Race Strategy

Since I can't seem to focus on anything but Ironman, I'm going to lay out my race strategy.  I've kept it simple, as it only has two parts.  For lack of better terms, they'll go by "One Bite at a Time" and "All Day Baby".

One Bite at a Time
Somebody, somewhere out there in blogland (I'm to lazy to try and find it), has a quote that goes something along the lines of "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."  This is how I intend to attack the course on Sunday.  One bite at a time.  The ironman elephant is much to big to consume in one bite.  I think that is why it's so daunting from the outside, once you break it down into it's components, or subcomponents, it becomes much more manageable.

For the swim, I'm only going to focus on the next turn buoy, nothing more.  I can't swim the next leg until I get through this one, no point thinking about it, or the bike, or the run.

I've dissected the bike course many times both physically and mentally.  Sunday my focus will be simply to get to the next point; Verona, Mt. Vernon, Mt Horeb, Cross Plains, back to Verona, repeat, then back to Madison.  One bite at a time.

And although the run is two loops, I simply can't take that big of a bite.  The run will be aid station to aid station and nothing more.

All Day Baby
This would be my pacing strategy.  Find a pace that is comfortable and I can hold, well, all day.  The difference between a dream swim and a bad one is maybe 15 minutes.  Absolutely no reason to push hard in the water.  Nice and easy, relax, settle in and swim, and swim, and swim.  And then swim some more.

Same theory applies on the bike.  Although with the terrain of the Wisconsin bike course, it's really not a pacing strategy, but more of a "level of effort" strategy.  Pace is going to vary greatly from moment to moment.  My level of effort needs to remain much more uniform.  So we settle in, find a comfortable effort level and just go.  That's the theory anyway.  I'll need to be extra vigilant and plan to focus on riding smart.

The run, for at least the first 20-miles, will be much the same.  Find a comfortable pace and go.  If by some miracle of nature I have anything left in the tank at the 20 mile mark I'll reevaluate and go from there.

And there it is.  Ironman race strategy 101.  I should get my coaching license and write a book.