IRONMAN 70.3® Campeche

With the race starting later into the afternoon, Fiona had to adjust her race day fuel schedule to include an additional (but smaller) serving of her typical breakfast. As a Celiac athlete, Fiona has an extra finicky gut, and she’s struggled with sickness and nausea during races, especially when temperatures creep up. Using both PF 30 Gels and a bottle of Carb Only Drink Mix on the bike provided two separate sources of fuel, and enabled her to hit ~88g/h. Since her carb intake dropped to ~68g/h on the run, and she noticed a dip in energy, it might be beneficial to add an additional PF 30 Gel to carry her through to the end and finish strong.

The race conditions were far higher than ideal, reaching a whopping 45℃ (~114℉). This necessitated a high fluid and electrolyte intake to account for Fiona’s increased sweat losses. To reduce the stress on her gut, she decoupled her hydration and fuel by using PH 1000 and PH 1500 tablets in most of her fluid on the bike. This way, she could stay hydrated from water and electrolytes without overloading her stomach with carbs every time she consumed fluid. On the run, she supplemented her Soft Flask of PH 1500 with cups of water and ice from the aid stations in an attempt to stay cool in the blazing heat. Although she didn’t experience any cramping in this race, it would be worth carrying some Electrolyte Capsules to more closely match her losses for a full-distance race, when she’d be more likely to accumulate race-impacting levels of dehydration.

Though caffeine is a commonly used ergogenic aid in sports nutrition, it’s not suitable for everyone. Fiona knows that she doesn’t usually feel great with caffeine, and especially considering her tricky gut, she opts to stay away from it for races. This goes to show that each athlete should figure out if caffeine is helpful for their strategy before adding it in.