Race Rehearsal

The most important day of training is Friday. I'm heading to Madison on Thursday night to prep for 112 miles on the Ironman course followed by 6 mile run. Here is the break down of the day that is my second of two race rehearsals. Through testing and through training I have estblished power and pace zones which will deliver me to the IM finish lane in the most efficient manner. Its time to put the math to the test:

Bike Setup: Full racing setup with three bottles on the bike at a time. The aero bottle will contain water with calories on the down and seat tubes. Each bottle contains 258 calories. Benot box with tube, Co2, Tylenol, tire levelers.

Run Setup: Garmin locked on Satellites. Hand held water bottles resting on ice.

6:30 AM: 400 Calories from Pop tarts and one bottle of Infinit mix for a breakfast total of 658 calories.

8:00 AM: Start the bike heading to Madison, flip it on Irish Lane and head back to Verona for two loops.

Pacing Guidelines: My Functional Threshold Power is measured at 250 watts, I'm currently weighing 148 lbs so my power-to-weight is 3.7 w/kg. Based on an estimate ride time of 5:50 - 6:00 hours, I'm targeting 70-71% of FTP as measured by normalized power.

1st Gear: 166 watts, my first hour of the ride
2nd Gear: 174 watts, my Ironman targeted watts, the bulk of my day.
3rd Gear: 184 watts, hills that last more than 3 mins
4th Gear: 194 watts, hills that take less than 3 mins

At some point, the grade of the hill will cause my wattage gears to be thrown out the window. The absolute cap is 250 watts. DO NOT GO OVER 250 watts. Riding over your FTP during Ironman is a recipe for a bad marathon.

After a quick transition from bike-to-run. I'll open up my run at 8:50 pace, which is my targeted pace for the first 6 miles of the IM marathon. Its important to gauge my breathing and level of fatigue during this practice run. During the race, after mile 6, I'll move into my targeted pace of 8:20.

The day will be a success if:

I nail my nutrition.
Off the bike in 6 hrs or less
Hit my run zones
VI of 1.05 or less post ride analysis
Under 1 min of FTP wattage.

Early next week, I'll break down the Race Rehearsal

Hayes
USAT Level I Coach

Spirit of Racine - Race Breakdown

Well its been two weeks since Spirit of Racine Half Ironman. What a great day for racing, I'll skip the paragraph on drafting issues and just say "It is what it is". I really love the SOR venue and race but next year I'll head further north and race the Door County Half Ironman. Its a smaller race and more challenging course = Less Drafting.

Lets break it all down:

Prerace nutrition and set up: No issues, went as planned. Forgot to put Tylenol in my bento box as I tend to get headaches without my glasses. Luckily, no issues on Race day.

Swim: Lined up in the front row and quickly ate sand 5 secs after the horn. Made the mistake of not testing the depth of the entrance. The beach entrance was deeper than my warm up location. Regrouped and got moving. We had the current to our back and google maps shows the swim was more 1.0 - 1.1 than the official 1.2 mile distance.

Time: 24:09 8th / 101 M30-34

Transition: Pretty clean, but they can always be faster.

Bike: Settle into a quick rhythm after screwing around with my shoes. The Velcro band was causing issues and I had to pull over. My plan was to sit at 188 watts for the first 30' of the ride which pencils out to 76% of FTP.

After reviewing my power file, The first 30 mins Normalized Power was 187, right on target.

The remainder of the ride was targeted at 198 watts or 80% of FTP. This part of the ride was mentally challenging as big packs of riders would overtake me, forcing me to sit up to avoid penalty. This was the key lesson learned, when your race power file is littered with spots of zero power, you're throwing time away. I needed to make the mental adjustment and move the target watts up to compensate for sitting up. I was 10 watts short for the remainder of the ride with 2hrs at 188 watts normalized. Additionally, I had written my target % of threshold estimating the course ride at 2:38. However, I finished in 2:33:29. Given the faster time on course I was able to ride harder. Again, Lesson learned. I estimate I could have ridden 82% of FTP. As illustrated by VI (NP / AP) I did ride steady only losing 3% of my power.

Bike: 2:33:29 43/ 101 M30-34

Entire workout (181 watts):

Duration: 2:33:36

Work: 1672 kJ

TSS: 147.6 (intensity factor 0.759)

Norm Power: 188

VI: 1.03

Transition: 1:45 - Had to fiddle with the Garmin as I had accidentally left it running and need to clear 3hrs of running blank data. Dumb mistake.

Run: The plan was to run 8:15's through Mile 3 of the run which represented a very easy pace to build into my targeted pace of 7:45 and then kill it during the last 5K. Actual:

Mile 1: 8:35

Mile 2: 7:52

Mile 3: 7:32

The pacing error caused me to move into target pace too quickly creating a false sense of panic. My breathing was labored so I shifted back to target pace + X. Miles' 4 through 8 I was running between 8:05's and 8:30 to regain that safe feeling. Had I known my bike data was conservative I wouldn't have let this happen. After Mile 8, I knew I wouldn't blow up and it was time to get back to work.

Mile 9: 7:45

Mile 10: 7:52

Mile 11: 7:46

Mile 12: 8:00

Mile 13: 7:46

Run: 1:45:39 48 / 101

Final Time: 4:47:12 37 / 101 M30-34

A small shift from previous races as my relative bike results are generally below my running results. Despite my conservative race I still Pr'd the course by 27 mins. Later in the week, I would go race a local 5K and set a 1 min PR. I had the legs for a much faster 1/2 but was just Conservative. I learned some lessons and have data for future races.

Next Steps: Continue punching the clock and getting ready for Ironman Wisconsin Sept 13th.