Mark Maurer's plans for race rehearsal #2
Hey folks, here's my race rehearsal plan for my final race rehearsal. I would appreciate any comments, criticism, or suggestions.
· Friday night lay out all my gear and nutrition.
· Lay out running gear, shorts, shirt, and shoes, in the bathroom.
· Make up all the fluids I’ll be using for the bike and the run and put them in the refrigerator.
· Get to bed early, 9:00 at the latest
· Get up at 4:00 and have my regular IM breakfast which is muesli with almond milk and a bagel with honey and almond butter.
· Weigh myself before getting dressed
· Get dressed and put any additional clothes, based on weather, that I’ll need in the car
· Load the fluids into a cooler and put in the car (Susan will drive the car to Littlerock and park it at the predetermined spot)
· Fill the water bottles and put the Garmin on the bike
· Take car key so I can get into the car later
· Load all my nutrition on the bike or jersey
· Take off and head out to the first loop (I’m starting from home and Susan is starting from LR. I’ll do one loop twice and then a partial loop and head home for the run. This route is much hillier than the first rehearsal route because the route and staging area I used last time is on the Seattle to Portland route and will see over 10,000 bicyclists on Saturday plus many frustrated drivers so I’m going to stick to the other side of I-5)
· Use the 4 gears listed below during the ride. My 4 gears are
|
1st |
162 |
|
2nd |
170 |
|
3rd |
179 |
|
4th |
187 |
·
o Use the first gear for the first 7 miles (auto-lap set for 7 miles on Garmin)
o Increase my power to midway between the 1st and 2nd gears for the second 7 miles
o Increase the power to the 2nd gear for the 3rd and subsequent laps
o Use 3rd gear for hills longer than 3 minutes
o Use 4th gear for the hills shorter than 3 minutes
· Use my bike gears to stay in my goal watts and keep a VI close to 1.00
· Maintain appropriate power over the crest of the hills and on the downhills until I spin out in my highest gear then get aero and fly!
· Stay in aerobars as much as possible
· Pedal smoothly with a high (90) cadence
· Drink every 10 minutes and take in 24 to 30 oz per hour depending on the temp. Saturday is supposed to be hot so it should be more on the high side.
· Eat 240-280 calories/hour – 1 rice muffin and ¼ clifbar every hour for the first 5 hours and 2 gels during the last hour to get ready for the run.
· Take 1 salt stick tab per hour for each of the last 3 hours
· Execute like a ninja!
· Adjust ride length to keep the time close to 6 hours.
· Eat an additional gel in the last mile of the ride
· Weigh myself after getting home from the bike and write it down
· Change into my running clothes and shoes
· Grab my fuel belt and get the water bottle out of the fridge
· Take off and keep my pace at 9:47 for the first 3 miles
· Eat one clif shot block every mile
· Drink 4-5 oz every mile
· Increase pace to 9:17 for miles 4-6
· Increase pace for the last mile and imagine running the last mile of the Vineman
· Bring it home strong
· Grab the muscle milk and drink it while doing a cool down walk outside
· Stretch, shower, and elevate my legs
· Have a good meal with protein and carbs within a couple of hours of the end of the workout.
Write up my race rehearsal notes/report while things are still fresh in my mind
Comments
Hi Al, Thanks for the feedback. Actually I'm not going to change clothes between the bike and the run so I'll take that out. I did for the first RR because in Coach Patrick's video he said it was not necessary for the first one. I watched Coach Rich's video after preparing this and he was more specific about keeping everything the same as race day with the possible exception of the bike jersey, But I'm going to wear a singlet and sun sleeves since it looks like it's going to be hot here on Saturday.
As for the nutrition, I did a sweat test and have been monitoring my weight on bikes and found that I need between 24 and 30 oz of fluids per hour. I'm using Skratch labs to start the bike (and on the entire run) and Gatorade endurance for the rest of the bike because that's what they're serving on the course. To get all my calorie needs (approximately 400/hour) from those fluids would be about 60 oz per hour. I'm having to pee a lot now at the 24 - 30 oz per hour intake (I'm glad it's going to be hot on Saturday so I can see how the heat affects that) so I can't imagine what it would be like doubling the fluid intake. I have used the rice muffins and even egg and rice burritos on the bike portion of HIM and IM. I've taken the rice muffin recipe from the Feed Zone cookbook and perfected it for me over the last couple of years. Each muffin is about 200 calories and it's basically short grain white rice and some eggs. They're about three bites and they practically dissolve in my mouth since I've pulverized everything in the food processor. They're much easier to eat and digest than even a powerbar (and they're way better). The last IM I did I ate them and the burritos and had my best IM run ever and it was possibly the hottest IM run as well (85 at the start). I've been eating the rice muffins on my training rides and the last RR so I'm fairly certain they'll be OK. I do switch to gels for the last hour of the bike and then stick to clif blocks or gels along with Skratch labs on the run. The run special needs bag is at the exit to the run course and on the Vineman it's three times out and back so I'll be running by it every loop. It's really easy to pick up bottle of fluid there. If it's really hot then I might have to supplement the fluids with something at an aid station but it won't be much. If I do have a gel on the course (for the caffeine as much as the calories) I'll take water with it.
Thanks again for the comments.