IMCHOO Training Wk 9/7 - 9/13 2015
#EN4Keys
/ THE LINE
Prepare your mental game. In so doing, remember there will be cumulative fatigue building throughout race day. So important to follow your plan, race your race and prepare for THE LINE.
EVERYTHING before The Line is simply about creating conditions for success for when the Line comes to you.
- A successful race = a good run. There is no such thing as a good bike followed by bad run, period. In our world, if you showed up with solid run fitness, had a "good" bike and a poor run, we will ALWAYS assume you messed up your bike pacing unless you are missing a limb or are in the ICU with an intestinal parasite.
- If you think you can ride faster than we're telling you, prove it by running well off the bike first (preferrably not attempted for the first time on race day!).
- Ride your "should" bike split vs your "could" bike split. YourCould split is what you tell Timmy you could ride on a good day, when you're out together for your Saturday ride. If you say you "could ride a 5:50," your Should split is likely 6:00 and defined as the bike split that yields a good run (see #1 above).
- Don't be a Caboose, be an Engine! Ironman in general, but especially the bike leg, is an exercise in consistency. You don't need straight-A's to win your day, you only have to show up with your C game to be at the head of the class. If you find yourself doing the opposite of everyone else, you're doing the right thing. Lots of people passing you in the first 40 miles of the bike? Everyone else sprinting out of T2? These folks are making your race day easier by showing you what not to do; it's up to you to resist the urge to join in!
- Think you made the mistake of riding too easy? You now have 26 miles to fix that mistake. Make the mistake of riding too hard? That mistake now has 26 miles to express itself, to the tune of X miles at 17-18' walking pace vs X miles at 8-10' running pace. Do the math. How is that nice bike split going to look as you are walking/shuffling the last 10 miles of the run adding another hour and forty minutes to your overall finish time?
**ADMIN ALERT**
* TEAM DINNER: Please view the thread Brenda started on our team dinner. Please follow the instructions and do so within the next week. I have to give a final headcount to the restaurant.
* EN KIDS: I am assuming everyone has placed their kids information on the info sheet from last week. I NEED TSHIRT SIZES ALSO! I will be making this decision whether to order shirts or not Wednesday. PLEASE ADD KIDS INFO TO THE RACE SHEET HERE
* EN4Keys LIVE: Please share the link to the 4Keys of Chattanooga on all social media platforms, emails, friends etc. Help us spread the word. Four Keys Event Page --- There is also an event page on Facebook that you can share. Thank you!
*** If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. You're almost their rock star EN'rs can't wait to watch you unleash on the CHOO course**
Comments
Instead of waking up super early to get the boys out the door for school, I got up super early to finish my race plan!! I've been working on it since camp, tweaking, adding, subtracting, studying... I'm glad it's finally out there. Please feel free to chime in on it https://docs.google.com/document/d/...sp=sharing
My sweet husband is one helluva work horse. He went in to work yesterday instead of taking advantage of the holiday, but was a rockstar getting home before my pool closed. I was dreading the black line. Head down, got to work, and felt great for 4500 meters. Last week of work, folks! Who's getting excited?!
Super hot here today but got the bike done, but just like last week, only able to hit .90IF. I prob should have shortened the intervals but oh well. Got 2 x 15' then a short, hotm1 mile Z2 brick.
On yesterday's 14 miler, I GAVE UP!!! What did I give up? I gave up my headphones. I gave up my heart rate monitor. I gave up my fuel belt and gel packs. I left behind all the data and distractions and just went out and ran old-school, dodging thunderstorms unsuccessfully, not paying a lick of attention to race-pace. It was awesome!!! Made me love running again. Net effect- awesome, albeit, way too fast run. Got some good fitness in and ready to dial everything back in for the final race rehearsal tomorrow. This is it folks! Get after it this weekend!
DOH! =- am I missing something here?
Thanks!
Michael- So you ran naked? No electronics? Brave! Glad you had a great one!
