Kyle Smith
IRONMAN 70.3® Cork
Kyle's headline numbers
Kyle'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.
Unfortunately, after the 70.3 race was postponed by a day, two days worth of participants raced on the Sunday, which caused a swell of traffic and the race to be unexpectedly delayed by 45 minutes. This meant Kyle’s usual pre-fuel with a PF 30 Gel 15 minutes before starting was actually taken an entire hour before swim start. After unsurprisingly feeling quite low energy on the swim, Kyle was able to average over 100g of carb per hour during the bike and run whilst setting several season’s best efforts along the way (Including a one minute power reading of 610w up the final 22% gradient climb!). Potentially as a result of nailing his fueling strategy, Kyle told us this is the best he’s ever felt post race too.
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.
Whilst Kyle’s losses are on the low side, getting his hydration strategy right is still important if he wants to perform at his best.
Learn moreKyle says that he was very conscious of drinking water from aid stations during this race, which may be the reason he really needed to pee when going into T2. Thankfully, after being Sweat Tested Kyle knows that he has a low sweat sodium concentration (471mg/L) and so the additional plain water didn’t dilute his electrolyte intake enough to cause him any related issues, while allowing him to feel adequately hydrated throughout.
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.
Kyle knows he responds well to caffeine from a performance point of view, as he feels it reduces his perceived effort and enhances his focus. He nailed his intake in Cork by using PF 30 Caffeine Gels spread evenly throughout the race to get well within the general 3-6 milligrams per kilo (7-13mg/lb) recommendation and maximise their impact.
How Kyle hit his numbers
Here's everything that Kyle ate and drank on the day...
Kyle's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Kyle
PF&HKyle'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.