Rich Smith's Oceanside 70.3 Race Report
Rich Smith’s Oceanside 70.3 Race Report
OR
Graduated to the Middle of the Pack!
OR
How I Learned to Stop Cramping and Love Triathlon
OR
The Adventures of Lord Loudmouth, Sovereign Ruler of the Bike Aid Station
OR
Coach Rich’s Voice in My Head
Race Day Stats:
Total Time: 6:00:44
AG Place: 190/403
Overall Place: 1009/2414
Swim: 33:02, 57 AG, 316 OA
T1 Time: 4:36
Bike: 3:07:55, 185 AG, 909 OA
T2 Time: 4:43
Run: 2:10:28, 192 AG, 1083 OA
It was a fantastic day of racing. I had a 35 minute PR at this distance, and a 47 minute run PR. Almost as importantly, I was able to enjoy the rest of the day, rather than my usual post-HIM 12 hours of comatose lethargy accompanied by uncontrolled leg twitching. The venue: amazing; environment: amazing; this was my favorite HIM of three so far. I’m definitely coming back next year.
I had three goals for this race:
1: Go under six hours. Failed. But, as you will see, I did about the best race I could have under these conditions and given my fitness on race day.
2: Figure out how to do this distance without debilitating leg cramps. Succeeded sort of. I still had the cramps but I ignored them so I guess they weren't debilitating.
3: Run the ru instead of limping to the finish line. In two previous attempts, my leg cramps have prevented me from running the run. My previous best HIM run time was 2:57. That’s a long time to cover 13.1 miles
. Succeeded. I posted a 2:10, only five minutes slower than my best training time. I ran hard all the way to the end and actually passed people on the run for the first time ever.Training
I did the November OS and 9 weeks of HIM Beginner plan. I improved my run vDOT from 36 to 38 over this time at the expense of some bike fitness. I also absorbed a ton of TeamEN execution mojo; everything I did right on race day came from Da Haus.
Pre-Race
Jennifer (DW) and I got into town on Thursday night after an easy day of travel down from Seattle. We did some sightseeing in San Diego and Oceanside and had a relaxing day. I went to expo and got registered but wasn’t able to pick up my bike from Tri Bike Transport. They closed at six and I got there at 6:15. I saw Pete Jacobs at the expo, hanging around showing off his prototype Boardman Tri Bike. They were taking these pictures when I was there: http://triathlon.competitor.com/201...cobs_96088. I left the expo without getting any shopping done but I’d really wanted to pick up my bike so I could ride early in the morning. Late that night, I went grocery shopping; I was showing some crankiness and nerves and so I wasn’t the most fun traveling companion. We stayed at Comfort Suites, which was a great location and I will stay there again next year.
Friday, we got up early and had a diner breakfast (Harbor House Cafe, yummy). Jen took off for the spa in Carlsbad, which was for the best; I was a cranky mess. I went to pick up my bike, and did a little shakeout ride (http://www.strava.com/activities/124703096). Then, I really had nothing to do until 2pm, when T2 opened up for run gear dropoff. I decided, in all innocence, to go hang around the expo again. During my morning ride, I’d had some very loud braking on my front wheel and I was concerned about my choice of brake pad (Swisstop Black Prince) for my 808 CCs. I asked one of the bike mechanics at the Nytro tent about it, and he got me all freaked about it. I had my cork Zipp pads with me...blah blah blah...should I change them real quick? I bought a new floor pump, a new water bottle, and some CO2, and walked around in a weird haze of anxiety. Luckily, the Zipp guys were in their tent nearby; I checked in with them and they talked me off the ledge. Did you know that Swisstop makes Zipp’s Tangente pads for them? Then I remembered that Coach Rich said not to hang around the expo with all the other nervous triathletes and ran away back to my hotel room to calm down. I worked on my sodium loading (80 oz of sports drink, 40 oz of water, mixed nuts all day), and watched basketball, only emerging to carry my run stuff to T2 when it opened at 2. Jennifer came back from Carlsbad at 3 and we hung out quietly. We had the team dinner at Fratelli’s at 5, and I packed my transition stuff for T1. I was asleep by 10.
