High Cliff 70.3 Race Strategy Long post- But hopefully interesting

Well I was going to save this post for a bit but now that I have had a chance to ride the bike course and have a pretty good feel for what the run will be like I pretty much have it set in my mind as to how I want to approach this race.

Weather is always the variable but I feel like with my plan weather should nor really be an issue. If winds or rain slow me down so be it, for me it will be all about executing the plan and letting the chips fall where they may. I have dream times in mind but they will not be my main focus. I am trying to remember that this is a 5 plus hour endurance event, larger, longer and more demanding then anything I have ever done in the past so I need to be smart.

Pre-Race
Get a good nights sleep and wake up early and eat a pre-race breakfast at 4am. Lounge around a bit, hydrate, use the bathroom and be on the road to High Cliff by 5am. High Cliff is about a 30 minute drive for me so getting there, getting situated and ready to race should be easy enough. Continue to lightly hydrate all morning and 15 minutes before the swim start, 1 GU and some water. Loosen up and warm up.

Here is the basis of the nutrition plan I am trying to put together. I am going to base everything off of the idea that this will be a five to six hour event.
* Fluid intake of 20 - 30 fluid ounces/hour. Basically One Water Bottle per Hour.
* Proper Electrolyte Replacement Through various means.
* Energy intake of 250-280 cal/hr.

Swim
I am going to treat the swim as a solid warm-up for the bike, the swim is a large rectangle. The plan is to swim the first half exceptionally easy using very little kick then at the halfway point I will have hopefully found a nice rhythm. When I reach the last turn towards the beach I will begin to kick a bit harder to try and activate my legs for the bike.

Bike
Both the bike and run course start with a nice ½ mile steep climb away from the lake. I will spin this hill in my lowest gear seated the entire time. In fact I don't plan on climbing any hills out of the saddle. I will only stand up on occasion to stretch out and relieve some seat pressure. Once to the top I will settle in, get my HR in check and try to find a rhythm taking in diluted sports drink and one gel over the first 10 miles. I will carry two bottles of perpetuem behind the seat of my bike this will provide me with two full hours of nutrition, protein, electrolyte replacement and fluids. This should take me through a good chunk of the bike. At two hours into the bike as my Perpeteum runs out I will start eating Gels at a rate of about 2-3 per hour. I may sneak a Gel in early if I feel like I need a boost. And if it is overly hot I will add some Nuun to my water bottle.
I plan on racing the bike in sections, first 15-30 minutes is settle in time, up to and through the 28 mile mark I will make every effort to keep my HR around 20bpm below my AT or averaging about 140. At the half way point I will begin to try and take advantage of the faster sections of the course and try to finish the bike out as strong as I can. I would like to raise my HR average for the entire bike to end up about 10-15 bpm below my AT or about 145-150 bpm average. This means I stayed aerobic for the most part and should have plenty left for the run.

The Run
For the run I plan on using my fuel belt. Three GU's and two 8 oz bottles of water and two 8 oz bottles of Gatorade endurance. This will take the aid stations out of play for me and I am ok with that. Again this course starts up a steep hill I may walk this section or at the very least go really easy up it. Once to the top it is a two loop course through the park mostly on trails. Then back down the hill to the finish.
I don't have any idea how this portion of the race will go, if my nutrition plan and pacing is right I hope to be able to run a decent race with minimal walking or fading. I hopefully am experienced enough running wise to run this race on feel, keeping the first loop easy as I really want to have a strong finish. I will only watch the HR here to make sure I do not go anaerobic too soon.

All in all I think I have a solid plan, I did a run through with the Perpeteum and the GU on the bike last weekend and it went well. So I think I am good there. I have run enough races using GU, water and Gatorade Endurance and had no problems, so I know the products I am using work for me.

Summary
The real question is how hard and fast can I go on the bike. I averaged just over 18mph with an average HR of 140 on a great day last weekend. I feel like I can up the effort and hopefully the speed some and still stay aerobic. This is the crux of it all for me, how hard to go during my weakest discipline, the bike, but I hope the HR limits keep me in check, and proper nutrition leaves me with enough left in the tank for the run. I really do not know how else to approach an event like this. I would be very happy to finish the bike in under 3:00.

Time Goals
I have been trying very hard not to get hung up on time goals but honestly I don't believe in just racing to finish. I did a quick check of my age group last year and there were 51 male athletes in the 35-39 age group. Two DNS and one DNF leaving 48 finishers. Middle of the pack or 24th place finished at 5:28 and change. I think that should tell you about the fitness of the triathlon community right there. Middle of the pack is 5:28!!, I checked 2006 and middle of the pack was 5:27 in my age group. All I can say is these guys are pretty darn good. Percentile wise I was often in the top 10% of my age group in road races, even some of the bigger ones I did. I don't stand a chance of sniffing that in this race. Not to mention I feel like I worked fairly hard to get ready to do this thing. Honestly I like it, here's to being in the middle of the pack! It makes that post race beer taste better. So here are my tiered goals for the 70.3 on June 22nd

Stretch Goal - 5:30 or less
Realistic Goal - 5:45 or less
Bad Day Goal - Finish before the awards ceremony starts at 1:00
Worst Case Scenario - Finish on my own two feet

Last but not least, tasty tidbits I have learned and will try to remember
Goggles first swim cap second, so you don't get your goggles kicked to the bottom of the lake
Leave your swim cap and goggles on your head until you have your arms out of your wetsuit, duh
Lube your wetsuit where it will need to slide over the timing band and chip
I will not strap my shoes to the pedals to start, I don't care to wipe out
I will try to undo and slip out of my shoes before I dismount the bike, I will practice this
Yankz shoe laces, these things rock
Good body position goes a long way on the bike leg
Find a good checklist, there is a lot of stuff to remember to bring
Figure out where to stash a spare tube and C02 Cartridge, just in case

That is it, that is all I have. I am just trying to fit in some final workouts, nothing to earth shattering. I would like to hit the bike group tomorrow but I am not sure if that will work out or not. I need some open water swims, but it looks like I will be doing them on my own as the group swims are on Thursday nights and that is the night I coach my sons soccer team.

For my next post I will hopefully don a wetsuit and give you a report on an open water swim and hopefully a Garmin track of said swim. Until then everyone, have a great week.