Attila Matyas 2014 IMChoo Race Plan
IMChoo Race Plan
Background:
This will be my second IM after IMFL in 2012. Took most of 2013 off to work on house projects for my kids to build them a fun hangout room in our basement. I spent a lot of the first half of 2014 trying to come back from all the time off. Somehow manual labor doesn’t translate to endurance training so I lost a LOT of fitness but my kids are loving the room so it was worth it.
Current stats:
Age: 46 Height 6’1” Weight 184.4 lbs FTP: 249 vDOT: 40
Race Pillars:
Race Day is about EXECUTION, not fitness
Execute with respect for the bike course
No highs, No lows
Honor thy training self
Exercise Patience
Goal:
To dedicate this race to the memory of my best friend who passed away from colon cancer last year. I will use the memories of all the wonderful times together as motivation on course to race to the best of my ability and remember how lucky I am to be able to do what I do. When it hurts and gets tough I will just look up and smile and hopefully have enough until the hills at mile 20 to get angry that he’s gone and take it out on the course.
Mon/Tues/Wed:
Pack a ton of gear to bring a family of four via the family truckster from South Jersey to Chattanooga.
Extra planning to entertain kids for the 11 hour drive which we will break-up by leaving Wednesday after school and stopping at a hotel in Virginia for the night.
Wear compression socks for the drive.
Thursday:
Finish the drive on Thursday morning.
Check into Hotel
Go to IM village pickup registration materials
Quick run through expo
EN Team Dinner
Back to hotel and settle down for the night
Friday:
Start organizing race day gear
Assemble bike and check all parts
4 Keys talk at 10:30AM
Scope out the hilly side of the run course on Barton and run it in both directions to get a feel for what it will be like to run on race day
Back to hotel to finish packing all transition and special needs bags.
Mark all bags with colorful tape
While packing try to visualize the steps of the race and what my backup plan is if something goes wrong
Get to bed on time!!!
Saturday:
No sleeping in late, get up to watch my boy and girl run the Ironkids event
Enjoy seeing the smile on their faces as they get their medals
Check in bike and bags
Deflate tires a little
Walks swim exit to transition and look for shortest paths
If timing works out check out practice swim if not don’t push just to get there. I’ve swam in the Schuylkill and Potomac, a river is a river. Temps will be on borderline of no wetsuit so need to acclimate to water temp.
Memorize bike and transition locations
Sunday:
Breakfast 4AM:
4 cups of applesauce, scoop of protein powder, banana and bottle of perform
Get dressed with Desoto bib, HRM, timing chip, 910XT (I like post swim review of swim) chamois cream, flip flops and morning clothes over whole kit
Tape toes
Grab morning bag with wetsuit, 2x goggles (small drop of baby shampoo in each lens and rinsed), ear plugs, swimcap, body glide, plastic grocery bag, speedsuit, EN Tri-top, powerbar, gel and small water bottle
Bring floor pump
Transition:
Pump up tires 112 Rear 110 Front
Add nutrition bottles to bike: 3 bottles of perform as aero bar, down tube and behind the seat. Add rice paper wrapped power bars and clifbloks to bento (Thx. Tim!)
Toolkit items will already be in bottom of bento box as co2, small multi tool, co2 head and spare tire taped to top tube
Place arm coolers rolled up on aero bars
Turn on Edge 500 – zero quarq, no auto off
Put bike in good starting gear
Body Marking
Hand off pump to wife
Put away morning gear depending on if it is no wet suit swim.
If wetsuit then put on EN Tri-top under wetsuit if no wetsuit then run over to T1 bag and add tri-top to bag for putting on after swim (Al’s step in method)
Grab bus to swim start
Have powerbar 1:15 before start with small bottle of water
Have no caf gel :15 minutes before start
Swim:
Try to line up early to get in the water on time
Goggles under cap
Hold goggles for feet first jump off barge and scissor kick legs and put out spare arm and push down so I don’t go so deep (same motion as Alcatraz swim)
Get moving steady and try not to have typical panic/claustrophobia attack, just count strokes, swim and stay in your box.
