IMWI Pre-Baby Race Rehearsal
Ironman Wisconsin 2013 Pre-Baby Race Rehearsal – June 28, 2013
I decided to do a race rehearsal today in preparation for Ironman Wisconsin 2013. My wife is due with our second child next month (July), technically July 24 but now probably not later than July 17. So in anticipation of a mid-training-plan break and then a reduction in training afterwards, I started the IM plan back at the beginning of May. Just to avoid having to worry about potential conflicts with an early arrival, I moved my first RR workout up to today. I'm hoping to get some kind of RR #2 done August 17 on the course after the Madison Open Water Swim event.
As described in the wiki, I was definitely not rested for this workout. And it probably showed. I did a quasi-long run Thursday morning and then master’s swim practice Thursday night, about 3000 yards or so. My FTP bike workout on Wednesday was not confidence building, but not hitting my numbers might have actually not been all that bad from a fatigue standpoint.
I was planning on taking my daughter to school like normal and then heading to a local high school, which I would use as a base to bike loops from and then run from as well. I was planning on starting around 9am, but forecasted rain starting around 2pm or 3pm forced me to start earlier. The weather turned out great. About 67ish with humidity when I started with clear, sunny skies. Got up into the upper 70’s, maybe 80’s by the end of the bike
So, up at 3:30am for the suggested early liquid breakfast of two Ensure Complete shakes. Actually ended up being about 3:50 by the time I actually got up and fed the dogs. Checked in on the scale at 174.4 pounds. Then off to finish getting everything ready for the day. Left the house about a half hour earlier than planned around 5:30am and headed for the high school, munching on a Honey Stinger Waffle (yum!) and some IM Perform drink that I’d been sipping while getting my stuff together. Made good time to the high school and got the bike prepped with nutrition and the car ready for a “bottle exchange” and transition area. Wheels down and rolling about 6:20 – about 40 minutes ahead of schedule.
Goals for my RR were as follows:
Bike: 100 miles in ~6 hours @ IF = 0.67, or about 185 watts. Definitely wanted to keep my VI down and ride steady as best I could (still learning as this is my first year training with power). Plan was to ride one loop of 50 miles, change bottles, then another 50 mile loop.
Run: 6 miles in 60 minutes so 10:00 per mile pace, walking 30 seconds at the start of each mile (except the first mile)
Bike Nutrition: 20oz Perform (1 bottle) per hour as 4-5 pulls on the straw every 15 minutes, ¼ bonkbreaker at 30 minutes and 60 minutes of each hour, one powergel on the hour, one saltstick cap on the hour. Totals of about 475 cals/hr and 975 mg/hr sodium. I would also add a honey stinger waffle at my bottle exchange, plus a few extra sips of Perform.
Run Nutrition: 4 oz Perform every mile, one powergel at 30 minutes, one saltstick at 30 minutes.
The Bike:
The bike started off well. I was hitting my target watts and doing my best on the hills. Turned out to be about 5000 feet of climbing over the course of my route. Not really intentional since this route was more planned for looping back to the high school than for the terrain. The first 25 miles of loop one was very familiar roads that I ride often – no problem. I was getting my nutrition as planned and doing pretty well. The second 25 miles of loop one was a new route to me. It turned out to be a little more traffic than I planned, so I was a little more stressed and pushed the watts a little just to get out of some spots. About mile 40 my stomach started giving me some issues. Nothing serious, just some gassy, bloated feelings. I thought maybe it was too much salt, so I stopped taking the saltstick for a while. By the time I got back to the high school, things had settled down. Took a little longer than planned at my bottle exchange. Had to pee, text the wife, change the bottles and eat my waffle. Oh, well.
I decided to avoid the second half of the first loop and just do two more 25 mile loops on the familiar roads for the second half of the ride. I rode the second loop clockwise like normal, then decided to ride the third loop “backwards” just to mix it up. I also added a little 20 minute out-and-back because I was making good time and probably would’ve been short of 6 hours riding time by just doing 100 miles. Loop two went pretty well. I took a short break at the high school, just kinda stopped on my bike, chillin’ for a few minutes. Then loop three got a little rough, both physically and mentally. My power was down a bit and I was struggling with some of those “what the heck am I doing” and “I am never going to finish the IM” feelings. So I ate a little more to kick up the energy, popped a saltstick, and got back in the groove towards the end.
Finished with a total of 106 miles in 6:08. NP was right on at 185 watts, but VI was 1.11. TSS = 279. 5085 feet of climbing and I averaged 17.29 mph with a cadence of 96. Pretty decent, I think except for the VI.
The Run:
I planned a stick-2 loop-stick run course from the high school. I had never run in this area before so I had no idea about hills or anything. Turned out to just be some little rollers, so I was glad for that. I started out a little fast, but reeled it in. Mentally I was thinking that if this RR run sucks like this, how am I going to finish IMWI? I tried to remind myself that IMWI will be better since I will be more rested. While having these mental fights with myself, I managed to keep chugging along, right on target pace, taking my walks and getting my nutrition in. I did forget to take the saltstick, though. I tried to focus on just the mile ahead of me, looking forward tot he walking break and hydration. The weather was clouding up, looking like rain. It couldn’t come soon enough! Finally, about a half mile to go, it started coming down pretty good. Perfect timing! I smiled big both at the rain and when I finished and looked at my watch, seeing that I hit 6 miles right on 60 minutes and right on my target pace.
So, all things considered, I think my first ever EN Race Rehearsal went pretty well. Thankfully no mechanical issues and good weather. My mental game has me a little worried about finishing the whole marathon without crawling. I’m also pretty worried about the hit to training that the baby will make. But others have trained less for other reasons and survived, so I will, too!
Link to training peaks file: http://tpks.ws/yP97
If anyone has any feedback, I’d love to hear it! Thanks!
Comments
The other more important thing you experienced is how hard it is to let yourself run when you're tired and maybe hurting after six hours of biking. First, remember that you will be in better shape in 10 weeks on race day. Second, you can use your long runs to build your mental strength. Towards the end of those runs, it will start to feel, both physicially and mentally like it does on an IM run. Use those long runs to build your confidence that your are capable of keeping on keeping on even when you don't want to. Make finishing strong on those long runs a key goal of that workout, commit to it each time, then on race day, it will be closer to second nature.