When Grace Slick says, "She attacks White Rabbit", you need to pay attention.
The race plan is set. Correction. The race plans are set, plural.
We have decided on Plan A and Heat Plan A.
For the most part, Liz and I had the same plan in mind. However, she also gave me specific information for how to adjust my race plan based on the heat.
I'm including previous times here. If you plan on tracking me, you can get idea of where I am.
I'm doing this early, but I don't know if I'm going to feel like writing next week.
If you would like to track me, you have a couple of options:
A.) You can go here. On race day, June 11th, there will be options to select a race. Select Boulder. They don't usually put race info up until the day of the race.
B.) Download a phone app. I use IMTrk on my android phone.
Next order of business, I am in the last swim wave of the day. I don't start until around 8:20 am MT.
My goal for the race: Race better than I have in the past. What does that mean? Well, keep reading, my friend.
SWIM
We have only one plan for the swim.
Line up at the front.
From Liz:
With your swim skills/fitness, expect to go out hard for the first 200-400 meters and do NOT be afraid of that. I would get in a 8-10 minute warm up prior to wave start if you can. Then, establish some position for 400 meters & then settle into a sustainably moderate pace. While I don't want you to OVERwork the swim, I also would like you to trust your swim fitness and strength.
My last 70.3 swim was a pace of 1:34.
GOAL:
Trust my fitness. Coach has had me doing timed sets, no looking at the clock in order to learn my effort for paces. Just this week, I did a 2000yd interval set (various long distances) and nailed the paces without looking at the pace clock.
BIKE:
I entered my data into Best Bike Split. Based on my power ranges, it has my finish time to be between 2:40-2:45.
BUT.....and this is my big BUT.....this is where Heat Plan A will start. So, don't get hung up on the projected finish time if I come in slower; I won't be concerned at all. All it means is that I have switched from Plan A to HPA.
I also want to stress that from mile 30-35, we climb. It's the only substantial hill on the entire course. We only have to ride it once, but keep that in mind if you are tracking me.
My last 70.3 bike finish time was 3:05:56.
GOAL:
Use the BBS cheat sheet to keep me mindful of where I need to back off and where I can go harder. Stay smooth. Stay connected to how I'm feeling.
RUN:
For those of you who don't follow me on Strava, my plan (and the one I have been practising) is run 1 mile, walk :15 (to drink).
Plan A is to run 9:39 pace, walk :15. That puts me at a 9:55 pace.
HPA from Liz is, "In the heat, we can't go by pace".
So what do I do?
GOAL: Run smooth, follow my fueling plan. Don't worry about pace but don't give up because my legs hurt.
My last 70.3 run pace was 12:57 with a finish time of 2:49:51.
I don't know if anyone will be tracking me, but I'm going to imagine you all will be logging in and getting excited and happy for me when I pass old times. I really think, even with the heat, that I have a good chance at beating a previous time here or there.
Speaking of times, you've probably noticed that I have no time goals. I don't believe in them and neither does Liz. Times are dependent on external factors: terrain, temperature, conditions. It doesn't make sense to have time goals.
When you do your best, you can leave the race knowing you did your best....whether or not that resulted in a PR.
I'm going to put together my best race. The times will be what they will be.
(Remember: June 11th.....8:20am MT).
PS: You can have goal times for me, but I would appreciate it if you kept them to yourself. I don't want to know.