HITS Naples Full RR Olle Berg
September 2012 it felt like a good idea to do a Triathlon off season. Let me give a short background to the decision to enter a race, with less than 20 participants last year, at this time of the year. In beginning of September I had just finished IM Kalmar in 10:08 and had Atlantic City Olympic Triathlon the coming weekend as the final triathlon race for 2012. Next planned triathlon was Ironman 70.3 Florida end of May. In September, that feels like a very long time ahead. During the autumn I decided to follow the sub 3 hours marathon program. This is the second year I do this, this time aiming for New York City marathon. HITS informed that they had an early price structure for the triathlon in Naples. Full distance only $150, compared to $700 for IM Arizona. I could use it as an “early boot camp” and I don’t need to go for PR. I decided to join that race, also giving me a couple of days in the sun in cold January. Fast forward to end of November. After disappointment of the cancellation of New York City marathon, several weeks of rest and recovery, including a week in Kona where I did Lavaman as a recreational race, and, finally, realizing that the preparation phase for Half ironman distance is not that hard, I decided that I should do my best for the Naples Full distance even thou there less than 12 weeks left. Normally I follow a 12 weeks training plan for an ironman distance race, but now I had only six weeks to go. After a week of ramp up, I did two weeks of build, 1 week rest and recovery, two weeks of peak before the race week. The training went well, but I knew there is a risk that it was not enough weeks of training before the race, but on the other side the fatigue was not as bad as normal. I started the race week with sports massage to increase recovery from the training load and start focus on resting. We (me and the kids) arrived at Vanderbilt beach in North Naples on the afternoon the day before the race. I did a short pre-race swim at the swim location. It was a nice warm “summer day” with 28º C (82º F) and 20,5º C (69º F) in the water. I picked up the registration packet and attended the pre-race meeting. The race director informed that the full distance had 70 registered and half distance 270, which was a lot more than last year. The sheriff and rescue chief commander presented their readiness and wished us all a good race. We bought a healthy salad and wraps at Fit & Fuel and drove to our weekend hotel, Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa in Bonita Beach, 20 min north of the race venue. Checked all race day items and mixed the nutrition bottles.
Race day. Auto pilot day. 0350 alarm. 0400 breakfast, double oatmeal with honey, banana and Special K nutrition bottle. 0530 left hotel to Transition 1. Parking is just 100 meter away from transition area. I am setting up my transition when Mark, the race director, approaches and introduces himself and would like to know more about myself, especially how I pronounce my name. Since then he calls me by my first name, and he is one of few Americans that pronounce my name close to the Swedish pronunciation. I am impressed of his sincere interest. 0600 time for chia drink and energy bar. I put the swimsuit on and do some stretch and warm up before the walk to the beach. Enter the water and realize that the low tide is making it hard to swim the first 200-300 meters, but if I stay between the beach and the sand bank it should be doable. 0650 sport drink. I realize that it still is quite dark, the sun has not risen yet. Other swimmers have googles without color, and I have my googles with dark mirror for sun protection, not the right selection this time. That’s why you should to the pre race swim at the same time as the race start, but we arrived on the afternoon, so I missed that part of the preparation.
0700 start. On the beach start. Two laps for full, one lap for half, counter clock wise. I am in the front to the left, the course starts to the right. We enter the water and when the water is deep enough, but still shallow, I start to swim with race start pace. After approx two minutes I realize that the many of the other participants are still walking in the water. Ok, you can walk when the water is below the hips, but the water level is also above the knees so you can swim. It is not fair that I should go hard 1:30 per 100 m/y when others are walking 15 min/km (24 min/mile) pace. I stand up and walk a bit and then continue to swim. I am not in the front group anymore. It is not crowdy but anyway I get a kick in the face when a swimmer swimming next to me decided to do a sharp change of his direction and turn his feets under me and does a kick. I have got beaten by hands on my head before, but it is the first time I actually get a kick in the face from underneath. It was not that hard, so I kept going. I tried to find someone to draft, but there were not that many around after 15 minutes of the race start. On the way back to the beach it is the same scenario with the depth. Participants were walking, but I decide to keep swimming. I am here to do a triathlon, not an obstacle race. I am more interested to do the distance, than to place myself higher up in the swim rank. At the turnaround point at the beach I see the first lap is 28 minutes, that’s faster then I use to swim. I take some sport drink and go for the second lap. I have around ten persons in front of me. The two persons in lead is around 400 m/y ahead. 30 minutes later, I exit the water, take the sun screen spray and run to transition while taking off the swim suit and sun spraying myself. Swim time including the run from the beach is 01:00:14 and I read afterwards that I am in place 10. Jump into the kids pool to remove the sand, takes off the swimsuit completely as I take the helmet on. Take the bike and run to exit. One volunteer in the transitions area shouts “Nice jump in that pool, enjoy your race now!!” T1 in 1 minute and 2 seconds, the shortest time of all. I have passed 4 persons and am now in place 6.
