David Leventhal’s 2015 Texas 70.3 Race Report
See my blog for pictures and some additional final thoughts - http://wp.me/pAVQt-Uz
Stats:
• Age: 41
• Weight: ~191 lbs
• FTP: 280
• VDOT: No clue (keep reading)
Short Version:
Total Time: 5:08:47
PR of 1 minute 57 seconds (over 2014 Austin 70.3)
Long Version:
Training:
The 2015 Texas 70.3 was my first race of the year. 2014 ended with a fizzle as I started dealing with pretty severe cramping in my right calf as I was training for the Dallas Marathon which is held annually in December. The calf cramping started popping up in mid-November and quickly became so bad that I had to abandon any hope of running the race. I basically took the rest of November – January off. I worked out very sporadically – an occasional bike ride but that was about it.
Thinking I’d given it enough rest I started working my way back into shape in early February and officially signed up for this race at the end February. I discovered pretty quickly that my calf cramping had not gone away & in fact, started rearing its ugly head around mile 3 of any run I attempted. The cycle would go like this: (1) I would go out for a run to test the calf (2) Around mile 3 it would start to cramp and leave me gimping home (3) I would rest it (i.e. not run) for a week to 10 days or longer (4) I would go out for a run to test the calf (5) Around mile 3 it would start to cramp and leave me gimping home (6) Lather, rinse, repeat.
I started seeing my ART doc 2x per week for the final 3-4 weeks leading up to the race and while she worked on getting my hips aligned & my calf worked out I simply resigned myself to the fact that running was not going to be helpful, except for a few short 2 mile runs, all I could do was rest from running and hope my fitness would carry me through on race day. This freed me up to focus on my swim and my bike.
Here is what my training looked like for the 8 weeks leading up to the race (Feb 22 - April 19 - this starts 9 weeks out from race day because I’m not looking at race week / taper week). The glaring hole in my training is that in the 9 weeks leading up to the race I ran 4 times for a cumulative distance of 11.24 miles.
Cycling - 25 workouts / 784 miles / 40:29:58
Swimming - 16 workouts / 23.92 miles / 10:50:22
Running - 4 workouts / 11.24 miles / 1:41:11
Race Weekend:
This race is on a Sunday so Missy & I decided to make a long weekend out of it. We hit VRBO and rented a nice 3 bedroom condo right at the end of the seawall. We loaded up the swagger wagon & headed for Galveston on Friday morning. Around 3:30 we pulled into our condo. We stayed away from the race venue on Friday and just spent the afternoon getting settled and relaxing.
Got up Saturday morning to severe thunder, lightning & rain. It was off and on into the early afternoon & around 2 p.m. it cleared out and left us with an absolutely beautiful rest of the day. We hit up Ironman Village and get registered – we got there around 11:00 a.m. and moved through pretty quickly. No real lines to speak of. I dropped the family off at the condo and went off to meet some of my teammates for lunch at The Mosquito Café (which was a great spot – highly recommend it). Had a great lunch getting to eat with other folks from Endurance Nation. It was fun to laugh, share stories & get ready for the next day.
Following lunch I drove back up to the race venue to drop my bike off in transition. At this point the line for athlete registration was crazy long (note – get in early and get that knocked out). Perhaps the greatest benefit of being one of Ironman’s 2014 All World Athletes was the really great rack spot. I was bib number 225 and that put me right across from the pros spot. I had a perfect spot right in the middle of bike out and run out – in the second rack back. That’s so much better than being buried in the middle of three thousand bikes!
Once that was done I headed back to the condo and laid low with the family. I got my transition bag all set & for dinner I had some pasta with red sauce & some grilled chicken breast. I jumped into bed at 9:44 p.m.
Race Day:
My alarm was set for 4 a.m. but I woke up at 3:38 a.m. feeling ready to go. Go up and had my usual race morning breakfast of three cups of organic applesauce with two scoops of vanilla protein powder. Took in about 20 ounces of the G2 Gatorade that we’d be having on the course. We headed out the door at 5 a.m. & were pulling into the race venue about 10 minutes later.
