Gabe Peterson's Boulder 70.3 Race Report
Race Report: Boulder 70.3
|
Results Time |
Results Place (Div out of 258 / Overall out of 2252) |
Results Percentile (Div% / Overall %) |
Previous PR |
|
Overall Time: 5:22 |
46 / 343 |
18% / 15% |
SuperFrog2014 |
|
Swim: 43 |
129 / 1147 |
50% / 51% |
Swim: 44 @ St George 2015 |
|
T1: 3:29 |
|
|
SuperFrog2014 |
|
Bike: 2:42 |
88 / 600 |
34% / 27% |
SuperFrog2014 |
|
T2: 2:10 |
|
|
T2: 2 @ St George 2015 |
|
Run: 1:51 |
46 / 343 |
18% / 15% |
Run: 1:55 @ St George 2015 |
Highlights
I’ve never wanted to quit a race so badly. My HR was mysteriously sky high on the bike and I was hit by powerful nausea by the back half of the bike course. I’ve never come so close to puking on the bike. I was in my dark place starting the run. Despite that, I kept moving forward and scored a PR by over 20 minutes. Further, I PR’d every split – swim, bike, and run!
|
Phase |
Key TakeAways |
|
Swim |
Modest improvement from St George, but still good enough for a PR. |
|
Bike |
My HR was mysteriously high starting on the bike. I tried rolling with it, but was ready to puke by the second half of the bike course.Making matters worse, I had to ride the second half in only the big chain ring. I powered through and scored a bike PR by 5 minutes! |
|
Run |
I was hurting coming off the bike, but focused on just making it through each mile.Next thing I knew I crossed the finish line with a new run PR and 70.3 PR! |
|
Transitions |
My T1 time improved by over a minute from St George thanks to practicing running out of the water during my open water swims, so I didn’t have the wobbliness I’ve had in the past. T2 is still very good, a tick longer than St George. |
Background
I had a great race at St George last month, blasting my previous time by over 50 minutes. This season I’ve been following the HIM “minimalist” plan I made based on the EN IM “minimalist” plan I used for IM Arizona. I have been under serious time constraints with moving to Utah and starting a new job. I like the balance of focusing on getting faster during the weekdays and endurance on the weekends, packing in high quality work into a time efficient 8-9 hours per week. I like it so much I’ll keep rolling with it.
Since I had to be time efficient, my strategy this season has been:
· Maximize the run. I started out at a VDOT of 43 this season and am at 46-47 with a goal of 49-50 by the end of the year.
· Optimize the bike. I started out at a FTP of 220W and am at 240W, which was my goal.
· Maintain the swim. One of these seasons I’ll go crazy on the swim, but not this season. I just need to maintain my current ability. Swimming is the lowest ROI in terms of time of the three sports (for me).
Further, I made my swimming even more minimalist by going 1-2 times per week. Since St George, I did most of my swims as open water swims at Blackridge Reservoir with the Salt Lake Tri Club.
Pre-Race and Race Morning
This was the most nail-biting leading into a race that I’ve experienced. Thursday the Boulder Reservoir was closed due to high bacteria levels, leaving a cloud of uncertainty that there would be a swim. The weather forecast oscillated between sunny and raining. During the bike drop off on Friday, parking was in a mud pit where many cars got stuck. Happily, the bacteria test came back okay and we got sunshine that dried things out for race day.
It was great meeting the EN crew at lunch and posing with the EN Al Qaeda flag for a group pic. I had a great dinner with Mark Cardinale, since we were both staying in Longmont. I learned his secret for getting blazing fast – hard work. 
Race morning I woke up feeling foggy. I went through my morning nutrition plan and got ready to go. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was forgetting something, but trusted that I’d gone through my checklist multiple times. I took Mark’s secret back entrance to the Rez and was there in no time, while cars piled up from the main entrance.
Setup in transition was uneventful, thankfully no flat tire like St George. Stephanie Stevens was a couple racks over and we chatted for a bit. Then I ran into Mark by the swim start, and met Steve Mayberry, who was wearing EN kit.
Swim
|
Target time: 43min |
Actual time: 43min |
|
Target pace: 1:55/100yds |
Actual pace: 1:51/100yds (over 2300yds) |
I did a short warm up swim in the roped-off area. Then stayed in the water to watch the pros go off and see what their strategy was. It looked like the previous waves were leaving the middle open, so I lined up there when it was our turn.
