DS IMMOO Race plan

Doug Sutherland

This is IM #4 and the first (and only) tri I have scheduled in 2017.

Basic stats: 42yo, 178-180lbs, swim RRs 1:05-1:12, est FTP 286, est VDOT @ 5k = 45, est VDOT @ 30k = 43, W/kg 3.54, CTL 121

Training summary: Compared to my prior efforts, this build has been uneventful, without injuries, drama, big changes... until the end of it when some external stress was added (buy new house, possible big career change) and somehow I scheduled myself to work this weekend instead of doing RR#2. Just so dumb. I got a late start to my season due to an injury skiing, so bailed on the JOS. Started a "AOS" x 1 month, then 5 weeks of GF, then jumped into the IM build about 14 weeks out:



The above shows the highest CTL I have ever attained in my 3 years of doing this. The other news is that I learned how to swim faster, consistently putting down 1:35/100y times which is a big improvement from years past (1:45-1:55). I have yet to learn to love my bike seat. My running legs are currently approaching bullet proof status, though no faster - and slightly slower than years past.

Race week:
- Thursday: fly to Milwaukee, family night, possibly build bike
- Friday: Drive to Madison. Check in. Look/walk swim helix, swim in water. Meet with long lost urology friend, bags, hydrate, salt, sleep early. Drive bike course, ride bike up Barlow. From an achieved Coach Rich post for driving course:
"REALLY be paying attention when you drive the course. Note false flats, rollers that aren't, look at shifting points, etc. In particular, the bit from the start of Meschersmidt (?) Rd to Mt Horeb is very sneaky hard and one that no one talks about because of where you're doing it on the day -- about miles 18-25 on the first lap and...whatever that is on the second lap. That is, everyone screws this up because (1) all everyone talks about is the stuff on the other side of the course (Old Sauk, Timberlane, and Midtown) and (2) when you go through it the second time you're not yet feeling the day = easy to booger it a second time. "
- Saturday - meet wife for big carby breakfast, drop bags/bike, hydrate/salt/snack/normatech/movies/chill, shave everything.

Race Day
- Up at 330, shower, coffee
- 800 calories of toast, egg whites, 1.5L GE, salted.
- Mark numbers and sunscreen
- Speed suit and arm warmers on
- Leave for T1 430-445
- Tires to 95, Garmin 820 on, GE in the BTA and Ventum tank (2.4L), bike in ez gears, Vaseline and wetsuit, two sets goggles, spit, throw away flip flops
- Gel and GE at 6:40

Swim: Wave 4/6:55am
- Look for 1:05-1:10 peeps
- Sight the buoy line. "Lets get ready to rumble"
- "NO DOUGIE BOB"
- Haul ass at the gun until you can't haul anymore
- Stroke wide, engage core, sight every 10 strokes, don't fear contact
- Stop thinking about the bike. 
- Start racing 75% the way through. 100y hard, 100y easy if fatiguing

T1
- No running the helix = "jog sensibly on the inside"
- Helmet on, dump bag, strap on food filled hip bag, socks and shoes, shades and go.
- ~6.5-7 minutes
- Start Garmin

Bike: Target NP 200-203, AHR 120-135, VI <1.1
- Nutrition: 3-4 Lara Bars in first 3.5 hours, switch to all liquid/gels for final 2 hours. (~400-450cal/hour up front, ~300cal/hour near end), salt stick hourly
- Fluid: 2 bottles/hour, water at every station
- Expecting the first 5 miles to be crowded. 
- Look left if passing
- Chicken bucket for 30-45 min, or until AHR to 120-135
- "Pee goddamn it!"
- Tylenol at hour 3 or when in pain
- There WILL be FTP level effort on this course. Keep it to a minimum. Be smart.
- "Really have the discipline, all day, to drop into your smallest cog within arms reach of the top of a hill and just continue to spin at 12-14mph. LOTS of temptations on this course to just pop over the end of a hill. Those around you will not have this discipline." - Coach R
- "Think "conservation of momentum" always, especially on all downhills and turns. I use the cones as "recommended guidance," cutting apexes all day and scaring the shit out of volunteers. I'll pass people in corners on the right, left, inside, outside, whatever, doing what I do to keep me safe but continue to go as fast as I can. I also don't say anything / give warning to slower riders in this stuff. IOW, put your "squirrels on the bike path" hat on do what you gotta do to continue to go fast...except on the 3 turns on Garfoot. Don't be dumb here, chill a bit if you're in traffic. It opens up very nicely to a good, fast stretch perfect for slingshotting, eating and drinking." - Coach R
- On the 3 hills on the backside, find to stand up them to stretch, but really watch your power and be prepared to have to navigate through slower traffic and crowds. At the camp Jeremy and I did some tests on these hills, targeting different watts (from cheesy to ~10w under FTP) and the net difference would probably be about 2' on total bike split. More if you also included the hill in Mt. Horeb. 
- Re-engage at mile 90. Stop thinking about the run!

