2015 IMNOLA 70.3 Report - Brandon DuMontier
So I will start at the beginning here! Last September, I decided to achieve one of my bucket list items, which was to complete a full Ironman by age 40. 2 friends and I decided to volunteer for the inaugural Chattanooga Ironman with the intent on signing up for the 2015 version. I really like the time of year and location for this race (and the fact that I will be 39 this year), so figured it was now or never. We volunteered at Run Special Needs, which was enlightening on how the race was executed, as well as to the level of difficulty of this particular run course. On the next (Monday) morning, all 3 of us were "lucky" enough to get a spot in the race.
A little background....I have done a couple of Half Ironmans and a dozen or so sprint triathlons and xterras.....one full marathon.....and a handful of half marathons. So, while I'm not new at the game, I still have a lot to learn about executing long course. I signed up for the 2015 version of the New Orleans 70.3 and in February decided to join Endurance Nation for the rest of the season leading up to the Chattanooga full. I jumped right into the program but did feel slightly behind the curve in my preparation, mainly my bike.
The Good:
34:29 swim (1:47/100) with a goal of sub-40.
2:44:11 bike (20.46 mph) with a goal of sub 3.
2:19:30 run (10:38/mile) with a goal of sub 2.
5:47:47 overall with a goal of sub 6.
Looking at the results alone, while I am very happy with the race I feel like I could have done better in a few aspects.
Garmin file: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/751926502
The Bad:
Never change anything the day of the race, right? We've all heard it a million times. Well....in October/November timeframe I posted my Felt B2 on Craigslist with the hopes of selling so I could upgrade my bike for the upcoming full ironman training. Had a few bites, but nothing substantial or worth selling the bike over. Fast forward to March 28th and I get a text from a guy who is on his way to my house to see the bike. He was responding to my ad from 5 months ago! He showed up and handed me the cash about 30 seconds after laying his eyes on the bike. Now I'm in a bike predicament for the upcoming NOLA race in less than a month. My first plan was to slap some short aerobars on my road bike and just make do but then a brand new Blue Triad EX with Di2 and Quarq crossed my path and I had to have it. I got the bike in my hands and immediately scheduled a fit with our local Specialized Body Geometry certified fitter, Robert Driskell at Bayou Bicycles, on the Tuesday before the race. Of course he changed my fit and of course he changed my saddle (again remember we are under the bad section still). The bike and the fit felt great but it was essentially unproven. I got to ride a single 1 hour interval session and a 30 minute easy spin outside prior to the race. I setup the Quarq to record my race but had no plans to look at the power at all considering power is something that is new to me. I wanted to track how well I paced the race without power. I figured it would give me a good baseline.
The Swim:
The timetrial start swim was located in Southshore Harbor in New Orleans. This is a protected body of water (thankfully because the lake was whitecapping) that allows for a lot of swimmers but not for any kind of mass or wave start. My plan was to take it easy on the swim and go steady with a goal of sub 40. The swim went very well for me. I was very relaxed and never got excited the entire time. I was able to stay out of traffic for most of the time until I caught the back of the wave in front of me, which happened to be at the same time as the fast swimmers from the wave behind me caught up. I focused on stong pulls and keeping my head down while maintaining good sighting. I think this was working pretty well as I was staying in a good rhythm, didn't get off track too much, and my forearms were starting to tire a bit towards the end of the swim. This was a little weird as I can't recall this ever happening. As I approached the exit, I expected to see a 40:xx. This is how I felt. My watch said 34:25 and I was totally shocked. First thing that crossed my mind was the swim had to be short. (A post race analysis, I believe, revealed this had to be the case. Times across the board from pros to AGs were just too fast for a half IM swim, in my opinion.) Either way, I was happy with my swim and ready to get on the bike.
The Bike:
One good thing about a hometown race is you really know the course. I knew with the wind direction at transition, exactly what I was looking at for wind along the course. The bad news was it was a tailwind out and a headwind back. This happened in a previous year and I had a 2:45:xx PR by hammering the downwind sections and just staying steady in the headwind. This was my plan for this year too. The bike and fit felt great! I was able to maintain a very consistent speed/cadence while keeping my HR in the under 150 range, which was my plan. I will say that I did tend to catch myself racing others at times and probably cooked it a little too much. Either way, I ended up with an average HR of 148, avg cadence of 91 rpm, and an avg power of 172 w per my Garmin 310 XT. (A friend input my data post race into golden cheetah and told me that my avg power was 167w, normal power was 174w, and my VI was 1.04. At this point, I dont know what all of that amounts too but he told my I paced well but no knowledge of whether I cooked the bike or not since I have no data as a baseline). The only issues I had on the bike were some chafing due to the new bike/fit as well as wearing my race trisuit that I had never worn on this bike. Overall, the bike went well and when I saw I had a new PR by about a minute for a half IM bike, I was happy,
The Run (otherwise known as The Ugly!)
