Ralph's Try Charleston HIM Report
Ralph’s Try Charleston HIM Race Report 4/19/2014
Background :
I have been a team member at EN for almost a year. I started off just to get faster at Sprints but moved on to Olympics. This is my first Half Iron distance race and I have a full IM race scheduled for October. I chose this race because it was cheap and local and early in the season. Also, I have a close friend that lives 1 mile from the race venue who offered for us to stay at her house. My training leading up to the race was per the HIM plan and I did a pretty good job of sticking to the workouts except for moving some around due to life issues. I do not have a power meter yet so I have been training with HR and pace. My race rehearsals were as follows:
Swim RR1 47:05 RR2 44:15
Bike RR1 3:31:10 RR2 3:12:40
Run end of OS 2:06:37 RR 2:09:51
Based on this I projected that I would be happy with anything under 6:30 and really pleased if I broke 6:00 total time.
About the course : The race is set up with a split transition. All of my previous races had a single location for T1 and T2 so this was new for me. The swim is in the lake at the KOA campground and is a large triangle and a smaller triangle within it. There is a sprint run in conjunction with the half and the sprint swim is around the inner triangle, the Half is 2 laps around the outer buoys. The T1 area is grassy (until it rains) and on the lakeshore. The T2 area is across a 4 lane highway at a primary school and there is shuttle service between the two. Bike checkin is on Friday due to logistical issues and the police stay overnight to protect the gear. The Bike course leaves the campground and makes a big loop north coming back into the T2 area in the middle school parking lot. The run course leaves the school and follows a bike path for a double down and back layout to end at the school. Run aid stations every mile.
Downside of a local race is that the on-course nutrition can be sketchy. The first two bike aid stations had only water and the third had only water and Heed. Heed, Coke, and water with Hammer Gels for the run. Due to this, I had made the decision to carry my own nutrition. I trained on Perform so I just decided to be a pack mule rather than experiment with nutrition on Race day.
Friday: Got up and had a green smoothie and some french toast. Changed the batteries in my HR monitor and bike cadence sensor. Packed the car using my EN checklist and left for Charleston about Noon. Met a friend for lunch at about 1 (Asian noodles) and went to check-in. Hydrated all day with Perform and water . The weather forecast was calling for 100% chance of rain and it was cloudy but no rain yet. Got my packet and took the bike to T1 and put it on the rack. I can’t carry 5 bottles on the bike without putting them in my jersey pockets and since I was planning to wear my EN kit, I needed a rear bottle carrier for two more bottles. When I discovered this about 2 week prior to the race, I ordered one off of the internet but when it finally shipped the tracking number said it would be delivered on race day. Go figure. I bought a cheap plastic one at the Trek store and mounted it in T1. Ready to roll. My granny bike is an older Trek aluminum frame and upfit with aero bars and bullhorn bars so she is not afraid of the rain. Some of the folks were putting trash bags over their bikes in an effort to protect them from the weather but this just made them susceptible to being blown over by the wind. Immediately after I dropped off my bike, we went and drove the bike course and the run course. Just as we finished driving the course, it started raining hard.
Went back to my friend’s house and put my transition stuff in bags. I keep all of my swim gear in a swim bag. I never take it out except to swim and put it right back in. Needless to say, I was surprised when my goggles were not in the bag. Must have left them a the pool on my last swim and never checked because they are ALWAYS in the bag. Fortunately there is a well-equipped triathlon shop 4 miles down the road that is open till 9 PM. New goggles, 27$ done! Bags packed and by the door. Mixed my Perform and put it in the Fridge. It was still raining when I went to bed at 9 and every time I got up in the night you could hear that it was pouring.
Race Day: Got up at 2:30 and ate 650 calories of applesauce. Back to bed. Up at 4:30 and into race kit with HR monitor under kit. Sipped some perform and headed to the venue. Amazingly, the rain had stopped except for a light drizzle. Overcast and 60 degreesPark near T2 and carried my gear up. Set up my run stuff on a towel but wrapped my shoes and socks, hat, and race belt with 6 gels in a trash bag and laid it on the very bright colored beach towel so I could find it. Shuttle to T1 and loaded up the bike with 5 bottles of Perform and set out my shoes, socks, and helmet. Went to body marking and realized that the timing chips were back at T2. Shuttle back and got the chip then shuttle back to T1. Luckily we were there early so plenty of time. I felt like I needed to use the bathroom so I hit the port-o-john and had some diarrhea and lots of gas. Didn’t see that coming. Didn’t feel bad or anything. Put on wetsuit over kit and took a warmup swim. Felt pretty good. Had a powerbar about an hour before the start and a gel about 15 min before. Swim start was in waves and I was in the third wave. As they were waiting to send off the first wave, the announcer advised us that part of the bike course was under water and it was being changed back to the “old” course which was the same distance but rougher roads.
