IRONMAN® World Championships

Nicole consumed a decent amount of carbohydrates across eleven and a half hours of racing, with a slightly higher intake on the run compared to the bike (the opposite trend to what we see across our Case Study Database). For future races, we’d advise increasing her intake on the bike to meet the recommended 90g/h, especially as her stomach felt comfortable and she even felt ‘quite hungry’. Increasing her fuel intake on the bike will improve her carbohydrate availability and energy levels to keep her racing harder for longer.

In her previous race at IRONMAN® Cairns, Nicole likely didn’t drink enough fluid or electrolytes, leading to her suffering quite badly including some severe cramping. This time, she appropriately increased her intake and felt much better for it. Although it was still under her recommended sodium intake (Nicole is a very salty sweater and found out exactly how salty a few days after the race), this was a vast improvement for her and likely replaced a much higher proportion of her losses, especially given the mild conditions. For Nicole’s next race, she should further increase her sodium intake to help her retain more fluid, particularly on the run where her sodium consumption drastically dropped. Practically, she could simply take a few more Electrolyte Capsules to achieve this.

Nicole surpassed the recommended caffeine dose and actually took some of her PF 30 Caffeine Gels quite late on in the race. Given it takes ~45-60 minutes for caffeine to peak in the bloodstream, she likely missed out on some of the ergogenic effects when she needed it most. Going forward, she could consume smaller doses earlier on in the run to gain the largest benefit and avoid any negative impacts of large doses.