose of carbs in the 30 minutes before the start of the race, but Claire opted out of this as she felt full and ready to go. She didn’t consume any carbs during the event considering the shorter duration and knew her stored glycogen was enough to power her to the win.
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 Claire’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as her higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn moreClaire ensured that she started the race optimally hydrated by preloading with 500ml of PH 1500 (Tablets), which will have increased the volume of water retained in blood plasma, giving her a larger pool to draw sweat from to aid cooling in the hot and humid conditions. During the race, Claire consumed ~500ml of fluid to replace a good proportion of her sweat losses and ensure she didn’t experience symptoms of dehydration. While Claire’s sodium ingestion was low during the race, this is to be expected over an event of this shorter duration and considering she had preloaded effectively beforehand, rehydrating afterwards would be the next focus to replace her sodium losses.
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.
For an event of this duration the guidelines for caffeine consumption are to pre-caffeinate with 3-6mg/kg due to caffeine’s half life of 4-5 hours. Doses consumed before the race on this occasion would provide the ergogenic benefits desired throughout. Claire had one coffee with her breakfast which would have given her a small dose of the stimulant but including another coffee or caffeine gel into her pre-race routine would help to push her into the recommended range.
How Claire hit her numbers
Here's everything that Claire ate and drank on the day...
Claire's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HClaire'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).