JUAN VERGARA FL70.3 RACE REPORT
JUAN VERGARA´s Race Report - Ironman FLORIDA 70.3 - May 19th / 2013
OS and Race Prep
Most important, I managed to go through a full Cycle of OS-GF- Race prep without getting hurt!!!!! I guess my Recovery Boots helped!!!
Highlight of race prep ..... definitely the EN TUCSON CAMP in march (surviving and enjoying Mount Lemon gave me a lot of climbing confidence .... getting to personally meet RnP and team mates was an energy and knowledge boost !!!!). Highly recommend attending the camps. EPIC!!!!
As for getting faster .... I travelled from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Ironman Florida 70.3 this year marginally faster than in 2012 despite lots of hard work (FTP up to 229 from 225 - Vdot up to 49.37 from 46.4) but I guess past 54 it is what it is (will continue to work hard attempting to carry that speed into the 55-59 AG next year!!!!!).
Body Comp
I did show up with 152lb, 2 pounds lighter, having resisted enormous and continuous gastronomical temptations for months!!!!. (Lose it! tracking is definitely a great tool to keep one honest with the calorie intake).
Bike Porn ...
One thing I simply could not resist during this period was .... to give myself a present ... brand new P5 to tackle de 2013 season!!! But .....
Travel.
.... when it was time to pack for travel ... I discovered that dismounting-packing-mountuing a P5 is not as easy a task compared to my previous Bikes!!!!. Time to call the expert Cervelo dealers into ACTION both at origin (Sao Paulo) and destination (Florida) to make sure I didn't squander my hard work with a silly mechanical mistake (which I'm quite capable of when it comes to nuts and bolts!!!).
The Weather
Brazil is heading into winter (if you can call our mid 50's "winter" .... we do!!!) and Florida is warming up rapidly (high 80's). Not a "major" issue but a wonderful excuse to fly into Miami a few days earlier to tapper in the proper race like climate!!! (My wife approved the 30 degree variance justification and came along with her never ending support and an empty suitcase for "basic" shopping).
The Arrival.
Unpacking and mounting the Bike ... was Easy .... just carried the Bike case out of customs on to the rental van, drove to the Cervelo dealer (perfectly on time for the pre-booked appointment), run for 45 minutes while they mounted and .... all set!!!! Better safe than sorry !!!
Friday before the race.
Drove 3 hours north from Miami directly to the event's venue, Haines City Lake Eva Park, at around 5pm to register for the race (always easy at the end of the day!!!). Impressive how much this part of the world has grown in the last 12 months driven by the newly opened LEGOLAND park. New Hotels .... New Restaurants .... New malls, .... New everything!!!!
After registration checked in at the hotel (new hotel of course) and then meet EN team mate Bart Stevens for dinner at ARABELLA'S (Italian Restaurant in Winter Haven, where I runned into Lance Armstrong at last year's race). Great Carboload!!!! Highly recommended. (http://www.arabellas.us/).
Nutrition
One MAJOR change vs last year was Core Diet's nutrition protocol (adopted as of September 2012) which calls for BIG meal on Friday, BIG brrakast on saturday and a very small meal on Saturday before the race (and together with their whole protocol has worked EXTREMELY well for me .... so much that they have now designed my wife's (tennis player) nutrition.
Saturday was time to check out the always inspiring Ironkids race prior to a "zero watts" spin around the run course to introduce Bart to the "cruel" Haines City hills (which look like nothing on Saturday and feel like the Everest on Sunday's 3 loop run!!!) .... followed by a drive around the bike course to reminds us that yes, Florida does have some "hills and head winds" that require disciplined execution. Bikes racked mid afternoon and early (6:30 pm) very light chicken and pasta dinner .... lights off at 9:00pm ..... and I did sleep.
RACE DAY!!!
Up at 4:00am on Sunday to proceed with Core Diet's prescribed Apple Sauce (3cups), Whey (1 scoop), 1 banana and 1 bottle of perform!!!!
Body marking at 5:00 am and plenty of time to set up transition before closing at 6:00 am.
Pros start at 6:45am was the que for my -15 minute Gel and off went my wave (50-54) at 7:00 sharp.
