• The inaugural PTO Canadian Open saw a stacked female field toe the line in Edmonton. With prize money up for grabs for the Top 20, the stakes were high and the racing was fierce
• Precision Fuel & Hydration Ambassador, India Lee, finished the 100km course in 17th, clocking an overall time of 3 hours and 45 minutes
• When it comes to her race nutrition strategy, India has been focussing on increasing her carbohydrate intake, having under-fueled some of her previous performances
• In this race, India consumed her greatest in-race carbohydrate intake, whilst maintaining good gastrointestinal comfort, something which bodes very well for the future and is a testament to the gut training she has been doing in her key training sessions

Hydration

• India started her race day by drinking 500ml/16oz of PH 1500 (Tablet) ensuring that she was well-hydrated on the start line (learn more about preloading)
• In India’s previous race at the IM 70.3 European Championships, she drank very little (just 120ml/4oz per hour) and managing her fluid and sodium needs better during her upcoming races was a recommendation, particularly in warmer race conditions - which Edmonton delivered as temperatures reached ~26℃/79°F
• Having had a solid swim, India started the 80km bike course in 11th place with two pre-prepared bottles. One bottle contained a concentrated gel mix, whilst the other was filled with PH 1500 (Tablet). In total, she thinks that she drank ~250ml/8oz of the strong electrolyte drink and ~500ml/16oz of plain water which she picked up from on-course. This meant her average fluid consumption was just ~327ml/11oz per hour on the bike, a low fluid intake for the hot conditions
• On the four-lap run, as the temperature continued to creep up, and India’s sweat rate with it, we saw her drink a greater volume. She estimated that she drank a total of ~800ml/27oz of water from the eight aid stations (~100ml/3oz per cup) as well as ~100ml/3oz of PH 1000 (Tablet) which was also available on-course. Together, this totalled ~900ml/30oz, an average of ~750ml/25oz per hour
• Typically, India has reported “not being a big sweater” but in this race felt that her sweat rate was high by her standards. It’s important that an increased sweat rate is matched by an uptick in fluid consumption, and whilst on average India did drink more per hour in this race than we’ve seen her consume before, for the hot and humid conditions, it was most likely not enough
• This was reflected in how India felt during the race, commenting afterwards that she felt “a bit of cramp towards the end of the bike” and slightly “woozy” at the tail end of the run. She thinks she did “just enough” to get through the 100km but knows that she could have done better, ultimately rating the appropriateness of her hydration strategy just a 3 out of 10
• Some of the fluids India drank did contain a high concentration of sodium but unfortunately she wasn’t drinking enough of them to have too much impact on her sodium replacement. Whilst India isn’t a salty sweater, losing just 635mg of sodium per litre of sweat, in a long, hot race, sodium losses can accumulate when athletes are pushing themselves to the limit
• Going forwards in long races, India should target ‘optimizing’ her sodium and fluid intake, as opposed to just trying to scrape by

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall, India felt her race was “wasn’t awful, but it would have been nice to do better” and rated her satisfaction with her performance a 6 (out of 10)
• She marginally improved her sodium and fluid consumption in this race off the back of the European Champs, but could still benefit from further dialing this in and remembering to be mindful of her hydration needs in-race
• What was very positive from this race was India’s increase in carbohydrate consumption, and the minimal impact this had upon her gut comfort