Felipe Szpigel - St Croix IM 70.3
Hello EN Team!!!
This is my first of many race reports joined at the community.
My triathlon life has 4 years now, but its only my second month within EN! I can already feel the difference, specially on the focus on quality training and disciplined execution.
My choice of St Croix was based on a time of year and it also being a vacation spot - My wife is a strong supporter of my Triathlon ventures, but it's always nicer if I can combine racing and nice travel.
Only after I had already registered to the race and got everything set (tickets, hotel, etc), I started reading about the race itself. This is a very tough race and there is limited chance you are going to beat your personal best on this one.
I found the swim easy, with great temperature, calm waters / limited current and good signage.
Everyone talks about The Beast... The almost 1 mile long hill that gets up to 20% grade. It's really tough and I had to put 300W to go over it. But the course is very challenging with many other hills and sharp turns to hit. Put on top the storms that happened on the days before that left debris and lots of water on the road. You had to go slow on the 'obstacles' if you didn't want to hit the road.
The heat and humidity were also insane. It was close to 90oF and 75% humidity. I had to adequate my pace in 13% as suggested by Juan Vergara and using EN heat simulators.
I also had some logistics / equipment challenges.
American Airlines delayed my gear by 48hs and my stuff arrived on Saturday, afternoon before the race. The ideal way to transport your bike to St Croix is with TriBike Transport, unless you don't mind the extra hassle / stress from the possible delays.
During the race, my chain fell off a few times and in the first one it ripped off the Quark Power meter sensor, so I had to go back to 'perceived exertion' mode. I played safe and decided to go fresh on the run.
Overall it was a great experience and I'm now enjoying the rest of my week off. Slowly getting back in to training and enjoying the 'transition' period.
I reinforce the comment I read in one of EN members previous report about St.Croix. It's race is only if you want to get a place in Kona or put in your CV that you did the hardest IM 70.3 out there. It's definitely the hardest one I did until now.
Cheers
Felipe
This is my first of many race reports joined at the community.
My triathlon life has 4 years now, but its only my second month within EN! I can already feel the difference, specially on the focus on quality training and disciplined execution.
My choice of St Croix was based on a time of year and it also being a vacation spot - My wife is a strong supporter of my Triathlon ventures, but it's always nicer if I can combine racing and nice travel.
Only after I had already registered to the race and got everything set (tickets, hotel, etc), I started reading about the race itself. This is a very tough race and there is limited chance you are going to beat your personal best on this one.
I found the swim easy, with great temperature, calm waters / limited current and good signage.
Everyone talks about The Beast... The almost 1 mile long hill that gets up to 20% grade. It's really tough and I had to put 300W to go over it. But the course is very challenging with many other hills and sharp turns to hit. Put on top the storms that happened on the days before that left debris and lots of water on the road. You had to go slow on the 'obstacles' if you didn't want to hit the road.
The heat and humidity were also insane. It was close to 90oF and 75% humidity. I had to adequate my pace in 13% as suggested by Juan Vergara and using EN heat simulators.
I also had some logistics / equipment challenges.
American Airlines delayed my gear by 48hs and my stuff arrived on Saturday, afternoon before the race. The ideal way to transport your bike to St Croix is with TriBike Transport, unless you don't mind the extra hassle / stress from the possible delays.
During the race, my chain fell off a few times and in the first one it ripped off the Quark Power meter sensor, so I had to go back to 'perceived exertion' mode. I played safe and decided to go fresh on the run.
Overall it was a great experience and I'm now enjoying the rest of my week off. Slowly getting back in to training and enjoying the 'transition' period.
I reinforce the comment I read in one of EN members previous report about St.Croix. It's race is only if you want to get a place in Kona or put in your CV that you did the hardest IM 70.3 out there. It's definitely the hardest one I did until now.
Cheers
Felipe
0
Comments