1st
Emma Pallant-Browne's scorecard
IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder
Saturday 7th August, 2021
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
91g
Carb per hour
499mg
Sodium per hour
540ml
Fluid per hour
925mg/L
Relative sodium concentration
353mg
Total caffeine
How Emma hit those numbers
500ml x PH 500 (Drink Mix)
1L x PH 1000 (Drink Mix)
1 x Black coffee
4 x Mini chocolate chip bagels
1 x Energy chew packet (48g carb, 75mg caffeine)
*** Try to avoid drinking too much at this point in the race!
1.5L x PH 1000 (Drink Mix)
300ml x Plain water
1.5 x Energy drink mix (60g carb)
4 x Energy shot with caffeine (48g carb, 75mg caffeine)
1 x PF 30 Energy Gel
350ml x Plain water
How Emma's hydration and fueling went...
- After a run of great races, including IM 70.3 Florida and PTO Williamsburg, Emma had another hugely successful performance at IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder, winning the event in a time of 3 hours and 59 minutes
Hydration
- Emma’s average sodium intake was ~497mg/hr and the relative sodium concentration of her drinks was ~1,104mg/L
- Emma used PH 1000 and got some additional sodium in from the energy products she was consuming. She only took in sodium on the bike, not the run, but this seemed to be ok as being proactive on the bike saw her through the run without issue. Again, should conditions get more challenging, then Emma may need to think more about her sodium intake on the run
- Whilst Emma’s sweat sodium concentration is low-to-moderate (~716mg/L), she has a very high sweat rate, which means her net sodium losses can add up and require her to be relatively ‘on it’ with her hydration
- It was good to see her using some PH in her fluids prior to this race to make sure she started well hydrated (especially important when conditions are hotter). Learn more
- Emma kept to her usual strategy of premixed bottles containing both a carb-rich drink mix and PH 1000 on the bike. She’s comfortable and confident with this strategy these days
- She drank ~833ml (~28oz) per hour on the ride, which closely matches her previous fluid intakes in races of similar durations. As mentioned above, Emma sweats a lot (sometimes >2L/hr; >68oz/hr) and has learnt through experience that she requires a decent level of fluid replacement. A fluid volume of 800ml (27oz) would be on the upper end of tolerable for some athletes, but for Emma this is definitely optimal given her high sweat losses
- During the run, much like sodium and carbs, her fluid intake dropped off but she stayed consistent in picking up cups of water from the aid stations and, given the run wasn’t “too long”, this saw her through to the line in a good state
Fueling
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30g
carb 30 mins before
60-90g
carb per hour during
- We’d recommend that Emma consume 60-90g of carb per hour for a race of this duration. Impressively, Emma hit an average of 91g/hr across the race, which broke down as a whopping ~154g/hr on the bike and a much lower 23g/hr on the run. This tapering in consumption is not uncommon in long races and something we’ve seen Emma do before, albeit in a more extreme fashion in Boulder!
- It should be acknowledged that 154g/hr is a very high carbohydrate intake. But there’s nothing wrong with this level of consumption per se, as long as it was tolerated well by Emma with no gastrointestinal discomfort, which was what she reported. Learn more
- In future longer or hotter and more humid races, dialling back this intake to closer to ~90-100g/hr may be preferable to avoid any unwanted side-effects
- In contrast, her carb intake on the run was low (23g/h), but this isn’t surprising given how much she consumed on the bike. This also isn’t totally unusual for Emma, who hit an average of 15g/h during the run at Williamsburg, but should still be considered an area for improvement. In Florida, Emma hit ~56g/h on the run which is much closer to the recommended intake for optimal performance (~60-90g/hr), so it’s about building some consistency really
Conclusions
- Emma had another excellent race and executed her matured hydration and fueling plan well. There were drastic differences between what she took during the bike versus the run but, ultimately, she did such a good job on the bike with her carb, fluid and sodium intakes and this allowed her to get away with taking less in on the run
Key info
Emma Pallant-Browne
Female
Sweat sodium concentration
716mg/L
Sweat sodium classification
Low
* determined by a PH Advanced Sweat Test
Result
Position
1st
Overall Time
3:59:54
Swim Time
0:27:48
Bike Time
2:11:59
Run Time
1:17:40
Event information
Sport
Triathlon
Discipline
Middle distance
Event
IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder
Location
Boulder, USA
Date
7th August, 2021
Website
Swim Distance
1.9km / 1.2mi
Bike Distance
90.1km / 56.0mi
Run Distance
21.1km / 13.1mi
Total Distance
113.1km / 70.3mi
Bike Elevation
628m / 2,060ft
Run Elevation
99m / 325ft
Total Elevation
727m / 2,385ft
Race conditions
Weather Conditions
Hot
Precipitation
No Rain
Min Temp
16°C / 61°F
Max Temp
24°C / 75°F
Avg Temp
22°C / 72°F
Humidity
20%
Athlete feedback
Hydration rating
9/10
Emma's full stats
| Carbohydrate (g) | Sodium (mg) | Fluid (ml) | Caffeine (mg) | Relative sodium concentration (mg/L) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | |||||
| Total intake | 363 | 1,988 | 2,150 | 353 | 925 |
| Per hour | 91 | 499 | 540 | 88 | |
| Bike and Run | |||||
| Total intake | 363 | 1,988 | 2,150 | 353 | 925 |
| Per hour | 105 | 573 | 620 | 102 | |
| Bike | |||||
| Total intake | 333 | 1,988 | 1,800 | 353 | 1,104 |
| Per hour | 153 | 911 | 824 | 161 | |
| Run | |||||
| Total intake | 30 | 0 | 350 | 0 | 0 |
| Per hour | 23 | 0 | 273 | 0 | |
Data Confidence
1
2
3
4
5
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands, flavours, quantities, plausible estimations of volumes). However, there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.