Mike R's IMNC Race Plan
I know a lot of folks have already begun to shut down all things triathlon by now, so thanks to everyone who's even made it this far. When I started making my race checklist this past weekend as the taper began in earnest, all those stupid “I didn’t do enough” self-doubts started creeping into my small brain like they always do. So, I started reviewing my training logs, comparing current numbers to past, planning out how I can leverage execution over fitness, etc. Below is the end product of that process. As always, it’s too long. But it made me feel better. I learned just about everything I know about this sport and especially this distance from this team, so I gladly welcome any comments, tips or suggestions other than “you should have trained more.”
Ironman North Carolina
Personal Stats: 48yo, 5’10”, 143.6 lbs. (as of this morning), ~265 FTP, 51 vDOT
This is IM #9 for me, #4 with EN. I came to the team in 2013 with a significant bike weakness, but as the below AG split rankings in my last three IMs show, EN has made me much more balanced. Unfortunately, transitioning is still the only place where I occasionally excel.
Race Swim T1 Bike T2 Run OA
IMFL ‘15 21 10 38 5 13 15
IMNZ ‘15 6 4 32 9 29 19
IMTX ‘14 18 1 26 3 14 12
I had reasonably high hopes for this race earlier in the year, but they faded a bit when my two training partners got injured before we even got started and then my work life went totally nuts in July, August and the beginning of September. Motivation and time were often in short supply. But unlike my swim and bike, I did manage to maintain my run all year, building more and more durability throughout the spring and summer with consistent 20- to 30-mile weeks. Which, by the time I got to the meat of the IM build, allowed me to put in a big (for me) amount of quality running. My four-week run averages usually peak in the low 30’s for an IM build:
(P.S., the 7 runs/week were the result of several split runs, not running every day). My swim and bike volumes, however, were way down coming into Week 14 of 20. But then my schedule freed up and I was able to put in a really solid five-week block across all three disciplines, hitting right at or above 1,000 TSS points all five weeks. So, even though my CTL (avg daily TSS over preceding 7 weeks) barely cracked 120, if CTL were measured over those last 5 weeks instead, it would be mid-140s. Definitely missing a few longer rides and a handful of quality swims, but I’m fresh, injury-free, and 100% confident (well . . . 90%) I can cover 2.4, 112 and 26.2 pretty quickly.
Goals: I’m currently at the slow end of a big, fast AG. If I’m going to have even a stretch chance of KQing in two years when I age up, I have to gain the confidence that I can truly compete in my AG. Because, without that confidence, I’m not sure I’m willing to commit to the “all in” training required to join a KQ discussion. Three years ago, there was zero such confidence. There may be a little buried under the surface now, but it’s in small quantities. People can tell me complimentary things, and I can do all the Stuart Smalley self-help until I’m blue in the face (or, in Stuart’s case, in the sweater), but I need to earn that confidence instead of trying to artificially manufacture it. Besting my 10:21 PR, cracking top-10 AG or threatening 10 hours would go a long ways to help in this department. Here’s how I plan to do it:
Pre-Race:
Adversity Prep: Something always goes off-script and off-plan on race day. It will happen again next Saturday. I plan for the good (below), but physically and mentally prepare for the bad and ugly as well. One nice thing about doing eight of these suckers over the last decade is I've seen and experienced a lot. In 200+ triathlons, I've flatted three times. All three in an IM. I broke a skewer last year during an IM. A freakin' skewer! I've dropped my chain. I've crashed. I've been punched and kicked, stung by a jellyfish, had my wetsuit unzip on me. I've thrown up too many times to count and twice woke up in the medical tent. IMNC will inevitably throw an off-speed pitch my way. I should be ready for it.
14 days out: Start running sockless in race shoes to toughen feet up. Practice rear-wheel removal and tire change with CO2. Bike and run in full race kit. Beet juice every day. Watch diet (avoid all things pumpkin – bread, lattes, muffins, beer, pie). Get bike tuned and race-ready. Incorporate take-out-speed work and sight drills into every swim.
