Josh's headline numbers
Josh's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
T - 15mins: Took in a final dose of carb
"I’m pleased with how much I could eat during the race, and I never had any issues relating to under or over-fueling, so wouldn’t change a thing."
Josh increased his overall carb intake from his previous race at the IM 70.3 World Championships by almost 40%, which considering this was his debut IRONMAN makes it more impressive to do so over double the distance. Additionally, he experienced no gastrointestinal issues, suggesting the rigorous gut training protocol he’s undertaken in recent weeks has paid off. Josh cycled (*pardon the pun*) between PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and a PF 300 Flow Gel to keep his caloric intake on the bike high, before utilising the special needs aid stations on the run to collect more gels. Overall this helped him maintain solid energy levels throughout as he proved to be another athlete demonstrating that tolerating more than 90g/h is not only manageable but beneficial to his performance.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
Drinking a strong electrolyte drink before the race could have helped Josh start optimally hydrated
"I always feel like I need quite a lot of sodium, and my kit was covered in salt marks. I felt like my hydration was spot on during the bike, and I never really felt particularly thirsty. My quads did cramp quite a lot during the second half of the run, but this could be down to heading out of T2 a little too hot! Lesson learned…"
Josh is yet to have a Sweat Test, but his subjective analysis would suggest his sodium losses are not insignificant. He proactively consumes enough to adequately match his estimated losses. At his previous 70.3 races, Josh *super-concentrated* his electrolytes and achieved relative concentrations >4,000mg per litre. This can significantly increase the risk of GI issues, particularly during longer races like an IRONMAN. For this event, Josh made sure he drank plenty of plain water to reduce the average concentration and reported no issues this time around. Despite experiencing debilitating cramps in his quads during the marathon, this was unlikely due to electrolyte depletion. For Josh, understanding the multifactorial causes of cramp, including pacing and general muscle damage, will be vital to avoiding cramps in future races. The only hydration-related issue Josh experienced was during the second hour of the run, when he began to pee quite frequently. It was unusual that he got ~6.5 hours into the race before needing to go, but this may have been caused by his position on his TT bike compressing his bladder, and it just took a while on the run to ‘open up’ and relax enough for him to pee. This is something to investigate further to help prevent a recurrence.
How Josh hit his numbers
Here's everything that Josh ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“I’m pretty stoked with how my race turned out, I learned an awful lot, and that was the reason I decided to race a full distance to end my season. I’m looking forward to racing a couple more IRONMANs next year.”
“Josh crushed his fuel and hydration strategy for his first IRONMAN and learned a lot about how his body responds during an event like this. By dropping his average sodium concentration by almost ½ from his previous race, Josh avoided any hydration-strategy-related issues over double the distance. Running ~10 seconds per km (~16s/mile) faster than his target marathon pace likely contributed to his muscle cramps during the second half of the run due to fatigue, so dialling this back and/or increasing his muscle conditioning will help avoid this in future IRONMANs.”
PF&HJosh's full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
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.