The swim was uneventful, with reasonably clear water and warm (67-68F). The one challenge was that the buoys were on the right and I breathe to the left. I tried to stay right in the buoy line. I had to sight more often and feel like I zig-zagged more than usual. According to Garmin I swam an extra 200 yards.
I ran up the swim exit and noted that my time was right on target. I was doing the equivalent distance at Blackridge in about 42-43 minutes, so that was where I set my expectations.
T1
|
Target time: 3:00 |
Actual time: 3:29 |
During my practice swims at Blackridge, I’d always finish by running out of the water like I was headed to transition. Slowly the wobbliness that I’ve experience in the past that led to longish T1s faded away. That showed up on race day and I trimmed over a minute off my transition from St George, despite that I probably spent an extra 20-30 seconds getting my wetsuit off since there were no wetsuit strippers.
Bike
|
Target time: 2:45 (BestBikeSplitpredicted 2:32) |
Actual time: 2:43 |
|
Target NP: 190W |
Actual NP: 165W |
|
Target TSS: 160 |
Actual TSS: 130 |
|
Target IF: 0.78 |
Actual IF: 0.7 |
|
Target Speed: 21MPH |
Actual Speed: 20.7MPH |
I knew something was wrong when my HR was at 156, which is my threshold, and it wasn’t going down. I figured it would settle down and kept pushing target power. Despite a few climbs, the first half of the course was very fast. There were lots of rollers to launch off and keep the speed going, sometimes for miles.
I got a surprise when a car passed me earlier on. I missed that it was an open course. All the other triathlons I’ve done have been on closed courses, so I just assumed that was the norm. It made bombing the down hills more challenging because it left a very narrow passing lane by all the folks coasting.
After I crested the last serious climb around mile 12-13, I noticed the cable sticking out of the shifter for the front derailleur. I wasn’t sure it would go back into the big chain ring again if I shifted down. My memory from the drive through was there were just a few minor hills left. So I decided to do the rest of the course in the big chain ring since it would be disaster to be stuck in the small chain ring on this fast course.
I ripped through the first 28 miles in around 1:17 and was feeling like BestBikeSplit might have been right after all. However, my HR was still in Z4, although I was putting out Z3 power. I started feeling nauseous and by mile 40 was sure I was going to puke my guts out. I knew I just had to hold it together and average 20MPH the rest of the course to make my 2:45 target. It was the longest 16 miles of my life. I wanted to pull off at an aid station and quit.
I thought about what Coach Rich says around making sure your racing-self honors the work your training-self has done to get you here. So my training-self kicked me square in the nutz and said, “suck it up, cupcake!” And I did.
I am still amazed that I put up a 2:43 bike split with my power fading on the back half of the race. I stayed aero about 90% of the time and guess my CdA must be pretty good. I launched off the rollers and pushed hard when there was an opportunity for speed. Then I’d dial back on the slower sections.
The big question for me is: why was my heart rate so abnormally high? I am assuming it led to the nausea in the second half since my HR was in Z4 for almost 1.5 hours. I thought it may be a precursor that I was getting sick, but as I type this I am sore but otherwise fine. Thoughts?
T2
|
Target time: 2:00 |
Actual time: 2:10 |
I ran to my rack spot and shed my bike gear. I was in hell but felt confident I could run through it. I told myself, “someone can stick a knife in me and I’ll still be able to run a sub-9:00/mi half mary.” I grabbed my go-bag and headed to the porta-potty, which was located the opposite direction from the run out. That probably cost an extra 20 seconds that made T2 a tick slower than St George.
Run
|
Target time: 1:45 |
Actual time: 1:51 |
|
Target TSS: 130 |
Actual TSS: 130 |
|
Target Pace: 8:00/mi |
Actual Pace: 8:30/mi |
I stumbled out of the run out hoping I wouldn’t puke all over myself. By my mental race clock, I thought I just needed to run a sub 9:00/mi half marathon to beat my goal of a sub-5:30 70.3. I put on my SLTC visor (I wish EN made one that would fit my big melon), sunglasses, and race belt. After slathering myself with sunscreen, I tossed the sunscreen and go-bag into the next trash.
My HR was pretty hot coming out of the gate – it was in mid-Z3 for a Z2 pace. I had done a scouting run on Thursday evening and the trail was a beautiful surface, springy almost like running on a track. However, Friday the staff must have driven a fleet of trucks through it for the setup and it was tore up. I switched to going by HR instead of pace since it was a crap surface. Around an 8:30/mi was in low- to mid-Z3, so I rolled with it.
