IRONMAN 70.3® Bahrain

Ellie has iterated her pre-race fueling plan a lot throughout the 2023 season, and seems to have struck gold with a menu focused on simple carbs: toast with Nutella and banana, plus another banana closer to the race. She maintained control of her fuel intake during the race by carrying everything she needed from the start of the bike. As a result, she nailed her carb intake, averaging just under 100g per hour and successfully front-loading her energy levels ahead of the fast-paced run. As we’ve seen Ellie do at most of her previous races, her aim during the run was to ‘limit her losses’, taking in just enough to sustain her for ~80 minutes, usually by consuming ~40% less carb than she does on the bike. The trend for carb intake to drop off on the run is something we’ve seen in other triathlon Case Studies, especially if the athlete can prioritise a higher intake on the bike. Ellie may wish to try and increase her run intake slightly to avoid any performance drop offs due to diminishing energy levels.

Unlike in Ellie’s previous race in Fortaleza, where her bottles were ejected from their bottle cages within the first 10km, she was able to keep them in place for the whole race in Bahrain. As a result, she executed her hydration plan perfectly. As someone with a low sweat sodium concentration, she balanced her fluid and sodium ratio with some PH 1000 and plain water, likely replacing a high proportion of her sweat and electrolyte losses and achieving a relative concentration close to what she loses in her sweat. During the run, it’s often difficult for professionals to access the aid stations, especially as the three-lap course filled up with age-group athletes also fighting for the same cups of fluids. As a result, Ellie’s sodium intake fell dramatically, so in future races, she may choose to copy marathon runner Floris Gierman’s technique of taping some Electrolyte Capsules to her gels to ensure she can control this aspect of her strategy.

The four PF 30 Caffeine Gels that Ellie always takes in total, including immediately pre- and mid-race, provided her with the optimal dose to reap the associated benefits. Despite averaging slightly above the scientifically optimal recommendations, Ellie’s tried and tested strategy has consistently worked well for her, and her high tolerance for caffeine means we wouldn’t recommend changing this.