IMFL Race Rehearsal - uark88
Race rehearsal 1 -
Swim
Friday night's swim was postponed due to work. Its year end close out and didn't get off until almost eight so it was pushed to Monday. Completed today in 1:48. Learned two things - I can swim farther than the 4400 yards that I swam today. Also, swimming that long is very boring. Going to be a mind game.
Bike
Saturday morning started out with clear blue skies and 55 degrees. I had to break out the arm warmers and calf sleeves. There were four of us riding with three of those doing IMFL. The route planned was a two loop affair with the outward leg having a few small hills while the return was flat for central Georgia.
Plan:
Ride -ride by heart rate, 120-130 bpm which is zone 2. My Garmin was just showing heart rate and time.
Nutrition: Five bottles of nutrition on the bike. GU Roctane: 240 cal/each, 320 mg sodium. I know that there is extra weight involved but my stomach does not react to IM Perform very well. I could use it in a pinch but not over a whole race. I also carried several baggies with powder if I ran out of fluid and had to mix with water.
Power Bars - 210 cal/each, 210 mg sodium. Eat one every 15 miles
Power Bar Energy Blast chews - 190 cal/bag, 30 mg sodium. Eat as needed.
Ride: Rode with the wind and averaged about 18 mph. We lost about 3-4 mph when we turned back into the wind. Found out later that the wind was 20 mph. Overall pace ended up being a little over 16 mph. Stayed in aero about 80% of the time. Eating the Power Bars every 15 miles allow me to sit up and stretch my back. I ended up adjusting my HR during the ride. I maxed out at 140 bpm on the hills and tried to keep it around 130 bpm into the wind.
Lessons learned:
1) I had to change the view on my Garmin to show distance and HR. Made it easier eat on time.
2) I need to start using some sort of chamois cream. Around mile 80, my tri shorts got sticky and uncomfortable. No hot spots or rashes but I got very uncomfortable. This was my first ride above seventy mile.
3) I can ride a good pace by just paying attention to my zones and not worrying about my speed. Let go of the ego.
Question: Did I eat too much?
Nine bottles @ 240 calories/320 sodium - 2160 calories/2880 mg sodium
6 Power Bars @ 210 calories/210 sodium - 1260 calories/1260 mg sodium
1.5 bags Energy Chew @ 190 calories/30 sodium - 285 calorie/45 mg sodium
Total - 3705 calories/4185 mg sodium
I had to choke down the last Power Bar at mile 95. I also drank one bottle on the run. I finished the workout at 3:30 and did not eat again until 9:30 that night.
I felt good after the bike. I felt that I had done something but was not overly tired with no problem doing something else. In fact, I was very tempted to go another 12 miles.
Run: I ran in zone 1.5. I know that it was supposed to be zone 1 but I just can't run that slow. For me, there is too big a jump between the zone 1 and zone 2 pace. No problems on the run except for the small rock in my shoe that I was too stubborn to stop and take out. I kept hoping that it would slid to the side of my foot but it did not. Like the swim, this is going to be a mind game as I won't be able to have music during the race.
Overall, Saturday gave me the confidence that I have the ability to finish this race without bumping the 17 hour time limit.
Any comments, especially on the nutrition will be appreciated.
Thanks
Comments
Nice work!
I dont have too much experience but my thoughts are - I dont think we CAN eat too much. As long as I can get it down and keep it down I think it will help set up the run. That said, I did the Core Diet fueling plan and try to stick to it as closely as I can. For me at 164lbs it works out to a bottle of perform every 50min or so and a gel or 1/2 powerbar every 30min.
I had the same post RR stomach - didnt want food for a while. Then for the next couple of days I wanted to eat the house down.
On the run, I cant run that slow either. My LRP is 10:15. So my LRP+30 was supposed to be 10:45. I ran 9:58 and that was because every time garmin told me that my lap time was under 10min, I walked till it said 10:30. It ended up giving me an extra walk break at about the 1/2 mi mark. Not ideal. I was runnign with a higher VI. But I will stick with it in FL.
So what are you drinking?
Try Lantiseptic for long bike rides.
And be careful, you can eat/drink too much. Though I may eat/drink the most of just about everyone in EN.
Check out the nutrition wiki for some more guidance. You didn't say how long you rode but assuming 6hrs, or less, 3700 calories seems like a lot. But everyone is different. If you felt ok on the run, maybe it works for u. Just something to consider.