7 days out: Cut out caffeine. Embrace Purell, shun all humans. Charge Di2 and replace P1 pedal batteries. Follow prescribed workouts, with the goal of starting the race with a swim TSB around 0, bike around +10 and run around +15.
Wednesday: Throw fully-assembled bike in back of the SUV (yes, I smiled while typing that), leave work by noon, arrive by 3:00. Check into the Hilton (race hotel, right next to everything). Check into race, affix stickers and fully prepare bags and equipment according to checklist. Be done before dinner. No-stress evening.
Thursday: Begin low-residue diet in earnest. Salt and hydrate all day. Visit T2 just down the street from the hotel, walk the transition area, note exact locations of bike rack and gear bag spots and changing tent, take photos, walk off distances, look for short-cuts and tangents and carefully plan exactly how I’ll get through transition faster than anyone else. Attend Welcome Banquet at 5pm. It’s next door, I can just leave if it’s lame, but I tend to enjoy them and you never know how much longer Reilly and/or I will be doing this. Go to sleep early to establish routine.
Friday: Big, healthy breakfast. Salt and hydrate all day. Drive out to Wrightsville Beach (10 miles away) in the morning, drop off bike (with plastic bags covering the P1s and attached shoes) and T1 bag (containing just a helmet), repeat the recon for T1 and carefully prepare for that transition. Drive back to Wilmington, eat early lunch, feet up. Wait until 3pm or so to drop off T2 bag, after 95% of the field has dropped theirs off, giving me some confidence that it’ll be in the right spot the following day. Do final walk-through of T2 on the way back to the hotel. Finalize/double-check morning gear according to checklist, then forget Ironman for the rest of the day/evening. Light, no-fiber carb dinner before 6pm. In bed by 8:30pm.
Race Day: Wake by 3:15am. Two Naked Juice smoothies (500 calories total), English muffin + honey (200), beet juice (100). Sunscreen, lube, three Band-Aids (including large one on neck), chip, EN tri-suit. Catch bus to T1 in front of hotel no later than 4:30 a.m. Headphones on, ignore all the kids nervously anxious to take their final exam. The body can only handle so much stress in a day, so try and minimize pre-race mental stress. Once at T1, body mark, carefully top off tires, attach/turn on/calibrate Garmin 500, load food into bento, fill aero bottle and one behind the seat with lemon-lime GE. Double-check placement of T1 bag, make sure it's closed, but not knotted. Catch yet another bus, this one only 2.4 miles, to the swim start no later than 5:45. Cannon goes off at 7:20.
Swim: Gear: Tyr Special Ops polarized goggles, Roka Mav Pro wetsuit (Roka Viper Skin Suit if wetsuit-illegal).
Goal: Be competitive early, establish position and rhythm, renewed focus at 2,500m, do no harm to my bike. The swim is a point-to-point in the protected Intracoastal Waterway of the Atlantic Ocean, so it’s either against the tide (rare) or with it (common). Current tide charts show that tide should be slack with a somewhat helpful flow tide the second half of the swim. If conditions are decent and the tide favors us even a little, there’s no reason I shouldn’t exit well under 60 minutes. But I’ll be happy with any time if I’m top 15 AG.
Execution:
• 100% focus on the swim as soon as I reach the swim start. The triathlon doesn’t start until 8:20am.
• Go for an easy 5- to 10-minute jog upon arrival. Then load and drop off the Morning Clothes bag, retaining wet/speed suit, cap, goggles, gels, and fluids.
• Take time to get the wetsuit on properly, or skin suit, and get in a solid 10 minutes of swim warm-up, with 5 minutes of drill/form work, then building short intervals up to full take-out speed.
• Finish sipping Skratch Labs Hyper Hydration, then take 2 no-caf gel with water by 6:45.
• Line up at/near the front of the line by 7:00. If wearing skin suit, bring giant leaf bag to cover me, as it’s almost always in the 50s in the morning in late October.
• Rolling start: take it out hard, but not full sprint, for the first 300-400. Do NOT blow up. Establish position and pace, try to join a group right along the buoy line. Breathe. Do not get frustrated or flustered. Anticipate and accept the contact, but take no crap. Establishing early position and hanging on are the keys to success.
