Nate's ChesapeakeMan 140.6 race plan
This will be my 3rd IM distance race. Overall, training this year has been very good. Very consistent training this year and I’m feeling physically healthy. A bit mentally fatigued, but this should go away during taper.
Current Weight is 145lbs, FTP 228. w/kg 3.4
|
|
TSS |
IF |
NP |
AP |
Miles |
time |
climbing |
|
RR1 (Ran well off the bike) |
275 |
.69 |
158 |
150 |
106 |
5:46 (ride time) |
5193 |
|
RR2(Ran well off the bike) |
267 |
.69 |
157 |
150 |
104.5 |
5:37 (Ride time) |
4608 |
Pre Race Nutrition: I have yet to really comfortably execute the core "ish" diet breakfast and feel great. At my current weight my body doesn’t like large portions of anything these days. My plan for race morning is to break up the feeding into two sessions. 2am feeding of muscle milk serving, and 2 cups of applesauce. Wake up again at 4am eat a powerbar, naked juice smoothie (about 300cal), and a piece of bread/bagel (a few bites to help settle my stomach), start sipping on Sports drink.
At transition I will fill up my Torhans with Perform, and a bottle on the down tube and 1 more behind the seat. The First aid station at Chesapeakeman isn’t until about mile 21 serving Gatorade Pro.
I’ll have a bottle of water with me and sip on this while in transition.
I’ll be watching the weather closely to decide between a bike jersey or tri top or Both if it gets cold. I wore both for my RR2 and it was ok but not ideal.
Swim: Fitness wise I should be able to swim a 1:10 with a steady pace. Full wet suit. I need to ensure I get in the water and swim a bit before the race. Don’t get messed up by the national anthem start time, so I need to swim prior to this. Mentally I’m planning for similar contact as an ironman branded race, but really wishing for some open space as this is a smaller field. Where I line up will be a race morning call based on what I see, but I will always lean towards a straight line for the buoy and definitely behind John Kitchen 
.
Transition should be pretty simple: wet suit off, shoes on, helmet on, glasses on, race number on, and go. All nutrition will be on my bike.
Bike: should be a sub 6 hour ride if all goes well. My biggest challenge will be drinking if it’s cool out and staying warm. As soon as I get on my bike and in a safe place I will start taking sips from my Torhans. Goal for the first 30 minutes is to drink 20oz from my Torhans and Eat 1/2 sleeve of cliff blocks. Goal for the second 30 minutes is to drink 20oz from my Torhans and eat 1 gel. If the weather calls for cooler temps below 75 degrees, I will drink 1.5 bottles an hour after the first hour. I will eat 3 gels, and two cliff bar sleeves. I will carry 1 extra gel in case I feel like I need it. Goal is to take in 2,170 calories which gets me roughly 360 calories/hour depending upon my bike time. If it is a hotter day I will up to two bottles an hour until I start peeing, then back off. If I’m peeing too much I will back off the fluids a bit. Focus on drinking until you pee that first time.
Power goals: I plan to hit the interval button at least every 30 minutes. First 60 minutes at 140watts or .65. No playing catch-up with IF should the first 30 minutes be lower than .65. Its OK. Admin, getting settled, swim recovery might cause this. Stay patient with the second 30 minutes and keep to 140 watts. After an hour on the bike, I should be getting close to the first aid station and will use this as a visual to bump up the watts to 160 or .70.
The course is flat. Like flatter than IMFL. Stay low, keep pedaling. Keep eating and drinking. Every 30 minutes I will sit up, move around, even stand up on the pedals to keep things from getting too tight. Then back to Aero. I will give myself two time outs to stop (pee/stretch) otherwise I’m peeing on the bike. I should see my family at BSN at mile 60.
Be strong at mile 90.
Transition 2: Garmin on, socks and shoes on, visor on, and go.
Run: If I happen to have a bottle of Gatorade on my bike, I will take it with me. If not, I will be drinking 1 cup of Gatorade at every aid station, one cup of water on my head. I will have 3 gels with me. I’ve run a 4:34 in 2011 at IMLP, and a 4:04 at IMFL in 2012. I think this is my race to go sub 4.
3 loop flat course. The first “out” I will run a 8:50ish going out, but really I want it to feel easy, get loose. Don’t push, just be steady. By mile 2 things should loosen up, but hold back a bit. Walk every aid station, but be efficient within them. By mile 6 I want to fall into a steady 8:35-8:45 mile rhythm. I want it to feel like that in-between space of having to breathe harder (7:45s) and this is too easy (8:55s). Keep the box as big as a mile for as long as you can. I have my Garmin set for one of the windows to show me my Last lap mile pace. Put up 1 mile at a time of smart running.
I will remember that although I may feel like laying down on the side of the road this has never happened to me in my previous two races…You can keep going, just keep running.
Questions:
1. During RR2 on the run, I felt a little gassy in the stomach, felt painful to breath but not to the point where I had to stop. Was still running 8:15-8:30s. This hasn’t happened before. I’m thinking I took my gels too close together at the end of my bike. Any thoughts?
2. Any thoughts on decisions to pull back from .70 at mile 90-112…is this a gut feel?
Comments
Question- You said the course was super flat (yeah flat!) but I noticed your RRs were quite hilly. Did you do that by choice, or was that just the terrain you had to work with?
Last 1 hour of each RR bike, I was strong, even though I felt tired/ready to be done with the bike, at the end. i could generate watts and then run well.
The amount of climbing is a bit misleading as this is an all Aero course mostly. about a 40 minute loop of false flats and out and backs. it just adds up after 5+ hours and lots of loops. But really no hill climbing at all, all big ring type of stuff.
1. As I was reading, I was thinking, "Wow, that's a lotta calories on the bike". Then I thought, "well, if you did OK in the RR, than maybe that will work for you". Me, I'm also 145#, and I routinely get great results with about 225 calories per hour average on the bike. Then I see your question, and maybe your intake was a bit too much during the bike? So, just a thought, consider backing off bit on the fuel during the bike?
2. If anything (and your comments reflect this) you should be revving up a bit in the last hour of the bike - the time for slacking is the first hour, not the last. It should feel harder during that last hour than the early part, and your legs should be feeling tired, maybe even a little sore, but trust your training, that's not a sign to slack off, but to bear down and keep the 0.7 IF going.
Another thought, stretching every 30 minutes might not be enough - let yourself get a bit of a break, 30 sec or so, for neck exercises, sittting up, etc every 15 minutes. You don't want the volunteers to have to extract you, stuck in the fetal position, from your bike in T2. Usually, we get that sort of a break from going up hills, going around corners, etc. Sounds like on this course, its all aero, all the time. Don't torture yourself, you still have a marathon to run.
Good Luck!
Nate, this is a very well-thought out plan. I don't see any gaps.
You've hit the mechanical items of the day perfectly, and it's just worthwhile to frame the mental stuff as an exercise of your attention span. Where LP execution is characterized by "you're making many decisions; decisions all day," this type of course is easy to say "I will make one decision and go on autopilot.' This might be the case, but continue to do whatever you need to do to keep yourself mentally engaged and at a point of high enough arousal so you don't zone out and make some errors.
Have a great day!