Brad M's 2015 IMMT Race Plan
Brad Marcus’ 2015
IMMT Race Plan
Age: 44 (45-50 AG)
FTP: 235 (as
estimated between indoor tests and recent rides)
VDOT: 50
HEIGHT: 6’2”
WEIGHT: 165LBS (3.14w/kg)
2nd IM
distance race (IMLP 2014)
Goals:
Solid smooth swim. Minimal fading on the bike. Run the entire
marathon (walking aid stations). Perform to best of my fitness/training ability
(leave it all out on the course). Marked improvement over last year’s
execution. Make my kids, who will be there watching, proud. Get to see
Heidi(my wife, also team EN) cross finish line.
BIKE – Cervelo P2 w/ Zipp 404 clinchers / Quarq powermeter
Front: Garmin 500 / BTA Xlab torpedo (straw) with gatorade
– 20oz
Frame: Bento box w/ 1 Cliff Bar cut in half, 1 sleeve (6)
cliffshot blocks, 2 powergels. 5 salt sticks caps in dispensor, Cage w/ 1 bottle of Gatorade on downtube –
20oz
Behind Saddle: 2 tubes, 2 tire levers, 2 CO2 cartridges,
multitool, inflator
T1 BAG:
Helmet
Bike shoes
Sunglasses
Gloves (if needed)
Vest (if Needed)
Arm warmers (if needed)
Rain jacket (if needed)
Chamois Buttr
Socks? (probably not)
BIKE SPECIAL
NEEDS BAG:
Salt Sticks (extra)
1 extra tube
2 extra CO2
Cliffshot blocks & Gel (extra if needed)
Chamois Buttr (can’t have enough!)
T2 BAG:
Shoes
Socks
Body Glide
Go Bag with:
visor
race belt (w/ salt stick caps and 5 powergels)
RUN SPECIAL
NEEDS:
Socks
Extra salt sticks
Extra powergels
Blister band aide
Aquafor
THURSDAY BEFORE
RACE:
Leave home early AM (Connecticut)
Pick up kids at camp in NH
Pick up Mom at airport in Montreal
Check in to hotel, unpack & get settled in
Dinner and supermarket if time
FRIDAY BEFORE
RACE:
Early morning swim
IronKids Race for the kiddos
Check in / Packet pickup
Attend Athlete Briefing
Recon on bike course – Lac Superior area
Dinner with kids and Mom
Prep T1/T2 Bags, stickers on helmet and bike, number on
race belt, prep bike
SATURDAY BEFORE
RACE:
Sleep in (attempt to do so!)
Big breakfast
Bike & T1/T2 Bag check in
Big Lunch (with salt) – get a dinner to go
after lunch -- Stay in hotel with legs up as much as
possible and CHILL
Sip sports drink throughout day
Prepare special needs bike/run bags, bottles, lay out
clothing, etc (tri shorts, tri top, sweat shirt, sweat pants, flip flops)
Early light dinner –DON’T eat until full
In bed by 9pm
RACE DAY:
Wake up 3:30am and have breakfast: Small smoothie, bagel
with jelly, Coffee x2
Apply sunscreen, body glide
Leave hotel with Tri bag :Garmin 500, Garmin 910 watch, HR monitor, Road ID, goggles, wetsuit, swim cap, flip flops, gatorade,
cliff bar, power gels , timing chip,
swim cap, bike/run special needs bags, phone
4:30am - Arrive at transistion, body marking, set up,
inflate tires, double check bike and calibrate Quarq to Garmin 910 and 500
Drop special needs bags drop off
5:30 eat part of Clif Bar and sip perform / find
porto-potty
6:00 go to swim area
6:15 eat one gel and warmup in water if possible
6:50 line up front and left for swim
SWIM(TARGET
01:20:00)
Line up front and left at swim start
Do my best to ignore contact and stay in my box
Focus on form and get into a good rhythm
Count strokes and breathe
Find feet if possible
Don’t try to “race” swimmers who are passing me
FORM FORM FORM (climb the ladder, high arms, glide)
As I near swim finish, begin thinking about what I will
do when I get out of water
T1: SLOW IS
SMOOTH>>SMOOTH IS FAST
Immediately start working on wetsuit – zipper down and
pull suit to waist
Leave goggles and cap on head
Find wet suit strippers
When I get “stripped”, ball up suit and jog/walk fast
along turf path to T1
Get T1 Bag and enter tent
Look towards back of tent for space
Sit, dump bag, apply
chamois buttr, shoes on, helmet
on, glasses on, (arm warmers, vest, jacket and/or gloves if needed)
Goggles and cap in bag
Grab wetsuit and bag and hand to volunteer and ask them
to stuff it for me
Exit tent and locate bike and take to mount line
BIKE(TARGET 06:30):
STICK TO MY GAMEPLAN and FOCUS THROUGHOUT!
