IM New Orleans 70.3 2016 - Chris Oubre's Race Report
Ironman New Orleans70.3 20165 Race Report
Stats
- Age: 38
- Weight: 173.2
- FTP: 271
- VDot: 50
- This was my 8th 70.3
Results
- Total: 5:24:52 (3’ PR!)
- Swim: 58:55
- Bike: 2:30:35 (10’ PR!)
- Run: 1:49:15 (2’ PR!)
- Place: 30/159 Division, 232/XXX Overall
- Goal: To test out my OutSeason fitness and get a gauge of what to work on this year
- Super-Secret Goal: Get close to or go sub-5
Venue Tips/Learnings
- This race has a single transition and finishes at transition.
- The course is always windy.
- The bike and run are both straight out-and-backs with little to no turns, so likely the wind will act on you constantly for one half and flip for the second half. This year it was a head wind out on the bike and tailwind back. The run was opposite with a tail wind out and a nasty headwind for the final 10k.
- The host hotel is 22 minute drive away.
- Parking can be a nightmare so arrive early.
- Leg specific information below
Both the bike and the run are out-and-backs so on-course spectating is limited. The single transition makes it much easier on families than before when they had to navigate the streets of New Orleans to try and find parking. The downside is there is nothing for kids to do at the race site. There are no slides and no food other than the VIP tents and what you bring.
Pros:
- Parking is easy and free
- VIP tents are well placed with decent food
- Difficult to impossible to see your racer out on the course.
- No food options
- VIP port-o-johns ran out of toilet paper before all swim waves had entered the water.
We left the host hotel at 4:05 and parked on site around 4:35. The early arrivers got the “reward” of the farthest damn parking spots possible. Yay us! Transition was well lit, all paved and easy to understand. It is about a ½ mile walk from transition to swim start.
Pros:
- Extremely well lit
- Only two port-o-johns at transition. The rest are at swim start.
- All they played was Taylor Swift!
Expectation: I hadn’t put much time in the pool so I was reserved here… I was hoping for a 45’
Actual: 58:55 Note that the fastest swim last year 18:35 was verses this year’s 24:23
Pro Tips:
- The chop is worse on the first leg since it is flush up against a wall.
- Wear tinted goggles as the sun is directly in your face at times.
- On the return leg of the swim when you head back toward the shore, (the diagonal part of the N) it will be hard to spot the yellow turn buoy. Instead on the day before go near the swim exit and walk out on one of the walkways into the harbor. Find the yellow turn buoy up against a massive structure that houses big boats. When you swim that structure is easily visible. I counted the number of big boats to get to the turn buoy (4 that day) and just sighted by counting big boats.
The winds on race day were the worst I’ve ever had. 20 mph sustained winds with 30 mph gusts. The swim is in a sheltered harbor so the water was manageable. The lake was a choppy nightmare that you could see just outside the harbor. The swim start is time trial with no warm-up. When it was my turned I stepped into the water and began swimming. I was fin until I got to the first turn buoy (the one close to the start the lines us up against the wall). Once I was swimming along the wall I just couldn’t get a breath. Every time I tried to breath I swallowed a wave. My face was cold and I began to stress. I stopped so many times. I tried backstroke, breast stroke, side stroke, frog kicking, etc.… It was the worst I’ve ever felt on a swim. Ever. I was this close to quitting the swim, canceling all my races and giving up on my dreams of Kona. Bad. I stopped several times to just curse. People all along the harbor wall were just hanging on for dear life. I had no idea how I could possibly finish in the time allotted. I just told myself that if I just tried, that I might be granted the chance to bike and run. After the second turn buoy the waves calmed down and I was able to find a zone. I swam the rest of the swim frightened and unwilling to dig deep. I just wanted to swim steady and easy. MY mental game required so much focus that my form was whatever muscle memory decided. L Bless the Lord when I got out of the water I was sub 1:10. I had met my revised goal. On to the next part of the race.
Mid-Course Corrections
- Massively increase my body rotation when breathing to lift my face farther away from the waves to breath, as opposed to lifting my head.
Expected: 3:30 Actual 4:06
This may be gross but to save time I’ve started just peeing as I sit down to put on my socks and shoes. Gross but faster than a port-o-john. And who am I kidding, I pee on the bike so this is just a bonus that it doesn’t get in my shoe.
Bike
Goal: Average 216-230 watts
Actual: 214 Struggled to hold onto it for the last 10 miles
Pro Tips
- This will be windy. Not much to say.
- Roads are nice. Brides can be a problem. Do not try to eat or drink while crossing a bridge.
- No convenient downhills for peeing.
After I had calmed down from the swim I got to work. I lapped my watch every 15’. I consistently laid down 222 watt averages. My battery was low so my power meter kept dropping out. I just kept on the RPE band wagon. Headwinds suck but they are manageable. I averaged just over 19.5 mph on the outbound leg.
Then the payoff, the turnaround came. Now this was fun. I topped out at 31 mph at my goal watts. Life was good. I started to feel discomfort in my low back and gluets but I wasn’t backing off. I was going to hit my watt target darn it!.... then came mile 45. I was no longer comfortable in my seat and 205 was about the best I could do without digging deep. I wasn’t ready to go to a dark place yet so I listened to my body. I stayed areo and dealt with the discomfort and accepted my 205 watts. Funny thing is for my last 70.3 295 was my average for the whole race so I was still fairly stoked.