Race morning: I got up at 2 and had my planned breakfast: 32 oz of Naked Green Machine and 8 oz of unsweetened applesauce. I also had two cups of coffee and got the GI tract into race readiness. At 4:45, I packed my transition bags into my compressible backpack and headed out on my bike for T1, 0.75 mile away. On my way over, I ran into a big group of riders, included Peter Noyes. Peter and I had our gear in backpacks, but two other riders had their bags hanging from their wrists as they rode. I remember thinking “That’s not a great idea…” just as the rider ten feet in front of me got his morning clothes bag sucked into his front fork. The bag caught on a spoke and that guy went butt over teakettle, faceplanted into the pavement ten feet in front of me. I passed that early-morning bike handling skills test, just dodging the crash by inches and I stopped to go check on him. Reader, that was 10 grand of bike porn wrecked in the road: S-Works Shiv with Roval 60mm wheels. His front wheel had a broken spoke and he had a pretty bad cut on his face, so that was probably his day. In T1 before the start, I heard an announcement asking if anyone had a spare front wheel, so maybe he did get to race. Peter and I laughed off this scary bad luck and hung out for an hour in T1 until it was time to race. I ate a power bar and sipped on some Skratch while I waited.
The Swim
Target Swim Time: 34:00 Actual Swim Time: 33:02
The swim in beautiful Oceanside Harbor was flawless, wonderful, awesome. I’m a swimmer by trade but I don’t usually enjoy it; Oceanside was the exception. I was in the sixth wave, and I entered the water just as the sun was rising. The water wasn’t too cold and I felt very comfortable, even though I’d cut the forearms and shortened the legs of my wetsuit to make it easier to take off. Just as the sun came up through the masts of the boats in the marina, the horn sounded and I was off. That was the first of many moments during the day when I thought to myself “I love this sport”. The swim was uneventful and went as planned. I sat right on my planned pace. The water was so buoyant that I never kicked at all. The only slight setback was that I felt some early leg cramps toward the end of the swim. A harbinger of unpleasantness to come. I also had a nasty wetsuit rash on my neck despite aggressive lubing; it only really hurt after the race.
http://www.strava.com/activities/125058455
The Bike
Target Bike Time: 3:00 Actual Bike Time: 3:07
A slow T1 due to the long walk out of the ocean. I sucked down a gel and a pickle juice shot. In past races, the bike is where I’ve struggled with cramping, despite being sort of fast (previous best 2:55 bike leg). For this race, I had a torpedo bottle with Perform along with two 20 oz bottles of perform, six salted caramel GUs, two 5 oz pickle juice shots, and 16 S! caps. I planned to drink two bottles of Perform per hour. Race day was sunny and 70; I’ve spent the winter training in temps around 40 or 50; (that’s foreshadowing). In race rehearsal, I was able to hit 136 avg HR, 210 NP, 1.05 IF, and 19mph with a strong 6 mile run immediately following, so my plan was to target 210 NP.
The first 25 miles of the bike went as described by Coach Rich in the pre-race conference call. Flat and fast. I almost missed the hard turn at mile 14 under the train tracks and went into traffic but was able to get under control despite my squeaky loud front brake. Somewhere in this stretch, with a tailwind hitting my new Aerojacket wheel cover, blasting along in the 11 tooth at 190W and 30mph, I had my second moment of “This is why I love this sport.” At the aid stations, I executed the Coach R protocol perfectly: drink everything on your bike, toss empty bottles, point and shout at volunteers with the stuff you want, exit with a full load of Perform. Everything was going great until I hit the back end of Pendleton.
