Lizzie Rayner
IRONMAN 70.3® Portugal-Cascais
Lizzie's headline numbers
Lizzie's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Lizzie fueled her first professional win using her routine middle distance carbohydrate intake strategy. This was a step in the right direction as she took on ~62g more carbs during the run alone compared to her previous race in Swansea when GI discomfort set her back. Between not drinking as much as planned and some spillage from her main carb-rich bottle, she fell short of the 90g/h recommendations for this high intensity race and relatively shorter duration. Lizzie should continue to train her gut ahead of the IRONMAN 70.3® World Championships later this season to further increase her carb intake, giving her more available fuel to use. In the event she spills or loses a bottle, or if cooler conditions reduce her fluid intake, decoupling her fuel and hydration by using more gels will allow her to better reach these targets.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Lizzie’s losses are on the moderate side, getting her hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as her higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn moreDespite similar conditions to IRONMAN 70.3® Mallorca earlier this season, Lizzie drank on average ~200ml less per hour and took on a lower relative sodium concentration here in Portugal. She puts this down to the faster bike course in Portugal favouring staying in the aero position, which hindered her ability to drink from her back bottle of PH 1500, along with the limited drinking opportunities from the small aid station cups on the run. Whilst she did not feel this hugely impacted her performance, Lizzie did start to feel twinges of cramp at the start of the run, likely in part due to her accumulated fluid and sodium deficit at this point in the heat. Proactively replacing a higher proportion of her sweat losses earlier on the bike and continuing this throughout the race, such as with a soft flask available in T2 for the run, will help her avoid any fade in performance associated with high levels of dehydration.
Caffeine
Beyond the Three Levers of Performance (carb, sodium and fluid), caffeine is one of only a few substances that is proven to improve performance for most endurance athletes as it can help stave off mental and physical fatigue.
Lizzie recreated her caffeine strategy from Swansea to reach the recommended range. In future middle distance races, she could consider an extra dose, such as another PF 30 Caffeine Gel at the beginning of the run, because there is some evidence to suggest a higher dose (4-6mg/kg) could have greater ergogenic effects than a lower amount, 1-3mg/kg.
How Lizzie hit her numbers
Here's everything that Lizzie ate and drank on the day...
Lizzie's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Lizzie
PF&HLizzie's full stats
Data Confidence?
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.