Scott Giljum's IMWI Race Plan
I plan to arrive in town
Wednesday evening and possibly do a quick leg shake out run.
Thursday I will do a
quick run in the morning and a bike recon ride, finding some time in there to
check in. Team dinner is that night.
Friday will be a course
swim and a short run before big eating starts with Friday dinner. I will also attend the 4 keys talk on
Friday. No offense coach R, but while I
don’t exactly anticipate anything I haven’t really heard already, I always find
it helps me dial in my focus. I will
likely try to catch a movie after lunch that day to mentally check out to avoid
getting too wound up. That night I will pack up my gear bags. In bike bag is shoes, helmet, nutrition, and something for my arms if the temp looks cool. Bike special needs will have a tube, tire and CO2. Run bag will have shoes, socks, to go bag with hat, number, nutrition and banana to eat on the spot. Run special needs will have duct tape, socks, and a long sleeve something if I think I will need it. I will likely also include some jelly bellys as a nice to have if I feel I need a pick me up.
Saturday is big breakfast
(translation, as many pancakes as I can stuff in my face) with a good sized
lunch (I usually go with a big sub sandwich with basically only turkey and/or
chicken on it). Dinner is a pasta dish
with a little chicken. All day I will
drink sports drink and munch on pretzels and fig newtons. I will check all my stuff in at some point in
the day, trying to avoid the early morning rush. The rest of my family will arrive Saturday,
but it is basically feet up most of the day.
Race Day
Up at 4:30 to eat 3.5
cups of applesauce, 1 banana, 1 bottle of sports drink. Maybe back to bed for a bit, we will see how
wired I am.
Get to transition no
later than 5:30, air up tires, check over bike, last minute set up etc. Use the bathrooms about 15 times due to nerves.
At 6:30 eat a power bar
and a salt stick, drink beet juice mix.
At 7:15, power gel and a
bit of water.
Likely between 6:30 and 7:15 I want to enter the water, to loosen
up a bit. I am debating bringing my
cords to loosen up that way instead. Thoughts?
Swim
I figure I will swim
around an hour and change if all goes to plan and would love to tuck in under
an hour. I will line up near Coach R if
I can as I know he is a bit faster than I am so could be a good place to set up
for me. Coach doesn’t know this, so I
hope he is on board with the plan. I
will be wearing a full wetsuit, goggles and cap. I tend to take a bit to get in a groove, so
my goal is to try to work out the kinks while I work around the herd and then
settle in. Three stroke breathing with
occasional sighting is the plan. I am
mentally ready for the LONG back stretch to this swim. Exit the water and find the biggest folks I
can to strip my wetsuit.
Transition
I don’t plan on being a
hero with this run, just a good jog, sticking to the inside of the helix as
much as possible. I will grab my helmet
and nutrition and run out. Depending on
what is allowed for shoes will determine what I do there, but I am planning for
the worst and having to carry them with me to near the line. I will also eat a couple Gatorade endurance
gummies on way to the bike.
Bike
I learned in RR that I
need to drink a LOT to start, especially coming off the swim to set up a
good ride. With that in mind my first 8
miles or so are designed to accomplish a couple of things. First, I need to push my heart rate down
below 120. I also need to try to drink 3
bottles in the first hour to get myself back on track. After the first 8-10 miles, I will let my HR
drift up to about 125 for the next couple of hours. My goal is to minimize spikes on the climbs
(yeah Wisconsin!), thinking getting over them at as small a cost as I can. I eat every 50 minutes, alternating between
half a power bar (back right pocket) and a caf gel (back left pocket). When I eat the power bar, I also take a salt
stick. I plan to drink between 1.5-2
bottles of GE each hour to start with, then likely tapering down as I grow sick
of the taste. I sweat a ton, so the temp
will make a big difference on how much I actually need to drink. I will use all aid stations as a not so
subtle reminder to finish bottles if I have been negligent up to that point. After 2 more hours with HR around 125, I will
let it climb (likely to happen naturally) to 130ish. With all of this, my watts should be around
170 pushing up to 190 or so as the day progresses. Again, my goal is to do the first loop strong
but defensive, second loop strong with a bit more effort, and try as best as
possible to smartly hammer home the stick.
Overriding goal still remains to set up a good run.
Transition
After I chuck my bike at
the nearest volunteer and curse it good riddance, I will jog into the changing
area, put on socks and shoes and head out with my travel bag. In that bag will be my hat, race number that
has a pouch that will hold salt sticks and gels, Gatorade gummies, and a
banana. I will pound the banana as I
head out and load up my pockets and the rest for the run.
Run
For the first 6 miles my
goal is to get my HR down around 125-130.
Pace should fall in somewhere around 8-8:30 as a guess, but HR is the
overriding guide for me. After the first
6, I plan to settle in around 130-135 HR until the turn and then let it slide up to
around 135-140 if I am able. In the last six
miles, my plan is to work to push that to 140-145, again, as I am able. I will have a gummie each mile, a caf gel at mile
8 and 15 (or as I feel I need the pick me up) with one salt stick at the turn, walking the aid stations and
grabbing 2xGatorade each time. If I am
hot I will use the sponges as well.
