Swashbuckler 70.3

In terms of carb intake throughout the race, Chris averaged an impressive ~108g/h, including his time in the swim. He hit ~110g/h on the bike and an even greater ~120g/h on the run, which is unique to the usual trend of triathletes who frontload a lot of their carbohydrate intake on the bike leg. Compared to the general 90g/h recommendations, Chris averaged a significantly higher carbohydrate intake, supporting the emerging evidence which suggests athletes can absorb and utilise carbohydrates at rates of over 90g/h, usually by combining multiple transportable carbohydrates (e.g. glucose and fructose). Through doing so, Chris would have increased his carbohydrate availability and likely reaped the benefits within his performance. He managed this without any GI discomfort, largely due to a significant amount of time training his gut to tolerate this quantity of carbs.

Considering Chris has a sweat sodium concentration of 1,433mg/L, the relative sodium concentration of his drinks on the bike may first appear a little high, but he knew there weren’t many aid stations on the run course to pick up additional fluids and sodium. So, he treated the bike as an opportunity to preload for the run. In future, Chris could consider reducing his sodium intake on the bike and taking some Electrolyte Capsules with him on the run to keep his sodium intake more stable and mitigate the issue of dropping a bottle. During the run, Chris picked up cups of water from the aid stations to drink, and also poured several over his head to keep himself cool as temperatures rose to a soaring ~29℃ (84°F).

Despite consuming two PF 30 Caffeine Gels on the run, it’s likely that due to his lower than ideal caffeine intake, Chris may have seen a reduction in his perceived effort in the latter stages of the hilly triathlon course. Next time, taking another caffeine hit earlier in the race to fall within the recommended range will help him reap more of the ergogenic benefits that the stimulant provides.