Carol D's Eagleman 2015 RR
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After not having done Eagleman since 2012, we decided to go back this year because Cambridge is just a great town, the people there are awesome, and knowing it is almost always HOT for Eagleman, we thought it would be great training for Turby on his way to Kona this year! Also had our good friends (previous ENers) Kenney and Pam to join us, just as they did for IMMD in 2014. AND we got to spend some time with friend and fellow ENer Michal Kovac:-)
We arrived Friday late morning and went straight to Great Marsh Park for a swim. We swam in our speed suits knowing that chances were quite high there would be no wetsuits on Sunday. Water felt great so check that off. Then it was onto the bikes for a 40-min spin on the first part of the bike course. Grabbed some lunch, registered, met Dave Nesom at the expo:-), listened to the athlete talk and finally got to the hotel. Shower, dinner and early to bed. Sat. morning we drove the bike course, just for something to do (and it's so beautiful), and dropped off the bikes before meeting up with a great group of ENers and friends for lunch. Relaxed at the hotel and went out for a light dinner.
I should mention that I did a consultation for race nutrition with Chrissie from Core Diet a week ago. I highly recommend it! I have a tendency to have stomach problems during the run in long races, so I thought this might help. It did:-) Sunday morning 3:30 it was applesauce and whey protein and a banana. On our way before 5 a.m. drinking a gatorade and got everything set up, no problems! Porta-potty and gathered up a few ENers for a picture before heading over to the swim. Water looked nice and calm and it was already in the high 70s.
Goals: swim - :50 min (no wetsuit); bike - 2:50 (low Z3); run - 2:05 ish, but conceding to go slower due to the heat. Was hoping to break 6 hours (6:07 previous Eagleman PR with wetsuit) T1/T2 - ~ 3-4 mins
Swim: I was in the first wave after the Pros, so I got to start at 7:00! Lucky for me. After the initial jostling of swimmers walking in the shallow water and finally getting to put my head in, things went really smoothly for the first leg. I felt like I was swimming very well, nice tempo, no contact. I guess I didn't realize how much of a current we were swimming into! By the time I got to the first turn buoy, the next couple of swim waves were catching me. Things were a little congested on the back leg, but eased up somewhat coming back towards the finish. You never get the advantage of that current on the way back in! Grrrr... I had a couple of bouts of dry heaves and stopped for just a few seconds - not sure why. Somewhere in that last couple hundred yards, Turby must have passed me! He started 8 minutes behind me, and I knew it would be close. Dang!!! When I couldn't swim anymore because it was so shallow, I started walking like everyone else and looked at my watch. WHAT??? 55 mins and still had a ways to go sloshing through the last bit. 58 mins by the time I hit the mat. I know I am a slow swimmer, but that was the worst EVER! Oh well, it was done - time to move on.
T1 - 4:54 Got to my bike and even though I had peed in the swim, I really had to go (sorry if TMI)! So I just did:-) Of course that required me to dig out my water bottle from my bike, rinse off, and apply booty cream. I think that all cost me a minute, which will come back to get me later! Hit my buttons on my Garmins and everything worked right for a change!