Sight every 6-10 strokes
Steady, steady and more steady. No surging no trying to keep up with the Jones’ just swim your own race.
Nearing finish line start rehearsing swim exit in head: goggles up, unzip wetsuit if using push down to waist and look for strippers. Steady walk/jog. Not winning anything by sprinting through this section so just stay calm.
Look for family say hi and a couple of high fives and keep moving.
T1:
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
Bike shoes in bottom of bag with straps open
Mega zip lock on top of that: nutrition of gels and salt stick
Helmet with socks and sunglasses
Put on socks, sunglasses and helmet
Grab mega bag and shoes
Take nutrition out of zip lock and put in pockets while walking to bike
Get sunscreen from volunteers
At bike put on shoes and head towards mount line, mount bike and start garmin
Bike:
If day is hot/humid get started early during admin miles through town to get ahead of hydration and nutrition.
Minimum of 2 bottles/hour or more for first 3 hours to get ahead of hydration especially if hot. Use the need to pee as a gauge.
Use admin miles before hitting the loop to dial-in steady watts .66-.67 and get HR down
Pull up arm coolers from aero bar once settled in
Once on loop lock in -.69-.70 and stay aero and steady with frequent shifting for the false flats. Watch, 3s power, NP Lap set to 4 mile intervals and % grade.
Reference the gears sticker taped to stem as a reminder of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears.
Ignore everything around you and just ride your own race. Use all of the 50X34 by 11X28 gearing that’s why you have it!
My last race rehearsal was an IF of 1.02 for 117.5 miles at .71 so I hope to repeat that with just a little less intensity.
When in doubt I will aim to do less on the bike and trade in some time for better legs on the run.
Edge 500 is set to 10 minute intervals to remind me to drink and stay on top of the gels and salt.
Rest stops will be dump bottles get new perform either 2 or three depending and one bottle of water to dump over head and arm coolers as needed.
I will have a bike SN bag of extra chamois cream, co2, gels and salt but do not plan on stopping unless I really need something out of the bag.
Towards the end of the bike turn on 910XT and flip it to run mode and the correct screen and take salt stick.
Take note of average heart rate for duration of bike and make a note of this for run
At mile 114 start dialing down the watts, just nice easy riding, unbuckle from shoes, start thinking about T2.
T2:
Do flying dismount and hand off bike
Put on compression socks and shoes
Grab go bag with nutrition, hat, cooling towel, race belt and banana
Exiting T2 put clifbloks, gels, and salt in two side pockets and back pocket, put on hat and race belt.
Eat banana
Run:
I have no issues running slowly but I have a feeling this course will hold me to it.
Slow out of transition and take first big hill super easy or else have coach Rich have to get out of his lawn chair to yell at me and pummel me with little debbies.
Planning on running via heart rate.
While on bike I will look at my average heart rate and keep my run as close to that average as I can when starting the run knowing that it will drift up as the day goes on.
No spikes, if it’s a hill just slow down and the time will sort itself out at the end.
Just keep running and walk the aid stations take in 4-8 ounces of perform and switch to coke at mile 18.
Run nutrition will be clifbloks, gels and salt stick.
Dunk cooling towel in ice bucket they have for the drinks and put it around neck as often as required.
Take sponges and squeeze on arm coolers and put ice under hat.
Run SN will have some extra salt and nutrition but I don’t plan on using unless I drop something.
Once on the second set of hills at mile 20 just assess where I am and think about why I’m doing this and get ready to finish strong.
Remember how hard my friend fought his cancer and be ready to go to some dark place and turn myself inside out to honor him.
Background:
This will be my second IM after IMFL in 2012. Took most of 2013 off to work on house projects for my kids to build them a fun hangout room in our basement. I spent a lot of the first half of 2014 trying to come back from all the time off. Somehow manual labor doesn’t translate to endurance training so I lost a LOT of fitness but my kids are loving the room so it was worth it.
