JUAN VERGARA ST GEORGE 70.3 RACE REPORT
SUMMARY:
6th place in my age group (55-59) with a total time of 05:04:27 / 4 seconds away from 5th place and 53 seconds slower than planned. Happy with my performance in a tough HILLY course against a strong field and HIGHLY motivated to continue the hard work in pursuit of further improvement. It's certainly feasible and I've got a little over 5 months to make a couple "adjustments" for KONA.
The Swim:
Planned: 00:33:00
Delivered: 00:34:55
Lost 00:01:55
Differently than planned, I followed Mike Roberts' advice and went for the line from the starts (versus seeding in the middle). Originally worried with the very low water temperature (for my standards) I went in confident and relaxed having tested the lake a couples days earlier with EN local Brent Bills (super host!!!). Obviously I expected a faster swim but did not push harder than what my good form feeling told me I should. Being the 11th wave, intense slower traffic in the swim course might have been one of the reasons of a longer than desired swim. Need to prepare for similar situations.
T1: used the stripers and did not waste any time gaining 8 seconds versus the planned 3 minutes. 00:02:52 (could have been a tinny bit faster getting the wetsuit into the bike gear bike!!!).
The Bike
Planned : 02:40:00
Delivered : 02:42:41
Lost: 00:02:41
I controlled my temptation to push harder than planned on the bike and pushed as much as my gears permitted on those amazing downhills!!! Executed EN style with extreme discipline. At the end of the bike course I did feel like I could have gone faster but maybe that's exactly the reason why my run was significantly better than planned??? (Most likely). The numbers do say I left "a bit" on the table and could have risked further.
IF: 0.78 (planned 0.85). 164.2 TSS
Will analyze those bike numbers in detail when I get back home separating the first 20 minutes where I took it easier (as planned) before entering IF 0.85 mode for the rest of the bike course.
TP file here if interested:
http://tpks.ws/b4x8
A couple "funny bike moments":
- I always freeze my bottles calculating they will be liquid by the time I get to the bike. However, I had only raced in warmer places. Well .... as soon as I had my feet in the shoes, tighten them and past the craze of the mount area with extreme caution and patience, I went for the straw on my front bottle and ..... Frozen it is!!!! Luckily the water in Sand Hollow Reservoir is not only cold but cristal clear and I drank GREAT TASTING water a few times while swimming. My rear bottle had only been frozen 3/4 so I had enough liquid in it to drink while the front was "ready for me".
- before entering the canyon (after a very fast downhill section) I start hearing what sounded like a flat rear ...... but it did not feel flat ..... but it did sound flat and increasingly louder. So I stopped to check and it was the Disk valve sticker coming out!!!! A bit of a scare and lost time and momentum but luckily all was fine with my entire P5!!! (That reminded me that from that point on I had to - as I always do - sing to my bike: "take me home, country road, to the place, I belong ... country mama .............". And she took me safe all the way to T2.
T2: 1:34, almost a minute faster than planned (shoes on ... go bag ... out!!!).
The run:
Planned: 01:45:00
Delivered: 01:42:25
Gained: 00:02:35
Robot style .... executed as planned the first 3 miles running stupidly slow up the tough hill !!!! Robot style .... Picked up the pace for the next 7 miles making use of the downhills to compensate for the slower uphill sections. Heart rate alway within planned range. Nutrition exactly as planned walking (10 steps max) at all stations. After mile 10 .... just gave it all I had EVERYTHING!!! Uphill or downhill MAX POSSIBLE. Taking liquid and ice at aid stations but not stopping. Totally skipped the last station and pushed as hard as possible all the way past the finish line ..... was so into MY BOX that did not even see my direct competitor for 5th place 4 seconds ahead of me!!! (I did see him later in my wife's video of the finish line).
TP file if curious: http://tpks.ws/UaTG
The Venue:
Simply FANTASTIC!!!! Highly recommend it!! Here is a link to the official race video
http://click.email.ironman.com/?qs=df8bd344dc37cda8ec8e097c85dda54e11e40c073bb55e7e84630ba0efcf3a7ba25d3bd3f087f8d1
EN Team:
Great to race with Coach Rich and many other EN team mates. Our red uniforms do stand out!!!
The City:
St George, it's surrounding and it's people are just a must to visit with or without a race. Highly recommend.
6th place in my age group (55-59) with a total time of 05:04:27 / 4 seconds away from 5th place and 53 seconds slower than planned. Happy with my performance in a tough HILLY course against a strong field and HIGHLY motivated to continue the hard work in pursuit of further improvement. It's certainly feasible and I've got a little over 5 months to make a couple "adjustments" for KONA.
The Swim:
Planned: 00:33:00
Delivered: 00:34:55
Lost 00:01:55
Differently than planned, I followed Mike Roberts' advice and went for the line from the starts (versus seeding in the middle). Originally worried with the very low water temperature (for my standards) I went in confident and relaxed having tested the lake a couples days earlier with EN local Brent Bills (super host!!!). Obviously I expected a faster swim but did not push harder than what my good form feeling told me I should. Being the 11th wave, intense slower traffic in the swim course might have been one of the reasons of a longer than desired swim. Need to prepare for similar situations.
