IRONMAN® Wales

Tomos returned to triathlon with a bang after a couple of years hiatus, tackling the notoriously challenging IRONMAN® Wales as his first race back(!). Having discussed his fueling strategy with Sports Scientist, Minty before this race, after struggling with stomach issues and ‘bonking’ in his previous attempts at the distance, he committed to some intentional gut training and was able to crush the scientific recommendations for carbohydrate intake. Taking ~90g/h almost exclusively through sports nutrition products for 12+ hours like Tomos did in Wales, is becoming more popular amongst age-group athletes. This emulates what we see from numerous professional athletes in our case studies, who frequently hit and exceed these recommendations.

Tomos’ moderate sweat sodium concentration meant the PH 1000 electrolytes on course were ideal to replace an appropriate proportion of his losses. However, he may have drank a little too much relative to his sweat losses, as he found himself peeing quite frequently, which is a common sign of hyperhydration. When it comes to hydrating optimally, more is not better, and overhydration can be a significant performance impairment, and even dangerous. Conducting more sweat rate testing, and adjusting his fluid intake to match his losses in different temperatures, will help reduce this ‘flushing’ of fluids that Tom experienced. Furthermore, reducing the number of Electrolyte Capsules during the run will bring his average relative sodium concentration intake more in line with his sweat losses, and avoid excessive ‘over-salting’ which can also have negative side effects.