RR1 - Macon HIM
Race Rehearsal #1 – Intermediate HIM Plan.
The target race is the Macon Rock'N'Rollman 1/2. Last year (pre-EN), my times were: 5:35:12 overall, 37:58 swim, T1 2:29, 2:46:38 bike, T2 1:35, Run 2:06:33.
Current Stats: FTP: 265 (indoor test only), VDOT 50, Weight 172lbs, W/Kg - 3.4.
SWIM -- The race rehearsal started Friday mid-day with the RR swim. I had done my 1000yd Time Trial in 19:20 (58.0 / 50yd) on Monday. My race rehearsal swim ended up being 44:25 for 2200yd( 1:00.6 / 50yd). A bit slower than I wanted, but I did have two cramping issues: left hamstring at the beginning of lap 21 which took roughly 30 seconds to work out, and then my right calf on lap 40 which I just kept swimming but w/o the use of my legs.
Overall Grade – B to B+. I think the hamstring was because of wall pushoffs. No real idea about the calf as that was a first. I use a 2-beat kick, so I doubt it was because of overuse.
Pre-ride planning – Per the wiki and TSS tables, I was shooting for a .80IF/176TSS based on my expected ride time of roughly 2:45. I chose to ride some, but not all, of the actual race course. It all boiled down to T2 logistics as well as SAU-preservation. I went for a ride that was as close as I could make it as concerns the hills. I decided to shoot for a 0800 departure just to get the run closer to the hotter part of the day.
Per the wiki, I woke up at 0300 and slammed down 600cal (double-serving of Muscle Milk, if you are curious). Back to bed, and then up at 0630. I had a couple of cups of coffee, 2 packets of instant oatmeal (340cal) and a small banana (100cal) for breakfast. At 0750, I drank a serving of EFS (96cal) with Hammer Pre-Race mixed in. Total calories for breakfast: 536.
For my ride drink, I made a three-hour food bottle (double-serving of the EN Infinit blend). I was going for the suggested 175 cal/hr. On my bike, I had a full Speedfill as well as two other 24oz water bottles. I wanted to make sure I would not have to stop for water. Also, I figured a little extra weight would only mean extra work. And work is good, right?? J
Finally, I wrote my target watts on my left arm so I would not have to remember them. Eliminate as many moving parts and all that….. And then to load up my ride, get the wife to take some pictures, and off I went.
BIKE: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80994337
The day started out overcast and foggy. Nice. And then off I went…..to turn back less than a mile later as I realized I had forgotten my ‘food’ bottle (notice it is not in the picture above -- if it were it would be on my seat tube). And then I was off again. There are a couple of medium hills in the first five miles of the ride. I had, yet again, a hard time keeping to my watt budget. My legs don’t like to go below a cadence of 80 rpm, so it takes very conscious effort to slow the legs down to keep the watts down. That was something I struggled with all day, but felt that was learning curve was positive. It was the first time I had ridden a number of hills on the course at 45rpm and 8 mph.
The ride felt good for the most part. I had one potty stop at the 30ish minute point, only three stop sign stops, and one stop light stop. At roughly the 1:45 point, I could feel that I was not riding on fresh legs. The lack of pre-ride rest was definitely letting me know it was there. With feeling the fatigue, I *really* tried to pay attention to my watts on the hills. That being said, I finished the ride with a ‘have I really just ridden 56 miles???’ feeling.
The stats:
Data Point Goal Actual Delta
1st 30 minutes 201W 206PN / VI 1.06 +5 -- bad
Overall IF .80 .76 -.04 – good (??)
TSS 176 163 -13
Time 2:45 2:50:22 (moving 2:48:39) +5ish – not good, not bad
Norm Power 212W 206 (195 avg) -6W – Good
VI 1.04 – 1.09 1.04 ZERO! Best VI outdoors ever
H2O 24oz/hr 23.3 oz/hr -.7 I will take that
Also, my Quadrant analysis showed: Q1 – 3.5, Q2 – 8.0, Q3 – 21, Q4 – 67.4. Requesting feedback on this from Power WSMs.
Bike Grade – I will be generous and give myself an A-. I am happy with my VI, but I underperformed on the flatter sections of the course which I think kept my NP lower than target. (NOTE: I am sending the file to RnP for Crucible Analysis).
T2. I didn’t try and rehearse this part of the day. I took time for an Austin Powers-type potty stop. Maybe that is why my watts were low? I had to go, but I held it knowing I would be stopping soon…..
