70.3 RR #1- COMPLETED!
This is my first take on planning and then executing a race rehearsal, so I'll try to get it right! I jumped into the 12 week IM plan in the middle, so Coach R told me to skip the first RR (it was at the end of my second week in the plan) and just do this one. I plan on doing this Saturday morning.
Breakfast: cup of coffee, piece of wheat toast with peanut butter and honey
Kit: tri shorts, EN bike jersey, arm warmers if needed
The bike: A nice, flat course, and 2 loops will equal about 57 miles, close enough. I will have water in my aerodrink and 2 bottles in my behind the seat carrier, and I can get more at the car if needed. I will have a 3 hour bottle of Infinit at 200 cals/hour and will drink from it every 15 minutes. The bottle is marked at "hour" intervals. My FTP is 163, so I will aim for 139 watts after the first 30 minutes. The first 30 minutes will be at 132. Does that sound about right? The race bike course will be completely flat so I'm not worried about calculations for hills. I should finish the bike RR in just under 3 hours.
Transition: throw the bike in the car, put running shoes on, grab handheld bottle, and go. I'm not sure if I should take a gel here or not - any suggestions? I will carry a 20 ounce bottle of Gatorade Endurance with me and sip on that as needed.
The run: My marathon pace is 8:45, so I will run my first 3 miles at MP + 30 sec/mile, or 9:15, and then MP for the remaining 3 miles.
I will drink some chocolate milk after the RR while driving home (approx 20 minutes). When I get home I will take a 20 minute ice bath, because I kind of like them, quick shower, put on my recovery tights, and eat a nice carb-centric lunch with some protein. Lots of water, of course. I'll probably take a nap after lunch.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks!
Comments
This all looks great...hope you have great weather!
P
Very solid plan! I ran your FTP through the Power Racing Zones spreadsheet for HIM and this is what is recommended. Your estimate of 139 is very close for Goal Watts.
Thanks for all the good advice, everyone! I'll be sure to make those changes.
Nemo, I am eager to perform a sweat test, and Houston in the summer is a good time for it.
However, I am one of those people who is always cold, and 70 degrees still feels chilly to me on the bike. It's still springlike here in April so I'm not too concerned with sodium levels for this race. I'll sweat, but not so much that I think I'll need sodium supplementation other than what is in the Infinit and the Gatorade.
It's done! I laughed when I downloaded the data from my powermeter, as I hit my target watts of 140 exactly for the 2.5 hours I was supposed to.
Everything went pretty well, I think. I couldn't get the powermeter to work for the first 5 minutes or so, but then it worked fine. Nutrition was on target, and I never felt too tired. It started raining when I had an hour left to go and I had a little mini-meltdown
(I hate riding in the rain) but I got it together and finished. Power profile is here:
Entire workout (137 watts):
Duration: 2:53:01 (2:57:39)
Work: 1418 kJ
TSS: 210.4 (intensity factor 0.854)
Norm Power: 139
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: -2.06%
Pa:HR: -3.88%
Distance: 55.454 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 291 137 watts
Heart Rate: 115 157 146 bpm
Cadence: 30 104 74 rpm
Speed: 2.1 22.7 19.3 mph
Pace 2:39 28:24 3:07 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 570 156 lb-in
I ended up having to throw the bike in the car and then drive 15 minutes to a more appropriate place to run. Suboptimal, but it worked. The run felt terrible for the first 3 minutes and then it was fine and I was able to hit my paces. My Garmin couldn't find a satellite for 10 minutes so I ran for time and did 55 minutes. The rain intensified a little and it started lightning which hustled me along.
Made it home and had a nice ice bath, shower, lunch, and nap. I feel ready!
Your TSS of 210 is pretty high. According to the EN Power Racing Calculator, it looks like you're right on the edge of blowing it.
I will freely admit that all the power stuff is still hard for me to learn. All that talk about numbers and calculations and my brain tunes out without my permission. I'm just not a math/physics person.
So, Colleen and others, if my TSS is high but I maintained the watts I was "supposed" to, according to calculations, what does that mean? Back off a little on the power numbers for the race itself? I'm a very average runner.
Kristen,
If you are on the edge that means that you could have a run melt down depending upon fitness. I believe the philosophy is to back off a little on the TSS and prove that you can run then extend yourself on the bike a bit more on the next race.
I will also note that it would be nice to see your first 30 minutes broken out then the remaining part of the ride. You were to ride 130 for the first 30' then 140. Your overall norm power is 139 for the ride so you might have gone a little hard early or somewhere else on the ride.
It's probably a good thing that you got the rain during a RR so that you have dealt with that. Typically a few times a year I will go out in the worst weather I can find just in case its like that on race day. Not as fun but helps get you ready.
Gordon
I am a noob, so, I am hoping what I am about is say IS in fact valid, but, I noticed that your cadence seems to be, on average, low. I think you would probably have a smoother and easier time with getting power right, and will transitioning to the run, and in maintaining your legs in general if you could maintain a cadence in the 90-100 range. This range is powerful be efficient, and is similar to the kind of cadence you should be running at too, which helps in that first 5-10 minutes following T2. I have noticed, in my admitted limited experience, that I tend to run WAY to fast out of T2 if I don't focus because of my high bike cadence (95-103)...and I will say that it is a 'good' head game to be telling yourself "alright, chill out buddy, long way to go" rather than "pick it up" knowing that you are going to be picking it up even more in 3 miles.
