Matt Aaronson - 70.3 Racine 2014
My intent is to be a bit more brief than usual regarding this race. But we'll see if that turns out to be the case, because you can learn from every race…
The good:
- Total time 4:34:19. Despite being almost 3 minutes slower than the 4:31:31 PR I set at Grand Rapids about a month ago, it's a very respectable performance.
- I would have got a roll-down spot to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships at Mt Tremblant in September, but I had to pass because I have a work commitment that would prevent me from getting to the race in time to register
- My 56-mile bike split was 2:21:17 (avg 24.0 mph per Garmin that measured 56.4 miles on a course that had a last-minute revision), which is within a minute of my bike PR.
- My bike execution was excellent. I finished the bike very strong power-wise (see below) but felt great and strong and not fatigued. My IF for the ride was 0.849 and VI 1.01. My first half IF was 0.856 and second half was IF 0.845 so pacing was quite even. At Grand Rapids last month I rode IF 0.848 (based on the same FTP) with a 1.02 VI and a big positive split…and I didn't feel as good. My avg HR was 2bpm higher yesterday at Racine but then again it was 16 degrees warmer and sunny. There was very minor decoupling particularly in the last 10 miles, but I think it was attributable to pushing a bit and the day heating up and thereby increasing HR.
- My half-marathon run split was 1:29:40, which is within ~30sec of my run PR. Racine was a warmer and unshaded course and my power profile on the bike was a lot harder (discussed below), so this run gives me a lot of confidence that I can turn in a consistently strong run effort.
- My run execution was pretty good. I still think I'm too conservative at the beginning and I could start to empty the tank earlier, but I have made a lot of progress in pacing the runs. My fastest miles were at the end…6:38 pace for the last 1.5 miles vs. and overall run average of ~6:51, but my fastest 5k was around miles 1.5-4.5 (6:43 pace). So it's less about starting too slow and more about not having the mid-race "lull" I think. My HR marched pretty steadily upward over the course of the run. Cadence averaged 178 although every time I looked at my watch and saw 178 I would make a conscious effort to increase it. I think I need to "hurt more" in these runs.
- I didn't relieve myself during the race and therefore waste valuable time. I felt the need to go on the bike but I suppressed it. In transition I was going to use a port-a-potty on my way out but some guy darted in just as I was about to, so I skipped it and the urge went away during the run.
- I never got caught up in any draft packs on the bike. No "leapfrogging" with anyone at all. Two guys including the winner of M3034 rode my wheel a bit in the last 10 miles but they never once pulled me. I did of course slingshot-pass people but most of them were going so slowly it was irrelevant.
- I used Zoot Kiawe 2.0 shoes for this race, the first time running more than a half an hour with them. They are great and I will use them at this distance going forward. The way my feet and legs feel a day later tells me that the level of support and mechanics aren't materially different from my trainers…i.e. no muscles seem to have been used in different was as sometimes happens with "race day shoes". The shoes are almost as light as the KSwiss I used to race in, but way more comfortable.
- Awesome support crew including a very understanding family, my dad who played the Sherpa role very well, and a buddy of mine who not only checked in my bike on Saturday so I could spend the day in Chicago for my eldest daughter's birthday, but who also spent 40 minutes (with Kate, who gets a big shout-out for this too) wrestling an unfamiliar rack onto his car and figuring out how to get my bike onto the rack. Also great to see Bruce Thompson "aggressively spectating"…basically chasing me at the run turnaround!!
The bad:
- My swim split was 38:36. That is unbelievably bad. It's over 4 minutes slower than my (relatively pedestrian) swim PR, and ~1 minute slower than I swam at Grand Rapids a month ago on a course that most people agree was long. At Racine the swim conditions were utterly perfect and the splits of the top athletes suggest the course was fair. My buddy who also did both Grand Rapids and Racine was just over a minute faster at Racine. I felt good in the water, very relaxed and focusing on form and counting strokes. I had open water for the most part, swimming outside of the crowds. My fitness in the pool (measured objectively with a 1000yd TT) is about where it was in 2011 and 2012 when I was swimming ~34 minutes in races. So I have no clue what happened. When I got out of the water and looked at my watch I was utterly shocked. I know I didn't swim a great line, but there is no way that could be worth ~4 minutes. My only thought is that I just didn't push hard enough. Maybe I was "too relaxed" and needed to race it a bit more. Obviously I need lessons to take my swimming to the next level, but this performance fell into the realm of total execution failure I guess.