RUN. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80994360
My run plan was purely from wiki guidance. EP+30 seconds for 1st 3 miles, then MP for second 3. I honestly thought MP for 2nd three was the product of some controlled substance inhalation, but I figured I would shoot for it regardless. I ran the first 3mi pretty close to target (table below) and then when I made the turn-around, I didn’t look at my pace for a couple of minutes. I wanted to see what I could do. Lo and behold, I am kicking it at MP plus 20 seconds. I tell myself that if I am that close, I really need to try and hit it. And I pretty much did. I chose to walk for ~10 seconds at the beginning of each mile (just to keep it close to IM execution guidance and the fact that I find I run better with the mini-breaks)
Mile Target Actual Delta
1 8:54 8:30 -:24 Bad
2 8:54 8:45 -:09 Better
3 8:54 8:46 -:08 Better
4 7:09 7:20 +:11 Didn’t think it would be this close
5 7:09 7:18 +:09 Seriously???
6 7:09 7:14 +:05 I didn’t believe it at the time.
Run Grade – again an A-. If I had held my actual target pace for the 1st 3 miles, I would give myself an A. But since I couldn’t be disciplined enough to hold my pace down, no.
OVERALL GRADE: A-. My big takeaways are:
- Infinit works for me so I will keep with that plan
- 40 rpm is perfectly acceptable if I can keep my balance while keeping my watts on target
- It is still very difficult to run slow right after you get done biking.
Please fire away with critiques, comments, and questions. I am sure that I left out some details that will help make this an even greater learning experience.
Thanks Team,
Joe
Comments
Hi Joe — my only comment is on your run pace target. Have you downloaded this?
https://www.box.net/shared/nleir8217e
It suggests an HIM run pace of 7:21 to 7:47 mins per mile for someone with a Vdot of 50. Using these targets you overachieved on the run.
Cheers
Peter
ps Nice photo!
Thanks,
Joe
Aah I see. An assumed Vdot of 51 does translate to a range of run paces of between 7:15 to 7:40 mins per mile.
Good luck and have fun!
Cheers
Peter
Question on Race Rehearsal hydration analysis: How do you account for potty stops when figuring if your target hydration rate for the race rehearsal was adequate? I am not sure my plan was sufficient, but I don't know what values to use for the two pit stops: one was a 'normal' event out on the road, the other an Austin Powers-worthy during T2.
Just curious what others do since those two stops are unknown variables in the calculations.....
Thanks,
Joe
Cheers
Peter
ps not very satisfactory I guess but I thought I had to do something.
Thanks for the words Dave. I don't know how much weight I lost last year...but I do know it was a lot. As far as the gearing/watts, I am riding a 53/39 crankset with a 12x27 on the back. I ride the part of the course on US42 all the time and I have to watch myself because I can really spike the watts if I am not careful. It was only the steepest sections where I was trying to keep my power at/under 233 that I had to get down to the super low cadence. One of my overarching goals on the RR was to keep my VI low and I think I have started to get the hang of that.
My rides this past weekend helped me to dial in my hydration. I have been able to up my intake to 32ish oz/hr. The only problem is that I am sweating at a much greater rate -- closer to 50 to 55 oz/hr.
Run guidance for a HIM is MP+30 seconds for the first three miles, not EP+30. That is a misprint in the Wiki.
Looks like you executed well to me. Better to be a little low on the bike than to over-extend yourself. I would try to up the IF to .80 on RR#2 and see how well you run off it. Nice VI! Nice attention to detail, in general. That will serve you well.
I knew that race execution was MP+30. Just thought that the EP+30 for race rehearsals was because "we aren't testing run fitness on RaceRehearsals." (I recently read that mentioned in another RR1 thread...). The EP + 30" wording came from the 2011 Half Ironman, Intermediate, 12 Weeks, Week Number 6 details for the Saturday Race Rehearsal.(http://members.endurancenation.us/T...39&w=6). So I take it you use MP+30 for your Race Rehearsals?
Thanks for the feedback.
Joe
Gotcha. Yes, I do my RR's at race target paces to really see how well I run off the bike. I haven't done a RR since 2009 and I checked the guidance given at the time. It was MP+30 for 3 and then MP for 3. I personally feel that running at goal pace off the bike in a RR teaches me something valuable about my bike AND run pacing. That's how I will do my RR's this year for HIM and IM.
Hard to say if it's a mistake in the RR guidance or not. You could ask the coaches.
I will definitely be doing that on RR#2. I found it *extremely valuable* to find out that I could even get close to MP for the last 3 miles. It gave me some insight in Coach Rich's different types of pain (IM vs HIM) analogy.
Joe