IMTX 2013 RR1 - Summary & Thoughts
== Pre-RR ==
Woke up around 7 a.m. and had three cups of decaf coffee in my IMLOU Coffee Mug (always a good way to start the day). Followed that up with my favorite pre-/post- sandwich; Smucker’s All Natural Peanut Butter with a whole Banana and Ezekiel bread. I took 2 x 5 units of long-term insulin (Lantus), once each side on the inner thigh. This is something new I’ve been doing and different from what I’ve done in the past. I’ve done this to rotate injection sites and it seems to be as effective as the abdomen. I headed over to Kroger to pick up some extra water and food for the bike; items marked NEW I have not tried before, so I’ll include my thoughts about them as well.
- 2 x 1L bottles of water
- Vanilla Stinger Waffle (NEW)
- Honey Stringer Waffle (NEW)
- Clif Bar Chew Blocks
- Powerbar Chews (NEW)
I looked over the course I had plotted. I’ve been having a hard time finding a route in Bowling Green that I would consider bike friendly (i.e. long enough with few turns and wide enough that it doesn’t turn into a one-way road into the boonies). My router was 23-miles out from a middle school to a high school in another county, which means if I did 2 out-and-backs I would be short ~20 miles from a full IM. The weather forecast called for clouds with temperatures @ 50 degrees warming up to 75 degrees for the high by 1 p.m. Wind was SW @ 4-5 mph with gusts up to 15mph (easy enough to handle). I wore a long sleeve shirt under another short sleeve that was comfortable and didn’t make me too hot. Once I had everything together in my car I headed out to the middle school around 10:30 a.m.
== Bike ==
Given that I had never traveled this route before, even by car, I was a little nervous about the condition of the roads. It had been a blessing that I was able to find this on Google Earth, but I’ve encountered roads that look like minefields before. Luckily this was not the case. The roads here were clear with moderate debris on the shoulder and few cars traveling in either direction. I started out slow watching my cadence and power since this would be the first time I had taken the bike outside with the power meter. One of the first things I noticed was the level of difficulty in honing in on a certain power. I was constantly switching gears the first couple miles trying to keep my power around 200W.
**NOTE** I’m not sure whether I should be trying to keep this power when tackling hills or if I should try and tackle the hills with a little more power. I feel that if I shift gears and start to slow down I expend more energy getting up the hill than if I had been just increasing my power for a short while.
Once I hit some flat surfaces I was better able to keep my power consistent around 200W, with some lows and highs of 130 and 230 respectively. There was some side wind coming from the south (I was traveling west) that caused me to lose a little balance at times. My plan during the bike was to drink a quarter of Ironman Perform & Recovery mix (about a 2:1 ratio) every 20 minutes; I had saddled 2 x 21 oz. bottles behind me. I estimated that by the time I got to the other high school I would have a quarter of the mix left and I could wash down my Vanilla stinger waffle and Clif Bar blocks with that. Around 50 minutes into the bike I began to feel a little nauseous. I’ve recently been experiencing these episodes of nausea and so far have attributed it to the insulin not fully working yet (or I’ve burned through the available insulin). I pushed through it like I normally do and a few miles short of the high school I started to feel better.
At the high school I found I had closer to a third of the mix left in my water bottle, which means I wasn’t drinking enough early on but I still felt fine. I washed down the Vanilla stinger waffle and 3 Clif Bar block. The Vanilla stinger waffle was delicious and definitely could not wait to eat the Honey stinger waffle once I got back to my car. Power and pace were 197W (perfect) and 17.8 mph. On the way back to the middle school I noticed a slight pain in my lower back. Two thoughts occurred to me at this point: one, I was feeling more strain in my legs on the trainer when I was in the aero position and lowering my bars seemed to fix that; two, I (regretfully) deadlifted a little more than I could chew last Wednesday and definitely felt the soreness the rest of the week. Whichever was causing the pain did not make the rest of my ride enjoyable. I was constantly waiting for those 20 minutes to burn up so I could sit up in the saddle and relieve the stress. Where I would normally stay in the aero bars on the hill I opted to stand up out of the saddle and peddle.
