DJD's Race Report
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Finally getting some thoughts down so seee what you guys think. Wish I could have spent some more time meeting you all before and debriefing after. See you virtually online and never know where again in the future!
In order to get better view of performance by sport relative to the field I copy/pasted results into Excel for 30-34 AG. Won't mean much to anyone but Jan and I but here it is FWIW.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhhyio1p8k0gpym/Florida Raw AG Results.xls?dl=0
Ironman Florida 70.3 Race Report
In order to get better view of performance by sport relative to the field I copy/pasted results into Excel for 30-34 AG. Won't mean much to anyone but Jan and I but here it is FWIW.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhhyio1p8k0gpym/Florida Raw AG Results.xls?dl=0
Ironman Florida 70.3 Race Report
Sunday April 12th 2015
Prelude
My first race since 2011 season and looking to improve substantially over my previous best. This was only my 3rd 70.3. 1st in Switzerland where I overcooked the bike and then paid dearly on the run (6:43 total). 2nd at Tupper Lake where executed much better and was pleased with the improvement (5:51 total). Coming into Florida with MUCH better fitness, power, new nutrition plan, and EN execution mojo, and looking forward to putting it all to the test.
Venue
Overall no issues. Fairly easy access from Tampa or Orlando airports. Nice park setting for the family to hang out. TriClub area was a win. Efficient check in.
Race Day
We visited with family outside Tampa over the weekend which was great except for the 2x trips to Haines City for check in on Satuday and again early Sunday morning. Up ~3:30, sunscreen, breakfast and hit the road.
Arrived about 5, parked not too far, transition setup then had over 90' to chill waiting for my wave. I like the move to wave starts overall for safety and not getting beat up in the swim but would have been nice to rock and roll rather than standing around waiting.
Swim
Qualitatively, swim felt ok. It was my first open water non-wetsuit swim and I was confident going into it so happy with that. Warm water, beautiful calm morning and not too much contact so far so good. Course is bizarre "M" shape and before the first turn I start getting passed by the next wave (pink caps). 4' gap between waves so I'm starting to think I might really be dragging. Then before halfway the orange caps start passing too. Thinking ... ok, stay in my box, que sera sera, and hopefully finish somewhere around 45'. Out of the water clock is 51' and counting ... crap! But it's done. Move on and diagnose that later.
Split: 51:08 139th AG of 160 starters (ugh)
Previously: 2010 38:55 & 2011 39:57
Bike
T1 uneventful and mostly empty on account of being in the later waves plus slow! Before long it's pretty clear I'm making up for it though. Planned to ride around 236w for 20' then 260w for remainder for net ~0.82IF. Even in those first 20' I'm blowing past people. Course was definitively fast, not much wind to fight and felt reasonably aero in my setup. After 20' dialed it up and road a comfortable ABP pace. Actual NP was lower than planned on account of some coasting leading into turns but mostly while peeing during the back half.
From nutrition pov aimed to do 3 gels total and 2 bottles Gatorade per hour. I got that all in as far as I can tell. Lost a couple half Gatorade bottles that would not stay put in my downtube cage. The premade plastic bottles make sense logistically and for consistency but need to find a better setup to hold them securly between aid stations. After failing to fuel & hydrate properly in previous races I think I over did it this time. Started peeing around mile 30 and must have eased up 4-5 times between then and the end to let it fly. Happy to be hydrated in the heat, but overdoing it slowed me down here (and on the run later). Also the gels, which I figured based on more on 2:45 split, were a bit heavy in my gut every 50'. May need to back down on those in the future.
Run
Entering T2 still really had to pee, so stopped in portajohn for about a min one final time. By this time it had really heated up and the sun was cooking so set off trying to pace at MP + 40" for 8:00/mi. Maintained that for first 3 miles but between the heat and my stomache starting to cramp up, decided to dial it back. Started walking aid stations around mile 4, and then started walking the hills on second lap. As the walking screws up my mile lap pace on Garmin I generally just ran by feel and tried to keep a steady pace otherwise. Ice in the EN trucker hat at every aid station really helped keep me cool in the sun.
Nutrition plan called for Gatorade at every aid station & gels at mile 4 & 9. With stomach in knots though, switched immediately to sipping ice water and never took in a gel or any other fuel on the run. Getting the bike and run nutrition in better balance is defeinitely something I'll need to work on as season progresses.
Overall felt steady through the end, was slower than planned but overall very happy to have PR'd the run after also PR'ing the bike, not to mention passing 9 more people to move up from 60th to 51st in AG.
Conclusions
PR by over 24' so very pleased with that.
Very helpful to have this early season stake in the ground and take some learnings forward to help focus training for my next 70.3 late June, and then on to IMWI rematch in September. Now that my thoughts are down in writing want to get the coaches / team to weigh in on areas of focus.
From my pov, key focus areas are (open to feedback on this!):
1) Swimming - despite short relative duration, this is holding me back as split time was MUCH worse than previous efforts. Likely due in part to non-wetsuit and the shape of course, but also I'm sure form is big part. Start attending coached masters session at local university instead of YMCA on my own. Need some feedback to ensure fundamentals are right and I'm not wasting my time/effort.
2) Nutrition - experiment and optimize in future bricks and race sims. AC 70.3 is next chance to test this in a race setting and see if I can balance it properly from start to finish.
3) Maintain - Bike and run speed. Next month is crazy for us so focusing on speed work in Get Faster plan, will keep volume in medium range for now while prioritizing some family activities, but aim to retain FTP and vDot leading into Challenge AC.
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Comments
Well done, especially that bike! You certainly know what you need vis a vis swimming - get some instruction on how to improve your form in the water. Focused effort there will yield significant improvement, as your issues are NOT fitness or volume related.
Don;t worry about retaining your speed on the bike and run in upcoming training months to your next 70.3. One short interval workout each in bike and run weekly will be plenty to keep what you already have. Your may not get faster, but you won't regress.
Nutrition wise you obviously know you probably drank a little too much on the bike. I don't know how it was for you 45 minutes after me, but for me it was foggy and low clouds for a lot of the bike. The sun didn't really break through for me until the last 5 miles or so. My Garmin edge recorded 66 at the start of my bike and 80 at the end. Maybe that reduced fluid needs slightly. Also, I wonder if you took in a little too many calories on the bike and that's why you had some stomach problems on the run. 2 bottles of gatorade an hour (480 calories I think. Aren't the bottles on the course 24 oz?). Plus you took in 130 calories per hour in gels for over 600 calories per hour. I don't remember what you did in your race rehearsals but perhaps you can get by with just the gatorade calories and skip the gels on the bike when it's that warm and your drinking a lot. Maybe try ~450 calories per hour on the bike and see how you do on your brick runs.
Looking forward to seeing how you do through the season.
Now probably on the cooler / cloudy day it may still have been too much... plus I went for Gels every 50' not 60' so got a bit ahead of myself ... but I need to check the premade Gatorade cals vs. my powder ... as that could be a diff.