Jan's IM Canada Race plan: all advice is appreciated
This will be my first IM. I followed the intermediate IM plan, was able to do probably about 85% of the workouts. The last few weeks were tough to get the long weekend rides in because of various circumstances, but overall very happy with my current fitness. A lot of the training, especially the weekend workouts and as much of the mid week workouts were done together with my wife, as we are both getting ready for IM Canada. Our swimming and running paces are very close to each other. Wasn't always able to hit all my zones in biking, but I gladly bike at a few lower watts to be able to do this together.
Thursday 9pm: arrival in Vancouver. Stay at airport hotel , pick up rental at 7:30 am on Friday and hopefully get to Whistler by 10-10:30 am.
Friday: Check in, bike and run recon by car, groceries, check into rental, team EN dinner
Saturday: 9 am pick up bike at TBT, check in gear bags. Have lunch with my parents and spend the afternoon relaxing at the condo
Sunday: The race plan:
SWIM: Line up with 1:15 swimmers. Try to find someone to draft off, and focus on sighting so I don't swim 3 miles instead of 2.4
T1: T1 bag will have: helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, chamois cream, arm warmers ( if needed, probably not but currently in the 60's in Whistler. 10 day forecast is 78 but cool in the AM)
Bike: Garmin 810 will be set up with : time, lap time ( auto lap 5 miles) , Lap NP, IF, per 3s, HR
Nutrition: Speedfill A2 + Z4 in front: preloaded with Perform. 24 oz bottle perform in frame ( to be tossed when empty), safety bottle behind the seat. 1 power bar, 2 GU Roctane, 1 packet of GU Chomps, 6 salt pills.
Plan is to consume 24-30 oz per hr, 1 S-cap per hr ( top of the hr) , eat 1/2 power bar on 30 min mark, then every hr alternating gel, chomp, power bar. At every aid station, top of speed fill and grab new Perform. This should add up to 296 cal / hr, 955 mg sodium. This has worked well in training.
Power zones; FTP is 230. Target IF is .69.
45' @ 151 watts, remainder at 159 watts ( as per EN power calculator) Target TSS is 286-294. I will not have TSS on garmin as I don't want to worry about this number and then having it mess with my mind
T2: gear bag: hat, anti chafe, run socks and shoes, race belt. To go bag with 5 S-caps
Run: Nutrition: 2 big sips of Perform every aid station, continue with Honey Stinger gel ( thats whats on the course) every hr, 1 S-cap every hr.
Pace: 9:50 min/mile for 6 miles, then 9:20 min/ mile till mile 18. This I should be able to do, after mile 18 we'll see how the body and legs feel, but goal is to not slow down. Use HR on flats, no more than 15 BPM higher then avg on the bike, hills by RPE.
No time goals because I know this will mess me up if I see that I am not hitting these and for my first IM, I'm in it for the experience and do the best I can. I'm not racing to win anything, only to participate in the 3 sports that have become a lifestyle.
Comments
3 little things jumped out at me. If it were me, no way I'd pick up my bike a few hours before bike check-in. I'd get it on Friday, giving you some time to take care of any last-second issues (PM, tires, chain, etc.). With bike aid stations every 10 miles, no need to carry a third bottle - and the extra lbs - on a hilly course. And I would encourage you to stop eating solids after the first couple hours on the bike, even if it worked in training. Race-day nutrition is a different beast for the majority of us. If I were to try to eat a PowerBar during Hour 4 or 5, I would be asking for GI trouble on the run.
Finally, I think it's great not to have time goals for your first. But make sure you don't go in with an overly passive/defensive mindset - it tends to lead to unnecessarily long transitions and breaks and lots of walking. Not that you need to race the thing, but you're likely to be challenged on the day, perhaps big time. And your mean/offensive mindset will handle it far better than your "I just want to finish" voice.
Best of luck. Hope you have a fun, successful day - the first is priceless. Cheers.