My big surprise came as I was starting to set up my gear in transition. I heard them announce that the race would be a wetsuit optional race. Though I’d known the water temps were on the warm side I felt confident that all the rain we got on Saturday would have cooled it off enough to keep it a wetsuit race. Apparently not. This was a bit of a shock to me because I never, for a second assumed otherwise. My three previous 70.3 distance races & my one full Ironman were all wetsuit races. We had the option of wearing a wetsuit but that would mean two things; (1) you wouldn’t be counted in the age group awards & though I had no intention of hitting the podium I still wanted to see where I fit & (2) if you elected to wear a wetsuit you would start in the dreaded final swim wave. There wasn’t really a decision to be made for me – I would go without my wetsuit. But that did throw me off a bit.
Swim:
Goal: < 32:00
Actual: 36:19
AG Place: 47 / 327
The pros went off at 7:00 a.m. The male 40-44 age group was split into three swim waves and I was in the second wave that went off at 7:28 a.m. I’ve been consistently in the top 10% or so of my AG so I positioned myself at the front of the wave pretty much dead center. My goal was to get a good, strong start and try to create some space.
Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what happened on this swim. I’ve got no real reason for why my time was so slow. I felt like I swam pretty strong…felt like my form was mostly in check…felt like I sighted okay, but man – 36 minutes was disappointing. Yes, I’m sure having a wetsuit would have made me go faster but in my three swim race rehearsals (done without a wetsuit) I was consistently in the 31 – 33 minute range. Maybe the current was stronger than it felt. I’m just not sure. I came out of the water feeling whipped but hustled my way out and started up towards transition.
T1:
Goal: < 2:30
Actual: 2:21
I am really pleased with my transitions. I hustled, but never felt out of control or lost. I got to my rack spot put my sunglasses on, then my helmet, wiped my feet off and got my shoes on, grabbed the bike and was off. I’d love to continue to learn to shave time off here but overall I felt really good with how quickly I was on the bike.
Bike:
Goal: IF of 0.83-0.85 (232W – 238W) with a VI of 1.05 or less (time & speed would take care of themselves)
Actual: IF of 0.80; VI of 1.01 (AP 222W, NP 226W); Time of 2:22:38; Average speed 23.6 mph
AG Place: 36 / 327
Let me start by saying:
(1) This might have been the most fun I’ve had on a bike…ever
(2) This bike course is ridiculously simple – pancake flat & with the exception of 3 miles or so getting out of the neighborhood it is straight as an arrow. Twenty eight miles out and twenty eight back.
(3) The weather on this day was perfect for biking. With the exception of a few miles at the turn around (miles 28-30ish) there was virtually no wind to mess with (which is unheard of for a road that borders the Gulf of Mexico the entire stretch), there was total cloud coverage & for about 45 minutes to an hour there was a very light rain to keep things cool. It was perfect.
(4) There was nothing in any of my training that would suggest a 2:22:38 bike split was even a remote possibility for me. 23.6 mph hour? Are you kidding me?
This bike was just one of those rare instances where all the uncontrollable variables line up perfectly and when they did it made for a super-fast bike course. You’ll even notice that I rode under my watt goal – partially because I was a bit nervous about how easy the bike was and how fast I was moving & because I kept reminding myself that I had to run 13.1 miles – which was more than I’d run all together in the previous 9 weeks.
In terms of execution I stayed aero for 95% of the bike. Knowing it was going to be humid I stayed on my fluids & ended up peeing three – four times on the bike. One last minute change I did make was that I decided to double my salt tab intake. I typically take one salt tab per hour to help augment the sodium I’m getting from my fluids & from my GU – but I decided the day before to double that (reasoning: at lunch the day before I was talking with one of my teammates, Jimmy, from Endurance Nation & he noted that his supplemental sodium intake was two tabs per hour. It got me wondering if my cramping might be held off longer if I increased my sodium intake. And at 190lbs I’m a bigger guy out there and I’m sweating more than most of the smaller fellas. And I also reasoned, since this was a B race for me that I would be fine experimenting a bit.) I don’t typically recommend jacking with your plan the day before a race but I felt that this race was going to be a crapshoot because of my calf cramping so I figured, “what the heck!”
