Rich Stanbaugh - 2015 Raleigh 70.3 Race Report
Stanbaugh – 2015 Raleigh 70.3 Race Report
This was planned as a “B race” this year with the goal of improving my race execution skills heading towards IMMT and IMFL later this year. It was my 4th 70.3 adding to 4 full IM races.
Summary
Swim – 56:08 T1 – 1:53 Bike – 2:36:24 T2 – 2:00 Run – 2:04:59 Overall – 5:41:24
Ironman is a very honest sport. You generally get what you put into it. This race is a fair representation of what I put into my preparation.
I struggled through the OS with injuries. First a hamstring issue that turned out to be more painful and more enduring than I expected followed by re-breaking the 5th Metatarsal on my left foot (a last season injury). The result was a couple months downtime with the associated loss of fitness and limitations to my ability to train after the downtime.
I’m OK with the results. I improved in areas where I was able to focus and my performance was wonting in areas where training was sub par. The heat was a very material factor on the run… coming from Detroit where the temperature was in the low 30s less than a week prior to the race to Raleigh where it was 89º in the shade on race day has an impact on run performance.
Pre-Race
Everything went as planned. I am starting to feel a rhythm to these races and am better prepared for each one. I believe done Raleigh 70.3 last year was a distinct advantage.
The race and the days leading up to it were very hot. There is very little that can be done to acclimate in the 2-3 days prior to race day. In order to perform to my potential in a hot race, I need to arrive acclimatized.
My stomach was not good leading up to the race. I suspect it was related to the heat. This impacted my pre-race calorie intake and sleeping. This wasn’t a major issue – but I did not feel like I was on my A-game. This theme continued in other aspects of the race.
Swim
This is the worst triathlon swim I have ever had. Raleigh 2014 was 38 minutes… Raleigh 2015 was 56 minutes. It was not wetsuit legal. It was even more crowded than last year. I had less than 10 swim practices in 2015. Primarily relating to my hamstring injury (for whatever reason swimming feels “tweaky&rdquo
, I was grossly undertrained. My performance reflected my training. I will have returned to, at a minimum, my typical average swim performance by my next race.
T1
Race Execution was a primary goal for this event. I had 100% of my gear on my bike in T1. Arm coolers on aero bars, shoes on bike with rubber band trick, helmet sitting on bike, etc. I exited the swim and stripped top of speed suit while I ran to the bike, tossed speed suit in bike bag, helmet on and ran to bike exit. The long transition area, together with being thoroughly exhausted after a 56-minute swim, held me to 1:53. It is my best T1. I feel like I have the formula for this now.
Bike
The ride out of the park was insane. First – bike course designers take note – DO NOT put an out and back with a U-Turn within the first five miles on the bike course. This is the part of the bike ride that is the craziest. It is very crowded, no one is adapted to their bikes, everyone is distracted with eating, drinking, dressing or trying to go insanely fast… it is a recipe for disaster. Secondly – do not allow public traffic on the bike course, especially during the first 5 miles of the course. I was stuck behind a car that was swerving in and out of bike traffic to avoid the oncoming cars. Bike were being pushed off the course, held back… this was just really bad juju.
Apart from that – I really enjoy the Raleigh bike course.
As I mentioned earlier, I felt a little bit off all day. Each time I tried to step my output up to my published targets (Pnorm = 210w / IF 0.83) the RPE felt too high. This “bouncing around” is reflected in by the VI in my first two splits. After mile 10, I adjusted my target to 200w. My splits (5 miles) are shown below:
This was actually a very steady ride. Course is essentially flat/gradual hills between miles 10 and 30+ (splits 3-7). After mile 30 (splits 8+), it has some 90º turns and rolling hills for the remainder. My VI increased noticeably towards the end. This is because I was spun out (and not pedaling) going down the hills. I spent 22% of my time after mile 30 above 30 mph in this race. This causes the VI in this section to be 1.046 compared to the VI of 1.019 for the previous 25 miles.
