Race Report - HITS Full Distance Triathlon – Hague, NY
Saturday, June 29, 2013
HITS Full Distance Triathlon – Hague, NY
Background:
· Raced Sprint distance in 2010, injured in 2011, Olympic and Half distances in 2012, First IM for 2013
· Training began with the November Outseason (14 weeks)
· Get Faster (4 weeks)
· IM Intermediate (14)
I’d managed to make it through the entire season without any MAJOR injuries. Despite not liking that I have to come out of pocket for it, my acupuncturist did wonders with my lower back to keep me in the game. And, I didn’t have any prevailing chronic Achilles problems that might have stemmed from straining it last summer.
But, my left knee in particular was starting to give me problems. In the 4 weeks preceding the race I was getting in as much as the prescribed running as possible, but I was really just focused on getting in the long, Thursday runs – 2.5 to 3 hours. Two weeks out from tapering however, I felt I had pushed the limits and I might be dealing with a more serious knee injury.
A torn meniscus seemed plausible… I pulled back on the running, had an MRI and two weeks before the race the doctor said my knee looked good! I was so psyched. “Classic runner’s knee,” Hank said.
Nevertheless, with the pain mostly subsiding, I decided to focus on being as healthy as possible for the run, and just ceased all running a little over a week out from race day.
I felt very rested and calm on race day and I think this served me well. Besides, in those last days the brain is on overdrive thinking about aiming for a perfectly executed race. When you’re not ‘working’ you’re planning, which takes time and energy!
Still next time, I’ll try to give myself some extra breathing room in the race week schedule and get in some light work just to keep the muscles a little warmer.
One race day, my legs felt tight and ‘susceptible’ from the swim which is pretty rare – but, not getting a chance to work-out the thigh cramps that snuck up on me as I started to run out of the water on the first 1.2 mile lap, potentially created some issues. When I transitioned to the bike, I was immediately dealing with a knot in my hamstring/groin area that never subsided for the entire ride. Again, it’s very unusual that the tightness there doesn’t eventually subside. I kept my cool, but it was a pretty annoying issue particularly since I had stretched this area religiously, three times a day, because I knew this could be a tight spot.
On the run, my left quad cramped up twice. Thankfully, these were not debilitating cramps, and they seemed to be quickly relieved with some BioFreeze (love those portable packets).
At the end of the day, staying mentally focus on executing well, making no mistakes, not pushing, just staying steady with no spikes was a strategy that I believed would work and it did!
This strategy did crossover into the run, but at the same time it’s pretty clear to me now that the run is an animal that needs its own strategy for success. Beyond the physical fitness and mental confidence, the final piece of preparation for me was largely an exercise in mental fortitude and embracing the fact that at some point I would hit the line – and I would suffer.
On the run I tried to take short breaks at the aid stations. I probably took a little too long at some of them, but one of the key goals at those stations was keeping my body temperature down. Dousing myself in ice water seemed a necessity. I also took short breaks with 30 steps whenever I absolutely had to. Sometimes it was a short, easy and controlled stretch down to me knees and hands. The prevailing mindset however, was that I was not going to slow down. I was prepared for that mugger who could take it away from me at any time, and I was prepared to suffer and fight. It was interesting to see the line hitting up some other people who had passed me on the bike and were now falling behind me in the run.
Prerace:
I started packing my transition bags a full day before leaving. I would have preferred to start earlier, but simply having everything ready to go and dialing in everything that is needed after making lots of checklists and reviewing the EN checklists helped tremendously. I did not forget anything!
HITS North Country Triathlon – FULL – Hague, NY (Lake George) – Saturday, June 29, 2013
We got up to Lake George on Thursday afternoon (June 27th). The Lake is gorgeous. We were expecting rain that weekend, but arriving into Bolton’s Landing for lunch seemed like the start of a great trip. The weather was hot, the setting was beautiful and having the family there was a critical part of the experience. This was an extended family trip -- a party of 6 – wife, two young girls (5 and 15 months), mother-in-law and sister – the more the merrier! We drove both cars up so I would have the flexibility to take care of any admin tasks without leaving the rest of the family stranded in the rental house.
I planned on some course recon work starting Thursday for a Saturday race, but really didn’t do any. I did swim a couple times before race day to get a feel for the water temp and what I would wear on race day, but I pretty much opted for rest over exercise.
Race Day:
2:00 am
I almost forgot that I almost over-slept my alarm for early morning feeding, but managed to get up a 2am. I pack a small cooler that I bring to my bed. 1 Orgain (255), 1 Blueberry smoothie (320), 1 Mango protein smoothie (180 – 360). I always make sure I get down the blueberry smoothie and Orgain. The mango smoothie is a little heavy so if I can get 4oz down, then I’m happy. I’m looking to consume 600 – 800 liquid calories. Nothing unusual here, but going back to sleep is a difficult after these feedings.