Believe it or not there are hills in New Orleans. Unfortunately, these are also called bridges and levees. The single out and back run course had a direct headwind on the out and tailwind on the return. There are a number of bridges and levee crossings that are really steep. I started out the run trying to keep my HR down in the 145 range. For some reason (probably too much bike, headwinds, and hills), I could not keep it down. I planned to walk the aid stations for nutrition and only walk portions of the hills as necessary. This worked fine for the entire out, but by the turnaround I was spent. It was obvious I wasnt going to hit my goal so I backed off a bit and allowed myself to walk as needed. I had a pain pop up in the side of my knee around mile 9 and I didnt want to risk any injury so if it hurt, I walked. I finally made it over that last bridge and was on the home stretch to the finish. I passed my family (for the 4th time of the day) in the chute and made it across the finish line.
Overall:
I was very happy with the overall results but wasn't too happy with my run. I know that I did myself no favors with the new bike the week of the race, but if nothing else I proved the whole "don't do anything new on race day" theory. I know that I need to run off the bike more in training as well as learn to use my powermeter so I can pace my full IM later this year. If I allow myself to get caught in the "race", I will likely not survive. I'm glad the weather held out for us and I was very happy to meet my EN teammates, Gordon Polozola, Scott Alexander, and Patricia Rosen. Unbelievably, Gordon, Scott, and I all raced to a 5:47:xx.....incredible coincidence. And a huge congratulations to Patricia, who punched her ticket to Austria by finishing on the AG podium and earning a slot in the 70.3 Worlds.....WOW! All I need to do is figure out how I can shave about an hour and forty minutes off my time and it's Austria here I come. Thanks for reading!
Brandon DuMontier
A little background....I have done a couple of Half Ironmans and a dozen or so sprint triathlons and xterras.....one full marathon.....and a handful of half marathons. So, while I'm not new at the game, I still have a lot to learn about executing long course. I signed up for the 2015 version of the New Orleans 70.3 and in February decided to join Endurance Nation for the rest of the season leading up to the Chattanooga full. I jumped right into the program but did feel slightly behind the curve in my preparation, mainly my bike.
The Good:
34:29 swim (1:47/100) with a goal of sub-40.
2:44:11 bike (20.46 mph) with a goal of sub 3.
2:19:30 run (10:38/mile) with a goal of sub 2.
5:47:47 overall with a goal of sub 6.
Looking at the results alone, while I am very happy with the race I feel like I could have done better in a few aspects.
Garmin file: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/751926502
The Bad:
Never change anything the day of the race, right? We've all heard it a million times. Well....in October/November timeframe I posted my Felt B2 on Craigslist with the hopes of selling so I could upgrade my bike for the upcoming full ironman training. Had a few bites, but nothing substantial or worth selling the bike over. Fast forward to March 28th and I get a text from a guy who is on his way to my house to see the bike. He was responding to my ad from 5 months ago! He showed up and handed me the cash about 30 seconds after laying his eyes on the bike. Now I'm in a bike predicament for the upcoming NOLA race in less than a month. My first plan was to slap some short aerobars on my road bike and just make do but then a brand new Blue Triad EX with Di2 and Quarq crossed my path and I had to have it. I got the bike in my hands and immediately scheduled a fit with our local Specialized Body Geometry certified fitter, Robert Driskell at Bayou Bicycles, on the Tuesday before the race. Of course he changed my fit and of course he changed my saddle (again remember we are under the bad section still). The bike and the fit felt great but it was essentially unproven. I got to ride a single 1 hour interval session and a 30 minute easy spin outside prior to the race. I setup the Quarq to record my race but had no plans to look at the power at all considering power is something that is new to me. I wanted to track how well I paced the race without power. I figured it would give me a good baseline.
