5th
Sarah Crowley's scorecard
Challenge Roth
Sunday 5th September, 2021
Within recommended ranges
Just outside recommended ranges
Significantly outside recommended ranges
54g
Carb per hour
64mg
Sodium per hour
574ml
Fluid per hour
112mg/L
Relative sodium concentration
110mg
Total caffeine
How Sarah hit those numbers
500ml x PH 1000 (Tablets)
1 x Bowl of oats
1 x Coffee
*** Tip: For sea swims, put a bottle of water at T1 to rinse your mouth out
4 x PF 30 Gel
1.15L x Plain water
250ml x Additional fluid in mixed drinks
250ml x Energy drink mix (80g carb)
0.5 x Banana
750ml x Energy drink mix (61g carb)
200ml x Energy drink (48g carb)
2 x PF 30 Gel
2L x Plain water
1 x Energy gel (22g carb)
1 x Energy chew packet with caffeine (48g carb, 50mg caffeine)
150ml x Cola
150ml x Red Bull
How Sarah's hydration and fueling went...
- Just a week after the inaugural Collins Cup, Sarah had a tough race in Germany. She finished in 8 hours 32 minutes, coming in 5th overall, which is not what she had hoped for
Hydration
- Sarah preloaded before this race with PH 1000. This is an improvement from the Collins Cup race the week before, where she didn’t preload, as it would have helped her to start the race hydrated, which would have been particularly important in the hotter conditions at Roth. We advised Sarah to increase the strength of her preload drink to PH 1500 to help her retain more fluid and increase plasma volume further
- Sarah took in ~549mg of sodium in total, which equated to an average of ~64mg/hr across the race. This is a very low level for such a lengthy race and, although the conditions weren’t exceptionally hot and Sarah doesn’t have a high sweat sodium concentration, we recommended that she increases her sodium intake significantly. This will allow her to replace a greater proportion of her sweat sodium losses, helping her maintain a better hydration status throughout the race and hopefully optimise her performance
- Sarah drank ~4.9L (~167oz) of fluid overall, which is around ~574ml/hr (~19oz/hr). On the surface, this looks to be an adequate amount of fluid and it’s higher than what she drank in the cooler conditions at the Collins Cup in Slovakia, but she didn’t pee at all during the race. In a race of this duration we would expect her to pee at least once, so not peeing could be a sign of dehydration
- The relative sodium concentration of what Sarah consumed was ~112mg/L. This is very low and we would recommend she increases this to further replace what she’s losing through her sweat
Fueling
Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation
30g
carb 30 mins before
60-90g
carb per hour during
- We recommend taking in ~30g of carb 15 minutes prior to the race start, which Sarah chose not to do this time
- She might consider having a gel or bar before the swim in future, but whether to eat just before a race is ultimately a matter of personal preference. Sarah had an adequate breakfast of oats along with a coffee, which should have topped off her energy stores pretty well before the race
- Sarah consumed ~54g of carb per hour over the whole race, which broke down into 67g/hr on the bike and 52g/hr on the run. This tapering in consumption is common in races of this distance
- Sarah was just under our recommended range and we have advised her to try to up her carb intake on both the bike and the run going forwards. This will likely involve training her gut to tolerate more consumption on the move
- Her lower than optimal carbohydrate intake may have been reflected in Sarah’s performance, as she reported that her energy levels were good until 30km into the run. Increasing her fuel consumption would hopefully prevent or mitigate the dip she experienced during the last part of the race
- Sarah consumed ~110mg caffeine in total. It appears that she habitually chooses to take a low dose of caffeine during races and, as she has done previously, chose to consume her caffeine solely on the run. Using caffeine earlier on in the race may be something Sarah considers at some point as she looks for marginal gains
Conclusions
- Whilst 5th was not the result Sarah was aiming for, it’s still a solid performance in what was a very strong field, especially given Sarah had raced a big event only a week earlier
- The fact that Sarah can put out performances like this, even though there’s definitely room for improvement in both her hydration and fueling strategies, is a testament to her hard work and talent
- It will be interesting to see what impact upping her carb and sodium intake would have on her performances if she’s able to move in that direction
Key info
Sarah Crowley
Female
Result
Position
5th
Overall Time
8:32:26
Swim Time
0:53:18
Bike Time
4:26:32
Run Time
3:09:35
Event information
Sport
Triathlon
Discipline
Full distance
Event
Challenge Roth
Location
Bavaria, Germany
Date
5th September, 2021
Website
Swim Distance
3.8km / 2.4mi
Bike Distance
170.0km / 105.6mi
Run Distance
42.2km / 26.2mi
Total Distance
216.0km / 134.2mi
Bike Elevation
2,100m / 6,890ft
Race conditions
Weather Conditions
Hot
Precipitation
No Rain
Min Temp
12°C / 54°F
Max Temp
25°C / 77°F
Avg Temp
20°C / 68°F
Humidity
65%
Athlete feedback
Hydration rating
6/10
Toilet stops
No
GI comfort
10/10
Sarah's full stats
| Carbohydrate (g) | Sodium (mg) | Fluid (ml) | Caffeine (mg) | Relative sodium concentration (mg/L) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | |||||
| Total intake | 461 | 549 | 4,900 | 110 | 112 |
| Per hour | 54 | 64 | 574 | 13 | |
| Bike and Run | |||||
| Total intake | 461 | 549 | 4,900 | 110 | 112 |
| Per hour | 61 | 72 | 646 | 15 | |
| Bike | |||||
| Total intake | 299 | 386 | 2,600 | 0 | 149 |
| Per hour | 67 | 87 | 586 | 0 | |
| Run | |||||
| Total intake | 162 | 162 | 2,300 | 110 | 71 |
| Per hour | 52 | 52 | 730 | 35 | |
Data Confidence
1
2
3
4
5
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.