• After claiming 6th place in a time of 8:01:41 at his first IRONMAN World Championships in Utah, May 2022, Leon was looking to build on this result at the second World Championship of the year in Kona.
• Over the 18 months preceding Kona, Leon worked extremely hard to improve his ability to take in and utilise an increasing amount of carbohydrate to support the extremely high level of power output that racing at this level requires. This required a commitment to ‘gut training’ so that he could push above the 90g/hr ‘ceiling’ that was previously considered to be the upper limit of what could be tolerated by athletes in endurance events.

Hydration

• As is usual for him, Leon pre-loaded his electrolyte intake using PH 1500 (Tablets) to ensure that he would start the race hydrated with maximum blood plasma volume
• Knowing that the soaring temperatures out on course would combine with extreme humidity to make it ‘feel like’ at least 32°C / 90°F, his hydration strategy had to reflect the increases in sweat rate he would experience
• With this in mind he ‘super concentrated’ his three premixed bike bottles with seven PH 1500 (Drink Mix), which allowed him to effectively dilute this intake with additional water bottles from aid stations
• Leon decided on the day that he would take two 750ml (24oz) water bottles from each of the seven bike aid stations, pouring one over himself and drinking as much as he could of the other before the trash zone ended. Because he was gulping large volumes so quickly this actually meant he was regurgitating some water while riding his way to the 3rd fastest bike split on the day of 4:09:05, which would’ve broken the course record before this race
• Overall, on the bike he had an average fluid intake of ~1669ml (56oz) per hour, which is 23% more than his previous highest at his victorious l’Alpe d’Huez triathlon in July. Given that Leon didn’t pee throughout the race, this lofty intake doesn’t suggest that he was necessarily overdrinking. Although he did report that he would have liked to drink smaller volumes more often if this had been feasible on course
• For the vast majority of athletes, trying to drink ~1.65L (56oz) of fluid per hour while cycling at a high intensity would be neither feasible nor recommended. Testament to his ‘gut training’, Leon was just about able to tolerate this intake on the day and limit the level of dehydration he suffered
• This bike intake had an average relative sodium concentration of 769mg/L (mg/32oz)- lower than we usually see from Leon due to the elevated plain water intake
• On the run, Leon utilised the pro aid stations picking up three 500ml (16oz) bottles of PH 1500 (Tablets) and three of plain water. He also reported drinking ~19 cups of water that he picked up from the 16 standard aid stations on course, bringing his average fluid intake for this leg to ~1.44L/h (48oz/h) with a relative sodium concentration of just 501mg/L (mg/32oz)
• For someone who has a Sweat Test reading of 1,331mg/L (mg/32oz), we would generally recommend that Leon consciously increase his sodium intake in extreme conditions like this, easily done by carrying Electrolyte Capsules. Despite this relatively low sodium intake, Leon was happy to report no cramping whatsoever throughout the race, and a self reported 10 (out of 10) rating for his hydration strategy

Fueling

Conclusions

• With a blistering total time of 7:55:52, Leon would have won the IRONMAN World Championships on this course in all but the three most recent editions of the race. Ending up 7th overall in what turned out to be the fastest IM World Championship in history.
• Unsurprisingly, Leon reported being satisfied with both his hydration and fueling strategies for this race, achieving an IRONMAN PB time compared to his previous quickest at IM Mallorca in 2021
• He also reported that he feels he “can definitely go faster” in the future and we look forward to seeing him return to the Big Island in years to come