• Emma Pallant-Browne has been enjoying a brilliant 2022 season and, at the 70.3 European Championships in Denmark, she added yet another win to her CV, making it a total of four for the year so far!
• The race began with Emma exiting the swim with the lead pack, maintaining her position on the bike in a group of five and then showing her prowess on the run, clocking an impressive 1h16m half marathon to finish 1 minute 37 seconds ahead of second place, Ashleigh Gentle
• Emma’s fueling and hydration strategy has been something she has worked on over the last few months, trying hard to manage her high sweat losses which have caused her some issues in the heat. Knowing the race would be on the warmer side, Emma implemented what is now becoming her tried and tested hydration strategy, using PH 1500 in all of her bottles

Hydration

• Emma now consistently starts her races by effectively preloading with 1L/32oz of PH 1500. This helps ensure that she’s starting better hydrated, with her fluid and sodium levels topped up; a strategy which helps counter her very high sweat losses during races
• During the bike leg, Emma rode with two pre-mixed bottles: her 1.5L/50oz batwing filled with three servings of PF 30 Drink Mix and two PH 1500 sachets as well as a 750ml/24oz bottle filled with PH 1500, on the back of her bike
• Emma drank all of the batwing but only drank ~250ml/8oz of her other bottle, totalling a fluid intake of ~1.75L/59oz on the bike, an average of ~750ml/24oz per hour
• For some athletes, this would be a high average fluid intake on the bike, but for Emma - whose sweat rate can exceed 2 litres per hour in hot conditions - it’s in line with where we would expect her to be
• On the run, Emma drank from the on-course aid stations, picking up one cup of plain water and one cup of energy drink mix at each station. Taking into account the three-lap course with six aid stations on each lap, it’s estimated that Emma drank ~540ml/17oz in total (~270ml/9oz of each fluid)
• This is a fluid intake which will have been outstripped by Emma’s sweat rate, and she will have ended the race in a relatively dehydrated state. Evidencing this, Emma commented that “it took me two hours to pee in drug testing post-race”
• Overall, Emma felt her hydration strategy in this race was good, rating it 8 out of 10. Once again, we saw the average relative sodium concentration of Emma’s consumption exceed 1500mg/L, a brilliant concentration which was mostly down to her pre-mixed sodium-rich bottle on the bike
• While conditions in this race weren’t as hot as some of Emma’s previous race, temperatures were warm (average ~25℃/77°F). Emma doesn’t possess a high sweat sodium concentration (716mg/L), but she does have a high-to-very high sweat rate, which has meant that she’s had issues during hot races in the past because of excessive sodium and fluid depletion. To counter this, the PF&H Sports Science Team have educated Emma on upping the sodium concentration of her drink mixes, something she has been implementing well, to help her better retain the fluids she’s drinking

Fueling

Conclusions

• Emma left Denmark as the European 70.3 Champion, adding another title to her belt
• She executed her usual fuel and hydration race strategy, which involves frontloading her carb, sodium and fluid intake on the bike, thus giving her the leeway to take in much less on the run and still finish strongly