David Pettigrew - Lake Stevens 70.3 Race Rehearsal
First off, it is inspiring reading all the race reports. Thanks to all who wrote them up.
I am doing Lake Stevens 70.3 on 8/17. It will be my first HIM. I never got organized enough to complete my plan much ahead of time and post it for feedback, but I'll include it now along with the report and feedback on both is welcome.
PLAN
Up at 5am.
Breakfast: 1 banana, smal bowl of almond butter and strawberry jam. Coffee.
Setup:
Get bottles of CytoMax/Perform on bike.
Tires to 120psi
Garmin on bike, 3 gels on bike top tube.
Layout “T2” - run shoes, cap, bottle and watch strap.
Layout a cooler with refills and nutrition in the garage for getting after lap 1.
Bike:
Start ride at 7:30.
Bike at 0.79 - 0.8 IF (~140W) for ~3hr15m - 3h:30m. Do 2 laps of this route http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/512835246
This is a course with about the same elevation gain (1600ft) as the race (2100ft).
Run:
60 minutes - Start at 9:05min/mile, after 3 miles go to 8:35min/mile
Every mile - hip and back stretches.
Focus on keeping good posture with strong core.
REPORT
Got up at around 5:10am. Bad planning meant no banana available. Changed plan to make Biju’s Oatmeal with blueberries. It took a long time to make and I was also preparing my drinks, so I didn’t end up eating until about 6am.
I had not washed my preferred tri-suit (doh!), so had to wear the old one. Applied Body-Glide, forgot Vaseline.
Left the house at 7:34am. Felt bloated and generally not great on the bike for about 2 hours. Partly blaming the oatmeal as being the wrong thing, too much and too soon before the ride. My stomach did not feel right from the get-go. I drank about half of what I usually drink and ended up dehydrated.
I did not do a very good job of watching my power for the first hour so it was fluctuating quite a bit.
Bike Garmin - http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/555466628
The run went well. My target paces were stretch goals, the primary goals were to keep good form and say safely within my risk of injury threshold since I am coming back from a series of running injuries. I did seem to fade towards the 45min mark, but it was very hot and I was running uphill. Overall, I was quite surprised with the pace feeling ok.
I tried making my drink more concentrated than normal as an experimental way to get more calories in on the run. Hard to tell, but perhaps I would have drank more if I had been carrying water given how my stomach felt.
Run Garmin - http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/555466632
Take aways
- Need to improve my written plan.
- Need to plan ahead with clothing and drinks ready the night before to make the most out of these rehearsals.
- Eat light beforehand.
- Need to focus holding my target power from the get-go on race day.
- Dial the run pace down a notch.
- On race day, the focus is to enjoy it, treat it as a health activity not a race, take care of my body/do not injure and have enough energy for the 5+ hour drive home after.