25th

Jack Hutchens' scorecard

IRONMAN® Israel

Friday 25th November, 2022

Within recommended ranges

Just outside recommended ranges

Significantly outside recommended ranges

85g

Carb per hour

569mg

Sodium per hour

349ml

Fluid per hour

1,633mg/L

Relative sodium concentration

336mg

Total caffeine

How Jack hit those numbers

How Jack's hydration and fueling went...

Jack made his Iron distance debut at the inaugural IRONMAN Israel, which saw a new IM marathon best time in the male race at 2:30:31
He’d had a mixed season prior to this race, having qualifying for his prol licence in May and achieved his first pro podium at Challenge Wales in June, only to also experience his first DSQ at IM 70.3 Zell am See
Jack executed a solid fuel and hydration plan over double the distance, but unfortunately, Jack went out a little too hard at the start of the bike leg, with this over-exuberance potentially costing him later in the race, leaving him feeling dejected with his performance

Hydration

With this race being the inaugural edition of IRONMAN Israel, there wasn’t any previous weather data for the race, but high temperatures were still expected. With this in mind, Jack preloaded his sodium levels with a PH 1500 packet in 500ml (16oz), both the night before and the morning of the race
With a sweat sodium concentration of 1,208mg/L (mg/32oz), Jack knows he’s in the moderate-high salty sweat category and therefore needed to be on top of his electrolyte intake to help avoid any hydration related issues cropping up
Despite the unexpected pouring rain and high winds on the bike, Jack drank just under 2.5L (88oz), with each bottle containing PH 1500 in either packet or tablet form. This meant Jack’s relative sodium concentration was higher than anticipated at ~1,837mg/L (mg/32oz). The primary reason for this was that his two water bottles with his gels in only contained around 100ml (~3oz) of water along with a PH 1500 tablet which thus increased the relative sodium concentration of his drinks beyond what we’d recommend
Having done some pre-race sweat rate testing, Jack knew he lost around 1L (32oz) of sweat per hour in similar environmental conditions to those predicted in Israel. However, due to the lower temperatures and heavy rainfall acting as a cooling agent on race day, he still felt like he over-drank at just ~536ml (17oz) per hour, and had to stop and pee several times throughout the bike and run
Consequently, Jack reduced his fluid intake dramatically on the run in an attempt to reduce his desire to pee, and it did subside towards the end of the run as he averaged just ~189ml (6oz) per hour

Fueling

Quick Carb Calculator Recommendation

30g

carb 30 mins before

60-90g

carb per hour during

Jack began preparing for the race nutritionally a couple of days beforehand by carb-loading, a process where he increased the proportion of carbohydrates in his diet and reduced the fibre and fat content to maximise the amount of energy stored in the form of glycogen
He then had a hearty, carb-rich breakfast containing oats and banana to top off these glycogen stores. As he was called down to the swim start he took a PF 30 Caffeine Gel to prime his blood glucose for the race ahead
During the bike Jack averaged ~105g of carb per hour, which was very close to his pre-race plan of ~100g/h. After trying to stay with some other pro athletes in the first half of the bike, Jack turned a blind eye to his power meter and unfortunately found his legs to be “pretty cooked” after ~110km on the bike
Even the two PF 30 Caffeine Gels in his “gel bottles” couldn’t reduce the perceived effort enough to help him push through, something Jack said has paid dividends in previous long bike sessions when fatigue starts to set in
Upon stepping off the bike, the feeling of fatigue was still present in Jack’s quads, and thus his pace was below where he planned. Nonetheless he still took a full PF 90 Gel within the first hour, in an effort to revive his perception of effort
Jack rated his perceived energy levels an 8-9 out of 10 saying “energy-wise, I was fine throughout, I just went too hard so the second half of the race was a fight against my own legs”
Knowing his race was not playing out as he planned, but determined to continue the battle, Jack decided to add some variety to his sources of fuel by picking up some pretzels and a few orange slices from the aid stations on the run and ended up averaging ~69g of carb per hour

Conclusions

Whilst this was not the day Jack had hoped for, he stuck to his guns and executed a robust fueling strategy, and learned several valuable lessons for his future hydration strategy over this distance
Rating his overall satisfaction at just 2 (out of 10), Jack knows that he’s got far more to give, and still produced a perfectly credible 8 hours 47 minute debut over the IRONMAN, which is no small feat!

Key info

Jack Hutchens

Male

Result

Position

25th

Overall Time

8:47:04

Swim Time

0:50:33

Bike Time

4:34:53

Run Time

3:14:12

Event information

Sport

Triathlon

Discipline

Full distance

Event

IRONMAN® Israel

Location

Tiberias, Israel

Date

25th November, 2022

Swim Distance

3.8km / 2.4mi

Bike Distance

180.2km / 112.0mi

Run Distance

42.2km / 26.2mi

Total Distance

226.2km / 140.6mi

Race conditions

Weather Conditions

Mild

Precipitation

Rain

Min Temp

14°C / 57°F

Max Temp

20°C / 68°F

Avg Temp

16°C / 61°F

Humidity

85%

Athlete feedback

Race Satisfaction

2/10

Hydration rating

7/10

I stopped drinking on the run mostly because I was needing to pee quite a lot

Energy levels

7/10

My legs were so sore I couldn't work hard enough to get my heart rate up

Toilet stops

Yes

Quite a lot on the bike and run

GI comfort

10/10

Cramping

Mild cramps that I could push through

Jack's Thoughts

I've found a few positives, but knowing what could have been means I'm left very unsatisfied

Jack's full stats

	Carbohydrate (g)	Sodium (mg)	Fluid (ml)	Caffeine (mg)	Relative sodium concentration (mg/L)
Overall
Total intake	749	5,000	3,062	336	Relative sodium concentration (mg/L)	1,633
Per hour	85	569	349	38		1,633
Bike and Run
Total intake	719	5,000	3,062	236	1,633
Per hour	90	641	393	30	1,633
Bike
Total intake	497	4,500	2,450	200	1,837
Per hour	105	985	536	44	1,837
Run
Total intake	222	500	612	36	818
Per hour	69	155	189	11	818

Data Confidence

1

2

3

4

5

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.

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