• Emily is a member of the esteemed 2022 Zwift Triathlon Academy who will be racing the IM World Champs in Kona this coming October, supported by the team at Precision Fuel and Hydration
• This home race was a bit of a ‘rust-buster’ for Emily and her first outing representing the Zwift Academy Tri team
• Emily led from the swim, deploying her years of experience as a national level pool swimmer, before delivering the 2nd fastest bike and run splits of the day on her way to what she thought was an overall victory
• It wasn’t until ~15 minutes after crossing the finish line that another athlete who started behind Emily finished, beating Emily’s overall time by just 11 seconds
• Emily has dialled her fuelling and hydration strategy since working with the team at PF&H, and she executed her plan brilliantly during this race

Hydration

• Emily preloaded by drinking ~500ml/16oz of water with one PH 1500 tablet both the night before and the morning of the race. This will have optimally topped up her sodium levels, thus enhancing her body’s ability to retain water so she started the race maximally hydrated
• On the bike, Emily drank 1.5L/48oz of PH 1000 which gave her a total sodium intake of ~1,500mg which equated to ~573mg/hr and gave her drinks a relative sodium concentration of ~1,000mg/L
• Given Emily’s sweat sodium concentration of 1,085mg/L, as measured by our Advanced Sweat Test, and the mild temperatures on race day (9-19℃/ 48-66℉) Emily’s sodium intake will likely have been more than adequate to replace her losses from sweating, and Emily didn’t experience any cramps nor was she thirsty at the end of the bike, suggesting her fluid intake was spot on
• On the run, Emily picked up 3 cups of plain water at every aid station and alternated between drinking 2 and pouring 1 over herself, and drinking 1 and pouring 2 over herself. This gave Emily a fluid intake of ~880ml which equated to ~600ml/hr
• Sodium-wise, Emily’s plan was to take two Electrolyte Capsules per hour during the run, but she had already popped each capsule from their wrapper, and they had dissolved in her pocket before she could take them
• Thankfully due to Emily’s rigorous preloading and sodium intake during the bike, this didn’t cause any performance detriments, and she was able to finish the run strongly
• Emily rated her hydration strategy 8/10 saying “I should have drank more on the bike but I decided to race through the aid stations instead of slowing down. It was a tactical decision that luckily didn’t come back to haunt me”

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall, Emily raced well and booked herself a slot at the 2022 IM 70.3 World Championships in St.George, Utah later this year
• Emily executed her pre-race fuelling and hydration strategy excellently, with her only comment being “I probably should have drank a bit more and perhaps took an extra gel on the bike”
• Despite having a few small malfunctions such as power pedals not reading and her timing chip registering ~90 seconds before she actually began swimming, Emily was pleased with how she biked and executed a solid run to finish 2nd overall female by an agonising 11 seconds
• Emily was using this race to ‘validate’ her big winter block of training, and is certainly on track for a solid build into the IM World Champs in Kona this October
• Whilst initially frustrated, Emily took lots from this race knowing she had backed off in the last 3-4kms of the run thinking the win was in the bag, so is confident the win could have been hers had she known the race was happening behind her