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Brian Terwilliger's Raleigh IM 70.3 June 4th Race Plan
I'll keep it pretty simple. I've raced this before and its local so there are no real travel logistics.
Saturday: My wife and kids are running 5, 10, and 15Ks that morning. I'm spectating. Will plop a folding chair in the shade at the finish line. Wife and kids are volunteering at the finish line, so back to the expo I go with them to check in and get their stuff. Back home to relax. Bike check in at Jordan Lake closes at 5. Plan to leave house at 3:30, get there at 4 and rack back. Let air out of tires. Transition is blacktop and HOT. Many a tube will pop. Get back home, get out bike and run transition bags, checklists, and pack em. Bike bag will be straight forward. Shoes, socks, helmet, sunglasses, HR monitor, bottle of water for cleaning feet, towel to stand on and wipe feet off. Likely to be covered in sand, tree debris, and grit from the swim exit. Run bag, even easier. Hat, shoes, socks incase I want to change, 2 race saver bags, race belt with bib, base salt, 3 GU.
Friday: Leave work at 4 and drive 15 minutes to the expo and check in. Get all my stuff, catch an athlete briefing and get out.
Saturday: My wife and kids are running 5, 10, and 15Ks that morning. I'm spectating. Will plop a folding chair in the shade at the finish line. Wife and kids are volunteering at the finish line, so back to the expo I go with them to check in and get their stuff. Back home to relax. Bike check in at Jordan Lake closes at 5. Plan to leave house at 3:30, get there at 4 and rack back. Let air out of tires. Transition is blacktop and HOT. Many a tube will pop. Get back home, get out bike and run transition bags, checklists, and pack em. Bike bag will be straight forward. Shoes, socks, helmet, sunglasses, HR monitor, bottle of water for cleaning feet, towel to stand on and wipe feet off. Likely to be covered in sand, tree debris, and grit from the swim exit. Run bag, even easier. Hat, shoes, socks incase I want to change, 2 race saver bags, race belt with bib, base salt, 3 GU.
Saturday Night: Mix fuel for the bike (Infinit). Pre race ritual of a pizza for dinner and 10 oz of vodka. Yes, you read that right. Don't judge. OK, judge. But it works for me. Relax, do nothing, go to bed.
Sunday: Alarm set for 3:00. Pot of coffee, oatmeal with peanut butter, protein powder, coconut oil and a bagel. Hopefully take care of the most important part of race morning! You know what I'm talking about. Get a ride to T2. Drop off run bag, take shuttle to T1. I carry a cheap backpack that will have my bike fuel, gatorade, goggles, cap, powerbar, and bike computer. The chances of this being a wet suit legal swim are less than zero. If something crazy happens and it is, 99% I'll just go without. Now that I am at the race site, get in T1, borrow a pump to pump my tires or make my way to bike support immediately to get my tires pumped. The line gets really really long if you wait, so knock it out asap. Tires pumped, now fill fuel tanks with Infinit. Turn on 520 and get out of there and go relax somewhere. There is a ton of time to kill as you have to shuttle in to T1 way before the start of the race. So go find some place to relax.
Race starts at 7:00 with wave starts. Pro men at 7:00. I am in the 2nd 40-44M AG wave, which goes off at 7:40. So about 7:15, eat a powerbar and finish sipping on my gatorade and get in line at the swim start with my wave. Enter water after the prior wave and wade out to the start line. Its an in water start. I consider myself a good swimmer, so I will line up middle to far right as its a clockwise swim. The Raleigh swim is always a cluster and a mess. With the wave starts from oldest to youngest, after a few hundred yards you are swimming over/around people the rest of the way. Last year they had the swim support people really squish the swim lane in against the buoys making it real narrow, worsening the problem. Hopefully not again this year. My swim plan is simple. Take it smooth and easy and try to avoid pile ups. No need to blast the swim. Just smooth it and come out warmed up and ready to race. Light jog to the bike, cap and goggles off, helmet on, glasses on, HR on, clean feet, socks and shoes on, and off to the the mount line.
