5th
Jane Gannon's scorecard
IRONMAN World Championships
Thursday 6th October, 2022
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
72g
Carb per hour
404mg
Sodium per hour
697ml
Fluid per hour
579mg/L
Relative sodium concentration
847mg
Total caffeine
How Jane hit those numbers
How Jane's hydration and fueling went...
- Jane is a practising dentist and serial IRONMAN World Championships competitor. Making several appearances in the event previously, Jane was looking to use her knowledge of the island course to her advantage this year
- Alongside her husband Martin, who won his age group at the 2022 World Championships, Jane has been working with the PF&H Sports Science team to develop her fuel and hydration strategies ahead of this event
- Jane did extremely well to run down the red carpet in 5th place in her age group, with a time of 13:00:57
Hydration
- Jane was conscious of her hydration in the days before the event, drinking plenty of water in an attempt to hydrate. However, we’d recommend in future she drinks ~500ml (16oz) of PH 1500 both the night before and the morning of the race in order to top up her blood plasma volume and start optimally hydrated
- On the bike, Jane relied heavily on refilling her hydration system using aid station water pick ups. To maintain a relative sodium concentration of ~1,288milligrams per litre (mg/32oz) during this leg of the race she had two PH 1500 Tablets and 11 Electrolyte Capsules
- In a race in which we frequently saw athletes with intakes of over ~1L (32oz) of fluid per hour on the bike, Jane had an average intake of just ~512ml/h (16oz/h). However, the fact that she still went for a pee in T2 and perceived her hydration on the day as a 9 (out of 10) suggests she wasn’t overly dehydrated and that this is potentially a reflection of a low individual sweat rate
- On the run, Jane again relied on aid stations for water and estimated that she picked up ~65 cups of various fluids on her way to a 4:45:53 marathon. This gave her an average intake of ~1.21L (42oz) fluid per hour, however this estimate includes a fairly large amount of uncertainty due to the compounding error that cup estimates create
- As someone with a Sweat Test score of 941mg/L (mg/32oz), Jane falls into the ‘moderate’ sodium loss category, and so it would appear that her intake fell some way short of replacing these losses
- Interestingly, Jane reported suffering cramping during the marathon, which could have potentially been due to electrolyte imbalance. In future events she could experiment with carrying a Soft Flask of PH 1500 or PF Energy Drink Mix, instead of flat Coca Cola. This would frontload her sodium intake for the run somewhat and provide a potential line of defence against cramp onset
Fueling
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30g
carb 30 mins before
60-90g
carb per hour during
- Jane made sure she carb loaded in the days leading up to the race, culminating in a carb rich dinner of pizza and rice, and breakfast of bagels with butter and jam. This topped up her muscle and liver glycogen, meaning she’d have maximal energy availability on race-day
- A final PF 30 Gel around 15 minutes before the starting gun will have elevated her blood glucose and helped to spare some of her stored energy for use later in the race
- On the bike, the majority of Jane’s energy came in the form of 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
- On the run she again had several Precision Fuel gels, as well as gaining a large amount of carb from ~3L (105oz) of Coca Cola. This meant that her overall race intake was ~72g per hour of carb, which is almost bang in the middle of the Quick Carb Calculator’s 60-90g/h general recommendation for an event of this length and intensity
- She also utilised the benefits of caffeine well with a total of ~847mg consumed, this will be well over the general recommendation of 3-6mg/kg for someone of her size. However, this may have been appropriate for her individual level of tolerance across such a prolonged bout of exercise. It’s also in line with some other performances we analysed from this race
Conclusions
- Jane did extremely well to run her way down the IRONMAN World Championships red carpet in a time of 13:00:57 making her the 5th fastest woman in her age group. While she was ‘slightly disappointed’ with her time on the day, she undoubtedly can be very proud of the overall outcome
- Jane’s fueling was a really strong aspect of her race this time around, managing an average intake of ~72g of carb per hour. In future, to avoid the lower perceived energy she felt on the run, it is worth considering carrying an additional PF 90 Gel with a Bite valve for frequent top ups of glucose that aren’t coming from energy drinks
- In terms of hydration, Jane’s main development will be to find a way of controlling cramp on the run. The significant drop in relative sodium intake from bike (~1288mg/L) to run (~173mg/L) could be a potential cause for this, which can easily be avoided through the use of additional Electrolyte Capsules or the addition of sodium to the soft flask she ran out of T2 with
Key info
Jane Gannon
Female
Sweat sodium concentration
941mg/L
Sweat sodium classification
Moderate
* determined by a PH Advanced Sweat Test
Result
Position
5th
Overall Time
13:00:57
Swim Time
1:33:37
Bike Time
6:27:18
Run Time
4:45:57
Event information
Sport
Triathlon
Discipline
Full distance
Event
IRONMAN World Championships
Location
Kona, Hawaii
Date
6th October, 2022
Website
Swim Distance
3.9km / 2.4mi
Bike Distance
180.2km / 112.0mi
Run Distance
42.2km / 26.2mi
Total Distance
226.2km / 140.6mi
Bike Elevation
1,772m / 5,814ft
Run Elevation
307m / 1,007ft
Total Elevation
2,079m / 6,821ft
Race conditions
Weather Conditions
Very Hot and Humid
Precipitation
No Rain
Min Temp
25°C / 77°F
Max Temp
31°C / 88°F
Avg Temp
29°C / 84°F
Humidity
73%
Athlete feedback
Race Satisfaction
9/10
Hydration rating
9/10
Better than my previous Kona attempts!
Energy levels
9/10
I defintiely had more energy through the swim and bike than the run, but having well timed fuel helped.
Toilet stops
Yes
GI comfort
8/10
I suffered quite badly at mile 16 of the run, but it was an isolated incident
Cramping
Mild cramps that I could push through
Jane's Thoughts
Very happy with outcome/position but slightly disappointed with time overall.
Jane's full stats
Carbohydrate (g) | Sodium (mg) | Fluid (ml) | Caffeine (mg) | Relative sodium concentration (mg/L) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Overall | |||||
Total intake | 931 | 5,250 | 9,065 | 847 | 579 |
Per hour | 72 | 404 | 697 | 65 | |
Bike and Run | |||||
Total intake | 901 | 5,250 | 9,065 | 847 | 579 |
Per hour | 80 | 469 | 809 | 76 | |
Bike | |||||
Total intake | 364 | 4,250 | 3,300 | 300 | 1,288 |
Per hour | 56 | 659 | 512 | 47 | |
Run | |||||
Total intake | 538 | 1,000 | 5,765 | 547 | 173 |
Per hour | 113 | 211 | 1,214 | 115 |
Data Confidence
1
2
3
4
5
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.