T2 <2min
- Flying dismount
- Dump bag
- Change socks if soaked. If dry, keep
- Shoes on, go bag, leave
- Drink pickle juice

Run 
- Nutrition: gel ever 30 min, 4 oz GE every mile. Salt stick hourly
- Tylenol after first hour
- HR cap of 144 first 6miles
- AHR of 144-149 with 152 cap after mile 6
- If still in the game at mile 20, stop looking at HR and just run

Internal Mantras
- Honor your training self. You are lucky to be here, but put a lot of yourself also
- Honor your team. They are watching 
- Honor your family. They suffered with you.
- Steal their energy. 
- Stay external. This is fun! You are a triathlete doing an Ironman!

Morning Stuff

• Wetsuit

• 2x Goggles

• Quick Spit

• 920xt

• Heart Rate Monitor

• Garmin 500

• Swim Cap

• Timing Chip

• Throw Away flip flops

• Tri-Glide

• 2x Bottle of GE for bike

• Bottle of GE for sipping

• Roctane Gel for before swim

• Clif Bar for 1 hour before swim

• Clif Bar for bike

• 4x Roctane Gels for Bike

Bike Bag:

• Helmet

• Shoes and socks, nutrition pack

• Glasses

Bike Special Needs:

• Spare Tube

• 2x Spare CO2

• Vaseline

• Roctane Gels 2x

Run Bag

• Shoes

• Socks

• Go Bag

  • Race Belt with (2Gels, Bib), banana

  • Visor / Hat, 920xt

  • Sun Screen spray

Run Special Needs

• Starbucks

Alan Brown

Nice race plan Doug!  Looks like you are ready for a great race!  Look forward to meeting you in Madison.

Jeff Kane

@Doug Sutherland, looks solid especially the strategy around the bike portion! I'm a fan of the Lara Bars too (low carb). Now it is all about execution! Best of luck!

Francis Picard

@Doug Sutherland

You did great progress on the swim this year ! and that PMC chart should be a book cover! that's a nice build there!

few random things:

1) Don't forget to charge all electronic gadgets or/and change batteries
2) how much sodium you getting by hour on the bike ?
3) why start garmin in T1 ? you can have it start on race morning, it might take a while to search for GPS if you do so on T1 and if it doesnt start correctly you will need to fix while riding

I wish you a great race with your expected results (for which you are silent on it!) you did great work considering you didnt have the chance to do a real full OS!

Doug Sutherland

Thx all

@Francis Picard good point about electronics, will add. I am aiming for 1000 of Na an hour, but have not done the math yet. Another good point. I am most focus on hydration. Yesterday I thought I was doing well on a 3 hr ABP followed by a run - lost 8lbs during the brick = bad job hydrating! Was told once to waiting until out of T1 to start Garmin or the computer will try to sync with all nearby units (?). Results. Alas, I am afraid to even come up with any predictions. If I use a conservative BBS and run a smart marathon, I am close to breaking the 11 hr mark. But that would require a good swim, perfect Ts, and not over doing the "walk 10 steps each mile". Not to mention the bike course is not friendly, so BBS might be a bunch of BS

Al Truscott

Good set of check lists for pre-race and race morning. Well thought out bike plan. Weather in Madison *can* be highly variable. In the past 15 years on Sept 10/11, temps have varied from 54 to 90, with many in the mid-80s. Maybe spend some time visualizing how you will handle either extreme on the run? Also, no matter what Rich wrote, I think if you passed someone on the right in a turn, you'd get a time penalty for sure (if seen). Rules say you can ignore the drafting zone in "acute" turns, but say nothing about passing on the right being legal there.

Shaughn Simmons

@Doug Sutherland


You've had an EPIC year, built some scary fitness and veteran experience across several venues.  

Take all of that, go back to the basics, keep it simple and remember that race day is going to be all about how you apply that fitness across the course in the conditions you are handed. A healthy, strong CTL alone is not going ensure you race smart and apply it efficiently.  Look at how well @Mike Roberts applies his fitness on race day as an example an use that to your advantage.

I'll have you locked and loaded in my tracker DS.  Now its time to remind everyone that DS really stands for Damn Strong!

