2016 Nemo Monticelloman Report
This is going to be a very brief (compared to normal) report, but I did want to record it because I had a few lessons learned that I DON'T want to forget. I wasn't racing this event, but using it as a "big training day" and I got all the "Big" I needed!
Event details:
Monticelloman is a small grassroots race with Sprint/Oly/Half all running the same day. Swim is one loop in a lake, bike course is a 2 loop course- hilly but not crazy (about 1200 ft elevation gain/loss) on narrow country roads, and the run is 2 out & backs through a gated community with lots of rolling hills (about 800 ft elevation gain/loss). Parking and race day setup is super easy, everything is pretty close to transition and with an 8:30am start, you feel almost lazy getting there! They have hot showers available afterwards (THANK GOD)!
Weather: 52 degrees and light rain at the start with heavy (and I mean heavy) downpours hitting about 1 hour into the race lasting for about 90 minutes. Temps barely reached 60 by the end of the race.Water temp was 68.
My Race:
I wore my long sleeve wettie and my booties. I was cold for about the first 5 min and then felt good the rest of the way- had a great swim. 40:37 by my Garmin which I think is a HIM PR swim (not including races where you swim with the current). I took a pee break in T1 and then took my time putting on layers. Wool socks, toe covers (already on the shoes), knee warmers, cycling jersey, wind vest, wool arm warmers, full finger gloves with mitten covers. It started raining as I was getting ready in transition. It poured heavy rain for the first 1.5 hours of the bike. With the hills and narrow roads, it was downright scary. I looked forward to every uphill so I could get warm and go slow and safe. By about 30-45 min in, my hands were frozen and I was feeling the cold really badly. My arms and feet felt ok (wool is awesome) but my hands hurt from the cold and my legs were starting to go next. The side effect of all of this was that I simply was too scared to eat/drink and basically didn't consume anything for the first hour. I knew I was making an error- but just couldn't come up with a solution. About 15-20 min from the end of the first loop the rain stopped and it seemed like it was going to hold off, but I had already made my decision to call it at one loop. I just couldn't risk being out there in another rainstorm-and to be brutally honest with myself- mentally I was just fried. I decided to still make the most of the training day though and continued on with the 13.1 mile run. My hands were useless in transition and it took forever to pull off the layers and pull on new dry socks. Thankfully I had thought to put running gloves in my transition bag! It took me about 1.5 miles to warm back up and stop shivering, and another 1.5 miles before my hands defrosted. I kept those gloves on until I hit the half way point. I took off my timing chip about half a mile out from the finish line, didn't cross the finish mat, and then just handed in my chip.
Analyzing my data files shows some useful insights. My HR for the swim was smooth and steady except the one (intentional) spike after the turn-a-round when I picked up the pace to catch some feet in front of me. I did a good job here. The bike- oh this is bad. The first 30 minutes my IF=.9 and VI=1.14. Crazy high and spiky- I was supposed to be riding closer to .8 IF. The next 30min were only marginally better (IF=.86, VI=1.09). I clearly set myself up by trying too hard to stay warm. Even without the power numbers, if all you looked at was my HR file you would see a slowly declining red line over the course of the whole ride. I seemed to rally pretty well on the run. My splits between the first loop and second loop of the run are less than 1 minute apart and my HR just slowly climbed about 5 bpms across the whole run.
Many Lessons learned (both things I did right, and things I would do differently)
- Should have brought the road bike. I knew it was going to rain on us (very high possibility) and the road bike would have felt much safer on this course.
- Consider a brim on the helmet, wearing a hat with brim underneath, or even keeping the damn goggles on! I couldn't see a damn thing
- More wool needed. My feet & arms were fine, but everything else was cold. I'd bring my wool gloves to wear under the 3-season gloves and I'm considering looking for knee warmers made of wool.
- I should have taken the gloves OFF entirely once it stopped raining. I think they would have been warmer with nothing vs the wet gloves
- I brought bags (old IM transition bags) to put my transition stuff in vs laying it out on the ground. That was a stroke of brilliance. I was so happy to come in to dry socks & gloves for the run
- Pull over and eat. Just find somewhere safe and do it.
- Don't work to hard to stay warm on the bike. Pay attention to watts just like you normally would.
- Booties on the swim at 68 for sure! They rocked.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Comments
Amen to that! I've had hypothermia in the past and so I'm especially sensitive to cold weather. 2 weeks after Monticelloman I raced the Kinetic Half (and Sprint the following day) and that was also a very cold race- but without the rain. I did much better at those races. The rain really does just suck the life out of you!