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2016 IM Maryland Week 18- THE LINE
#EN4Keys
/ THE LINE WEEK 18
Ok team- You ARE READY!!! This is seriously one of my favorite posts.....it is SO IMPORTANT!!!!
Prepare your mental game. In so doing, remember there will be cumulative fatigue building throughout race day. So important to follow your plan, race your race and prepare for THE LINE.
EVERYTHING before The Line is simply about creating conditions for success for when the Line comes to you.
A successful race = a good run. There is no such thing as a good bike followed by bad run, period. In our world, if you showed up with solid run fitness, had a "good" bike and a poor run, we will ALWAYS assume you messed up your bike pacing unless you are missing a limb or are in the ICU with an intestinal parasite.
If you think you can ride faster than we're telling you, prove it by running well off the bike first (preferably not attempted for the first time on race day!).
Ride your "should" bike split vs your "could" bike split. YourCould split is what you tell Timmy you could ride on a good day, when you're out together for your Saturday ride. If you say you "could ride a 5:50," your Should split is likely 6:00 and defined as the bike split that yields a good run (see #1 above).
Don't be a Caboose, be an Engine! Ironman in general, but especially the bike leg, is an exercise in consistency. You don't need straight-A's to win your day, you only have to show up with your C game to be at the head of the class. If you find yourself doing the opposite of everyone else, you're doing the right thing. Lots of people passing you in the first 40 miles of the bike? Everyone else sprinting out of T2? These folks are making your race day easier by showing you what not to do; it's up to you to resist the urge to join in!
Think you made the mistake of riding too easy? You now have 26 miles to fix that mistake. Make the mistake of riding too hard? That mistake now has 26 miles to express itself, to the tune of X miles at 17-18' walking pace vs X miles at 8-10' running pace. Do the math. How is that nice bike split going to look as you are walking/shuffling the last 10 miles of the run adding another hour and forty minutes to your overall finish time?
**ADMIN ALERT**
* TEAM DINNER: There will not be an official team dinner. HOWEVER- I have a spreadsheet that is easy to use if someone wants to volunteer to be the ON SITE person. Let me know and I will message it to you!!! IF not, I encourage you to use GroupMe which will begin on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of race week to try and get together on Thursday night!
*** If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. You're almost their rock star EN'rs can't wait to watch you unleash on the Maryland course**
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One more week of hard work with a traditional EN RR planned for Saturday... then its taper time :-)
Last week, including one day off (Tues) for travel:
This week, I'm taking the first two days "off" (actually, hiking 4 hours in mtns each day c Cheryl, then running 3 miles), and will do the RR onSat or Sun or Mon, depending on the weather and how I feel - probably shooting for final bikes on Mon/Tue next week.
We traveled to Cambridge to ride the MD course on Saturday afternoon after watching our daughter run in her cross country meet. We arrived too late to get in the planned 100 miles, but did manage to ride 75 miles on Saturday before we lost daylight. We stayed in Cambridge Saturday night and rode 45 miles of the course on Sunday. I switched my nutrition from UCAN to Skratch for both rides as the UCAN was not cutting it anymore, and it was a good change for me.
I have now ridden on the course three times in the last two weeks. The wind was markedly different on each ride. I did get a lot of practice in staying aero for extended periods of time. A total of 205 miles on the course over the three rides.