9th
Leon Chevalier's scorecard
IRONMAN® Vitoria-Gasteiz
Sunday 10th July, 2022
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
100g
Carb per hour
657mg
Sodium per hour
739ml
Fluid per hour
889mg/L
Relative sodium concentration
540mg
Total caffeine
How Leon hit those numbers
How Leon's hydration and fueling went...
- In what Leon described as “the hardest day of racing I’ve ever had”, he fought against the immense heat, a mechanical bike issue and losing some vital nutrition to finish 9th amongst a strong field in Vitoria-Gasteiz
- After exiting the swim to discover his bike had a puncture, he knew it would be a tough battle to catch the leaders
- However, staying calm and maintaining his solid fuel and hydration strategy saw him ride strong, before starting to pick off athletes on the marathon
- In all, Leon was satisfied with his result, but more importantly how he overcame adversity to achieve it
Hydration
- Leon preloaded as he usually does with PH 1500 (Tablets), drinking ~500ml/16oz the night before and ~600ml/18oz the morning of the race. Anticipating the high temperatures (36℃/97℉), Leon topped up his sodium levels thus enhancing his fluid retention and blood plasma volume so he started the race hydrated
- Leon emerged from the swim and as he jumped on his bike, discovered he had a puncture. Thankfully he managed to get a replacement tyre, but not before the leaders were already ~15 minutes down the road
- Without panicking, Leon got cracking with the 180km/112mile solo time-trial, where he drank just over ~4L/135oz of water, averaging ~920ml/31oz per hour. This is higher than we’ve seen Leon drink before, but as the temperatures soared, this will have helped him replace a decent proportion of his fluid lost through sweat
- Combined with his sodium intake of ~5,386mg on the bike, this gave Leon a relative sodium concentration of ~1,330mg/L, which aligns well with his sweat sodium concentration of 1,331mg/L, so would likely have replaced the vast majority of his sodium losses too
- Once he had dismounted his bike, Leon quickly realised he had misplaced his Electrolyte Capsules somewhere, and so headed out onto the run without a plan to take on any sodium
- This was a risky strategy, especially as Leon wasn’t a fan of the on-course electrolyte drinks, and didn’t want to risk making himself sick. However, as the temperatures were approaching ~36℃/97℉ by this point, he knew he’d be fighting a losing battle against hydration
- Leon did manage to take on a very small amount of sodium (~82mg) through picking up cups of Coca Cola, but would have diluted this concentration with the ~2.1L/71oz of plain water he also picked up throughout the marathon
- In future, Leon may want to consider putting a pre-mixed bottle of PH 1500 into his run transition bag and dropping off a couple of bottles at the special needs aid stations. This would be a good contingency plan if he misplaced his Electrolyte Capsules again
- Shortly after finishing the race, and for several hours afterwards, Leon experienced painful muscle cramps throughout his arms and legs. He was given ~2L/64oz of plain water to drink after the race, which will likely have exacerbated his issues by diluting his electrolyte concentration further, perhaps contributing to his bout of cramping
Fueling
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30g
carb 30 mins before
60-90g
carb per hour during
- Leon’s pre-race fueling was his usual 300g of banana bread to give his glycogen stores a last minute top-off
- Further to this, he also took a PF 30 Caffeine Gel ~15 minutes before the swim start to get some glucose circulating in his blood and save his stored energy for later in the race
- This 100mg caffeine hit will also have increased his alertness and cognitive function during the early stages of the race
- On the bike, Leon crushed his fueling strategy by taking an impressive ~530g of carbohydrates which equated to ~120g/h. This is an impressive number we’ve seen Leon hit previously with great success, and he rated his energy levels an 8 (out of 10)
- In the last 12 months Leon has spent considerable time training his gut to absorb this high quantity of carb, supporting the recent evidence which suggests athletes can tolerate more than the typical recommendations of 90g/h
- Leon hit this amount of carbs by squeezing a PF 90 Gel into each of his two 1L/32oz water bottles, and by adding one PF 90 Energy Gel into his 500ml/16oz bottle along with PH 1500 (Drink Mix) sachets each containing ~15g carb
- He also took two seperate PF 30 Gels and two PF 30 Caffeine Gels which will have reduced his perceived exertion and heightened his state of alertness late on into the bike
- During the marathon, despite not taking any sodium, he knew his carb intake would be crucial to maintaining his pace and so set about consuming ~273g of carb, averaging an impressive ~93g/h
- Whilst this is slightly lower than we’ve seen Leon hit before, considering his deflated state of mind heading onto the run, it’s still an impressive quantity of fuel to take on in hot conditions, and is a product of Leon’s extensive gut training
- Leon felt like he had a bit of an “energy wobble” at ~18k on the run, but kept fueling with PF 30 Gels and began picking up cups of Coca Cola from aid stations along with four gels available at aid stations, two of which were caffeinated
- This meant Leon ran strongly to the finish, edging his way into the top 10 within the last 5k
Conclusions
- The heat of Vitoria, coupled with some mechanical misfortune and a misplaced pack of Electrolyte Capsules ultimately lead to Leon’s “hardest ever race” which felt like “a bit of a slog””
- Despite the adversity, he executed a decent fuel and hydration strategy to ensure he finished strong and bagged another top 10 finish in only his 5th race over the IM distance
- Overall Leon rated his race satisfaction 7 out of 10, and pointed out that “upon reflection, I did pretty well to ride a similar pace to the front group even though I was riding solo, and I still had one of the fastest run times of the day as people started to buckle in the heat, so I can take a lot from that”
Key info
Leon Chevalier
Male
Sweat sodium concentration
1,331mg/L
Sweat sodium classification
Very High
* determined by our Sweat Test
Result
Position
9th
Overall Time
8:19:28
Swim Time
0:53:32
Bike Time
4:24:32
Run Time
2:57:26
Event information
Sport
Triathlon
Discipline
Full distance
Event
IRONMAN® Vitoria-Gasteiz
Location
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Date
10th July, 2022
Swim Distance
3.8km / 2.4mi
Bike Distance
180.2km / 112.0mi
Run Distance
42.2km / 26.2mi
Total Distance
226.2km / 140.6mi
Race conditions
Weather Conditions
Very Hot
Precipitation
No Rain
Min Temp
18°C / 64°F
Max Temp
36°C / 97°F
Avg Temp
30°C / 86°F
Humidity
48%
Athlete feedback
Race Satisfaction
8/10
Hydration rating
6/10
Finished dehydrated as I didn't take any sodium on the run
Energy levels
7/10
Toilet stops
No
GI comfort
8/10
Cramping
No cramping
Leon's Thoughts
After the puncture I questionned whether I was going to carry on, but to make the top 10 from that I'm pretty satisfied
Leon's full stats
Carbohydrate (g) | Sodium (mg) | Fluid (ml) | Caffeine (mg) | Relative sodium concentration (mg/L) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Overall | |||||
Total intake | 833 | 5,468 | 6,150 | 540 | 889 |
Per hour | 100 | 657 | 739 | 65 | |
Bike and Run | |||||
Total intake | 803 | 5,468 | 6,150 | 440 | 889 |
Per hour | 109 | 744 | 837 | 60 | |
Bike | |||||
Total intake | 530 | 5,386 | 4,050 | 200 | 1,330 |
Per hour | 120 | 1,224 | 920 | 45 | |
Run | |||||
Total intake | 273 | 82 | 2,100 | 240 | 39 |
Per hour | 93 | 28 | 712 | 81 |
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.