Leslie's IM NZ Race Plan
IMNZ Race Execution Plan.
Much of the timing below will really depend on how we are handling the time change (17 hrs ahead). We will be taking melatonin to help the adjustment, and it helps that we leave San Fran at 9PM and arrive in NZ at 7AM. Plan is to strap the 2 year old to his seat and hope for the best 
Sunday 3/1 – Monday 3/3
· March 1 2PM – March 3 07AM Air travel to NZ
· Stretch, Yoga, Hydrate during travel
· Bringing Yamuna balls to roll on in aisle when awake
Tuesday 3/3
· Arrive 0700 in NZ with 4 hour drive to race city Taupo
· Assemble bike to make sure everything is a go
· Scope out the closest place to get a pump or get to know a neighbor that is racing that has one.
· If I can get it in – 30’ jog
Wednesday 3/4
· Course Ride 90’
· Course Swim 30’
· Will be a great day to see what access is like to the race. We are two families and 4 kiddos under 5 yrs old trying to find me on race day, so riding out to the course and getting to the swim venue will help develop those plans.
· Race expo is open from 9-5 – play this by ear
Thursday 3/5
· Course Swim again 30’
· Quick Ride to check set-up 30’
· Quick run 30’
· Athlete Check-in 9-4. Would like to get this out of the way, either right after or right before swim/bike/run.
· Race expo open from 9-5 – play by ear.
· Race briefing 7PM
Friday 3/6
· No working out!
· Bike/Bag check-in 10-4. Prob try to go early so he can come with – quick stroll around the venue and then back to the flat to rest.
· Rest – Feet Up
Saturday 3/7 – RACE DAY!!!!!
Early Morning Wake Up 3:45 – 4:00. Eat ‘breakfast’ which includes my Bullet Coffee with cream, MCT oil and butter, some almond butter and raisins/bananas, and the typical 2 big glasses of lemon/salt water. Lemon/salt water until race start
Transition opens at 5:00. Get there early. Get set up. Deep Breaths. Smile.
As far as race goals go….I tend to have a lot of them….mainly because it allows me to ‘succeed’ along the day, and also because I found that with my First (and only other IM) I needed ways to validate the day in case the unthinkable happened. As with time goals, there are so many other factors that can come into play, time goals can really get into your head if they are not met, so I usually have a time goal, an AG goal, and a ‘Feel’ goal for each discipline. WRT the Time goals, I also have a good/better/best(usually bordering unrealistic) goals as well. Lots of chances to ‘succeed’ J
Swim: 0700 AG swim start
Tri Kit, goggles, wetsuit, timing chip, cap
Get in and warm up by 6:40 at the latest. Drils/swim/drills/swim
Race Plan: Book it for the first 400-500yrds then settle in for the long swim. Keep my 5 drills in my head to keep focus. Find bubbles. Stay relaxed. Stay lllooooonnnnnggggg. Smile.
Swim Goals:
Time: 1:08/1:03/sub1:00
AG Goal: Out of the Water Top10/Top5/Top3 [38 females in my AG, so doable]
Feel: Relaxed neck and shoulders during entire swim. Come out of the water feeling rested.
T1: Can’t take wetsuit fully off until in transition, so peel top half off, get to transition, step and strip. T1 bag – helmet, shoes, socks, chamois cream, suntan lotion.
Bike: Ride first 30-40 minutest to settle in. There is a long hill less than 2 miles in so goal is to get through that nice and easy, start to re-hydrate from the swim. STAY STEADY. The ride has 4 long hills, (each 4-6 miles long). DO NOT CRUSH THE HILLS. This is hard for me. I’m a small rider who loves to crush hills to prove I’m strong, since the rest of the ride most others are passing me. Coach P reminded me that race day is not the place to do this J Keep HR between 137-145. Start nutrition at bike time 40-45 min as practiced in SO many workouts. On bike will have front water bottle with lemon/salt, on frame a concentrated lemon/salt, on frame ‘heavy’ nutrition bottle with UCAN. Sip from front water bottle every 10 minutes. Take nutrition every 30 minutes. When I hit the aid stations, poor concentrated hydration into front bottle, get water to fill up front bottle and keep going. Hit special needs with another bottle of concentrated electrolytes and ‘heavy’ bottle.
Bike Goals:
Time: 6:14/6:00/5:36 [that last one is a 20mph avg…yeah…..]
