Emma Pallant-Browne
IRONMAN 70.3® Andorra
Emma's headline numbers
Emma'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.
Emma began the hilly bike course with a 750ml bottle containing 60g of carbohydrates, with four additional PF 30 Gels taped to the top tube of her bike. The rest of Emma’s fueling plan consisted of picking up bottles of sports drink from the on-course aid stations. Compared to some of her previous races, where Emma had been suffering with an underlying stomach virus and averaged as little as ~25g per hour on the bike, she managed to increase this slightly to take a solid ~68g/h here in Andorra. Despite this, the run leg is usually where Emma’s carb intake drops off, sometimes to nothing at all. Whilst it did still decrease, she did a good job of maintaining some level of carbohydrate intake, consuming ~35g/h by picking up more cups of the on-course sports drink. The “full” feeling that Emma felt could be prevented by undergoing some more ‘gut training’ which will help her feel less discomfort when taking larger amounts of carbohydrates.
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 Emma’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still crucial when it’s hot and/or humid as her higher sweat rate in these conditions can result in significant net losses over the duration of a race.
Learn moreAs the bike course was very hilly (~1900m / 6,233ft elevation gain), Emma tried to limit the amount of fluid she was carrying at a given time to minimise the weight on her bike. To achieve this, she carried only one bottle containing both carbs, water and a PH 1000 (Tablet), and beyond this, she planned to collect bottles of the on-course sports drink to increase her fluid and electrolyte intake as the race went on. Temperatures were fairly warm in Andorra, and on the long climbs where there was little wind to provide any cooling effect, Emma knew that she could be sweating a lot. To compensate for this, she frequently poured bottles of water over her head to keep herself cool. Emma decided to drink a large amount of fluid to make sure she didn’t suffer any dehydration-related issues later on, but unfortunately this was the on-course drink which had a low relative concentration of sodium, and consequently the relative sodium concentration of Emma’s intake dropped to just ~263mg/L. Going forward, we’d recommend she carries a couple of Electrolyte Capsules with her on the bike and run to top up her sodium intake and prevent this dilution.
How Emma hit her numbers
Here's everything that Emma ate and drank on the day...
Emma's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Emma
PF&HEmma'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.