IRONMAN® World Championships

The majority of Jane’s fuel on the bike came through PF 30 Caffeine Gels and PF 30 Gels, as well as half a bagel which she ate whilst spinning her way down the long descent from Hawi. Having practised this in training, Jane knew that she could use 'real foods' when working at this intensity to get some more fuel in and break up the constant gels to avoid flavour fatigue. On the run she again had several gels, but also took a large amount of energy from cups of cola. This led to an overall race intake that fell well within the general scientific recommendations for an event of this duration and intensity.

In a race where we saw many athletes consuming over ~1L of fluid per hour on the bike in the hot conditions, Jane interestingly had a much lower intake. However, the fact that she still went for a pee in T2 suggests she wasn’t overly dehydrated and that this could just be a reflection of a low individual sweat rate. Jane relied on aid stations for fluids on the run and estimated that she picked up ~65 cups of water and cola. Unfortunately, she reported cramping during this part of the race, which could have potentially been due to a low sodium intake relative to her losses. Her intake dropped significantly from bike (~1288mg/L) to run (~173mg/L), so in future events, she could add PH 1500 to the soft flask she ran out of T2 with to consistently replace the sodium lost in her sweat and provide a potential line of defence against cramp.

Jane utilised the benefits of caffeine well, consuming PF 30 Caffeine Gels on both the bike and run portions of the race. Although her caffeine quantities summed to well over the general recommendations, Jane experienced no negative side effects and likely reflects her high individual tolerance of the stimulant, particularly across such a prolonged bout of exercise.