IMFL 2015 Race Plan – Attila Matyas
IMFL 2015 Race Plan – Attila Matyas
Background and Goals
IMFL will be my 3rd IM. First race was IMFL in 2012 and then IMCHoo in 2014.
I’m not fast enough or experienced enough yet to assign goal times to segments and I don’t want those numbers rattling around in my brain to hijack the process. I will let the execution sort out the time to whatever it will be, however, there are a couple of spots that I hope to improve on.
So here are my numbers from IMFL 2012:
IMFL 2012 Finish: 12:34:27 // Swim: 1:25:06 /T1: 8:58/ Bike: 5:57:53 /T2: 10:11/ Run: 4:52:19
Forgetting FTP, vDOT, and W/kg can you see the room for improvement??? How about 19:09 chilling in transition, really? I mentioned this in my 2012 RR for that race; I pretty much setup a picnic and cot to take a nap on I spent so much time in transition. If nothing else I hope to improve those numbers.
Beyond that I’ve improved my swim with my last RR at a 1:16:09. IMChoo was a 57 and change but clearly that doesn’t count ; ) My bike has improved with a higher FTP and more volume pop from ToC, Sufferfest and TR volume plans but no goals here just watch the numbers race day and be patient. Run has felt better and I actually like running now so for me that will be the most interesting metric no matter what direction the numbers fall.
Race Pillars:
Race Day is about EXECUTION, not fitness
No highs, No lows
Honor thy training self
Exercise Patience
Remind yourself how lucky you are to be doing this as a hobby. When my son complains about slow Wi-Fi I often remind him of it being a 1st world problem and anything I see race day is just that so HTFU and get on with it.
Sunday-Wednesday:
Finalize all the gear at home, will do most of this on Sunday so I have a day or two to hyper focus on my choices and make changes if needed.
Put new chain on bike, adjust gearing, swap pads for swiss stops, mount disc and 80mm front, clean bike, torque wrench every bolt, swap quarq batteries and HRM strap batteries.
Fly down to Florida on Wednesday with the family. Hopefully all the gear and family will fit in the rental car. I’m flying with my bike so no stress there this time on picking up the case. Wear compression socks for the flight but with long pants, I don’t want to be that guy ; ). Go to IM village pickup registration materials. Quick run through expo. I’m superstitious and never buy anything before I complete the race so it’s quick and just window shopping.
Thursday:
4 Keys talk at 10:00AM
Start organizing race day gear
Assemble bike and do quick ride to make sure all is well.
Do test swim in the Red Tide with wetsuit to reacquaint myself with an ocean swim.
EN Team Dinner
Back to hotel and settle down for the night
Friday:
Big Breakfast at Another Broken Egg
Medium lunch and plain small dinner. Just follow Corediet race plan guidelines.
Sip Nuun all day and eat some pretzels
Finish packing all transition and special needs bags.
Mark all bags with colorful tape
While packing try to visualize the steps of the race and what my backup plan is if something goes wrong
Check in bike and bags
Deflate tires a little
Walk swim exit to transition and look for shortest paths
Memorize bike and transition locations
Watch my boy and girl run the Ironkids event. Enjoy seeing the smile on their faces as they get their medals
Saturday:
Breakfast 3:15AM:
4 cups of applesauce, scoop of protein powder, banana and bottle of perform, can of beet juice
Tape toes, moleskin under both big toes, and band aid nipples
Get dressed with De Soto bibs, De Soto sleeved jersey, compression sleeves, HRM, timing chip (with safety pin), Fenix3 (I like post swim review of swim and I’m not fast enough for it to matter), chamois cream, flip flops and morning clothes over whole kit
Grab morning bag with wetsuit, 2x goggles (small drop of baby shampoo in each lens and rinsed), ear plugs, swimcap, body glide, plastic grocery bag, 1.5 powerbar, no caf gel and small water bottle
Bring mega morph floor pump and headlamp.
Transition:
Pump up tires 112 Rear 110 Front
Add nutrition bottles to bike: 2 bottles of perform as BTA and behind the seat. Add rice paper wrapped power bars and clifbloks to bento (Thx. Tim!)
Toolkit items will already be in bottom of bento box as co2, small multi tool and co2 head. Pre-stretched and glued tubular under seat.
Place arm coolers rolled up on aero bars
Rubber band sunglasses to aero bar
Attach shoes to bike and rubber band them for running side mount out of T1
Turn on Edge 520 – zero quarq, no auto off
Put bike in good starting gear and put left side pedal at 9 o’clock.
Body Marking
Hand off pump to Melissa
Put away morning gear
Have 1.5 powerbar 1:15 before start
Have no caf gel :15 minutes before start with small bottle of water
Swim:
Beach start so it will be chilly, wear flip flops for cold sand and hand off to Melissa as I head off to start corral.
Last RR swim was a 1:16 pull with bucket turns. Line up with the 1:15 folks right middle of the buoy line
Goggles under cap
Get moving steady and try not to have typical panic/claustrophobia attack, just breath out through nose, swim and stay in your box.
Sight every 8-10 strokes at the top of the swells
Steady, steady and more steady. No surging no trying to keep up with the Jones’ just swim your own race but don’t take any crap. Last time I got kicked, swam over used as a wall for someone to pull off of etc. No more Mr. nice guy…
Nearing finish line start rehearsing swim exit in head: goggles up, unzip wetsuit push down to waist and look for strippers. If beach strippers are a sandy mess just move through and strip yourself in T1. Steady walk/jog. Not winning anything by sprinting through this section so just stay calm.
