IRONMAN® Texas

Rachel went into IRONMAN® Texas with well-stocked glycogen stores after following our guidance on her carb-load and consuming a carb-rich breakfast at 4:15am on race morning! A PF 30 Caffeine Gel before the start spiked her blood glucose levels and helped power her through the swim. Once on the bike, PF 300 Flow Gel formed the centrepiece of Rachel’s strategy, as this provided her with an efficient way to consume a high amount of carbs from her bottles, without the need to open lots of individual gel packets. Incorporating a PF 30 Chew, a PF 30 Caffeine Gel and bananas added variety to her strategy and ensured she avoided flavour fatigue during her ~6.5 hour ride. During the marathon, Rachel achieved a solid intake of ~83g/h through PF 90 Gels and a few sips of on-course cola. Comfortably hitting these high carb numbers during her first full-distance triathlon is a testament to Rachel’s gut training and will have well supported her energy levels right to the end.

The hot and humid conditions of Texas meant a solid hydration strategy was critical to success in this race. To ensure she started optimally hydrated, Rachel preloaded with 500ml of PH 1500 (Tablets) the night before and morning of the race. Then, during the bike ride, Rachel averaged ~952ml of fluid per hour. Such a high intake will have prevented her from accumulating a fluid deficit heading into the run, but Rachel felt she may have overdone it. Ahead of her next race, she would benefit from conducting sweat rate testing in race conditions to understand her fluid losses and plan what she needs to drink accordingly. On the run, Rachel carried a NaNml soft flask](https://www.precisionhydration.com/products/soft-collapsible-flask-bottle/) which she refilled on four occasions with PH 1000 at aid stations. This was an excellent strategy to maintain a solid fluid intake of ~524ml/h and avoid symptoms of dehydration as the temperature rose to 29ºC. Rachel has not had a Sweat Test, but the relative sodium concentration of her intake was ~1113mg of sodium per litre of fluid across the race, which likely replaced a good proportion of her sweat sodium losses since we know that the average athlete loses 991mg of sodium per litre of sweat.

Rachel started race day with a small coffee at breakfast to maintain her routine. She then took a PF 30 Caffeine Gel in the final 30 minutes before the swim and another from special needs halfway through the bike. Whilst Rachel’s overall intake was within the recommended range of 3-6mg/kg bodyweight for a short race, caffeine has a half-life of 4-5 hours. So, during the run, her blood caffeine concentration may have dropped below the amount required to provide ergogenic performance effects; therefore, if she is to take on a second IRONMAN® in future, consuming a further 100mg dose of caffeine at the start of the run would help to optimise the effects when fatigue starts to really kick in.