• Once rhythm is established, sight every 10 strokes as: arch back, press lead left hand down, eyes up (chin doesn’t leave water) just long enough to glance towards the colored buoy without taking the time to focus, head straight over to the left to breathe and down, kick.
• Other than while sighting, only kick at the start, at turns, and the last 200m.
• As the map below shows, pretty straightforward swim. Hard to get lost, and no early turn buoys (or the scrums they generate). The only tactical move I will make is to “cut” the right-hand turn by targeting the final dock sticking out in the water at that right-hand turn and swim straight at it. I will use sighting of that dock as a focal point for the last 1/3 of the swim when I often start daydreaming. Once around that right corner, find the final (left-turn) swim buoy and target that. My proposed line is below in purple.
• With 200 to go, mental focus shifts 100% to T1 (“zipper, suit off, ready to yell for bag #148").
T1: Goal: Best in class (~2:30), but no HR-jacking sprints. Simple, smooth and with purpose.
• Wetsuit stripped.
• Yell out my number. Because it should be early in the event, an anxious vol will hopefully grab and hand me my bag. Otherwise, find my own neon-taped bag, retrieve and don helmet during the jog, enter the tent, hand wetsuit and bag to a volunteer without slowing down and politely ask him to pack and stow for me, buckle my helmet while running to my bike, again loudly but politely yelling out my bib number in hopes of a curbside bike-valet service. I will only sit down in T1 if I have a compound fracture or am bleeding profusely.
• Run with bike across mount line, strap into shoes already attached to the pedals once I’m underway. Put on sunglasses (attached to bento), and roll on arm warmers from the aerobars, if needed. If it’s going to be cool and/or rainy for the ride, I will ride with the helmet visor instead of glasses.
Bike: Gear: 54cm P5 Six, Dura-Ace Di2, 52/36 cranks, new 12-25 cassette, new Dura-Ace chain, P1 pedals, Flo 90 carbon clincher, Flo aluminum clincher disc, 23mm GT4000 IIS (measuring 25mm) w/ latex tubes at 90 psi. Two CO2 canisters, inflator and butyl tube with an external valve extender on the Xlab Delta behind-the-saddle bottle holder, another butyl tube and a tire lever strapped under saddle. Xlab Torpedo between the bars. LG P-09 helmet, Smith Pivlock glasses, LG M-2 EN-branded tri-suit, Sidi T4 shoes. Extra tube and CO2 in bike special needs bag.
Goals: Execute the plan without any costly mistakes, remind myself that the best use of power is the non-use of power. Going into TX and NZ, my 5-hr power was around 175, and I raced both at 165NP. For FL, my 5-hr power was closer to 185, and I raced at 175NP. With similar if not a little more power than at FL last year, 175 should be doable number in NC, perhaps even bit higher. I have the confidence that I’ve gone 5:21 @165NP on a more difficult course, and 5:14@175NP on a slightly more difficult course. And I’m on a faster bike that fits me better and I’m at least 5 pounds lighter than I was at any of those prior races. Thus, if the conditions are decent and all systems are functional, 5:15 is a reasonable guess. But I won’t push it just to chase a bike split time. I will gladly trade -10 minutes on the bike for +20 minutes on the run, as my OA finish time doesn’t give a crap how the minutes are divvied up amongst the disciplines.
Execution:
• First order of business is getting my HR down to 125-30 ASAP.
• Garmin set to auto-lap every 5 miles. Once HR is down, start building the watts into the 165-70 range and self-assess. Nail each 5-mile window with good watts and extremely low VI (1.02 at IMFL was too high, and I’m more and more convinced that low-VI is really critical for IM success). First 40 miles are all about “doing no harm,” hydrating and shortening the bike race to 72 miles. RPE will fool me early in the bike, so watts rule. Slowly build to 175. HR should settle into the low-130s by the second hour, with a 2-hour hard cap of 135. If feeling good after Mile 50 (after getting through the worst of a near-certain headwind), allow watts to climb to 180. If I feel good at Mile 90 and HR is still low, can allow watts to creep into mid-180’s and really blast homeward with a likely tailwind. Hard cap of 140 HR throughout the ride, non-negotiable.