Look for family say hi and a couple of high fives and keep moving.
T1:
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast but don’t forget it’s a race.
Grab helmet and put on socks
Give westsuit and parts to volunteer to put in bag
Grab Mega zip lock: nutrition of gels and salt stick
Take nutrition out of zip lock and put in pockets while heading to bike
Go past mount line to avoid the FUBAR that usually happens there.
Start Garmin once on bike
Bike:
If day is hot/humid get started early during admin miles through town to get ahead of hydration and nutrition. Use the extra lbs. of fluid on bike to get started on hydration.
Minimum of 2 bottles/hour or more for first 3 hours to get ahead of hydration especially if hot. Use the need to pee as a gauge or drink until you are burping it back up.
Use admin miles before hitting the loop to dial-in steady watts and get HR down
Pull up arm coolers and sunglasses from aero bar once settled in
Once on loop lock in -.71-.72 of 249 FTP and stay aero and steady with stretches at each aid station to save the running muscles. Watch, 3s power, NP Lap set to 3 mile intervals and Avg. HR
Reference the gears sticker taped to stem as a reminder of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears, likely not needed but there as a reference.
Ignore everything around you and just ride your own race.
Pee twice on bike. I usually can’t pee on swim so with 48 oz/hr by mile 30 I should be ready to pop. Just pull to the side drop a leg and let it roll.
Edge 520 is set to 10 minute intervals to remind me to drink and stay on top of the gels and salt. Nutrition is CoreDiet race nutrition speced out for all three legs and I’ve used at both previous IMs.
Rest stops will be dump bottles get new 2 GE and one bottle of water to dump over head and arm coolers as needed.
I will have a bike SN bag of extra chamois cream, co2, gels and salt but do not plan on stopping unless I really need something out of the bag. Have yet to stop at SN and don’t plan to start now but I want some basic insurance.
Towards the end of the bike turn on Fenix3 and flip it to run mode and the correct screen and take salt stick.
Take note of average heart rate for duration of bike and make a note of this for run
At mile 110 start dialing down the watts, just nice easy riding, unbuckle from shoes, start thinking about T2.
T2:
Do flying dismount and hand off bike
Put on socks and shoes
Grab go bag with nutrition, hat, race belt, zip lock bag and banana
Exiting T2 put clifbloks, gels, and salt in jersey pockets, put on hat and race belt.
Eat banana
Run:
Planning on running via heart rate. Visualize the super smooth HR run graphs that showed the really well executed runs. Realize it’s a long day so all the jokers flying by can do so and if I execute I will see them again on lap two.
While on bike I will look at my average heart rate and keep my run as close to that average as I can when starting the run knowing that it will drift up as the day goes on after mile 6.
No spikes.
Grab ice for zip lock bag at each aid station.
Just keep running and walk the aid stations take in 4 ounces of GE. If that's not working then water with salt chaser. If hands are tingling then eat a banana.
Run nutrition will be clifbloks, gels and salt stick. Mile 18 will start the coke, salt and maybe GE at every other aid station if I can still stand it.
Take sponges and squeeze on arm coolers and put ice n back pocket of desoto bibs. Use ziplock bag of ice as needed; hold in hands, stuff down jersey etc...
Run proud with compact arms and steady turn-over.
Run SN will have some extra salt, nutrition and duct tape but I don’t plan on using unless I drop something.
Once in the park lap 2 just enjoy the quiet. I kind of like the quiet darkness in the park as I do most of my runs in the dark by myself anyway so use it to get energy rather than drain it. Exit out of the park and go to work realizing you are almost home. Celebrate the finish line and meet up with the family.
Comments
Also, do you use any caffeine products? Finish the taper well and I look forward to meeting you at the dinner.
You are def stronger and more prepared compared to '12. Just let it happen. It's a long day that is really about the last 1.5 hrs. Spend all day getting to that point and then fight with a tenaciousness that will do your training self proud!
I see a lot of maturity baked into the plan you just laid out. I also see how strong you are on those massive trainer workouts (which will have you killing it at IMFL) along with your swim speed and run work ethic. I predict a big PR from you at IMFL given all these things.
Visualize yourself following your Patience and Discipline mantra, self correcting to that when things get dicey, fatigue sets in or impatience rears its ugly head. There a lot of problems that can get fixed throughout the course of the day by following patience and discipline alone and by the same token, there is a huge amount of irreparable damage that can be done by leaving those two items at the start line.
I very much look forward to meeting you, racing with you and congratulating you at the finish bro!
KMF!
@Edwin. As Tim noted I'm a biker at heart so I still can't wrap my brain around a no sock bike ride, definitely just in my head with no other logic behind it. I don't mind a little wet feet and did use socks in previous IMs where I hydrated well ; ) I do change my socks in T2 to fresh new super comfy Balega socks, just love them. I do use caffeine but for an IM don't start caffeine gels until second half of bike and continue through run with gels/bloks until mile 18 when I switch to coke.
@Tim. Previously I've always worn just tri top with no pockets so I stuff gels in shorts in T1. I missed the boat on the EN sleeved top so I'm going with the De Soto sleeved jersey which also has 3 nice rear pockets. I tried it today with all gels needed for bike and put wetsuit over it and it fit fine and was comfortable. So now have one less moving part out of T1, thanks as always for your sharp eye!
Looking forward to seeing the results!
Good Skill this weekend!