IRONMAN® Vitoria-Gasteiz

After spending some time chatting to Chris from the PF&H Sports Science team at a training camp earlier this year, William (‘Bill’) developed a straightforward fueling strategy to ensure he could focus on racing whilst meeting his energy demands. Most of his fuel came from PF 30 Gels, plus a few energy bars to avoid flavour fatigue by varying texture and taste. Given the intensity and duration of the race, and despite Bill’s consistent energy levels throughout, he could benefit from increasing his carb intake slightly to meet the recommendations. This would further bolster his energy, providing more available fuel to keep pushing harder. To do this, he should spend some time performing structured gut training across his training sessions to prevent any GI discomfort.

Bill chose to use the PF&H on-course hydration provided at IRONMAN® Europe events, by picking up bottles of PH 1000 on the bike to replace his bottles of PH 1500 he had started with and consumed. Then on the run, he grabbed cups of PH 1000 from aid stations, enabling him to consistently replenish his sweat losses, and whilst we don't know Bill's sweat sodium concentration, he managed to prevent any performance-impacting levels of dehydration, so it's likely he replaced a good proportion of his losses.Considering the warm temperatures and his post-race symptoms, he’d likely benefit from increasing his fluid intake slightly to ensure he avoids any dips in performance.

Other than the minimal amount of caffeine in coke, Bill didn’t take in any significant dose of caffeine during his race. In the future, it could be worth working out if caffeine is right for him to potentially implement in his races to reap the ergogenic benefits such as delaying fatigue and reducing his perception of effort.