• Four weeks after her impressive victory at IM 70.3 Staffordshire, Zwift Tri Academy member, Steph, secured her qualifying slot for the 2023 IRONMAN World Championships by winning in Vitoria-Gasteiz
• Taking on the full-distance in Spain, she won the amateur race by more than 24 minutes and finished fourth among the professional women
• Having previously suffered with sickness, nausea and being unable to finish full-distance races in the past, Steph was over the moon to crush her fuel and hydration strategy throughout this race, and finished feeling strong

Hydration

• As someone with a moderate-high sweat rate, and sweat sodium concentration (1,107mg/L), Steph knew that starting as hydrated as possible would be key to maintaining her 100% win record in 2023
• Steph had her usual PH 1500 the night before the race, and created her own hybrid preloading drink to sip throughout race morning. By mixing two scoops of PF 60 Drink Mix and a PH 1000 tablet into a 1L (32oz) bottle, this gave her a relative sodium concentration of 1,000mg/L (mg/32oz), along with 30g of carbohydrate
• Then, once out of the swim, (where Steph set a new course record, covering the 3.8k in a rapid 49:35!) and onto the bike, Steph began executing her rigorously tried-and-tested hydration plan
• This was a culmination of some extensive planning by Steph, who carried two highly-concentrated bottles of PF 60 Drink Mix on her bike frame, and calculated how much plain water she needed to pick up from aid stations to dilute the mix to match her sweat sodium concentration
• She did this with impressive accuracy, averaging ~1,118mg/L (mg/32oz) as she picked up four 750ml (24oz) bottles of plain water, and took some Electrolyte Capsules to ensure she didn’t over-dilute her fluids
• Then onto the run, again, Steph’s well thought-out strategy involved running with a Soft Flask throughout the race to keep her fluid intake regular and controlled. She headed out of transition with two PH 1000 Packets in her flask, and once this was emptied she filled it twice more with plain water
• Alongside the plain water, Steph also had Electrolyte Capsules taped to her gels so she could remember to take them regularly and avoid falling behind on her sodium intake
• She repeated this strategy again in the second half of the run, picking up another Soft Flask of PH 1000 from the special needs aid station at 25k (15.5 miles)
• Steph recalls the aid station was supposed to be at ~21k (13 miles), and the extra ~20 minutes of running really took it’s toll, and she was “begging for the aid station to arrive”
• Overall, Steph can be proud of how accurately she executed her hydration strategy over such a long race, as she averaged an impressive ~829ml (27oz) per hour throughout the race. This fluid contained an average sodium concentration of ~1,216mg/L (mg/32oz), which is very close to her sweat sodium score, and so likely replaced a good proportion of the electrolytes she lost in her sweat

Fueling

Conclusions

• Steph is now two-from-two with fuel and hydration strategies for 2023, nailing it this time over the full distance on her way to arguably the best result of her triathlon career
• When asked post-race, Steph was adamant there was “truly nothing I’d change with my nutrition”, and even rated her race satisfaction a perfect 10 (out of 10)
• This result actually qualified Steph for her professional racing licence, which is likely to be her next step once she’s raced the World Championships as an amateur in October