1st
Emma Pallant-Browne's scorecard
IRONMAN 70.3 European Championships
Sunday 26th June, 2022
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
68g
Carb per hour
856mg
Sodium per hour
556ml
Fluid per hour
1,539mg/L
Relative sodium concentration
0mg
Total caffeine
How Emma hit those numbers
How Emma's hydration and fueling went...
- 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
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30g
carb 30 mins before
60-90g
carb per hour during
- Emma typically opts for a bread roll before racing and she didn’t deviate from this ahead of the European Champs, eating two ciabatta rolls with scrambled egg. In addition to this, she ate ~100g of Haribo sweets (~77g carb) 10 minutes before the swim, a strategy which effectively spikes blood glucose levels at the start of exercise, preserving muscle glycogen for the latter stages
- On the bike, Emma loaded up her ~1.5L/50oz batwing bottle with three servings of PF 30 Drink Mix as well as two PH 1500 (Drink Mix) sachets, making the bottle’s total carb content ~120g. Emma also ate two PF 30 Chews, increasing her average bike intake to ~80g per hour
- As we’ve grown accustomed to Emma doing, she took very little fuel on board during the run, opting only to drink cups of the on-course energy drink mix, picking one up at every aid station (~270ml/9oz in total). This meant that Emma only consumed ~16g of carb during the run, averaging ~13g/h, an intake very similar to what she took on the run leg at Challenge Riccione, Challenge The Championship and IM 70.3 Mallorca
- Across the course of the whole race (including her swim time and her final dose of pre-race carb), this equated to an average carb intake of ~68g/h, an intake which due to Emma’s intensity falls short of the Fuel & Hydration Planner’s 90g/h recommendation but does meet the general recommendation of 60-90g/h for a race of this duration
- This strategy of frontloading her carb intake on the bike and running ‘light’ on fuel seems to work for Emma. Certainly the usual trend is for middle distance triathletes is to consume less on the run but Emma is an extreme example of this trend
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
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
4:07:07
Swim Time
0:24:36
Bike Time
2:20:57
Run Time
1:16:17
Event information
Sport
Triathlon
Discipline
Middle distance
Event
IRONMAN 70.3 European Championships
Location
Elsinore, Denmark
Date
26th June, 2022
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
600m / 1,969ft
Run Elevation
100m / 328ft
Race conditions
Weather Conditions
Hot
Precipitation
No Rain
Min Temp
24°C / 75°F
Max Temp
26°C / 79°F
Avg Temp
25°C / 77°F
Humidity
65%
Athlete feedback
Race Satisfaction
8/10
Hydration rating
8/10
Energy levels
8/10
Toilet stops
Yes
Once at the start
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 intake | 281 | 3,524 | 2,290 | 0 | 1,539 |
Per hour | 68 | 856 | 556 | 0 | |
Bike and Run | |||||
Total intake | 204 | 3,513 | 2,290 | 0 | 1,534 |
Per hour | 57 | 976 | 636 | 0 | |
Bike | |||||
Total intake | 188 | 3,375 | 1,750 | 0 | 1,929 |
Per hour | 80 | 1,446 | 750 | 0 | |
Run | |||||
Total intake | 16 | 138 | 540 | 0 | 255 |
Per hour | 13 | 109 | 426 | 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.