Garmin displaying: 3s avg power, NP Lap, Cadence, Time,
Heart Rate – set to lap every 5 Miles
Be careful leaving transistion on bike
Begin ride super slow with power b/t 152-162watts(.65-.69)”JRA
pace”…I will ride at this pace for 60min.
Expect to be passed by EVERYONE. Stay in my box!
After 60 min, dial in pace at 164-165 watts (.70) - Allow
watts to spike some on hills w/o burning matches
Flatten hills and ride smart!
BIKE NUTITION: Begin
drinking 15’ in – Goal is 1.5 bottles (30oz) Perform per hour – fill torpedo as
needed – plan is to transistion from solids to liquids
Begin eating on the :20 starting with ½ clif bar and
other ½ at 1:20
Then move to ShotBlocks 3 per hour for 2 hours
Then go to 1 Powergel / hour for 2 hours
1 salt stick cap per hr on the :00
Drink water in last hour if I need to
Plan to pee 2-4x on bike as needed
Note HR in last hour of bike
Just before each of the aid stations top off myself with Gatorade
from cage bottle. Discard empty cage bottle first. At the aid stations, point
and communicate with volunteer with Gatorade
T2: SLOW IS
SMOOTH>>SMOOTH IS FAST
Hand off bike to volunteer
Grab bag and go to back of tent
Dump bag on ground
OFF: helmet, glasses, bike shoes
ON: socks, running shoes
Stuff bag and hand to volunteer
Grab “go bag” with race belt, visor
Exit tent and put on visor and race belt while moving – save
bag for ice on the run!
RUN(TARGET 04:15:00)
Miles 1 – 6 @ HR 125-135 BPM - 9:15/mile...absolutely NO FASTER
– take stock of my HR and how I feel. If I feel good, DON’T speed up but use
this time to take in extra nutrition (gatorade, gels). Don’t get carried away
leaving town with the crowds – run EASY!
Run Nutrition: 4oz perform/mile, 1 powergel/hour, 1 salt
stick tab/hour, coke as needed
Walk 20 steps all the stations
After 6 miles – evaluate how I feel. If feel good its ok cautiously
increase HR to 145 BPM or max pace 8:45/mile – NO HIGHS, NO LOWS – how I feel
can change quickly
Miles 6-18 – do NOT use pace as a whip and be mindful of
my HR ! Reign in pace if HR is too high. Use ice and water to cool body as
needed. Don’t bring the suck sooner than it needs to be
At mile 18, -either “turn the screws” or make effort NOT
to slow down. Ask myself how I feel
again? Where is heart rate? Is it too low (need more nutrition)? Is it too high
(don’t increase pace)? Use my one things as needed at this point. Things will
get tougher….expect that to happen. Embrace the pain.
Finish Chute – zipper up, realize what I am about to
accomplish, soak it up and take it all in….SMILE!
Thank you for
reading – ALL comments welcome!
Comments
Hey Brad,
Best of luck. You've put in the hard work, now time for the reward. I like almost everything about your RP. Socks on the bike? If you've trained dozens of long rides sockless with no issues, I would go sans socks unless it's chilly. If you've worn socks on all your long rides, nothing new on race day.