Mile 28 was where the fun started. I slammed my last bottle of pickle juice and took some salt pills as climb #1 loomed in front of me. I am a big guy, but was able to control my effort on the hill (237W avg for the segment). I remember tons and tons of fit doodes passing me on the hill, dancing the pedals, gasping for breath. I passed those guys at the top. The long stretch of rollers that followed, though, almost did me in. I remember Coach R’s advice in the Four Keys to ask yourself “Are you participating in some short term tactical masturbation?” Most of the time I asked myself this, I was, so I’d stop. Did I say that the weather was 20 degrees hotter than what I’ve been training in? Miles 30 to 45 showed how big a deal that was. I somehow ran out of salt pills somewhere on this stretch, even though I thought I had four extra. I stopped at mile 35 to take a nature break (first ever time to pee on the course; I need to learn how to go on the bike) and the leg cramps were really starting to go off. In prior races, this moment has been the beginning of the end of my day. My legs would cramp on the bike, and I would get weak, and end up walking the run. Today, however, I was able to get myself under control. I dialed down my power expectations to 190 NP and focused on managing my heart rate. Luckily, by mile 45, the climbing was over, and the headwind in the canyon wasn’t too bad. I remembered Coach Rich’s advice from the pre-race call to “take advantage of legal drafting opportunities and use the wind-shadow.” I guess that “legal drafting opportunities” can be remarkably similar to “a paceline,” and I averaged 21 mph on only 162W through this section. I was able to get my leg cramps back to manageable although I wasn’t fully recovered.
Final bike stats: 3:07, 18mph, NP 191, IF 1.06, HR avg 144. 8 bpm higher and 9 W lower than my week 18 race rehearsal. I think it was primarily the impact of higher temperatures.
http://www.strava.com/activities/125939389/overview
The Run
Target Run Time: 2:11:00 Actual Run Time: 2:10:28
I had another slow transition shaking out my legs, slamming a pickle juice, applying biofreeze (another Team EN trick), and taking another potty break. I ran with a Nathan bottle belt with two 10 oz bottles; water in one and Skratch in the other. I carried two salted caramel GUs, a pickle juice shot, a packet of The Right Stuff (1700mgs of Na per packet!) and another 12 salt pills. I threw on my Bondi 2s, my 2XU run cap, and headed out. The first three miles, I ran right at my target pace of 10:00, working out some leg cramps. During the run, I was overwhelmed by how awesome the course was. Tons of enthusiastic spectators, the ocean view, and the other competitors all made for an amazing run experience. For the first six miles, I pulled out all of my tricks to shake loose from my cramps. I took in all of the nutrition I brought along, except that some of the salt pills got a little wet. I hit all the aid stations, only walking about 20 steps. I also walked all the hills where we changed elevation. For the second out-and-back, I felt pretty good and decided to try to open up a little. I also started leaning on cola in the aid stations to hold off cramps. I know I raced the best I could that day based on the descending pace and rising HR in back half of the run. The cola was just enough to hold off leg cramps between aid stations, and I ran through the last two to deliver the paces below:
Exhibit A: How I know I raced my best race
Mile
Pace
Elev (ft)
HR
1
10:00
-45
143
2
10:03
20
150
3
10:12
11
151
4
9:40
10
155
5
9:49
-8
157
6
9:45
-14
157
7
10:15
-1
160
8
10:06
-18
161
9
10:09
28
161
10
10:02
16
163
11
9:53
-10
164
12
9:31
0
167
13
9:09
-33
169
0.2
8:44
0
173
This was the first time I’ve ever passed people on an HIM run and they stayed passed. It felt great. At the mile 12 aid station I remember thinking, “This is why I love this sport.”
http://app.strava.com/activities/125056890
Next Time -- Overall Lessons Learned
It’s impossible to overstate how much the Team EN training and execution mojo contributed to my race day. It was a lot. It was, by far the best day I’ve had in this sport after three years. Thanks Coach RnP!!!
Key takeaways:
1. Make a race execution plan and stick with it. I had a soft plan and got lucky adjusting on the fly; I’d have been better off writing it down.
2. Figure out the salt pill thing: how to transport, how many I really need.
3. Ensure race plans account for race day conditions like temperature.
4. My bike fitness got soft over the winter. My run improvements made up for it, but I need to spend the summer on the bike.
5. Time to start practicing transitions. I left at least 4 minutes there.
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