• Coming to the end of a hugely successful racing season, Leon raced his third full distance IM of the year (and third ever). Beating tough competition and setting a new course record, Leon had a fantastic race, winning in under 8 hours!
• Leon planned to use his well developed hydration and fuelling plan but contradictory to what the race outcome portrays, not everything went exactly to plan
• At the start of the bike, he dropped one of his 1L bottles containing PH1500, PH1000 and an energy drink mix, before he had drunk any of it! Focusing on the loss of carb, Leon was aware he would therefore need to adjust and pick up 110g carb (~5 gels) from aid stations to reach the level of intake he usually achieves with the bottle

Hydration

• On average, Leon consumed ~613ml/22oz of fluid per hour across the whole race. On the bike, this intake was from two bottles containing energy drink mix and PH electrolytes along with two 750ml bottles of water which he picked up. Then on the run he drank water at most aid stations and occasionally drank Coca Cola or Redbull as well
• Despite dropping a bottle, this seems to be an adequate fluid intake. Although we do not know Leon’s sweat rate this volume of fluid is similar to what we have seen him consume successfully in past races, like at Embrunman
• Leon did not pee during the race which he did do once in both his previous long course triathlons. This could portray slight under hydration because we would expect him to pee in a race of this length
• Due to dropping his bottle containing 1,250mg sodium and not adjusting his plan to account for this, Leon’s sodium consumption was lower than he had planned. He consumed ~409mg/hr sodium whereas at Embrunman he consumed ~665mg/hr sodium. Although not drastically different and still replacing a proportion of what he will have been losing, in relation to the amount of fluid he was drinking the relative sodium concentration of his intake was ~666mg/L. Taking into account Leon’s high sweat sodium concentration (1,392mg/L) and the warm conditions a greater amount of sodium could have been beneficial, for example in the form of PH Electrolyte capsules
• Leon struggled in the last 40 minutes of the race and said he “clearly bonked”. Considering his high carb intake this is more likely to relate to under doing his sodium intake. We would recommend he increase sodium intake to replace a greater amount of what he would have been losing to hopefully avoid the dip he had at the end of the run

Fueling

Conclusions

• Leon had a superb performance at IM Mallorca adjusting on the fly to hit solid numbers. He said “I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome and I’m sure there’s still room to do way better if all goes to plan (but it rarely does!)”
• As to be expected he is happy with the outcome. He focused on replacing his carb intake and “didn’t think too much about the electrolytes lost” when he dropped the bottle and looking back on the race he agrees with our views that “not enough electrolyte might explain the boking towards the end”