I don't like your Clif Bar at 5:30am. May not cause you any issues, but why take the risk? There's a reason we eat no later than 4:00am. Personally, I'd replace it with a gel or just Gatorade until 15-20 minutes before the start, then eat the gel.
I don't mind your Clif Bar early on the bike (I do the same), but if it were me, I'd make two small adjustments. First, I would start fueling sooner than :20. It will be at least 90 minutes since you've fueled, no need to make that 2 hours without food. I start after 5 minutes or so - as soon as I've found my legs, HR is down, T1 chaos long behind me. Second, I think it's far better to eat every 30; no way I would go an hour between feedings. Your stomach is going to be in plenty of distress as it is, no need to add a starve/overstuff routine to things. Again, if it were me, I'd cut the Clif Bar into quarters, eat one near the start, at :30, 1:00 and 1:30. Same exact calories as your plan, just a more smooth, consistent intake without the starve and cram.
Finally, if you're healthy and have put in good run volume, I hate your run goal. If you're a legit 50 vDOT for long course (i.e., 1:31 HM), then you've got a top-quartile run and a LRP of 8:30 or so. A 4:15 marathon is 9:45 pace, 1:15 slower than what you should be able to do. That's a painful, walk-shuffle sort of "run" for you. We all know that it may unfold that way, but I would hate to think that you're planning to walk much of it in. Unless, of course, you're dinged up or didn't get the volume in. If healthy, I'd most definitely be shooting for sub-4.
Execute wisely, soak it in, enjoy a day you'll never forget.
Brad, great, well written plan.
Mike gives some good thoughts below as well. To his point, you might actually need those socks that far up north but, if it is dry and above 50 degrees, I would lose them and avoid the hassle. Nothing like trying to get dry socks on wet feet with adrenaline pumping through your body.
I think you have the right One Thing. Having my kids at a race is the only thing I need to manage through that dark period and one of the few things that really work for me. No matter what you do, you WILL make them proud, I am sure of that.
Look forward to tracking you bro. Taper like a champion and let your body absorb all that hard work!
SS
Great having dinner & discussing this last night. You have a very well thought out plan here.
a couple of notes I would add.
If you can, drive the entire bike course on Friday.. It will help you when you ride it Sunday.
for your clif shot blocks, pre-open the package when you put in your Bento box so you aren't fumbling with it on the bike. same for cliff bars.
consider finding a high calorie smoothie for dinner, I learned from Al Truscott at Arizona last year to go after liquid calories for carbo loading pre-race. I learned the hard way at MT last year, that too much solid food, particularly in the evening before, is not good on race day!
Good wattage on the bike per discussions. At a 1:20 swim, you will be passing many people with your watts on the bike, particularly the first half of the first lap. I would imagine you will start to pass less as you come into the town (not ski village) of Mt Tremblant off the highway, there is one big long hill out there.. I would also expect, per our discussions, that you might either choose to move your watts up 5 watts for lap two, or just stay very strong for the run!
for T2 - have you ever left your shoes on the bike? there is a very long flat approach to T2, good place to save few seconds and make it easier to run in T2 without cleats on your feet.
I agree with Mike's comments above about the run goal. Ive been watching you on Strava, I've met you in person. I've run the same terrain, the same weather, the same days as you. You do all of your runs at the 3 Vdot points faster than me that you are. I had a "bad performance in MT run last year, you read my report, you spoke to me last night, I lost 18 mins due to chafe and ran a 4:16, you are much leaner than me in body comp. I would listen to Mike's comments (and others that are coming from much smarter people than me) and run this by the numbers. You are also being very conservative on the bike which should allow you to negative split this run, as we both know you have the volume in for it!
Mile 18 is on the "out"of the out and back of the bike path, good place to pick it up, remember, you have 2 hard hills coming back at roughly mile 23/24, and one small one going up the outside of the ski village near the 25.50 miles. But at both of those points, it is going to be mind over matter and you have down hills & flats to carry you through, as well as adrenaline as you are in the last 2 miles of the day.
trust your training & trust the numbers...
