Ironman Wiscsonsin - How it does down.

I wanted to put together some ligh hearted thoughts on your upcoming sufferfest, I mean, race from a coach, two time finisher, and volunteer at Imoo. The race segment will come next week. Hopefully this keeps you from going crazy....

Welcome to the Ironman Taper. For some of you, this first week couldn't have come soon enough. Your training plan may have been a few weeks too long, for others, you've had your first oh shit moment. Its Taper already! I need two more weeks! No, you don't. You're ready. No sense in worry about the long ride in July that was rained out. No reason to fret over the last open water swim wear your wetsuit just didn't feel right. Welcome to the training period where you have too much time on your hands. Welcome to the period of training that is so easy to enjoy, we screw it up. Now is not the time to slip in the extra hour run, show up for the double masters session. Calm down. You're not going to miracle yourself some fitness now. Just follow the plan and eat less. You're no longer training at 15hrs a week, no need to eat like it. Its very easy to show up a few pounds heavier with the volume of your training plan dwindling. Instead of eating two sleeves of oreo's lets knock down to one sleeve at dinner.


You're probably hitting F5 at ironmanwisconsin.com several times a day. Hoping and hoping they post the Ironman Participant guide. Why haven't they posted it! No worries, the moment the pdf hits the interwebs, it will spread like wildfire. You'll probably find out its be posted from your third cousin's facebook posting. Download it, read it. No you don't have to go to the athlete's dinner, but I recommend it. Guess what, Ironman, Just got real. Hurry along now, confirm your hotel reservations for the third time this week.


Below is how your experience will likely go. When you start to amp up, relax, its just a race. On either Thursday or Friday, you're going to roll into Madison. Something is different from the moment you pull onto the beltline. Welcome Ironman Wisconsin. Driving towards the Monona terrace, off to your right you spot them for the firm time, the four giant orange buoys, and finally the ski jump. Ironman Just real. Your heart will beat a little faster. Its normal. Your eyes may well up for the first time. You're ready for this.


Checking in to your hotel, you'll see it all. The Baggage carts packed to the gills, looking more like an Triathlon Expo than a baggage cart. A trainer? Really? Yup, you'll see it. Every looks fit. What language is that guy speaking? Its German. Not sure why, but the Germans love Ironman Wisconsin. They look even fitter and they are. At the check in counter, you fork over your credit card to secure the room, not breathing, while they look you up in their ancient DOS based reservations system. You finally exile, when they repeat your name back to you. Sigh……Fifth floor, all the way to the right, here are you keys, good luck. You don't hear a single word of it. You just follow the cattle call to the elevators. Compression socks and Rock tape everywhere. More golden bronze shaved legs than hairy ones. Half the women, look like then can kick your ass. They probably will. Ironman Just Got Real.


Off to the expo for registration. Don't forget your USAT card. Back up to the hotel room for you. You'll fill out some forms, and probably check the wrong box a few times. What Hotel Are you staying in? Best Western, you reply. Which one. The one over here? Best Western on the Square, will be the reply from the woman in the wheelchair. She is super nice and volunteers every year. You'll see her on the run too. She is full of mojo. Why are you weighing me? We need to know how much IV to give you in Medical? Huh, thanks? Off you go to get your $600 nylon draw string backpack and plastic bags for transition. Ironman Just got real.


Up you go to the Ironman Store. Look but don't touch. No reason to upset the Ironman gods buy wearing the mDot just yet. You'll be eyeing up everyone and they are eyeing you up, rocking your BIGGEST BADDEST RACE T-SHIRT you can find it’s a stare down. That guy' is wearing Kona stuff! You'll feel weird not wearing compression socks and fit right in if you're rocking them. Back to the hotel. You've got 48hrs to kill. Yes, you'll make sure your bike works with a quick spin on the lake front path, just like everyone else. No, don't ride aero. Everyone in Madison knows your doing Ironman. Lets not do something stupid and steer yourself right into Lake Monona. Run through the gears and rack your bike. Ironman Just got real.


