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Luxembourg IronMan 70.3 2013 Report – My Long Report About My First Long Course Race
Overall: 6:52:49 with 52min swim, 3:19 bike and 2:31 run. 124th in AG out of 140 and 939 out of 1340
Backround:
I came to EN as a not so fast runner (3 Half marathons, several 10ks) and a recreational cyclist. I also had only completed one sprint triathlon back in 2007. I don’t even count this a race as it was in a pool. With having difficulty in swimming due to anxiety, I was convinced back then that triathlon was not in my future. As an eleven year old kid, I almost drowned in a lake trying to make my way out to a dock. I am not haunted by those memories but swimming any amount of distance made me nervous and caused anxiety. My family moved to Germany in early 2009 as wife Jennifer is active duty and was able to secure a position in Landstuhl, Germany. At the time, I was more excited about seeing Tour De France races up in person and did not even consider triathlon. After watching NBC’s Kona Championships 2011, I really wanted to do triathlon. Knowing that swimming was my handicap, I started reading Total Immersion literature and three books and two DVDs later, I began teaching myself to swim. In late 2012, I read Coach P’s “Your Best Marathon” as I also wanted to improve my Half marathon running. Later, in reading some of his articles online, I discovered EN and was intrigued by the ROI perspective. I joined in early 2012 -- just in time for JOS. I completed JOS, 8 weeks of GF plan, and dropped into the HIM Beginner at week 12.
At week 12 of HIM, I sprained my MCL and missed two long runs and two tempo runs. I also have been suffering with some foot pain caused by plantar fasciitis aggravating my posterior tibial tendon. At week 18, I suffered a slight strain of my pirformis glute muscle while doing the RR #2 on the bike.
Other: FTP: 201, VDOT:34, Bike Cassette: 50:34 Compact crank with 12-25 cassette
Pre race:
This 70.3 is the inaugural race of any IronMan in Luxembourg. It’s the only IM 70.3 race to have biking in three different countries—Luxembourg, France, and Germany. We left Ramstein, Germany and traveled by car to Remich and arrived on Thursday late afternoon. We rented a small apartment so I could cook and prepare meals as I learned from a prior race in July that there is risk with eating at restaurants especially the night before and to also be able to truly relax—I hate hotels. I had the chance to participate in a hosted ride at 3:00 PM around the bike course. I chose not to as I felt this was too close to race day and instead decided to drive/ride the course with my wife. We spent Friday morning getting oriented with race site (swim in/out, transition with bike in/out, run out), registering, and watching the Mosel river for current flows—get in get out and go home to pack race bags. Later that afternoon, I laid out all equipment on top of bags and worked from checklists. All bags packed, had a great dinner and in bed early that night. I awoke early at 5 am and could not go back to bed as I was thinking already about the race. I forced myself to stay in bed till 9:00 AM to get additional rest but alas it turned into four long hours of thinking about the race. Attended the race briefing for English speakers at 1:00 PM. No earth shattering news other than 1) a storm is headed our way 2) there is usually no current in the river and 3) it will be a wetsuit swim. For the bike, they were emphasizing caution and taking it easy on the switchbacks, descents and ninety degree turns as it will probably be wet on course. Got to T1 and checked in Bike/Run bags as well as bike. Until Saturday, the weather had been high of 25 celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) and nothing but sun. Saturday afternoon was cloudy, grey, rainy, and cooler. We were done by 4:00 PM and headed home after a quick stop at a local grocery store. I ate a pasta dinner with chicken on top and a chocolate éclair for dessert—the French know pastries. I was in bed by 7:30 PM. I didn’t fall asleep a till 12:00 AM. I was awakened at 1:00 AM to the patter of elephant drops of rain on the outside windows. We had the window slightly ajar so I could feel really cold wind. It’s at that point I knew we would have a wet and perhaps cooler day for racing. Awoke at 2:00 AM and did two smoothies good for 650 calories and went back to sleep. Slept till 5:15 AM and ate my usual English muffin, banana, and a bit of coffee. We left the apartment at 6:15 AM and off the shuttle and at T1 by 7:20 AM. I loaded nutrition on bike, checked the bike, and added/removed things from run/swim bag. I was out of transition by 7:45 AM. Since I had a later swim start, I planned to be in the pool from 8:20 – 8:30.