• Audible Garmin alerts every 15 minutes remind me to drink, stand up and stretch in a harder gear every beep, add food to the routine every other beep.
• Nutrition:
· Target 1.5 bottles of GE (36 oz., 63g of carbs, 220 calories, 900mg of sodium) every hour for the first 3.5 hours (Mile 75-80), then moving to watered-down GE, then to water for the last 30 minutes. Early hydration is critical, as a mistake here can’t be fixed later.
· Two GE chews every 30 minutes (31g, 120 calories, 105mg per hour) for the first 3.5 hours. If the weather is cool and I only drink one bottle of GE per hour, I will make up the “lost” 63 calories by going to 3 chews every 30 minutes.
· I always hit a rough patch/lose focus near Mile 80, so I’ll have a double espresso gel (100mg of caf) at that mileage, which usually jolts some life and focus back into me (got a huge second- wind 5 minutes after taking first one at FL). Two more caf gels at Miles 90 and 100. After Mile 100, I’ll only allow myself water and salt before dismounting.
• The goal is to pee at least two times, preferably three. It will be difficult on a flat course like this, but once the seal is broken . . . I’m good to go.
• If the wind is strong (virtually guaranteed), it will be my friend. I’m smaller and more aero than 90%, and I’ll ride a better power/HR profile into the wind than most. Most guys will burn their matches fighting the wind on the way out. Chin-on-aero-straw at all times. I’ve been practicing riding with shoulders hunched and closer to my chin (channeling my Inner-Tallo), not with the flared-shoulder look I was sporting below at IMFL:
T2: Goal: Best in class (under 2:30)
• Jog with purpose while unbuckling my helmet.
• Yell for my bag or, if no assist, grab my brightly-taped bag, remove go-bag during the jog and have hand inside the bag on my shoes as I enter tent, sit down (yes, it frustrates me that I haven’t figured out how to do T2 entirely on the fly), remove shoes, find volunteer to stow my helmet, put on (pre-rolled and pre-lubed) socks and shoes, grab my go-bag, go.
• From my go-bag I’ll put on my race belt, pocket some salt, stow a gel in my top, put on visor and sunglasses, and strap on and fire up the Garmin 920xt. I will add race-saver bag if temps are above 75. I don’t have to accomplish everything in the first 100 yards. Relax and take my time, as long as I’m moving forward.
Run: Goal: Happy with sub-3:50, ecstatic with sub-3:40. Execute the first 6 miles, fearlessly run 7 to 20, recklessly race it home. Simple double out-and-back, with first 3 miles heading along the river walk, 7 miles around the park/lake, turn around and head back to the finish area to start the second loop. Other than a semi-short, semi-steep climb up to Front St. at about Mile 1, pretty much pancake flat. I love pure out-and-backs because I get to see the competition and my family/friends several times.
Execution:
• Just like the first 40 miles on the bike, the first 6 on the run are key, critical points of the race. Blunders here get magnified and blown way out of proportion. It may be difficult to keep HR below 140, but I will. It was a struggle at FL, but I did it there (en route to a negative split and top-100 marathon). People will pass. Remind ego that this is a positive – we’ll see them all again.
• I will flip the semi-race switch at the lake turn-around. Starting at Mile 7, I’ll allow my HR to move into a second window that’s capped at 145, the top of my Zone 2.
• I will also be watching pace, as I want to run sub-8:30s. I won’t be afraid to push the envelope a bit between Miles 7 and 20, even if I have to push HR up a few beats above 145 to be competitive with my goals. I know I’ve left food on the tray during the IM run before, and I’m willing to push the comfort boundaries a bit to see what I can really do. Even if that means taking calculated risks that carry severe penalties. I’ve already got 8 finisher medals.
