Tauranga Half

After a fantastic swim, Rebecca relied on her usual fuel bottle on the bike containing one PF 90 Gel, one PF 30 Caffeine Gel and ~250ml of water. When creating her plan for the run, she assumed she would pick up some cola from the aid stations to supplement her carb intake alongside the PF 30 Caffeine Gels she carried with her. Going forward, increasing her carb intake towards the 90g/h recommendations may deliver higher energy levels and benefit her race performance. Performing some gut training during race-specific training sessions should help Rebecca manage these higher carb intakes, putting her within the scientific recommendations for a race of this intensity and duration.

Although she drank electrolytes on the morning of the race, Rebecca might want to consider using PH 1500, rather than PH 1000, particularly in really hot conditions, to ensure she optimises her preload. After losing a bottle going over a speedbump just 3km into the bike, she made the executive call to stop and collect it since it had important electrolytes in it! With the first aid station not positioned until 32km into the course and it being a reasonably warm day, this was definitely a good call. As someone with a moderate sweat sodium concentration, Rebecca used PH 1000 and PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix to account for her hydration needs. This worked well on the day but was largely diluted by the plain water she picked up so could be increased for longer, hotter races where her sweat rate would also be higher and put her at risk of dehydration-related symptoms.

Rebecca’s caffeine intake was sensibly within the general recommendations to optimally benefit endurance performance. This would have improved both her perception of fatigue and provided some physical performance improvements with that extra energy ‘boost’.