Gabe Peterson's St George Race Plan
This will be my second year doing St George 70.3. Last year I felt like my training doing a traditional Z1 heavy plan was insufficient and my race execution sucked. I had attended Coach Rich's swim clinic and remembered him talking about using intensity in training and that 90% of triathletes were doing the wrong thing on race day. I signed up for EN the day after St George. I figured that I wanted to improve if I was going to make this part of my lifestyle. This is sort of a revenge race for me.
Please see my race plan in the post below. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'll update it as I get feedback.
Questions
- I'm thinking I'll probably run my FLO 30 up front instead of my 60, especially if the forecast calls for winds. I've had a couple bad experiences with the 60 descending in crosswinds. I'll leave the 90 on the back. However, it will probably cost me a couple minutes. Good idea?
- I added about 5 minutes to my target run time compared to what I can do on a flatter course. There is just over 1000ft of climbing. Is there a good rule for adjusting time for elevation gain?
- I remember seeing a heat acclimatization protocol on EN but can't find it. Last year it was 90F on the run. Can someone point me in the right direction?
- [Adding another question that occurred to me]. How do you deal with cyclists who won't let you pass? One thing I love about Utah is the enthusiasm for the outdoors and sports. I've noticed there are many more casual triathletes than in So Cal, but they don't seem familiar with the tri rules. It seems like everyone has done some sort of tri. I think that shows up on the bike course at St George. Last year there were a ton of road bikes. When I'd try to pass, they'd come out of the saddle to hammer it, so I'd drop back. Then they'd soft pedal. Or sometimes they wouldn't drop back once I passed. Basically, they were riding like it was a road race. My choices were to spike massive power to get by or under cook the bike. I am hoping this won't be as big of a problem since I'll be in a much earlier wave.
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Comments
Race Plan: St George 70.3 "Revenge Race"
2015 Targets
2014 Results
Overall Time: Less than 6:00
Overall Time: 6:40
Swim: 45
Swim: 46
T1: 7min
T1: 6min
Bike: 3:10
Bike: 3:27
T2: 3min
T2: 5min
Run: 1:50
Run: 2:15
Pre-Race
Thursday
· Begin carb loading by tracking calories and carb consumption in MyFitnessPal. Target a minimum of 500g carbs. Pack carb sources including bagels, fruit, and Gatorade. Take in carbs every hour.
· Leave work early and drive from SLC to St George, arriving in the evening
Friday
· Drink sports drink throughout the day to carb load and stay hydrated in the dry desert air
· 9:00AM – Check-in and pickup race package, but don’t linger to see all the dudes in compression socks with t-shirts from Ironman Badass MoFo
· Decide whether to run FLO 30 or 60 wheel on the front. If there is any chance of wind, go with the FLO 30. I don’t want to do the descent back down into town wrestling the bike in crosswinds. Will go with FLO 90 on the back unless hurricane force winds are predicted.
· 1:30PM – Load bike and go out to Sand Hollow for drop off.
· Not sure if I’ll do a swim in Sand Hollow. Last year it was pretty crazy.
· Return to hotel and prepare gear bags (see below)
· 6:00PM Attend EN dinner
Bike Bag
· Aero helmet
· Rimless sunglasses
· Tri cycling shoes
· Arm warmers (pre-rolled)
· Sunscreen
· Socks, in case I want to wear them
· Old cleat in case I break one
Run Bag
· Socks
· Hoka Cliftons
· Race belt with number loaded with 4 GU Salted Carmels (go bag)
· EN visor (go bag)
· Running sunglasses (go-bag)
· Sunscreen (go bag)
Morning Bag
· Wetsuit
· Clear goggles plus tinted set as backup
· Swim cap
· Trislide lube
· Sunscreen
· Pre-workout drink
· Bike nutrition
o Aero bottle filled with Sustained Energy
o Perform in Nalgene bottle to go in Torhans 30
o Bike bottle with Perfom for refills
o GU Chomps and cutup Clif Bar
Race Morning
· Wake up at 5:00AM
· Eat cereal + coffee up
· Apply two layers of sunscreen
· Depart by 5:30AM to catch shuttle
· Drink Gatorade on drive
· Arrive at 5:45AM
· Setup gear in transition
· Connect HRM
· Pre-workout supplement 15 minutes before start
Swim
Target time: 45min
Target pace: 2:00min/100yds
· Warm up using strength cords since no pre-race swimming is allowed
· When wave enters water, easy swim out to starting buoys to warm up, but not to easy because there is only 3 minutes
· First 10 minutes – go easy counting strokes, sight off buoys on the left
· Try to find feet or bubbles to draft. With clear water, it will be easy to see other swimmers.