Considering the 84+% humidity, my run wasn't too bad cept for multiple pit stops. Luckily I ran the reverse of my usual route so I had porta-porty access, which I happily used. That shifted the grade from downhill to uphill vs. my usual but in looking at the avg graded pace, I'm happy with my effort. 8 miles in 1:35.
https://www.strava.com/activities/389114928
Got in a short swim tonight before the Aquaerobics class started. I started off so well, I decided to do an impromptu swim test. It was my 4th fastest ever and improved 51" vs. April of this year. Not sure how that happened but I'll take it! Granted, I'm still slow but not as slow as in April!
I had a good final long-ish run today. I did 10 miles in about 1:45. That is only 4 miles less than my long run last week, but I did it in 1:15 less than the long run. It was nice to finally get what felt like a good steady run. Bring on the last RR this Saturday!
Bring on the RR tomorrow, and rain, rain, stay away! Good luck and Godspeed to everyone doing your RR tomorrow.
We didn't get on the bike until noon which had us coming home in 5:00 traffic. That sucked. Skies were getting dark with big storm clouds, so we both agreed we were happy to be alive and knew we still had an hour run to do. Ended up with 6:00hr elapsed 5:00 saddle time. Solid 6 mile run with some beefy hills afterwards.
I was a tad disappointed we didn't get the full mileage in, but I'm slowly letting it go. Good luck everyon out there today! Stay safe.
My husband and I decided to invest in a pair of recovery pump boots and I used them Thursday and post RR last night. Wow. I can't believe how much they help! I've had a few issues crop up the last week or so and I am surprised how much better I feel especially after such a long day yesterday. I plan on using those puppies daily till the race.
I hope everyone had a good day today...let the Taper (crazies) commence!
Final RR for Choo complete. Pool swim at 5am, 4200 yards @ 1:28 I am a slow swimmer! Then traveled to Island for my bike and run. Wind rain and cool temps here in Shanghai. Bike 112 miles @5:55 , muddy dirty messy ride! Run was slow 6.66 miles in an 1 hour. All in all a decent day. Took the bike to my Chinese friends to disassemble and clean. I was sleeping at 7:30pm.
Heading back to the USA on Wednesday. I hope to get some runs and rides in to get acclimated to the clean air. I hope to be in Choo late Wednesday the 23rd. It looks like I will drive down solo.It will be great to meet everyone Thursday evening. I paid for two dinners if someone wants a free meal they can join me.
This weeks totals. 181 total miles, 41 run, 132 bike, 13,800 swim, TSS 1406, CTL is at 152.
Pre-RR: I tried out the two day fuel plan from Core Nutrition! More carbs in two days than I'd normally eat in two weeks and it was very management-intensive to keep eating/grazing every couple of hours. But (spoiler!) it worked VERY well. I had continuous energy throughout the day and my HR was very manageable. Super double excited about using the plan for race day!
Swim: Fueled up with protein and hit the pool (my nearest usable lake was almost an hour from the bike course) and did the distance in 1:13, felt very strong, and confident. Come race day, with a wetsuit and a hint of a current I'm hoping to make it close to an hour.
Pre-Bike Update: After the training camp, I made several changes. First, I fired my bike shop and found a new one. I'd been having issues with my bike, mostly the chain slipping and jumping gears. My bike shop told me repeatedly it wasn't a mechanical issue. These guys are straight up roadies, though, and now I'm of the opinion that they didn't want my business anyway. Went to another shop, slightly further away, that caters to tri folks. Low and behold, lots of mechanical issues, including the need for a new chain. So I took Coach Rich's advise: 1) changed the rear cassette to a 15/29 for hills, 2) added a chain catcher, and switched out my tubes. Major (MAJOR!) improvement and you'll see that reflected below.
