Toughman AL Race Rehearsals
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RR1 done this weekend.
Plan
Swim (Friday morning): 2200 straight in 25-yd pool.
Bike (Saturday morning): Shiv TT, Hed Jet 60 wheels. Wearing bike jersey, road shoes, road helmet. Saturday morning -- 5 out-and-backs from Mullet Point to Weeks Bay (little over 10 miles). Never more than 5 miles from the car. Water in Shiv Fuselage, 2 bottles Lemon-Lime Skratch Labs behind the saddle. Gu gels. Drink Skratch every 10 minutes (1 bottle/hr), Gu every 30 minutes for first two hours, then switch to 45 minutes. Will need to stop once to restock bottles. 0-30 min: 95-100w; 30-end: 105-115 w. (Yeah, I'm weak. That said, my FTP of 138 was set indoors, so it may be higher. BUT ... it's incredibly hot and humid, so maybe keeping the power a little low is better.)
Run (Saturday midday, after bike): Fuelbelt with Skratch. 3 bottles should last 1 hr. Not going to worry about another Gu, but will plan to take one ~ every 30 minutes (at an aid station with water). First 3 miles -- 12:00 -12:15; remainder -- 11:30-11:45. (slower than recommended, but I've found the jump between paces 1 and 2 to be too great for me, especially in the heat/humidity.)
Execution
Swim: Went fine. Nothing special. 41:58 (1:54/100yd). I hadn't been in the pool much the past few weeks, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Thought 40:00 was doable, but happy with 41:48. If I do that on race day, I'll be ecstatic. No fatigue or soreness.
Bike: First ~40 miles were uneventful. Great place to ride -- flat, good numbers of bikes, and little traffic. No stoplights, and only time you have to get out of aero is on the turnarounds. 52.5 mi, 3:09:27 (16.6mph); AP = 108, NP = 109; VI = 1.01; IF = 0.79. Was very happy with execution. Rode like a ninja the first 30 minutes. Then sort of lost focus -- lots of bikes around, and it was easy/fun to pass them -- spiked my power more than I should have. Have decided what to write on my forearms for race day. Left: "Settle down, Beavis." Right: EXECUTE! Finally settled down. Came out of aero every 10 minutes to drink from my behind-the-saddle bottles. Worried about this, but I think that the brief 10-20s stretch saved my back and let me stay on the aerobars for the entire ride. Was in the bars ~95% of the ride. Nutrition was almost spot on. The last 10 miles, I was cutting the Skratch with water, so I may back down the concentration of the Skratch a bit. Would cut calories, but I think I'm on the high side anyway. Only issue on the bike was hotfoot. I've been battling this for a while. new inserts have helped, and I think the hotfoot now may be due to foot swelling. Will try my tri shoes next long ride (with inserts) to see if it's any better. If not, I'll buy a pair of shoes one size up for summer riding.
Run: Decided to postpone run to Sunday morning. The humidity was becoming oppressive, and the hotfoot was going to lead to a bad run anyway. Legs felt really snappy right after the bike, so I know my bike execution was good. Legs still felt good Sunday morning. No soreness from the day before. 55:50, 4.74 miles, 11:46/mi. Dead on execution, both pace and nutrition. Took a Gu right before the run, then drank Skratch every 10 minutes.
Lessons learned
1. I HAVE to get this hotfoot issue resolved. I can manage through a half, but IMCHOO is going to be unbearable if I can't fix it.
2. Consider a BTA for a third bottle of Skratch. Won't have to stop at in a half.
3. Move my Edge 800 up along my aerobars. It was too close to the stem, and I'd rather have the numbers in my line of sight.
4. Overall, nutrition is set. That said, there is nothing nastier than Gu raspberry gel. I may switch over to something with less flavor. No need for extra salt. Don't mess with what is working.
5. Underbiking may not be a bad thing.
Comments
Catherine, Your RR1 looks well-thought out and then well-executed. As to your hot foot: What type of pedals do you use? I used to use Speedplay, which gave me something like a hot foot.
I gave them to my wife and she loves them. 
I moved on to Look, which gives me a bigger platform for my foot. 
Thanks, Bob! I was surprised at how well it turned out.
I'm on Look pedals. I think my problem is that my feet sort-of changed after my son was born three years ago. They seem to have spread a little in the forefoot, but I still have a high arch. Oh, and the familial bunions! (TMI, I know!) The inserts help a lot -- I used to get hotfoot within 20 miles, now it's out to ~40-45 miles. Still unacceptable, though. I can loosen my tri shoes more than my road shoes, so I'm going to give them a try later this week. Thankfully my fitter is very patient and is willing to try lots of things. Have already moved my cleats all the way back, so I think I'm going to have to start thinking about different shoes.
We have 3 boys and for some reason, my foot size was unaffected by each birth! Sounds like it is getting better for you, so maybe new shoes will do the trick. Good luck and safe training.
RR2 done this weekend.
Plan was similar to RR1 -- Swim was a pyramid-style (3x400, 3x300, 3x200). Ride 56, run 1 hr.
