Ultraman Canada

Jen has a lot of experience in racing long distance triathlons, so this ultra-distance event felt somewhat familiar to her. She used her simple, tried and tested strategy to effectively fuel across the three days so she could mentally focus on her performance. Fortunately, she had a crew supporting her throughout the event, passing her ‘fuel bottles’ wherever needed. Across the three days, Jen averaged over 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour; ~104, ~111 and ~92g/h for each day, respectively. With such a demanding event, it was imperative that she fueled consistently to maintain her energy levels and prevent any dips in performance in the latter days. She relied solely on Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and Carb Only Drink Mix for the swim and both bike sections of the event, followed by a mixture of PF 30 Gels, PF 30 Caffeine Gels and some energy drink during the run section. The variety in products helped stave off flavour fatigue and the years of gut training enabled her to comfortably tolerate high volumes of carb. And this event showcased those years of practice, with a total intake of over 2 kilograms of carbohydrate across the weekend!

Similar to her fueling strategy, Jen has dialled in her hydration and knows what suits her needs best. She set herself reminders to drink every 20 minutes on the bike and pre-loaded before and after each day with either over-concentrated Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix or PH 1500, achieving the ideal relative sodium concentration for replacing as much of her accumulated sweat losses as possible to maximise her hydration status and start as hydrated as possible the next morning. With multi-day events, it's important to drink frequently to prevent building up too large a deficit of fluid and sodium losses and with a high sweat rate, Jen made sure to nail her plan of ~1L/h across the three days. She had a couple of over-concentrated ‘fuel’ bottles that also contained high strength electrolytes and picked up extra bottles of plain water from her crew to dilute this. Additionally, by supplementing the plain water she consumed with Electrolyte Capsules on the run, she sufficiently replaced her sweat sodium losses in the latter stages.

Jen frequently uses caffeine in her day-to-day life, as well as in training and races, so she knows she tolerates the stimulant well. Her calculated caffeine intake reflects her total dose across the three days and was significantly higher than the recommendations of 3-6mg/kg. She relied on quite a high dose of the stimulant on day 3, where after two strenuous days, her energy levels were understandably wavering and she felt the effects of fatigue. The caffeine she consumed will have helped boost her perceived energy levels and slightly reduced her perception of effort.