My 1st oly - how to pace?

scott dinhofer

I think i took my post IM recovery too seriously, havent biked alot since IMKY 4 weeks ago, went out to day, and feels like FTP may have decreased a bit. have been keeping up the run. tomorrow i am jump starting my 8 weeks til IMAZ with an OLY, pretty hilly bike, flat run.

any suggestions for pacing are welcome, i am assuming i can swim a bit faster, bike & run harder... do i do the hilly bike the EN way, or just go for it?

filarl

Hi there. I know that you're also a local, but since it's your 1st Oly, I'm guessing that you don't know the course. The toughest hills on the bike are in the first half, I can only think of one climb in the later part of the course and its not too long and nothing is crazy steep where you HAVE to get out of the saddle to avoid falling over. If I'm feeling good I"ll stand and crank it for a bit for Claire's climb but that's probably it. Nothing you can't handle if you're already training in the area, but my 10 cents is to try to stay seated on the early longish climbs (King St and Riversville Road) and not blow out your power numbers even though it "only" an olympic. Assuming your FTP is a good 1-hour best effort number, I'd shoot for Z3 for the first section to see how you're feeling (esp coming off an IM!), then if you're feeling good after Claire's Climb (they're having timing mats there) up it to maybe 85 - 90% of FTP, I'd be careful about going full throttle since it's supposed to be muggy tomorrow too and still need to run 10k afterwards. The run has a couple of surprise short steep hillls hidden mid-way which always seem to zap me, but then is flat the rest of the way. So I'd save a bit until you get to roughly 4 or 4.5 mile point where you can see people going the other way. At that point it's flat the rest of the way, so up the pace if you can. Also, I think that they typically only have 1 water stop by the marina turn-around, maybe 4.5 miles in, so again worth bringing some fluids if you're a heavy sweater. Also, the swim can be really choppy past the pier with sighting difficult for the middle 500. All-in-all I'd say it's a somewhat challenging course and you've got to think about the total time effort, i.e what kind of intensity do you think that you can handle for 2 1/2 -3 hours or where-ever you are right now. If it's raining be very very very careful on the bike, lots of TNT newbies and some technical sections in there, especially going down Sherman with the hard left onto Riversville, kind of early on, so may be crowded.

PS I'll be wearing my GTC (Greenwich Tri Club) jersey. I'm NOT renewing with them next year but am still a member for now. I think you start 3 minutes behind me so I'll cheer you on if I see you on the course. Best of luck!

Al Truscott

This is the way I think about it: (BTW, I am doing an Oly in the morning as well - possible in the rain)

1. Swim as hard as you can without hyperventilating.

2. Aim to start @ an IF of 0.88 (put the IF front and center on your Joule), and build towards 0.92.

3. Same thing with the run. Start out at whatever pace you need to, but aim to build through a feeling like "I am @ HMP" miles 2-4 into "I am @ TP" in the last two miles. You speed/pace may be lower than that, but that should be the feeling.

4. Don't dawdle in transition, but take a Gu in T2. Drink an entire bottle of sports fluid on the bike.

5. Zip up for the finisher photo. 

scott dinhofer

so, i am just reading this now after the event. and i winged it. could have swam harder, but definitly went harder than i would in an IM.

bike - rocked the bike, Linda, i know the roads this was on very well. knew there was nothing horrible out there, i just crushed this, rode a .935 IF on the way out (net uphill of 450 feet i think) crushed the flats, downhills and slight rises on the way back. got passed by 2 riders on some hills on the way back, but passed them back, so i passed many many bikers, but never got passed by any. total ride was at .91 IF.

run. have a vdot of 41. legs felt suprisiingly good, opened up with an 8:05 first mile, that was too fast, backed off to 8:30-8:45 for the rest of the way.

despite what linda said, they had run aid stations every mile roughly, and even a few with people spraying you with water, it was 80deg and very humid... cloud cover and shady steets for the run... will throw up a race report in that forum later

@linda: sorry i didnt know to look for the GTC jersey, as i did see a few. but no one said "Go EN" so i guess we never crossed paths.

kurshing

I have only done one OLY, ever, so, take this with a grain of salt...

I would swim hard, but not so hard you can't fly through T1 (transitions are really important at this distance and shorter - more so than the longer stuff).

I would get on the bike, have a comfortable push for about 4-5 minutes, not so hard that you strain your legs getting going. The find z4 and flirt with it for the majority of the bike. You CAN use power on an OLY, it IS long enough, I just chose to go off RPE.

I ran z3 for 3 miles, then opened up and let it all out over the last few miles.

Very simply...but, it seemed to work well for me. I wouldn't fool with nutrition too much though...stay liquid on any calories to you take in, and I would stay low on actual numbers of calories put in since the effort level will be so much higher and you probably won't digest much anyways.

John Withrow

@Linda-- sorry I missed you as well, I was looking for the EN kit.
@Scott-- You looked happy and fast to me at the end of the run. It was good to see you there. The swim was flat as glass, very nice. I didn't upload my data yet but basically hammered the whole bike. I was out of the saddle for the entire Claire's climb and just tried to have fun with it... I think I crushed that timed climb. I felt pretty good on the run. My intensity level was pretty high, but I was surprised how easy an OLY was after how hard they seemed to me last yr. I had a 11min PB versus 2 OLYs last yr and I ended up in the med tent after both of those and this yr a few minutes after I finished, I ran the course backwards until I found one of my Clydesdale buddies (his first tri) who was struggling a bit and ran (jogged) it in with him... Great event though. Was very cool to run on the boardwalk for 2 miles, I could have done without those stupid hills on the run.

scott dinhofer

funny, is i had no idea there were ANY hills on Rye Neck, was shocked to find that. it was a fun day, was good to see you again! let's work on the calendar for next year and try to do some events together!

filarl

Scott sounds like you had an awesome race, looks like you've still got a lot of post IMKY fitness going. Sorry that I missed you both, was keeping an eye out for the EN jerseys. Was sort of weird actually that I only saw one person that I know on the course all day given its a local race for me. I had a tough run, late May stress fracture had me up to 4 miler as my longest run going in and was hoping for some mojo out there. Good news for me as now I have lots of room for improvement! I'm in for the mini run block pre OS. Let me know if you ever want to go to Rockefeller preserve in Tarytown to put some miles in on bridal path trails.

scott dinhofer

i have never done the rockefeller estate, but want to.. what kind of pace do you train at? my GF & I would definitly be up for it. I am still in build mode, i have IMAZ in 7 weeks!

funny, i didnt see people on the course that i knew, but i saw quite a few at the rocking party afterwards. had a friend from an earlier wave in the chute right in front of me.

Trying to rope Coach P in for this event next year with the offer of free housing!