IMFL Race Plan Tim Cronk
Finishing up my first year of EN by doing IMFL, this will be my 3rd IM , 2nd IM this year after IMLOU in Aug and the first one was pre EN IMLOU last year. Currently 120lbs , FTP 222 , w/kg 4.1 , and Vdot of 48. IM PR from LOU this year 10:55.
Swim ---- swim tests and previous swim at IMLOU (non wetsuit but maybe current?) of 1:10 says I can swim 1:10 or better. All my HIM's with wetsuits have been in 33-38 min range so that supports the 1:10 as well. This will be my first mass start. I will be lining up near the front and hope to go sub 1:10.
T1---- slow is smooth and smooth is fast- --- temperature will be a big issue here and will have to evaluate gear as we get closer.
Bike---- all my race rehearsals have been in excess of .75 and I felt set up good for the run. Sadly I do not have the data for IMLOU race due to broken PM to know what I raced at. I rode 5:31 at IMLOU on RPE and ran well. I also rode a 112 mile day in 5:17 on a truly flat course on the NH coast but again sadly no data to go by. This ride however did feel like too much. I am going to try and ride .75 or less and will be resetting interval every half an hour to monitor how I am doing. If I can keep myself from getting carried away I think this should set me up for the run. I am not going to ride specific gears or try to negative split. I am going to try and ride even , smooth , and aero.
T2---- slow is smooth and smooth is fast---- temp no factor here
Run---- with a Vdot of 48 Matt's calculator says my best IM marathon is 3:50. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I can beat that calculator by 5 minutes. IMLOU was 4:04 . Open marathon PR 3:25 . Goal sub 3:50 with eyes on 3:45. Again my plan is smooth , steady , even pacing throughout.
Total sub 10:30
Nutrition--- I will be eating mostly carbs and low fiber thursday night thru friday night. After an early dinner on friday I like a coconut water with carbopro in it. This keeps me full and hydrates too. No getting up in the middle of the night to eat for me but if I am up to pee I will drink some calories via naked juice. After reading all the liquid nutrition on EN I figured I would try it. A couple long ride days and RR's with 600-700 calories of fluid just didnt cut it for me in practice. I was hungry. Going back to food. Bagel , almond butter, dates and coffee 3-31/2 hours before start. pre swim gel , pre bike gel . I did however try infinit and I like it so I eliminated food off the bike. Bike 5 servings infinit in one bottle 1250 calories , 1 gel at 70-80 miles , and water. Run gels via hand held flask , water , until 13 miles , SN redbull , then coke and water till the finish. Sodium is more than taken care of in the infinit and powerbar gels but will probably bring just a few salt sticks for second half of the marathon. 263 calories per hour on the bike and 200 or less per hour on the run.
Feeling really good. Infact I think I feel even better than pre-IMLOU. The race can't come soon enough as the motivation factor is waning with the weather here in NH.
Thats about it! Tim,
Comments
A couple of points: .75 at your FTP is too hot. If you race smart and use the drafting effect to it's full legal extent you'll go plenty fast at .71-.72. Let a big pack roll by, sit just legally off the back and enjoy the ride. Use this time to drink, eat, stretch. Your legs will thank you at mile 21 of the marathon.
Salt: I read lots of race reports and the one thing that often jumps out at me is race failure due to low electrolyte consumption. It was the final link in my finally executing an IM well. Consider a SaltStick cap/hour, starting on the bike.
Pacing: Easy does it early on, both on the bike and run. This will feel stupid easy and should; set yourself up for success!
I looked at your RR from IMLOU before writing this. You have come a long way in a short time in this sport. That was a very nice race. This is what I got from your RR:
1. You thought you went hard on the bike due to shifting issues and ended up with a nice bike time. Not surprising.
2. If you don't count your little poop stop out of T2 and 8 minutes peeing, you are at your goal time.
3. KQ'ing was in the back of your mind. You mentioned it at the end.
Here are my thoughts bassed on your new plan and your last race:
1. I agree with Bill. I would hit the electrolytes. You don't have to be excessive, but it's virtually impossible to take in too much.
