Jocelyn McCauley
IRONMAN® New Zealand
Jocelyn's headline numbers
Jocelyn's strategy
Fueling
Carbohydrate is the main fuel you burn when racing. Failing to fuel properly is a leading cause of underperformance in longer races.
At her first race of the 2024 season, Jocelyn planned to use her successful approach from her previous race at IM Florida as the foundation for her strategy this time around. Her fuel came from her usual combination of PF Carb & Electrolyte Drink Mix and PF 30 Gels, but after realising she had dropped a couple of the gels from her pocket on the second lap of the bike, she had to ration out a gel or two before picking up additional on-course energy gels. This drop in intake likely played a part in the energy dip she felt towards the end of the bike, and feelings of hunger leading into the run. Jocelyn did well to resume her strategy on the run by increasing her intake from bike to run - a 33% increase in carbs per hour - which is opposite to the usual trend of front-loading on the bike that we see across our triathlon case studies.
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.
Sweat sodium concentration (mg/L) is largely genetically determined and remains relatively stable. Knowing how salty your sweat is enables you to replace a good proportion of your sweat losses, which can range from 200-2,000mg/L.
Whilst Jocelyn’s losses are on the low side, getting her hydration strategy right is still important if she wants to perform at her best.
Learn moreJocelyn has previously experienced some hydration-related issues, including swelling during some of her hot and humid races, and has been working hard to tightly monitor and manipulate her fluid intake in an attempt to reduce this. Knowing the race conditions would be similar to that of Florida, she implemented a similar fluid and electrolyte replacement strategy, but allowed herself more freedom to listen to thirst cues on the run. She successfully managed to hit her fluid intake goals - which worked out as ~4.6L on the bike and ~2L on the run - alongside subjectively feeling no issues and peeing once to indicate she was suitably hydrated.
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.
Jocelyn consumed slightly less caffeine than her previous race, but her intake of ~6.1mg/kg was more in line with what the scientific literature would recommend. Jocelyn’s strategy included taking half a PF 30 Caffeine Gel pre-race, a caffeine gel towards the end of the bike, and one on the run to evenly spread her doses out and keep the amount of caffeine in her system consistent to maximise the benefits from its ergogenic effects.
How Jocelyn hit her numbers
Here's everything that Jocelyn ate and drank on the day...
Jocelyn's weapons of choice
Final thoughts
Jocelyn
PF&HJocelyn's full stats
Data Confidence?
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.