The temperature is rising. It will be 28º C (82º F) on the afternoon when the run starts, but now it feels comfortable. The bike leg is going in East direction. The wind is 18 km/h (11 mph) SE, so head wind the first 60 km (40 miles) of the bike leg. After a while, I pass the slowest participants in the half distance race and the first person in the full distance passes me. I let him pass, normally I catch up at the run. I try to pace myself. Garmin doesn’t show correct HR yet, but I follow my breathing and aim to stay in zone 2 (HR less than 149 if Garmin would show it). It doesn’t go that fast that I planned. I aim for 36 km/h (22 mph) in average, i.e. 34 km/h in the first 45 km (28 miles). With the head wind I do 32 km/h (20 mph), I try to guess which pace I will have on the way back with the tail wind. An average of 34 km/h will give 5:20 bike time and I have plenty of time on the run to catch up, so 32 km/h is ok for now. I start to 'drink the food', one sport drink with extra pro carbo and one bottle with strong Caffe latte Perpeteum approx 750 cal each. Even it is not that hot, I take the S-Caps every 45 min. It is not that many participants so it feels like Sunday training ride by yourself. After 20 km (12 miles) I feel a pain in the groin muscle. I haven’t had this before. The pain is so strong that I realize that if it gets worse it may end up in DNF. I realize that I can’t keep the current pace, and the pace slows down to 30 km/h (18.6 mph). The pain reminds me when I try to increase the speed. I get pass by two bikers, I try to speed up somewhat to my planned pace this part of the race, but the pain tells me to let them disappear. After around 70 km (45 miles) I am approaching the bike turn around at mile 53 (the way back is longer with a tour to the new town called Ave Maria, a town centered on a Church, where all life and activity has the right sense of the Divine at its center). In the other direction I meet the tri mates in the lead. I guess that the leader is around 30 minutes ahead of me. They are in total eight persons in front of me. When I turn around I start to meet the persons behind me. I have around five minutes to the first person ahead, and five minutes to the first person behind me. I am cheering to every person I meet, most of them cheer back. Now is the part of the bike leg when I can allow myself to increase the effort but the pain in the groin muscle stops any increased power. On the road there are many big black birds (Vultures) polishing off a recent roadkill alligator. I don’t know what is most scaring. To hit an alligator with the bike or faint on the bike course and find myself eaten by a group of big black birds. But the mentality lecture from the Triathlon boot camp with Mid-atlantic coaching last year reminds me to put those thoughts aside and concentrate on 'now questions'. Repeat my questions for form, effort, speed, cadence, nutrition, fluids and the pain status. I realize that after 90 km (56 miles), the bike time is 2:55. I am some what disappointed, since I am trying to be closer to 5 than 6 hours for the bike leg. But I missed the tail wind in that calculation. The way back is a dream. Going 35-40 km/h (22-25 mph) with tail wind and still in zone 2, the pain is standable, but I am wonder how the pain will feel on the run. The heat is now more apparently, I increase the water intake and take S-Caps. I continue to take in food, now GU Chomps, perfect when the hunger comes at lunch time. It is not often when “candy” is the right thing to eat for lunch. Coming closer to end of the bike leg, there are a lot of intersections with many lanes and traffic. But in each intersection there are 3-6 police officers, stopping all cars and giving me priority. That is impressive and gives me energy. I now have max speed of 45 km/h (28 mph). Biking is a pleasure.
