mancona's Clearwater 70.3 Race Report
So, I just spend over 30 minutes typing my normal race report and then started to add pictures and lost almost all of the text. I should have known better than trying to write the whole thing in the forums without saving the text. Here is the short version and I will put pictures in a different post.
Theresa and I had a great time in Florida, which is what we went to do. We had booked this trip before I qualified and were going to visit family and then spend a few days in Orlando.
As far as the race, I have many feelings and thoughts on it but I'm only going to share the positive ones...
- It is a world championship that you have to qualify for. I'm proud that I qualified, and I'm proud that I had the opportunity to race with some of the fastest people in the world
- I have no regrets from doing this race, and I would recommend it as a goal for anyone that enjoys the 70.3 distance
- I'm very glad I did this race for fun and did not have goals
- It is possible (but challenging) to complete this race without drafting and without cheating
- I'm now very excited for Kona next year!
Even though I really wanted to race with no plan at all, I couldn't do it, just not the way my brain works. So my race plan was to simply swim, bike and do the first half of the run at IM pace and then see how I felt. I've been de-training for about 8 weeks from IMWI so I didn't think I had it in me to rally race this race, but figured holding IM paces would give me a decent race while still having fun and not having to worth about blowing up.
I actually did a pretty good job at sticking to the plan...
The swim was a brutal start thanks to the guys behind me diving in and someone actually grabbing my shoulder to pull himself over me and then kicking me in the back of the head after. Anyway, I managed to find clear water (no pun intended) after the first 50 meters or so and swan a 1.2 mile PR of 33:28.
The first 45 minutes of the bike didn't seem that bad. I was passing small groups of maybe 3-6 riders and moving up in the field while staying at my IM watts. I had to surge a few times to get around the whole group, but I was able to stay in front of them on my IM watts. Then things started to change. About 20 miles in a group of 10-20 passed me in a paceline. I'll save the details but this happened a number of times. Around 40 miles in, the road was pretty empty and I was back to being able to just hold my IM watts and slowly pass small groups of people that were riding legal for the most part. I ended up going 2:20 on 196 NP, for comparison, I went 2:22 at Kansas at 227 NP and 2:14 at Racine at 237 NP... in otherwords, Clearwater is a very easy and fast course even without drafting.
I started the run and felt great, a little pissed about all the drafting but felt good. First 6 miles were slighly faster then my EP and I negative split every mile by a few seconds. At the half way turn around I decided to test the legs and ran my pace from Kansas (6:15ish) for about 4 miles. I felt great until mile 10 and then I started to feel like I was working pretty hard, so I decided just to slow down and enjoy the last 3 miles. Ended up with an ok run at 1:25:20.
Summary:
All the Clearwater drama aside, I'm very pleased with my results and proud of my race. It was a challenge for me to just go easy and not race, especially when the packs went by, but I did it. On little to no structured training, I was able to pull off a 4:24:49 which is actually a PR of :51 seconds and I felt great after the race.
More importantly, Theresa and I enjoyed a great vacation in Clearwater with Family and the Hansens, and then a good time in Orlando as well.
A did have a few very positive things come from the race as well:
- I learned again not to freak out about little things and just relax (i.e. the broken pedal, horrible swim start, drafting).
- The even as a whole got me very excited for Kona. There was just something different in the air race morning and I can't wait to race Kona.
- Seeing all of the very fit and fast athletes has motivated me ... time for some hard work and to get faster!
- I never got sore and didn't have to recover from the race, so I jumped right back into the Nov OS training plan on Monday.
Comments
Matt,
You never cease to impress. You show up after the monster year you had and lay down a 51 second PR. Just so impressive. Congrats on a great race and an even better year.
Dave
Great race, congrats
Sounds like it was a great racecation and you are simply an animal!
I think, my young friend, that :51 seconds is only the beginning! Way to have a great day, learn a lot, and be grateful! Congrats, Matt! And Teresa's baby bump is adorable.
What a wonderful way to end an outstanding season, Matt! A PR without much training---just amazing!
Matt
Awesome job Matt! Very cool, very calm, and you are READY to crush 2010.
Glad to have you in Nov with Team Turkey!
P
My favorite line from your RR is the last one...Awesome that you finished this thing and went straight back into OS! Congrats on a great race!
Thanks for your perspectives on the event itself too.
Excellent recap, Matt! And it sounds like you had a fabulous day. Kona will be here before you know it.
What a great year! What fun it must be to be so speedy
Looks to me like next year will be the best year yet though! When is the baby due? Boy or girl?
Robin
You make a 4:24 look easy, Matt. Congratulations on a great race and a great season!
bmancona is due mid February and Theresa wants to be surprised so we do not know the gender.
Grreat race !! Grreat year !! Matt. Looks like in the pics you actually might have added a few pounds since IMWI. That means I may catch your w/kg if you keep up the eating> Haha
Yeah, I'm up about 10 lbs. I actually think I might have been close to being too light for IMWI so I don't think I will get that low again this year, however I'm still going to try to bring the w/kg up more by getting stronger!
You can try and catch my w/kg and I'm going to keep trying to catch your FTP.
Matt, great race and great time for just cruising at IM effort. For me, it was give it everything I had; and I was more sore from this race then any of the other four 70.3s I did this year. What makes me mad about all the drafting is that it makes everyone's times suspect. Since the M50-54 was only the 2nd wave after the pro's, I had a clean ride for about 15-20 miles before the first mega pack blew by. And while I got passed by severa more l large packs, I also saw a lot of people riding clean. What folks need to know is that this course is FAST without drafting for several reasons:
1) It is very, very flat. Apart from the Clearwater bridge and a few short rollers here and there, it is about 95% pancake flat.
2) The winds were only about 3-6mph and the humidity was very low. For us Floridians, it was a perfect day.
3) The course is very straight with few turns so you aren't losing speed very often. The southbound leg on McMullenBooth was probably over a 15 mile straight shot!
4) Last, and perhaps the biggest factor is that for much of the course you are getting a huge and legal vehicle draft. Over half of the course is on 6 lane roads with the bikes riding to the right of the fast lane. So you have two lanes of open vehicle traffic moving in your direction about 3 feet on your right...separated only by cones. Folks...THIS is why people ride fast in Clearwater. You aren't biking on barely used country roads and there is constant traffic on your side creating a favorable wind draft.
I've only been in the sport 3 years and I was proud to get to race in a World Championship. I barely missed qualifying a couple of times so when I made it, I knew I wasn't going to be at the front anyway. If you want to race with the best, then don't be discouraged by the fact that there are a lot of cheaters in the same race. I got a lot of internal satisfaction out of this race and hope others get the opportunity as well.
r/Paul
Yea Haw cowboy. Outstanding. :51 pr while "de-training"...
Great job!
"
I always enjoy your race reports and the way you set out goals and lessons learned. Glad this race got you fired up for Kona!
Matt,
Great race. I'm looking forward to having another person cruch it in the November OS. It's great that you saw this as more of a vacation and still got the PR.
Gordon