The gameplan for the race this weekend is pretty simple push as hard as I can from start to finish and see what the time ends up being. For the swim my plan is to hold around 1:20/100m for the 2km swim. That will result in about a 27 minute swim. The swim course itself will be a little different than what I'm used to as it will be a two-lap course and you need to get out of the water and run a tiny bit along the beach to the next lap start. I figure this will add a little bit of time to what I'm projecting but if I can be fast in the transition from the first lap to the second I can hopefully keep this wasted time to a minimum. While swimming I will aim to focus on getting to a good start and getting into a rhythm with my sighting and stroke rate as quickly as possible. I really want to make sure I get to a fast start though since throughout my races this year I have been a little slow off the start but have ended up picking mostly everyone off as we get further along. The reason though I would like to get to a quick start this time though is so that I can get on the feet of a couple fast swimmers and conserve some energy by drafting. During the swim I will focus on keep my upper body relaxed, keeping my stroke long and strong, finishing each and every stroke fully, and keeping my elbow nice and high. Finishing the swim I'll try to have as quick of a transition as possible and start taking in some calories right away to make up for the deficit coming out of the water.
On the bike the gameplan is to hold around 95 rpm throughout and push 245W which is around 4.5 W/kg with and IF (intensity factor) of around 0.85 or 85%. During the bike my goal is also to keep the power as steady as possible since surging is what uses up a lot of glycogen (energy). This should be pretty doable since the course is very flat and to judge my success with this I would like to keep my Variability Index (standard deviation) under 1.03 or 3% +\- of my average power. Throughout the bike I will focus on keeping a "horizontal" pedal stroke that I have developed with all the pedalling drills that I do on the bike with the help of TrainerRoad. This means I will really focus on the kick (10-2 o'clock) and pull (4-8 o'clock) of the pedal; in doing so I will help keep my quads relatively fresh and conserve the glycogen in them since they are muscles which do hold huge amounts of glycogen. I will also focus on keeping my shoulders and whole upper body relaxed as I stay as aero as possible--which will be absolutely critical on this flat course. Throughout the bike I will make sure to stick to my nutrition plan of having 70 grams of carbohydrates per hour which will be in the form of the two bottles of Infinit on my bike and one bottle grabbed at the third aid station. The critical component of this race will be that when I'm on the bike I am thinking about absolutely nothing else except being strong on the bike, and not letting any thoughts about the run to follow creep into my head.
Once I finish the bike and my feet touch land once again, after likely being already about 2:40 minutes into the race, that is when my focus will turn to the run. Like I've mentioned numerous times in previous posts this is kind of the wild card for the day despite coming from a running background. It will only be the fourth time I've ever run off the bike and the last few months I have not only been running on a stress fracture in my right tibia, but I have also been battling through extreme widespread stiffness and pain in my legs for the first 20-30 minutes of every run. So I'm praying that when I hit the ground I am so pumped up on adrenaline from being in the race and from having had a good bike split that my legs don't feel too much pain. Even if I am feeling a lot of pain I will try to not panic and just tell myself that it will pass, and that I just need to battle through for a few kilometers and it will get better. Once out on the run I am going to try to keep my upper body as relaxed as possible and legs staying light and almost floating along. I have been consciously working on trying to lengthen out my stride with my right leg and shortening my stride slightly on the left after watching some videos of me running and seeing a major difference between my long stride on the left and short stride on the right. I will make sure I keep my mind focused on each kilometre and not letting it drift to thinking about how many kilometres are left or how much longer I have to run. I will also make sure that I take at least 60 g of carbohydrates out on the run course and water at every single aid station along the way. In terms of pace I'm going to leave this one pretty open since I'm not entirely sure how my legs will feel post bike. Ideally I would like to run around 1:15 for the half which would be around 3:33-35 per kilometre, but I emphasize ideally - it may end up being 1:18, 1:20, 1:24 who knows.
All in all, I hope to have a solid race and leave everything I have out there on the course. Of course this year/build has not been ideal with all the injuries I've sustained but having said that I am by no means going into this race unprepared. I have trained like a fiend as you saw in my last post and have really transformed my body into a strong triathlon machine. To give that some perspective if you consider that my waist circumference has stayed the same since my days at the 2013 Scotiabank Marathon and yet I have gained about 10 pounds in the last year of pure muscle mostly in my swimming built upper body and cycling wattage churning quads. My ending thought to this post since it will be so critical to this race especially when I'm on the bike is to stay in the moment. Don't think about what is next, how much time or however many kilometers to go, think about what your doing right now. On the bike for example think about your feet smoothly going through each pedal revolution, lowering your body and head to cut the smallest possible hole through the air/wind, or the beautiful horizon in the distance. When you're running think about your breathing, your posture, if there is any tension is any part of your body and releasing it. Whatever you're doing, do that, and don't worry about what needs to be done after that. This concept can be applied to so many different things it's funny, it's the reason why I absolutely hate stores putting Christmas stuff out now or summer stuff in the middle of March. Time goes by fast enough, we really don't need to make it go by any faster by rushing away months at a time to be prepared for the next season. Applied to racing, there is no need to stress yourself out while on the swim about the bike up next, or on the bike about the run coming next. Stay relaxed, stay calm, stay in the moment, and be the best you can be in that moment. Until next time, happy training, racing, or off-seasoning.
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