Current stats:
Age: 46 Height 6’1” Weight 184.4 lbs FTP: 249 vDOT: 40
Race Pillars:
Race Day is about EXECUTION, not fitness
Execute with respect for the bike course
No highs, No lows
Honor thy training self
Exercise Patience
Goal:
To dedicate this race to the memory of my best friend who passed away from colon cancer last year. I will use the memories of all the wonderful times together as motivation on course to race to the best of my ability and remember how lucky I am to be able to do what I do. When it hurts and gets tough I will just look up and smile and hopefully have enough until the hills at mile 20 to get angry that he’s gone and take it out on the course.
Mon/Tues/Wed:
Pack a ton of gear to bring a family of four via the family truckster from South Jersey to Chattanooga.
Extra planning to entertain kids for the 11 hour drive which we will break-up by leaving Wednesday after school and stopping at a hotel in Virginia for the night.
Wear compression socks for the drive.
Thursday:
Finish the drive on Thursday morning.
Check into Hotel
Go to IM village pickup registration materials
Quick run through expo
EN Team Dinner
Back to hotel and settle down for the night
Friday:
Start organizing race day gear
Assemble bike and check all parts
4 Keys talk at 10:30AM
Scope out the hilly side of the run course on Barton and run it in both directions to get a feel for what it will be like to run on race day
Back to hotel to finish packing all transition and special needs bags.
Mark all bags with colorful tape
While packing try to visualize the steps of the race and what my backup plan is if something goes wrong
Get to bed on time!!!
Saturday:
No sleeping in late, get up to watch my boy and girl run the Ironkids event
Enjoy seeing the smile on their faces as they get their medals
Check in bike and bags
Deflate tires a little
Walks swim exit to transition and look for shortest paths
If timing works out check out practice swim if not don’t push just to get there. I’ve swam in the Schuylkill and Potomac, a river is a river. Temps will be on borderline of no wetsuit so need to acclimate to water temp.
Memorize bike and transition locations
Sunday:
Breakfast 4AM:
4 cups of applesauce, scoop of protein powder, banana and bottle of perform
Get dressed with Desoto bib, HRM, timing chip, 910XT (I like post swim review of swim) chamois cream, flip flops and morning clothes over whole kit
Tape toes
Grab morning bag with wetsuit, 2x goggles (small drop of baby shampoo in each lens and rinsed), ear plugs, swimcap, body glide, plastic grocery bag, speedsuit, EN Tri-top, powerbar, gel and small water bottle
Bring floor pump
Transition:
Pump up tires 112 Rear 110 Front
Add nutrition bottles to bike: 3 bottles of perform as aero bar, down tube and behind the seat. Add rice paper wrapped power bars and clifbloks to bento (Thx. Tim!)
Toolkit items will already be in bottom of bento box as co2, small multi tool, co2 head and spare tire taped to top tube
Place arm coolers rolled up on aero bars
Turn on Edge 500 – zero quarq, no auto off
Put bike in good starting gear
Body Marking
Hand off pump to wife
Put away morning gear depending on if it is no wet suit swim.
If wetsuit then put on EN Tri-top under wetsuit if no wetsuit then run over to T1 bag and add tri-top to bag for putting on after swim (Al’s step in method)
Grab bus to swim start
Have powerbar 1:15 before start with small bottle of water
Have no caf gel :15 minutes before start
Swim:
Try to line up early to get in the water on time
Goggles under cap
Hold goggles for feet first jump off barge and scissor kick legs and put out spare arm and push down so I don’t go so deep (same motion as Alcatraz swim)
Get moving steady and try not to have typical panic/claustrophobia attack, just count strokes, swim and stay in your box.
Sight every 6-10 strokes
Steady, steady and more steady. No surging no trying to keep up with the Jones’ just swim your own race.
Nearing finish line start rehearsing swim exit in head: goggles up, unzip wetsuit if using push down to waist and look for strippers. Steady walk/jog. Not winning anything by sprinting through this section so just stay calm.
Look for family say hi and a couple of high fives and keep moving.
