• Allan has previously won the Norseman on three occasions, but in his own words was “simply out raced today”, going on to say “my time would have won in previous years but these guys were a different level”
• After being diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia in 2021, he’s been open about the issue and continued on his sporting endeavours whilst seeking medical advice to ensure he stays safe
• Having worked with the team at PF&H for several years, he knows the value of fueling and hydrating appropriately during long-distance events, and executed a solid plan at this edition of Norseman to take another podium

Hydration

• Allan preloaded like he normally does by sipping on ~1L/32oz of PH 1500 the evening before the race. He wasn’t able to drink much in the morning as it was such an early start, so this is why he decided to drink a slightly greater volume the night before. This would still have increased his fluid retention and subsequent hydration status, but he may have secreted some of this in his urine before the race began which is why we recommend having another small dose the morning of the race
• Throughout the bike, Allan got all of his fluid from PH 1500 (Tablets), drinking a total of ~3.2L/112oz, averaging ~627ml/21oz per hour. This gave Allan a relative sodium concentration of ~1,500mg per litre during this discipline
• Allan had his sweat analysed by the PF&H team, and was identified as a high-salt sweater, measuring 1,228mg of sodium per litre of sweat. It is likely in the cool conditions (which won’t have elicited a high sweat rate) that he was slightly over-doing his sodium intake, which would explain why he felt a little thirsty when heading onto the run
• During the run, Allan drank ~1.7L/59oz of plain water and ~1.8L/60oz Coca Cola in regular ~300ml/10oz bottles which he got from his support crew along the way. Allan has previously suffered with taste fatigue towards the end of long-distance races when trying to maintain his carb intake, and so headed onto the run discipline with a contingency plan should this taste fatigue strike again
• As it happened, shortly after taking his second energy gel on the run, he no longer felt like his stomach could tolerate anymore and so switched to Coca Cola to maintain his carb and fluid intake. As a result, his fluid intake increased comparatively to the bike, averaging ~905ml/h (~30oz/h)
• Allan also took 14 PH Electrolyte Capsules to maintain his sodium levels, and hit a solid ~1,011mg/L on the run, averaging ~1,258mg/L across the entire race including the swim
• The only time Allan experienced anything close to a muscle cramp was going over an un-sighted bump on the bike which caused him to clench his leg muscles heavily and they cramped. The almost freezing temperatures at the time (~2℃/35℉) likely also contributed to this, and it soon passed as he was able to relax again

Fueling

Conclusions

• In all, Allan rated his race satisfaction 9 (out of 10) and felt he recovered the best he ever has after a full-distance triathlon. Whilst this is likely a testament to his hard work in training and preparation, it’s also likely due in part to fueling appropriately therefore reducing the overall muscle damage of the race
• Incidentally, during this race Allan actually experienced a bout of cardiac arrhythmia at ~34km on the run. He tried walking for a little while but this didn’t help and so he was forced to lie down for a couple of minutes and it passed (fortunately!)
• Allan is incredibly analytical and, yet again, we saw him execute a race nutrition strategy which met his requirements well