• I’ll eat a gel out of T2 and a banana at the first aid station. Target additional gels at Miles 5, 10, 15 and maybe 20 (on-the-5’s is easy for me to remember). Front-load the calories during the first half to fuel the second half when the food won’t be going down. Regularly add salt to get in 1,000mg per hour, depending on heat. GE at every non-gel aid station until Mile 19 or 20, when Coke takes the nutritional helm.
• Yell what I want as I approach aid stations, walks limited to 10 steps, with walk breaks being most critical during those first six miles.
• Run all tangents, constantly looking for simple ways to pick up a second or two. Over a long day, they add up.
• At the final turnaround at 19.5, commit to racing it home. No more aid-station walks. HR well into the 150’s. Find people to pass, fend off those who want to pass, try to enjoy the competitive game while, at the same time, digging a deep, dark hole and jumping in head first.
• Garmin auto-laps every mile, Screen 1 set to HR, HR Lap, Lap Pace, Pace Avg. Screen 2 is set to Time of Day. I’ll flip to TOD at the start of the run to gauge where I am. If it’s in the 1:35-1:50pm range (6:15-30 into the race), then I can put PR into the category of Realistically Possible. I’ll do the same at the final turn-around when I’ll have about an hour of racing left. If it’s around 4:40pm, I’ve got one hour to PR. If the watch amazingly reads something closer to 4:20, then I’ll go into full 10-hours-or-med-tent mode. My wife will hopefully tell me where I stand in my AG. When there’s no one to pass, I’ll use those additional time/placement carrots during the final stretch. For better or worse, at this stage of my IM racing life, it’s those competitive One Things that really light an internal fire.
• With a half mile to the finish line, empty the tank. Speaking of, crossing an IM finish line is still one of the coolest experiences in the world. Try to soak it in.
Comments
Swim comment - we discussed lining up last and taking advantage of more current, but having to pass more BOPers, assuming you've made the decision to have less passing work in front of you on the bike?!
Looking at your #s on the bike, you are around 3.95+ w/kg? while you are concerned about biking mileage and volume, you have more than enough to get this done on a flat course.. staying aero will pay the biggest dividends. Bike setup - I have the same Xlab torpedo setup & have launched the bottle out of my gorilla cage. I'd consider slapping on either a velcro strap or securing with electrical tape.
You have a strong run & the run is where you will catch & devour others that made mistakes on the bike. Have fun!
I would add this to your plan
- Take video of "swim exit to bag to tent to bike exit" and video of "bike entry to bag to tent to run exit" so I can review them in hotel room as needed.
- check cassette is tight (and check skewers in your case)
-listen to the EN podcast about "positive selftalk"
http://enation.libsyn.com/positive-self-talk-on-race-day-episode-576
-when things get tough, remember to smile as this is where the difference is made with the competion: "do u quit or do u power through?"
I have no doubt about your fitness, u did the work, now u need to execute like a EN ninja
u didn't mention getting to your "1 thing" in order to dig deep(er)...
here's a vid that kinda help me once I was questionning myself:
Good luck Mike and thank u for your help and advices
good luck
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Mike,
Very smart on practicing rear wheel removal and tire change. I have a few different FLO wheels and I find it hard to get the tires on. I see you have the GT4000 IIS tires, so maybe they work better than the ones I used.
Great plan! Good luck on the race! I look forward to following you!
@MR — my only comment is on your 'new Dura-Ace chain'.
I just want to point out that new chains have more resistance than ones that have been broken in. The guys that make the 'unicorn tears covered ones', break the new chain in before they do the treatment that Dino described in his great post on that subject (http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/21687/Default.aspx).
So my take away is unused chain = not-so-good — newish but broken-in chain = good.
Great plan...lots to learn and since I most likely will race this in 2018 when I age up (can't say the number...bums me out!) I will probably rip off a lot of your plan.
The bike looks stupid fast. I know you will have a good day...fingers crossed you get to your med tent sub 10 goal on the last 10k!!!!
Good move checking the transition bags race morning. I checked mine at Lou race morning and they had tied a formidable knot in it overnight.
Can't wait to watch you put this great plan to work! Go get 'em Mike... this is your time!
