Challenge Roth

During the race, Laura's carb intake was slightly below the recommended 90g/h, but this was still a step up from her intake at her last race; at IRONMAN Lanzarote, Laura consumed ~69g/h on the bike and ~65g/h on the run compared to ~86g/h and ~73g/h this time out. As she reported her GI comfort 10 (out of 10), this shows great progression in her gut tolerance and we’d recommend she continues this trend and gut training to allow her to take on board even more carbohydrate and hit the recommended levels.

Laura used a combination of diluted PH 1500 and PH 500 tablets, and drank a high volume of additional plain water which meant she took on a relative sodium concentration much lower than she has previously and than her sweat losses. This continued on the run, only taking plain water from aid stations before she went on to experience some cramping. In an attempt to avoid this in future races, she should look to increase her sodium intake by mixing each tablet with 500ml of water, and using some Electrolyte Capsules to increase her relative sodium concentration. Reflecting the warm temperatures later in the race, Laura’s fluid intake and she reported feeling thirsty on the run leg. Despite feeling like she had not drunk enough, she peed a few times on the run. This could have been a result of primarily taking on plain water, where a higher sodium intake alongside this would’ve helped with fluid retention.

Laura habitually uses caffeine during her races and usually consumes a dose much higher than the recommended 3-6mg/kg. We have worked with Laura to dial back on her caffeine intake after she reported sleeping poorly following major races and this race demonstrated an improvement in this area. Still, her intake is above the recommendations, so it’ll be useful for her to monitor her sleep patterns after and see if this helped or if she needs to further dial it back.