EB's Raleigh 70.3 Race Plan
Emily Brinkley – Raleigh 70.3 Plan
This will be my 4th 70.3, but my first where I have not felt fully prepared due to MCL sprain right out of Jan OS. I did have a successful, full OS of fitness to work with, but little run volume. I participated in the Blue Ridge Camp, and left with a ton of solid bike fitness. Coach P has me running 4 miles, 5 days a week, with a split long run to help with my volume issues. If my knee is bothering me once I begin the run, I am planning on stopping since this is NOT my A race.
- Is racing at a .78 IF smart, or should I race closer to .8?
- My nutrition is somewhat based on my Core Diet plan, but using the Gatorade Product
- All comments/suggestions/critics GLADLY accepted!
TARGETS:
FTP: 193
VDOT: 43
WEIGHT: 57 kg/127
TIME: Swim: 36:00 – T1 – 00:03:30 – BIKE: 2:54:00 – T2 – 00:01:30 – RUN: 2:00:00 – Total: 5:33:00
FOCUS on maintaining form in the swim, hitting numbers on the bike, and setting myself up for run.
TRAVEL AND PRE-RACE WEEK:
Tuesday: Check all gear.
Friday: Head over to athlete check in upon arrival to Raleigh.
SWIM:
My plan is to wear Xterra Swim Skin over my Tri Singlet, along with my Garmin HR monitor, and tri shorts.
BIKE:
Front: Garmin 500/Aero bottle w/ Gatorade Endurance, nutrition schedule, and power chart
Frame: Fuelbelt Aero Bento box with 2 Bonk Breakers cut, quartered, and wrapped in rice paper. 2 Pineapple Gu.
Behind Saddle: 2 Bottles of Gatorade Endurance
Saddle Bag will include 1 tube, inflate valve, 2 CO2 cartridges, mini-tool.
BAGS TO PREPARE:
T1 BAG: With visible colored duct tape, colored mark, and number:
DeSoto Cool Wings
Helmet: Rudy Wingspan
Bike shoes (maybe switching to bike with rubber bands)
Sunglasses
Sunscreen spray
T2 BAG: With visible colored duct tape, colored mark, and number:
Newton Gravity Shoes with Garmin footpod – Compression socks inside shoes
Race belt with number
Fuel belt: 3 filled with Gatorade/ 2 with Gatorlytes mixed in
Ziploc GO bag: Frog Cool towel, Trucker hat, Sunscreen, salt in tic tac.
SAT BEFORE RACE:
11:00 Eat Lunch – Head over for mandatory bike and gear check-in(T1/T2) After bag drop off we will walk transition, study terrain from bike position to mount area and return to the hotel. Early dinner, probably sushi : ) – Drinking Gatorade Endurance all day.
RACE DAY:
BEFORE RACE:
Rise & Shine 4:00am
Eat Breakfast per Nutrition Plan
1 cup of coffee w/ honey
1 btl of Gatorade Endurance
Don’t forget bike bottles.
5:30am: Be at T2 when it opens. Set up run shoes, socks, GO Bag. Head to bus with T1 bag
T1: Check air pressure, turn on Garmin 500, mentally place landmarks with bike position.
15 minutes before start, Gatorade Carb Load
SWIM: (TARGET 36:00) follow EN protocol picking up pace for the first 300 m and settle in to mental box. Only swimming as fast as I can maintain form. I’ll swim out about 30 minutes before race start to get my blood going. This was my very first 70.3 race two years ago, so I am familiar with the swim. I know to expect a bit of chop on the swim back in to transition, and will pick up my pace a bit heading in, trying to avoid the AG’pers who started before me. Hopefully I’ll find someone my speed to do the work while I sit pretty on her feet. (That sounds weird haha)
T1: (00:03:30) SLOW IS SMOOTH>>SMOOTH IS FAST
Immediately start working on unzipping swim skin, headed to T1 spot. Place swim items in bag. Helmet on. Shoes on (unless I figure out the rubber band trick.) Grab bike, jog out, find a clear spot outside of T1 to mount.
BIKE: (TARGET 02:54:00; .78 IF; 175 TSS) Stay in mental box. Goal watts are 140 for the first section, miles 1-14. I know I have a good while to settle in once I hit the HWY. Focus on bringing HR back down after transition. Set Garmin 500 alarm for every 15 min to remind me to get the fluids in. Remember to stay cool, keeping the cool wings wet. Focus on getting fluids in and peeing once. Ride miles 15-33 section at 145 watts, careful not to surge on the hills. Miles 34-53 open the legs up a bit at 155 goal watts. Focus on staying aero, and hydrated bringing it home at 162 watts, miles 54-56. **EVERY AID STATION THINK: HOW DO I FEEL, WHAT DO I NEED?** Find out how many aid stations there are.