One thing about having a crummy swim, you get to legally draft all day. I passed over 700 people on the bike. 700!.. that’s a lot of slip streaming.
T2
Expected: 3:00 Actual 1:40
Because I didn’t pee on the bike there was no need to change socks. Idid take time to sit down and pee at transition again. Put on my running shoes, grabbed my go bag and was out on the course. Fastest T2 ever.
The Run
Expected: I wanted to negative split and average ~ 7:30 – 7:40 per mile
Actual: Averaged 7:55/mile out and 8:40/mile back
There are a few bridges on this course but mostly it’s dead flat. Beautiful scenery with no shade or spectators. You run out half way then back. No frills just run straight.
Pro Tips
- This is not a loop. When you pass someone it’s for real. No need to wonder what lap they are on.
- There is a large overpass at mile 11.5 ish. Once you clear that beast turn on the after burners. Let the downhill push you to the finish.
- There was no ICE. Not a tip just a complaint ;-)
My quads hurt from the first step but I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if I was going to let that hold back my pace. It’s always been a pipe dream to pick up the pace after mile 3 but I was going to give it a good try. First three miles came and went. I hurt but I could hold my pace. Unfortunately the aid stations didn’t have ice so I ditched my Ziploc bag.
At mile three I tried to drop my pace to 7:17 but it just wasn’t happening. I settled for less than 7:40 but even that was tough. I never stopped, even at the aid stations. I ran down every hill like I had a chance to get back some of the pain I put in climbing the bridge. That helped me to pass a good bit of people that were content to just cruise down.
The chews were working but I started to develop heartburn. Not sure where that came from but it did get in the way of more food.
I finally made the turn-around! Time to bring this race home…..and then I realized that I’d been running with a tail wind. As I turned around the headwind stood me up. I could have leaned into it and rested. The wind was so strong that people were walking backwards so they could lick their salt! I knew immediately that paces were out of the window. With no heart rate data I just had to go on RPE. I constantly checked my watch to get an idea of my average pace. Anytime I saw the numbers start to slip I used it as a whip to get me back going.
I know it was early but I started checking calves around mile 7. I have a firm rule that you never look back…ever. As a result I had no idea if my wide open (but slow) pace was pulling away or if they were catching me. I was hurting everywhere and I was close to puking….like really close. The word puke said out loud would have caused the deed to occur.
Finally I get to mile 10 and it is on. I finally broke a few people as they began to walk. I passed them and never looked back. With less than 0.5 miles to go I was running shoulder to shoulder with someone in my age group. I dropped my pace from 8:20’ to low 7’s and broke him to. He gave up. As I turned into the transition area I saw one more individual 50 yards or so ahead of me. I dropped my pace into the mid fives and passed him with feet left before the line.
Lessons
This is a hard hard sport. I race Iron-distances races so as to put myself at breaking points. I want to know what I will do when it looks impossible, when it hurts, when there is no hope. This race was a great race. That swim is hard to explain to those who didn’t experience it like I did. I really had no hope to finish it on time. But I didn’t quit and so I did. I love this sport.
Thank all of you for reading this. I hope you found something that will help you in your next race.
Comments
nice pic and enjoy the recovery... alot of writing about the port of johns hah
Enjoyed reading your report.
I like the way you made a decision in the water to get it done, when all seemed lost. That takes some real character and resolve in those moments of confusion and despair. That experience alone, coming out the other end so well like you did, will make you faster for the next one.
What was your IF on the bike leg? Great job managing the wind and executing on the bike after such a difficult, scary swim man!
Way to represent EN strong to the end through the run leg on a tough day with many unknowns and curve balls!
SS
Congrats on pushing through and well done!
Hey CO,
Great report on a challenging, but successful day. Congrats indeed. If you're like me, you'll probably take away more valuable knowledge from the challenging races than you do from the perfect ones. The swim probably set you back quite a bit, with detrimental snowball effects drifting into your B and R. An hour is a long time to be in the water, and then you cranked up to 200w out of the gates and threw down a fast bike split. Those combined efforts probably left you a little drained for the run, as expressed by the quad pain right from the start. Sounds like you biked just about perfectly for your FTP, and you've definitely got a sub-1:40 run split in you with that 50 vDOT. So, you've got 2/3 of the Sub-5 Puzzle solved. Hopefully you'll be able to get in a lot of pool time between now and Raleigh. Not only will that improved fitness allow you to go faster in the water and get on the bike fresher, but it will also give you more tools to deal with adverse conditions. For example, being able to comfortably breathe on the L or R gives you an option when there's chop. If you go to breathe but are met with a wave/swell, improved fitness will allow you to skip the breath so as to avoid inhaling water and instead get some oxygen next time. The best advice I've received for dealing with unpleasantness in the water (chop, current, punch, kick) is to focus on nothing but breathing for a bit. Especially the exhale. Just doing that for 5-10 breaths really calms me down and allows me to get back in the "game." Finally, visualizing all the good things (smooth stroke, straight as an arrow, following bubbles, etc.) and bad things (combat, going off line, cramp, etc.) that can happen in the water, and preparing a mental response in advance, is a surprisingly effective exercise. Hopefully none of those bad things happen. But if they do . . . no need to panic or improvise because you've already got an answer.
Nice sprint to the finish. I don't know how many muscles and tendons I would pop if I attempted a stunt like that, but it would be more than one.
Looking forward to the Raleigh training/racing.
MR