Peter Noyes Austin 70.3 2013 Report
Austin was my first big race with EN as well as my first HIM. I joined EN with my friend Jon when we were 10 weeks out and having just finished training for a half marathon on our own. I immediately noticed a difference, especially on the run. My previous training did not have any interval workouts. EN had me running faster than I ever ran before.
Leading up to the race everything was going great until about 3-4 weeks out when I developed patellofemoral pain syndrome in my left knee. I suffered through my last race rehearsal and then completely stopped both running and cycling with two weeks to go. During that time I focused on swimming and saw the physical therapist as much as I could. I also used that time to panic excessively about the weather and water temperature for the race. Open water swimming is not my thing.Jon, my wife, my son and I flew out to Austin on Friday and immediately checked in at the race, went shopping at whole foods, checked in at the hotel, rebuilt out bikes and then went to bed. The next morning was the BIG breakfast which was awesome. That day we also dropped off our bikes and gear, did a recon swim and had a light pasta dinner with some friends from our local Tri club. Throughout the day I drank 64 oz of perform, and 64 oz of water, not an easy feat! I woke up twice during the night to pee.
Sunday morning (race day) I woke up at 4, had 32 oz of green smoothie and coffee. We headed to the race at 4:45. At that time it was raining and there was a ton of lightning. Needless to say, we were all a bit worried about what the day had in store. However, the weather turned for the better at around 7:30, just as the pros were starting. The water temperature ended up being a perfect 71 degrees and the air temperature was a nonissue all day.
Our wave went off at 8:55 and I immediately got into a pretty good rhythm. The recon swim really helped calm me down. I ended up taking a few breaks on the swim but I am overall happy with my split of 41 and change.Once on the bike I had a really hard time getting my heart rate in check. It wasn't until mile 15 that it dropped down into the right zone (under 160). My nutrition on the bike was spot on, 4 bottles of perform, 3 gels and half a bar. My knee really hurt on the bike. At mile 30 I was ready to be done with it. I was so uncomfortable on the bike that I sort of gave up on riding with good form, I was constantly shifting positions and sitting upright a lot. I fought through the pain and finished with a 2:55 split. I am pleased with that number because along with my knee problems, it was done on a road bike. The bike course didn't seem overly challenging, mostly small rollers. Running through T2 in cycling shoes was pure torture on the knee, I honestly didn't know how on earth I was going to run. I was feeling pretty down at this point in the race.
I put my shoes on, got going, and hoped for the best. After about a half mile I got into a good rhythm and my knee settled down. The knee actually wasn't an issue for the rest of the run. It seems that cycling is what really aggravates it. The run was a triple loop and quite hilly. The first loop felt great, my heart rate was 160-162 which is right where it belonged. The second loop was pretty good but my heart rate crept up to 166 or so. The final loop was tough. My heart rate shot up to 172-174 and at one point peaked at 183. I think my high heart rate was partially due to not managing the hills on the course well, I attacked them pretty hard. I ended up finishing fairly strong, but my last few splits definitely showed some slowing. I followed the EN guidelines of walking the aid stations which really helped me overcome my spiking heart rate. My nutrition went great, perform at each stop and 3 gels with caffeine. The run split was around 1:42 (7:47 per mile), which was an official half marathon PR (I did run a 1:39 on a training run though)!I finished in 5:25:22 which I am very proud of. My first goal was just to break 6 hours, and my stretch goal was 5:30. Once I finished, my wife and son were right there to greet me and I felt on top of the world. I actually had no idea what my time was until I stopped my garmin. I was shocked to see 5:25, I was guessing more like 5:40 something.
Once I finished and had been standing in place for a few minutes I tried to bend my knee and it wouldn't bend. I scarfed a sandwich down and then went straight to medical and got iced up and took my dyclofenac. That all seemed to help. Two days later my knee is definitely bothering me, but it isn't as bad as it was after race rehearsal 2. I went to physical therapy this morning and I am excited to rehab and get back on the bike.
One weird thing about the race is that I never peed the entire time. I drank a ton of liquid yet I just never had the urge to go. I did everything the same as my race rehearsals, and on those I had to pee like a racehorse. The weather might have been a bit more humid than I am used to, but the lack of urination is a complete mystery to me. I didn't actually pee until much later after the race, but I felt fine.
There were also just a couple annoying things about the race. First, there were some open sections on the bike where we got mixed in with traffic. There were several times where congestion built up and we were stuck moving behind slow moving cars. The run also had a lot of congestion, throughout the run I had to weave all over the place to pass people who were walking. My wave was nearly the last one which was probably a contributing factor. Even with the few minor annoyances, the race was great. Finishing inside an arena was quite an experience. I think I have officially caught the triathlon bug because I am already excited to train for Oceanside in March!
Comments
Congrats on your race!
Start working right away to rehab the knee. PTC likely has some good resources for you and I worked with a good PT group in Pasadena for my back this spring. But I'm not sure who the go-to guy is for biomechanical bike fit stuff, if that's what's causing your issues on the bike.
Best to sorta stand down from training and work very hard to ID the problem and fix it vs trying to get back into training according to a timeline set by Cali Half. Bottomline, the knee, and fixing it, is a bigger priority for you now vs Cali.
Great job Peter. Sorry I didn't recognize you when you flashed the EN sign at me. Agree completely with the congestion issues. I didn't mind the run congestion nearly as much as the bike. On the other hand, they did a much better job with traffic and lane isolation for us this year compared to last year. There are also a lot of right/left hand turns on those country roads that become annoying over time.
Sounds like you managed your knee about as well as you could. Do you think you injured it initially running, or cycling? Strange that it bothers you more on the bike. Good job with the swim too.
I am not exactly sure how I injured it. I took 10 days off of cycling because I had to travel to Sweden for work. While in Sweden I did some extra running. Once I got back my first ride was race rehearsal #1, and this is when I first encountered some knee pain. At this point I kept training, and it wasn't really bothering me too much, I seemed to be able to bounce back after each workout, but it was slowly getting worse and worse. Upon reflection, that first race rehearsal was the first time I have ever ridden for 3 hours non-stop. Almost all of my rides up until that point were group rides with lots of stopping and re-grouping. Perhaps I just wasn't trained properly for sitting that long on the bike?
I was just about to post (as I thought about your knee a bit more) that you might want to have a good bike fit done, as cycling should not cause knee pain very often! I got a Retul fit when I bought my TT bike. Well worth the money IMO.
My LBS included a Retul fit with purchase of my QR TT bike. Worth asking.