Usually around mile 18 or 19 my stomach starts to refuse most
everything, so I will give coke a try this year when that starts to
happen. If it doesn’t work or sit right,
I will stick with GE and chicken broth if I can get it. I plan to skip the last two aid stations if I
can. Really at this
point, whatever I have, I have and plan to lay it all out.
Overall
Basic strategy is to swim
smooth, jog transitions, bike to set up the run while also focusing on aero and
really pushing the downs and flats, and run playing defense until we enter the
back half raising it as we go. I would
love to hear what you all have to say about this admittedly long plan.
Comments
Hey Scott,
Like the plan, for the most part. Because we're similar size and ability, I'll just tell you the things that I would adjust if it were my RP. First, I would quickly delete the "eat a power bar" at 6:30 am, 30 minutes before the canon. There's a reason we eat at 4:30 am. That's just nuckin' futs. I would follow protocol, sip Gatorade and eat that final gel 15 min before the start (your RP says you'll eat the gel at 7:15 am - about 1,000m into the swim? Or is that a typo? Or has the start been moved to 7:30?)
Swim cords if that's the only option. But you'll have a great opportunity to warm up in the water. Do it. I like running through some drills, with 10 seconds of focus on head position, entry, high-elbow pull, push through hip, etc., then do 4-6 hard efforts of 30-50m each.
If you want to go 60 or a bit under, you need to do it. And commit to it 100%. No, you don't line up near Coach. You line up right next to him, front row, confidently ready to blow away 3,000 competitors. And definitely none of this "take a bit to get into a groove." The warm-up will get you into the groove. At the canon, you're going out really hard, doing absolutely everything you can to follow Rich's bubbles until he drops you (he's gonna be top 50 out of the water, would drop me like an anvil from a cliff, and will drop you), but if you can hang for 300-500m, you're going to leave behind the masses, who will be preoccupied with punching and kicking each other. I honestly believe if you "try to work out the kinks while I work around the herd," that herd will ultimately dictate where you go (not straight) and when you finish (not sub-60). The above part is 99% mental/attitude. Physically, you're going to need to breathe every other stroke right out of the gates. A huge majority of swimmers will be holding their breaths because of the adrenaline/anxiety. Focus on exhaling under water from the start. If you hold your breath, you'll hold your head out of the water too long (to exhale, then inhale), which wrecks your body position and can cause you to swim really crooked. When you sight, don't let your eyes focus (takes a few 10ths of a second to focus). Instead, you're looking for yellow/red/orange blur, head back down into the water to exhale. After you escape the masses and are near the front, find a string of swimmers near the buoy line, and hang on to those bubbles. These swimmers will predominantly be strong and straight (your new best friends). Make sure you re-focus on the back half, keeping the tempo high, reminding yourself frequently that this is a race, staying glued to those bubbles.
TAs: You don't have to be a hero, but treat the hugeness of the Terrace as an opportunity, not a challenge. In short TAs, the difference between a great and good transition is 30 seconds. Here, it can be 2-5 minutes. Have two great transitions and pocket 5 free minutes. You'll be disappointed if you go 11:01 or 10:31 or 10:00 because of 13 minutes of transition.
Bike: Like everything but eating every 50 minutes. I prefer to drink every 15-minute Garmin beep, eat every other one (i.e., 30 min). It's a lot easier to eat half a bar at 30 min than it is to cram an entire one at 60. I prefer the steady calorie consumption approach over the starve/stuff one. And I'm off the bars and onto chews/gels by 2 hours, moving to water/salt and a gel towards the end. If you're going to err on this front, over-drink, over-salt, and under-eat. Oh, and don't draft this year - another free 4 minutes you can shave.
Run: Good plan. I'd normally say wait a few minutes before pounding the banana, but maybe eating it at the onset is smart, because you'd likely throw it up if running hard. Count your walk steps at aid stations and limit them to 10 (I've had some 30-second walks that I swore were 10 seconds). Carry ice bag if hot. It's a great course for HR because it's rarely flat (Camp Randall), focus hard not to let it drop in the doldrums (for me, I always lose focus and drop HR somewhere between Miles 13-20).
Again, none of ^^ is gospel, it's just what I would do if I were crazy/stupid enough to do this race again. Above all, have a blast, soak it all in. Oh, and have the German Sausage Platter with a Black Earth Porter at the Great Dane for me. After the race, not before.
MR
I did realize after I posted that I was giving the field a 15 minute head start unintentionally. All the eating needed to be adjusted back as a result of me thinking the start was at 7:30. Thanks for the swim advice, it means a lot and will help me get in the right mental space.
Your race day Wu Tang nickname is: Smooth Pace Killa
You are the example of what happens when you race steady all day, and don't slow down at Mile 18...and then people just start falling down.
Race with your brain, it's your biggest asset. Don't listen to the bullshit voices in your head about riding hard on hills or hammering past packs...you know they will all fall, eventually.
Can't wait to track you!
Eating every 50 minutes on the bike does seem like a long time....however at the end of the day if this is how you have been training and it works for you, then I would keep with the plan, just be careful not to miss any time as you don't want to stretch it any further.
You have done the course before which will be a big help. You have also put a lot of time and skilful effort into the training (obvious by some of the big weeks I have seen you hammering out since meeting in WI!)....it will all pay off for a successful day.
Look forward to seeing you next week.