The Collins Cup

This race had a slightly unusual start time, as the athletes toed the start line just after midday. This gave Sam more time to fuel in the morning, and he chose to have two breakfasts to make sure his fuel stores were well topped up. During the race, Sam used the same fueling strategy as he did in his last race at Boulder 70.3, hitting ~82g/h on the bike and ~33g/h on the run. Although this drop-off in carb intake is common in triathlons due to the mechanics of running making it more difficult to hit higher carb numbers, we still would encourage Sam to undergo some structured gut training so he doesn’t have such an extreme reduction and can increase his overall intake to be closer inline with the general recommendations.

Although Sam attempted to preload prior to the start of the race, he should have used a higher concentration of electrolytes, such as PH 1500 to better increase his blood plasma volume and optimise his pre-race hydration. Despite a solid sodium intake throughout the race, coming through a mixture of PH 1000 and PH 1500, Sam still suffered from some twinges of cramp in his hamstring during the run. Considering the cool conditions, it’s likely Sam replaced a decent proportion of his sweat losses, leaving the cramp cause to other factors, but completing some sweat rate testing in specific weather environments would help him further dial this in to make sure it’s appropriate.

Sam regularly uses caffeine during his races and training and this race was no exception, as he used the stimulant to reap the ergogenic benefits it has to offer. This would no doubt have helped to lower his perceived level of effort and sustain his energy levels right to the end of the race. However, he could increase this slightly to be more closely inline with the scientific recommendations in order to maximise the impact of the stimulant.