IRONMAN 70.3® Swansea

On the morning of the race, Lizzie’s appetite was a little lower than usual, but she still consumed a carb-rich meal of rice with honey, a black coffee and an additional PF 30 Chew to give her a solid platform heading into a tough, hot race day in Swansea. On the bike, she pushed her carb intake to ~142g/h using PF 300 Flow Gel alongside PH 1000 and PH 1500 sachets, PF 30 Gels and a PF 30 Caffeine Gel. This continued the trajectory of higher carb intakes she's built through the 2025 and 2026 seasons, and it’s a step up from the ~65g/h she averaged on this same course in 2024. Although far higher than the recommendations, there are some benefits to fueling at this level namely, recovery following the race and ensuring optimal energy availability throughout and this high intake of carbohydrates speaks to the gut training she's put in. However, some hints of nausea and a further loss of appetite through the second half of the race meant her run intake dropped below what she’d planned to, averaging ~45g/h. Given how well she front-loaded the bike, and by drip feeding half a PF 90 Gel across the run, she was able to maintain her energy and performance to take the win in much warmer conditions. In future races, instead of risking this large a drop off in carb consumption, it may be suitable to lower her bike intake and bring her run intake up.

Given the UK heatwave anticipated on race day, Lizzie planned her hydration strategy thoroughly going into Swansea with the help of data from her previous races. She set off and executed a proactive fluid and sodium replacement plan on the bike by drinking ~757ml/h at a relative sodium concentration of ~1,250mg/L, using PH 1000, PH 1500 and a small amount of water. This is a marked increase on the ~447ml/h she drank on the bike at this race in 2024 where temperatures averaged ~12℃ lower. Her intake dropped off on the run, where her fluid intake dropped to ~480ml/h and relative sodium concentration fell to ~836mg/L, as Lizzie struggled to drink as much as she felt she needed from the small on-course cups. This coincided with the calf cramping that built through the closing stages of the bike and became significant by the end of the run. Cramping is rarely down to one factor, and the heat, pace and a mechanical issue on the bike could all be involved, but given the scale of the drop-off, carrying more fluid onto the run or picking up extra PH 1000 at aid stations could have helped to keep the cramps at bay.