Danielle Lewis' scorecard
IRONMAN Texas
Saturday 22nd April, 2023
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
73g
Carb per hour
611mg
Sodium per hour
950ml
Fluid per hour
644mg/L
Relative sodium concentration
247mg
Total caffeine
How Danielle hit those numbers
How Danielle's hydration and fueling went...
- Danielle returned to IRONMAN Texas in 2023 with a real focus on her fueling and hydration strategy, after the tough conditions and some mis-steps got the better of her at the same race in 2022
- She was confident in her plan this time around after locking it down with the PF&H Sports Science team, even posting a video on instagram to answer some pre-race nutrition questions from her followers
- Danielle successfully consumed more carb and almost 2500mg more sodium than in similar conditions the year before, but still experienced some nausea
Hydration
- At IRONMAN Texas 2022, Danielle suffered from nausea and vomiting during the run, with some serious fatigue to put the cherry on top. In 2023, the first thing she did to combat this was ensure she arrived at the race start optimally hydrated having pre-loaded with PH 1500 both the night before and with her pre-race breakfast
- With temperatures north of 20ºC (68ºF) out on course, it was important for Danielle to replace her above average fluid and sodium losses. She knows from experience that she has a high sweat rate and her Sweat Test shows she loses 1,310mg of sodium per litre of sweat
- Danielle did this during the race using a ‘between the arms’ (BTA) bottle mount for easy access, which she refilled from aidstations to provide ~3.7L (130oz) of water during her 4:38:19 bike
- Danielle also got small amounts of fluid from her ‘fuel bottles’ which meant across the bike she had an average intake of just over 1.1L (37oz) per hour
- On the run, Danielle was frustrated to feel some nausea, but grateful that it wasn’t to the same extent as the same race last year. Part of this problem was ‘sloshing’ of fluid in her stomach
- To avoid this sensation in future, Danielle will aim to spread her fluid intake out more evenly. An easy win is to carry her PH 1500 with her rather than trying to finish it during transition two
- Danielle only did this to increase her sodium intake dramatically from the year prior, where she got just ~3000mg in the entire race. While her intake was still not replacing as big a proportion of what she lost through her sweat (1,310mg/L) as we’d like, it was an 82% increase to ~5,463mg, which worked out to be a relative concentration of ~644mg/L (mg/32oz)
- On the run Danielle’s main electrolyte intake was in the form of ‘gummies’ which only contained ~50mg of sodium each. Despite taking eight of them, she still wasn’t replacing as much sodium as she would have been losing in her sweat
- In future, Danielle needs to find a suitable alternative which contains more sodium, possibly using something like Electrolyte Capsules which have five times the sodium (250mg each) of the gummies she was using. This, alongside a reduced fluid intake may help mitigate her nausea
Fueling
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30g
carb 30 mins before
60-90g
carb per hour during
- Danielle arrived at IRONMAN Texas with lots of stored carbohydrate, having had a good helping of her favourite pre-race pancakes the day before
- After this ‘carb-load’, she had a light but carb-concentrated breakfast and topped up her blood glucose with a PF 30 Caffeine Gel just before lining up for the swim
- Danielle’s two fuel bottles on the bike provided ~320g of carb, and were bolstered by three PF 30 Gels and one PF 30 Caffeine Gel
- This meant her average carb intake on the bike was ~97g per hour, successfully achieving a great improvement from her IRONMAN Arizona appearance at the end of 2022 where she averaged ~30g/h less
- Danielle then ran with more ‘fuel bottles’ which she prepared beforehand, but with the ‘sloshing’ she felt in her stomach, only felt comfortable enough to finish one and a quarter of these
- This reduced her carb intake to just 56g/h while running, which is a very noticeable drop from bike to run. Danielle felt the impact of this, and the build up of fatigue in her legs. Her ratings of perceived energy dropped from a strong 8 (out of 10) on the bike to just 5 (out of 10) for the marathon
- In total, her fueling strategy here resulted in an average intake of ~73g/h, which is 14% higher than her 64g/h at IRONMAN Arizona in 2022
- The key things for Danielle to work on from a fueling perspective are tolerance of high carb intakes in warm conditions when fluid requirements are also high, and therefore minimising the drop off from bike to run in order to maintain energy levels
Conclusions
- Despite still experiencing some discomfort while running, Danielle was extremely pleased to secure 5th place, which qualified her for the 2023 IRONMAN World Championships in Hawaii
- We observed a large improvement in Danielle’s electrolyte replenishment when compared to her strategy at the same race the year before, which, alongside a more robust fueling strategy may have contributed to the improved performance
- Going forwards, Danielle still has some areas to work on such as taking more electrolytes which she can tolerate while running, and practising the greater fluid intakes required during hot races
Key info
Danielle Lewis
Female
Sweat sodium concentration
1310mg/L
Sweat sodium classification
High
* determined by a PH Advanced Sweat Test
Result
Overall Time
8:56:28
Swim Time
1:05:50
Bike Time
4:38:19
Run Time
3:06:04
Event information
Sport
Triathlon
Discipline
Full distance
Event
IRONMAN Texas
Location
Texas, USA
Date
22nd April, 2023
Website
Swim Distance
3.8km / 2.4mi
Bike Distance
180.2km / 112.0mi
Run Distance
42.2km / 26.2mi
Total Distance
226.2km / 140.6mi
Race conditions
Weather Conditions
Hot
Precipitation
No Rain
Min Temp
15°C / 59°F
Max Temp
26°C / 79°F
Avg Temp
20°C / 68°F
Humidity
45%
Athlete feedback
Race Satisfaction
6/10
Hydration rating
7/10
Again, a 9 on the bike but some sloshing on the run means I'd drop to a 6
Energy levels
7/10
This would be broken up to 10 during the swim, 8 on the bike and 5 on the run
Toilet stops
Yes
First time I've ever been able to do this during a race!
GI comfort
5/10
Some nausea during the first half of the bke, but I think this was from the gross swim water. Then, some sloshing on the run
Cramping
No cramping
Danielle's Thoughts
While I acheived my #1 goal of securing a Kona slot, I feel I could've gone faster on the run, and my fueling can be optimised to help this
Danielle's full stats
Carbohydrate (g) | Sodium (mg) | Fluid (ml) | Caffeine (mg) | Relative sodium concentration (mg/L) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Overall | |||||
Total intake | 653 | 5,463 | 8,485 | 247 | 644 |
Per hour | 73 | 611 | 950 | 28 | |
Bike and Run | |||||
Total intake | 623 | 5,463 | 8,485 | 147 | 644 |
Per hour | 81 | 706 | 1,097 | 19 | |
Bike | |||||
Total intake | 449 | 3,563 | 5,325 | 100 | 669 |
Per hour | 97 | 769 | 1,149 | 22 | |
Run | |||||
Total intake | 175 | 1,900 | 3,160 | 47 | 601 |
Per hour | 56 | 613 | 1,019 | 15 |
Data Confidence
1
2
3
4
5
There is some confidence in the quantities and brands of products consumed but the data may lack specifics (e.g. volumes, specific flavours). A high number of estimations have been made and the room for error is moderate-high. There may also be the possibility that some intake has been grossly over- or under-estimated.