I rolled into T2 a bit in shock at the bike split but feeling really good, very hydrated and ready to see what the run held for me.
T2:
Goal: < 2:00
Actual: 1:28
Hopped off my bike and ran hard to my awesome rack spot. Off with my bike shoes & helmet. Sat down, put my socks on (I had put a bunch of Vaseline on the inside around the toe area) & shoes, grabbed my ziplock bag which contained my race belt, my visor, a zip lock bag of salt tabs & a few Gus and then I made a bee line for the run out exit. Just like T1 I feel really good about this transition – sub 1:30 feels pretty darn quick and efficient.
Run:
Goal: Not to die & to hold off the cramping as long as possible
Actual: 2:05:52 (9:43 pr/mile)
AG Place: 70 / 327
My overarching race strategy was to execute well on the swim & the bike, to hustle through transitions and to hold on for dear life on the run. Now was the time to see if and when I would implode. This run course is technical – it’s a three loop course with LOTS of turns and turn-arounds.
Mentally, I was in a good spot. Before the race even started I’d come to terms with a few bits of reality:
1) I had no business expecting anything other than suffering on the run
2) I had no business expecting a sub-2 hour half marathon
3) I had no business expecting that my calf would hold up – it wasn’t an issue of if it would cramp up, but when it would cramp up.
With those three things firmly imbedded in my brain I set off on lap one and the slow de-evolution of David began. The first lap (4 miles & some change) felt hard but overall okay. My legs were not used to the pounding & I could tell that I was beginning to get a blister on the bottom of my right foot. Because there were so many turns the blister quickly went from uncomfortable to downright painful.
I took salt tabs 2-3 times per hour; stayed on top of my fluids as best I could and threw ice down my shorts to try and keep my core temperature down. With every mile (except mile 7) I slowed down a bit. Each one got harder. Each one hurt worse. Because it was three loops I got to see my family a bunch on the run course & that’s always an encouragement. About half way through the run my 12 year jogged beside me and asked how my calf was feeling. I told him that it felt fine but every other part of my body was in pain & it was getting progressively warmer and more humid. And that would be the story for the entirety of the run. Amazingly, no calf cramping…but a ton of hurt in every other part of my body. That was expected but it didn’t make it fun! Other than walking the aid stations (which was part of the plan) I somehow managed to run the rest of the race.
Here were my splits:
- Mile 1 - 8:26
- Mile 2 - 8:30
- Mile 3 - 8:50
- Mile 4 - 9:07
- Mile 5 - 9:25
- Mile 6 - 9:38
- Mile 7 - 9:36
- Mile 8 - 10:13
- Mile 9 - 10:25
- Mile 10 - 10:29
- Mile 11 - 10:34
- Mile 12 - 10:35
- Mile 13 - 10.05
I crossed the finish line with a time of 5:08:44 – thanks to a ridiculous bike split & in spite of a sub-par swim and a disastrous run it was good enough for about a 2 minute PR.
Final Thoughts:
This was a fun race. This was a fast race with a very competitive male 40-44 age group. My 5:08 was only good enough to get me 70th in my age group (compare that with Austin 2014 where a 5:10 got me 20th place in my age group). This is a race I’d consider doing again for sure.
It was great to get away with the family. My kids had a blast & a change of scenery is usually good for the soul.
Run...I've got to get my body figured out. I've wrestled with cramping on and off for 2 years - hamstring, glutes & most recently the calf.
Stats:
• Age: 41
• Weight: ~191 lbs
• FTP: 280
• VDOT: No clue (keep reading)
Short Version:
Total Time: 5:08:47
PR of 1 minute 57 seconds (over 2014 Austin 70.3)
Long Version:
Training:
The 2015 Texas 70.3 was my first race of the year. 2014 ended with a fizzle as I started dealing with pretty severe cramping in my right calf as I was training for the Dallas Marathon which is held annually in December. The calf cramping started popping up in mid-November and quickly became so bad that I had to abandon any hope of running the race. I basically took the rest of November – January off. I worked out very sporadically – an occasional bike ride but that was about it.