Bike: Stayed on top of my fuel plan and had stellar results. 2ooz of Gatorade Endurance every hour (I take a sip every mile,) a solid fuel (Stinger Waffle) at the bottom of the hour (30min in) and then gel (Huma) and salt (Base Electrolyte salt) at the top of the hour. Peed twice. A terrible headwind set in during the last hour or so. But did 100 miles (98% of it solo!) in 5:25:18. Averaged 18.5 which is .5 over my norm! (This week, planning to get a rear wheel cover and I'm hoping it will give me another slight speed boost. THANK YOU COACH RICH FOR THE SUGGESTIONS!) Average HR on the bike: 132.
Run: Hopped off the bike and (since I was consuming more during the ride!) I wasn't famished. And that's a FIRST. I pro-actively scarfed down some additional Gatorade Endurance, a couple of Fig Newtons, and a hit of salt. Started off the run a bit too strong. The RR instructions say to tie my HR on the run to my average on the bike. First couple of miles off the bike I was closer to 142. After those miles I walked for 30sec each mile (to simulate aid stations) and slowed down a little Final results of the run: 5.1 miles in 58:40. 11:42/mile. Average HR: 134. (only 2bpm off goal.)
Wrapped up, headed home, slipped on my 110% Compression pants (with ice packs on my thighs, calves, and hamstrings,) elevated my legs, and haven't stopped eating ever since. I'm writing this about 28hrs after finishing and I am barely sore and have been made my bride happy by cleaning house and smiling all day.
The EN plan, plus the camp, plus Coach Rich's suggestions have made an enormous difference and I'm looking forward to finishing. Going to stick to the plan and devour souls on the run!
-Jon
PS: MARIAH! Thanks for telling me about the Base Electrolyte Salt! I ditched the salt pills and use Base religiously. I barely (BARELY!) cramp at all now. (Usually around 4hrs of riding.) When I do, I take an extra shot of salt and within a couple of minutes I'm good to go. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Trish- Greta work to you and the guys! Bummer about the hr but you'll have everything 100% for race day. Enjoy the boots!
Scott- looks like you added some time that I cut short. Thanks! <img src='http://members.endurancenation.ushttp://members.endurancenation.us/DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif' align="absmiddle" border="0" class="afEmoticon" />
Pat-way to go. Go clean that bike!
JB- yup, don't push it now! Great job!
Jon- sounds like everything came into place for you, that's fantastic! 20oz of Gatorade per hour sounds light for fluid but if it works then that's great!!
My RR was pretty good. I did the swim Friday so just bike and run Sat. For some reason I was thinking 75 miles but that would be for a 5 hr ride, not 6. So planned on adding miles, but not as much cuz it started to pour so did 84 in about 5:15. Then I waited a bit, rain stopped and ran 5 mi in 1:04. I wont get into the horrible chaffing issues i had from running in soaked bike shorts.,,
Overall I'm pleased but still feel like I don't have my nutrition 100%. I've been tweaking since camp but could use a few more long rides to solidify it. I'm hoping a few minor tweaks and I'll be good to go on race day. Up until a couple months ago, my nutrition had been the same and working fine since 2012. Go figure. I'll post more details in another forum once I have a revised plan and get more feedback.
So quick recap... I did my RR#2 last week, and Coach P. recommended that I do 4 hours bike on Sat. and 3 1/2-4 hours on Sun. Mostly in .65 to .70 IF. I was to swim 2.4 on Friday as well and run only 30 mins off the bike today. So.... on Friday I used my new goggles in the pool and apparently had a bad reaction to the "anti-fog" stuff inside the goggles. I didn't rinse them beforehand (nothing said I should do that). When I got done from 1 1/2 hours of swimming (yes, I'm that slow), I took off my goggles and could barely see! My eyes started to burn and I barely made it home from the Y. I called my best friend who happens to be an Optomologist, and she told me what to do. We happened to have plans with her and her husband for dinner that night (he is also an Optomologist) and we ended up at her office for an exam of my eyes! Looked like a chemical burn of the corneas, so NO more swimming for a couple more days. ANYWAY, I did get my two rides in this weekend, as well as a brick run on Sat. I cut my ride a little short today (3 hours) because I was riding solo and bored out of my mind. And I wanted to get home to see how the ENers were doing in Wisconsin:-) LOL! Soooooo, hooray for IM CHOO peeps getting to this point and now we can taper and start to go crazy for a couple of weeks! Nice job everyone!