T1:
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
Bike shoes in bottom of bag with straps open
Mega zip lock on top of that: nutrition of gels and salt stick
Helmet with socks and sunglasses
Put on socks, sunglasses and helmet
Grab mega bag and shoes
Take nutrition out of zip lock and put in pockets while walking to bike
Get sunscreen from volunteers
At bike put on shoes and head towards mount line, mount bike and start garmin
Bike:
If day is hot/humid get started early during admin miles through town to get ahead of hydration and nutrition.
Minimum of 2 bottles/hour or more for first 3 hours to get ahead of hydration especially if hot. Use the need to pee as a gauge.
Use admin miles before hitting the loop to dial-in steady watts .66-.67 and get HR down
Pull up arm coolers from aero bar once settled in
Once on loop lock in -.69-.70 and stay aero and steady with frequent shifting for the false flats. Watch, 3s power, NP Lap set to 4 mile intervals and % grade.
Reference the gears sticker taped to stem as a reminder of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears.
Ignore everything around you and just ride your own race. Use all of the 50X34 by 11X28 gearing that’s why you have it!
My last race rehearsal was an IF of 1.02 for 117.5 miles at .71 so I hope to repeat that with just a little less intensity.
When in doubt I will aim to do less on the bike and trade in some time for better legs on the run.
Edge 500 is set to 10 minute intervals to remind me to drink and stay on top of the gels and salt.
Rest stops will be dump bottles get new perform either 2 or three depending and one bottle of water to dump over head and arm coolers as needed.
I will have a bike SN bag of extra chamois cream, co2, gels and salt but do not plan on stopping unless I really need something out of the bag.
Towards the end of the bike turn on 910XT and flip it to run mode and the correct screen and take salt stick.
Take note of average heart rate for duration of bike and make a note of this for run
At mile 114 start dialing down the watts, just nice easy riding, unbuckle from shoes, start thinking about T2.
T2:
Do flying dismount and hand off bike
Put on compression socks and shoes
Grab go bag with nutrition, hat, cooling towel, race belt and banana
Exiting T2 put clifbloks, gels, and salt in two side pockets and back pocket, put on hat and race belt.
Eat banana
Run:
I have no issues running slowly but I have a feeling this course will hold me to it.
Slow out of transition and take first big hill super easy or else have coach Rich have to get out of his lawn chair to yell at me and pummel me with little debbies.
Planning on running via heart rate.
While on bike I will look at my average heart rate and keep my run as close to that average as I can when starting the run knowing that it will drift up as the day goes on.
No spikes, if it’s a hill just slow down and the time will sort itself out at the end.
Just keep running and walk the aid stations take in 4-8 ounces of perform and switch to coke at mile 18.
Run nutrition will be clifbloks, gels and salt stick.
Dunk cooling towel in ice bucket they have for the drinks and put it around neck as often as required.
Take sponges and squeeze on arm coolers and put ice under hat.
Run SN will have some extra salt and nutrition but I don’t plan on using unless I drop something.
Once on the second set of hills at mile 20 just assess where I am and think about why I’m doing this and get ready to finish strong.
Remember how hard my friend fought his cancer and be ready to go to some dark place and turn myself inside out to honor him.
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Comments
Racing for one who no longer can - good memories to motivate.
Al as always thx. for your insights.
Good point on the bottles. With temps and humidity on Sunday I was going to get ahead of hydration and push it in the early stages. Miles 0-30 on this course is a false flat where I have to be super aware of good pacing so I figured it would be a good time to fuel up. Ran the hilly section today and could defineyely feel the heat and humidity and I'm a big dude so the more I can top off on the bike the better.
Great point on the run. Calories are high with that much perform so I will dilute with water. After practice run today I don't think I'll be able to fuel much in the latter part of the marathon. Ice in rear pocket is genius never thought of that but will defineyely do. Under the hat is always such a shock when I do it.
Only co2 because we are not getting special needs back and my wheels are tubulars so I don't want to donate an $80 tire. On bike tires have cafe latex and I have a spare tub on bike.
Great point on the mantra. Rest assured it will be repeated often and I will be a mess by the end. Just writing this gets to me.
Thanks again.