T1: used the stripers and did not waste any time gaining 8 seconds versus the planned 3 minutes. 00:02:52 (could have been a tinny bit faster getting the wetsuit into the bike gear bike!!!).
The Bike
Planned : 02:40:00
Delivered : 02:42:41
Lost: 00:02:41
I controlled my temptation to push harder than planned on the bike and pushed as much as my gears permitted on those amazing downhills!!! Executed EN style with extreme discipline. At the end of the bike course I did feel like I could have gone faster but maybe that's exactly the reason why my run was significantly better than planned??? (Most likely). The numbers do say I left "a bit" on the table and could have risked further.
IF: 0.78 (planned 0.85). 164.2 TSS
Will analyze those bike numbers in detail when I get back home separating the first 20 minutes where I took it easier (as planned) before entering IF 0.85 mode for the rest of the bike course.
TP file here if interested:
http://tpks.ws/b4x8
A couple "funny bike moments":
- I always freeze my bottles calculating they will be liquid by the time I get to the bike. However, I had only raced in warmer places. Well .... as soon as I had my feet in the shoes, tighten them and past the craze of the mount area with extreme caution and patience, I went for the straw on my front bottle and ..... Frozen it is!!!! Luckily the water in Sand Hollow Reservoir is not only cold but cristal clear and I drank GREAT TASTING water a few times while swimming. My rear bottle had only been frozen 3/4 so I had enough liquid in it to drink while the front was "ready for me".
- before entering the canyon (after a very fast downhill section) I start hearing what sounded like a flat rear ...... but it did not feel flat ..... but it did sound flat and increasingly louder. So I stopped to check and it was the Disk valve sticker coming out!!!! A bit of a scare and lost time and momentum but luckily all was fine with my entire P5!!! (That reminded me that from that point on I had to - as I always do - sing to my bike: "take me home, country road, to the place, I belong ... country mama .............". And she took me safe all the way to T2.
T2: 1:34, almost a minute faster than planned (shoes on ... go bag ... out!!!).
The run:
Planned: 01:45:00
Delivered: 01:42:25
Gained: 00:02:35
Robot style .... executed as planned the first 3 miles running stupidly slow up the tough hill !!!! Robot style .... Picked up the pace for the next 7 miles making use of the downhills to compensate for the slower uphill sections. Heart rate alway within planned range. Nutrition exactly as planned walking (10 steps max) at all stations. After mile 10 .... just gave it all I had EVERYTHING!!! Uphill or downhill MAX POSSIBLE. Taking liquid and ice at aid stations but not stopping. Totally skipped the last station and pushed as hard as possible all the way past the finish line ..... was so into MY BOX that did not even see my direct competitor for 5th place 4 seconds ahead of me!!! (I did see him later in my wife's video of the finish line).
TP file if curious: http://tpks.ws/UaTG
The Venue:
Simply FANTASTIC!!!! Highly recommend it!! Here is a link to the official race video
http://click.email.ironman.com/?qs=df8bd344dc37cda8ec8e097c85dda54e11e40c073bb55e7e84630ba0efcf3a7ba25d3bd3f087f8d1
EN Team:
Great to race with Coach Rich and many other EN team mates. Our red uniforms do stand out!!!
The City:
St George, it's surrounding and it's people are just a must to visit with or without a race. Highly recommend.
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Comments
Another great result based on strong training and solid execution. You're a model of consistency. Based on this course's profile, I don't think it's one of those races where you shoot for .85 IF on the bike and MP on the run. You probably left a little out there with that .78, but probably not as much as you think. And the conservative bike allowed you to tackle that very tough run on a hot day.
Congrats. Enjoy the journey to Kona.
Mike
Just had a chance to review my bike file and now I have NO DOUBT that I was excessively conservative, leaving a significant amount of time on the table.
If I were to do this race again (or better said: when I definitely do this race again) I will plan to average my targeted watts, pushing harder on those climbs since there is definitely enough time on the subsequent downhills to recover (plenty of time!!!)
My first 30 minutes were right on target (190 Avg Power/198 NP).
From there on, from mile 18 through 44, if I look just at the climbs I was far from my 0.85 IF averaging 80% (while recovering nicely on the descent at 68% and achieving quite decent speed - 32mph average/max 46mph).
Only at Snow Canyon (last and long climb) did I deliver 87% but, even then, given the long downhill into T2, a slighter harder effort would seem justifiable.
Always learning!!
Juan,
Thanks for sharing and congrats on your excellent race execution! Might be good to listen to the (long) podcast that Mark and I recorded after the race where we broke the course down in detail and give our thoughts about the significant differences between execution need at IMSG for FOP, MOP, and BOP athletes. There's a lot of free/easy speed to be had on the course (I was surprised at my bike split, given my watts) but you really, really need to respect the run. And the long downhill into the SG, and the long high speed downhills throughout the course make it very difficult, even impossible, to ride to and meet whatever IF goals you have. I think it's better to: