Andy - 1st IM70.3 - Augusta - Race Report
August Ironman 70.3
2015 Race Report
Andy Spratley
(Age 50 – Bib# 2738)
Triathlon Season Roadmap (TSR) provided by Coach Rich breaks
down as follows:
-
Short Course Advance – Weeks 15 through 20
-
Timeframe – Monday, April 27th,
through Sunday, June 7th -
Primary Race – Heatwave Triathlon – 1/2 mile +
27 mile + 10K – June 6th -
Secondary Race – Grandman Triathlon – 1/3 mile +
18 mile + 5K – May 30th -
Secondary Race* – Woolmarket Duath #2 – 2 mile +
11.2 mile + 2 mile
-
-
Get Fast Advance – Weeks 4 through 8
-
Timeframe – Monday, June 8th, through
Sunday, July 12th -
Primary Race - Sunfish Triathlon - 1/3 mile + 17 miles + 5K - Saturday, June 11th
-
Secondary Race* – Woolmarket Duath # 3 – 3 mile + 11.2 mile + 1 mile – Saturday, June 27th
-
-
Half Ironman Advance – Weeks 10 through 20
-
Timeframe – Monday, July 13th,
through Sunday, September 27th -
A Race – Ironman 70.3 Augusta, September 27th
-
Secondary Race – Sandestin Triathlon – 1/2 mile
+ 20 mile + 4 mile – Saturday, August 22nd -
Secondary Race* – Cultivation Nation Triathlon –
600 yds + 16 mile + 5K
-
*Not part of the TSR.
Bike Gear - 2015 Felt B14 with following added accessories:
1) Zipp 808s**, 2) PowerTap P1 Pedals**, 3) Pearl Izumi TriFly shoes w/o socks
and w/PowerTap P1 cleats, 4) Gyro Air Attack helmet
Trainer
Gear – Wahoo Kickr
**Added the week before race.
Run Gear – Zoot Ultra TT 7.0 w/o socks
Swim Gear – 2XU Men's A:1 Active Triathlon Wetsuit
But first, how did training go?
In case of bike and run, best I can say is that I
accomplished the volume. First full Tri season and it was freaking
hot/humid this summer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. So, while short runs went well, legs didn’t
recover from the cycling and long runs weren’t up to speed. Finally, while I could accomplish the EN cycling
workout objectives via trainer, it wasn’t till the weekends leading up to race
that I was able to control power and cadence on the road. Also, I struggled with hills until the last
couple of weekend rides.
In case of swim, combination daily thunderstorms (normal
Mississippi Gulf Coast summer) and lack of desire to drive 2 minutes to the
Ymca for a late/early swim, only accomplished 1/2-to-2/3 of swim volume. As a result, didn’t feel the benefits of
improved pull and glide until the weeks leading up to Augusta. Finally, last time to swim in a wetsuit was
April 11th Traditions triathlon.
To answer question, eh!, could have done much better; but,
for first full season, I’ll take it.
Onto the race…
Let’s race…
SWIM
Swim Start – 8:50 am, 2nd wave of 50-54, L-to-Z
Water Temperature – 71
First thing, the bitching and crying, don’t like hanging
onto the pier (river current) crowded with a bunch of other competitors, like
my space you know and it just felt awkward trying to hold on to the pier, even
just for 10-to-20 seconds prior to start.
And I’m off, okay whatever pull-and-glide I was feeling in
the later swim workouts ain’t happening.
Or, at least can’t feel it with the current. Breathing is okay, not out of control as per
usual. Swim form, have no idea what I
was doing; but, was on the Ymca swim team for just over a year as a kid and my
form is competent. Swim field was a
touch crowded at first because the course pinches in while we pass under the
bridges; but, I’ve finally gotten comfortable swimming amongst others and it
wasn’t bad. With that said, felt like I
wanted to swim straight to shore and call it a day, because 1.2 miles of swimming
is mentally a LONG way to go. But, I don’t, keep on swimming, this is taking
too long, keep on swimming.
Pass the bridges, finally, and I’m doing my right-hand drift
(right hand and leg dominate) away from buoys and max current. While I did drift to the right, it wasn’t a
bad drift. I was just in the middle, between those near the buoys and that
handful of competitors swimming the shoreline.
Every so often I made an effort to change course towards the buoys. Throughout the swim I was in an intense
wrestling match with my wetsuit.
Finally nearing the end of the swim, feet starting to feel
cold, hallelujah! Exit the water, entire
body spasms as I unzip wetsuit.
Initially, I’m not in a rush; but, within 25 yds, have wetsuit pulled off
shoulders start to jog. Run past timing
mat, press lap button (good).
Made no effort to check swim time. So, have no idea where I stand. Rookie mistake!
Official Time: 29:25 (1:31/100m or 1:25/100yd) – for me excellent.
T1
Run to wetsuit strippers, out of wetsuit and headed to bike. Just a methodical effort. Helmet. Sunglasses. What?!?, I forgot to pull
out towel to clear grass. Oh well, that
wetsuit has to do. Shoes. Jogging to bike out for a 56 mile ride.
Goof and forget to press lap button for T1 exit. SOB! About
a 4/10’s of a mile on the bike I remember.
Ding!
Official Time: 5:08 – anybody that knows about my notorious siesta
transitions, for me excellent.
BIKE
Start off competently; but, shoulders hurt from swim and don’t
quite feel comfortable in arm rests as a result.
