Strauss IMWI Final RR Plan
Hey folks,
Doing my final RR tomorrow. #1 was an abortion, as I rode too hard, got way dehydrated and imploded spectacularly in the last hour or so. Want to do a better job this time 
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Tonight: dinner, drink a ton of water. Wake up around 2am and have 2 x 400cal smoothie dealios from Trader Joes, go back to sleep.
Saturday AM: about 4:45-5am wake up. Much coffee, something light to eat, and probably drink 2 x ~200cal bottles of Perform. Gonna be a hot hot hot day so trying to stay ahead of hydration needs. I want to be on the bike at 6am.
Wearing DeSoto tri bibs, EN singlet, Captain American race helmet . No race wheels, as Rich is installing some space age bearings in my front and rear wheel and says I shouldn't ride them that much, so will wait for race day. Also not putting on my race tires. Not sure about the singlet, as I need to fit a third bottle, powder, phone and field stripped wallet back there also. We'll see.
Course:
Spin about 1.5 miles of admin to a corner, then start the Joule. Riding out to Encanto Park, down the San Gabriel River Trail to Seal Beach, south down the coast through Huntington to the Santa Anna Trail, inland until I see 56 miles, flip it. Three stops along the way to refill all three bottles and remix sports drink. I do EN bottles with 210cals (3 scoops) of Perform each. Last stop, about 40 miles from the finish, I'll pick up a coke and take 200-400mg caffiene. Kinda of an artificiality here, as race day the coke will be picked up at mile 56, but I can't make that happen on this ride. Close enough. The course is very flat and very fast. I will be well under 5:00 on this ride, probably 4:53-56, so a little artificial in terms of finishing TSS. I also hate the course but I have a loonnggg history of RR's on this course so another data point with which I can compare '11 Rich to '03-05 and '08 Rich
Current stats:
- 300w FTP
- Weight: ~154lb, 70kg
- W/kg: 4.28
- Will be 151-2lb on race day, 68.5-69kg, 4.35-40w/kg
Pacing:
- 45' @ 70% = 210w
- ~2:15 @ 74% = 222w
- 2hrs @ 76% = 228w
Goal finishing numbers are:
- Time: ~4:53-56
- Pnorm: 223w
- IF: .742
- TSS: 271 (based on a 4:55 ride time with the plan above)
- Pavg: 218w
- VI: 1.02
- Cal/hr: 5 x 210cal bottles of Perform + 250cal coke = ~1300cals/~5hrs = ~260cal/hr. That's a bit on the high side for me, typically, but totally doable. Plan above has me taking in > 1200cals from 2-6a before I start the ride.
When I apply that pacing plan to IMWI with a ~5:07-10 bike split, I end up with about 282-284 TSS.
45' easy: simulates the ride out to Verona on the stick. On race day I'm looking at making Gray's Tied House the point on the course at which I flip the switch from JRA to riding. That starts some fun corners, etc so I want to be on the gas in that section, doing what I do well which is building and carrying speed on the bike through sections that others may not.
Last 2hrs: turning up the gas in the last two hours to simulate ~Old Sauk on the second loop all the way back to Madison. The ride back to T2 is faster than the ride out so I want to be on the gas here, building my effort. Also, on the hills beginning with Old Sauk on the second loop, I "may" choose to spend a few more watts here, depending on how I feel. I think by being smart but disciplined on Old Sauk, Timberlane, Timberlane descent to Midtown, on Midtown, Shady Lane, the larg-ish hill on the stick back to Madison, I can find 2-3' in here. So the plan for this RR is to have the 70% then 74% on the front end set me up for this 76% push in the last couple hours. This RR course is good for that, as it's generally uphill (and wayyyy shitty) from Seal Beach all the way back to home. Temps will rise from ~75 degrees to near 100 in 35 miles, about 1 degree per mile. It fookin' sucks and I have psychotic issues with this bike path...yeehaw.
Run:
Grab a bottle of iced Perform and run 3 miles at 8:45, then 3 miles at 8:25-30, walking 20" every mile. Thinking my plan for race day will be to only drop 20" per mile vs 30" per mile after my mile 6, to really save myself for the last 6-8 miles of the run. Will be wicked, wicked hot on this run so I may add 20-30" to those paces above. Yesterday I ran at 4pm and lost 5lb in 48 minutes. There's a water fountain at about mile 2.4 that I'll hit. On race day I plan to drink 2 full bike bottles of water/Perform in the first 6 miles so a good simulation here.