Eventually the pain subsided towards the end of the bike ride, especially when the roads became flat. Once I had reached the middle school I took a short break to relieve my bladder, finish off the rest of the mix and Clif Bar blocks and restock (I had brought some extra mix, water, and food with me). My power and pace were 200W and 18.3 mph respectively, which surprised me a little given that I didn’t feel too fatigued in the legs (work works). Before I saddled back up I checked the weather on my phone. The temperature had picked up to 72 degrees and the wind had suddenly changed direction on me with constant speeds of 15 mph with gusts at 25-30 mph. My first thought was just deal with it, and that’s what I did. I headed out on the road back to the high school only to make it short of 6 miles before I started to realize how long this was going to take me.
At my 200W goal I was moving 13 mph tops on flat surfaces and <12mph on hills. The first couple miles I pushed through but started thinking about time and energy spent getting out to the high school, as well as the dull pain in my back. Eventually I turned around to make my way back to the middle school with the plan to finish strong and run. I packed everything back on my car and headed back to check my glucose levels and run. Bike summary:</p>
First 23-miles
Avg. power = 197W
Avg. speed = 17.8 mph
Avg. HR = 160bpm
Time = 1:18 hours
Second 23-miles
Avg. power = 200W
Avg. speed = 18.3 mph
Avg. HR = 143bpm
Time = 1:15 hours
Final 11.5-miles
Avg. power = 198W
Avg. speed = 16.9 mph
Avg. HR = 174bpm
Time = 0:41 hours
== Run ==
On my way back I hydrated myself with what was left in a water bottle leaving the IM mix for another day. I finished off the last 3 Clif Bar blocks leaving the Honey stinger waffle and Powerbar chews for the run. Once I got back I checked my glucose levels (@94 mg/dL which is a little lower than what I was aiming for) and slipped on my shoes. Just before I headed out the door I started to get hungry; I think I may have spent too much time getting prepped for the run, so I gobbled down the Honey stinger waffle (another delicious treat) and headed out the door.
My plan at this point was to run a minimum of 30 minutes and target a hour depending on how my legs felt. The first 10 minutes of my run I kept an 8:00 min/mi pace, which felt difficult. My legs just didn’t want to pull their own weight, let alone the rest of my body. After 10 minutes I started walking; currently this is going to be my plan on race day. Walk and refuel at the aid stations and run in between. I started to run again after 3 minutes of walking and suddenly felt a whole better. Not sure if it was the Honey stinger waffle with the extra energy or if I just felt that good, but I felt a lot less fatigued. I still kept to my plan and 10 minutes later I started walking and then started running again 2 minutes later. Still no fatigue but eventually I realized I had circled back around to my house and was now nearing the 30-minute mark. At this point I felt that I could keep going and should, but whatever it was I decided to stop call it quits for the day.
Run Summary
Time = 0:30 hours
Distance = 3.44 miles
Avg. Pace = 8:43 min/mi
Avg. HR = 152bpm
While I was inside taking my shoes off I was overcome by a serious amount of sweat and immediately recognized it…I was hypoglycemic. My glucose levels were @ 62 mg/dL, which is low. I took a shower to wash off the sweat and slipped on shorts and a t-shirt, which I took off an hour later because I continued to sweat afterwards. I replenished my lost glycogen on an apple, a chicken sandwich, celery, carrots, and hummus. Two hours later I scarfed down some homemade chicken wings and couscous salad (nothing beats a Mom’s dinner).
== Post RR & Next Day ==
I slipped on my compression leggings following my second shower and dinner and stretched out and relaxed the rest of the evening. I later noticed that I had gotten a little sun burnt on my arms and my neck felt a little stiff, but no lower back pain. The next morning I felt fully recovered. No fatigue in the legs, although a little tight in the calves. Still not lower back pain, but my neck still felt stiff. Glucose levels were high for the morning @ 137 mg/dL, but I worry less about my morning glucose levels than about my post-workout levels.
