Ironman Arizona 2009 Race Plan
Better late than never, right?
Pre-Race
Wake up at 2 AM and chug an Odwalla/Naked High Protein Smoothy and get back to sleep for another 2hrs. Up at 4 to shower/shave and eat a bowl of Cheerios w/whey and coffee.
Swim
Get in the water and get used to to the temp and try to loosen up my arms some. I'm not an overly strong swimmer so I'm going to place myself mid-back and count the strokes. It's a straight 2.4mi swim so just focus on form and let the distance take care of itself.
Wake up at 2 AM and chug an Odwalla/Naked High Protein Smoothy and get back to sleep for another 2hrs. Up at 4 to shower/shave and eat a bowl of Cheerios w/whey and coffee.
Swim
Get in the water and get used to to the temp and try to loosen up my arms some. I'm not an overly strong swimmer so I'm going to place myself mid-back and count the strokes. It's a straight 2.4mi swim so just focus on form and let the distance take care of itself.
Bike
On the bike drink 3hr bottle of Infinit from seat tube, gulp every 5-10min, and water as thirsty from aero bottle. Refill the aero bottle at every aid station no matter how low it is, take 2-4 Enduralytes an hour as needed, and pick up second Infinit bottle from Special Needs for second half of the ride. Follow the EN power pacing from chart and to hell with what everyone else is doing! The race rehearsal told me that I need to focus on pushing my self a little to keep the watts about 150 and ignore what the MPH's are.
Bike Pacing:
| Gear | Ironman Wattage Guidance | Max | |
| 1st | 0-.5hrs, slight downhills | GW - 5% | 144 |
| 2nd | Goal Watts (GW) | GW | 152 |
| 3rd | Long hills (>~3') | GW + 5% | 159 |
| 4th | Short hills (<~1-2')</td> | GW + 10% | 167 |
Run
On the run drink Infinit Run Mix and water at each aid station and walk for just long enough to take in the nutrition. Follow the EN run pacing based on new and older VDot. After mile 18, start counting the people passed but walk the chute.
You only have one first IM. 
Run Pacing:
| Miles | Half Ironman VDot Guidance | Pace |
| 0-6 | Recovery Pace + 30sec | 10:00 |
| 6-18 | Recovery Pace | 9:26 |
| 18-26 | Marathon Pace (maybe) | 8:06 |
| 26-26.2 | Whatever I have left! | xx:xx |
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Comments
Regarding the swim, if you haven't seen the venue before, check the thread below from Slowtwitch. BryanCD posted a visual of the swim venue.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/IMAZ_Swim_Venue_P2592634/
Compared to a lot, I'm also not a strong swimmer. I placed myself center and a little further back that middle of the pack. I went straight up the middle towards the last bouy. Had virtually clear water. Only thing that would have been an improvement is if I found someone to draft off of! The last bouy (right side of photo) you make a left and go straight to a second bouy (about 25 to 50 yards) and make a second left towards home. I went a little too wide....found open water because everyone else hugged the bouys on their left side.
I personally like your approach of the swim taking care of itself! As Coach Rich says, the only purpose of the swim is to get you to the bike.
I'll let the more learned people provide feedback on your bike and run. If you haven't heard the 4 Keys talk live, take an hour or so on Friday to hear it! Minimum, listening to the coaches helps rid you of some of the pre-race gitters.
Have a GREAT race!!!!!
Hey Jeff, Everything looks great except I would be careful with the 18-26 mile pace in the table above. Running MP in an Ironman is going to be pretty tough and I wouldn't recomend it. In fact I barely run MP in a half ironman. Changing from 9:26 to 8:06 miles at mile 18 could make for a very tough mile 22 on.
Instead for miles 18-26, I would start to SLOWLY speed up if your legs are still feeling good and continue to re-evaluate each mile based on how you are feeling.
Rich, I'm going to check out the lake and that post to see where to line up at the start. I've been reviewing the DVD and the course presentation the coaches did pretty regularly. Sooner or later it sinks in, right?
Matt, the only paces that I'm going to be militant about hitting are the first six miles and the last bit to the chute. If my legs tell me that 10min is what we are doing, I hve no problem. The main goal is to keep my head up an constantly move towards the finish line.
Jeff, I'm so excited for you! Have fun! Also, give RnP a little hell from the chickas and please tweet any promises about Speedos from Rich.
Jeff,
One thing I'll add to the other guidance is to consider upping your sodium intake. Enduralytes are remarkably light on sodium; maybe Saltstick caps instead? Keep up the salt intake on the run too; it's a long day!
what mancona said, I would try and speed up seconds if you can, minutes is pretty aggressive, I had enough troublejust holding on to my IM Pace.
The run pacing from mile 18 is probably pretty aggressive and I have a feeling I'll be doing all I can to hold on to 10min/mile by that time. I'll make the adjustments to the plan.
The mix of Infinit that I have gives me just under 500mg of sodium an hour. Between that and 2-4 Enduralytes I should be getting in around 600 - 700mg/hr. I'll be honest, the weather hasn't been very conducive to testing out sodium levels in my training but I plan on bringing enough with me to adjust as needed.