Mark's Victoria 70.3 Race Rehearsal Report
Victoria 70.3 Race Rehearsal Report
I didn’t write down my race rehearsal plan but in my head it went something like this:
Ride in low Z3 (200-203), keep the power steady and a VI as close to 1.00 as possible,
Eat a rice muffin every 45 minutes for the first ¾ of the ride and then have a gel in the last 15 minutes,
Drink every 15 minutes (reminder set on Garmin for 15 minute intervals)
Stay aero except on really steep sections of the ride.
Start the run and keep a 8:18 pace for the first 3 miles,
Eat some jelly beans every mile and drink a mouthful or two,
Pick up the pace to 7:48 for the last 3 miles.
Last time I did a race rehearsal was on a flat to rolling course. I kept my power at around 200 for the majority of the ride and had a NP of 197 for the entire ride. The elevation gain for that ride was 1086 feet. Victoria 70.3 has about 3300 feet of elevation gain so last weekend I did a ride with steeper and longer hills to work on flattening the hills. I wasn’t able to execute that as well as I would have liked to so I decided to do the same roads for my race rehearsal.
The first thing I noticed was that my legs were a lot more fatigued than I remember them being for the previous race rehearsal and I wasn’t able to hold the power that I did last time right from the start. I had set my Garmin to auto lap every 7 miles so that I could keep track of my VI and NP and I knew that I was averaging closer to 190 than 200. However, I was closely watching my watts on the uphills and trying not to spike them and keep them below 220. (The hills were mostly less than a couple minutes per climb.) On the other hand I worked through the crest and accelerated down and kept the power up going down the hills. Again the downhills were usually short so I didn’t spin out too much.
I ate and drank when I was going uphill so that I could concentrate on speed and keeping out of trouble on the downhills. The nutrition and hydration worked well during the ride.
The ride proceeded well except that the best I could do on the power end was a NP of 187 for the ride. I hope that it was because of the fatigue and that my legs will be fresher after the taper. Here’s the link to the ride file. http://tpks.ws/rL28
If the bike was a little disappointing from the start, the run was just the opposite. I had to really watch my pace to keep it as slow as planned. My running legs felt good from the start and even though I tried to slow down I did the first mile a little fast. The second mile was closer to the desired pace, but the 3 mile was a little fast too. When I got to the second 3 I picked up the pace to Z2. At first it felt good but then my quads started to feel a little twitchy so decided to drink more knowing that I had less than 3 miles to go and that if I didn’t have anything to drink in the last mile it probably wouldn’t matter. Regardless, my legs started to feel better and I kept going at my Z2 pace.
By the end of the run my legs were feeling fine and I felt like I could have held that pace quite a while longer. I ended the run by picking up the pace for the last quarter mile or so to simulate the kick to the finish line. The run this time was the same route as the last race rehearsal and just 19 seconds slower than that one. Here’s the link to the run file http://tpks.ws/yH2Q
The first race rehearsal was a little over 56 miles and took just under 3 hours, but only had about 1100 feet of climbing. This one was a little over 57 miles and took 3:15 with 2800 feet of climbing. So here’s my main question. Given that the Victoria bike course is hilly, do I plan on riding it at the lower power that I did this time, top of Z2, or try to push the higher watts and be in low Z3? My ego says the latter, but I don’t want to blow up during the run either.