• After an impressive win at IRONMAN 70.3 Oregon three weeks prior, professional triathlete, Justin Metzler, took to the start line again at IM Lake Placid, New York
• This was Justin’s first full distance race since suffering terrible stomach cramps at the IM World Championships earlier in the year as a result of over-consuming carbohydrate
• Having worked with the Sports Science team for some months, Justin has a robust plan which he executes confidently in 70.3 races but this was the first test of the new plan over double the distance
• Justin finished fourth but said “that hardly tells the full story” going on to say that he had his “lifetime best race for about 95%”. He in fact led for the majority of the day but it ended with him having to run-walk the last 10 kilometres due to debilitating cramp-like feelings in his quads, which led to him dropping down the positions. Rather than being a direct result of his race nutrition strategy, Justin felt that what crippled him was “a recurring issue of complete muscular breakdown/fatigue”
• That being said, he felt there was some room for improvement with his strategy and that, in particular on the run, he was in “problem mitigation mode” as opposed to feeling comfortable in what he needed to take and when

Hydration

• Justin started his race day by drinking ~800ml/26oz PH 1500, ~100ml/3oz plain water and a coffee. This pre-race routine helps ensure he is starting the race in a well-hydrated state with his fluid and sodium levels topped up. Justin also drinks ~500ml/16oz of PH 1500 the night before the event to further optimise his hydration status
• Justin started the bike leg with two 750ml/24oz bottles, each filled with three scoops of PF 30 Drink Mix (1.5 servings) and one PH 1500 (Drink Mix). Alongside this, he had also intended to fill his downtube bottles with the same products
• In a cruel twist, these bottles broke the day before the race so Justin had to adapt and chose to place two 750ml/24oz bottles in the on-course ‘special needs’ area instead. He would then be able to pick these up when heading out onto the second lap of the bike course
• Whilst riding, he also picked up two 750ml/24oz bottles of the on-course energy drink and ~1.5L/48oz of plain water
• In total this meant that Justin drank ~6L/202oz of fluid on the bike which averaged ~1.35L/45oz per hour. This is a high fluid consumption but falls in line with what we’ve seen him drink before, especially in hot conditions (~26℃/79℉ average temperature)
• What is important is that Justin said “I felt hydrated all day and never forced the eating or drinking” which does suggests that he was never aggressively trying to drink, only drinking as he felt he needed
• On the run, Justin ran out of the second transition with a 500ml/16oz flask containing a serving of PF 30 Drink Mix and then, at the special needs station around the halfway point, picked up a 750ml/24oz bottle containing a further 1.5 servings of PF 30 Drink Mix and one sachet of PH 1500. On top of this, he drank a mixture of water, Red Bull, Coca Cola and the on-course energy drink mix to supplement his hydration requirements
• Justin supplemented with a high intake of sodium in this race, consistently drinking fluids with a high sodium concentration, as well as taking 4-5 PH Electrolyte Capsules on both the bike and run
• In addition to this, he aggressively used a salt lick (estimated ~1,500mg of sodium) to mitigate the cramp-like feeling he started to experience on the bike and keep it at bay
• On average, Justin’s sodium and fluid intake equated to a high relative sodium concentration of ~1,667 milligrams of sodium per litre, which corroborates the conclusion that Justin’s experience with cramping on the bike and run was most likely due to muscular fatigue and excessive load as opposed to being directly related to an issue in his race nutrition strategy

Fueling

Conclusions

• Moving forwards from the race, Justin is planning to test himself over the full distance again in a few weeks time, and is going to work on mitigating the cramping he experienced by adjusting his leg strength training
• Should Justin be able to prevent this cramping in his racing, he can avoid his reactive use of sodium
• Justin’s total intakes in the race were good and mostly appropriate for the conditions and effort he exerted. For future full-distance races, Justin and the team are going to look into refining his plan on the run so that he feels more confident in the plan he’s executing