Dinosaur Valley Endurance Run

Over her 100-mile race, Aimee impressively surpassed the carbohydrate intake recommendations solely using PF 90 Gels, PF 30 Caffeine Gels, PH 1500 (Drink Mix) and even a few strawberries. Relying almost exclusively on sports nutrition products (predominantly gels) compared to ‘real foods’ is an increasingly common trend, which we also observed at Western States Endurance Run. This gel-focused strategy differed from Aimee’s previous races where she used more liquid carbohydrates to hit her fueling targets but experienced GI issues. This time, she decoupled her carbs and electrolytes to enable her to ‘pull on’ each lever as much (or as little) as she needed throughout the 19 hours of racing, ultimately limiting her stomach discomfort.

Aimee used a straightforward hydration strategy by drinking two 500ml soft flasks containing PH 1500 for each 10.5 mile lap. She then listened to her body, and increased her fluid intake when temperatures got hotter, picking up an additional two soft flasks of plain water from her crew. This helped to replace her increased sweat losses from the heat, and brought her intake closer to four flasks per lap. This meant that the relative sodium concentration of Aimee’s intake fell into the moderate range, which she felt effectively kept up with her sweat sodium losses. Before future 100-milers, Aimee could look to dial in her hydration strategy even further by collecting some sweat rate data and carrying out a Sweat Test to understand and match her individual losses.

By incorporating one PF 30 Caffeine Gel into her strategy on laps 4, 6 and 8, Aimee reached the general caffeine recommendations in an attempt to reduce her levels of fatigue. Given the scientific guidelines for caffeine do not consider such long events, Aimee could continue to test higher doses, as long as she can avoid negative side effects, and look to utilise the stimulant in the late hours when her body could benefit the most.