Emma Pallant-Browne
IRONMAN 70.3® World Championships
Lahti4th, FPROEmma's headline numbers
Emma's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
T - 15mins: Took in a final dose of carb
"I felt great in the swim and bike, but during the run my stomach was hurting so I stopped eating, this meant my energy levels crashed."
Emma has worked very hard over the past few months to increase her carb intake during races by training her gut. As a result, she managed to hit her highest ever carb intake on the bike, on her way to a personal best 70.3 bike split. Unfortunately, she’s also been battling a stomach virus recently, and this meant once she started running, her stomach was quite painful and she didn’t want to take any fuel and risk aggravating it further. Her energy levels subsequently plummeted, and meant she couldn’t push the pace like she’d hoped. Emma’s plan was to take two PF 30 Gels during the run, and in future, once her stomach issues have subsided, she’ll be able to avoid any dips in energy by executing her plan.
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.
Emma716mg/L
Emma has been Sweat Tested to dial in her hydration plan
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 important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreT - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
"I don't think there was much wrong with my hydration on the day."
Emma’s strategy involved taking all her electrolytes on the bike, to essentially *frontload* for the run. This is because Emma has a very high sweat rate, and when running at such high speeds, she struggles to drink the large quantities required to maintain her blood plasma volume. Frontloading in this manner encourages her body to retain the fluid in her blood plasma due to the additional sodium, lessening her rate of dehydration to a degree.
How Emma hit her numbers
Here's everything that Emma ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“I really wanted to fight for the podium position, but I could only give what I had and this time it just wasn't enough.”
Emma“Emma was hoping for another of her trademark blistering run splits to secure her third 70.3 World Championships podium. Unfortunately, some stomach discomfort put an end to those hopes, but she still finished a superb fourth amongst the world’s best, which Emma can be incredibly proud of.”
PF&HEmma's full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
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.