Mike
I only have one bottle on my bike at that start and pretty much throughout the whole day. I don't understand the safety bottle line of thinking. In 30 minutes you'll come across another aid stations so what's the point??? I think the safety bottle makes more sense for people NOT using on course nutrition.
I also agree with Mike about solid foods. Give your tummy a couple of hours to "calm down" and then eat something. I don't eat anything solid until halfway of the bike.
TSS might be all over the place on a hilly course like Whistler. Best not to look at it. I can guarantee it will end up being higher than your desired range. The Callaghan Valley section and the Pemberton to Whistler section are no joke. My advice from someone who has done the course would be to save the time riding at lower watts for the Pemberton Flats. So ride your goal watts of 160 from the get go until you hit the 34 mile TT in Pemberton. Drop the watts down to 150 to save up some energy for the 20 miles back to Whistler. Immediately preceding that 20 mile finish is a 20 mile downhill (Whistler to Pemberton) and 34 miles of flat terrain. How you manage that 54 miles is the most important piece of the bike puzzle.
The run course is not easy. That caught me off guard last year. Just beware that I had 1200' of gain on the run course. The tweaked the run course some this year so I'm not sure if it's easier or harder. You also can't recon the run course by car as most of the run course is on trails around/near the Village.
Thanks guys for the advice. Maybe we will have to upgrade the car so we can pick up the bikes on Friday and take them back to the condo. I would like to change my power meter battery, even tho I only did one ride with a new battery. Don't know how much the rear wheel was spinning while the bike was being transported by TBT.
@Bob. Thanks for the bike advice to save some energy on the flatter part , before climbing back to Whistler.
I revised this plan as per Bob's recommendation to ease up a little bit on the flat section between Whistler and Pemberton. The rest is the same.
Sunday: The race plan:
SWIM: Line up with 1:15 swimmers. Try to find someone to draft off, and focus on sighting so I don't swim 3 miles instead of 2.4
T1: T1 bag will have: helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, chamois cream, arm warmers ( if needed, probably not but currently in the 60's in Whistler. 10 day forecast is 78 but cool in the AM)
Bike: Garmin 810 will be set up with : time, lap time ( auto lap 5 miles) , Lap NP, IF, per 3s, HR
Nutrition: Speedfill A2 + Z4 in front: preloaded with Perform. 24 oz bottle perform in frame ( to be tossed when empty), safety bottle behind the seat. 1 power bar, 2 GU Roctane, 1 packet of GU Chomps, 6 salt pills.
Plan is to consume 24-30 oz per hr, 1 S-cap per hr ( top of the hr) , eat 1/2 power bar on 30 min mark, then every hr alternating gel, chomp, power bar. ( No more solids after the 4:30 mark) At every aid station, top of speed fill and grab new Perform. This should add up to 296 cal / hr, 955 mg sodium. This has worked well in training.
Power zones; FTP is 230. Target IF is .69.
Settle into the bike, maybe 10-15' at 150 watts, then increase watts to 159. Ride this till the climb into the Callaghan Valley. Ride 167 watts on the climbs. After going through Whistler again, decrease watts to 150 to save energy. Ride this until the final 20 mile climb back to Whistler.
T2: gear bag: hat, anti chafe, run socks and shoes, race belt. To go bag with 5 S-caps
Run: Nutrition: 2 big sips of Perform every aid station, continue with Honey Stinger gel ( thats whats on the course) every hr, 1 S-cap every hr.
Pace: 9:50 min/mile for 6 miles, then 9:20 min/ mile till mile 18. This I should be able to do, after mile 18 we'll see how the body and legs feel, but goal is to not slow down. Use HR on flats, no more than 15 BPM higher then avg on the bike, hills by RPE.
No time goals because I know this will mess me up if I see that I am not hitting these and for my first IM, I'm in it for the experience and do the best I can. I'm not racing to win anything, only to participate in the 3 sports that have become a lifestyle.
I will read your whole thing later.
But I have the opposite view to Bob. The flat Pemberton part is a great section to make up time. I wish I had at least done race goal, if not more, for that 30 mile flat section. I ended up having too much reserve left after the last long climb.