- I spent about 15-20 minutes really "out of my box" at the beginning of the bike. I was so confused and upset with my swim that I had my head in a bad place. I probably biked a bit too hard out of the gate as a result, and although the downstream consequence probably didn't materialize, it was an uncharacteristic lapse in disciplined execution. I thought about a lot during those miles (including the comforting possibility that the swim course was long and everyone had bad swim times…too bad that wasn't true!), but eventually I was able to just re-focus on the task at hand and get down to business on the bike.
- Again uncharacteristically, I had a "user-induced" technology malfunction. Actually 3 malfunctions: (a) my HR strap wasn't properly paired with my Edge 500 so I had to pair it while riding in the first few miles, (b) my Garmin didn't acquire satellites so I didn't start it until almost a mile into the run and (c) I forgot to stop my Garmin at the end of the race so have "standing around data" for a minute or so. Actually the elastics on my shoes didn't break as expected and I also forgot to leave the Velcro on my shoes open too so overall the first part of the bike was a shitshow in general.
- My age group division is utterly stacked and so my finish was only good for 13th place out of 323 in M3539 (69 out of 2594 overall). I would have needed about 4:30 to get into the top 10. In Racine in 2011 I was 9th in the same AG with a finish time of just under 4:40. Some of the guys who showed up were pro-caliber and posted times of sub-4:00 and 4:0x…they really should have pro cards. On the bright side, I would have been EASILY top 10 in the AG I'm joining next year. Of course I'm not the only guy who's aging up…
The ugly:
- see comments about the swim…
The bike data:
| Lap | Miles | Time | Speed mph |
Avg power | Norm power | VI | IF | Avg cadence | Avg HR |
Max HR |
NP/HR | |||
| 1 | 5 | 12:26 | 24.1 | 217 | 220 | 1.04 | 0.865 | 83 | 152 | 161 | 1.45 | |||
| 2 | 0.19 | 0:30 | 22.3 | 165 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 5 | 13:18 | 22.6 | 223 | 224 | 1.00 | 0.879 | 86 | 145 | 153 | 1.54 | |||
| 4 | 5 | 12:42 | 23.6 | 217 | 217 | 1.00 | 0.852 | 87 | 143 | 150 | 1.52 | |||
| 5 | 5 | 12:45 | 23.5 | 214 | 216 | 1.01 | 0.848 | 87 | 142 | 149 | 1.52 | |||
| 6 | 5 | 12:08 | 24.7 | 212 | 215 | 1.01 | 0.843 | 87 | 143 | 147 | 1.50 | |||
| 7 | 5 | 13:02 | 23.0 | 212 | 213 | 1.00 | 0.835 | 86 | 142 | 146 | 1.50 | |||
| 8 | 5 | 12:20 | 24.3 | 217 | 219 | 1.01 | 0.857 | 86 | 144 | 153 | 1.52 | |||
| 9 | 5 | 12:31 | 24.0 | 216 | 217 | 1.00 | 0.851 | 86 | 146 | 150 | 1.49 | |||
| 10 | 5 | 12:04 | 24.8 | 214 | 216 | 1.01 | 0.846 | 87 | 149 | 154 | 1.45 | |||
| 11 | 5 | 11:28 | 26.2 | 211 | 212 | 1.00 | 0.833 | 88 | 150 | 154 | 1.41 | |||
| 12 | 5 | 12:27 | 24.1 | 213 | 214 | 1.01 | 0.838 | 82 | 152 | 159 | 1.41 | |||
| 13 | 1.19 | 3:10 | 22.4 | 190 | 197 | 1.11 | 0.774 | 83 | 150 | 152 | 1.31 | |||
| OVERALL | 56.38 | 2:20:56 | 24.00 | 214 | 216 | 1.01 | 0.849 | 86 | 146 | 161 | 1.48 | |||
| TSS = 168.3 | ||||||||||||||
Other comments:
- I maintain my position that the quality of the roads in this race are not as bad as everyone seems to say. There are spots that aren't great, and some of those spots are in the last 3 miles when people are feeling tired and it's the last thing they remember about the ride. But honestly the roads aren't horrible and the bike course is damn fast.
- Every second counts. The guy who finished one place ahead of me in my AG beat me by 3 seconds. The guy who finished behind me was 28 seconds back. Both of those guys started 2 waves after me so I couldn't race against them. That's really too bad. I'd love to have seen the results if we were racing to the finish line.
- Nutrition was very simple as usual. Ensure upon waking up (230 cal), Clif Bar driving to the race (240 cal), gel before the swim start, 2 gels on the bike and one gel on the run. 3 of the 4 gels were Gu Roctane. So 470 cals pre-race and 400 cals during the event (I count the pre-swim as "during the race").
