Mark Cardinale's 70.3 World Championship Race Report
Overall Mont Tremblant put on a great event. The events leading up to the race and the race itself were well run and were a first class event from start to finish. The support from the town and the volunteers was phenomenal and they made everyone feel welcomed in their community. As for this race I felt really good coming in especially considering I had bib# 777 (If only this race was still in Las Vegas!) I took this as a very good sign. Looking back on my performance I feel like a put together another very solid HIM effort. I PRed my swim, although it’s still by far my weakest discipline and I PRed my run, both open and as part of a HIM. I have been trying all season to break the 35min barrier on my swim and I finally was able to do that. This race was a great confidence booster heading into Kona. My results are as follows:
Overall: 4:41:02
Swim: 34:30
T1: 5:15
Bike: 2:32:20
T2: 1:36
Run: 1:27:21
45-49: 64th Place
Overall: 640th Place
Swim:
As my swim wave lined up to start at 8:36 am, I noticed large groups on the inside and outside so I decided to line up in the middle, one or two people back from the front. For this race it was a beach start. As the gun went off I jogged into the water and started swimming. By the time I got to the first buoy I found myself inside of the buoy line so I just went with that path. I sighted very little as there were enough people swimming on my breathing side that it was pretty easy to keep moving forward in the right direction. The water in MT is very clear and I was able to find some feet and catch a draft for much of the way out to the first turn buoy. Between the first and second turn buoy is when I started seeing people coming up on me from the next swim wave. I tried to catch a draft from these people but they were too fast and I couldn’t stay with them for more than a few seconds. The rest of the swim was uneventful. I swam until my fingers touched the bottom of the lake, stood up and checked my watch and saw 33:51, but my actual recorded swim time was 34:30 which was still a PR for me. It might have been better to swim even further before standing as it took a lot of time and energy to walk my way out of thigh deep water.
Bike:
I got on the bike and immediately started eating and drinking. My power target was around 217-220 watts which is higher than I rode in my 2 previous HIM’s this year, but I thought being at a lower altitude would make this a realistic target. The first part of the ride was uneventful. When I got out on 117 that’s when I saw the first of 3 large draft packs. There were groups of maybe 40 riders riding in a very tight cluster going in the opposite direction. I had never seen anything like this previously. I focused on racing my race but quickly noticed my power was trending higher than planned even though my RPE felt very low. I attributed this to the altitude and made the decision to let it happen. A part of me wanted to experiment with riding the bike really hard and see what that would mean later on during the run. I felt like this would be a good experiment prior to Kona to help me dial in my proper watts for racing at sea level, knowing that the conditions in Kona were going to be much more challenging than the mild day I was facing in MT. The other observation I had was the quality of the riders. I’m not a strong swimmer so I’m used to coming out of the water and then having to use the bike and the run to make up ground. Here, there were very few weak riders and pretty much everyone seemed like a very strong cyclist. After I made the turnaround 117, I was riding along and all of sudden I was swallowed up in the middle of another draft pack. I had people literally inches away from my front and back wheels. I was slowly able to make my way to the outside and used a steeper downhill section to try and break away from the group. I have never seen drafting on the scale I saw it in MT. The funny thing is as I rode by the 2 penalty tents I didn’t see anyone in either of the tents. I saw a lot of camera people on motorcycles, but I didn’t see any race officials. That’s just my n=1 perspective, but it is interesting. The last 10 mile out and back section has a lot of steep little kickers and some rollers. I continued to see my power creep up but again, it felt really good to hammer the bike. I ended up riding to a .9 IF which I have never been able to hold in training or in a race and I still felt relatively fresh coming into T2. My VI ended up being 1.074 which seemed about right as I knew I was not riding particularly steady. Overall, I’m happy with my bike split, but I think I left time on the table by not being as steady as I could. Also I think I would have been better served if I came to the race with more gears both at the top and bottom ends. My bike stats are as follows.
FTP: 255
NP: 230
AP: 212
VI: 1.074
IF: .90
TSS: 204
Run:
My Z2 or HIM pace is 7min/mile so that was my plan here. I ran the first 2 miles at about this pace, but it felt very easy almost like I was crawling. Funny things go through your head while on the run, but what I said to myself was that if I continue at this pace, I’m not respecting the race nor am I respecting my own ability as a runner. That being said I decided to drop my pace to what felt like my Z2 RPE equivalent and that ended up being around 6:40-6:45 – Comfortably hard. The crowd support was great and given the race was measured in KM instead of miles it seemed like I was passing an aid station every 2 minutes! The run through the village at the end of the first loop was fun even though the large hill in the middle of MT was a killer. Heading out on the second loop I still felt pretty good and was able to keep dropping my pace from comfortably hard to eventually painfully hard. After stopping at the first 2 aid stations on the run, I decided I was only going to stop at aid stations if I needed something, otherwise I was running. I think I only ended up stopping at 2 aid stations after the first 2. The run was pretty crowded by the 2nd loop and I was passing lots of people, but couldn’t tell who was on their second loop vs. their first. Also, there weren’t any age markings on peoples calves so you had really no idea if someone was in your age group other than approximating by way of their bib number. As I approached the finish line I passed 2 people in the last stretch and I finished my race with a 1:27:02 run which is HM PR for me. I feel really good about negative splitting the run and finding a way to lower my pace per mile throughout the race. A great performance no doubt, but for sure helped by the drop in altitude.
