What could go wrong - a constructive inventory
Special preamble:
If you are racing in, say, the next two weeks, stop reading
now and bookmark this thread for a later day.
I don’t want this stuff to be creating unnecessary noise or worry if
read by an athlete who is in the Fog of War.
…
I wanted to make up a list of the kind of stuff that can predictably
go wrong (but can be turned around) in a long distance triathlon. My intention here, however, is to be entirely
constructive with the list.
Recall Phelps in the 200 fly (ntd - edit ) in Beijing. As soon as he hit the water, his goggles leaked. Badly.
Then flooded. Bad news. But in his mental prep and training, he had
mentally rehearsed or anticipated such a scenario.
Repeatedly. And what might have
been a major nightmare became a minor deviation to his overall execution. Moreover, it was a deviation for which he had
developed a plan, mentally rehearsed the plan, and then re-rehearsed
the scenario, to deal with the goggles issue in case it happened. The goal was to minimize it to an
inconvenience, instead of a race-ender. Goal
achieved: World Record set, with water-filled goggles.
So the EN prescribed usage:
by identifying these adverse events here and now, you are ultimately
setting them out to take them as minor setbacks or deviations in case they
arise by making them part of your mental script for the day. So,
when it comes time to visualizing your race (which you should be doing), or
writing a race plan (which you should also be doing), you can have these as possibilities
that you can anticipate, and create some kind of contingency plan or response if
they happen. The bigger goal is if they happen, you are
able to approach them from a place of “oh – I actually have a plan for when X
happens,” instead of going into the spiral of panic, and mentally escalating a
minor setback to a major race-blower. I’m my race plans, I always make some kind of
tongue-in-cheek note about “in case of minor setback, think Chrissie Wellington
(referring to her graceful handling of her flat tire while leading the Kona bike), not Normann
Stadler (with two flats when riding off the front, eventually leading to him throwing his bike into the lava fields in a rage,
and having a full meltdown).
What can you add to this?
Think “plausible.” cramp=plausible. Zombies=implausible. Here goes:
Swim
Goggles knocked off
Hit/kicked in the face
Wetsuit zipper, wetsuit tear, or other problem
Panic attack
Muscle cramp
Transitions
Bag is misplaced / mislabelled / not where it should be
Equipment has become damaged in transition (broken
sunglasses, tire blew, helmet buckle comes off)
Bike has been moved
Bike
powermeter / powermeter doesn’t work
Flat tire
minor mechanical issue (other)
Muscle cramp
Stomach issues
Missed feeding / drop
nutrition bottle / ejected water bottles
Minor crash / spill
Drafting / Position Penalty
Run
HR / Garmin / watch doesn’t work
Muscle cramp
Stomach issues
If you race long enough, you’ll see stuff will go wrong on
race day. I‘ve had almost every one of these happen to
me in an IM (and dealt with many in completely
the wrong way). But by putting these in
an inventory and making them part of your dispassionate race execution, you have
identified the adverse event, planned for it, rehearsed your reaction to it, and are
able to move on in case it happens, and keep on with your mission.
Comments
Bike - broken elbow rest/aero bar (minor mechanical?)
broken cleat (maybe that's a "minor mechanical"?)
broken spoke
overheating (sleepy, goose bumps, yawning/falling asleep)
Run - blisters
severe chaffing
overheating
course runs out of your liquid/gel/bar of choice (see IMMT 2014?)
water is very cold
water is very choppy
big waves
unexpected current
swallow a lot of water
no wetsuit allowed
Bike:
You accidently go off course (miss a turn etc.)
Rain/high wind
brakes rubbing
derailleur won't shift
Run:
accidentally go off course
accidentally cut the course
Rain/wind
minor fall
You just decide you don't want to run anymore (this happens to me every single race)
Awesome. I can't wait to hear the "fix" for this one.
To add to the list:
Wetsuit starts filling with water, filling up the armpits
Chip is lost during swim
Watch comes off during swim
Watch button (eg, Start/stop) is hit during swim.
You inadvertantly pour Sports Drink instead of water on yourself to cool down.
Gel flies all over you when you open the little pack.
The course runs out of ...ice/Perform/Coke/bananas ... Whatever you were counting on.
Your sunglasses get smeared with sunscreen
You lose your sunglasses while biking
Your wet suit is torn by the strippers
Swim is so cold, hands dont work in T1, leaving you unable to even snap your helmet buckle
Crash on bike ... Limbs and cycle are OK, but you seem to be bleeding a lot... Or, wheel badly bent, out of true, or some other "fixable" damage.
All of these have happened to me or some I know/saw, along with many already mentioned. The most befuddling was in my last IM, when I saw a guy who's T2 bag was not to be found...the volunteers had checked EVERY bag.
Al....I know (hoped) someone would respond with that one!
Stuff in transition bag is not where it's supposed to be. I did a race where you had to leave you stuff in a bag by the bike and it was windy and it took me 8 minutes to find my bag that had somehow ended up very far away.
as folks know, I am a big one to carry stuff, on the bike, to fix just about everything.
everyone should have a chain link like wippermann for broken chain.
zip ties.
DERAILLEUR HANGER. get nonspecific or specific one for your bike.
complete tube change items: co2 AND pump. two tubes AND tube repair patches.
etc.
Thanks for this list. I have actually thought just about all of Dave's list. I actually am kind of looking forward to the race where the electic stuff stops working and i can just go!
That could never happen.