Thinking I’d given it enough rest I started working my way back into shape in early February and officially signed up for this race at the end February. I discovered pretty quickly that my calf cramping had not gone away & in fact, started rearing its ugly head around mile 3 of any run I attempted. The cycle would go like this: (1) I would go out for a run to test the calf (2) Around mile 3 it would start to cramp and leave me gimping home (3) I would rest it (i.e. not run) for a week to 10 days or longer (4) I would go out for a run to test the calf (5) Around mile 3 it would start to cramp and leave me gimping home (6) Lather, rinse, repeat.
I started seeing my ART doc 2x per week for the final 3-4 weeks leading up to the race and while she worked on getting my hips aligned & my calf worked out I simply resigned myself to the fact that running was not going to be helpful, except for a few short 2 mile runs, all I could do was rest from running and hope my fitness would carry me through on race day. This freed me up to focus on my swim and my bike.
Here is what my training looked like for the 8 weeks leading up to the race (Feb 22 - April 19 - this starts 9 weeks out from race day because I’m not looking at race week / taper week). The glaring hole in my training is that in the 9 weeks leading up to the race I ran 4 times for a cumulative distance of 11.24 miles.
Cycling - 25 workouts / 784 miles / 40:29:58
Swimming - 16 workouts / 23.92 miles / 10:50:22
Running - 4 workouts / 11.24 miles / 1:41:11
Race Weekend:
This race is on a Sunday so Missy & I decided to make a long weekend out of it. We hit VRBO and rented a nice 3 bedroom condo right at the end of the seawall. We loaded up the swagger wagon & headed for Galveston on Friday morning. Around 3:30 we pulled into our condo. We stayed away from the race venue on Friday and just spent the afternoon getting settled and relaxing.
Got up Saturday morning to severe thunder, lightning & rain. It was off and on into the early afternoon & around 2 p.m. it cleared out and left us with an absolutely beautiful rest of the day. We hit up Ironman Village and get registered – we got there around 11:00 a.m. and moved through pretty quickly. No real lines to speak of. I dropped the family off at the condo and went off to meet some of my teammates for lunch at The Mosquito Café (which was a great spot – highly recommend it). Had a great lunch getting to eat with other folks from Endurance Nation. It was fun to laugh, share stories & get ready for the next day.
Following lunch I drove back up to the race venue to drop my bike off in transition. At this point the line for athlete registration was crazy long (note – get in early and get that knocked out). Perhaps the greatest benefit of being one of Ironman’s 2014 All World Athletes was the really great rack spot. I was bib number 225 and that put me right across from the pros spot. I had a perfect spot right in the middle of bike out and run out – in the second rack back. That’s so much better than being buried in the middle of three thousand bikes!
Once that was done I headed back to the condo and laid low with the family. I got my transition bag all set & for dinner I had some pasta with red sauce & some grilled chicken breast. I jumped into bed at 9:44 p.m.
Race Day:
My alarm was set for 4 a.m. but I woke up at 3:38 a.m. feeling ready to go. Go up and had my usual race morning breakfast of three cups of organic applesauce with two scoops of vanilla protein powder. Took in about 20 ounces of the G2 Gatorade that we’d be having on the course. We headed out the door at 5 a.m. & were pulling into the race venue about 10 minutes later.
My big surprise came as I was starting to set up my gear in transition. I heard them announce that the race would be a wetsuit optional race. Though I’d known the water temps were on the warm side I felt confident that all the rain we got on Saturday would have cooled it off enough to keep it a wetsuit race. Apparently not. This was a bit of a shock to me because I never, for a second assumed otherwise. My three previous 70.3 distance races & my one full Ironman were all wetsuit races. We had the option of wearing a wetsuit but that would mean two things; (1) you wouldn’t be counted in the age group awards & though I had no intention of hitting the podium I still wanted to see where I fit & (2) if you elected to wear a wetsuit you would start in the dreaded final swim wave. There wasn’t really a decision to be made for me – I would go without my wetsuit. But that did throw me off a bit.