5:15 am
Breakfast consists of applesauce, protein, banana, PowerGel (no caffeine) and sports drink throughout the morning. All clear and ready to go!
6:00 am
Headed down to the race venue. Small race of approximately 300 people in Hague, NY (Lake George). We were expecting rain, but nothing yet… Wetsuit was on and ready to go by 6:30.
6:40 am
Head down to the water for a quick warm up swim. Very short. Didn’t really feel ‘warmed up’ but just felt comfortable enough in the water. The main issue was that I could not make sense of the buoys. The buoys were not in the water until race morning and they weren’t visually intuitive when they were visible. Bottomline is that I could not identify any horizon markers which was a little problematic…
SWIM: 01:13:19
7:00 am
In water start. Two-thirds of the participants are racing the HIM distance. The loop is 1.2 miles. IM distance athletes need to complete two loops with the first loop ending by coming out of the water, rounding an on-land buoy and then heading back in the water for the additional 1.2 miles.
There was a lot of congestion, but very little physical contact at the start. I felt very comfortable in my box and finished in comfortable fashion within the range that I expected.
Oddly, my quads started to feel crampy, especially after running out of the water at the end of the 1st loop. I need to engage my legs some more towards the end of the swim, which I did not do at the end of the 1st loop. This may have contributed to the cramping when I started running out of the water. But, I also probably underworked my legs in the last week. They were perhaps well rested, but not warmed up.
T1 – 00:06:37
I thought I was smooth and efficient, but it appears I have room for improvement.
BIKE – 06:36:05
I did no course recon. I just looked at the course map on mapmyride to get a feel for what the terrain would look like. It was easily the toughest course I’ve been on. The start of the bike was a significant five-mile climb, which kind of sucks when you’re just trying to warm things up. But I was mentally prepared to just keep the output steady and just back off a gear until I felt I was not using my leg muscles very much. “If I’m spinning at 8 miles an hour, then that’s what it is…eventually it will ease up,” I kept telling myself. That attitude kept me pretty steady. Incidentally, I don’t train/ride with power. That’s for next season!!
The biggest factor was the knot that was causing me serious discomfort in my upper hamstring/groin area. I get this sort of tightness here on the bike frequently at the start of ride, but eventually it loosens up. I knew these were potential sore points for me so all week, three times I day I stretched. Well that didn’t work! Throughout the 112 miles I must have stopped about 5 times to try stretching it out. It helped for a short while, but basically never went away for the entire ride. I tried ibuprofen to take the edge off. I also ended up applying Biofreeze twice. Glad I had them with me.
The course was an out-and-back loop, and on the way out I knew my pace was relatively slow. I reached the HIM turnaround point at 1:47. In my head my goal of breaking 12 hours was falling apart, but I knew I was executing well with regards to fueling and output so I knew it was not worth chasing something that was potentially out of reach. Going up the long arduous hill approaching the 56 mile mark it occurred to me that I could be on the bike for 7 hours! I reached the midway point at 56 miles in 3:26. I stopped here for a few minutes.
The return trip was naturally faster since the out course was pretty much all up hill, but it started pouring rain for about 30 minutes which forced me to pull back on the speed. The biggest challenge was the very last steep climb that ran for 2+ miles. I really started to sweat here, but again tried to stay consistent. I reached back in decent time. My goal still seemed out of reach, but I wasn’t really concerned about it.
I had planned for about 6 bottles of Infinit over the course of my ride – a little less than 1 bottle per hour. My goal was is a full bottle per hour, but I fell short of that. For the 6.5 hours I consumed about 5.5 bottles of Infinit. The additional treachery of the slick down hills probably contributed to slowing down my drinking pace, but in the future I really need to be more militant about getting in the necessary fluid.
I’ve always claimed that if I missed my goal by a significant amount, then it means I made execution mistakes (most likely). Conversely, if I beat my goal by I lot, then it means I took great risk to do it. I told my family that I would finish somewhere between 11:30 and 12:30 and there was no shame in coming in on the tail end of that spectrum given how challenging the course was.
T2 – 00:06:10
Ditto from T1. I thought I was smooth and efficient, but it appears I have room for improvement.
RUN – 03:52:16
I knew the run course was going to be tough. Lots of hills. More than anything I’ve ever trained on. Two loops of a 6.5 mile course.
My run goal was to break 4 hours and I knew that I would need to use the downhills as much as possible to make up for lost time on the uphill. This strategy definitely worked although it was sure to kill my quads.
I stopped countless times throughout the run, but never for more than 30 seconds. I either stretched or just walked for 30 paces when I had to “tap out” because my heart rate was just too high. At the same time I took every opportunity to push myself to not slow down. This really made the difference, particularly at times when I thought I should stop, but really didn’t need to.
