Peter Noyes Oceanside 2014 Race Report
Peter Noyes Oceanside 2014 Race Report
Summary:Had a pretty good race other than the swim and some gastro-intestinal problems. Swim was 43 minutes, bike was 2:49 and run was 1:35 for a total of 5:14.
Training:
For this race I was on the advanced HIM plan for about 8 weeks, after finishing the get faster plan. Training for this race went very well. I missed very few workouts and I stayed injury free, knock on wood. I had pretty pretty high expectations for this race, especially on the run based upon how my training had gone. In the last few training runs I was right around 1:30 for 13.1 miles with a lot left in the tank. Also, I did a sprint triathlon two weeks ago and I did the run at a 5:51 pace which gives a vdot of 55. In theory my marathon pace is then 6:45 and that was my target for this race. In retrospect I think that goal was just a little too ambitious. Also, I got a cold about a week before the race. I took a ton of viatimin C and zinc and by race day I was much better, I don't think it was a factor.
The Race:
I showed up in Oceanside the morning before the race and spent the day checking in, taking care of some last minute business and attending the EN dinner. The dinner was a lot of fun and it was great meeting lots of new people.
Race day:
I woke up at 3:30 AM, had my normal Green Machine smoothie and coffee. I could already tell at this point that something was not quite right in my belly. I think I had overdone it foodwise the day before. I wasn't able to evacuate much out of my system so I just wished for the best and headed off to the race. I loaded myself up like a Sherpa with 3 race bags and a wetsuit and set off toward T2. Thankfully this was an uneventful journey, too bad I can't say the same about the next leg to T1. About 20 or so feet in front of me all of a sudden a rider goes up and over the handlebars and crashes to the ground. Myself and a bunch of others stopped to help, including fellow ENer Richard who I had met the night before! What a coincidence! The guy was mostly alright, just some scrapes and a broken spoke, but it was quite a shocking thing to witness at 5:00 AM. PSA, bring a backpack to this race to stuff everything into, and then put the backpack into the morning clothes bag. A bag got caught in the dudes front wheel. It was a brand new looking S-Works Shiv something or other, we felt really bad for the guy. It was nice running into Richard, we were able to hang out together in T1 waiting for the race to start.
The swim:The swim is a deep water start and the water was 59 degrees. The cold didn't actually bother me as much as I thought it would, or maybe it is because I instantly warmed myself up once in the water
I have a history of anxiety in open water swimming so I was pretty nervous as usual. When the gun went off I fell into a groove pretty quickly. I actually was swimming well until the turnaround. At the turnaround there was a ton of contact, and I was suddenly blinded by the sun facing the new direction. I had to stop to gather myself. I only stopped for a minute or so and then kept on going. I actually thought my swim wasn't too bad but I was pretty distraught when I saw it was 43 minutes. I was hoping for around 38 minutes based on practice swims. I think what happened is I was so hyper-focused on relaxing and not panicking that I forgot to actually swim with any strength at all. I need to relax but pull!! I think I also swallowed a lot of sea water 
Transition:
Transition was fairly quick and smooth. No mistakes were made, but I need to learn to ride without socks, I still don't have tri-shoes. It was 4 minutes and change. In transition I knew for sure something was wrong with my stomach. I really fought the urge to vomit. I think it was the already upset stomach coupled with sea water.
The bike:
It took me much longer than I would have liked to settle into my target watts. I was in survival mode at this point. I was forcing myself to drink perform even though it was the last thing I felt like doing. Perform combined with the burning taste of sea water is horrible. It was at least 30 minutes before I started to feel ok. The rest of the bike went pretty well. I ended up in the low range of my target watts with a NP of 185 for an IF of 0.80. All the EN stuff is true, people were killing themselves on the climbs and coasting down the hills. This was especially the case on the downhill rollers after the major climbing is done, people gave up so much speed! I didn't end up eating quite all of my planned nutrition on the bike, I had 3 instead of 4 bottles of perform, all 3 gels, and only 1/2 of the powerbar instead of the full thing. That was just the best I could do. One other thing I did that worked out well on the bike is that I hid speed on my Garmin. This course has notorious winds and I didn't want the wind to influence my decisions. I am not actually sure how windy it was, I was oblivious and just trying to hit my watts.