Swim:
Goal: < 32:00
Actual: 36:19
AG Place: 47 / 327
The pros went off at 7:00 a.m. The male 40-44 age group was split into three swim waves and I was in the second wave that went off at 7:28 a.m. I’ve been consistently in the top 10% or so of my AG so I positioned myself at the front of the wave pretty much dead center. My goal was to get a good, strong start and try to create some space.
Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what happened on this swim. I’ve got no real reason for why my time was so slow. I felt like I swam pretty strong…felt like my form was mostly in check…felt like I sighted okay, but man – 36 minutes was disappointing. Yes, I’m sure having a wetsuit would have made me go faster but in my three swim race rehearsals (done without a wetsuit) I was consistently in the 31 – 33 minute range. Maybe the current was stronger than it felt. I’m just not sure. I came out of the water feeling whipped but hustled my way out and started up towards transition.
T1:
Goal: < 2:30
Actual: 2:21
I am really pleased with my transitions. I hustled, but never felt out of control or lost. I got to my rack spot put my sunglasses on, then my helmet, wiped my feet off and got my shoes on, grabbed the bike and was off. I’d love to continue to learn to shave time off here but overall I felt really good with how quickly I was on the bike.
Bike:
Goal: IF of 0.83-0.85 (232W – 238W) with a VI of 1.05 or less (time & speed would take care of themselves)
Actual: IF of 0.80; VI of 1.01 (AP 222W, NP 226W); Time of 2:22:38; Average speed 23.6 mph
AG Place: 36 / 327
Let me start by saying:
(1) This might have been the most fun I’ve had on a bike…ever
(2) This bike course is ridiculously simple – pancake flat & with the exception of 3 miles or so getting out of the neighborhood it is straight as an arrow. Twenty eight miles out and twenty eight back.
(3) The weather on this day was perfect for biking. With the exception of a few miles at the turn around (miles 28-30ish) there was virtually no wind to mess with (which is unheard of for a road that borders the Gulf of Mexico the entire stretch), there was total cloud coverage & for about 45 minutes to an hour there was a very light rain to keep things cool. It was perfect.
(4) There was nothing in any of my training that would suggest a 2:22:38 bike split was even a remote possibility for me. 23.6 mph hour? Are you kidding me?
This bike was just one of those rare instances where all the uncontrollable variables line up perfectly and when they did it made for a super-fast bike course. You’ll even notice that I rode under my watt goal – partially because I was a bit nervous about how easy the bike was and how fast I was moving & because I kept reminding myself that I had to run 13.1 miles – which was more than I’d run all together in the previous 9 weeks.
In terms of execution I stayed aero for 95% of the bike. Knowing it was going to be humid I stayed on my fluids & ended up peeing three – four times on the bike. One last minute change I did make was that I decided to double my salt tab intake. I typically take one salt tab per hour to help augment the sodium I’m getting from my fluids & from my GU – but I decided the day before to double that (reasoning: at lunch the day before I was talking with one of my teammates, Jimmy, from Endurance Nation & he noted that his supplemental sodium intake was two tabs per hour. It got me wondering if my cramping might be held off longer if I increased my sodium intake. And at 190lbs I’m a bigger guy out there and I’m sweating more than most of the smaller fellas. And I also reasoned, since this was a B race for me that I would be fine experimenting a bit.) I don’t typically recommend jacking with your plan the day before a race but I felt that this race was going to be a crapshoot because of my calf cramping so I figured, “what the heck!”
I rolled into T2 a bit in shock at the bike split but feeling really good, very hydrated and ready to see what the run held for me.
T2:
Goal: < 2:00
Actual: 1:28
Hopped off my bike and ran hard to my awesome rack spot. Off with my bike shoes & helmet. Sat down, put my socks on (I had put a bunch of Vaseline on the inside around the toe area) & shoes, grabbed my ziplock bag which contained my race belt, my visor, a zip lock bag of salt tabs & a few Gus and then I made a bee line for the run out exit. Just like T1 I feel really good about this transition – sub 1:30 feels pretty darn quick and efficient.