T2: (TARGET: 00:01:30) SLOW IS SMOOTH>>SMOOTH IS FAST
Flying dismount, jog to T2 place. Remove helmet, put compression socks on, shoes, grab GO BAG, stand up, potty break if needed. Once on course, open GO BAG: Hat, fuel belt, run belt with number, salt. Keep bag and fill with ICE for run.
THE RUN: (TARGET 2:00:00) * Depending on how knee feels. A race is IMChoo
Out running :30 slower than Z1 pace for the first loop of 2 – Watch HR and keep it between 130-140 bpm. Walk all aid stations and ask HOW DO I FEEL? WHAT DO I NEED? Do I need nutrition? Salt? Fluids? Am I hot? How is my HR? Can I see straight? Focus on keeping core temp down by taking advantage of ice (hold it, put in hat, stick bag down front), water on cool wings, cool towel on neck. Focus on form when it gets hard. It’s 13X1 mile repeats at steady pace. Break it up in 2 loops. Hold off for coke until mile 10 if at all possible.
NUTRITION BREAK DOWN:
|
TIME |
DESCRIPTION |
CALORIES |
SODIUM |
|
-2.5 hrs before start |
1.25 cup applesauce Whey Protein Banana GatoradeEndurance |
40 0 25 160 |
0 60 0 580 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
15min before Start |
Gatorade Carb |
120 |
110 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
BIKE |
4.5 btls of GE |
480 |
1740 |
|
00:45 |
½ Bonk Breaker |
130 |
30 |
|
1:20 |
½ Bonk Breaker |
130 |
30 |
|
2:30 |
Gu (caf) |
100 |
125 |
|
3:00 |
Gu (caf) |
100 |
125 |
|
RUN |
|
|
|
|
Mile 1 |
1 cup GE/Gatorlytes |
53 |
822 |
|
Mile 2 |
1 cup GE |
53 |
42 |
|
Mile 3 |
1 cup GE |
53 |
42 |
|
Mile 4 |
1 gu/H20 |
100 |
125 |
|
Mile 5 |
1 cup GE/Gatorlytes |
53 |
822 |
|
Mile 6 |
1 cup GE |
53 |
42 |
|
Mile 7 |
1 cup GE |
53 |
42 |
|
Mile 8 |
1 cup GE |
53 |
42 |
|
Mile 9 |
1 gu/H20 |
100 |
125 |
|
Mile 10 |
1 cup GE |
53 |
42 |
|
Mile 11 |
coke |
|
|
|
Mile 12 |
coke |
|
|
|
TOTAL |
|
1,909 |
4,946 |
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
EB,
Looks good. You are clearly a straight-A EN student. Take my comments with a grain of salt, as I'm still trying to crack the 70.3 code (I've swum, ridden and run fast at the distance, but rarely on the same day).
Swim: you've drawn the short straw and will start in one of the last waves. The downside is, your time will probably be slow because of all the floating human wreckage you'll have to swim through. The upside is, you're only racing your AG, and they'll be there with you. Really watch what Waves 5-15 do, and try to find the good lines/lanes. With only two turns, you'll have a lot of "straight," so see if the slower swimmers in early waves (smartly) go out wide to the L or (more likely) bob and dog paddle near the buoy line. Maybe you can swim slightly inside the buoys to the R? The turns will be chaos, but there's only two. Stay aggressive, push the entire way, increase stroke rate if there's chop (there will be). It's only 30 minutes.
Transitions: treat both of them like sprint tri transitions. Wasted time here costs 2x as much as in an IM.
Bike: .78 or .80? Well, you just did a 58-mile RR @.78 in 3:15~. Did you feel like you could run well after it? Without stops and more race concentration, you're confident you can do 56 on race day in 2:54, right? That puts your cap at around 80-81%, So if it were me, I would go out conservatively and get the HR down like you propose, but then move into race mode way sooner than Mile 33. You can't under-power 60% of the bike and expect greatness. Treat it more like an Oly after you've settled in, then see how it feels with the throttle down. If 80% feels too hard, then back down to 77-78% and reassess. If 80% feels great, then you don't go over 81% unless you're average 21+ later in the ride and are on pace to finish in the 2:30s (then you could consider 82%). Flatten the hills, but feel free to raise the hill watts according to EN gearing. And instead of sprinting those last two miles, I'd actually back things down a bit and get ready for the run. Hydration will be a huge factor on the bike, but I wouldn't leave T2 with 3 bottles. Too much weight, and a couple of them will be warm when I get to them. 2 is plenty. Again, though, this is only what I would do.