The Swim - 39:01
Different from last year (my first ever HIM when I lined up all the way to the front inside ... to very quickly find myself in the "washing machine" ...) this year I lined up front but all the way out to the outside and stayed out until finding my rhythm. Last year's poor "navigation" costed me a few hundred yards and went out of the water at 40:22. This time around the swim felt MUCH harder with TONS of slower traffic halfway through the end but … focused to stay on course all the way and I swam 39:01 (way WAY above my 35 target!!!!).
T1 - 03:22
Transition was smooth (focused on "slow is smooth and smooth is fast") and on to the bike without incidents.
The Bike - 2:36:56
From there on it was 2:36 hours focusing on DISCIPLINED EXECUTION to stay on my targeted 196 watts and load myself with 1 powerbar, 3 powergels, 3.5 bottles of perform ( 2x pee on bike!!!)
Looking at the data afterwards I left about 15 watts on the table but given the very (extremely) hot run I guess it played out better than the opposite (though I still need to figure out how come I did not deliver the watts !!!!).
Two key observations on the bike:
1) all those that overtook me on the hills .... came back to me on the run. All of them!!! Sounds familiar?
2) at least 3 of those in front of me in the finish line followed ITU drafting rules and did not get penalized. While I was caught up by them half way into the bike course, chose to follow Coach R's guidance: "you choose which type of athlete you want to be. The one that cheats or the one that follows the rules independently of what other chose to be" .... I chose the latter!!!!
T2 – 02:41
without incidents and onto the run .....
The Run - 1:43:15
first mile uphill!!!! Did take it easy first 3 miles (without losing the free speed opportunity on the downhills) and stayed on strategy throughout the course though dialed down given the CRUELING rising temperature. 20 steps in all stations, plenty of perform, 1 clif block every two miles an managed to negative split loop 3 of 3 coming in safe and sound on 8th place (AG) and 201 overall.
Net-net - 5:05:15
- a good day (fun above all)
- Great to spend time with EN team mate Bart Stevens (sorry we missed all other EN teammates on the course).
- hard to match the 50 year olds when 54 .... but .....
55 here I come ...... must carry current form into 2014!!!!
One week off and back to work!!!!! Get Fast for ironman Miami 70.3 end of October!!!
Though before that …. I deserve a Cherry Garcia!!!!
JUAN VERGARA
Rank: 8
Overall Rank: 201
|
BIB: |
618 |
|
Division: |
M50-54 |
|
Age: |
54 |
|
State: |
São Paulo |
|
Country: |
BRA |
|
|
|
|
Swim: |
39:01 |
|
Bike: |
2:36:56 |
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Run: |
1:43:15 |
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Overall: |
5:05:15 |
CONGRATULATIONS, JUAN, ON YOUR FINISH!
Swim Details Division Rank: 16 |
|||||||
|
Split Name |
Distance |
Split Time |
Race Time |
Pace |
Div. Rank |
Overall Rank |
Gender Rank |
|
Total |
1.2 mi |
39:01 |
39:01 |
2:01/100m |
16 |
498 |
400 |
Bike Details Division Rank: 17 |
|||||||
|
Split Name |
Distance |
Split Time |
Race Time |
Pace |
Div. Rank |
Overall Rank |
Gender Rank |
|
38 mi |
38 mi |
1:45:34 |
2:27:57 |
21.60 mi/h |
|||
|
56 mi |
18 mi |
51:22 |
3:19:19 |
21.03 mi/h |
|||
|
Total |
56 mi |
2:36:56 |
3:19:19 |
21.41 mi/h |
17 |
299 |
265 |
Run Details Division Rank: 8 |
|||||||
|
Split Name |
Distance |
Split Time |
Race Time |
Pace |
Div. Rank |
Overall Rank |
Gender Rank |
|
4.3 mi |
4.3 mi |
33:59 |
3:55:59 |
7:54/mi |
|||
|
8.6 mi |
4.3 mi |
34:17 |
4:30:16 |
7:58/mi |
|||
|
12.9 mi |
4.3 mi |
33:57 |
5:04:13 |
7:53/mi |
|||
|
13.1 mi |
0.2 mi |
1:02 |
5:05:15 |
5:10/mi |
|||
|
Total |
13.1 mi |
1:43:15 |
5:05:15 |
7:52/mi |
8 |
201 |
169 |
Transition |
|
|
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE |
3:22 |
|
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN |
2:41 |
Comments
Sounds like a really solid race, Juan! Awesome job!