With the humidity, the temperatures in the low 80s felt as hot as St George did in the low 90s. I started my heat control protocol at the aid stations – swig Gatorade, dump water on head, fill trisuit with ice. I sloshed my way through the first 3 miles, and then my stomach settled. I actually felt better the last 3 miles than the first 3.
I stayed in mid-Z3 HR until I hit mile 11 and then started dialing it up, finishing in Z4. I rounded the last turn and crossed the finish. I looked at my watch a figured I had done a sub-5:25. I was even more stoked to find out it was actually 5:22. Any day you have to fight not to quit and still pull out a 22 minute PR is a good day!
Tantalizingly, I wonder how much time I left out on the course, probably 10-15 minutes. That puts a sub-5:00 within sight. I’ll be back to Boulder to find out…
Splits
|
Mile |
Pace |
GAP |
Elev |
HR |
|
1 |
8:24/mi |
8:25/mi |
-10ft |
148bpm |
|
2 |
8:20/mi |
8:17/mi |
-6ft |
146bpm |
|
3 |
8:51/mi |
8:27/mi |
44ft |
148bpm |
|
4 |
8:34/mi |
8:37/mi |
-7ft |
148bpm |
|
5 |
8:33/mi |
8:39/mi |
-25ft |
146bpm |
|
6 |
8:35/mi |
8:30/mi |
5ft |
147bpm |
|
7 |
8:33/mi |
8:33/mi |
-2ft |
149bpm |
|
8 |
8:34/mi |
8:31/mi |
-3ft |
148bpm |
|
9 |
8:48/mi |
8:32/mi |
26ft |
148bpm |
|
10 |
8:51/mi |
8:48/mi |
7ft |
148bpm |
|
11 |
8:40/mi |
8:53/mi |
-41ft |
148bpm |
|
12 |
8:40/mi |
8:32/mi |
9ft |
149bpm |
|
13 |
8:19/mi |
8:19/mi |
-4ft |
153bpm |
What’s Next…
I can’t put a shinier ribbon on my triathlon season than meeting my goal of sub-5:30 at Boulder and crushing my time at St George by over 50 minutes. My dilemma is that on Friday Vineman 70.3 opened up 50 more slots. I saw the post of Facebook, and on a whim went to see if I could grab one. Much to my surprise, I got one. With all the drama around Boulder I wanted to have a backup in case things went south. Now do I roll into Vineman in four weeks? Or just go with my plan below to switch to being a runner for the rest of the year?
The run is the area I’ve improved the most since joining EN last year. I probably have a lot of run durability from 20+ years of consistently running, even when I was over 200lbs. I want to see how far I can take it. I have a couple half marathons lined up this summer, culminating in St George Marathon in October. I hope to destroy my previous marathon PR from my days as a recreational runner. I aim to break 3:30. The cherry on top is that I’ve signed up for my first ultra at Bootlegger 50k in Boulder City, NV as my birthday challenge in November. Coach Patrick is putting together a custom marathon + 50k training plan for me.
Do I tri one more time at Vineman (a race I’ve always wanted to do) in four weeks while building up my run mileage? Or commit to being a runner for the rest of the season?
Comments
Dude! Awesome, Awesome, race!!!! I really like the fact that you had physical and mechanical issues, but you had the mental resolve to put it aside and keep moving forward. That right there will take you a long way in this sport. Keep working hard and there is no doubt you have a sub 5hr day in your future. I'm going to steal your training tip about running out of the swim during OWS practice. I'm normally super casual coming out of the water during training, but i also feel dizzy and my HR is sky high when i first step out of the water. You're smart to practice this. On a personal note, it was great hanging out and I hope we get the opportunity to race together again whether at Boulder or St. George. In terms of whether to go run focus or do another tri, it's really a question of where you are mentally and how the logistics mesh with your personal/family life. Both have their merits so i'll be interested to see what you ultimately decide. Take care and again congrats on your PR!
Gabe,
Congrats on the great PR! I really enjoyed your RR. You've made a ton of progress in a pretty short period of time, and there's definitely a handful of minutes in each discipline that you can steal to get you down in the 5hr conversation. As for high HR on the bike, it's pretty always gonna be high right out of T1. For me, those first 2-5 miles are critical to go way too easy and watch that HR go from 150-60 down into the 120s or low 130s. Once I've done that, I can ease into my HIM watts (~220) and keep the HR in the 130s. If you've got your TP, Garmin or Strava file, it would be interesting to see what you did early on the bike. It may very well reveal secrets about your struggles on the back half.
Great steady run. Ideally, though, you can grab a few minutes by turning the screws at around Mile 10 and burying yourself to the finish. Easier said that done, but most of it is mental.
