Mark's Challenge Williamsburg 70.3 Race Plan
Fri. Get everything together and ready off of checklist. Drink water w/ Nuun tab to help prepare for heat. Easy day.
Sat. Go to race venue( about 1 hr. away). Get packet, do short recon swim, attend meeting, check in bike, then go out to nice meal in Williamsburg. Head home, early bed.
Sun. 0300 up,coffee, oatmeal, banana, and on the way by 0400. Eat cliff bar and sip fluids while travelling. Arrive at T-2, set up bike-to-run transition. Shoes, socks, run belt, run hat. Run belt already packed w/ gels and Salt sticks. Take bus to T-1. Set up swim-to-bike. 2 bottles behind the seat, and aero bottle filled w/ G endurance. Filled gel flask and Salt sticks in bento box. Downtube bottle holder empty for aide station. Turn on Garmin. Head down to river for w/u. Sip on sports drink all morning.
Swim: I need to start a little conservative, get comfortable, and build into my pace. Iffy it wetsuit legal. There will be current, and it can be choppy. Just keep swimming.
T-1 is about a 1/4 mi. from river, so it will seem slow. Just be smooth, helmet on and buckled, glasses on, unrack bike and go. Hopefully we can have shoes in pedals.
Bike: First 20-30' JRA, letting body acclimate, then settle into a .78 or.79(mid 190's watts), and start nutrition plan. It will be hot' so the plan is simple, Per hour: 36 oz G endurance 240 cal/600 mg Na, 1 powerbar gel 120 cal/200mg Na, and 1 saltstick= 360 cal/1000 mg Na. Plan B if I can't get down that much gatorade, I know I can get down some water to supplement and make up the Na difference w/ saltsticks.
T-2: Arrive w/ feet on top of shoes. Be smooth: socks, shoes, hat, grab belt-gone.
Run: Since I've been an ENer, and learned a little something about execution, my runs have greatly improved. I plan to execute the run per EN, but the hot/humid plan B is to run by HR and pace just to run all the way. Zn 1 is almost 2X as fast as walking! Nutrition plan is to drink 6-8 oz of fluid at each aid sta. and add saltsticks to stay at 24-36 oz per hour w/ ~1000 mg Na per hr. Hopefully I will have a cooperative stomach-hydration and salt will be the order of the day, and no solids.