MW Victoria 70.3 Race Report
Total time 4:44:57, 134/1482 Overall, 22/126 M35-39
Preparation: My focus this year has been IM Canada (six weeks away). I did no prep specific to Victoria other than scaling back my training starting on Wednesday. IMC prep has generally been going well other than a crash three weeks ago that set me back for a few days. CTL about 118 and ATL 105 heading into the race.
Last year in my first HIM at Lake Stevens I went 5:33 riding my commuter road bike, with about half of this year’s training load. I was hoping for sub-5 in Victoria given my better bike setup and more focused training.
Race day: Woke up at 2:45, downed a Clif Bar, granola bar, and banana with Gatorade and headed to the start to snag a spot in the closest parking lot. Took in gels 60 and 25 minutes before the start with more Gatorade. Total of about 1100 calories pre-race and no issues with my stomach, so I will probably repeat this formula for IMC.
Weather was in the low 50s at the start, up to 60 at the finish. I couldn’t have asked for better. I wore the LG M2 suit and was very comfortable.
Painful walk to the swim start and I needed flip flops.
Swim (1500m): 32:04. Includes a minute waiting in line at the swim exit dock to climb out of the water, and a minute running to transition. Without that about 2:00/100m
Goal: 36-38 (standard length swim). The shortened course saved me about 9 minutes, so I was a couple of minutes behind target pace.
File: http://tpks.ws/evCKi
The swim was shortened due to weeds in the lake; they were able to clear most of the course but not the turnaround section. It was a self-seeded rolling start. I got into the water for a brief warmup about 10 minutes before the pro start, 16 minutes before the AG start. That wasn't early enough; with the tiny swim corrals I ended up in the 40-50 minute section. Lots of people wanted to move forward but there wasn't room. As a result fast and slow swimmers were intermingled throughout the swim.
This was the most crowded swim I have done. I am used to wave starts with 100-150 swimmers going off every 3 minutes; here we had 100 per minute entering the water. The water was very murky and I found it tough to track feet for very long, probably the least drafting I have done in my last few races. I frequently had to slow and change my line when swimmers ahead stopped in the water, and when I did I would get swum over from behind. My sighting was good overall; no major course corrections and I passed within 5m of the turn buoys. I felt fresh at the end and could have gone harder; this swim was probably closer to IM effort.
At the end of the swim volunteers were helping people climb up onto the exit dock. But there was quite a lineup and it took me about a minute to get out of the water.
Lessons learned: get lined up in the corral earlier and swim harder. Try to find someone swimming the right speed and work hard to stay on their feet.
1006th overall after the swim
T1: 3:14. Wetsuit top off and cap and goggles in the sleeve during the run to transition. I had some trouble getting the suit off of my left leg (over the timing chip); I may need to shorten the suit legs. I’m looking forward to having wetsuit strippers for IMC.
~800th overall after T1
Bike: 2:37:35, 54.9 mi, 2557 ft gain, 202 NP, 188 AP, 0.79 IF, 1.07 VI
Goal: 2:43, 203 NP / 199 AP (from Best Bike Split plan)
File: http://tpks.ws/SERIr
First 18 miles: 187 NP, 169 AP, 21.9 MPH, 520 ft gain, 786 ft loss. Goal: 198 NP, 195 AP, 21.9 MPH
Next 18 miles: 209 NP, 202 AP, 21.3 MPH, 703 ft gain, 547 ft loss. Goal: 202 NP, 199 AP, 20.1 MPH
Last 19 miles: 208 NP, 195 AP, 20.1 MPH, 1299 ft gain, 1266 ft loss. Goal: 206 NP, 202 AP, 19.0 MPH
277th overall after the bike
The bike course is back-loaded with hills in the last 15 miles so it was important to go out a little easy. I wanted to have my NP around 198 at the first two aid stations.
