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2nd

Emma Pallant-Browne's scorecard

Challenge The Championship

Saturday 21st May, 2022

Within recommended ranges

Just outside recommended ranges

Significantly outside recommended ranges

  • 46g

    Carb per hour
  • 902mg

    Sodium per hour
  • 614ml

    Fluid per hour
  • 1,468mg/L

    Relative sodium concentration
  • 0mg

    Total caffeine
  • How Emma hit those numbers

    finish
    star
    bottle
     
    1L x PH 1500 (Drink Mix)
    1 x Bread roll with egg
    1 x Bread roll with honey
     
     
    1 x PF 30 Chews
     
     
    *** Tip: For sea swims, put a bottle of water at T1 to rinse your mouth out
     
     
    1L x PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix with PH 1500 (Drink Mix)
    0.75L x PH 1500 (Drink Mix)
    0.5 x PF 30 Chews
     
     
    540ml x Plain water
    270ml x Energy drink (22g carb)
     

    How Emma's hydration and fueling went...

      • Emma excelled at the Challenge Championship in Samorin as she finished second, just two weeks after she took the victory at IM 70.3 Mallorca
      • After an unwelcome encounter with a bee that saw her get stung on the bike leg, she began the run in 5th place, before pulling out an impressive half-marathon as she claimed the fastest run time among the stellar field of athletes. Throughout the race she implemented a good hydration and fueling plan, using various parts of previous strategies, this allowed her to avoid any major issues and push on late in the race

    Hydration

      • To make sure that she went into the race with high blood plasma volume to optimize her hydration levels, Emma preloaded with two PH 1500 (Tablets) in ~1L/32oz of water the morning of the race
      • On the bike, Emma drank two highly concentrated sodium drinks, one being a ~1L/32oz bottle of PF 30 Drink Mix with PH 1500, as well as a ~750ml/25oz bottle with two PH 1500 sachets to get on board a high level of sodium quickly
      • On the run, Emma followed the same strategy she did at Mallorca which was to pick up cups of plain water and energy drink from the three aid stations on the three-loop course that totalled ~810ml/27oz
      • This meant Emma’s total fluid intake was ~2.56L/42oz which equated to ~614ml/hr (21oz/hr). This is a good fluid intake which is close to the top end of what we have seen Emma consume previously in order to limit significant dehydration as she does have a very high sweat rate that can exceed ~2.5L/h (85oz/hr) in hot and humid conditions
      • Overall, she averaged a relative sodium concentration of ~1,468mg of sodium per litre (32oz) which, considering her sweat sodium concentration of 716mg/L (determined by our Advanced Sweat Test), will have replaced the majority of the sodium she lost in her sweat. As we suggested to her off the back of racing in Mallorca, in future races Emma should make sure to have enough plain water alongside her highly concentrated sodium drinks to better align her relative sodium concentration with her actual sweat sodium losses

    Fueling

    Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation

    30g

    carb 30 mins before

    60-90g

    carb per hour during
      • Emma fueled prior to the Championships by having a breakfast of two bread rolls, one with honey and the other with egg, so that she started the race with loaded glycogen stores. Although she didn’t have her usual pre-race energy bar, her stores were further topped up with a packet of PF 30 Chews in the last 30 minutes before the swim
      • During the race, Emma’s carb intake came from PF 30 Drink Mix (six scoops per ~1L/32oz), we would recommend she sticks to the mixing guidelines to maintain the intended concentration. She also had a PF 30 Chew and the on course energy drink mix. This totalled ~192g of carb overall, averaging ~46g per hour. This intake is lower than what we have seen her achieve previously (Mallorca - 88g/hr, Riccione - 71g/hr, and Oceanside - 77g/hr)
      • For a race of this intensity and duration, Emma was slightly under the Quick Carb Calculator’s recommendation to consume between 60 and 90g/hr. Looking at the breakdown of her intake, she was able to meet the recommendations on the bike (~64g/hr), although she took only 9g/hr on board during the run. It’s not uncommon for athletes to eat less on the run leg than the bike as it’s more difficult to get fuel down, but this was quite a substantial drop
      • She opted to pick up the on-course energy drink on the run, having a sip at every aid station for the three laps (approximately ~270ml/9oz in total). Reflecting on the race, Emma was aware that her carb intake was low and put this down to not “not feeling great” and “not feeling like eating on the bike”
      • Emma positively said that she didn’t suffer from any gastrointestinal discomfort but “didn’t have good energy levels on the bike”. We would recommend she increases her overall carb intake across the race back into the recommended range (over 60g/hr) to keep her energy levels consistently high throughout the race
      • We have previously seen Emma take caffeine before/during races, for example reaching the recommended 3-6mg of caffeine per kg of bodyweight at IM 70.3 Oceanside, and this is a tactic she could look to implement this again to help boost her perceived energy levels and delay the onset of fatigue

    Conclusions

      • Emma produced her second great race in less than three weeks as she finished strongly despite hurdles on the bike to finish second in a time of 4 hours and 10 minutes
      • Staying consistent with her hydration plan, she hit some solid numbers in terms of fluid and sodium. Taking the conditions into consideration, Emma should be mindful of consuming enough plain water alongside her highly concentrated sodium drinks
      • There were extenuating circumstances in this race which impacted Emma’s desire to fuel. That said, going into her upcoming races, it’s important that she strives to increase her overall carb intake towards ~90g/hr (at the top end of our recommendations) and specifically look to increase her run carb consumption due to the positive trend between carb intake and performance

    Key info

    Emma Pallant-Browne

    Female
    Sweat sodium concentration
    716mg/L
    Sweat sodium classification
    Low
    * determined by our Sweat Test

    Result

    Position
    2nd
    Overall Time
    4:10:12
    Swim Time
    26:28:00
    Bike Time
    2:21:04
    Run Time
    1:17:19

    Event information

    Sport
    Triathlon
    Discipline
    Middle distance
    Event
    Challenge The Championship
    Location
    Samorin, Slovakia
    Date
    21st May, 2022
    Swim Distance
    1.9km / 1.2mi
    Bike Distance
    90.1km / 56.0mi
    Run Distance
    21.1km / 13.1mi
    Total Distance
    113.1km / 70.3mi

    Race conditions

    Weather Conditions
    Mild
    Precipitation
    No Rain
    Min Temp
    12°C / 54°F
    Max Temp
    23°C / 73°F
    Avg Temp
    18°C / 64°F
    Humidity
    51%

    Athlete feedback

    Race Satisfaction
    6/10
    Hydration rating
    9/10
    Energy levels
    6/10
    GI comfort
    9/10
    Cramping
    No cramping

    Emma's full stats

     Carbohydrate (g)Sodium (mg)Fluid (ml)Caffeine (mg)Relative sodium concentration (mg/L)
    Overall
    Total intake1923,7582,56001,468
    Per hour469026140
    Bike and Run
    Total intake1623,7582,56001,468
    Per hour451,0347050
    Bike
    Total intake1503,7501,75002,143
    Per hour641,5967450
    Run
    Total intake128810010
    Per hour976310

    Data Confidence

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    1

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    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.

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