Vineman is a pretty cool experience. The bike may be my most favorite HIM course ever. Run can be hot. Lots to see, do, eat and drink in Napa/Sonoma. If it's a race you can go to, enjoy and make a long weekend out of, it's probably a bucket list item not to be missed. I would certainly put it ahead of one of the HMs you have planned. Just my $0.02.
Mike
AWESOME Race and Race Report. I aspire to be as fast as you AND to post RRs that are half as cool
I have noticed sky high HR (that doesn't correlate to effort) several times in training and races. The root cause in my case seems to be low blood sugar. I am fairly well fat adapted and I don't experience any hypoglycemia symptoms in day-to-day life. BUT, occasionally at the beginning of a run/bike wko or right out of T1/2, I will see my HR start climbing above threshold and it'll go to max if I keep going. If I stop, it comes right down close to something reasonable, like resting+xx. And, if I start going again, it spikes right back up over 3-5 minutes. SO, it's not effort related. First couple times it freaked me out! I discovered after some trial & error that if I take a gel and spin/walk for a few minutes, I can get going again and my HR stays in zone from then on. I have no insight into the physiology and your issue may be different but if you see that again, maybe something to try.
MK
Thanks, Mark! I can't wait to read your race report -- you absolutely crushed the race! I enjoyed getting to know you. In additional to being a superhuman triathlete, you're an all-around cool dude.
I definitely look forward to the next time week hang out.
Right now I am leaning toward going with my running plan. I listened to Born to Run on the long, lonely drive through Wyoming. Man, that is an opus to running and has me totally pumped about being a runner for the rest of the season. Vineman will always be there.
Mike, good idea! I looked at the data in TP. During the first 5 miles, my IF was at .73 but my HR averaged low Z4. I noticed right away that my HR was abnormally high, so I stayed in bullhorns for the first 2 miles and went easy. When it didn't come down, I decided I had no choice but to roll with it.
One theory I came up with after writing my race report was that I may have overheated on the swim. I'm a big dude (for a triathlete) and heat is always the enemy. I have been doing my OWS in water that is high 50s to low 60s. Boulder was at least 68F. The only other time I've has the mysteriously high HR was at IMAZ where the water was also pretty warm. I noticed I started feeling better when I dumped a bunch of ice in my trisuit on the run. I may experiment with my sleeveless wetsuit if the water temp is in the high 60s.
Agreed on the run. I started the run thinking there was a good chance I was going to end up in the med tent. I decided to go more conservative than planned, especially since I calculated I'd beat my goal. But I definitely left a lot of minutes out there.
Thanks for the feedback on Vineman. I grew up in Northern California and love the area. I have to do Vineman, but I am thinking not this year. Still on the fence though and went ahead and reserved a hotel in Santa Rosa in case I change my mind. I'll be in California that week anyway -- so tempting...
Marvin, interesting theory! Especially since I did notice that I felt hungry despite loading up in the morning. I will try your advice next time and take a gel with easy spinning.
Great job, sticking with your race thru to the end. You're still on the rapid rise phase of the learning curve, so I would take the high you're on from your past two races, and finish the year strong at Vineman. You are clearly telling yourself to do this with the sign up on the spur the moment, and then reserving lodging. BUT - I suggest NOT hitting a hard run block until AFTER that race. You want to be ready to finish that race strong, and your years of running plus your steady tri training over the past two should have you ready to give it one more go in CA. All you need is a week of easy stuff - NO INTERVALS on bike or run, then two weeks of your standard HIM plan, then a week taper. Save the bigger running for after that.
Oh, and please take the time to improve your swim next fall and winter - you've got 8-10 minutes there you can capture with the right technique improvements and swim-specific fitness gains. 3-4 days (10,000 meters) a week for 3-4 months will get you a long way towards that sub-5 HIM. Until you can see 33-34 minutes for that swim, it'll be a tough barrier to crack.
I'll be in Palo Alto the week after Vineman for business, making the timing awfully convenient. I'll have to see if I can make all the logistical pieces fall into place. Thanks for the guidance on how to structure the short training block leading up to Vineman!
It is humbling to get passed by so many people on the swim. Something had to give this season with all the changes in my civilian life, and the swim was it. Things are settling down now. I should be able to focus some serious energy and time on it next season. Mark gave me a bunch of good tips on improving my swim. I'll probably do a swim focused block in the outseason. I also found a former pro triathlete in the SLC area who gets rave reviews from the SLTC crew to coach me.