The Race Plan

Yes I am writing this post race, however I will still put exactly what my race plan was and then in the next post, will write my race report.  As it panned out without holding back!

The Swim:

I was pretty confident heading into the swim as I had done a lot of work.  Last year I started really wide and swam a 1hr 4min, so this year my plan was to start closer to the pier to see if I could get closer to the 1hr mark.  That was my goal time.  I knew that this would create a rougher start, however I was confident that I would be able to handle it.

The Bike:

This is where I was going to make my move.  Had been doing more cycling this year with racing again and doing some pretty solid group rides before I flew over.  During the 5 weeks prior to race day I really worked the course and worked on where I was going to attack to make time.

My plan was like this:

From the swim exit right until Waikaloa, just drive as hard as I could, knowing it was 50k in distance.  My plan was to get out there in about 1hr 10 - 1hr 15min.

From here there are a few rolling hills which I was going to really have a crack at, as they were short and sharp and had a long decent the other side, I really thought that some good time gains were available here. 

A bit of a recovery in Kawaihae before the climb starts.  Now depending on the wind direction, I had a few different plans in mind.  Mostly just drive hard up the hills and have a bit of a recovery on the flats.  As per last year I knew that I would give up some time in the swim, so my plan was to try to get to Hawi a lot closer to the leaders, this is what I had worked on since being here.

The last 10k on the climb was a bit of recovery.  I figure that everyone would be hurting a little by now, so to recover a little before trying to monster the decent was the plan.

Making sure I filled up at the special needs was part of my tactics, as with the plan to drive hard, I would most likely have to use more calories.

The first 10k decent is where I felt you could make up so much time.  As long as I was in a good position.  If it was going to be anything like last year, I knew that I could push high 60kph whilst the others were climbing at < 30kph.  Really driving on the downs here was the plan as being heavier, I am never affected by the winds as much as the lighter athletes, so here was my chance to either chase down the leaders or consolidate my position, depending on the situation.

Climbing hard out of Kawaihae and onto the Queen K was another big decision as the climb is around 1.5k long (I think) and then you turn right and instantly descend for a bit to recover.  I tested this out in training with Greg and Matt.  I let them go up the climb to see how long it would take me to real them in..... over 10k!!  Wow.

When I get back onto the Queen K, I planned to ride really hard back to Waikaloa as with the rolling hills and the training I had done, I knew that you could easily gain 5min on the opposition purely by working that little bit harder on the climbs.

From Waikaloa to the end, I had encountered a head wind on most training rides, so I thought this might be the case on race day, so I planned to conserve a little bit before getting off the bike.

Overall, I intended to work hard on every section of rolling hills and recover a bit on the flats.

My goal time was sub 4hrs 40mins on a day comparable to last year.

The Run:

Was a short and simple plan.  Try and run 3hr 5min off a hard bike.  This meant holding 4min 25 per k on average.

My plan was to hit Ali'i Drive hard as there is plenty of shelter through there and not as hot as the Queen K.  Knowing that everyone always slows down towards the end, my plan was to run 4.15's for the first 15-16k and then consolidate out on the Queen K to the Energy Lab.

Once out of the Energy Lab, I was going to decide on how I was feeling, where I was in the race to see what course of action was required to get the result I was chasing.

Overall, my plan was to win my age group.  Our planning was to achieve this, sub 9 was required, so the training was planned accordingly, with hot afternoon runs and loads of riding.

If you look at the above this was the plan:

Swim: 1hr

Bike: 4hr 38min

Run: 3hr 5min

Incl about 5 min for transitions and my goal was:

approx 8hr 50min.

The guy who won my a/g in 2011 went 8hr 48min so we based everything around this.

We all know the results, however I am not scared to list the above and what my goals were this year.

I will post my actual race report soon on how it panned out and how I felt I was traveling along the way.

For now...

X-Man