St. George 70.3 2013
Leading up to the race I did the NOS followed by a few weeks of Get Faster then the HIM plan. All of my cycling was done in the basement--I had zero outdoor rides before this race. All my swimming was at the pool. Training went very well, my weight was where I wanted it, my vDot was as good as it ever gets, and my bike power as good as it has ever been. I was feeling good. I would say one of the most significant aspects of my training was nutrition. I used the core diet recommended nutrition during all of my training. I fueled my workouts, and had slow, steady weight loss during my training. It's not cheap to eat all those gels, bloks, bars and drinks, but it made nutrition during the race more natural and doable.
Race week is always a little tricky with travel. I left on Wednesday from Michigan and stayed the night in Las Vegas. The time difference was 3 hours from EST, so I found myself drifting into pacific time in spite of my hopes. Thursday, I drove to St. George and went to packet pick up. I had to take care of some work business on line,so that killed the rest of the day. Friday is crazy with pre-race meetings, bike drop, getting in a swim at the lake, trying not to be on the feet too much, etc. In the evening I had dinner with the team including dessert, yes I broke some rules here, but I kept it fairly light and reasonable (I shared the dessert with my wife).
Race Day, May 4, 2013
Up at 3:30am local time. Ate my pre-race breakfast consisting of 3 cups of applesauce, 1 scoop of whey protein, a powerbar and 48oz. of Perform consumed during the morning before the race. My wife dropped me downtown to catch the shuttle at 4:30am. Rode the shuttle about 25 minutes to the reservoir. Did the race morning drill at the transition area then lined up with the yellow swim caps until we were directed to the water start line. My wave, second to the last, started at 7:57am, more than an hour after the pro start. The horn sounded and my wave was off.
The conditions for the swim were ideal: no wind, no chop, clean water. About 150 people in my wave. Minimal contact. Some people thought the water was cold, and I saw people in booties, but I would call it refreshing. Cold at first, but refreshing. I just followed my training: swim pretty hard for about 300 meters, then maintain race pace for the remainder. I thought about my stroke—pointed toes, shoulders back, lengthen the body. I stayed wide left and swam inside the buoys for the out portion, then got back outside to round the first corner and stayed outside the buoys for the rest of the race. About half way through I started to pass stragglers from previous waves. As I rounded the last corner I had to resist the impulse to sprint. I swam it in with good form to the boat launch, out of the water, and in 39 minutes and change I’m getting my wetsuit stripped. Swimming is my greatest struggle. But it went okay--really as good as it could possibly go.
Transition took about 4 minutes. I found my bike, put on my hat, glasses, socks, shoes, race belt, turned on the computer, took a big drink, and headed out the gate. The bike course (and the run course) were very hilly. In fact, hilly probably isn’t a strong enough term. How about this: I saw people getting off their bikes and walking up the hills. Maybe people do that in other races, but I have never seen it before. On the back sides of the hills, it was a speed fest. Can I just say I was fearing for my life on some of the downhills. Over 40MPH without pedaling. I haven’t uploaded my power file yet, but I’m sure the numbers were all over the place. I remember one hill coming out of the reservoir where I had to do 250 watts in gear 1 just to make any forward progress. I’m over 3 watts per kilogram, I ride a compact crank with and 11-25 on the back, and I was wishing for lower gears. Then on the back side it's soft pedal or coast so the power numbers drop. I tried to keep the average near my goal power, but one minute you're climbing and the next minute you're flying down a hill, so there were a lot of swings. If you like climbing hills and crazy speed on downhills, you will like St. George, a lot.
Nutrition on the bike went like this: 32oz. of perform per hour at 10 minute intervals. I ate 8 salt stick tablets, 1 PowerBar and 2 packages of Cliff Bloks. So, over the ride I consumed about 400 calories per hour. Somewhere I heard that at least one pit stop should be required during an HIM, but I didn’t need one in spite of pounding down what felt like were plenty of liquids. Maybe I sweated it all out. I didn’t need a stop until a few hours after the race (sorry if this is too much info). As far as equipment goes, I rode a Hed jet disk on the back and a Hed 9 on the front (we race with the wheels we have, not the wheels we want to have). While conditions on the course were very good (little wind, wide lanes (mostly) I noticed that the front wheel felt twitchy on the fast downhills. I guess this was a surprise because I had little experience with that kind of speed as I ride mostly on flat or gentle hills. I was very aero with a deep section wheel, but even a passing car was enough to make handling the bike challenging. At the end of the ride my average speed was 20.9 MPH with 2:46 elapsed on the clock.
T2 took about 4 minutes like T1. I shed my bike gear and put on my hat, arm coolers (these are the best) and running shoes. I also strapped on a flask of gels and some salt pills and my Garmin watch. Then I packed my bike gear in the run bag and left it with my bike. I turned on my Garmin and got a weird error message about detecting multiple cadence sensors. I cleared the error, but the watch wouldn’t acquire the satellites until I turned it off and turned it back on again on the course.
As I left transition, I really had no idea what I was up against on the run course. I had seen the elevation profile, had calculated average grades, but seeing it was something else. When the hills started coming at me I started to think strategically about the temperature, the intense sun and how much distance I needed to cover. Unlike training on flat ground, it was difficult to find a zone and stay in it. The course would go from a hill to a very steep grade, to a downhill, to a trail, then a narrow tunnel, etc. I just had to take it one obstacle at a time and hold something in reserve because of the heat. Fortunately, I was well hydrated and nourished going into the run and I continued to drink on the course, so I felt good energy reserves and never really got to the breaking point with the heat.
On the run the miles clicked away as I maintained a fairly steady pace. I pretty much ignored my pace because it varied by terrain, and I was unsure about what the heat was going to do to me. I could see other people who were suffering, and I didn’t want to join in their misery. I took a couple of gels during the run but no additional salt. Not many people were coming by me, and I passed a lot of people-- that always feels pretty good.
About a mile or so from the finish line, a guy from my age group passed me, the first I remember seeing. I had a brief mental discussion and decided to let him go. I figured if I killed myself, I could gain one place in the race, yack up the contents of my stomach, and go from feeling pretty decent to feeling sick in about 7 minutes. Not enough ROI—sorry R&P. Still I could feel the pull of the finish line, and I sped up into a tunnel of cheering spectators into the chute. As I crossed the finish line I got that great feeling of relief that the race was over. The clock read about 6:30 but with the wave start, my time was 5:26 and change, 18th in my group. By my time only this was the not a fast race, but we all know this is St. George. People probably don’t come here to set PRs, So, there it is. St. George is a great race, and I would do it again. But next time, I think I’ll add a few teeth to my lowest gear before I climb the hills and maybe rent a 404 for the front.
Comments
Nice race, Steven! It's a big switch to go from training inside to being outside dealing with the mid day heat. Sounds like you executed very well. It was nice to meet you and your family at dinner friday night!
Zero outdoor rides... It must have been nice to get outside! Congrats!