| Split | Hours:Minutes:SecondsTime | MilesDistance | Minutes per MileAvg Pace |
| Summary | 1:27:06.8 | 13.13 | 6:38 |
| 1 | 7:06.4 | 1.00 | 7:07 |
| 2 | 7:04.0 | 1.00 | 7:04 |
| 3 | 6:40.0 | 1.00 | 6:40 |
| 4 | 6:45.7 | 1.00 | 6:46 |
| 5 | 6:39.4 | 1.00 | 6:40 |
| 6 | 6:40.4 | 1.00 | 6:40 |
| 7 | 6:41.4 | 1.00 | 6:41 |
| 8 | 6:26.7 | 1.00 | 6:27 |
| 9 | 6:22.0 | 1.00 | 6:22 |
| 10 | 6:22.8 | 1.00 | 6:23 |
| 11 | 6:21.2 | 1.00 | 6:21 |
| 12 | 6:18.8 | 1.00 | 6:19 |
| 13 | 6:46.1 | 1.00 | 6:46 |
| 14 | :50.0 | 0.14 | 6:03 |
| 15 | :01.9 | 0.00 | 0 |
| Summary | 1:27:06.8 | 13.13 | 6:38 |
Comments
Speaking of the bike, I do wonder if you really rode at 0.9 or if either your FTP needs an upward adjustment or your PM was properly calibrated. If you were holding wattages you have never been able to hold in prior racing or training then I am a bit suspicious of the PM accuracy. Plus you did not say you PR-ed the bike which I would have expected with higher power than ever before (unless your PR is on a much easier course obviously). Finally, a 0.9 IF for a 2:30 bike racks up more stress than you'd normally associate with a big run PR. Of course sometimes in a race it just all comes together and you start hitting home runs, so perhaps that was the case here.
At the end of the day it is great to get swim and run PRs like that and see that you can compete on the world stage. You neglected to mention that 64th is well ahead of mid-pack in a field that numbered 171 of the top racers in your AG. This gives you a benchmark heading into Kona where you will be likewise stacked up against the best.
Best of luck and look forward to reading all about it!!
Great job! Terrific season you are enjoying. Best of luck in continuing your awesome momentum in Kona!
@Mike - Thanks, man! It's definitely been an awesome year!
@Matt - I don't think i had a power meter issue. I think my ability to ride .91 was due to the drop in altitude. Also, for the 2 weeks prior to this race was doing my long rides starting at 9000ft going up to over 11000 with 4-5K of total elevation gain. Since i have been back in colorado, my last long ride was at a .76 IF and my last ABP ride was at .81 so i think my PM is spot on. I just think my sea level FTP would be 10-15 watts higher than my mile high FTP. I wonder if this gets me backdoor entry into the 4.0 watts/kg club!
All that being said, thanks for the feedback!
@Dawn - Thank you! I'm looking forward to Kona as well!
@Ian - Yes, i'm hoping to finish on a high in Kona! Thanks!
@Doug - Thanks! I'm interested to see how Kona goes as well. I can tell you i won't be biking anything close to a .9 IF
Mark - no question this was a well executed race, performed primarily via RPE, and not power or pace. Having spent years bouncing back and forth between seas level and CO altitudes, I would say that you should assume an *increase* of about 4-5% in both your bike FTP and your run TP when dropping from 5000' to under 1000. So your performance was probably on par with what you had grained yourself for up in the rarified air.
Did you get HR data, especially on the run? That will be critical in managing your effort in HI, to account for the impact of the heat/humidity.
You can do more of these WC level races (I call them "helicopter race" in honor of the choppers overhead - maybe that will switch to drones soon) if you want to keep at it - at all distances, Oly, HIM, and IM. Thats where you will find competition commensurate with your abilities.
@Al - Thanks for your feedback. A 4-5% bump seems about right so that should give me a little bit of wiggle room in Kona. Unfortunately, i forgot to pack my HR strap for this race so i have zero HR data. I know from my last IM in Boulder i want to keep my HR between 120-130 for as long as i can, but that race was at altitude and i'm not sure how that will translate to the heat and humidity of Kona. I think it will come down to looking at pace, HR and RPE and then making a smart decision.
As far as doing more of these race, that would be awesome, but i'm not taking that as a given by any means. Lots of areas for me to continue to work on and improve if i'm going to be really competitive.
@Matt - Yes, my 255 FTP was tested here in Colorado at altitude. I agree, even taking that into consideration the sea level IF is still high. A couple thoughts on might have made this possible: For the the 3-4 weeks leading up to this race, Rich had me increase intensity and dial down the volume on both the bike and the run. I inserted some of the VO2 efforts from the out season into my long rides, ABP rides, and mid week trainer rides. Also, for the 2 weeks leading up to this race i did the Copper Triangle Loop each saturday. 80 miles, 3 mountain passes. Lots of climbing at altitude. I also did very little tapering. I had a normal training week up until thursday (travel day), friday swim, saturday light run, sunday race. Finally, i have been doing bits and pieces of the run durability plan throughout the season. I have been running on average 6 days per week. The runs i've added are in the neighborhood of 45min to 1hr and done mostly as Z1 with a little bit of Z2 depending upon how i feel. I really feel there is gold in this run durability plan in terms of it helping you get to used to running on tired legs.
Beyond that, who know. Maybe it was none of the above and like you said, maybe it was just one of those special days. I can say i was very relaxed the morning of the race and felt none of the pre race pressure or anxiety.