Race Plan
by Charles @ The long road to Ironman
Here it is!!!! How I plan to not only survive Ironman Canada but finish in less then 17 hours :-)
Swim: Goal 2 Hours
My swimming has improved a lot this year and I am confident that I will make the time cut. I am still not a good swimmer so 2 hours seems like the what I should be looking at for a finish time.
Start the swim near the back of the pack to keep the wrestling to a minimum and try to push the pace early. This is sort of a gamble as I usually struggle in the water for the first 20 minutes or so until i get warmed up, but I am hoping to ride the draft of the massive group start for a while. The hope is that if i can push a little bit at the start they will drag me through the first .5 miles fast. Then I can settle in and just maintain through. If I can get a good draft to start, I might be able to finish in 1:45 or 1:50 which would be a huge mental victory. For some reason, the extra 10-20 minutes that would buy for my bike cutoff seems huge to me. If I can get on the bike by 9AM I am very confident that I can make the 5:30 cutoff and that is why I am willing to gamble a bit on the swim start.
T1: I would love to say 5 minutes but I plan on putting on Bike shorts here. Riding for 8-8.5 hours in tri shorts just sounds needlessly painful. Add to that the disorientation coming out of the water and i am assuming 12-15 minutes in T1
Bike: Goal 8 Hours
8 hours just feels like a tight limit for me on this course but when you work out the math it should be easy to make it. We'll just have to see how it works out but here is the plan.
The course description I found online suggest that the first 40 miles or so are mostly flat with a few rollers, one quick climb and a tail wind. This is the tricky part because I am walking the balance between saving energy for later in the day and putting in some quick miles to buffer against any issues I have later in the ride. Depending on the wind and terrain, i am looking to do 16-18 mph here sustained. Hard pace for me but sustainable. When i get to Richter, I just need to watch my cadence and conserve my way to the top. I will lose time here but I just need to stay steady. Its hard to guess a pace without a good feel for the grade of the climb. Then I just bomb down the back side as fast as I can ride comfortably. I need to take advantage of the downhills as much as possible with out risking a bad fall.
Now the course is described a long stretch of flat rollers and a strong head wind (I hate headwinds). This will be where all of that time spent getting comfortable in my Aerobars will really pay off. The goal here is to maintain around 15 mph but that is very weather dependant. The ride down the out and back to the special needs tent is apparently down hill and with a tailwind. This is approaching the 80 mile mark of the ride and from experience, I will be starting to feel the miles at this point so a nice downhill ride will be nice. Off the bike for a quick restroom break and top off my supplies at the special needs tent and then right back out. Hopefully the break will help me ride back up the out and back which has been described as an "uphill wind tunnel".
Back on the main road, I need to build back up some momentum after the long climb up from special needs. I need to buffer some time before I get to the climb at Yellow lake. I just have to drop in and grind out the long climb up which is described as not very steep but long. This will very likely suck as we are nearing the 100 mile point of the ride. Must remember how close i am to the top and then there is just the long fast descent to the finish to keep me moving through this. When I reach the top, it is only about 30 minutes to transition give or take and I should be able to relax and recover a bit on the descent to rest for the run (unless it is around 5 and then I need to push down the hill to make the time cut).
T2: Hopefully the easy descent into transition will help me get through T2 quickly. I need to change into my running shorts but hopefully, i can be out the door and on the run in less then 10 minutes.
Run: goal 6:30
I usually feel like crap coming off of the bike but i am usually fast coming off of the bike. We'll see how that goes on race day :-) My run plan involves breaking the race up into 4-10 km pieces (I know there are still a leftover 2.2 km but we are ignoring that for now). The first 10k I just need to get through like brick workout. Shooting for a 13.5-14 minute pace here. The 2nd 10k should be a little more comfortable and i hope to maintain closer to a 13.5 minute pace. If I am successful at this then i will be reaching the 1/2 point at around the 3 hour mark and would have about 3.5 hours+ left to finish. Very achievable. The 3rd 10k will definitely suck. I will be tired and it will be dark and i will likely feel like death is not such a bad option (based upon my feelings during the triple brick). My goal for this section is to do a lot of walking with a purpose and to try to maintain a 16.5 minute average pace here (about 1:50 to the 3/4 mark, leaving me with just over 90 minutes do the last 6.6 miles. That will of course be just pushing through to the finish, driven by the clock to run more then I really want to run. The worst part is that, just like Nike marathon in SF, the end of the run has your run basically to the finish line and then turn the other way and run away from the finish for a short out and back. That is just cruel. To be close enough to see and here the finish but then having to run away from it... they couldn't have found another out and back to add distance to?