Based on a few rides and my race execution at Heart O' Dixie last weekend, I had decided to bump up my FTP. New target watts = 125-135. Plan was to spend the first 30 minutes at 115-125, then build to 125-135. Based on earlier rides, I thought this was conservative. Run plan was to keep it easy/slow so that I won't die in the heat. Planned ~12:45-13:00/mi was extremely conservative, but this is my first year back at long distance racing, and I'd rather meet goals this year.
So ... suffice it to say this RR was horrific. After the horrible swim yesterday (when have I last seen 2:00/100 yd? Ever? That's not even splashing around cool-down pace!), I was a little worried about today's ride/run, but oh well. Run with the plan you brung!
I cut the bike short at 1:36 (25.5 miles). NP = 118. I never got into that just-clicking-along feeling, and my legs never felt snappy. I never felt like I was holding back.
Run was slower than expected, and I cut that short, too. 45 minutes, 3.32 miles (13:34 pace).
This is not confidence-inspiring.
That said, it's been a bad week for me, ever since Heart O' Dixie. I'm going off some medication that has some pretty nasty withdrawal symptoms, PLUS I had an unexpected trip out of town (including a 5-hr drive yesterday morning), PLUS one of the nasty withdrawal symptoms is insomnia. So ... it's not like this week was normal at all. I'm chalking most of the flat/bad workouts for this RR to the unexpectedly bad week.
But there were a few lessons learned:
1. SLEEP! Get rest! Travel up to Pell City as early as possible on Friday. I tend to be a little flat after a day of travel, so the more time I have to rest, the better.
2. It's better to underperform than quit. I knew pretty quickly that my bike plan wasn't going to cut it. But I hadn't thought about what Plan B was going to be. I think that going into Toughman, I'm going to set my JRA watts for the first 20-30 minutes even lower (105-115). If I don't feel like I'm holding back, I'm just going to stay there. If things feel good, slowly ramp to 115-125w to finish the first 60-75 minutes. If I'm still feeling like I'm holding back, then move to 125-135w for the remainder. Hold lower watts if I don't feel like I'm holding back.
3. As slow as the run was, I'm pretty okay with it. 92 degrees, dew point of 75 will sap it out of anyone. I managed to keep shuffling the whole time, and I figured out the problem with the run nutrition at Heart O Dixie -- I need to drink more. I'm too slow (and it's too hot) to rely on aid stations that come only every mile and, by the time I come through, may or may not have Gatorade. So I'm going to plan to drink every 0.5 mile. Now just need to figure out whether to wear the standard fuel belt or some other bottle system.
Now that I've written this out, I feel a lot better. Onward and upward!
RR2 done this weekend.
Plan was similar to RR1 -- Swim was a pyramid-style (3x400, 3x300, 3x200). Ride 56, run 1 hr.
Based on a few rides and my race execution at Heart O' Dixie last weekend, I had decided to bump up my FTP. New target watts = 125-135. Plan was to spend the first 30 minutes at 115-125, then build to 125-135. Based on earlier rides, I thought this was conservative. Run plan was to keep it easy/slow so that I won't die in the heat. Planned ~12:45-13:00/mi was extremely conservative, but this is my first year back at long distance racing, and I'd rather meet goals this year.
So ... suffice it to say this RR was horrific. After the horrible swim yesterday (when have I last seen 2:00/100 yd? Ever? That's not even splashing around cool-down pace!), I was a little worried about today's ride/run, but oh well. Run with the plan you brung!
I cut the bike short at 1:36 (25.5 miles). NP = 118. I never got into that just-clicking-along feeling, and my legs never felt snappy. I never felt like I was holding back.
Run was slower than expected, and I cut that short, too. 45 minutes, 3.32 miles (13:34 pace).
This is not confidence-inspiring.
That said, it's been a bad week for me, ever since Heart O' Dixie. I'm going off some medication that has some pretty nasty withdrawal symptoms, PLUS I had an unexpected trip out of town (including a 5-hr drive yesterday morning), PLUS one of the nasty withdrawal symptoms is insomnia. So ... it's not like this week was normal at all. I'm chalking most of the flat/bad workouts for this RR to the unexpectedly bad week.
But there were a few lessons learned:
1. SLEEP! Get rest! Travel up to Pell City as early as possible on Friday. I tend to be a little flat after a day of travel, so the more time I have to rest, the better.
2. It's better to underperform than quit. I knew pretty quickly that my bike plan wasn't going to cut it. But I hadn't thought about what Plan B was going to be. I think that going into Toughman, I'm going to set my JRA watts for the first 20-30 minutes even lower (105-115). If I don't feel like I'm holding back, I'm just going to stay there. If things feel good, slowly ramp to 115-125w to finish the first 60-75 minutes. If I'm still feeling like I'm holding back, then move to 125-135w for the remainder. Hold lower watts if I don't feel like I'm holding back.
3. As slow as the run was, I'm pretty okay with it. 92 degrees, dew point of 75 will sap it out of anyone. I managed to keep shuffling the whole time, and I figured out the problem with the run nutrition at Heart O Dixie -- I need to drink more. I'm too slow (and it's too hot) to rely on aid stations that come only every mile and, by the time I come through, may or may not have Gatorade. So I'm going to plan to drink every 0.5 mile. Now just need to figure out whether to wear the standard fuel belt or some other bottle system.
Now that I've written this out, I feel a lot better. Onward and upward!