IRONMAN 70.3® Boulder

Emma consumed an impressive amount of carb on the bike leg in Boulder, averaging over 120g/h. This is over double what we saw her consume at IRONMAN® 70.3 Florida and PTO Williamsburg. However, she dropped her intake significantly down to just ~23g/h on the run by consuming only one PF 30 Gel. This taper in consumption is not uncommon in triathlon, and something we’ve seen Emma do before. While ~154g/h is a very high carb intake, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with this level of consumption as long as it was tolerated well by Emma with no GI discomfort, and frontloading her intake on the bike was likely helpful to offset the drop in intake on the run.

Emma’s average relative sodium concentration during the race was ~1,104mg/L, relying on PH 1000 (Drink Mix) for her electrolyte consumption. She consumed all of her sodium on the bike, which worked well this time as she managed the run without any issues. However, in more challenging conditions and over longer races, she should consider continuing her sodium intake over the run to mitigate accumulating a deficit later on in the race. Despite having a low-to-moderate sweat sodium concentration (~716mg/L), Emma's high sweat rate means her net sodium losses are significant, so slightly ‘over-salting’ compared to her losses (going from 716mg/L to 1000mg/L) helps increase her fluid retention. In terms of fluid intake, Emma consumed ~833ml per hour on the bike, suiting her high sweat rate (which can reach over 2L/h at times). During the run, Emma reduced her sodium, carb and fluid intake but still sipped frequently by taking cups of water from aid stations, which was sufficient for the half marathon distance.

Emma chose not to consume any caffeine immediately before and during the race. This would be well worth testing out in training and then implementing into future race plans as there is ample research showing caffeine’s benefits for performance.