After settling on a target of 200w, the biked worked very well for me. I felt strong as the ride continued. My HR grew steadily and I moved up 745 places in the overall ranking after the dire swim! By mile 35, I had caught a lot of the guys from my age group. It felt great to go past them with speed!
Overall bike results:
Time: 2:36
Speed: 21.48
Pnorm: 199
VI: 1.041
IF: 0.796
TSS: 165
T2
Feet out of shoes leading up to the last climb, jumped off the bike running to my slot. Helmut off, shoes on, go bag, toilette break, extra sun screen on, 2:00. I can live with that.
Run
I broke the run in to a quarter, a half and a quarter. Targeted keeping HR below 160 to the turnaround. This wasn’t working. It was hot, I felt really good, but my HR wanted to stick around 162-163. About half way out, I settled on trying to keep it below 163.
Still felt good at the turn around, the ice in the go-bag trick was AWESOME! I was using my visor as a strap to hold the ice bag on top of my head. Really helped keep me cool. I famished the first quarter averaging about 9:10 per mile and feeling very good.
The “half” section of my plan was on loop starting from the turn around. I stepped my HR up to the 165 target and felt really good until about mile 9. At this point, I wasn’t able to find ice at two consecutive aid stations. I was hot and my HR was falling… I could not get it about 160 anymore. My stomach was bad (was I the only one that thought the Gatorade mix was wayyy too sweet??)… I ran to the next aid station and took a longer than usual break. I forced my self to take in a gel without retching, found some ice and ice water to cool down and started running again. Within about 10 minutes, I was feeling stronger, HR had climbed back into the mid 160s. I made the turn for the stretch home and finished as best I could. I saw Anna on the way in and the gave me a huge boost of energy, because she was smiling and looking like she was having fun!
Wrap up
I finished with 5:41:24.
Not my best race – but I think it met my expectations in terms of being a building block on the way to Tremblant. I did not “feel’ the bike race that I wanted to have in terms of the numbers, but made an execution adjustment and improved my year-over-year time by 12 minutes. The swim and run were within limits f what I expected and will give me a good focus moving towards IMMT.
As always - seeing all of our friends from the team made it better. I look forward to seeing you all next time!
Comments
Rich - this sounds like a good race for you, from the perspective of being able to get an improving feel for racing to your targets. Those targets are getting sophisticated in their multiplicity: RPE, power/pace, HR, details of nutrition and cooling measures. You are seeing the whole chess board, and starting to master it.
Uh, though, about that swim ... the factors you mention - crowded, non-wetsuit - shouldn't have led to that great a differential from last year. In addition to getting on top of swim training, any thoughts on how to better manage those specific issues if you encounter them again in a race?
@Al - wow thank you... that compliment is a confidence builder! I've been thinking about the swim. I expected my expectations for underperforming the swim. I had my watch set to lap each quarter of the race. I started out "ok" but just fell apart and was aware of it as it was happening. Things I know:
- my balance was poor (partly related to under kicking to protect hamstring)
- my turnover slowed (swim fitness)
- with one exception (goggles getting kicked off) I swam pretty straight
- when I tried to speed up towards the end, I actually slowed down!
- https://www.strava.com/activities/315675627
In the end - I think that I got what I paid for. I am not a fast swimmer to start with and I thought I would skate by with time that was 5 minutes slower than last year. No wetsuit gave me an opportunity to highlight my weaknesses. My lack of swim fitness was featured more than expected by dragging myself through the water. The bumping and grinding didn't intimidate me... it just added to the fatigue.
I have 11 weeks and a few days until Tremblant. I think that I need to:
- address the fundamental issue of swim fitness and form (balance)
- learn how to efficiently catch the water
- re-read and apply the Mike Roberts Swim hack thread
My best IM swim is 1:18. IMMT was 1:20 last year. I aim to improve that this year!