Just my thought! Also, kudos for getting out there and pushing through the rain - that is tough to do and certainly is a building block in your emotional commitment! Great job!
Ok, Gordon, just for you, the entire power profile..
Stephen, you are right about the cadence. That will give me something to work on all summer long before IMFL. My run cadence is usually about 90, but I will concentrate on cycling cadence a little more.
Keep the comments coming, folks! This is all very helpful.
Power-Tap #1:
Duration: 24:37
Work: 196 kJ
TSS: 27.4 (intensity factor 0.817)
Norm Power: 133
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: 4.54%
Pa:HR: -6.37%
Distance: 7.451 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 230 132 watts
Heart Rate: 131 152 145 bpm
Cadence: 45 86 79 rpm
Speed: 10.3 21 18.1 mph
Pace 2:51 5:51 3:19 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 397 142 lb-in
Power-Tap #2:
Duration: 2:28:22 (2:33:00)
Work: 1222 kJ
TSS: 182.7 (intensity factor 0.86)
Norm Power: 140
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: -0.51%
Pa:HR: -2.91%
Distance: 47.997 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 291 137 watts
Heart Rate: 115 157 146 bpm
Cadence: 30 104 74 rpm
Speed: 2.1 22.7 19.4 mph
Pace 2:39 28:24 3:05 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 570 158 lb-in
Entire workout (137 watts):
Duration: 2:53:01 (2:57:39)
Work: 1418 kJ
TSS: 210.4 (intensity factor 0.854)
Norm Power: 139
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: -2.06%
Pa:HR: -3.88%
Distance: 55.454 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 291 137 watts
Heart Rate: 115 157 146 bpm
Cadence: 30 104 74 rpm
Speed: 2.1 22.7 19.3 mph
Pace 2:39 28:24 3:07 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 570 156 lb-in
I wish I had my old power data, but I can tell you that my first HIM with power, I rode very steady. I am not fast. I think my goal watts were around 150. Anyway, I was out there for 3:11 and my run was 2:13. I had a tremendous race and PR'd the course by about 35 minutes.
My point is that TSS is not a great tool for Lil' peeps. If you have the downloads, look at the charts. TSS is only 1 piece of the puzzle and you will not be able to change yours by much. Focus on riding steady and executing well. Looks to me from the entire profile that you already proved with the RR that you can do that.
Good luck and enjoy the race.
Congratulations on your successful RR! I'm looking forward to meeting you at Lonestar in two weeks.
I also did a RR yesterday and since I'm a total Newb, comparing our data opens up a bunch of questions that I'm hoping the collective wisdom here can help me address.
My last ftp test was 259 and using the HIM TSS target charts, I was aiming for a 3:06 bike (since I don't have any previous experience and figured that was close), yielding a target NP of 197. As you can see from the data below, I did pretty well on that score.
Entire workout (180 watts):
Duration: 3:19:54
Work: 2158 kJ
TSS: 195.6 (intensity factor 0.767)
Norm Power: 199
VI: 1.1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 56.025 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 577 180 watts
Cadence: 30 182 78 rpm
Speed: 2.2 38.8 17.0 mph
Pace 1:33 26:49 3:32 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 687 197 lb-in
The VI is a bit high at 1.1 but I live in Pennsylvania and there are a lot of hills and wind (not to mention some traffic, particularly through some small - and I mean small - towns I ride through. My goal TSS was 179 but I ended up quite a bit higher (195.6).
My biggest question is if hills are primarily to blame for my apparently *very* slow time/pace. I'm a pretty big guy (185 lbs) and don't have the latest and greatest bike but still... I'm pushing decent watts (I think) and seem to be a lot slower. I'm wondering what I can expect for a flatter and windy course like Lonestar.
FWIW, my run got cut short due to family commitments but after about 2 miles, I started feeling a lot better and the cramping in my calves died down. I'll do the full distance today.
Thanks for any insight everyone. And Kristen, let's be sure to meet up in Galveston!
Paul- Please start a new thread to post your own Race Rehearsal results and request feedback there. It will get very confusing if we try to analyze and provide feedback to more than one person in an individual thread.
Kristin- I recommend you re-run your numbers through the Power Racing Calculator. You have to remember (as Michele indicates) that the time spent on the bike is going to be a factor in your total TSS accumulation. You have to make an "estimate" of the time your going to be on the bike the first time you run the calculator. But after that first RR, you'll have a better idea. Looking at your results here, I think your gears are actually too high. Here are the inputs I put into the calculator:
FTP= 163
Goal Watts as % FTP= 78% (looking across the chart from the 2:59 time mark and picking the last block in green)
Goal TSS= 182
That spits out the following Gears:
1st: 121
2nd: 127
3rd: 133
4th: 140
Obviously these are lower than what you were using. Even if I use TSS in the yellow zone, I end up with 80% FTP and gears lower than what you were targeting. So PLEASE take another look through the Bike Execution stuff and re-work that calculator.
PS- Matt- I'm not quite sure why I ended up with different numbers than you ran. Would you mind double checking your numbers as well?
Ok, I'm a little confused. On the Wiki HIM guidance it says to use 80-85% of FTP for the zones, but on the power calculator and TSS chart, according to my projected time, and I used 2:59, 78% would be the max I would use. Which is the correct percentage to use? Also, am I doing something wrong, because the power calculator will only open in read-only mode for me and it won't actually calculate - I just used a calculator.
Thanks for all of the helpful advice!