The bike leg ends in 05:34:18 (average cadence is 81 – need to work on this one). I am still in 8th place. Jumping off bike, as taught by Dr Ross, into T2 running to my spot. Leave, helmet and bike and put on socks and shoes. I hear one in the audience saying “Wow that is fast!”. T2 time is 1 min 10 seconds, which was the fastest time that day. I grab the sun screen and spray while starting the run course. Realizing I go to fast and slow down to 5:15-5:30 min per km (8:30 – 9:00 min per mile). I want the first 20-60 min to be at an easy pace. The heart rate is not as low as it should given the pace and breathing. It shows 164 which is mid zone 3, but this is reasonable after hours and the heat. I see that total time is 6:36. Calculate that I have 3.24 to sub10. I can do that. But not today. The pain from the bike is not feeling that much when running, but now it is 28º C (82º F) and sunny. So I decide to skip the sub 10 stretch goal and run in low zone 2/recovery pace, 5:30 min/km (9 min/mile) until 30 km (mile 18). I take chomps, water and coke. It is a two loop course. After a while I start to meet the persons in the lead. I estimate the leader to be almost 40 min ahead of me. When I turn around after 10,5 km (6.5 miles) I soon start to meet the persons behind me. Cheering and running in comfortable run pace. I am not allowing myself to increase the speed to normal race speed since it is too hot. The HR soon goes down to Zone 2 and remains stable around 154. I start second lap, I meet the leader earlier this time. The other seven persons in front of me seem to be more tired and I am getting closer. I keep fuel myself with water, S-caps, coke, Heed, and Roctane gel. I cool myself with ice. I am somewhat confused that I haven’t passed any fast bikers yet. I am now prognosis to finish in 10:15-10:30, which was last year winner time. And I still have eight persons ahead of me.
Finally I reach 30 km (mile 18). Everything up to this point is planned; training, race preparation, tapering, race plan, nutrition, swim, bike, transitions and run. Now it starts. From now on I don’t know how the body will act. How the mind game will go. How much I want this. It is now it starts. Now the endurance challenge comes into play. It is about not slowing down. Game on. Race on. I can increase my speed somewhat to 5:00 to 5:15 (8:00-8:30 min/km). I can go faster. My training have focused on 4:45 min/km race pace (7:40 min/mile), but I don’t increase the risk given the heat and since there is no time goal I can meet now. The “fast bikers” should slow down and I should pass without increase my speed. Soon after turnaround, final ¼ to go, I pass the first person in front of me. No one has passed me on the run. I approach and pass the second person in front of me. It is my bike rack mate and I talk shortly with him. A further bit down there is a guy next to a car on the side of the run course. He cheers when I pass. I see him little later on again, he is saying “good pace”. He seems to be coach to one of the two guys that I have passed. When I pass him a third time he shouts “Congratulations to a great run!”. I realize that I am delivering what he hoped his adept to do. Just 1,5 miles before the finish I catch up the third person I passed on the run. I have energy left to respond to any increase of the speed but that is not needed. I finish the run in 03:49:45 (average HR 156 average cadence 89), and 10:26:31 total. I have the 2nd fastest run time and finish in 5th overall and 1st in my age group. One of the HITS guys at the result table/speaker tent approach me and says “great run you did”. Later on I met the sheriff and Mark after the race, both sincerely congratulating me. When I leave I say to Mark, see you tomorrow. Mark replies, great, are you doing the Olympic or the sprint? I appreciate that he actually considers that this was an option. I do have some races scheduled two days in a row, but that is Olympic and then Half. Not Full and then Olympic. No, I reply. I see you at the price ceremony. My sympathies that day go to my bike rack neighbor, the guy I passed with only 6 miles to finish. Reading the results from the race he was first on the swim (54 minutes), first place at the bike turn around, first out to run, 40 minutes before me. The guys, who finished first and second was leaving T2 at the same time, only 1 minute after him. I passed him 6 miles before finish, and he finished 20 minutes after me. My congratulations go to Flint. His first full distance race, doing 57 min swim, 4:54 bike and 3:38 run, with winner time of 9:34. I just need some more training, and some wheels… One of the other participants posted on FB after the race: in HITS Naples race you felt like an individual, and not a number. I agree.
0
Comments
Nice report. Sounds like you managed the groin problem well. It must be a great feeling to be right at the front of the race!
From your report, it sounds like HITS has fixed some of the problems from last year, especially traffic control. I like that they switched the long course events to Saturday as well. If they keep listening to their customers they will continue to grow and give WTC some competition. I think I may race the Naples HIM next January. Are you going back?