Ironman recently held its first official “Virtual Race” under their Ironman Virtual Club banner.
Athletes can sign up, login and compete in virtual races against athletes from around the world.
We caught up with Jocelyn McCauley who raced against 3 other pro women to see how she is holding up under the social distancing orders and what her impressions were of the new virtual race format.
PD: How are you and your family holding up under the current situation?
JM: My family and I are doing well. I had a long time away right before all this happened so we have still been embracing all the time together! Doing home school with Emi has been a bit tricky but my husband does some with her in the morning while I train and then I do some in the afternoon. Fortunately as a triathlete I have learned to be pretty adaptable!
PD: How has your training changed, what are you doing differently to adopt to a more isolated training schedule?
JM: We had some time off since I got very sick and so did some base training through March and have just started getting into some hard stuff now. We are keeping the overall volume down a bit but doing some sharp efforts to boost my upper ceiling while we have some time to devote to that. It's the perfect time to work on what is holding you back from becoming the best you can be.
PD: How was competing in a virtual Ironman event and how does it compare to a real event?
JM: Competing in a virtual IM event was incredibly fun! It was absolutely a blast! This bike portion was a lot different to what I am used to. We had 4 bike primes during the ride. I'm not use to having to put in higher efforts while steady riding. It was also very fun to be able to see where you were in the race the entire time and to have my family close by for the whole "race." It was different but still very fun and engaging!
PD: Do you have any future plans to do another virtual race?
JM: I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it again or not. I would love to as it was a ton of fun! They can only have 4 riders racing against each other at a time and there is obviously a lot of demand from pros around the world to be able to race! You'll definitely see me on Zwift giving a few races a crack though!
Jocelyn currently uses the following Profile Design equipment…
Basebar: Svet R
Brackets: Supersonic
Extensions: 50c
Hydration: HSF/Aeria
Bike: PRsix
Power meter: Rotor INspider
Crank arms: Rotor ALDHU
Front rings: Rotor Qrings 55/42