AG Goal: Top 50%/Top 25%/Top10%
Feel: Able to stay in aerobars, Negative split, stay strong throughout. Stick to HR.
T2: Plan is to have a Ziploc bag with the items I can put on while running out of transition. Leave bike shoes on bike. Helmet/glasses/socks off in that order. Put garmin on. Turn Garmin on. New socks on, shoes on, grab bag and go. [bag has race number, visor, nutrition]
Run: So the run is where I have the most to prove. In my previous Ironman, I was grinning from ear to ear at the start of the run. My swim and bike were better than expected. My seat hurt so bad from the bike I was ecstatic to be done with it, and I ran…..way……to ……fast at the start. I ended up spending lots of time in porta potties, and walk/ran for three hours. So, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast right? Pace for first 3 miles is 10:00 + Pace for miles 3-6 is 9:45 + at the fastest. I run all my zone 1 workouts with my mouth closed. Pace miles 6-12 9:30 +, Pace miles 12-18 9:15+, Pace miles 18 – go for it. If I need to open my mouth, I’m running too hard before mile 18. I tend to get really caught up with numbers, so when I run with a watch, I only look at it when it buzzes at the mile mark, so running on feel is a much better gauge for me. I can usually get up to an 8:49 mile with my mouth still closed, so these paces might be conservative, but I have to start out that way or I’ll make a repeat of IM WI – not happening. This run is going to be different. This run is going to be Great!
Nutrition will be UCAN carried in Hammer Flasks, take water from every aid station, if I need more, I’ll have honey gel in my tri kit pockets. Use special needs to grab another flask of UCAN.
Time: 4:30/4:18/4:08
AG: I don’t care – I just want to feel goodJ
Feel: I just want to feel good! No portapotties. No tummy troubles. All smiles.
Remember you are in New Zealand. Remember you have your family and BFF at the finish. You have so many things to be thankful for. This race being one of so many. Whether the day turned out as expected (which it won’t) or not, you are Powerful Beyond Measure.
Comments
Hey Leslie,
Nice work. I guess I need to draft up my RR too. Here are my thoughts:
Pre-race: I too plan on doing a course-recon ride on Wednesday. If you wait until the afternoon, I'd be glad to join you.
Swim: We all have ideas/goals for performance in each leg, but the swim is the last place I'd advise making specific time goals. The swim just doesn't matter much in IM. Course could be long, short, choppy, cold, current, crowded, etc. I've seen you swim, and you're a sub-1:05 swimmer on a typical course. To me, that doesn't dictate what time you should plan on finishing; instead, that dictates where you start so that you can achieve a good time. As a top 10% (maybe 20% with a lot of good Aussie and Kiwi swimmers), you should line up somewhere near the front. There will be a group near the buoys, a group way out wide, some in the middle and a bunch who stand waste-deep on the beach waiting for the Type-As to clear out. If you have a specific start position goal, you're likely to do it. If not, nerves may convince you to take a more conservative start position. If you're at a loss for ideas, you're welcome to swim on my feet (if you promise to take some pulls at the front from time to time
).
T1: Put your helmet on the bike. Because you're wearing socks, probably want to put shoes on in the tent. They have volunteers who will sunscreen you. Simplify T1 to as few moving parts as possible, move through transition with purpose, no pauses, but not recklessly fast. It makes no sense to train 6 months for a 63 minutes swim, only to flush all that work with a 9:00 T1 (trust me, there will be a ton of double-digit T1s in Taupo).
Bike: Take that first hill in the opening miles very easy. Once you find that easy gear for it, I'd move to one gear even easier. This is the place where you absolutely cannot afford to make a mistake. You screw up the climb at Mile 108 - fine. Screw it up at Mile 4 - could really harm the rest of your race.
Be mentally prepared to suffer a bit the last 28 miles to TA into a strong headwind. The bumpy roads will leave you sore and tired by that time, but you can't afford to sit up. Staying aero here is where you'll catch a lot of people and put time on those behind you.
I think a lot of stomach issues on the run are caused by over-eating on the bike and, more prominently, under-hydrating on the bike. Because you had stomach issues at Moo, I strongly encourage you to focus on the liquids early on the bike (making sure it has good sodium quantity to prevent hyponatremia). I'll drink 2 bottles of Horleys the first hour. If you haven't had to pee by 2.5 or 3 hrs, you're likely dehydrated, and it's hard to recover from it at that point. My goal is to pee by 2.5 hours, then each hour there after. 2 is mandatory; 3 even better. I would also recommend not eating too much the last 30-45 minutes on the bike, giving your stomach a chance to calm down and begin the run fresh (if you're a few calories short, you can make it up on the run).