== Summary & Thoughts ==
Every thing about my RR seemed to scream slacker to me. I cut my bike short because I didn’t want to spend time biking against the wind with lower back pain, and I cut my run short because I don’t even know the hell why (may be intuition about the low glucose levels, I don’t know). Regardless, I did learn something:
Positive
1) Drinking the IM mix every 20-minutes really keeps me fueled. I’m thinking about getting the Speedfil A2 for an aero mounted water bottle.
2) I am able to hit my power levels almost consistently over an extended period of time with out feeling too fatigued.
3) Nutrition wise the Stinger waffles are great, although I’m leaning towards just liquids for the bike and I’ll have solids during the run.
4) Glucose levels were fine after the bike so I feel like I’m doing the right thing.
5) 10-minute runs followed by 3-minute walks works and allows my legs to briefly recover. Legs also didn’t feel too fatigued (credit to keeping my power in check on the bike).
Negative
1) Don’t be such a baby and bike in the wind next RR (no excuses).
2) Don’t lift heavy weights before doing long distance events (I should know this by now). Also need to determine the root cause of the lower back pain.
3) Take long-term insulin at least 3 hours before race (I’ve also considered taking short term insulin with some carbs to get the initial energy required).
4) Continue to drink the IM mix, or something, before running. This was a poor decision on my part.
5) Wear sunscreen lotion (yup, totally blanked out on this one).
Suggestions for the next RR?
Comments
With respect to NOTE- have you bought and watched the power webinar? It discusses how to ride your race on the hills. Info is also in wiki
sgort version-plus five percent on long hills. Plus ten on short hills....
well done for first RR. Lots to work on, and that is why we do them
There is a lot I can't comment on since your balancing a glucose level that I know nothing about.... So your not gonna get a HTFU out of me :-)
Food/Nutrition.....If you are considering any solid food whatsoever I would recommend it on the bike and save your liquid calories for the run (not the otherway around).... Common belief is that its much easier to digest on the bike..... Question.... Are you able caffeine? Or is that a factor in your glucose levels?... Oh and I agree those waffles are yummy!
Lifting.... totally agree with your not lifting leading into a RR or your Race...
Sunscreen.... Highly recommend SCAPE its magic....
1. Good job for a first outdoor ride with power. Riding steady is definitely a learned skill. You'll get better at it the more you do it. Really pay attention to how certain power levels feel and soon you'll be able to gauge "close enough" without staring at whatever head unit you use. A new twist for me this year is displaying interval NP and using short intervals (20 minutes) to keep myself in check. What fields are you showing on your head unit?
2. Times 2 on finding the hill-power info for race execution. It may be annoying to ride up the hills slowly, but you don't really lose that much time and you'll make up tons on the other side by pushing on the downhills while most rest. Don't burn matches on the bike that you'll want on the run.
3. I also made a sunscreen mistake. I lathered up prior to starting, but failed to apply to my arms b/c I started with warmers on. When I took them off 2 hours into my ride, I didn't apply screen there. Guess what is burnt now?
Again, good job!
All, thanks for the props.
@Joe, I've got the video and "scanned" over the webinar when I first got my power meter. I'm reading over it now and I'm going to put this to good use for the next RR.
@Tim, caffeine seems to have little if any effect on my glucose levels so I'm not concerned over it. I used food on my run today and found that it didn't digest as well as the Ironman Perform, so I'll definitely stick with liquids throughout the race. As for the HTFU, don't let the diabetes hold you back; I don't.
@Roy, I'm showing power, time, and cadence on my 310XT. I normally leave it at that. At IMLOU I had time, distance, cadence, and speed to keep myself in check. I like the interval idea @ 20' since that would fall in line with my nutrition. Like Tim suggested, I may try SCAPE next time around.
The longer the interval, the worse this effect gets.
I used to use 7 miles as my interval....8 "intevals" on a 1/2-iron course, 16 on a IM course. But I changed to 2mile intervals just to keep my box small. yes it makes the WKO chart a bit of a mess...but it really helped my execution. As soon as an interval was completed, it was in the past. No need to dwell on it. Time to pay attention to the current interval and aim to hit my target for it.