Run:
Goal: Not to die & to hold off the cramping as long as possible
Actual: 2:05:52 (9:43 pr/mile)
AG Place: 70 / 327
My overarching race strategy was to execute well on the swim & the bike, to hustle through transitions and to hold on for dear life on the run. Now was the time to see if and when I would implode. This run course is technical – it’s a three loop course with LOTS of turns and turn-arounds.
Mentally, I was in a good spot. Before the race even started I’d come to terms with a few bits of reality:
1) I had no business expecting anything other than suffering on the run
2) I had no business expecting a sub-2 hour half marathon
3) I had no business expecting that my calf would hold up – it wasn’t an issue of if it would cramp up, but when it would cramp up.
With those three things firmly imbedded in my brain I set off on lap one and the slow de-evolution of David began. The first lap (4 miles & some change) felt hard but overall okay. My legs were not used to the pounding & I could tell that I was beginning to get a blister on the bottom of my right foot. Because there were so many turns the blister quickly went from uncomfortable to downright painful.
I took salt tabs 2-3 times per hour; stayed on top of my fluids as best I could and threw ice down my shorts to try and keep my core temperature down. With every mile (except mile 7) I slowed down a bit. Each one got harder. Each one hurt worse. Because it was three loops I got to see my family a bunch on the run course & that’s always an encouragement. About half way through the run my 12 year jogged beside me and asked how my calf was feeling. I told him that it felt fine but every other part of my body was in pain & it was getting progressively warmer and more humid. And that would be the story for the entirety of the run. Amazingly, no calf cramping…but a ton of hurt in every other part of my body. That was expected but it didn’t make it fun! Other than walking the aid stations (which was part of the plan) I somehow managed to run the rest of the race.
Here were my splits:
- Mile 1 - 8:26
- Mile 2 - 8:30
- Mile 3 - 8:50
- Mile 4 - 9:07
- Mile 5 - 9:25
- Mile 6 - 9:38
- Mile 7 - 9:36
- Mile 8 - 10:13
- Mile 9 - 10:25
- Mile 10 - 10:29
- Mile 11 - 10:34
- Mile 12 - 10:35
- Mile 13 - 10.05
I crossed the finish line with a time of 5:08:44 – thanks to a ridiculous bike split & in spite of a sub-par swim and a disastrous run it was good enough for about a 2 minute PR.
Final Thoughts:
This was a fun race. This was a fast race with a very competitive male 40-44 age group. My 5:08 was only good enough to get me 70th in my age group (compare that with Austin 2014 where a 5:10 got me 20th place in my age group). This is a race I’d consider doing again for sure.
It was great to get away with the family. My kids had a blast & a change of scenery is usually good for the soul.
Run...I've got to get my body figured out. I've wrestled with cramping on and off for 2 years - hamstring, glutes & most recently the calf.
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Comments
Loved reading this report. I also appreciate the fight you fought and very much admire the details! I have raced Galveston 4 times. Its always fast and the run is always a bitch given the humidity.
I have also raced both Austin and Buffalo Springs several times so hit me up as you get close to those.
I think you have laid it all out there, started your season with a bang and plenty of wisdom and momentum to take you forward for a great 2015!
KMF!
SS
Thanks for the great report. And congrats on the PR! To do so on virtually no run training shows how strong you've gotten on the bike and how well you executed. The swim was slow for everyone, so nothing to fret there. I don't even look at the clock in 70.3's, because the swim times are all over the place with 20+ waves and really don't mean anything overall. I swam a :27 RR leading up to Miami last year, then threw down a blistering :39 on race day. Sooo glad I didn't know about that time until 30 minutes post-race or it would have affected (negatively) my focus on the B&R. And 70th OA in a big AG isn't bad on a fast day with a 2:05. I bet if you ran a more typical 1:45, your placing would have been Top 20 or 25.
Rest up, figure out that calf thing, and get back to work.
Mike
Great report and great race! The fact that you did that run with that amount of training is amazing! Enjoyed sharing the course with you.
Chris
And, Cograts on the PR. Ypu held it together on the run and got rewarded.