• Emma felt that this was her poorest race of the 2021 season. She reported not having her best swim, felt in control and easy when catching some of her fellow competitors on the bike, but lacked energy during the run
• From a fueling and hydration standpoint it doesn't look like Emma changed anything drastically when comparing her plan to previous races, but she might have been on the lighter side of the recommended carbohydrate guidelines

Hydration

• Emma consumed around ~434mg/hr sodium and ~536ml/hr fluid which equates to a relative sodium concentration of ~810mg/L. Given Emma has a relatively moderate sweat sodium concentration of 716mg/L but a high sweat rate, this is a pretty good level of replacement
• The volumes of fluid that Emma consumed on the run are estimates and should be read with some caution. She reported picking up a cup of water and energy drink at each aid station (of which there were 12 in total) and taking around 2 sips from each cup. We estimated this as ~500ml (~17oz) of each type of fluid over the run, but there may be a relatively high degree of error in these assumptions
• Emma felt she drank enough during the race. Other than an early pee during the swim, she didn’t pee throughout the race which is a good sign she wasn’t drinking too much. Whether she was under drinking is harder to determine without knowing body weight change but drinking ~543ml/hr (~18oz/hr) on the bike should have been adequate
• That said, in previous races of similar durations we have seen Emma drink closer to ~800ml/hr (~27oz/hr) on the bike and so this decrease in fluid consumption on the bike may have also had some impact upon how Emma felt during the run
• Emma’s sodium intake throughout the race looks solid. She reported experiencing some sensations of muscle cramp in her calves during the uphills on the run but could push through. Cramping under these circumstances may be linked more closely to fatigue or excessive loading of the muscle rather than a fluid/sodium imbalance or deficit

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall, Emma reported that this was a poor race for her and ranked her race satisfaction at a 4 out of 10
• It appears that Emma may have under fueled somewhat during this race, though this is something she has done before in races where she has performed better, so this may not entirely explain her performance on this occasion