IRONMAN® Western Australia

On the morning of the race, Luke primarily used energy drink mix to meet the minimum recommended carbohydrate dose of ~1g per kg of body weight ensuring his stores were topped up ahead of the early race start. To support glycogen sparing, he may want to consider an additional ~30g dose of carbs within 30 minutes of the swim start. On the bike, Luke effectively consumed a mix of energy gels and bars, hitting the recommended carb intake of 90g/h. His intake then dropped to ~44g/h on the run, where he relied on only four on-course gels. This meant Luke’s average intake across the race fell to ~65g/h. Luke’s ‘frontloading’ strategy on the bike will have played a part in his high energy levels. However, the ~54% reduction in carb intake from bike to run suggests an opportunity for improvement. By incorporating some gut training into his race build up, he should be able to tolerate more carbohydrate on the run, which could potentially improve his marathon performance.

Ahead of Race Day: Unfortunately, Luke has a history of ending up in the medical tent after experiencing severe bouts of cramping and hyponatremia in his first few full-distance triathlon races. Luke decided to investigate his hydration woes by collecting some data on his individual sweat losses which highlighted his extreme physiology. A Sweat Test revealed Luke loses 2,129mg of sodium per litre of sweat - which means he’s a very salty sweater - and sweat rate data collection then showed he was losing over 1.5 litres of sweat per hour (51oz/h) in 20℃ / 68°F and even up to 3L/hr (101oz/h) in >30℃ / 86°F. Luke had been following what would generally be considered a solid hydration strategy for many athletes, but given he has higher-than-average sweat sodium and fluid losses, he was only replacing a small proportion of his losses over long, hot races. After discussions with Andy and James from the PF&H team, Luke approached Western Australia with much higher fluid and sodium targets to better match his individual needs.

Race Hydration: Luke’s proactive hydration strategy started with a ~2000mg/L preload to make sure he started with a large reservoir of fluid to draw from and maximal blood volume. On the bike, he had 9 x 700ml bottles containing two PH 1500 (Tablets) each. On the run, he used flasks of PH 1500 and Electrolyte Capsules, alongside the water he picked up at most of the 24 aid stations. This meant Luke consumed an impressive ~12.5L (423oz) over the whole race. While this isn’t what we’d recommend for every athlete in similar conditions, his high sweat rate made it unlikely he would’ve been overdrinking. Similarly, Luke stuck to his very aggressive sodium intake plan to consume a relative sodium concentration of just over ~2,000mg/L across both the bike and run. This was the biggest change in Luke’s strategy, helping him keep up with his losses and avoid a large deficit building up throughout the race which he subjectively reported worked well. Perhaps most importantly, he didn’t end up in the medical tent, and had a fantastic race.

Luke’s race day caffeine intake came in the form of a coffee with breakfast, two caffeine gels on the bike and a small amount of cola on the run. During the race, this ~424mg dose put him at the top end of the recommendations shown to enhance endurance performance.