Comments
Good question. I've had it set in the Joule for a while at 295w and it's backed up by intervals, long rides, etc. On Saturday I did an organized century with about 5500ft gain. Crushed it, 240w Pnorm, ~.82 IF, 302 TSS, felt great and feel the ride was a validation of that FTP.
Was all set this week to test VDot and FTP. I did a 5k VDot test on Tues, went kinda blah. Went out too hard the first mile, I have 2-3 weeks of 40-45+ mile run weeks in my legs, etc. All set to do my TT hill on Thurs AM, climbing in the aerobars and subtracting 8% for this ~17:30 effort. I've used this test for years and it's accurate, for me. Anyway...zero mojo. Basically not having the best week right now
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Now that I think about it, I'll probably stick with 295w for this RR and decide afterwards if I want to bump it to 300-305w for the race. So the intent of this RR is to validate a pacing strategy, not what actual watts on ride on race day. The last 40 miles of this RR are tough -- shitty bike path, rapidly increasing heat, etc. That's a hell of a time to figure out you overestimated your FTP and boogered the ride so I think I'll turn it down.
Cal/hr: 5 x 210cal bottles of Perform
Are you carrying one bottle and dumping powder in each time or are you drinking the Perform bottles they have on the course?
I have been using the powder and plan on one 3 hour bottle and another at special needs. Is the bottles stuff the same besides a taste variation?
I 'm taking all of my nutrition off of the course, about 1-2 bottles of perform + about a gel every hour. I prefer to take in cals as I feel vs on a strict schedule.
Good question on the aid stations. I've emailed the "contact us" email about exact locations. Not holding my breath for a definitive answer ...
I don't know about exact locations, but know there's one in Cross Plain, right across the street/on the same street as Uphill Grind and right before you go over two sets of train tracks, go blah, blah to Stagecoach, Old Sauk, etc. About mile 85-86:
Milage is estimates based on memory so it might not be exact but it's close.
Out:
Whalen - Mile 12 - this is actually intended for the back only, but both times I have raced they were there already at 8:30 am and a few people were handing out just water bottles.
Loop 1:
Marsh View Road - Mile 17ish (good one as you are going slow here)
Mt Horeb High School on 92 - Mile 28
Cross Plains on Bourbon St - Mile 39 (fast and flat section - 2 sets of rough rail road tracks after this one)
Verona High School on Main - Mile 53 (sucks IMO as you will be flying at 25+mph)
Loop 2:
Marsh - Mile 60
Mt Horeb - Mile 71
Cross Plains - Mile 82
Verona - Mile 95
Back:
Whelen Road around mile 100 - just before the last climb of the ride.
As far as losing bottles, here is what I can remember as spots to watch for...
- Bridge on John Nolan
- Rail Road tracks on McCoy
- Some pot holes and rough sections on Whalen
- A couple bumps and rough sections on Sugar River - there are two almost speed bumps here that will launch a bottle but you can see them coming
- 92 has some rough pavement aronud mile 25ish
- Pot Holes/Crack on 8th after the traffic circle
- Garfoot and Braun has one nice big bump that I alwasy forget about
- Bourbon and P both have rough train tracks
- Stage Coach just sucks period, I just ride hard though this section so my teeth don't fall out
Of course you get to hit all of those twice. I promise it is a good bike course... I have just been on it way too much ;-)
There is one at mile 95 in front of Verona High School. I absolutely hate it though because I will be at 25+ mph easy coming off a downhill. This is also where they bus the spectators and have them all lining the road.
Very stupid place for one if you ask me, as on my second lap I'm usually laping a good number of people by this point and they are all over the road waving to family and friends and trying to get stuff from the aid station as I'm flying though trying not to get into an accident.
I typiclaly skip this one, yell on your left many times and pray that no one cuts out in front of me.
Thanks Matt for the tip on the Verona aide station. It sounds like it might be worth sticking an extra water bottle in the jersey pocket at the aide station before it and skipping this one.
I have spectated from the Verona dropoff location for the past 2 years. It is the main reason I'm scared of the aid stations. I can't believe we didn't see more crashes. We saw enough as it is along with soooo many near-crashes. Happy to know they are not all like that one. I'll make sure to fill with water at Cross Plains. Good to know I'll only have to go 18-21 miles from CP to the station after Verona.