Dawn McCafferty
Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3® World Championship
NiceCompleted, F60-64Dawn's headline numbers
Dawn's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
T - 15mins: Took in a final dose of carb
"I felt as though I nailed my carb-loading the day before the race, and then managed to keep to my carb numbers throughout the course, only dropping off during the bike descent."
On race morning, Dawn combined electrolytes with PF Carb Only Drink Mix and consumed some real food to start both fueled and hydrated. Then, she topped up her energy levels with a final PF 30 Gel right before the swim start. She stuck to her planned 90g/h of carbs on the bike and 60g/h of carbs on the run, which she tried and tested in her previous race, IRONMAN 70.3® Swansea. This rehearsal gave her the confidence to execute her intake as accurately as she did the first time! With a perfect rating of 10 out of 10 for GI comfort, Dawn could now consider starting to close the gap between her fueling on the bike and run, working closer to 75g/h for the run in training through some structured gut training, boosting energy levels to perform better on this leg of the race.
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.
T - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
"It would have been a 10 if I hadn’t decreased my intake during the bike descent."
Consuming enough fluid was quite the challenge in Nice’s hot conditions. Dawn found it tricky to stick to her planned hydration strategy, but she did well to get at least some fluid in - adjusting her strategy from planning to have full cups at each aid station to sipping from them and then drinking from her Soft Flask that she carried out of T2. Practicing her hydration strategy in training will be the top priority for Dawn, especially if she plans to do another race in the heat. With temperatures hitting up to 27ºC on the run, it doesn’t take much to reach the limit of dehydration where performance is negatively impacted!
Despite the minimal fluid intake, Dawn was accurate with her overall relative sodium concentration. This came from slightly overshooting her sodium intake on the bike with a relative concentration of ~1254mg/L and then a lower intake of ~474mg/L on the run, as Dawn opted for the plain water cups, responding to her cravings and flavour fatigue. Drinking the same concentration across all her fluid intake could benefit her performance here; for those who haven’t had a sweat test, aiming for 1000mg/L of sodium across all fluid consumed in the race is a good place to start, as it represents the average sodium losses across the thousands of athletes we’ve tested, and then further refining from there based on symptoms.
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.
Consuming caffeine in the hours before the start may have increased perceived energy levels
Dawn opted not to consume any caffeine during her race in Nice. Some people simply don’t get on well with it, and race day certainly isn’t the place to try it! If Dawn wanted to start incorporating it into her strategy and see if she can benefit from the proven performance enhancement, trialling it in training is the first step. We recommend she starts with a small dose, like a pre-session coffee, then introduce one PF 30 Caffeine Gel, and build up gradually to 3-6mg/kg of bodyweight. This would better support her perceived energy levels.
How Dawn hit her numbers
Here's everything that Dawn ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“There were a couple of little hiccups but a race never goes 100% to plan. I worked around and didn’t let them affect my day which was AMAZING!”
“Dawn fueled with the expertise that we would expect from a world championship qualified athlete, with a solid performance to reinforce these numbers. Her biggest gains would be made through refining her hydration strategy by taking in more fluid throughout the race.”
PF&HDawn's full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
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).