• Professional triathlete Justin Metzler had a fantastic race at IM 70.3 Oregon, to take his first professional IM 70.3 race win after 41 race starts!
• The win wasn’t handed easily to him and, despite leading the race up to this point, Justin was passed on the run around mile 5. Putting a lot of trust into his hydration and fueling strategy to give him the legs to finish strongly, Justin maintained composure and made the re-pass around mile 9, ultimately bringing home the win with a 41 second gap
• Justin has been working hard with the PF&H Sports Science team to refine his race strategy, after a couple of mishaps involving overconsumption at the start of the season
• This race followed a brilliant performance at IM 70.3 Eagleman, in which Justin was just beaten at the line to take 2nd place

Hydration

• Justin preloaded on the morning of the race with a PH 1500 (Tablet) to optimally top up his sodium levels and increase his blood plasma volume, thus reducing his cardiovascular load
• The majority of Justin’s fluids on the bike came in the form of two 750ml/24oz bottles, containing PF 30 Drink Mix mixed with an additional packet of PH 1500 (Drink Mix). He also picked up ~450ml / 15oz of water from aid stations. This helped him to achieve ~921ml / 31oz fluid per hour in this event and a high relative sodium concentration of ~1,538mg/L (something we have been encouraging Justin, who has a moderate-high sweat sodium concentration of 1,044mg/L, to target)
• This is a much more sensible fluid consumption than we have seen Justin drink in previous races (e.g. he drank close to 1.6L / 54oz per hour on the bike at IM 70.3 Eagleman) and it’s brilliant to see these adjustments in his hydration strategy paying off in his performance
• Onto the run and Justin drank ~500ml/16oz of fluid, equating to ~423ml / 14oz per hour. This was achieved entirely through aid station pickups, after making the tactical decision to leave a pre-mixed 500ml/16oz soft flask of PF 30 Energy Drink Mix in T2 to save time. Most of Justin’s fluid intake was plain water (~400ml/14oz) but also included ~50ml/2oz of Coca Cola and ~50ml/2oz of Red Bull. Both of these additional fluids will have helped provide Justin with an extra caffeine boost heading into the back half of the run
• By ‘frontloading’ his race with a stronger relative sodium concentration on the bike, Justin was able to get away with a lower electrolyte concentration (~682mg/L) while running. That being said, he did, once again, experience some twinges of cramp on the run after taking back the lead ~mile 9. This coincides with Justin holding his highest intensity during the race and so it’s plausible that this threat of cramp was related to this. However, Justin’s choice to leave behind the PF 30 Drink Mix (a mix which contains 500mg of sodium) in T2 plus not taking any Electrolyte Capsules during the run equalled a much lower sodium intake than we’ve seen him hit previously so may too have played a role
• Justin did make sure he used a saltlick whilst running but it’s unclear how much sodium this provides and makes refining his sodium intake very difficult
• Overall, Justin’s average fluid intake (~742ml/25oz per hour) was much more sensible than in previous races and matched the cooler conditions (15℃/59℉ average temperature, ~50% humidity). His average relative sodium concentration was also more in line with our recommendations for Justin based on his sweat sodium concentration and sweat rate but Justin should work on achieving a more consistent sodium intake across the bike and run leg

Fueling

Conclusions

• Justin subjectively scored his fuel and hydration strategy for this race 8-9 (out of 10). This marks an improvement compared to how he felt he executed his plan at IM 70.3 Eagleman, but still leaves some room for further tweaks to be made
• Tactically, Justin made a bold decision to leave his 500ml/16oz source of electrolytes and carb in T2 so that he could get out of transition in a lightning 1 minute 32 seconds. However, in future, should he make the same choice, he should aim to replace what he leaves behind through aid station pick ups on the fly. This is important to prevent cramps in the latter stages of the race
• Justin should be very proud of how well his strategy is coming along and the outcome of this race is a credit to his co-operation and hard work. As Justin continues to refine his strategy, we look forward to seeing how much more he can achieve!