Race Rehearsal complete - I need help on IM pace guidance
My race rehearsal went well today, but I need help on pacing for LP. Up until the last 20 miles, I felt good. But, even the last 20 miles were fine, I was just getting a little hot and neck was achy, but I still held my numbers.
My concern is what IF to ride at LP. Today, my IF was .67 which yielded 21.3 mph and those numbers included 3 quick stops for water and nature. I felt if I pushed harder, I would not be in a good place to run. As it turns out, I struggled wih the run anyway, but that may have been the heat.
On the run, I had to stop halfway and cool off in some sprinklers and I had a wicked side stitch. I was shooting for 8:40's but ended up w/ 9:15's including sprinkler time. I didn't feel like after 6 I was ready to drop 30" and settle in. More like thank god this is over with!
So, question for all the smart peeps. Do I stick with this IF for Placid? I really just want to make sure I can run well. Should I back it down even a bit more? Should nutrition have been more? I had 800 cals of infinit split between 2 24oz bottles, snickers bar @ ;290, couple of peanut butter crackers for 50, giving me a total 1140, which is 228cal/hour. Other fluids were 48 oz water on the ride and 24oz on the run.
Numbers below, thanks for any input.
Dave
Entire workout (205 watts):
Duration: 5:16:02 (5:16:03)
Work: 3895 kJ
TSS: 237.5 (intensity factor 0.671)
Norm Power: 216
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 112.11 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 749 205 watts
Cadence: 30 206 79 rpm
Speed: 2.2 36.4 21.3 mph
Pace 1:39 26:49 2:49 min/mi
Crank Torque: 17 1531 233 lb-in
Comments
You're a big unit; are you sure you're taking in enough calories? Have you experimented with a higher intake?
Sounds like it may have been a heat/hydration problem given that you needed to stand under sprinklers to hold 9:15's.
Do you have any HR data for your ride or notice that your HR was higher? Once again, I'm getting at the heat thing. If you're overheating, then your HR is going to increase and you'll be less likely to digest your calories. However, if you keep cool you can maintain your IF and get in the calories and fluid volume you need.
I wouldn't go any lower than 0.67 unless you're finding that you can't get your nutrition and hydration down due to a higher HR because of the heat.
Hope that makes sense...
I think Bill may have a point. I use 250 cal/hr and I'm a little guy. Race at 145lb.
Even though you didn't feel great on the run today, my gut tells me not to take the IF lower. That's also based on your bike strength.
Dave - I assume you're a hard worker like I am, and that this last RR before LP comes without any real taper, kinda at the end of a big block of work. I can share my experience from my last RR before CDA, which seems a lot like yours (just slower!), and the end result in the race.
I did my RR on a warm/hot day, starting at about 65 and running at 87F. The climbing on the bike RR was 3000 feet, compared to 5000 at CDA. My IF was 67%, with a TSS of 266. I then struggled to hit my pace on the 1 hour run, feeling pretty awful and actually shutting down after 5.8 miles instead of the 6 we're supposed to do. Was kinda of disappointed, but I decided not to worry, just trust the plan.
On race day, I biked @ 73% (my plan was 71-72), with a TSS of 295.8. I had a fairly successful run, going my planned pace for the first half, and slowing down about 15-30 sec a mile over the last half mainly due to lack of motivation to go any harder (I was already in the lead, and gaining, by that time).
So my experience was a seemingly weak and exhausting RR, followed 3 weeks later with a successful race. I think it's just a function of accumulated training load at that point. We could get into Performance Management Chart stuff on that, CTL and TSB, but the bottom line on that is I hit my peak CTL on that day, and tapered into the race from there.
As I was building up for Patriot I was experiencing the same thing you describe. Heck, looking back I had the same issues getting ready for IMLP last and in retrospect probably never figured it out in time and thus my medical tent adventure. After a struggle of a HIM RR this year I started digging around the the Infinit site as well as back through old race reports from some of my better HIMs. What I was reminded of was I felt better coming off the bike and had my best runs (including a half mary PR at Mooseman) when I took in at or north of 350 cal/h on the bike. The 250 cal/h I was taking in (assuming I was even getting the full amount in per hour just wasn't enough over the long haul). In the Nutrition Library section on the Infinit web site they provide a document outlining "calculating cycling calories". http://www.infinitnutrition.us/information/ The numbers I came up with when I did the calculations were consistent with what my past experiences worked. Take a look at that document and I suspect you'll see that for your size your probably taking in quite a bit less than the minimum they suggest you need based on your estimate hourly expenditure.
I wouldn't take the IF down but rather try taking the cal/h, fluids, electrolytes up and see if you can tolerate the extra cals.
Thanks, folks. You all nailed it. I thought I was ok on caloric intake, but didn't take in enough early on the ride. Same with water. Just not enough as was evidenced by drinking a gallon of water from the time I finished until I went to bed w/ out urinating clearly. BTW, I forgot to mention I did take 2 scaps/hour. Good thing for RRs.
They hydration issues snuck up on me and I figured I'm only an hour from home, plenty of water there and this isn't the race. So I paid for it on the run. HR was high on the run. Haven't been wearing an hr strap in sometime, but I did take my pulse on the run as I thought it was higher than normal.
Going into the RR, I wasn't at peak load training wise as I had to back of the run this week, but I was certainly not tapered and have a lot of non training stress points adding up between work and a big home project.
However, the best news was I ran without issue from my calf.
As always, I appreciate the input.
Dave
Might have been calories or lack of water. I suggest losing the peanut butter crackers and snickers crap. Plenty of calories in Infinit that is easier to tolerate than the other garbage. They are also more difficult to eat, deal with, carry etc. I think people use those "special treats" as a crutch. If you are going to ride 21.3 mph in an IM [FWIW that is a 5:15:29 bike split and would be IMO bad azz] it is time to leave those childish things behind and get down to bidnezz as the kids are saying these days.
Kinda hard to adjust paces and plans based on a RR like this. Al's insight [as always] seems dead on to me. I think part of the problem is that it ALWAYS sucks to run after riding 112 miles and it is unlikely there is ever a day when it is gonna feel good. Tad easy to motivate on race day. There is also to consider that as you knew the plan was to run 6 you were prepared to run 6 mentally and naturally when you hit 6 were ready to shut it down.
Sounds like you are ready. See you in a few weeks!
If you can pull me around in the lake maybe we can get out there on the bike and legally draft each other to keep motivation going.
I took in 150 ounces in my rr and was still dehydrated on the run. Came in at .67 and run was crap. Of course it was extremely hot and I now out weigh you by about 35 lbs, you skinny baaastad. Since the rr I've upped my intake of calories to 300 per hour and now more consistent drinking (every 6-8 minutes). Not easy when you're rolling and the breeze feels good- but you are sweating in this heat.
Nice work and great news about the calf.
cm
Dave: