IRONMAN 70.3® World Championships

Tamara started her day at the IRONMAN 70.3® World Championships with a carb-rich breakfast topped off with some additional PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix to ensure her glycogen and hydration status was in the best place. Tamara’s in-race fueling strategy was almost a complete replica of her previous race strategies this year. She takes a different approach from most middle-distance triathletes, who tend to primarily rely on drink mixes and gels, as she opts to fuel her efforts with seven (pre-opened!) PF 30 Chews, two bottles of PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix on the bike and a single PF 30 Gel on the run. Tamara’s drop-off in carb intake from bike-to-run was one of the largest that we’ve seen in a 70.3, going from ~84g/h on the bike to just ~29g/h on the run. She rarely suffers any GI discomfort and tolerates near the recommended carb intake, so it will be worth her trialling taking on some additional carbohydrates during the run to help her finish even stronger.

Tamara’s sweat losses were likely higher than she anticipated as a result of the hotter than predicted race temperature so she may not have replaced enough fluid throughout this race. Although this volume didn’t result in any noticeable detrimental effects, the relative sodium concentration of her drinks (~570mg/L) was also below the concentration of her sweat (901mg/L), which if this lasted for a longer duration, could have put her at risk of hyponatremia. Her sodium intake was entirely reliant on the PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix she consumed during the bike leg and a small amount of PH 1000 on the run. As her sodium intake was below the recommendations, she may benefit from increasing her sodium intake in future races by using Electrolyte Capsules run to supplement the fluid she picks up at the aid stations, which will help replace a higher proportion of her losses to support her hydration status and performance in hotter races.

As with her previous case studies, Tamara doesn’t use a significant amount of caffeine during races and prefers to get her caffeine ‘hit’ pre-race by drinking a black coffee in the morning and eating one PF 30 Caffeine Gel just before the start. She had sips of coke on the run and so she fell below the scientific recommendations for caffeine for performance. She would have still felt a benefit from the caffeine she did take on, but she could consider adding caffeine to her strategy on the bike to support her performance in future races.