Steph McCall
Bondi to Manly Ultra
Sydney1st, FPROSteph's headline numbers
Steph's strategy
Fueling
T - 1-4hrs: Ate a carb rich meal (Low in fat & fibre)
T - 15mins: Took in a final dose of carb
"Fueling wise it was very smooth sailing! I had no issues at all with my gels and my energy felt good throughout."
Given the early race start, Steph chose to skip her pre-race gel as she felt confident she had sufficiently carb-loaded. Once the race began, she took a PF 30 Gel every 20 minutes, and impressively stuck to this routine meticulously across nearly seven hours of racing, providing her with high energy availability throughout. This meant she averaged ~90g of carb per hour, perfectly aligning with her target and the upper end of the fueling recommendations for a race of this intensity and duration. This was the first race where Steph had consumed this level of carb across this duration, and the fact that she experienced no gut discomfort or flavour fatigue demonstrates how well she practised her strategy in training.
Hydration
Taking on board an appropriate amount of fluid and sodium is essential to maintaining blood volume and supporting the cardiovascular effort needed to perform on race day.
Whilst the absolute amount of sodium and fluid consumed per hour is important, it’s critical to consider these in relation to each other. This is known as 'relative sodium concentration' and it’s expressed in milligrams per litre (mg/L). How much sodium you’re taking in per litre of fluid is more important than the absolute amount taken in per hour.
T - 60mins: Drank ~500ml of strong electrolyte drink
"I think I did pretty well, but I probably would have refilled my flasks at 10km to get ahead of myself rather than waiting until a little further."
The Bondi to Manly race posed a new challenge for Steph as it was her first race where she needed to carry and refill her own flasks along the way. She used two 500ml soft flasks and refilled them throughout, one containing a PH 1500 (Tablet) and the other with plain water, allowing her to drink according to thirst and avoid flavour fatigue, whilst taking on a moderate relative sodium concentration. Across the 80km, Steph drank ~5.65L of fluid in total, adjusting her hourly fluid intake as temperatures rose to 23℃. Although looking back she noted she would have refilled earlier and used the first aid station to stay ahead of her hydration, subjectively she felt she drank enough overall and avoided any performance decline or other symptoms of excessive dehydration. She did experience minor quad cramps in the second half of the race, but she attributed this to muscle fatigue. Still, a sweat test would help fine tune her sodium replacement strategy to meet her individual needs and ensure her electrolyte and fluid balance isn’t one of the factors at play in future races.
Caffeine
Beyond the Three Levers of Performance (carb, sodium and fluid), caffeine is one of only a few substances that is proven to improve performance for most endurance athletes as it can help stave off mental and physical fatigue.
T - 0-4hrs: Had a final hit of caffeine
Steph demonstrated one of the most common timings of caffeine supplementation%20of%20modern%20sport) by taking a large dose of ~6mg/kg within the final 60 minutes before the start. This meant her plasma caffeine levels would have peaked between 3-6mg/kg around the time the race started, increasing her concentration and alertness in the early hours. She then topped up with a PF 30 Caffeine Gel around the halfway mark to avoid a drop-off in the stimulant which could impact her perceived energy levels. Though this put her *total* dose over the recommended range, it helped maintain stable caffeine levels in her system throughout and is a similar strategy to what she has tested and used on previous race days.
How Steph hit her numbers
Here's everything that Steph ate and drank on the day...
Final thoughts
“I'd say for an ultra it was pretty undramatic vs what it could have been with the course and distance so I'll take that!”
Steph“Steph implemented her most effective fuel and hydration strategy to date to help her win her ‘A’ race of the year. Sticking to her well-practised fueling strategy and consistently hydrating with water and electrolytes helped her maintain her energy levels and replace her sweat losses across the ~7 hours of racing.”
PF&HSteph's full stats
Data Confidence
We rate each of our case studies from 1-5 based on the level of accuracy, and our confidence in the data.
There is an adequate level of accuracy in the data collected and the numbers reported. The athlete manages to recall what they ate and drank including most specifics (brands flavours quantities plausible estimations of volumes). However there are estimations made within the data which affect the overall confidence level in the data reported.