Bike: WooHoo I love this bike course! My plan was to ride 20 mins in Z2 (120 wts), then do the remainder of the ride around .82% IF (128-130 wts). I'm not sure why, but for whatever reason, I never did get my watts up to those numbers all day. Oh - I forgot to mention that we forgot our heart rate straps at home, so I was just sticking to the watts and RPE. My legs were "so so" but I felt like I was moving along great so I just kept at it. I saw my IF go from high .60s to .77 and that's where it stayed. At the half way, I realized that my time was really good and I would definitely meet my goal of 2:50 if I just kept riding like I was. I think one reason for the low watts was because there were so many packs of riders drafting and riding 3-abreast, you just could not get past them! I never did see a course marshal the entire day. Occasionally I would just get frustrated because they would all pass and then slow down, so I did have a few spikes to get around. I had 2 1/2 bottles of perform (2 scoops) with Base salt, a half of power bar (early), and about 2 1/2 gels. This was less than was recommended, but more than I'm used to. Also had a few sips of water when I was pouring it on me. I never felt bloated or bonky, so I think it worked out just fine. I was surprised how fast the bike leg went by! I finished in 2:47 which is a big PR at Eagleman:-)
T2: 4:37 - too slow! Racked my bike, changed my shoes, but since I had not put my arm coolers on before the bike, I needed to do that. It's the one piece deal that goes across your back, so I didn't think I could do that very easily while running with my go-to bag and everything else. I was so sweaty, it took a while to get that thing on. I was walking out of transition, taking my time because I felt the heat and wanted to have everything ready before I started running. Could have saved another minute here, which will come back to get me later:-)
Run: I had my empty go-to bag ready to fill up with ice at the first aid station. BUT - and this is the BEST thing ever - I also had two sandwich baggies. I should mention that at the EN lunch, Michal told us about a study that was done which analyzed what part of the body was the best for cooling oneself, and it's the palms of the hands. Maybe I've seen something about that on EN before as well, but I remembered that in the morning and threw those 2 baggies in my go-to bag. What a lifesaver! At the first aid station, I did fill the go-to bag with ice and stuffed it in my sports bra:-) But I also put ice in each of the small baggies. I held them in my hands and as the ice melted, I would just pour the ice water onto my arm coolers and on my head. I think my arm coolers were wet almost the entire run by doing this! Only one stretch was long, and it was the first time I ran out of ice and what a difference! Every aid station was: water on arm coolers and head, drink gatorade, get ice in baggies, dip of Base salt on thumb. I took a couple of Clif Bloks early on, and had to switch to coke around mile 9, but really did not ever feel too awful! I swear, the ice in hands was a life-saver. Even though the aid stations took a bit longer, it was totally worth it because I could run a pretty good pace in between. I was running Z2 (low 9 min/pace) in between, so it averaged out to 9:47 for the 13.1 miles. It really looked like a death march out there with so many people walking, but I ran the entire way and just refused to walk - as much as I wanted to:-) Final time was 2:09 and I was okay with that.
Finish with 6:02 (I told you those transitions would come back to me:-)) Happy with an Eagleman PR, despite the really crappy swim time. Thrilled with the bike split, and proud of the run. 1st place in age group (65-69), and also beat everyone in the 60-64 division, which made me happy since there were only 2 of us in my division:-) But who's competitive?
Speaking of proud!! Of course Turby was waiting at the finish line and was so happy for me. I asked him about his race and he wasn't sure yet how he placed, until my daughter texted him and told him he won his age group:-))) SOOOOO proud of him! Again:-) Needless to say, we were both quite pleased with the day. It was SO great seeing the ENers on the run and getting some mojo! I saw Turby and Michal running together at one point and that helped too:-) Kenney and Pam finished strong and we definitely celebrated that night.
A few things I learned (you always learn a ton of stuff from each race):
- Core Diet nutrition race plan was the best thing I could have done. I need to practice the recommended nutrition now on every training ride and run!
- I MUST learn to swim faster in open water!
- I have to stop farting around in T1 and T2:-) I tend to get a bit lazy and procrastinate!
- Sometimes your watts don't tell you the whole story. Could be tail wind or drafting or whatever, but you can end up with a great bike split with lower watts then you planned:-)
- Be mentally prepared for the heat, and refuse to walk! And use sandwich baggies with ice to hold:-)
- Smile when you run past the young whipper-snappers:-)
THANKS EN! You guys rock:-)
Comments
Carol - what a stellar race! You summed it up yourself: "Thrilled with the bike split, and proud of the run. "
"Smile when you run past the young whipper-snappers" - Don;t you love it?
I am so freakin' proud of you guys! We miss you being so far away...
I love the idea of just holding the ice baggy to keep the palms cold, that is good stuff. Will have to use that in the future.