Bike target watts are 205-210. Thus about 180 for first 20 minutes. This is tough at Raleigh. The first 7 or 8 miles is basically a climb up and out from the lake. And holding 180 would have me going under 10 MPH for some sections and I just can do that. And some parts would have me weaving at 6 MPH trying to stay upright. Like the stupid out and back on Seaforth. So they will have to be a bit higher, or even at goal watts for some portions. Then comes the really fast section of the course. There is a nice downhill that erases all the elevation you just climbed. It also coincides with when you come out of the warm up on the bike. So its time to hammer. Get watts up to 210-215 and go. This lasts for about 8 miles. Maybe 9. And then its time to climb up and out from the lake again and its rollers and steady low grade long climbs the rest of the way into downtown Raleigh. I will have all the fuel I need onboard, so will skip all the aid stations. Except may the last where I might grab a water to pour on myself if I'm too hot. Have a timer set every 15 minutes to drink Infinit. Will take a caffeinated gel at 1:30. Maybe one more at 2:15 so its in and processed for the run start. My house its at about mile 40 on the bike. If the wheels have come off, stop in for a beer or two than get back out there. Hopefully not.
The Run: Rack bike, helmet and shoes into run bag, run shoes and hat on. Grab race belt and race saver bags and go.
Race strategy. Its going to be 100 plus on the run. With zero shade. So the strategy is to survive. Aid station 1, load saver bags with ice. 1 under hat and one in back of race kit or front, whichever I'm feeling. Or one in front, one in back. Refill saver bags as needed. The Raleigh run is a two loop and with the wave start, they are crowded from start to finish. I plan on taking in 2 gatorades every aid station, water on myself, and then start adding a coke/red bull after 4 or 5 miles. Do this every aid station. GU at miles 3 and 7. Three thumbs of Base Salt at 1 hour.
Pace strategy: Raleigh is a straight forward course. 3.5 miles UP, 3.5 miles down, twice. Its a long gradual climb to the turn around, then back down, turn around, do it again, then finish. So, First 3.5 miles at 8:00 (Z2 +30 +20 for the heat). 2nd 3.5 miles 7:25-30 (Z2 +20 for heat). 3rd 3.5 miles, 7:45 (Z2 +20 for heat, plus a little more for the incline). Last 3 miles, chase death and get it over with. But with the heat, finishing with a respectable run will be fine.
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Comments
Im interested to see how they divert you around the construction by NCSU on Hillsborough - please let me know how that goes.
Remember the first 5-10 miles on the bike is a race fest, LET THEM WIN! You will catch them later!
Don't forget to MOOOOOO back to the cows on the last 5 miles of the bike and an EN gang sign at the finish line!
CRUSH IT DUDE!
Good plan. There's nothing overly complex about this course, so once you've done it, it's just about executing. Agree with your assessment of the swim as a total cluster. Last year was awful. I'm in the 4th AG wave this year, hoping that I only have to swim around/over a few hundred this year. You've got the bike covered. It looks like we're in for standard Raleigh weather next weekend, so my only adjustment to bike nutrition is to go almost entirely liquid, assuming I can get down two full bottles of GE per hour (that would give me about 300 cal, 84g of carbs and over 1,000mg of salt - all of which is plenty for me in a 5-hr race). I'll have some chews in my bento to supplement if needed, but I want most of my nutrition to be serving the dual purpose of hydrating.
As I told Josh, I melted early and permanently on the run. I was thinking about taking an extra bottle of water at the last bike AS and pouring it over me with a mile to go, but the last AS is at Mile 43 and will be warm/hot by the time we reach T2. So, I will likely just have to keep the HR down until we get to the first run AS after Mile 1. I ran my long run last weekend in 89% humidity, which was awful, but hopefully it will help me better acclimate this year. We have another hot/wet one this weekend, so I plan on repeating. Acclimating, hydrating, salting and running conservatively until we can start the rolling ice bath at the first AS, IMO, are my keys to run success this year.
Hope you have a great race. And, it sounds like I've found at least one person who will share some post-race beers with me.
MR