· If fast swimmers from later waves try to climber over, throw elbows to discourage them. The water is clear and you can see other swimmers to go by, so they are doing it just to be a dick. Last year there was minimal contact, probably the least of any race.
· After rounding the last turn buoy and the boat ramp is in sight, start kicking harder to get blood back into the legs. My legs cramped up in transition last year.
· Swim exit – run up boat ramp, unzip wetsuit, and find wetsuit stripper
T1
Target time: 7min
1. Jog from strippers to my bike and gear. Make sure to identify a landmark during walkthrough.
2. Put wetsuit, cap, and goggles in swim bag.
3. Spin crank to wake up PM and turn on bike computer.
4. Open bike bag (last year we weren’t allowed to lay out gear, although many did anyway)
5. If cold, take arm warmer #1 out of upside down helmet, it's pre-rolled, and slip over arm. Repeat for Arm warmer #2.
6. Put on socks and shoes.
7. Put sunglasses in mouth.
8. Put helmet on head and buckle.
9. Put on sunglasses.
10. Walk bike (don’t break a cleat) to mount line.
11. Clean mount at the line, pedaling away softly and safely as I confirm PM is up and running. Watch out for other riders attempting a “fly mount” for the first time. A lady almost took me out last year.
Bike
Target time: 3:10 (BestBikeSplit predicts just under 3hrs)
Target Speed: 18.5 MPH
Target NP: 178W
Target IF: 0.78
Target TSS: 180
· Try to stay in low Z3 (165W) during the first stretch of gentle climbing for about 3 miles
o People will pass like I am going backwards. Let them. I’ll see most of them later on the bike or the run when they’re walking.
· After crossing the cattle guard at the beginning of the climb around mile 3, I’ll have to crank up the wattage to low 200s. Come over the top of the hill and stay on the power.
· Settle in at target wattage.
· Around mile 35-38, refill Torhans with Perform from spare bottle. Make sure to do this before Snow Canyon. I ran out of liquid on the climb last year.
Nutrition Plan
· Target: Consume about 300 calories per hour and about 500mg of sodium (I can’t handle the 1000mg EN recommendation – it gives me a rotten stomach)
Nutrition
Frequency
Calories / hour
Total calories
3-4ozof Perform fromTorhans30 on aerobars
15 min
175
525
Swig of Sustained Energy from aero bottle on downtube
30 min
100
300
EatGuChomps and cutupClifBar from bento box
30 min
25
150
Power Guidelines
CATEGORY
WATTS
Flat/Roll
Headwind
171
Flat/Roll
Tailwind
162
Flat/Roll
Crosswind
165
MinorHill
(1-2%)
185
MediumHill
(2-4%)
206
MajorHill
(4-6%)
211
ExtremeHill
(>6%)
215
Minor
Descent
138
T2
Target time: 3min
· Roll downhill to the dismount line, hop off the bike and jog to spot on bike rack.
· Take off helmet, tri shoes, and riding sunglasses, putting them in the aside.
· Open run bag.
· Take out shoes, socks (if needed), and go bag.
· Put on socks then shoes.
· Grab go bag, and head to a port-a-potty. Memorize location on walkthrough.
· Use port-a-potty.
· Jog out of T2.
· During first half mile of run, open go bag:
1. Put on EN visor and running sunglasses
2. Put on race belt
3. Apply sunscreen
Run
Target time: 1:50
Target pace: 8:20min/mi
Target TSS: 130
· Go conservative until mile the big climb at about mile 2.5 and keep HR in Z2
· Use HR + RPE since pace will be all over the place will all the rollers
· Walk 20 paces at every aid station to take in nutrition
· Set Garmin Fenix 3 to autolap every mile and just focus on hitting the targets for that mile. If I have a bad mile, just let it go.
