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Jeff Horn IM Florida Race Plan

This will be my 4th IMFL and looking forward to smashing prior PR (wishful thinking but trying to stay positive).  

5' 11", 175lb.  FTP ~245 maybe a bit higher since haven't tested since August.

Driving down a week before the race on Sunday to hang with family for a few days.  Friends who I'm racing with show up the following Wednesday.

Plan is to do a bike ride and run Monday.  Bike will be out to the bridge and back from transition.  I've ridden this segment before, and is safe, especially with the bike path on the way out and back on 79.    Run will be 30 min or so with some sharpening efforts.
Tuesday will hit the public lap pool at Frank Brown park.  Follow with 30 minute run, easy effort.
Wednesday, will repeat the same bike course as Monday, but steady effort at goal race watts.  Make sure Garmin / Powermeter are talking properly.  
Thursday plan on another visit to the pool, maybe short run depending on how my legs feel.    Thursday night and Friday are reserved for the Normatecs.  Charge bike.

I usually hit the check in tent early Wednesday, and get the heck out of there.  Too much nervous energy

Friday bike check in, again early in and out.

Saturday Race day:  Wake up at 3:00 and get breakfast in.  Walk to transition, drop of special needs, set up bike.  Get to beach with socks on as sand can be cool.  
Swim:  Get in coral for 1:10-1:15 group.  Goal is easy to first buoy and then turn it on a bit depending on conditions / swells.  Second lap strong steady effort, find some feet if I can.  Goal is 1:10-1:12

T1:  In to conference center, off with wetsuit, arm warmers / sleeves up, helmet on shoes on and Im gone.  Chamois creme!!

Bike:  I think I blow out of here pretty aggressively in years past.  This year, will do my JRA as instructed.  Target NP for the ride will be 170 - 172.  I will hit this section a bit lower at 160-165, on turn up 79 to Ebro, will take it 165-170.  Get HR down is most important, so can adjust from here.  At right turn to start loop I will target 172W.  Will have Garmin head unit displaying 3s power, Lap NP every 3 miles, IF, distance, time and HR.  Limited sips of drink for first 10-15 minutes, then begin my intake plan.  Solids chased with liquids until special needs.  Will be taking Skratch chocolate chip cookies 2 per hour with EFS pro.  Will also have water on the down tube to chase the cookies.  At special needs I'm going to stop and get off the bike for 5 minutes, assess my stomach and let things settle down (better than lying in a ditch at mile 85 later -- see my other threads).  In special needs I will have bottle refills, chamois creme, a pepsi and some salty chips in case I have had trouble getting my calories in.  Back half of bike is just to remain steady.  Goal for bike is 5:40 (5:25 last year in wind, but VI was a little high).  

T2:  On with calf sleeves socks and shoes, hat and fuel belt / number and head out.  Assess stomach for sloshiness.  

Run:  Goal starting out is keep heart rate same as when I finished bike.  Hopefully this will be somewhere around an HR of 135 if all goes well.  Not going to look at pace on my Garmin, just go by HR.  At this point, there is no variations in speed, I am either running, or I am not.  Going to use corners / turns as my carrots as described.  Coming out of T2, will use first right as first carrot, then use the energy along the beach section to get me to mile 2 into the neighborhood.  Nutrition plan is to carry Skratch in my fuel belt, carry a liquid shot for energy for first 13 miles.  Then if things going well, will forgo the liquid shot for coke on second lap.  I carry an extra empty Nuun canister on fuel belt with extra Skratch to get me through.  In run special needs I'm putting a cold can of beer.  This sounds crazy, but at IM Choo, was having a ton of stomach back up.  At mile 11/24 some guy was giving away cold beer in a cooler in the middle of the road.  It was the best thing I had all day, and settled my stomach instantly.  So ill put that there in case of emergency.  Plan is to get through Andrews state park before dark.  Goal run is 4:30, will love anything under 5 though, especially if my stomach acts up.  

Overall, would love to beat my time of 11:57 from last year, but an even better race would be to come off the bike and have a great run, even if I don't do better overall.  Tired of stomach issues, tired of long walks at the end.  After race, head back to the place and submerge lower body in cold pool for 30 minutes, then find the Normatecs.
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Comments

  •  This plan looks great! I think changing your intensity in the early miles of the bike will give you the bandwidth to handle the nutrition and late day changes in conditions.

    The most important thing you can do is remain steady all day. At some point in time, long breaks become prohibitive and make restarting even more difficult. Only you know where that line is, so as long You are paying attention to your body.

    Bonus points to you for submitting the first ever raced plan with guidance to drink beer during the run.
  • Hey Jeff, like 95% of the field you are focused on "getting enough calories in" on the bike. This is a byproduct of old IM thinking. I advocate making sure I don't get too many calories.  The vast majority of the FL field will go out too hard on the bike and will eat way too much.  The key feeding times are Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. Cut out protien, most fat and all fiber. On the bike, I like all liquid carbs, maybe a few gels or chews if I don't get my 85-90g of carbs per hour via liquid (at 175lb, you can probably tolerate 105 or so). Solids, fat, protein, fiber on the bike? No way. Not unless I want to tour the various portos on the run. The harder one pushes on the bike, the harder to digest. And nothing but some water the last 30 minutes to settle stomach for the run. Also, I would strongly recommend limiting your BSN stop to 30 seconds - get your bottles, go. You will tighten up significantly if you loiter for 5 minutes and may not fully recover thereafter.  

    Although I rarely frown at the inclusion of beer in any plan, I would check the rules and make sure you aren't risking DQ. Also, it's just the carbonation that helped you last time. I would hit Coke and/or Red Bull, save the beer(s) for Mile 141. 

    Best of luck. Hope you have a fun, successful race. 

    MR
  • @Mike Roberts all excellent points.  Thanks for your input.  I will table the beer until the week after.  I have not done well on all liquid calories lately, still experimenting unfortunately.  One more ride this weekend to get it dialed in.
  • @jeffhorn - I know you've been working hard on getting your fueling right. I looked up the Skratch cookies.

    Amount Per Serving (as prepared but without mix-in): 
    Calories 120,
    Total Fat 0g 
    Sodium 180mg  
    Total Carbohydrate 18g 
     Fiber 0g  Sugars 8g, 
    Protein 1g, 

    So if you eat two cookies and 3 scoops of EFS-Pro per hour that equals 360 calories. For your size that is about as high as you should go. This isn't the time to be stressing about your fuel. I'm just saying this to give you confidence that if you don't eat that much you should be fine. Are you carrying some mint flavored TUMS?
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