HIM race rehersal #1
My first ever race rehersal is in the books. It was a good workout and I learned a lot. My personal lessons learned are at the bottom. If anyone has any other comments I'd love to hear them.
One thing I should note is that it was HOT. In particular on the run, which I started at almost 12noon in direct sun, 95 degrees. And no aid stations on the run, so no water. That was silly.
I did the bike on a course that required 3 loops. I started with a 20' warmup then aimed to be mid-to-high z3 the rest of the time (z3=198-211 for me). For no reason other than consistency with the part of the course over which I did the warmup, I divided each loop into two splits, so I have 6 splits in total:
| Split | NP | IF | VI | Cadence | HR avg | HR max | Speed avg |
Loop 1, first part (warmup) |
140w |
0.625 |
1.11 |
79 |
110 |
128 |
16.7 |
Loop 1, second part |
207w | 0.834 | 1.01 | 87 | 135 | 146 | 20.7 |
Loop 2, first part |
209w | 0.842 | 1.02 | 86 | 144 | 152 | 20.6 |
Loop 2, second part |
219w | 0.883 | 1.03 | 87 | 146 | 156 | 20.9 |
Loop 3, first part |
209w | 0.844 | 1.04 | 84 | 136 | 149 | 20.4 |
Loop 3, second part |
216w | 0.871 | 1.01 | 89 | 145 | 156 | 21.5 |
Run overall: 5.84 miles in 44:43, avg pace 7:39
Split |
Time |
Distance |
Avg Pace |
1 |
00:10:01 |
1.20 |
08:22 |
2 |
00:10:00 |
1.28 |
07:49 |
3 |
00:09:59 |
1.33 |
07:31 |
4 |
00:10:00 |
1.39 |
07:13 |
5 |
00:04:42 |
0.65 |
07:14 |
My takeaways from the rehersal:
1. No need to go overboard with nutrition. I was fine with a pretty "normal" set of workout foods, and in fact it added up to quite a lot of calories:
- Clif bar for breakfast (260 cal)
- 3 Clif Shot Bloks pre-ride (100 cal)
- 3 Gu gels on the bike, one at the end of each loop, so the last one was right at the end before starting the run (300 cal)
- A bottle of Gatorade right at the end of the bike before the run (110 cal)
Total calories: 770
If I was running the full half-iron distance I think I'd have 2 Gu gels on my race belt, take one at mile 3 and then the other at mile 6-7 if needed.
2. I felt pretty good riding at mid-to-high z3 for the distance. Targeting those watts should be do-able for the race. I've become so accustomed to starting my workouts with an hour or more of z4/5 that the z3 without all the z4/5 preceeding it is a piece of cake.
3. My VI was too high for several of the splits…need to try to keep it at 1.01 or less…don't want to spike those watts!!
4. After today, the heat will not intimidate me. It was silly (dangerous, really) to go running when I did, and to do so without water. But it was possible to keep the legs moving. If I wake up on race morning and it's 95 degrees, I know I can do it.
5. Starting the run at 8:00-8:30 pace is KEY. Actually my big problem in the run was that I started speeding up too much in the second half and my HR crept up to over 190. At that point the run became VERY difficult. If I had kept my pace to 7:45 or slower I think I would have been much stronger throughout.
Cheers, Matt
0
Comments
1. I agree that, on the run, you DO need to keeps those first 3 miles slower according to race guidance (unless you have done the EN way long enough to know from experience that you can do it differently).
2. Next RR' during the run, work on getting some water in during these first few miles, and I would suggest that one gel at about mile 6/7 would be all the gel you should worry about...and I would use on-course stuff around that. At the pace you are running, you will only be out there maybe 1:30-1:40, so just 100 kcal via gel and maybe another little via some PowerAde should be all you need if you have fueled the bike correctly. On this note, remember, from about mile 9/10+ you will be doing some really hard work and shouldn't be taking in any kind of solid or semi-solid stuff.
Geat job though, especially for RR #1!
As for the gels, in the last half marathon I did I brought 2 gels and didn't take either of them. On the bike I need to remind myself to take the gels. No GI issues, just that I'm never "hungry" when working hard. I agree one get at about the halfway point of the run should be fine to get me through those last 45-50 mins. Ok, maybe 50-55 mins......
Btw I read somewhere in the forums about an argument that you should be able to do an HIM half-marathon at closer to your open time than you think. Based on my experience yesterday there is no way that's the case for me. If I did the full distance yesterday I figure I'd have probably ended up averaging about 7:35-ish, which is not even my MP of 7:28. In race conditionds I always seem to find a little extra speed, and if it's not 95 degrees that'll be a big difference too...but let's jsut say if I average 7:30 for the half marathon I'll be a happy camper.
Good luck bud!