IRONMAN® Arizona

Matt used an energy drink mix in all of his bottles on the bike, plus ~10 gels throughout the race to hit just shy of 50 grams of carbs per hour. This is a solid intake to reach during his first IRONMAN®, but given Matt’s race intensity and ~12 hour time, the scientific guidelines would recommend over 60g/h, and then even closer to 90g/h for the 70.3® he has planned next year. These high carbohydrate intakes can be a challenge for the stomach, so Matt should undertake plenty of gut training, especially as he experienced some gut issues late on the run during this race.

Based on his subjective feedback, Matt’s hydration strategy met his needs in the mild conditions and allowed him to maintain his performance. To dial his strategy further, Matt may benefit from decoupling his fuel and hydration rather than relying solely on carb-rich fluids during the bike. Including some hydration-focused bottles (with just water and electrolytes) would allow him to pull on the different ‘levers’ separately and reduce the risk of gut issues from pushing past his comfortable carb intake when dialling up his hydration. He could also look to implement a more strategic preloading protocol to optimise his pre-race hydration, as well as collect sweat rate data and get a Sweat Test to learn more about his fluid and sodium losses respectively.

Matt typically avoids coffee on race day, so he instead opted for a pre-race caffeinated energy drink and then incorporated one caffeine gel around mile 21 of the run. Given caffeine takes ~45-60 minutes to peak in the blood stream, Matt could benefit from an earlier caffeine dose(s) during the race, such as one or two caffeine gels on the bike and then a dose earlier on the run, to maximise the time for him to experience its ergogenic effects.