SS

Doug Sutherland

Thx @Shaughn Simmons. I have read and reread most of @Mike Roberts and coach Ps notes more times than I can count. Hoping to execute this one well

Mike Roberts

Hey DS,

Good stuff. Hope you have a great day. "Variable" weather is an understatement. It can change dramatically in 48 hours. Two days before my race, it was supposed to be 70 and cloudy. Day before, 60's and chance of stray showers. Day of, high 40's and non-stop sideways rain/sleet from 6 am until the next morning. A week later, it was sunny and mid-80's. Pack everthing you own, hope for the best. Whatever the forecast says right now has zero connection to next weekend's weather reality. 

You know I'm not a big fan of solid bars before the swim and on the bike. If they have a lot of protein, it's an all-risk, no-benefit proposition. 

I would ignore all of Rich's aggressive KQ-attempt bike tactics. There are some sketchy turns there (Garfoot) and a couple thousand sub-par bike handlers around you. And it's a sneaky-hard course. The first loop seems easy, and you'll count 4 or 5 climbs; the second loop you'll count 18 or 19 climbs. If 80% overbike at LP, 95% will overbike at Moo. It's not a fast course, so getting through it fast enough and with low enough VI to keep TSS under 300 is a real challenge. The run course will be littered with 320+ TSS walkers. Be hyper-focused on your watts, feed and hydrate properly, hold effort on the last 12 (often into a headwind) and get off that bike under 300. 

The run can be very fun. If the weather is nice, the crowds will be big. Soak up their energy, but stick to plan. The observatory climbs are steep, but short. Waking the tops won't cost much time if it keeps your HR from blowing up. The first 134 miles is all about patiently and diligently following process, within your box. For the last 10k, Dougie Bob can emerge and race it in on adrenaline, guts, and any/all of your mantras. 

Oh, and there's no better post-race reward than a brat-porter combo at The Great Dane around the corner from the finish. 

Enjoy. 

MR

Doug Sutherland

Thanks @Mike Roberts. I think about your advice every time I gobble a lara bar! Truth is, I have found "body comp jesus" this year, down to 175 (a new low for me), and this has largely taught me about hunger control. Which has me thinking maybe this is the year I finally try the all liquid plan. In the past, midway through the bike I have found myself really hungry. 

I am totally obsessed with the TSS now. Plan to have that, along with NP, HR on the computer. Will plan to dial down the effort to keep it <300

Mike Roberts

You're gonna notice a difference at 175. Nice work! Race day is almost always as much mental/emotional as it is physical. At my first, I was nervous, scared and anxious. I knew I would suffer, so I decided to treat Suffering Me at BSN. With a Snickers and a sleeve of Pringles. I still have a pic of my trying to surf out some Pringles at 19mph (pre-EN, so 20+ wasn't happening). And, for some reason, I felt like crap during my cold, dark "run." I half-cringe, half-chuckle at the memory of the IM moron I was. 

Now my goals are far different than finish-and-smile. And all my goals require that I position myself at Mile 132 in the absolute best condition I can/as soon as I can. Mindset is totally different. Confident at the start, have mentally practiced every step of the race for weeks, including some bad things that can/will happen. And the plan includes removing in advance as many preventable errors as possible from the plan/process. This includes nutrition. Totally committed to the process. Would I like a treat and a shoulder massage at Mile 80?  F$@&amp; no! This is Ironman. HTFU and stick to the process. 

Most bars are loaded with varying amounts of protein and fiber. Worthless on race day. Maybe your Lar Bar is good, but I know they're big on nuts, so probably lots of worthless fat too. The GE chews I now use are very easy to chew and dissolve and are nothing but carbs and sodium. At Mile 80, I turn to 3x-caf gels. Part of the process. It's worked many times for me, so if it ain't broke . . . 

I'm not saying you should follow the HTFU approach. It turns most of the day into a robotic, military-like exercise that ain't for everyone. And if you're willing to risk the relatively small potential for some GI discomfort for the guaranteed joy that candy bars will deliver on the bike, by all means. But if the risk is real and part of honoring yor training self (who has made countless sacrifices) is turning in the very best result you can achieve, then I would suggest reviewing your plan and making sure you're setting yourself up to do just that. 

Already looking forward to the tracker next weekend. Taper smart. 

MR

Al Truscott

@Doug Sutherland - In your BBS post, it appears you are revising your thinking to aim for a TSS of 294, with an IF of 0.74. That's a HUGE jump. If you've shown you can run steady for a full 26.2 off of a TSS in the mid 290s, go for it. But if this is a plan to find out what your limits are, maybe taking a smaller step this time around would be more successful. For a bike leg of 5:30, a strong, prepared runner should be thinking of 0.72 IF/285 TSS.

