Fenella Langridge
IRONMAN® Mallorca
Fenella's headline numbers
Fenella'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.
Fenella’s carb intake was very close to the Fuel & Hydration Planner’s recommendations on the bike (~86g/h), despite the fact that she dropped one of her bottles of PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix. But, her fueling decreased substantially on the run (~59g/h). We know from previous races that Fenella can successfully maintain and tolerate high carb intakes whilst running, so picking up a few extra gels from aid stations to help hit closer to ~90g/h would’ve been beneficial. Fenella did mention that she missed a few energy drink bottles at aid stations, which would have further increased her intake on the bike and helped to sustain her performance.
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.
Given Fenella’s losses are High (1,331mg/L), nailing her hydration strategy becomes especially crucial when it’s hot and/or humid.
Learn moreFenella drank a volume almost identical to her fluid intake at Challenge Roth 2021 in very similar conditions. Although we don’t have recent sweat rate data from Fenella, this seems to be an adequate amount of fluid replacement based on her ‘average’ intakes from prior races and her subjective feedback. This time she didn’t mention feeling thirsty and she reported peeing a couple of times, as would be expected, which suggests that she was replenishing most of her losses. Fenella made a conscious decision to increase her sodium intake in comparison to her race in Roth in order to ensure that she was replacing a higher proportion of her high sweat sodium losses. But, the dropped bottle on the bike meant she didn’t get as much sodium in as she’d planned.
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.
Fenella had some coffee before the race and consumed a couple of caffeine gels on both the bike and the run to ensure that she was reaping the ergogenic benefits of caffeine throughout. This dose falls within the scientific recommendations.
How Fenella hit her numbers
Here's everything that Fenella ate and drank on the day...
Fenella's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Fenella
PF&HFenella'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.