2. I would examine your goals for this race and determine how aggressive you want to be. If you want to PR, barring circumstances beyond your control, you probably will just based on your preparedness and course differences from IMLOU. Go .72 and prove you can go sub-3:45. If you are trying to go sub 10;15, KQ, or whatever, and you know you could blow up on the run (and are OK with that), then go .75 and see what happens. Personally, if I had your watts/kg, I would be thinking that I could potentially be a KQ'er. But with relative inexperience, the fact that you don't have a real IM power file that verifies your effort objectively, the fact that an early season race like this makes it tough to qualify, and the fact that you are presumably aging up next year (which should make it easier), I would go with plan A. Again....if it was me.
3. The more caffeine you take in, the more likely it is to make you pee more often.
4. Try and get your deuce in (or out as it were) before leaving the hotel.
5. On a one-loop bike course, I would lap reset every hour. Less to think about and longer lap data will be more indicative of how consistently you are pacing over the long term.
6. If you are absolutely nailing your run, and you have had the race of your life on the swim and bike, and you start seeing all of your dreams coming true, don't stop to pee on the run. A wise coach once said "the pointy end never stops". You already pee on the bike. I find it actually easier to pee while running. Right after aid stations are the perfect places since you are still dripping from pouring water on your head/chest. Assuming one minuter per stop, that can be a lot of time to make up late in the marathon. I'm certainly not that experienced, but I have certainly been in that position where everything is clicking and I all of a sudden get that feeling. I am typically going as fast as I feel I can go already and asking my body to go 15 or 20 seconds faster every mile for 3-4 miles in hour 9 of the day is a very tall order. Not to mention the mental toll of feeling like your plan is going to go out the window. All that being said....if you're not feeling it, or if you just can't do it, then just stop to pee, and when you are mentally recapping your race after the fact, just subtract that time from your run split.
Good luck.
I usually encourage people to be more aggressive in their race planning, but a couple of comments on the side of realism.
• A 1:08 swim time will probably be in the 70-75th% - meaning 25-30% of the people will be faster than you. Don't set yourself up to get run over at the start.
• The difference between 3:45 and 4:04 on the run is over 45 seconds a mile. Are you really 45 secs/mile faster in your training times now compared to 4 months ago? Better to just follow the race execution mandate, and focus on current pace and effort level, rather than gunning for a specific overall run time. Temper your mile splits by continually asking the question, "Can I realistically keep this effort level up for another 26 (or whatever is left) miles?" With my VDOT of 48, the best I could do was 4:05 +/- 3 minutes, in 3 IMs where I won my AG so presumably had a pretty good race execution.
@Terry---Thank you for reading my IMLOU race report and your well thought out comments. My goal really is to bike and run correctly to the best of my ability. Yes I want a PR. KQ is really not even a dream at IMFL. That is a big mans race with big power that I just dont have. I admit IMLOU I sure was hoping and based on my times there I coulda qualified in previous years but its all about who shows up. Going over IMFL times the KQ's are all sub 10 and even the race of my dreams isnt gonna take me down there YET! Good idea going to 1hour intervals and will make that change to the plan. I am or was planning on not stopping for porto-potties on the run unless absolutely necessary.
@Al --- I was hoping you would comment on my plan. Thankyou. But what the heck are you doing putting reality in there? Just kidding of course. I will line up a little bit back from the front but not too far. I made that mistake once on my very first TRI and about 10 seconds into I realized there are 2 kinds of swimmers , those that get run over at the start , and those that do the running over if not seeded correctly. I was being nice and not going over or thru the slower people in front and I was getting overtaken. 10 seconds is all it took and I learned my lesson I would rather be seeded a bit over my head if you will. Am I running 45 secs per mile faster ? NO. But my last 4 weeks of long runs were all 20 seconds faster than long runs this summer. All tempo runs and intervals were faster. This is probably more of a weather/temp factor than my run fitness. So if its not as hot as IMLOU , I dont have to stop at the portopotties, and I dont overbike???? Lots of ifs ..... 3:45 or better is the dream.... Now I gotta get that REALITY and that stupid PACE Calculator out of my head!
Thanks everybody for reading and commenting !
One more: the swim start: go wide right. The current usually runs to the left; watch the pro wave and see how they're swept to the left. Starting wide right keeps you out of the worst of the scrum, enough to see you through the early crush.