Pierre Meslet
Marathon des Sables
Pierre's headline numbers
Pierre'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.
It’s worth mentioning that for all of Pierre’s headline numbers, they are an average of his average intake from each stage during event.
Appropriate fueling is important for any endurance event but it’s especially crucial in multi-day events where an athlete's energy stores are being depleted over several days. Pierre relied on a carb-rich energy drink mix and gels for lightweight, efficient energy. For the longer stage 4 (82.1km), his intake fell to ~58g/h which may have been due to Pierre suffering slightly from a stomach bug that was going round camp the day before. Despite this, he still managed to avoid significant gastrointestinal issues throughout the race. However, when exercising at this intensity for such a long period of time, the recommendations would suggest pushing for an intake much closer to 90g/h. Each evening, Pierre prioritized recovery with substantial meals and salted nuts to refuel between stages.
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 Pierre’s losses are on the moderate side, getting his hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as his higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn morePierre undertook some sweat rate testing to determine how many litres of sweat he loses per hour in conditions similar to those predicted for his race, averaging ~1L/h (32oz/h). Drinking at least 500ml of PH 1500 per hour made up the backbone of his hydration strategy, erring on the higher end of sodium concentration to be proactive about his hydration strategy and prevent cramping. Additionally, Pierre periodically supplemented this with the salt capsules handed out by event organisers to stay on top of his sodium losses. Like his refueling, Pierre did a fantastic job at rehydrating effectively between stages by drinking ~2L (64oz) of PH 1500 every evening and morning. This will have 'preloaded' his sodium levels and re-hydrated him optimally after each stage, which is particularly important for a multi-stage event where cumulative dehydration can start to creep in after a few days.
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.
Pierre consumed ~200mg of caffeine across stages one, two and three. Unsurprisingly, he increased his intake during the longer stage four to ~545mg as he was racing for over 11 hours. When running for longer durations, the benefits of caffeine can start to wear off, so small top-ups are required to maintain the reduced perceived effort and increased alertness the stimulant offers.
How Pierre hit his numbers
Here's everything that Pierre ate and drank on the day...
Pierre's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
PF&HPierre'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.