IMAZ 2010 Race Rehearsal #1
It's only week 5/12 but I had to move RR#1 up one week since I have family visiting next weekend. It turned out to be providence as cool - er weather has come to Tampa! I didn't start until 8am because there have been 5 bicycle fatalities in the last 2 weeks in this county...most in the dark. Florida is #2 in the nation for biking deaths, and I think that tail lights on your bike just paint a target on you to the idiot drivers out there. At 8am the temperature was still only 70!! And even more amazing, the air was relatively dry. Instead of starting to sweat by the time I leave the driveway, as is typical, it actually took 5 miles, and I wasn't pouring buckets.
Breakfast: my IronSherpa and loving wife is out of town this weekend, so I made do with a Clif Bar, Greek Yogurt, a scoop of nuts, one Calcium Tab, one vitamin D, one OpygenHP, 5 MAP, 2 EnduroLytes and a Propel.
Net time: 5hrs 27 mins for 112 miles...better than expected. I rode the race bike but with my training wheels and road helmet. No power, no HR, just RPE and a mental image of Lynsey Corbin's drainer face from her pain cave (see Matt Sullivan's post). Basically, I shot straight north to the halfway point into a breeze that was bringing all this dry air to us. I started in Z2 and probably was working Z2-Z3 trying to hang onto 20mph avg knowing I would get the wind on the way back. Made the turn back and had the wind...oh yeah! But the heat was building into the mid-upper 80s in the last hour (still dry though) and kicking up an onshore seabreeze. That resulted in a few WTF segments as I would be tooling along and all of sudden the work effort would go up as I found myself fighting the sea breeze.
Nutrition: I took 3 Gu Roctane, 2 PowerGels, and 8 SaltStick Tabs....a little on the light side for calories. Stopped 5 times for a total of about 20 mins to refill bottles. It may have been dry, but it was still pretty warm so I was still taking in a lot of liquid, just not as much as usual. Most of the stops were quick, but I couldn't pass up a Slurpee when I stopped at a 7-11 to grap some PowerAde....that was a 10 min stop. Just think about how great it would be if WTC had Icee's or Slurpee's at the water stops when the temperatures went over 85...that would be sweeeet. But then again, it would probably slow me down because I would stop to drink it. 
Anyway, I was pretty strong through 100 miles, had a few moments of weakness after 100 when I hit some wind again, but just thought about Corbin's face....must suck it up! I backed off the last two miles to start spinning out the legs for the run.
For T2, I had 3 slices of watermelon that were sitting in the fridge, 2 Endurolytes, and 20 oz of Vitamin Water Zero. Bam...hit the road. Ran 6.22 miles in 53 mins (8:32 avg) which was way too fast. I should have been between 9 and 9:15 pace. It was upper 80's but I think my body was still feeling great from the dry air. Typically, I'm flirting with heat exhaustion during my long bricks. In RR#2 for IMCDA, I came back by the house after 4 miles of running and was sprawled out on the driveway with my wife hosing me off until my heart rate dropped (then back for more!). We haven't had weather this nice in 6 months.
I'll be doing the AquaVelo at the Great Floridian on 23 Oct for RR#2. The Clermont - Sugarloaf Mtn bike course is a beast so I will definitely be a lot slower, but at least I'll have catered water stops. I'll run an hour there and it shouldn't be hard to hit the target pace after all the hills.
Comments
That's kind of fun that you can stop by the house and grab watermelon in T2! Love it. Best advice I got from Rich was on the frozen coke. I bought two and poured about 1/4 out of the bottle, then froze them. Wrapped them in foil and put them in SNB and SNR. Wow...what a welcome treat!!!! I will do that again. Good job!!!
Strong work Paul.....and you can say light on the calories....I got hungry just reading your post
Good work, Paul.
Couple of questions:
- Is your breakfast what you will be eating on race day?
- RPE is cool, but will you use any type of data (power, HR monitor) on the bike? If so, why didn't you use it on the race rehearsal?
- Will you be eating watermelon and drinking Vitamin Water in T2 on race day?
Not being a stickler, but typically EN RR's are to simulate exactly what you will be doing on race day. It appears you just kinda winged it?
You are a strong AG dude so maybe I am missing something?
John
@ Paul - Coolio. No disrespect with my question. Figured based on your IM CdA finish in your sig you had enough experience.
Just curious.
Looking forward to watching you kill it in-person at IM AZ this year!
John