In hindsight, it seems like the run portion of the race is a colossal mental battle. Just executing on the strategy that you’ve set out takes more than just steely resolve. You need to be prepared for an onslaught of physical and mental signals that will compromise your plan. I was ready! I was prepared to suffer and was willing to do it! Despite this, nothing prepared me for the last mile and half. Only now do I realize that this was the “line.” I recall it being a nightmare, but continued on because I knew the race would be over in 10 minutes! After the race I felt relieved, but nauseous and spent. It seemed like I was reliving the “nightmare” in my head that was the last mile and a half until the next morning. I never thought I would do this again. I could barely walk the next day between my quads being shot and the pain in my lower left leg feeling terribly strained. But, within a few days I was feeling normal again and couldn’t stop thinking about how to make myself better. Lake Placid 2014 is already on the calendar!
Miles 1 – 6.5
My goal here was to just get to a place where I could say to myself, “OK. I feel good now.” I had done this before in race rehearsal successfully so I knew I could do it again. After the first quarter of the race I could then try to get on a sustainable pace for the next 2 quarters and then try to “race” the last quarter. Stopping at every aid station throughout the course was a foregone conclusion.
Problem at mile 1. I could not stomach another gel. I felt like I would puke from the taste. This was strange for me because I had no problem in race rehearsal, but then again my nutrition plan was never really tested this far along. My nutrition plan worked well up to 8 hours, but was never tested beyond that.
Throughout the run I only mustered two Powergels, but had hot Infinit to sip on from my fuel belt and flat Coke at every aid station. Between the flat Coke and Infinit and salt caps I thought I would be able to get enough sugar, salt and caffeine to make it through the race. I knew Coke would be my friend on the course if I needed it, but I didn’t think this would be it for me. So I was really uneducated about what I was putting into my body and what I could really expect from it… Nevertheless, this was it for the entire run course. Beyond that, my other objective was to get as much cold water on my body to keep my body temperature down.
Problem at mile 2. I was feeling a pain/strain in my left lower calf/upper Achilles area. In my mental preparedness I just told myself that while unfortunate, this would be an injury I would have to accept. And as long as it wasn’t really impeding my ability to run, I was going to run through it.
The good news is that my knees were feeling great and I was too much in the zone to notice much else.
Miles 6.5 – 19.5
I have really never run slower. I was well below my Z1 pace at about 9+ minute miles, but I was doing the best I could possibly do with the hilly terrain. I just tried to stay steady and consistent. I could also feel a blister forming on my left pinkie toe. What?! A blister? I haven’t had a blister all season. So strange, but I told myself, “Is that all you got?! You’ll need to throw a hell of lot more that that to slow me down.” The blister battle was over a done with!
The route back, miles 6.5 – 13.1 was a net descent where I could/should make up a little bit of time and it felt a bit this way when I complete the half marathon.
Coming back up the course, miles 13.1 – 19.5 was tougher. My left quad started to cramp. Biofreeze to the rescue. It would take one more Biofreeze application on the last lap, but I managed to keep this at bay.
Miles 19.5 – 26.2
This is where I would allow myself to make it home knowing full well that there could be a mugger at any point. I kept telling myself to be prepared for this. I picked up the pace a bit, but I seemed to tire that much more quickly and probably ended up stopping more than I had on any other segment. And, my stomach was becoming more unsettled. But, I was still gunning for home. It also became clear to me at 6:40pm that I could actually finish in 12 hours with just two miles to go.
Just when I thought I was close, and realized I wasn’t - - it hit me. I felt done. I was so disheartened not seeing the finish line, but rather another massive hill which I didn’t recall seeing before. I think if there was more distance to go, I would have felt differently, but expecting relief and not getting it can be mentally crushing. So I was feeling miserable at this point, but just kept on.
I must have stopped two more times just getting up that hill. Still I knew that I only needed to suffer for another 10 minutes before it was over. Coming over that crest of that final hill was so amazing. Seeing the finish line gives you such a breath of fresh air and strength. It was a great finish and quite amazing to me that I reached my goal.
Thanks to Coach Rich and Patrick and the EN community for your guidance. I have no events planned until Lake Placid 2014. The journey for my first one hasn’t quite ended… My left Achilles still needs time to heal. I want to take the time to settle on a new pair of running shoes. And, I want to get set up with a power meter. I am concerned about losing fitness, but I am enjoying the opportunity to recover, rest, reflect, be normal, rebalance with work and spend some extra time with my family. I feel confident that when I start my 2013-14 season, I’ll come with a renewed love and more meaningful commitment.
Comments
An IM with 2500 people to suffer with is much more tolerable than the sparse crowds at HITS, I'll bet.