Finally, I would ditch that 5:36 bike goal. You're a strong biker, but that ain't gonna happen. Meredith Kessler destroyed the women's field last year with a 5:08, and about 1/3 of the pro field didn't post a 5:36 or better. This course is slow, at least 1-1.5 mph slower than a course with normal road conditions. Control the things you can (steady HR with no spikes, aero position, nutrition and hydration), let the results sort themselves out. Chasing a bike time is a recipe for a lousy run.
Run: I see UCAN and water, but I can't tell whether you have a sodium plan for the run. Enough salt in your plan? Are you walking the aid stations? If you do, make sure you count 10-30 steps or you could end up walking for a minute (trust me). Run course has lots of rolling hills, with a few steeper ones at the end of the loop - make sure are smart and conservative on them, especially the first 6 miles.
Intangibles: Plan for a day full of surprises, hope for a perfect day. I've flatted 2x at IM. The first time freaked me out; the second time I calmly changed it in 4 minutes. I've been punched, kicked, run off the road by another cyclist, chafed to tears, locked up in cramps, and I've thrown up. I'll have a mental plan for all of the above, plus penalties, cold, wind, dropped nutrition, etc. It sounds negative, but I actually feel more powerful when I have a plan for everything.
Stay healthy, safe travels. Can't wait to see you in Taupo and savor this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Bike:
Depending on family plans - Wednesday meet-up sounds perfect.
Swim - following your bubbles and pulling my fair share sounds like an awesome plan.
T1 - for some reason I thought we had to have our helmet in our T1 bag - so roger on the helmet on the bike. I rarely wear socks - but thought for IM I should? And roger on the T1 time - I actually practice transitions and my friends here laugh at me, but I've won AG races by Transition times.
Bike - Roger on the first hill. Roger on the nutrition and the peeing. I have a high salt concentration in my mix, so getting in electrolytes shouldn't be a problem. And roger on that last hour. So, the 5:36 wasn't really a 'goal'
Run - Salt will be in UCAN mix in the hammer flask. so covered there. I will take 10 steps each aid station to get in water. since I'm not taking other nutrition on the course, there's nothing else to stop for. And roger on the hills - they can deceive you and then crush you - so advice well taken.
Good advice on covering the negatives - seriously - Ive been doing a great job of visualizing all the awesomeness the day will bring, but you're right, I need to have a game plan for bad situations and calming myself through them. Been practicing a lot of patience with a 2 year old as of late - so hopefully that will serve me well
CANNOT WAIT to share this with you in NZ! Safe travels to you guys as well. and we'll talk soon.
As for the socks, I'd vote against them, especially if you want to pee on the bike, you don't want icky pee socks.
Very excited to stalk you online come race day! You've got this!
Two weeks from right now, I should be arriving in Taupo.
Great plan and great advice from Mike and Rachel to help you to fine tune. Not much to add other than to let the bike course happen and focus on eating and drinking so you are ready to run. Your time will be your time. On the run, the first 6 miles sound like the most important part of your race. Lots of people passing you is a very good sign. Let them go and don't get caught up in meaningless battles early in the run. You will most likely see many of those same people later on as you run past them. Best of luck and enjoy your time in NZ!
Great Plan, and good luck with your preparations.
With that Long travel make sure you are getting as much rest as possible...if possible.
Suggest a small hand towel or something to wipe feet if changing socks or having to put on socks in T2. I have done that in the past and along with having baby powder already in those socks and in my running shoes felt really nice after getting off that bike and getting my wet bike shoes off.
Best of luck.
2) Thursday should be a swim and run only, no need to bike again unless you had something added / changed after the Wednesday ride and you need to test _that_.
3) I would check in on Wednesday if you can (it is a Sat race, so Thurs should be the last day anyway). One less thing as you get closer to the race.
4) Steady on the hills…flatten them and watch the HR so it’s not spiking. Your goal is to work on staying STUPID AERO all day…just punch a hole through the wind!
Otherwise I think the plan looks great. Looking forward to our call!