Run: Do not worry about your knee and immediately delete it from your written and mental RPs. It doesn't belong. If it hurts, you stop of course. But I don't want you going into the race with an Easy Quit Button at your disposal when things start to get tough. On race day, this is an A race. You're a runner. Go outrun your AG. My biggest mistake - one I keep repeating despite knowing better - is going out too hard. After cycling at 90 rpms, the same turnover instantly creates 7:15 pace on the run. I then take that 7:15 pace over the first two miles and dig the grave for the rest of my run. When I've gone out at 7:45, I find that I can move to 7:20s by Mile 3 or 4 and actually have a good run. The Raleigh course is out/up and back/down two times. Smart, slow and low HR until you turn around at 3.3, then start racing with the downhills. Be willing and prepared to go to a dark place getting to the final turnaround at 10, then sprint home. If you don't feel like throwing up, you're not going fast enough. If the weather is typical late-May NC, you'll likely be 85, sunny and humid. Like on the bike, hydration and heat management will be key, but you've got that down. Keep the walk breaks to 10 steps or fewer (count out loud) unless your'e in serious distress, then get back to racing.
Best of luck. Have fun. Hopefully some far smarter/better 70.3 executioners will chime in.
MR
- the rubber band trick. It's actually very easy, but of course you will want to practice it before race day. If you don't get in that practice, don't do it. The key is you need tri/bike shoes that have a little loop on the back, and you need light/easy tear rubber bands. If you need some help let us know- I'm sure we can break it down for you (heck, there is probably a thread in here already about it somewhere)
- You indicate you want to be in T2 "when it opens" but have a time of 5:30. T2 will actually open at 4am and T1 opens at 5am so I'm not sure if that's really what you meant. Given you have a later wave start (like me), you probably don't need to be there at the butt crack of dawn, and since you've done this race before you probably already get the logistics.
- The only question I have around your knee issue is whether or not you have found cycling bothers it at all. If the answer is "yes", then that may be a reason to back down your IF since this isn't the A race.
- really like the idea of using the Go Ziplock back as a method for carrying the ice. I might have to steal that one :-)
1: I'll definitely practice this week. I'm sure there is a YouTube video out there as well.
2: Thanks for clarifying. I actually based this plan from my IMTX one last year, so that was a typo I missed. Having done this race before, the buses get CRAZY that morning so I'd like to be one of the first ones on just to avoid the anxiety of waiting in lines. Especially bc all of the athletes will head to buses at the same time. We had to deflate our tires to avoid the hot pavement causing flats the very first year of this race, and the bike tech lines for air were ridiculous. If I can figure how to bring my own pump, I will.
3: Luckily, no knee pain when cycling. Only when running.
Have to give credit for the ice idea to Coach P's TX race report. I was all over that as soon as I read it!
I've got some comments on you RR too. (Raced TX with UCAN) Will post when I get back to computer this afternoon. EB
I rode a tad more aggressive than my first one for a couple of reasons. 1: When you throw in start/stop stoplights, stop signs, etc., I never really get a true race pace rehearsal to practice my nutrition. This is the first time I will be eating/drinking off the course since 2012, so I really wanted to give my gut a test. 2: I noticed with the FTP I had set in my garmin(189), my HR was in Z1. This led me to believe my FTP is WAY off... Seeing that I have not been able to properly test bc of my wonky injury, back from injury, BRC schedule, I'm playing the guessing game. I tried to hit my IM HR zones (130's) and ended up avg 129... still a bit low, but came out with a NP of 159 which is about 2.8 w/kg. This was with an up'd FTP (back to 193, where it was in the Fall.)
My run off the bike was about 30 min after I finished due to driving back to my house. Felt great. Negative split. Should have done 6, but I ran (literally) out of time and it was time to pick up the kiddos. I chose a 3 mile loop with an incline at mile 3 and mile 5 (& 6 if I kept going). Kept HR in check, and ended up happy with results. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/781788054
I'm thinking to change my zones to the new FTP number based on results yesterday, and continue with the plan to ride at .78? I know if I had raced the way I did yesterday, I would have struggled by the end of the run (based on my 197.5 TSS at .83 IF) Any insight on this is appreciated...