@DaRealHoff, thanks for all you've done for me and the team. BRC and LP should be a blast next year. Yeah, I decided not to risk taking off last in the swim. If this race draws a lot of weak swimmers because of the current assist, I could get stuck swimming around/over 100s of breastrokers. That would cause me to burn a ton of physical and mental matches. Plus, T1 could be a cluster (more stress). And because most of my tri history before EN was MOP, I really, really enjoy racing near the front, even if my time there is short-lived. Plus, with rain a good possibility, I like the relative safety of a solo ride. I too have launched an (expensive tool/spare) bottle from my Gorilla. I just swapped it for a Gorilla XT I had sitting around and will add some electrical tape. Yes, I will test ride it pre-race.
@DR, thanks a ton. I can go negative pretty quickly late in an IM, so need all the help I can get. As for dinner the night before, my two standbys are chicken noodle soup or light noodle/pasta dish (not alfredo or lasagna).
@Brian, I train on tank tires with Slime-filled tubes because I despise flats. Thus, I definitely need to practice before a race.
@TC, each race I get closer to truly convincing myself to race like you. The only time I've purposefully slowed down on the run because of a HR cap was in very high heat/humidity. Which shouldn't be an issue this week. Frodo says he uses HR only for post-training and -racing analysis, with one exception: his coach makes him run Kona with a HR cap due to the heat. One of the reasons I post even my stretch goals in an RP like this is because I lose the option of coming back here in 2 weeks and saying my plan going in was to walk my way to a 12:15. It's similar to the "Strava Effect." I've wanted to quit or short-change hundreds of wko's because I just wasn't motivated, but I finished anyways because I knew it was gonna be public as soon as Strava got it. So, this Saturday, as I enter the park early on the run, I will remind myself that you're watching, thereby invoking the Cronk Effect.
@Peter, thanks for the chain advice. I will have the drivechain plenty warmed up and broken in. Not going to spend $150 for a one-time chain that may save a watt or two. At least not for this race. Instead, that $150 will be going towards a filet, some potatoes and a bottle of Stags Leap in the Ruth's Chris in my hotel after the race.
@Ed, thanks for everything, friend. You're one of this ream's greatest assets, and I am so looking forward to hanging out with you when our schedules next allow.
@Bill, this team is awesome. Everything I wrote above came from others here, just slightly refined by what's worked and hasn't worked for me in race situations.
@TM, you're one of the few ENer's I may actually like better than Ed.
@EE, thanks. Bummed I missed Lou this year, but we'll coordinate a race one of these days. I am currently drinking Beat Performer because it's in a convenient can. But it does not taste good. It's what I suspect liquid earth would taste like. But it doesn't have an after taste, and I never burp it up. I eat lots of nitrates anyways (spinach or arugala everyday), so I just supplement with one can. No big load, as I'm not going to risk GI issues. Also, the gel I eat coming out of T2 is a Clif banana/beat/ginger (tastes like banana, not like my backyard). Just remember that the benefits are chemical and the conversion to nitrite and eventually nitric oxide requires interaction with the bacteria in your saliva. So, I drink the juice first, then get prepared, then eat the rest of my breakfast. Brushing teeth (killing all that bacteria) is last.
We will get together one of these days... but for now I just hope you the best weather possible... or worst... if you'd rather let your execution shine... but that's all up to you... race well!
You are a strong swimmer and I think you are now to the point where you are physically and mentally ready to empty that tank and leave everything on the course.
I learned alot from you on the forums and hope you get the goals you had setted in your mind! go get it bro
To the video of the swim exit etc - I actually have one of those somewhere let me see if I can hunt it down.
About the busses in the morning - they always run on time and perfectly - I agree stay in your bubble - headphones on and head down. Get in your box and stay there.
I will be out there cheering you on all day and will pop up when you least expect me to. Cant wait to see you completely and 100% crush it. If you need anything from me race week/end - you have my digits don't hesitate one minute to use them. Count me as backup sherpa!
have a great one Mike.
will be watching.
bike now changed to 50 miles ? so crank it out in a little over two hours ?