Swim: 51:12
The course was one long rectangle with 500 meters down, 1000 back and 450 back down to swim out. The course was rectangle that looked like dog leg right from above looking from swim start. My focus points to keep me in the box where 1) breathing correctly on both sides 2-2-3-2-2 pattern 2) sight every 8 - 10 strokes 3) develop rhythm and count strokes 4) listen to my metronome—placed a metronome in my cap to help pace me so I wouldn’t windmill the first 400 meters as I did in an earlier Olympic race. My wave was set to start 8:55 AM one of the last groups to go. I warmed up in the bad (pool) across the street from the Mosel. It was nice as the pool was warm and it was kind of neat to swim laps with steam coming out of the water. I consumed a gel did some warm up on the pool deck and swam about 300 meters. I popped out of the pool and ran across the staging area of swim and was there right at 8:25 AM. I was so caught up in seeing folks come out and pass us on their way to transition and didn’t notice the direction of the water or the line folks were talking while swimming down in the previous wave. I had committed to swimming inside and letting the whatever current take me down on the first leg and then swim on the outside near the bank staying out of the strongest part of the current for the trip up. Our wave was called for an 8:55 start, I hopped in the water and crouched in waist high water on the side until the countdown and inserted myself into the group between the middle and back of pack. Off we go, from the beginning I was touching folks on both sides. About fifty meters down another swimmer kept crashing into me—three times in all. I looked up at him as if to say…Really as I swore I was correcting every time I felt his hand touch mine. I put my head down and swam hard and perhaps forgot to sight for a few sets of strokes as later a canoe came over and motioned to me over as it looked like I had strayed into the middle and I was about to hit the second cone. I corrected and resumed swimming. The next three hundred meters seemed like an eternity. I am not sure if it was because I kept looking more frequently but the yellow turn around buoy seemed like it was never closer. I am not a stellar swimmer nor fast so I did not want to be caught by the faster swimmers from the next wave. The turnaround finally came and I made the turn and cut to the outside to swim up. It was then that I realized that there was in fact a current and I had it all wrong, I was swimming against it on the way down. Later, my wife Jennifer told me she ran down the bank with me all the way down to the turnaround buoy and said I was all over the place, doing zig-zags right in the middle where the current was the strongest. Too bad I couldn’t hear her yelling at me on the bank. Having made the turn, I was excited of the prospect of swimming with the current and so I decided to stay towards the middle and not stay towards the outside. After I swam a couple of hundred meters, I decided to make my move towards the middle when WHAM, caught a right hook from a swimmer from the previous wave. I kept composed but was a bit dazed. I slowed down and floated on my back to correct my goggles and could feel the area swelling up slightly over the goggle seal. A kayaker saw what had happened and gave me the thumbs up as if to ask, you okay? I gave him the thumbs up and resumed swimming. I swear it felt like five minutes and I could hear the announcer and music from the speakers at the swim start and then another five minutes there was the second turnaround buoy. I made the turn and got swum over twice again shortly after making the turn. I could see the exit ramp and kept swimming till my hands made contact with the bank. My Garmin must have gotten touched during the swim as I had no map data. I so wanted to see my erratic line for the swim. I do believe it took me longer to swim the first 500 meters than the 1000 back. Wow, I survived the swim but made mistakes.
Takeaways:
- Sight a bit more at critical points in the river (dog leg).
- Should have inquired about the flow of the river and watched the line folks were taking down and up.
- Long swim time and being one of the last groups put me in a different zip code. Not too many people around me felt like I was way behind—did not like that feeling.
- Breathing pattern worked great, did not feel winded during swim!
- Metronome worked great, at no point did arms feel heavy or tired
T1 8:27
It was a long run from swim out to T1 in the pouring rain. Alas, no wetsuit strippers and I had some difficulty getting the wetsuit off and then getting the suit back into my bike bag. There was no one in the changing tent to hand off my suit and bag to as I would have easily taken advantage of a volunteer.
Bike: 3:19
My focus points were to ensure 1) execute proper nutrition (drink, salt tabs, and PBs) 2) keep low Z3 (150 watts) for first 30’ 3) after the first 30’, keep it to low Z4 (160 watts) as I did not want to strain or tighten my pirformis glute muscle. It was rainy and cold (57 degrees) leaving T1 and I really, really, really hate feeling cold and wet. The bike course was portrayed as being fast. It was 45 kilometers of flat road, 25 kilometers of hills with switchbacks, descents and six ninety degree turns and the final 25 kilometers mostly flat with some rolling hills. The only gripe I had with this race is that organized rides were announced days before they occurred which left no time to plan to be there. In hindsight, perhaps I should have rode on the organized ride on Thursday but I really wanted to have my back rested for Sunday. The first 45 kilometers was the part of the course to gain time. However, a nasty head wind coming off the Mosel river quickly negated making any time. I stayed in Z3 for most of the 30 kilometers and moved into a low Z4 for 16 kilometers till the climbing started. Most of the hills weren’t all that bad as they were rated 5 as they were at most 4% grades. What really killed me were the switchbacks, descents, and ninety degree turns with wet road conditions as it made it for really sketchy conditions. In addition, most villages here in Europe you will usually find cobblestones and bricks in the pedestrian parts of the villages. So all of these factors combined to make the course a bit more technical and difficult to power up once you’ve slowed down -- especially if you don’t know the course. Several people ate it around turns as there where several kranken wagons (ambulances) parked at strategic places. I had a guy pretty much wipe out against a guard rail minutes before me. At every turn people were giving the international symbol of slow down with the raising and lowering of their hands, palm down. The constant climbing, descending, turning, and powering back up in the wet conditions really sapped my energy. Moreover, I was out of my aero bars a lot trying to give my back some reprieve as I could feel some tightness. I did not stand up in the hills and only just to give my back a rest periodically. I pretty much rode most of the hilly 25 kilometers at really low Z3. The last 25 kilometers weren’t much better. In the end, VI was a bit over 12% (Av watts 131, Np 147 watts). Bottom line, I did not do a great job of evening and putting out watts and wasn’t confident on the bike for this race due to my injury and thus left a lot minutes out on the bike course.
