Danni's headline numbers
Danni's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
Danni hasn’t historically eaten enough during her races, and suffered from low energy as a result. With full confidence in her prepared strategy for Mid South, she followed it to a tee and had the reserves to keep pushing throughout and execute a sprint finish at the end. By using a mixture of fuel sources including liquid carbs in her hydration pack, bottles and some PF 30 Gels, Danni had various ways to access nutrition no matter how technical the terrain became. This came in handy on the notorious pot-holed gravel roads in Stillwater.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Danni’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreDanni knows she has a relatively low sweat rate, and so was able to effectively replace her losses and be fully self-sufficient for the five hours of riding. While she felt she could’ve done with finishing her last bottle, her average intake appears to have been appropriate for the conditions as she didn’t show any signs of dehydration but wasn’t busting for the toilet either. To replace her electrolytes, Danni mixed four PH 1000 sachets into her 2L hydration pack, alongside additional energy from Carb Only Drink Mix. Matching her electrolyte losses closely will have helped Danni retain more of the fluid she drank, putting her in a better position come the end of the race, when dehydration can make or break a performance.
Caffeine
Beyond the Three Levers of Performance (carb, sodium and fluid), caffeine is one of only a few substances that is proven to improve performance for most endurance athletes as it can help stave off mental and physical fatigue.
Danni did well to stay within the scientifically recommended caffeine dosage for this race. She tolerates it well day-to-day, and could possibly replace a couple of her PF 30 Gels with Caffeine Gels to maximise the ergogenic benefits. Unfortunately, Danni had to save some weight in her bike box when flying from the UK to the USA for this race and the caffeine gels were jettisoned as a result. Next time we’ll convince her to prioritise her fuel over her toiletries when at baggage check-in...
How Danni hit her numbers
Here's everything that Danni ate and drank on the day...
Danni's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Danni
PF&HDanni's full stats
Data Confidence?
There is some confidence in the quantities and brands of products consumed but the data may lack specifics (e.g. volumes specific flavours). A high number of estimations have been made and the room for error is moderate-high. There may also be the possibility that some intake has been grossly over- or under-estimated.