First 16 miles, speed is rolling from upper 19 to 26, mostly
lower 20s. The one exception is the mile
4 hill which dropped me to 17.4. For
first 10 miles heartrate is lower 160s, then it settles down into the 150s. Average rpms in lower 80s (82-84). After mile 10, speed drifts slowly downward. Power fluctuates from the 170s to 200s. Miles 6, 7, 8, 9 are my best. Speed 26.3, 24.0, 22.9, 22.0. Heartrate 164, 160, 163, 160. Cadence 83, 82,
82, 84. Power 211, 189, 205, 198
Next 10, miles 17 through 26, SUCK. Hill climbing and bumpy roads are a bad combo
for me (a lot of bone spurring in upper spine).
Excluding a few good miles, speed drops into the teens (14, 15s, 16s,
18, etc). Heart rate in lower 150s and upper 140s. Cadence stays steady in lower 80s. Power mirrors speed. So, I kinda of slacked off during this
stretch. Also, my discomfort in aero
increases. I’ve had persistent issue
with my arm rests dropping during rough rides and I believe they started to
drop during this stretch. At about mile 19,
first aid station, execute an in ride refuel of torpedo with right rear
bottle. Not smooth, almost go off road;
but, job done.
Next 9 miles, 27 through 36, is rolling hills. So, some good miles and some bad miles. Level of effort still doesn’t change much,
slacking.
Mile 37, ditch diving!
Going through 2nd aid station, grab left rear bottle for
torpedo refill; buuuuut, right elbow slips off armrest and I b-line it left for
a ditch dive. As I am crashing, left
calf knots up and I make a lot of noise.
Volunteers come over to check on me, “You okay, need help?”, “I’m okay.”. Ditch dive cost me about 2 minutes, guessing,
a knotted calf and as it later turns out, some bumps and bruises that would
impact my run. It did allow me to
properly fill my torpedo, though.
Otherwise, all I care about is getting going again and how well my left
calf will hold up. As I get going again,
a couple of my younger friends (mid-20s), Jeremy Tanner and Austin King, catch
up and check in on me. Good people.
Final 19 miles to.
Excluding miles 38 to 39 hill climb and miles 47 to 49 hill action, it’s
hammer time. The fortunate circumstance,
of the ditch dive, is Jeremy catching up.
He is younger and faster. So, I
was able to pace off him for the rest of the ride, we went back and forth the
rest of the way. The unfortunate
circumstance, is that I most likely smoked my legs trying to get my 56 mile average
back to 20 mph. But, I don’t care, was
having fun and all signs of physical efforts were up, heartrate back into the
160s, rpms upper 80s, power 190s to 200s, speed 20 to 25 mph. Also, thought it was cool having my left side
coated in grass and dirt.
Fuel Intake: (3) 24 oz bottles of orange Gatorade endurance,
(2) chocolate Gu’s, (1) saltstick
Official Time: 2:48:02 (20 mph)
T2
Another methodical effort.
Only issue, I strained something in my chronically strained right foot.
Official Time: 5:01 – see T1 story.
RUN
With knotted calf, strained foot, I take off with hope and
prayer for a miracle run. Mile 1, 7:37,
too fast, miles 2 and 3, 7:56, better; but, I was dying. Hip muscles were hurting. Left calf felt strained. Both hamstrings felt tight and
overworked. Finally, where right quad
attaches to knee on the interior side would spasm the harder I ran. (Still
bruised and sore. Believe it hit something
on the bike during the ditch dive.) So,
getting to the mile 4 hydration station was a struggle and that’s when I gave
in to start walk jogging the rest of the run.
Basically, my remaining effort was run as far as I could until muscle
cramping or spasms started, then I’d walk 1-to-2 minutes, start the next
run. Sometimes that was a 1/2 mile,
sometimes 1 mile, sometimes longer.
Whatever it took. All I wanted to
do was keep it under 2 hours. Left
hamstring locked up one last time with a 1/2 mile to go. Walked it off, then ran as hard as I could to
the finish.
Official Time: 1:58:17 (9:01 min/mile) – not happy with this
run at all; but, it falls in line with my summer long runs. Note the course is a touch short at 12.8-ish
miles and I ran closer to a 9:11 min/mile pace.
Fuel Intake: (1) or (2) Gu’s (can’t remember) and a sip of Gatorade
and coke at every hydration station.
Overall Time: 5:25:54 – can’t complain.
What next?: Train 28 weeks for Boston 2016, improve my
left-right imbalance for swim and bike, improve my ability ride and run. Otherwise, will decide by December if I want
to lock into a 2016, late season 70.3. Part of me wants to focus on getting better, faster without the long training hours needed for a 70.3. The other part of me wants to take 20 weeks after Boston to train for Augusta 2016. We'll see.
Comments
It looks like you have some learning to do on using your power meter since you only added it right before the race. I think if you learn to pace the bike properly using power, you will have a lot of available time to gain on your run. Do you have the NP and AP for the bike or a link to the data? This will help you in analyzing potential improvement areas.
Congrats. Good luck on whatever your next race turns out to be.
Thanks both! I left out some bike gear details. I trained my TSR using a PowerTap G3 Hub rear wheel. But, my local Tri shop (Tri Hard Sports) afforded me their demo 808 rear race wheel for Augusta. So, I purchased the PowerTap P1 pedals from Clever Training just in time for the race. With that said, my weakness in power based riding is replicating my Wahoo Kickr trainer effort on the road. That flat road, no headwind or tailwind, ride I get from the Kickr makes it easy to juice my FTP. I just don't have the time in the road saddle, yet, to deal with environmental conditions, especially the MS Gulf Coast MUGGY environment. Now that I have a full season behind me, first 70.3 and as of yesterday my first century or 100 mile ride, I'll be prepared to push and test my road cycling harder next season. Also, need to get better at sustaining power. Note my trainer FTP is 230 (probably could've tested 240-ish; but ran out of time) whereas road training and race day average/normal power 200-210 was a good effort for me; but, couldn't sustain it for the entire 56. Next year.