The start was an in the water start, I started off too fast in the excitement and quickly got a little bit out of breath. By the first buoy, I had started counting my strokes and quickly settled down to my blazing 2 min per hundred pace. The rest of the swim was mostly uneventful. I had never used wetsuit strippers and that was pretty cool. Swim time 44:00 or right at my expected pace. T1 time 2:04 which I thought was pretty good. The exit from T1 to the bike was a mudfest but once on the bike, I realized that I had hit the wrong button to start my Garmin and lost all of the swim data. I got it going as I left T1 so the Bike data is about 1:15 off of the official race. My heart rate was up in Z3 when I started the bike so I backed it off until it came down to the low Z2 range. I took a gel right out of T1 (not sure why) my plan called for having it after 20 min on the bike. My goal was to negative split the bike and run. I stayed on the nutrition plan drinking my Perform and having a gel every 30 minutes just like I practiced. BUT, I was feeling a little gassy and was afraid to chance it on the bike after my pre-race issue. I stopped at the first aid station and hit the port-o-john. Just gas. OK, I am proud of my new EN kit and I would hate to finish with skidmarks on the drawers. About halfway through the bike, I am tooling along at about HR Z 2.5 and all of a sudden, my HR is Z5. I don’t feel any different, no hill, RPE is the same. Since the course is flat, I switch to the speed and started following that. When I look back at he HR screen, it is below Z1 in the recovery level. About 20 min later, the HR comes back down to Z2-2.5 but I am still wary. The changed portion in the bike route is rough pavement. Not so many potholes just old and teeth-jarring. The ride was through nice country but there were winds of 10-15 miles per hour all morning. I drank all 5 bottles of Perform and took in 6 gels. Feeling a little fullish at the end.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/483604788
Arrived in T2 and found my gear easily. Changed socks and put on hat, racebelt with gels and shoes. Headed out and hit the port-o-john to pee (for the second time). The dry socks were kind of a waste because there was standing water over a significant portion of the run course. The first time down you try to avoid them, the first time back you gingerly go though them and from then on it feels cool to run through them. I had a little trouble getting the first couple of miles slow enough and I passed the first aid station before I remembered that I was supposed to walk it. I tried a cup of Heed at the next station but I was not ready for how bad it tasted and it seemed to make my stomach worse. At the next station I took water and a gel but that was not so great either. I remember the coaches saying to try coke so I tried that on the next aid station and it was OK so I ended up taking a sip of coke from then on with 3 gels total for the run. My pace sagged a little in the run and my slowest mile was mile 8. From then On, I picked up the pace each mile till the end. I don’t think it really quite is a negative split but I finished strong and steady while there were lots of folks walking. I crossed the line and still felt pretty good. My garmin time is a couple of minutes long on the run because I forgot to stop it at the end. As I sat down at the finish line, the rain started again so I packed up my stuff and bolted. I think the awards ceremony was already over 
.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/483604797
Total time 6:18:29
Basically, I am pleased with this result. It could have been better if I had not had to stop twice but I was able to execute a pretty steady race that was very close to my race rehearsals. With a power meter, I should be able to get my bike a little steadier. Overall, I feel pretty good about my execution, I think I just need to find out how much further I can push before I am unable to finish strong. Clearly my bike split is a glaring cry for improvement. I felt like I still had a little left in the tank and I never really got to the place where life sucked even when I had some belly pain. I am taking that to mean that I didn’t go hard enough.
Lessons Learned :
1. Check the nutrition available for the race far enough in advance so you can try and train with the available nutrition.
2. No matter how many times you hear the coaches say it before the race, the fracas at the start can get you over excited so practice slowing down and counting your strokes.
3. Even if you have used your Garmin in multisport mode, review it before the race so you don’t screw it up.
4. I need a power meter
5. Cool weather can mean that your pre-race nutrition plan is too much on race day. Be ready to modify as needed.
6. There is no magic that is going to make your race time any better than the best that you did in your race rehearsals. And don’t delude yourself into thinking that there is.
7. Probably should not change the batteries in your stuff the day before a race. (not sure HR monitor was battery related but kind of assume it was.
8. Don’t sign up for a local race and think you will dominate your age group just because it is small, the fastest time in the 50-51 AG was 4:37:10 and a 5:30 would have been middle of the pack.
http://www.setupevents.com/files/TC...le_AG.html
Comments
The power meter will make a big difference for you in the way you race and train. I'm guilty of lesson learned # 7. Did that at IMFL last year and rode the first half without my power meter. Thankfully I got it corrected at special needs. All of your "lessons learned" are very good points.
See you in a few weeks at the sprint series!
Carla
I think you learned some good things going into the IM. I agree with Matt that that seems like a LOT of nutrition. Is that what you trained with? Any issues in training? Even for a full IM, I remember Coach Rich talking about how there are so many people who ruin their race by eating too much. Eating too little is also bad, but much easier to fix, especially in "catered" race situations.
As far as the nutrition goes, I used the EN spreadsheet and that is what I trained with. I may have taken the coaches instructions to train with your nutrition plan a little too literally. I typically drank about a bottle of Perform every 30 min on a ride, even on the trainer.. It has not caused me any problems to date (except when it counted). As far as the intensity of a HIM goes, I raced it pretty near where I trained so I did not really expect to see much difference in how I tolerated the same amount of nutrition although it was cooler and I did not sweat as much.
It may have just been a mild viral thing since it was present pre-race I guess but your comments about my race intake are very helpful.
I listened to the core nutrition seminar and they suggested that it was best to take in as much as you and tolerate without issues. It looks like fine-tuning the nutrition plan for the individual may be more of an experiment than I realized. I certainly am going to find out what is on the course at B2B and train with that to get acclimatized to it.
Thanks for all of the feedback
@ Ralph...congrats on your first HIM. Always a good feeling to cross the line in a new, longer distance.
2x what Matt & Rachel said about the amount of nutrition. For a HIM, I usually take 1 bottle of Infinit (700 calories) and 3 bottles of water, and that's on a hot day (+80F). As one of them said, it is better to be slightly under on nutrition than over. Once you eat too much, your stomach basically shuts down and your HIM and, for sure an IM, is over.
Love your summary of things you learned. You'll be smarter and faster next time as a result.