Scott Schneider's 2018 IMSR Race Plan

Scott Schneider

General Information:

Age: 43

Height/Weight: 6’04”/221lbs

FTP: 247

Experience: 4 HIM, most recently Oceanside 70.3 on April 7th. DNF at mile 11 of the run at IMCDA in 2016.

I started training with EN last year after completing IMAZ 70.3. I did two Run Durability, a full Outseason, and have been following the Run-focused Full Plan L1.

Goal: FINISH, preferably with a smile on my face. My DNF at Coeur D’Alene hit me hard – those of you who have experienced it I’m sure can relate. I am extremely focused on finishing this race!

My family will be driving up to Santa Rosa with me from San Diego. My kids are really excited, and I am happy to have them there to share in this experience. They had a blast at IMCDA and can’t wait to be IronKids again.

Race Day Plan:

Wake up around 03:30. Powerbar, banana, Naked Juice, coffee. Start sipping sports drink. Shuttle down to Transition.

At Transition area, get body marking, continue sipping sports drink/bathroom break. Start putting on wetsuit (if wetsuit swim) Planning on sleeveless X-Terra with mirrored goggles.

Swim:

Line up with 1:30 crowd for rolling start. About 15 minutes out, one gel chased with some H20.

Smooth and steady, frequent sighting if visibility poor. Stay relaxed and count strokes. Goal - 1:30

T1:

From what I have read, at the swim exit there is a super-steep, long boat ramp you make your way to the top of. Wetsuit strippers at the top. I am going to walk up the ramp to keep my heart rate down. Work wetsuit down to hips on the way. Use the wetsuit strippers. Make way to changing tent. Helmet, sunglasses, arm coolers, socks, bike shoes, GO.

BIKE:

I will have three bottles of Infinit custom bike mix in bottles with me as well as a BTA bottle for water. Nutrition for Infinit is: 342 calories/81g carbohydrate/4g protein/502mg sodium. I plan to take additional Salt Stick capsules with water to get me up closer to 800-1000mg. One bottle per hour along with one or two Salt Stick capsules and water. Try to stay in aero as much as possible.

First 60 minutes, very easy pace. 65-69% of FTP (160-170) Settle into 67-69% after first hour. I will monitor 10-sec FTP, average NP with 5-mile auto lap, and heart rate. Alert on Garmin every 15 minutes reminding me to drink.

Stop at Special Needs and pick up three new Infinit bottles. These bottles will have the off-the-shelf Infinit Speed blend with some Carbo Pro to boost calories up to what is in custom mix. Also supplement with Salt Stick, keeping intake around 800-1000mg with water. I plan to switch blends because I know after the first half I will be sick of the flavor. I have been using Speed/Carbo Pro mix for over a year and know its works for me.

T2

Smooth is fast. Hand off bike, get run bag, remove helmet. Put on running shoes and grab T2 ziploc bag containing hat, race number, FuelBelt. Get moving.

RUN:

Start SLOW. Walk out of T2 while getting everything out of my bag and putting it on. Fuelbelt has two flasks with concentrated Infinit custom run mix: 301 calories/75g carbohydrate/502mg sodium. I will be carrying a tube of Base Salt to supplement sodium. Start running slower than you think you should. Set run/walk alert on Garmin watch. Run for 5 min, walk for 1 minute. Keep HR below average HR on bike for last two hours +10 beats. At aid stations, mix shot of Infinit with water and sodium. Take at least two cups of water at each aid station to ensure run mix osmolality.

Have extra run mix available in Run Special Needs if needed. otherwise push through.

Run my own race and ignore what everyone else is doing. Keep moving forward. When it gets tough, smile, give a spectator a high-five, and suck it up.

 

Gordon Cherwoniak

@Scott Schneider Are you carrying any powder if you launch a bottle?  Might be good to have some in T1 and bike special needs just in case.

If you are going to settle in to 67-69% I'd suggest keeping the power below that for the first hour.  If you have the right gearing then make your very easy pace as such. 

Scott Schneider

Gearing is 11-28
I will carry three bottles with me and have three more at BSN to swap out. I plan to carry at least one extra serving of drink mix and maybe a Powerbar since I anticipate being out on the bike for more than 6 hours.

Tom Box

Scott, looks like a good race plan.  I can tell you have studied the EN way which will carry you on to success.  I did this race last summer so I just have a couple comments.  First, make sure you aren't on the later shuttle buses to the swim from downtown Santa Rosa.  Last year I took what I thought was one of the first ones and it still seemed like we didn't have a lot of extra time in transition.  Second, the run up the boat ramp to T1 is long but I wouldn't say "super steep".  I think you can do an easy jog up the ramp, pass a lot of people walking, and not jack your heart rate up too much.  You will get a better idea of the lay of the land when you drop your bike off the day before.  Third, I see you plan on taking in 2 cups of water at each aid station on the run to dilute out the concentrated infinit.  That seems like a lot of fluid to me to be taking in every aid station.  Assuming there are 3-4 oz in each aid station cup, and assuming you are running about 10 minute miles (just using that as an example pace), you will hit 6 aid stations per hour.  That is 36-48 ounces per hour.  Hopefully that is what how you have trained.  Be prepared to adjust down on the fluid needs if it's a cooler day.  Have a great race.

Shaughn Simmons

Scott,  you are already ahead of the competition just by thinking through your day and posting your plan here.  Nice work.  I look forward to meeting you at IMSR as well.

Tom Box raced IMSR last year and place top 10 of his AG.  He gives good advice.

What is your caffeine plan?  I typically start introducing some for of caffeine during the second half of the bike simply because it helps me focus at a point when fatigue begins to set in.  I like to use 1 powerbar powergel per hour on the bike.  One in T2, then around mile 8 or 10 I starting using 1 caf clif shot blok every two miles and I switch over to coke and water somewhere between mile 18 - 20....Have you used caf in your training?

SS

Scott Schneider

@Tom Box thank you for the veteran advice! I will make sure to get on an early bus - I have only been rushed in transition once before, and it threw me off for the entire race. Much rather take my time.

@Shaughn Simmons I consume a lot of caffeine as it is, so wasn't planning on consuming any as I seem to be pretty immune to it. 

After some feedback from @Coach Patrick I will be changing my nutrition plan up:

Bike: Very little or no plain water
No mixing of Carbo Pro with Infinit. I will stick with the custom bike formula and one Salt Stick/hour.
Run: No concentrated Infinit. Coach P suggested using the GE, but according to the calculator, I need around 315 cal/hour. I figure 4oz cups at the aid stations and conservatively 12 min/mile run pace. So maybe 5 aid stations per hour, with each cup of GE at 30 cal /roughly 100mg sodium. I will need two cups of GE at every aid station, plus additional sodium. Not sure that is doable for me - I just can't do that much Gatorade (or math). I will stick with my custom run mix from Infinit and just not concentrate it. I will carry a full bottle, extra servings of Infinit in Ziplocks, and refill at the aid station every hour. I will have extra servings at RSN. This is what I carry on all of my training runs over one hour anyways, so might as will stick with what I know works. 

Peter Noyes

@Scott Schneider I will be there as well! Hopefully there will be a team dinner where we all meet up.

As for run nutrition, I believe @Coach Patrick does the double GE at the aid stations. For myself I do GE and gels on the run. I do a gel every 30 minutes and a single GE at each aid station (but just water after taking the gel). I may or may not also drink water at each aid station depending on temperature. I like the Roctane Chocolate Sea Salt gels because they are loaded with sodium and have caffeine.