Wisconsin is such a tricky bike course, much more so than Whistler or CDA v 3.0, despite the similar elevation gains. To be aiming for a 5:30 there would mean to me that you've done about 5:40-5 for 112 in your race rehearsal, on the kind of terrain we have around here (which mimics Madison,) followed of course by a satisfactory 6 mile run

Doug Sutherland

Thanks @Al Truscott

Here is my logic:
- Based on my build, I estimate my 5HP at 189-212. I give a range because I have logged 7 long rides at NPs in this range followed by good (short) runs during this build. The only apparent difference is my AHR for the bike leg (at 189 I am around 120, at 212 I was 134). If I had to pick a single number I would say 203ish. My bike AHR have been much lower this year than in 15-16 interestingly.
- While all of the runs felt good (keeping AHR at 138-142), they were only 6 milers. I am a little nervous about what happens at mile 18 on a NP of 212 (unknown territory). 
- I do not have a vast dataset of 26.2 following 112. At IMC I rode a 297 and blew up at mile 22. At IMAZ I rode a 244 and ran a 4:10. I have blocked CdA '15 out of my memory.
- Looking at the BBS prediction, like @Shaughn Simmons and @Mike Roberts, seems like the computer is telling me to ride too many watts at times. I can understand why some feel it is truly a "best bike" not best race split.
- That said, when my brain goes to shit at mile 75 having a computer yelling at me to power up/down might be helpful (as it is on Zwift/TR). Or it could be totally annoying if I am dying by RPE while it whips me harder...

Since it does not seem you can tell BBS "I want to go JRA pace for an hour up front", I figured I would load the 0.74 IF, ignore the prompts for the first 30-45 minutes while I ride at 0.65-0.66. I figure that might get me closer to an IF of 0.72, TSS ~270-275). Maybe I am over thinking it

Doug Sutherland

Also, I just want to add I have ditched the concept of time goals. Thats all BBS! I am aware IMWI is a tough and slow course and have taken heed.

tim cronk

X3 on Rich's comments about passing on the right and not communicating... I always thought that was just bad example and bad advice period.... Have I ever passed on the right?  OF course but only as a last resort and clearly say I am passing on your right....

You PMC is a thing of beauty... I see 3 days of 300TSS and 2 Days around 375TSS , I do not know how much of that might have been from a run.... But the Data is right there... What is your 5.5hr power??? What was your TSS on that ride???  How did you run afterwards???  There is no need to second guess that data , its right in front of you!

FWIW I routinely ride 300TSS and several times even quite a bit more on a IM bike split and still run well... I was originally told that was impossible and you would be walking... Is it because of some extra special fitness or skills? HELL NO its probably cause I'm tiny, with a baby FTP, and my physiology allows me to perform at higher percentages of those lower numbers... But I do not ride those numbers based on percentages or TSS estimates, I ride the numbers I have validated many times in training and then I race those numbers....

Coach Patrick

@Doug Sutherland -  this is very well done and you've gotten some great feedback. Here are some additional thoughts for you, I hope they help:

*  add a banana to your morning breakfast.

*Explain to Coach Patrick why are you showering before a race.

*Add a banana to T2 as you exit.

*  eating at a time based schedule for the run really won't work. Your top priority is to get good calories in during those first 6 miles as you carry your bike average heart rate into the run. Beyond that it's a crapshoot. I will try to get those 90 minutes of gel's, three of them, consumed at Miles two, four and six.

*   seems like I missed something you're doing a Best Bike Split. I strongly recommend that you use their model to generate a pacing plan based off of TSS. At 175 and 285 FTP, you are not in the realm of Tim Cronk. My guess is that you will be able to perform well off of a TSS between 260 and 270. Remember just because you did do something in the past doesn't mean it was a good idea!  at the very least, run the model with TSS and see what he tells you. These are all these games to play now.

*  have a target heart rate to get down to at the start of the bike. Go back and look at your long rides and see what your heart rate starts that, then strive to get your heart rate down to that number in the first 15 to 20 minutes before you start working. Also know what your average heart rate is for those long rides so you have an idea of some kind of If things are going to hard from the Power perspective.

*Also know your average loan heart rate so you can understand where your current pacing is taking you once you leave those first 6 miles.

*The most important part of that bike course is the down hills and the last 20-ish miles back to town. That's where people leave all the speed and that's what you should focus on separating your performance.