Journey to Ironman Lake Tahoe: Race Week!

Well, its been about six months since I last posted on this, but here I am, in Squaw Creek California.  Spring and summer have had their ups and downs, both in training and in life - lots of travel for work and for family have left me slightly less well prepared than I would like - but with the advent of fall, I am ready to leave it all on the course.

Its Thursday night, the race is Sunday morning.  Here is the link to follow me, if you are so inclined:

Track Me!

I'm number 1057, or you can put in my first and last name.  The link won't be live until Sunday.

The Swim:  Start time between 6:40 and 7 AM - expected air temp, 48 degrees, water temp, 56 degrees.

Two loops, 2.4 miles.  I'm pretty confident I will finish between 70 and 80 minutes, depending on the chop and if I can find some other folks to swim with.  The water will be cold but not as cold, I think, as Couer D'Alene. I figure I will be out of the water by 8:15 AM at the latest.

T1: I'm going to change completely here, rather than wear bike clothes under my wetsuit. That's going to take some time, and its a ways from the lake to the bikes.  Call it 10 minutes?  Slow, but hey.

The Bike:  Start time 8:20 - 8:35?  Expected temperature, 60 degrees

The bike is two loops and a bit, up through Truckee and back down to the Lake.  There is a monster hill at mile 40 and you hit it again on the second loop, around mile 85.  I rode that today, and it won't be much fun the first time, and will probably break some folks the second.  Slow but steady through that is the plan, keeping the heart rate down and setting up for the run.

One interesting complication is that the temperature is predicted to rise throughout the day, until it is 95+ degrees in the afternoon.  For what it is worth, it hasn't been much above 60 the whole week here!  I was lamenting the lack of prep I have at racing in the cold, but it looks like I will get to put all that heat training to work after all.  What to wear in this section is problematic - I want to wear tights on the first loop, and probably a long sleeve jersey - but if the weather predictions look solid, I'll probably suck it up and go with regular bike shorts and arm warmers.  No good options there.

The twenty-mile sections that I am calling "hard" - from 30 to 50 and 70 to 90 - are going to take me about 90 minutes each.  Three hours for 40 miles of road!  The rest of the course, while not _easy_ isn't near as bad, I figure I can go at least 17.5 MPH over those on average, which puts me on the bike for ~7 hours.

T2: Start time 3:30 - 4:00?  Expected temperature, 89 degrees

Up where the run course is, it shouldn't be quite so hot.  But still, a full change into running shorts and a short sleeve tech shirt.  Lets call it 5 minutes.  Much more than that and I'll have trouble getting my legs moving again.

Run: Start time 3:35 - 4:05  Expected temperature 90 - 75 degrees.

The run course is rolling, but gently, with no more than 100 feet of elevation difference at any point of the course - just one nasty little wall to climb, right behind my hotel as it happens.  The course is uniformly Gorgeous - people have told me "oh, Tahoe is amazing" and I was like yeah, yeah, but DANG.  This place shooooooore is purty!  One long loop out, back to T2 by mile 18, then out and back again to finish the last 6 miles.

I'm aiming to run on Heart Rate, keeping it below 135 BPM, regardless of how fast or slow that is.  Experience tells me its going to be somewhere between 10 and 11 minute miles.  10 minute miles across the whole marathon would be 4 hours 5 minutes - I can't imagine I'll keep that steady of a pace across the whole thing.  I'm also going to walk all the aid stations, so add 30 seconds to each mile.  Lets say optimistically, 4h 30 minutes all in.  If things go sideways around mile 22, as they have in the past, could be 5h 30, but I hope not.

The plan, such as it is, is to take the race in three chunks:

Mile 1-10:  Steady, settle into rhythm, get as much nutrition in at the aid stations as possible.
Mile 11 - 20:  Steady, keep that rhythm, watch the HR and slow down if needed to keep HR under 135.  Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition.  I never get enough salt in my system - I'll address that some on the bike but really paying attention to it here.
Miles 21 - 26.2:  Race it.  Visit the pain cave and see how much I can stand.  I've historically had cramping issues (salt!) around mile 22, so careful through that, but if I can get to 23 and feel good, then maybe start to bring the tempo down?  I mean, hey, I might be able to get back to 10 minute miles for the finish!  :)

Sunset is at 7pm, or near enough, so I'll be running the last bit in the dark.  Temp will start to come down, which will help a lot - running at altitude is going to be hard enough without it being 90 degrees the whole time.  I'd like to think I could finish at 8pm, but odds are its going to be more like 9pm before I cross the line.

Projected Finish:  14h 30m: 8:30 PM.

My slowest IM by far, largely due to the fact that I rode the other two bike courses in ~6 hours, rather than 7 and change, and was trying to run a 3h30 marathon.  Its tempting to think I could push a little harder on the "easy" 70 miles of the course, and make up some time there.  I'll keep an eye on my HRM but training rides tell me its going to be ~18mph or a little less.

I am quite confident I am going to finish, though.  I've had a number of good 5 and 6 hour bike rides, and one 7h30 minute loooong proof of concept ride where I kept the HR down and felt really good about running after.  I've deliberately trained with big hills built in at the 45 and 85 mile mark.  I've run 20 miles at altitude, keeping a 10 min/mile pace, and felt pretty good at the end - I could have run the rest of the marathon I think.  I've done my time in the pool this year.

Of course, the race gods will no doubt have surprises in store for me.  I've done what I can to minimize risk through preparation, but I'll take it as it comes - it might be hella windy, or I might have a mechanical or unforeseen physical problem.  I'm not going to kill myself to cross the line, but I'm not planning on leaving anything out there.

I couldn't have gotten here without a lot of help and support and love - thank you to everyone who made this journey possible!