Mikey Dimuantes
Ultra Trail Australia
Mikey's headline numbers
Mikey'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.
Mikey had a solid fueling strategy for a race of this distance, focusing on using mainly sports nutrition products to keep his energy levels up. Mikey has worked on increasing his tolerance to carbohydrates by training his gut to feel comfortable with this high intake for just over nine hours. By cycling through a mixture of Gels, Chews and Drink Mixes, Mikey could avoid developing 'flavour fatigue’, whilst continually fueling his muscles sufficiently throughout.
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.
Given Mikey’s losses are High (1,351mg/L), nailing his hydration strategy remains important, even when it’s Mild.
Learn moreMikey replaced close to his sweat sodium losses and fortunately didn’t have any hydration-related issues. Completing some sweat rate testing would allow him to calibrate his fluid losses more closely, especially if preparing for races in warmer temperatures where he’ll be sweating more and losing a greater volume of both fluid and electrolytes.
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.
Although Mikey took more than the recommended caffeine intake for a race of this duration, he didn’t experience any adverse effects and reported a difference in his alertness after taking in his first Caffeine Gel. This suggests he was reaping the ergogenic benefits of the stimulant. The scientific literature, suggests no additional benefit associated with taking more than ~6 mg per kilogram of bodyweight, so perhaps swapping a couple of PF 30 Caffeine Gels with PF 30 Gels could lower his caffeine intake slightly and reduce the risk of any negative side effects in the future.
How Mikey hit his numbers
Here's everything that Mikey ate and drank on the day...
Mikey's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HMikey's full stats
Data Confidence?
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands flavours quantities plausible estimations of volumes). However there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.