The run:I knew I was in for a tough run before I even started. For the first mile or so I thought I would at least try to stick to the plan and do 7:00 minute miles and then half way through pick up the pace. Well, that was just not in the cards. I settled for best effort because I knew my RPE was off. It was also much hotter than I expected. I was feeling pretty down early on in the run because I just didn't know how on earth I was going to keep it up for a half marathon. I forced myself to eat a gel at mile 4 and this time it was caffeinated. That gel as hard as it was to take down really did the trick. Soon I felt much better. After that I had a much easier time drinking perform. Around this time I also started to produce a whole lot of gas. I must have farted about 20+ times during the race. Usually I never trust a fart while running, but it was the only thing making me feel better so I risked it! By the half way point I was feeling much better. The last half I just stuck with the 7:10+ pace I had settled into. I knew the plan was out the window and with everything else I just wanted to finish strong and have fun. By mile 10 I was feeling great so I did push a bit the last stretch. I ended up with a 1:35 and change run split.
Overall I am happy with the results, it is an 11 minute HIM PR, and I think this one was a tougher course than Austin. I definitely learned a lot on this race. This is my first race with power and that portion of it went well. Other learnings are that from now on I am just going to stick to typical meals the day before the race. No more extra large breakfasts for me! I am also considering having gels with caffeine on the bike as well as the run, maybe alternate? I also need to get polarized goggles. Finally I should have forced myself to eat more on the bike and I think I should have tried to eat earlier on the run, I might have had a much different run had I started to feel better earlier.
Comments
Have a good plan, Modify the plan as circumstances dictate. Great Job!
Hey Peter,
Great race report! My notes:
I totally agree on making sure not to overeat on the day before the race. I like smaller meals, lots of snacks, no fiber and a very light dinner. I also experimented successfully before the Chicago Marathon with a PowerBar as a pre-bedtime snack, and will do that for HIMs this year as well.
I wonder if you over-consumed on the bike. I agree with Rich, try to go to the absolute minimum. I've experimented with very low-calorie HIMs and it's worked out well. I'm about 140lb and on the bike I do 3 gels and a bottle of gatorade, max. Other than a pre-swim gel, that 100% of my nutrition for the race. Putting down 4 bottles of perform plus gels seems like a lot.
Like you, I have a 6:45 MP and a 1:35 HIM run split. I'm really going to try to improve that situation. I believe it comes down to being stronger on the bike and executing well so you get off the bike running 6:30s and having to hold yourself back vs. seeing 7:20s and wondering how on earth you're going to be able to speed up...
Peter - outstanding - always great to see a PR, and to chuckle a bit as you look for the grey cloud within the silver lining.
I agree with Matt on HIM nutrition. Simple fueling on the bike, rather than a complex plan, always seemed to work OK for me when I was doing that distance in 5-5:15. I've found the nutritional prep and race-day needs for an HIM are much more like Olympic distance than full length IM. Staying hydrated (which for me means 2 bottles during the bike leg) with a dilute sports drink, a gel at the start and in each of T1 and T2 worked just fine to keep me out of glycogen debt until the second half of the run, when it ceases to be an issue.
Also, don't discount the impact of temps over 65 on your run time. It's just not reasonable to expect to run the same when it's sunny and 70F as when it's 50 and cloudy/foggy. I think you did just fine. A good race to build from.
Great report Peter. I like the way you managed your GI issues, even if it included 20+ farts on the run! That's some good detail! It's amazing how different all of our guts are. I easily drank twice the volume you were planning to drink at Austin, only peed at mile 50 and felt great....granted, my runs are wayyyyy longer than yours (slower = longer
) so maybe I need more fuel and fluids!
Peter nice report and great PR!
Was definitely fun hanging out and made the waiting in T1 go much faster.
Congrats on 20+ farts during the run. Not sure I would have taken that kind of risk but you must like living on the edge