Drive the course, one more time. Are those people really riding a loop? Nope, that's us volunteers having fun on the course while you debate whether you have enough gears for Midtown Rd. Don't piss us off, we're helping you on Sunday. No need for a buzz on Rt 92. Just a friendly tap of the horn and a wave. We recognize the deer in head lights look. Those are the future Ironman that are seeing the course for the first time. They didn't bring enough gears. Try and get to bed early, you might sleep a few hours if you're one of the luckily ones. Did I put shoes in my run bag? Out of bed, just to double check your Ironman sneaks aren't in the hotel room.

Race day is finally here……more to come.

Saving the Cheetah sub 19

Back from Run for the Cheetah, a 5K, with benefits going to Cheetah conservation. A crisp Spring morning for the run leaving from the Lincoln Park Zoo. Took off in 5:54 pace which was a little quick followed by 6:06, and then 6:1X something. A new PR for me crossing the finish line in 18:56. I finished 7th Overall out of 624 runners and 2nd in the male 31-35 Age Group. My previous PR was 18:59 last summer, another good sign of fitness to come. For more information on Cheetah Conservation see:

http://www.runforthecheetah.org/

Spring has Sprung

Finally. Let me say that again, Finally. Tough to find motivation this winter, probably some post Ironman Blues and an Ironman Date NOT circled on the calendar.

Training went well though. I joined the Chicago Blue Dolphins in early January and have nearly reached my 2009 swim totals in four months. Not sure if that's a reflection of my 2010 or lack of swimming in 2009. Spent the later portion of the Chicago winter working on my running. Thankfully the work paid off in March. Went up to race in the toughest Half Marathon in the midwest in Cary Illinois. The race lives up to its billing, nearly 2000 feet of climbing in 13.1 miles and is a must for those training for Boston. The race is small but the competition is fierce. Met up with a couple of teammates, Matt A and Mike B, and we all crushed the course.

Aside from a mini meltdown at mile 10 and 11, I was happy with my 1:33:17. This puts me on track for a strong spring and summer for my run. The weather has finally turned to Spring which means bike rides in Barrington. Karin (A3M athlete and GF)and I, have been out regaining our cycling legs the last two weekends. It always takes a few rides to regain the confidence of watts gained during the winter trainer session. With bike rides filling the weekend calendar, that means POST RIDE BURRITOS.....

Running a local 5K tomorrow. Hoping to break 19:00 to post a PB. Fingers crossed.

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.

Spirit of Racine - The Game Plan

A successful race is the result of planning. Plan the race, race the plan.

Bike Set up:
500 Cals on the Downtube
250 Cals in the aero bottle
Wheelcover with powertap
HED3 in the front
Spare tube/co2/levers in the bento box


Prerace:
257 Cals of Infinit Long course blend
400 Cals Pop-Tarts = my secret race day weapon

Swim:
Start in the front row, furthest left
Stay in rhythm counting strokes
Dolphin Dive to shore, haul ass through the sand and feet baths

T1:
Socks, glasses, helmet and go....

Bike:
Feet on top of shoes until out of T1 hill
Opening 30 mins sit below target watts, approx 188 or 76% of FTP
Remainder of the ride, steady watts targeting 198.
Continue to push watts on the downhills and hills cap the watts at 220

Goals: NP 195-200 Watts, IF .79-.80, VI 1.02 - 1.03

Bike Aid stations:
Mile 15: Top off aero bottle
Mile 30: Down tube nutrition to aero bottle, top off with water
Mile 45: Last 1/2 of nutrition to the aero bottle and top off

T2:
Shoes on, Garmin, Belt and Hat on the run

Run:
Open up the run at 8:15 pace. Walk the hill at 1/2 mil into the run. At the turnaround (3 mile) move into target pace of 7:45. Target 7:45 until Mile 10 the last turnaround. At Mile 10 reevaluate the pace, systems check. Move into 7:30 pace if all systems go or damage control.

Give'm hell the last mile into the finish. Skip last aid station.

Nutrition:
One bottle of Infinit 250 calories, no protein.
Supplement with HEED on course

Using a long course VDOT of 48 for pacing guidelines.

Next blog post, we'll break down the game plan.