Toughman Half Ironman (9-8-13) Detailed Race Strategy

Posted on by Anthony

Swim – the swim will be a wetsuit legal swim in the cove. I am in the third swim wave, starting about 10 minutes after the elite group at 6:55am. The plan is the get in a 5 minute warmup swim on race morning. I did the swim in 30 minutes last year, which I believe was a short course. My realistic swim goal time is 40 minutes, give or take 2 minutes.

T1 – jog from the beach to my area. Take off wetsuit, helmet, strap it, sunglasses on, take bike, leave T1, cyclocross mount. This should take no longer than 3 minutes, unless the run from the beach becomes longer.
Bike – The bike will be set up with two bottles, one on the aerobars and one on the down tube. Both bottles will be filled with Vitargo mix. The bento box on the top tube will contain a cut up banana, 2 honey stinger waffles cut up, and 2 GU roctane with caffeine. The banana will be consumed once settled into aero and possibly right before the climb. The honey stingers will be every 25-30 min. The Gu will be taken 35min before the run, and the last one during the “no passing zone”, a .4 mile bike path strip right before T2.
Nutrition breakdown:
  • banana (105 calories, 27g carb)
  • honey stinger waffle (160 calories, 21g carb) x2
  • GU roctane (100 calories, 25g carb) x2
  • Vitargo ; 2 scoops per bottle (140 calories, 70g carb) x2
105+320+200+280 = 905 calories
27+42+50+140 = 259 carbs
Since I ride tubulars, I will carry a spare tire, co2, pump, mounted behind the saddle. The highway bike course had some significant bumps so an extra tire seems like the best course of action, even though I rode it bare last year without any spares.
The wattage goal is set to 175-180 watts. I will try my best to ride steady and minimize the VI ratio. There will definitely be parts of the course where I will be coasting since I should be able to hit speeds of over 45+mph.
There will be a bottle exchange. I will use it only for water to keep me cool. If race day is very humid, I will swap bottles and intake a third bottle.
T2 – cyclocross dismount, run to my area, rack bike, helmet and sunglasses off, sit down, put on socks, put on newtons, grab run belt, 3Gu, and run sunglasses. This should take no longer than 90 seconds
Run – last year, I ran out of T2 a little too fast. I like to go by feel on the run so I don’t wear a HRM. The goal for this run will be sub 90 minutes. Miles 1-7 will be routine, keep it a nice progression, starting around 7:10 pace and work it down to 6:50. Miles 8-10 will have a big climb and a few smaller hills so the pace will drop inevitably. Miles 10- to the finish will be mostly downhill so I will crank it like I did last year and empty the tank in the last 5k or so. Nutrition will be one Gu every 30 minutes, so I will take two with me. Gatorade and water at hydration stations.