- Apparently wristband numbers are checked when you ENTER transition with a bike. Strange. In any case, apparently you can email the race and arrange to have someone rack your bike for you. And if you don't email, make sure you pick someone who can talk really smooth…
- If you have AWA status you could bypass the registration line that apparently was over 2 hours at one point on Saturday. Too bad I'm only racing 2 WTC races this year…
Implications:
- Assuming I can maintain my fitness with a crazy business travel schedule in the next 2 weeks, my approach to Ironman 70.3 Steelhead on August 10 will benefit from lessons learned at Racine and the fact that it's my last race in the M3539 age group so I should "go with a bang":
(1) I will "race" the swim. Possibly I'll learn the true metabolic cost of a hard swim (which I did at Pleasant Prairie Olympic-distance in 2011). But I sure won't be lollygagging.
(2) I will be very smart on the bike. The new Steelhead course has the last 15 miles southbound on a beautifully smooth road. If the wind comes from the north or NW on race day I plan to go with up to a 0.9 IF on the first 10 miles north, and play the homestretch for pure speed.
(3) I will be – VERY uncharacteristically – focused on my race time starting at about mile 40 of the bike. If a PR is in sight I'm going to ratchet up the intensity, and on the run I'm going to go for broke. Specifically, if I can PR with a 1:27 run (only 2 minutes slower than my open half-marathon time), then I will seriously run myself into a wall trying to hit that target. I've run this course before and it is fast with only 3 short-but-steep hills in the whole run. On the other hand, if a PR is out of sight, I will run hard but won't overdo it because of the injury risk and recovery cost.
The Garmin links:
Swim: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/546105366
Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/546112893
Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/546105669
As usual, any comments / thoughts / suggestions / observations / etc from my teammates are much appreciated!!
Comments
The swim- Don't underestimate how much the swim takes out of us... By "going easy" you are definetly inadvertently saving some for the bike/run... No doubt tho for you to be even more competitive and get those seconds you have to get thru the swim faster.... While swimming in clear water is fun/relaxing its also slower.... So you have 3 choices to get easily faster swims..... 1. More swim training and better technique 2. More effort 3. Swim with the masses and get free speed
Nutrition- I'm amazed at your low calorie intake before and during the race... But it aint broke dont fix it! Works for you.... I am 50% more calories pre-race taking in 600-700cals , and about twice as much during the race consuming 200cals an hour thru bike/run portion.... Proving again how individual this is...
You seem to be having a run break through this year ... How much would you credit your run focus stand alone marathon training to this? Seems like you raised and maintained your run fitness quite nicely!
- I realize 1/2/3 are not mutually exclusive choices. I have to do all of them and I suspect #1 is the lynchpin.
- Yes, transitions are fast at this point. The long T1 was due to a long run in the sand. I think I have that one nailed pretty well. Probably there is upside to going sockless but so far I like running with socks.
- Nutrition is for sure individual. For longer distance I will need to learn to process more calories. But for HIM I think I have a system that works. One important thing to note is that I eat a LOT the day before the race. The day before the race I calculated 5,053 calories. The day before Grand Rapids HIM it was 4,126. A lot of that is carbs, but I also eat a lot of calorie-dense nuts and trail mix…on the one hand for the salt, but also because I feel those fats give me more enduring energy. Like you, I'm a small guy…I have no idea if my body can actually absorb all that since my understanding is that there is a maximum glycogen storage amount in the muscles. But it seems to work for me so I go with it.
As for the running, I've thought about it a lot and I'm not sure how the 18 weeks of run-only benefitted me. My quick reaction is "for sure", but then again I got injured in January and was in a walking cast for 6 weeks and did zero running followed by run/walk for several weeks. I wasn't doing real running until early April (hence my skipping 70.3 Florida that I had registered for already). Do the benefits of the "run focus" endure through all of that? I'm trying to figure out volume…last year I averaged ~25mpw in the tri season and this year although it was about the same, it was more varied and I had a lot of weeks 30+. For example, between Grand Rapids and Racine my weekly mileage was 5/26/37/42/32/20 (the 20 was race-week and includes the race itself). My long runs last season never went above 90' but this year I did more of the prescribed longer runs. Again, between Grand Rapids and Racine my long runs were (in minutes): 90/105/120/90/90 (again, the last one is the race). For me a 120' run is 17 miles and anything over 90' is over-distance from a half-iron perspective. So maybe that had some impact too. If the run-focus created the improvement that would be great because it would imply that a run focus has long-enduring benefit. I plan to "run focus" for 10 weeks starting after Steelhead until the Chicago Marathon (with 2x biking per week), so if that helps me cement my gains on the run I'll be thrilled.