Takeaways:
- Don’t schedule races during the meat of the training plan when volume is about to ramp up. I believe I did not take into account recovery time and the effect on fitness with racing an Olympic race during week 15 of my main training plan. This probably is true more so for a newbie to triathlon. I am thinking my back was strained from inserting this race into my HIM training coupled with ramp up in volume.
- Race rehearsal (RR) missing critical features of course. My RR course did not effectively replicate the switchbacks, descents, and ninety degree sections of the race. I now realize the importance of knowing the bike course and selecting a good RR course when not able to ride the actual course.
- Nutrition was solid. I used the bathroom once on the bike and was able to eat/drink with no issues. However, I think no more Power Bars for me and I will use gels on the course as I did not enjoy chewing food while on the bike.
- Need to minimize time spent in transition. I realized I packed bike bag with too much stuff and I ran with my shoes on in transition— rain or shine will not do that again.
T2 6:19
Again, way too long in transition and I packed run bag with too much gear. I had a full Fuel Belt with four bottles ready to go as I wasn’t sure whether the 2.5k aid stations would work for me. As soon as I opened the run bag, it came spilling out. I also made a trip to the bathroom to relieve myself after the bike.
The Run: 2:31:
My focus points were to ensure 1) executed proper nutrition with drinks, salt tabs, and gels while walking at aid stations 2) Push through and not walk during the run 3) count my strides on each side to 25 to keep me in the box and focus my attention from away from being tired if I started to feel worn down. The course was mostly fat and was basically a 5 kilometer loop with two aid stations at about 2.5 kilometers. I think mentally the poor performance on the bike carried over into the run. Out of T2, I felt a bit winded. The goal was to hold Z2 + 30” (10:30) for first three miles and then Z2 for miles four to nine. I would have to manage miles ten to thirteen as best effort. I was able to hold the first Z2 + 30” for the first three miles. From mile four, I started feeling pain in my right foot. The pain is right at the inside of my ankle. I tried to shut it out and focus on landing away from the inside of my right leg but that only worked for another mile at best. I had to drop down to running Z2 + 1’ and focus on landing lightly on the right foot. I stopped to stretch my Achilles a few times to see if that would help. Between mile 6 and 7 I had some bloating issues and had to use the bathroom at an aid station. This stop cost me a few minutes. The remaining miles were Z2 + 1.25” (11:15) and I had to walk four times for twenty strides the last 2k. I made it to the finish line but not pleased with the time.
Takeaways:
- -Heart rate was relatively low so I think cardiovascular wise, I could have went faster but the leg and foot just wasn’t cooperating.
- -Need to relieve myself fully before leaving apartment race morning.
Overall Takeaways:
I left so many minutes and seconds out there on this race but I chalk this year up to being a foundational year. I have learned so much and know that with being on a three year plan, I will have missteps but will have the opportunity to learn and keep moving forward. My wife asked once I finished this race, would I do it all over again. The answer is unequivocally yes and I am hungry to improve. With that, my shortlist of things to improve are as follows:
- Learn from my execution errors from my 2013 races and my errors in training during the JOS, GF, and HIM training
- Stay injury free and stress quality of movements over quantity. In the coming OS, I will 1) obtain a gait analysis of my run to determine the optimal movement and correct errors in form while focusing on rehab for the knee and foot. In addition, I will obtain a pre-buy bike fit from TTBikeFit.com to obtain the right bike frame for me and then get properly fit. Hopefully these actions will prevent any reccurrence of this year’s injuries.
- Schedule BIG Tri days in my next training season. Hopefully, this will add fitness to allow me to really race all three sports with confidence; especially in the last third of the run.
- Gain even more swim fitness for added confidence and reduce wasted anxiety/energy consumed mulling over the swim and to exit with everyone else with the same color cap ;-).
Thanks to everyone in the EN Haus for your help! I look forward to greater fitness, better results, NO injuries and growth as an IM in 2014.
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