The Swim:
The timetrial start swim was located in Southshore Harbor in New Orleans. This is a protected body of water (thankfully because the lake was whitecapping) that allows for a lot of swimmers but not for any kind of mass or wave start. My plan was to take it easy on the swim and go steady with a goal of sub 40. The swim went very well for me. I was very relaxed and never got excited the entire time. I was able to stay out of traffic for most of the time until I caught the back of the wave in front of me, which happened to be at the same time as the fast swimmers from the wave behind me caught up. I focused on stong pulls and keeping my head down while maintaining good sighting. I think this was working pretty well as I was staying in a good rhythm, didn't get off track too much, and my forearms were starting to tire a bit towards the end of the swim. This was a little weird as I can't recall this ever happening. As I approached the exit, I expected to see a 40:xx. This is how I felt. My watch said 34:25 and I was totally shocked. First thing that crossed my mind was the swim had to be short. (A post race analysis, I believe, revealed this had to be the case. Times across the board from pros to AGs were just too fast for a half IM swim, in my opinion.) Either way, I was happy with my swim and ready to get on the bike.
The Bike:
One good thing about a hometown race is you really know the course. I knew with the wind direction at transition, exactly what I was looking at for wind along the course. The bad news was it was a tailwind out and a headwind back. This happened in a previous year and I had a 2:45:xx PR by hammering the downwind sections and just staying steady in the headwind. This was my plan for this year too. The bike and fit felt great! I was able to maintain a very consistent speed/cadence while keeping my HR in the under 150 range, which was my plan. I will say that I did tend to catch myself racing others at times and probably cooked it a little too much. Either way, I ended up with an average HR of 148, avg cadence of 91 rpm, and an avg power of 172 w per my Garmin 310 XT. (A friend input my data post race into golden cheetah and told me that my avg power was 167w, normal power was 174w, and my VI was 1.04. At this point, I dont know what all of that amounts too but he told my I paced well but no knowledge of whether I cooked the bike or not since I have no data as a baseline). The only issues I had on the bike were some chafing due to the new bike/fit as well as wearing my race trisuit that I had never worn on this bike. Overall, the bike went well and when I saw I had a new PR by about a minute for a half IM bike, I was happy,
The Run (otherwise known as The Ugly!)
Believe it or not there are hills in New Orleans. Unfortunately, these are also called bridges and levees. The single out and back run course had a direct headwind on the out and tailwind on the return. There are a number of bridges and levee crossings that are really steep. I started out the run trying to keep my HR down in the 145 range. For some reason (probably too much bike, headwinds, and hills), I could not keep it down. I planned to walk the aid stations for nutrition and only walk portions of the hills as necessary. This worked fine for the entire out, but by the turnaround I was spent. It was obvious I wasnt going to hit my goal so I backed off a bit and allowed myself to walk as needed. I had a pain pop up in the side of my knee around mile 9 and I didnt want to risk any injury so if it hurt, I walked. I finally made it over that last bridge and was on the home stretch to the finish. I passed my family (for the 4th time of the day) in the chute and made it across the finish line.
Overall:
I was very happy with the overall results but wasn't too happy with my run. I know that I did myself no favors with the new bike the week of the race, but if nothing else I proved the whole "don't do anything new on race day" theory. I know that I need to run off the bike more in training as well as learn to use my powermeter so I can pace my full IM later this year. If I allow myself to get caught in the "race", I will likely not survive. I'm glad the weather held out for us and I was very happy to meet my EN teammates, Gordon Polozola, Scott Alexander, and Patricia Rosen. Unbelievably, Gordon, Scott, and I all raced to a 5:47:xx.....incredible coincidence. And a huge congratulations to Patricia, who punched her ticket to Austria by finishing on the AG podium and earning a slot in the 70.3 Worlds.....WOW! All I need to do is figure out how I can shave about an hour and forty minutes off my time and it's Austria here I come. Thanks for reading!
Brandon DuMontier
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Comments
Welcome to the world of cycling power. Nothing has made a greater impact on my cycling fitness and ability to race than a PM. Enjoy it!!
Glad the whole bike thing worked out for you, but I wouldn't suggest making a habit of it! haha
That's funny we all ended up with 5:47s, such a coincidence.
I've got a short race report coming soon too!
The second most common reason for problems on the run is working to hard/going too fast in the early portions of that leg. This may be another place for you to focus some race-day discipline: learning how to rein yourself in at the start - the first 25% or so of the run leg, in order to have enough gas in the tank to finish strong.
Just follow the EN training plan, and you'll have all the fitness you need on race day. You'll learn that EN has proven race-day execution protocols which it's wise to study, and put in place during the last six weeks of your training, and of course then on race day. That's what will make your first IM even more successful than NOLA 70.3 was for you.