Emma Pallant-Browne
IRONMAN 70.3® Chattanooga
Emma's headline numbers
Emma's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Emma backed up her win at 70.3® Mallorca with another podium-topping performance across the pond in Chattanooga, with an improved fuel plan to assist her. By adding ~80g of carbs through PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix to each of her two bottles on the bike, she bumped her fuel intake on the bike from ~38g/h in Mallorca to ~70g/h at this race. Whilst not a high intake relative to some other athletes, this is a real improvement for Emma, and her perception of fatigue and effort was much lower than in Mallorca as a result. Going forwards, Emma should look to continue this upward trend, and include a couple of Gels on the run to ensure she doesn’t fully empty the tank in the final kilometers. This will enable her to continue pushing hard to the end, especially in high-calibre races like the 70.3® World Championships later in the year.
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.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Emma’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as her higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn moreEmma has previously struggled when racing in humid conditions, so she tried to top up her sodium levels pre-race with some PH 1000 and PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix to begin on the front foot. With a tiny tweak, she could optimise this process by increasing the relative sodium concentration of these fluids to ~1,500 milligrams per litre (mg/32oz), which is what we recommend to athletes to start hydrated. This will help her body retain some more fluid and sodium into her blood. During the bike, Emma over-concentrated the PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix in her bottles to a strength much higher than her sweat sodium concentration. This will have limited her sodium losses and prepared her for the run, where her electrolyte intake dropped as she relied on low-strength isotonic drinks from the aid stations.
How Emma hit her numbers
Here's everything that Emma ate and drank on the day...
Emma's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Emma
PF&HEmma's full stats
Data Confidence?
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.