IMAZ 09 Race Rehearsal Report

IMAZ 09 Race Rehearsal Report

Ten days ago I did my last race rehearsal and while I should have posted this sooner, some times life gets in the way. For those who don't know, my coaches and on-line team (Endurance Nation) have us do race rehearsals in preperation for our "A" race. The idea is to mimic everything you will eat, wear, and do on race day to minimize the number of surprises that pop up and get used to any new equipment.

Got up at 2 AM and chugged a bottle of Odwalla High Protein Smoothy and went back to bed. Got up at 5 and ate a bowl of Cheerio's + scoop of whey and a Cup o' Joe. Was still a little hungry but at this point there's rarely a time when I'm not hungry.

The plan was to ride up and down on the Chicago lakefront bike path with the hopes that it wouldn't be too crowded due to the time of year. However, the weather was unseasonably nice (mid 60's, sunny, but windy) and more people were out than I would have preferred. I was trying out my new wheel cover and aside from a couple gusts of wind early on I was able to hold the bike steady without any issue. The wheel really helped as I was able to hold 18.5mph with out much effort but the number of other people on the path throughout the day made it hard to stay at this pace for too long. I ended up averaging much lower watts with a much less steady effort than what I wanted. For those who are interested, here is the breakdown:

Entire workout (117 watts):
Duration: 5:57:24 (6:17:37)
Work: 2517 kJ
TSS: 197.3 (intensity factor 0.576)
Norm Power: 128
VI: 1.09
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 95.044 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 358 117 watts
Cadence: 30 212 83 rpm
Speed: 2.2 24.8 16.2 mph
Pace 2:25 26:49 3:43 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 700 119 lb-in

I was drinking a concentrated 3 hour mix of Infinit and stopped half way through the ride to grab a 2nd bottle and refill my water bottles. This worked out great and is something I'm going to plan on doing race day.

After the ride, I dropped off my bike at home and strapped on my running shoes. I was out of my run mix of Infinit so I grabbed a gel I had laying around, ate that, and was out the door.

The pacing guidance from my coaches is that the first 6 miles of the run should be at your recovery pace + 30 seconds. In my case, I should run the first 6 miles at a 10min/mile pace. Others on the team have reported that pace as feeling way too slow and I finally understood exactly what they were talking about. On top of forcing myself to stay slow I had to stop and walk just to keep the pacing. I did two 3 mile loops by my house that include a couple of "Chicago hills" which are really overpasses. From what I hear, the Tempe run course is made up of a similar terrain. Not having my nutrition with me I was getting pretty hungry but my legs felt great and I could have run all night at that pace.

Now to put the finishing touches on the Race Plan and execute as close to the plan as possible. Just a couple more days and I'll be an Ironman.