@shaughn, Brad IS tapering like a champ, he quaffed down 2 IPAs with some awesome fishtacos last night
@Mike- re socks: I've gone with and without during training and 70.3 races. Last year in IMLP it poured for a good part of the bike and I wore socks - couldn't wait to get them off! Also, me peeing on the bike probably makes going no socks the best option. Unless it'll be unusually cold and dry, no socks it is! I agree with taking out pre-race Clif..stomach is usually uneasy at this point due to nerves, and don't need this. You are also correct with eating more than once an hour on bike. I've generally done this in training, cutting bars into 1/3's or so. I have found Clif bar "mini's" which are prepackaged in smaller sizes. I'll check calorie counts and adjust. Same with Clif blocks, but when it comes time to move to gels, I may be only going one per hour (although the last one should be taken close to the end of my bike anyway). Re my run: This has been tricky. My vdot is based off a 5k test. I raced my last HM at 1:34, so even if I ratchet my vdot back a point or 2, I realize that my time is still conservative. I guess I was trying to be realistic and one of my biggest goals is to not walk or slow down in my run. My last IM, I was ok till mile 17 and I then had gastro/nausea issues which caused me to slow and I never got my HR going again. That being said, I'm in very good run shape and my run is clearly my strength. If I hold it together, there is no reason I can't have a sub 4hr run.
Shaughn- thanks! I remember you mentioned somewhere that the kids on the course are always something that keeps you going. I know I'll need a couple of "one-things" out there. I'll have my kids and mom out there, all who have never seen me race any long course. They are all super excited, and I intend to do my best not to let them down. Thanks for all your strava encouragement this year!
Scott- great finally getting together this week. Your points are all well taken. I tend to go in setting my expectations low, so I don't disappoint myself. But, maybe this is the wrong approach. I often see our teammates lay it out there and set high expectations only to exceed them. I know what I'm capable of on a good day. I just know the many monkey wrenches that get thrown into a race and was trying to factor them in. My "game day management" will be a huge factor, and one of my top goals is to execute better. What am I capable of? Certainly a faster bike and run. My run has been consistent and I feel healthy. My bike, as we discussed, has been a bit of a wildcard as to where I am right now. I've put the work in, but my results have been all over and I've definitely lost some watts from my FTP. Your point about dialing it up a bit in loop 2 is valid, and something that I'll rethink. Re shoes on bike: I have left shoes on bike coming into t2. My last couple of races (sprint and HIM), one shoe unclipped as I dismounted and I had to pick it up and carry it into transistion. Not sure why this happened, but was trying to avoid this. If it is flat/smooth from dismount to T2, I'd consider doing this. I guess I'll check it out when I get there.
Finally, yes my taper has been exactly that. I'm less nervous than last year. Thoughts more organized, etc. Last year, I would've never had a couple of beers the week before the race, or even the month leading up to it. Hence, I'll probably toe the line 5lbs less lean than a year ago.... Thanks again!
A lot of great work this year, and you are going to have a great day.
Hope that you and your family have a great time next weekend.
Thursday looks like a BIG travel & admin day, make sure to bank some rest before and after even if that means cutting down on the length of the planned bike ride Friday.
ON Bike.....drink!! remember last year (we were both pretty fried getting of the bike) and Drink some more. YOU ARE NOT racing anyone on the Bike.On Run...yes keep eye on that HR number and remember your stomach "should" work better the longer you can keep that down....protect that stomach (based on your previous long course races). If you are more comfortable a couple seconds a mile easier pace from start to Mile 20 is peanuts in the big picture.
Suggest putting a little body glide on ankle and/or timing chip strap, I got a wonder friction burn that is still healing up from IMLP.
Also putting a little body glide on the inside of the tongue of the bike shoes if going with no socks, I forgot to do that once back in June..oops.
Yes, on the Bike 90% of the people are doing the wrong thing....by the time you start running be confident that 100% of the people running near you are doing the wrong thing and just block them out of your mind....LOL.