Anyway, if the race goes that way, i will finish before midnight and there will be much rejoicing :-)
Swim: Goal 2 Hours
My swimming has improved a lot this year and I am confident that I will make the time cut. I am still not a good swimmer so 2 hours seems like the what I should be looking at for a finish time.
Start the swim near the back of the pack to keep the wrestling to a minimum and try to push the pace early. This is sort of a gamble as I usually struggle in the water for the first 20 minutes or so until i get warmed up, but I am hoping to ride the draft of the massive group start for a while. The hope is that if i can push a little bit at the start they will drag me through the first .5 miles fast. Then I can settle in and just maintain through. If I can get a good draft to start, I might be able to finish in 1:45 or 1:50 which would be a huge mental victory. For some reason, the extra 10-20 minutes that would buy for my bike cutoff seems huge to me. If I can get on the bike by 9AM I am very confident that I can make the 5:30 cutoff and that is why I am willing to gamble a bit on the swim start.
T1: I would love to say 5 minutes but I plan on putting on Bike shorts here. Riding for 8-8.5 hours in tri shorts just sounds needlessly painful. Add to that the disorientation coming out of the water and i am assuming 12-15 minutes in T1
Bike: Goal 8 Hours
8 hours just feels like a tight limit for me on this course but when you work out the math it should be easy to make it. We'll just have to see how it works out but here is the plan.
The course description I found online suggest that the first 40 miles or so are mostly flat with a few rollers, one quick climb and a tail wind. This is the tricky part because I am walking the balance between saving energy for later in the day and putting in some quick miles to buffer against any issues I have later in the ride. Depending on the wind and terrain, i am looking to do 16-18 mph here sustained. Hard pace for me but sustainable. When i get to Richter, I just need to watch my cadence and conserve my way to the top. I will lose time here but I just need to stay steady. Its hard to guess a pace without a good feel for the grade of the climb. Then I just bomb down the back side as fast as I can ride comfortably. I need to take advantage of the downhills as much as possible with out risking a bad fall.
Now the course is described a long stretch of flat rollers and a strong head wind (I hate headwinds). This will be where all of that time spent getting comfortable in my Aerobars will really pay off. The goal here is to maintain around 15 mph but that is very weather dependant. The ride down the out and back to the special needs tent is apparently down hill and with a tailwind. This is approaching the 80 mile mark of the ride and from experience, I will be starting to feel the miles at this point so a nice downhill ride will be nice. Off the bike for a quick restroom break and top off my supplies at the special needs tent and then right back out. Hopefully the break will help me ride back up the out and back which has been described as an "uphill wind tunnel".
Back on the main road, I need to build back up some momentum after the long climb up from special needs. I need to buffer some time before I get to the climb at Yellow lake. I just have to drop in and grind out the long climb up which is described as not very steep but long. This will very likely suck as we are nearing the 100 mile point of the ride. Must remember how close i am to the top and then there is just the long fast descent to the finish to keep me moving through this. When I reach the top, it is only about 30 minutes to transition give or take and I should be able to relax and recover a bit on the descent to rest for the run (unless it is around 5 and then I need to push down the hill to make the time cut).
T2: Hopefully the easy descent into transition will help me get through T2 quickly. I need to change into my running shorts but hopefully, i can be out the door and on the run in less then 10 minutes.
Run: goal 6:30
I usually feel like crap coming off of the bike but i am usually fast coming off of the bike. We'll see how that goes on race day :-) My run plan involves breaking the race up into 4-10 km pieces (I know there are still a leftover 2.2 km but we are ignoring that for now). The first 10k I just need to get through like brick workout. Shooting for a 13.5-14 minute pace here. The 2nd 10k should be a little more comfortable and i hope to maintain closer to a 13.5 minute pace. If I am successful at this then i will be reaching the 1/2 point at around the 3 hour mark and would have about 3.5 hours+ left to finish. Very achievable. The 3rd 10k will definitely suck. I will be tired and it will be dark and i will likely feel like death is not such a bad option (based upon my feelings during the triple brick). My goal for this section is to do a lot of walking with a purpose and to try to maintain a 16.5 minute average pace here (about 1:50 to the 3/4 mark, leaving me with just over 90 minutes do the last 6.6 miles. That will of course be just pushing through to the finish, driven by the clock to run more then I really want to run. The worst part is that, just like Nike marathon in SF, the end of the run has your run basically to the finish line and then turn the other way and run away from the finish for a short out and back. That is just cruel. To be close enough to see and here the finish but then having to run away from it... they couldn't have found another out and back to add distance to?
Anyway, if the race goes that way, i will finish before midnight and there will be much rejoicing :-)