· The run is my relative strength. While everyone else slows down, keep getting faster.
Pace
· 0-2.5 miles – Z2 + 30” (8:30/mi). Don’t let HR get out of Z2. I will probably have to go up into Z4 HR to climb the hill without walking. Keep cadence up and shorten strides up the hill.
· 2.5-10 miles – Z2 (8:00/mi). HR can stray into Z3 for climbs but keep it mostly in Z2. Stay loose and have fun. Smile and joke with volunteers.
· 10-13.1 miles – Z4 (7:30/mi) Run like I’m being chased by a dinosaur. Get nasty, count kills as I pass people. It’s all downhill, keep legs churning, lengthen stride. Shut up, quads!
· Finish – slow down and enjoy it! Look gooood for the picture!
Nutrition Plan
Target: Consume about 270 calories per hour.
Nutrition
Frequency
Calories / hour
Total calories
3-4ozof Gatorda from aid station, walk 20 paces
Every mile
170
340
Shot of Gu gel with caffeine to stay alert
Every 3-4 miles
100
200-300
Take water as need.Dump ice water on head if hot.
As need.
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Gabe - no comment on race plan yet, haven;t read it. But you are correct to wonder about how to pace the run. This course IMO is ideal for using HR rather than pace or even RPE, due to the constant gradiant, either up or down, compounded by the dry, elevated temps.
I did the race two years ago. I had what I considered to be a very good run. I was in the last wave, and had a wonderful time passing scores or maybe 100s of people, and being passed by no one until the final half mile. I was running from 12-2 PM, so the sun was at its Zenith. Temps were in the upper 80s. My HR was pretty stable thru the entire run, being @ 140 except when I was walking while drinking in aid stations. This was about 93-94% of my 5K HR at the time. I was purposely trying to keep my HR at that level, whether I was going up down or sideways. So e.g. I ended up with one mile @ 10:30, and another @ 7:30. I strongly recommend using HR to pace a hilly, hot course. It's the easiest way IMO to cut through the havoc which ups, downs, and elevated temps have on pace.
So what HR to use? YMMV, but as a baseline, I certainly would't recommend going lower than 93% of your average HR from a 5k VDOT test or race. An upper limit might be the HR you would race a half marathon at. For me, those numbers are pretty much the same, but I have a very low max HR.
About 4-5 years ago, there was an heat pace aid developed in EN, but it was/is specific for Ironman only. It was based on data from all US IM races from about 2001-2010. It should in no way be considered as predictive or even useful or HIM races.
I am shooting for high Z2 on the flats and downhill, and low Z3 on the climbs for the first 10 miles. Then I'll try to crack Z4 on the downhill from about mile 10 back into town, if there is gas let in the tank. I have my Fenix 3 set to show current HR zone so I don't have to do any math once my brain shuts down.
@Doug, thank you and please do. I've borrowed much of the format from other race plans I've seen on EN. Look forward to meeting you at St George.
Out of curiosity: Why are you planning 7 minutes for T1?
7min would be worse case. Last year it took just over 6min with cramping legs.
Gabe, Great improvement on your run from last year to this year if you are targeting a 25minute reduction. Way to go! Good point about not getting too amped up about your mile over mile run splits. They will vary significantly from one mile to the next. Maybe set a field on your garmin to show average pace and focus more on your average vs any single mile. Otherwise, i think you are well positioned to unleash some vengeance on last years race!
I have to tip my cap to Coaches RnP on the run improvement. A year ago when I joined EN, my VDOT was around 36. Now my last test a few weeks ago was 46 but I suspect it is 47-48. Will re-test after St George. I've been a recreational runner since college and done several half marys and marathons, but never with a serious time goal. I think I had a lot of untapped run durability.
Indeed, after Boulder 70.3 I plan to be a runner until October to see if I can shatter my previous marathon PR.
I like to just focus on winning the mile. When I see overall pace I start getting discouraged when it is behind my target, and come off the gas. I like to be pleasantly surprised when I beat my target.