• Emma had another fantastic race in Samorin, where she won her individual event to help Team Europe win the Collins Cup
• The conditions in Slovakia were slightly cooler than a lot of the athletes were preapred for at that time of year and in many cases, this will have resulted in adjustments to their fueling and hydration strategies

Hydration

• Up until the run, Emma felt she drank enough, which we would agree with given the cooler conditions. Usually Emma drinks ~800 ml/hr (~27oz/hr) during the bike leg, but this time she drank only ~569ml/hr (~20oz/hr). This was likely influenced by the fact that she wasn’t relying on getting any of her calories from her bottles and just drank as her thirst dictated
• On the run, Emma explained that she’d normally utilise every aid station, taking 3-4 sips of water each time. On this occasion, there were only four aid stations (every ~5km) and due to an unusual setup (all drinks were in bottles and had to be discarded quickly), Emma only drank from the last one
• All in all, it’s likely that Emma was running close to being fairly dehydrated by the end of the race, which is supported by Emma’s comment that it took her a long time to pee after the race during her drug testing. The race conditions made this more acceptable than it might have been on other days, and it was something we saw with other athletes on the day
• Emma’s average sodium intake was ~142mg/hr, which is lower than normal. We normally see Emma opt for the PH 1000 when racing in hot and humid conditions, but with the conditions here being significantly cooler and less humid than the majority of Emma’s races this season, her use of the PH 500 instead was a fair adjustment
• She didn’t experience any cramp during the race, but did in both quads afterwards. This could be a result of under-doing her sodium consumption and/or both under-drinking and under-fueling on the run. But there are many causes of cramp so it’s not always easy to tell. Learn more

Fueling

Conclusions

• Emma adjusted her fueling and hydration strategy to cater for the later than usual race start time, the unfamiliar race duration and the cooler conditions at the inaugural Collins Cup race
• She hit an average carbohydrate intake of ~50g/hr across the race, ~336ml (~12oz) of fluid and ~142mg/hr of sodium. Whilst these numbers are all a bit lower than Emma’s normal, they were just about adequate for the conditions and reflective of some of the circumstances (i.e. limited aid stations, lost gels)