Unfortunately, coming out of the swim so far back meant a lot of people in front of me on the bike. I’ve never seen a race with bikes as dense as they were for the first 10 miles; if you put them in a single line you’d have had less than one bike length of clear space in between. Bikes were three across and the roads were narrow with no shoulder, so there was little room to pass. I stayed as patient as I could, and put in some 300W+ surges to pass when there was a gap on the left. Otherwise I was tooling along at about 160W.
After about 18 miles the course opened up and I was able to start executing my power plan. Since I had more left in the tank than expected I let myself go 10W harder on the flats and kept an eye on how fast NP was increasing. When the hills started I passed a lot of people, many on downhills. Looking at results I passed about 500 people on the bike, and I often had to pick up the power a bit to make legal passes so my power stayed a bit spiky. The turns also added some coasting and surging. NP crept up by the end to only 1W short of my target, though average power was still 11W low.
The BBS predictions were based on the setup I used for a race in May. Since then I’ve made my position a little lower and added the M2 suit, which is probably why I was faster than planned even though my power was lower.
I started with Infinit in the Torpedo BTA, and another bottle of Infinit behind the saddle. At the first aid station I filled the BTA with the behind the saddle bottle and tossed the bottle. After that I topped off the BTA with water at each aid station, though I missed #2 as with the crowds I was almost past when I saw it. I also took in 530 calories of Clif Bloks. In total about 900 calories during the bike.
Lessons learned: get lined up for the swim earlier to avoid the crowds. Try to keep power up more on downhills until I am spinning out. Practice taking turns faster on dry pavement. Watch more closely for the aid stations; I can’t afford to miss a handoff in the IM.
T2: 1:24
Bike racked, bike shoes off, run shoes on, helmet and glasses off, grab go bag and go. I’m happy with the time given how big the transition area was. Though amazed by the pros with 37 second T2s.
Run: 1:30:40
Goal: sub-1:30
File: http://tpks.ws/Nzyzf
Trail run around the lake, 2 laps. Some hills near the end of each lap.
The first km was about 1 min/mile below target pace as I got settled in and sorted out the go bag. Then I was clicking off steady 4:10-4:20 kms, right on my goal pace. Met Doug Sutherland around mile 4. Around the five mile mark I bumped up the cadence going downhill and felt my hamstring seize up. I backed off a little from there to ensure I could run through the finish. I kept the heart rate in the mid-160s on the first lap, let it go to 170 at the midway point and then mid-170s the last few miles. Pace was 4:17/km for the first lap and 4:18/km for the second. Overall it was about 7 minutes off my recent open half marathons.
I took in gels at miles 1 and 8, and one 17oz bottle of Gatorade I carried through mile 9. 320 calories in all. Usually I try to drink through mile 10 but with the cooler weather I decided to push through.
Lessons learned: be careful spinning too fast on the downhills with fatigued legs. In the end I probably could have gone for the sub-1:30 and been fine, but risk/reward didn’t seem worth it.
Overall
This was a 39-minute PR over my first HIM at Lake Stevens, after adjusting for the shortened swim. I’m happy with the result and am encouraged about my fitness heading into IM Canada. And a few good lessons learned to take with me for that race.
Victoria 70.3 has a lot going for it, between the park around Beaver Lake and Elk Lake, the shaded trail run, and the scenic bike. If doing it again I would get lined up for the swim extra early to be closer to the front. That would avoid a lot of the bike congestion problems as others who started and finished the swim earlier did not have the same issues.
Comments
Nice report on a great race. That is a seriously legit run. Keep working on that bike power, refine your swim form, and you could create a monster the rest of your AG will want to avoid at all costs. Looking forward to seeing what you can do at IMC.
Mike, I am impressed! Just Damn!
From the swim exit to the bike exit you moved up 533 spots from 800th to 277th overall then threw down a 1:30 HM! That is representing strong in my book!
Well done dude and congratulations!
SS
nice work. congrats.
will be nice to have a young fast guy to drive us at whistler. see you soon.