IRONMAN® World Championships

Leon’s Flow Bottle with 150g of carb and 1,500mg of sodium was ejected from his bottle cage after just 15 minutes of the bike after hitting a speed bump. Knowing how much was in there, Leon was able to replace the carb with on-course gels, and still averaged an impressive ~127g/h. Leon was most pleased with his run, clocking his fastest ever time (2:39), and averaging his highest ever carb intake (~128g/h). This is testament to his extensive gut training to tolerate this high amount of carb.

Leon was meticulous at keeping his core temperature and perception of heat under control by pouring water over himself at every opportunity on the bike. He then continued this on the run but upped his efforts by eating ice, putting it under his hat and picking up his pre-made Soft Flasks of water which he’d frozen to provide him with cold water at all times. This was a great example of an athlete doing everything he could to manage the conditions, and prevent overheating as temperatures soared along the Promenade Des Anglais. Leon’s sodium intake was lower than he’d planned, likely due to dropping a high concentration bottle, and him forgetting to take his Electrolyte Capsules during the run. In future, especially when temperatures are even hotter (like in Kona for future World Champs), we’d recommend Leon sticks to his pre-race plan and ensures he doesn’t experience any negative side effects of sodium depletion.

Leon has a high tolerance for caffeine, and in previous races has hit slightly more than the scientific recommendations. Similar to his race at IRONMAN Mallorca, where he dropped some of his nutrition, he replaced this with some caffeinated gels on-course, and ended up taking ~14mg/kg across the entire race. In future, we’d recommend reducing this slightly in line with his pre-race plan, to prevent any adverse effects of over-doing the caffeine that could come about.