My bike has mostly been good to me this year - I think I will wash it and put some fresh new tubes/tires on it sometime this week since there will be so much free time.
Nice job to all who made it this far in the training.
The forecast for Saturday called for rain, so I decided to ride the bike path (W&OD trail for those familiar with the DC area) instead of dancing with cars in the rain. It didn't rain for the first half hour, then the skies opened. I did 108 miles in about 6.5 hours of pouring rain. It's hard to track steady power when you can't see the Garmin because of the rain! The problem with the bike path is that there are many road crossings, so there are lots of starts and stops. My numbers were 159 PAverage, 183 PNorm, 1.15 VI (no way to help that given the street crossings), 313 TSS, and 0.69 IF. I tried to practice my race nutrition, but it was much to much for a cold, rainy day. I peed six times (4 on the bike for a first ever) - it was like breaking the seal during a night of drinking - once I started I couldn't stop! I was definitely ready to get off the bike by the time I got home.
Of course the rain stopped right as I started to run. I put down 5.5 miles in an hour and was able to keep a fairly steady pace and HR, although I had to walk 30 steps a few of the miles to slow myself down.
In all, the RR was a confidence booster. Onward we go!
Update after my last RR for IMChoo.
Conditions for the day was starting temp at 84 degrees, cloudy, very humid, temp dropped into the low 70's and then built back up to low 80's by start of run.
So did my last RR on Saturday, and had a great ride, managed my nutrition with 48 oz of Gatorade Endurance /hr, 2 Margherita Cliff Blocks, and on S Cap. SO those numbers break down to:
380 Cal/hr
99.5 CHO
1764 sodium/hr
595 potassium/hr
I pee'd 5 times on the bike, and once more in transition before running. Had a great run but about 40 mins into a 60 min run my fingertips started tingling, and by the end it was another full blown tingly episode. I feel that it wasn't dehydration causing it so wondering what else it could be? Coach P thought it might be Potassium, but it looks like I had plenty of that through my nutrition plan? Since it was cooler than what I have been training in could I have had to much Sodium/Potassium? Upon finishing my brick, I immediately drank about 4-6 oz of dill pickle juice, and that seemed to keep the tingles from getting really bad, but it still took about 30-45 mins to subside?
Any suggestions, help would be greatly appreciated since I am now 2 weeks out from IMChoo, and don't want to experience this on race day?
Thanks,
A tweak to bike fit might help too but you may not want to mess with that at this point.
But I'm a computer nerd, not a doctor, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. *rimshot*
-Jon
Bike:
I ended up covering 109 miles in 5:41 moving time w/ a NP of 149 and avg HR of 132. This was almost perfectly according to plan for what I have been training for. My nutrition went well on the bike. In fact, I peed while out 4 times which is the first time this has happened since being in Chattanooga for camp. The heat and humidity has kept me from peeing a lot no matter how much I hydrated.
Run:
I ran a little over six miles in a little over an hour straight off the bike. I felt good but really struggled to slow down in that first 20 minutes or so. I am going to have to really work hard to force the RP+30" for those first 6 miles during the race. It's just so easy to run fast in the beginning. I wish that feeling would last but unfortunately it doesn't.
All in all, I finished the day with a huge smile on my face and was not wiped out. I am very happy with the way that my RR went and other than a couple of nutrition tweaks, I think I am ready for the race. I'm already starting to feel antsy with training so I need to keep myself busy. I actually bought a groupon for 3- 60min massages this morning and plan to use them all before leaving for Chattanooga next Wednesday morning.
Congrats to everyone for an awesome block of training. Can't wait to meet up in TN next week. Stay safe and sane and don't do anything stupid between now and then.
Brandon