Jimmy's IMTX Race Plan
IM #2 for me. IMFL last november was my first. 44 yrs old.
I am driving up wednesday by myself. No wife. No kids. The kids have gymnastics shows on saturday that they have been preparing for almost as long as I have been preparing for this race.
Wednesday - Drive to Houston. I have a couple of work conference calls that need to be taken. My plan is to get to downtown houston by lunch so that I can handle work items. Then drive up to the woodlands and ride the ugly 20mi of the course. There is a lap pool at the hotel I'm at wednesday night. might splash around for 20min or so if I feel like it.
Thursday - SLEEP IN. eat, go back to bed. Sleep day! Do check in and expo. Team dinner.
Friday - Big breakfast. Practice swim at venue IF CONVENIENT. Bike & bag check in. Walk t1 and t2. do it again. do it again. See my path for race day. Work calls from 10 to 11 and 12 to 1. 4 keys talk. lots of netflix. This is where not having family with me will be nice. Sip on 1/2 strength perform all day. Pickle juice at bedtime. As I lay in bed unable to sleep, visualize the race. The swim start. T1 T2. Mile 80. Mile 18. The one thing. The other one thing.
Saturday - up at 4 for applesauce and protein powder. Shower. I like to shower on race morning. Cant explain why. Head to transition to be there at 545-6. put two bottles of perform on bike. 3 pre cut power bars on bike. Turn on garmin 510. Drink pickle juice. eat a power bar. Wait as long as I can to enter water. 6:45 would be ideal. Seed leftish and ask around for people looking of a 1:!5 swim. Get right behind them.
I am a left side breather by nature so this will be an easy one for me to sight. No current. After the turn, there are 6 orange buoys before I need to think about turning right. Stay near the buoy line but not right on top of it so that I can see them when I breath.
T1 out of the water goggles off eyes unzip. Run to bag. Dump bag. Remove suit. Remove cap and goggles. Gel flask in suit pocket. Helmet on. glasses on. rolled arm coolers over wrists. Race belt on. Fill bag grab shoes. Drop bag. Run rout to bike that I walked on friday. shoes on. Bike to line. get sunblocked.
Bike - start garmin. 15min blocks looking for lap NP of 160 if feeling good. But no more. In lap 1, get situated, roll up arm coolers. Lap 1 needs to be underpowered. Just one 15min block at a time. Each 15min block is building a bridge to a great run and a great race. 1.5 bottles of perform minimum per hr. More if my gut will take it. 1/2 power bar each 30 min. After 3 hrs, switch to gels in flask. Once I start hitting gels on the bike, I start to want water. I will start taking water at bike stations. I will try and stay wet also. Eat, drink and be merry on the bike. Stack up the 160's. Cuz we are about to get punched in the face...
t2 - If temps are below 85, I will leave shoes on the bike. I can move thru t2 much faster w/o bike shoes but I don't want to burn up my feet. I plan to asses this on friday in my walk through. Either way, give bike to catcher. Run to bag. Unbuckle helmet. grab bag. Dump bag. helmet in bag. Bike shoes in bag or on bike. Socks on shoes on grab go bag and t2 bag and get to t2 bag drop.
In mile 1 get pickle juice flask and gel flask into pockets, hat on, race belt turned around, cooling towel around neck. Start sipping pickle juice while I still feel good. Hopefully all of this futzing will serve to slow me down so that I don't go out too fast. I like running 26.2 by heart rate. Lap 1 should be about 145bpm with a hard cap at 150. Lap 2 can drift to a 150 avg with a hard cap at 155. Lap 3 will be lap 3 and I will be fighting to keep working hard enough to keep it elevated. Walk early and walk often. At all aid stations 30 steps. Every time I hit my heart rate cap, walk it down 10 bpm. Pick up second pickle juice flask at run special needs. Even if at the time I don't think I need it.
These usually get un fun between miles 18 and 23 on the run. Knowing that helps a little. My one things are my departed friend troy hallmark who fought pancretaic cancer for two years before passing about a month ago. He fought hard. Amazingly hard. Pushing a little bit longer into the run on saturday will not bring him back. And it will not help his wife and daughter move on. But it is what he would have wanted me to do. My One Thing is two things actually. The other is my frustration with the way that I coasted thru IMFL in november. While I need to be smart, I also need to refuse to settle for putting out a "pretty good" effort. My race mantra late on the bike when the 160's don't come as easy and on the run will be "never settle". never settle never settle never settle never settle. good enough is not good enough.
I don't have a time goal. Not a firm one anyway. The weather is going to have a lot to say about how fast this whole thing goes down. I know that I am SBR better than last november. I also know that this will be a tougher race. If I swim comfortably, push tempo thru transitions, stack up my 160's on the bike and manage my heart rate in the heat such that I still have some fight in me by mile 22 then I have won.
Post race, there will be no family to greet me. I will be left to stand with what I did that day. On the bright side, I will not have wife and kids to worry about so I can meet more EN peeps and be there at the finish line for the final hour. I am really looking forward to that.
Comments
Jimmy.... I really look forward to finally meeting you. Amazing we are so close and have never met. Great plan. I like the transition surveillance details. I'll plan to do the same. Only thing I saw to comment on is the race belt for the bike. I don't think that is required. I looked on the IM.com website and believe I confirmed that. Here's the excerpt from the race referee page:
RACE NUMBER
You must wear your bib number during the run portion of the
race. In addition, your bike frame sticker must be properly
attached to your bike frame and must be visible from both sides.
I read that to mean that you don't have to have it on the bike.
Wishing you good execution!
@Jimmy, you've trained correctly and you've planned correctly. When you add that to your experience, you will execute correctly. I anticipate a great race from you.
4 Keys is on Thursday; join us for lunch after if you can/want. No bib/race belt for the bike. You'll have plenty of EN company at the finish line (although you may have to wait for some of us
).
I did IMAZ last November without any family for the first time. Had my best time (for some reason I always have good races when my family isn't around) but really missed the sherpa assistance.
Looking forward to possibly riding with you on Wednesday.
After cramping at mt trembling 70.3 a couple of years ago I was complaining about it here and someone suggested pickle juice. I had long since decided that I would try anything because I had nothing to lose.
Since finding pickle juice I have not had problems with cramps. I drink it pre race and carry with me. If I feel them coming on, I start drinking it and they go away. It could be 100% in my head but I don't care. I have used it for 3 races. a 26.2 (crapms kept at bay meant a 26min PR. 26 minutes! because I could just keep puttering along) a 70.1 (another PR vs the same course of 30min) and an ironman. All break thru races for me without cramps. I don't know how it works or why it works. I don't work for the company or anything like that. It tastes like cr@p but I don't care because it has made such a massive difference for me.
Jimmy "PJ" Augustine?.....I think so.
I need to connect with Tom as it sounds like did IMAZ solo.
Let's have a fun day out there PJ.
don't forget the sub sandwich to go with the pickles.
Gotta try that pickle juice sometime!