IMAZ 1: First Race Rehearsal Ever!!
This was EXTREMLY helpful. What a confidence booster for people like me who have not done an Ironman before!
So here's what I did/learned:
- I woke up about 1:30 before starting. I drank an Ensure and made a soy milk espresso. I went to the bathroom FIVE times. I think this was needed. Not unusual for me as those who read my race strategies know that I plan for this. For the race, I need to eat a little bit more and get my calories up to about 600-700, and I took in about 450. That would of helped in the second hour or so of my ride.
- I focused on eating about 275 calories an hour, which is normally what I do in my workouts. I focused though on taking this in through liquids for the first 3 hours rather than GUs and Bloks. That was good, but I had to pee...A LOT. 6x in the first 3 hours of my ride. That made for a lot of stop and go, and these weren't short nervous pees, they were, DAMN I GOTTA GO! My hydration strategy was to drink more than I ever drink (~30 ozs of fluid an hour), but I don't know if the Ensure or Espresso contributed to this. I think waking up about 3 hours before race start may help. I also think getting used to drinking more on my training rides will help. Any ideas???
- I rode for 6:01. My goal watts was to stay in the 180-200 range for the entire ride (current FTP of 274), including hills. I had no problem doing this. In fact, it was sometimes hard to keep them high just because I felt so comfortable around 150-175 watts. My speed was definitely not earth shattering (covered 109 miles in the 6:01, which was 18.1 mph), but I got that benefit on the run as you'll read below. I did face serious mental blocks around hours 4 to 5 as I didn't have a continuous stretch to ride and I was bored out of my mind. But my legs felt good the whole time. Never heavy. My neck did hurt from hour 3 on, and my bike fitter warned me about that. Don't think I'll avoid that, but any ideas to help? I'm tempted to ride a tad faster in the early going, but I must admit, hard to want to given how well my run felt.
- My water bottle ejected 3x out of my rear holder. I need new holders.
- My run was EASY! My goal was to do 8:30 for first 6 miles and then speed up to 8 minutes. I started out, and my legs felt so good that I couldn't slow down. I average 7:45 for my 6.5 miles, negative splitting it by averaging 7:48 for first 3 and 7:42 for last three. It was cake. This time is actually more in line with my vDot (currently 59.9). I was just nervous to go this fast since it seemed fast. I never knew I would think this, but I could of easily run a marathon, and probably PRed my marathon time, even though I'm running after 109 miles (I should note that I'm much faster then when I ran my last marathon, which was over a year ago now).
- I finally learned the importance of an easy ride. Easy ride, despite losing 20-30 minutes or so versus riding harder means SUCCESSFUL run. I couldn't believe how good I felt getting off the bike. I normally lounge around the house for 20-30 minutes before making it out on my bricks. I was out in 5 minutes, and mostly because I had to put my bike away and put my shoes on.
- On my run, I drank/ate a little too much. I started to feel sick - stomach cramps. I eased off on the liquids and food for 20 minutes, and it went away. I also learned what the coaches keep saying about the real problem is over eating, not under eating.
- Overall weight change from pre-ride to post-ride: 4 lbs (163 lbs to 159 lbs)
Ok, so I learned a lot - here are my takeaways:
- Figure out how to pee less. Possibly eat more calories rather than drink them in the first 2 hours of the bike. Once the heat caught up with me, I was much better off.
- Keep goal wattage up a bit more in the first two hours. Could of easily handled it and stayed shy of my 180-200 goal because was nervous how my legs would handle it. I can definitely stay in this wattage the whole time
- Don't eat too much
- Run a tad slower for first few miles
Anyone have any other advice? I hope everyone else's simulation went well.
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Comments
With your FTP unless you're as aero as a brick you'll go much faster than 6 hours on the bike. With the taper you'll have no problem keeping the watts up; in fact, the real problem may be keeping them down!
On the run you GOTTA find a way to slow down for those first 6 miles. RnP have really nailed the race execution thing down; believe in it! You'll thank yourself at mile 23!
I did catch the audio about eating too much, and I was thankful for hearing that once my stomach started cramping since I figured that was it. i didn't time my last gu on the bike and my first gu on the run well, as well as the calories from my drink on the run. will watch this next time!
Will look at the gorilla cages. It really sucks stopping and going back to get em, but better than a penalty.
Also, I read a lot on here about salt pills and salt sticks. I take enduralytes by Hammer, but is there something that is specifically salt that would be good?
And RE my run speed. I need to slow down, but my zone 1 time given my Vdot is 7:25. I guess I rationalized my 7:50 in the first few miles based on that, but maybe I should take it easy just in case.
All the cool kids pee on the fly, both on the bike and on the run! It's just the cost of business.
Dump the Endurolytes; there's not enough sodium in 'em. Salt Stick is good, S! Caps even better. I stick them in coin purses, easy to get at on the go.
The recommended run zones are no joke.
Adam! Nice work! You certainly did do a great job on that one!
A few things--a lot of it reiterating what Bill said:
1. Pee on the bike. Totaly do it. It saves SO much time. I never, ever do it in practice, yet I have never stopped to pee in an Ironman.
2. Dump the Endurolytes. Get some real sodium supplements as Bill suggested.
3. Mess witht he run pacing early on, and you will booger your whole day. Have you listened to the Four Keys? You have to. By slowing down to the EN guidelines during the first 6 miles of the run, you will "give up" 3 minutes. 3! You can more than make this back by NOT SLOWING DOWN later in the marathon. We all are happy at how "easy" it is to hit nice quick run paces off the bike in our RRs. All of us do it. You will not be singing that tune at mile 18. You really need to watch this area to protect all the hard work and smart pacing you've done until then.
Sounds like you're really getting ready to go!
3 x on Dump the Endurolytes. Sodium intake can be at least 350mg/hour. Endurolytes have 40 mg of sodium per tab---so that's taking 9 tabs per hour! If you find yourself getting low on sodium during the race, do you really want to micro-titrate your sodium in 40mg increments? No. S!caps have 341mg of sodium per tab.
See the wiki for Monitoring Hydration Status under Race Execution (and not just because I wrote it. Hahaha.) Urine output, sodium intake, dehydration, and hyponatremia are all addressed.
I have listened to the 4 keys. That's where I struggle because my Vdot has gone from 54 to 60 in the past 8 weeks. That's taken my zone 1 running pace from 8:10 or so to 7:20. So technically, Zone 1 + 30 is around 7:50, but I don't trust it yet, which is why my mind is wrapped around 8:30. However, according to zones, I ran correctly - easy goes, 7:50. Does that make sense? I'm thinking I'll try running even slower in the next one, but it was just hard this time around.
And just so I get this straight about the peeing - do you just go in your pants? Pull down the pants and go to the side? This just amuses me that we're talking openly about this. I've gone in the pants at the start of a marathon before as I was trapped and just needed to go. So no worries here - just wondering what's protocol...much harder to practice peeing openly while training rather than a race
Just bought S!caps - sounds like most people take about 1 per hour? I'm excited! That should help a lot!
thanks again everyone!
vdot 54 to 60 in 8weeks!!!! pretty coooool.
read up on everything in the 'race execution' files and make that 60 vdot count!
you just pee in your shorts and then pour some water on yourself, if you are decent. during the race you see everyone doing it, so no need to be self conscious. just don't do it on purpose in front of people on your training rides, if you are decent.
keep up the good work.
GH
Thanks again everyone for the advice. I've taken it all down and will try it out in my next race execution! Everything from the running advice to the cages to the number of salt caps to how to pee on the ride! you guys are awesome! Thanks again for the help
AA