R4 (Ralph's Raleigh Race Report)
Raleigh 70.3 RR 2016
“Not what I was shooting for but better than last year”
Coming into this year’s race, There was a lot going on. Race prep was OK but not as close to the plan as I had hoped due to family and work issues (College Graduations, ER call etc.) I finally got a real tri bike and got a couple of long RR rides in to make sure that things fit right and that was all good but some bad decisions and bad luck kind of put me in a hole.
I was out of town the weekend before the race and, although I packed my bike and trainer, I forgot my bike shoes. Size 14 are hard to find in stock at most bike shops so I came up with this great idea that I could just ride with my Adidas sneakers and some of those straps like the old foot cages had. BAD IDEA! Evidently there is enough difference in the motion without cleats that I got some significant blistering of the undercarriage in a short hour’s ride. As you might imagine, I had some concerns about that.
We got to Raleigh without problem and were smart enough to stay at the Marriott downtown which is right at the finish line of the race. It was nice for my wife to have a home base close by. We found some GREAT dining before the race and overall the weekend was great from a logistics standpoint.
It was a non-wetsuit swim just like last year and I thought that I was prepared for that. During the offseason, I got a swim coach and started working hard on my swim. I made some pretty reasonable progress with my times although I am still slow, I have improved my form and things were looking better. In pool swims, I have been a good bit faster than previously. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to get a bit spooked on Race day and go out too hard. When I do that, my form reverts to what can best be described as a semi-controlled flail. SO that happened and my swim time was about a minute slower than last year.
I had a good bike spot and T1 was just a matter of run in, put on the helmet and sunglasses and flying start at the bike mount line. T1 time 2:19 which was 30 sec faster than last year.
The Bike was challenging from the first because I lost my sunglasses somewhere as I left T1 and I sure wasn’t going back to look for them. Once on the bike, I noticed a distinct lack of power or HR readings on either of my Garmin devices. I futzed with them and eventually got HR readings but no power so I was going by Perceived exertion. The course is nice and I was able to stay in aero the whole time with no problems. I only carried 2 bottles and used nutrition from the aid stations. Hydration was good at 2-3 bottles per hour. I negative split the bike by about 6 minutes and was 14 minutes faster on the bike than last year. I had to send my Powertap back to Saris. Dunno the issue yet.
Although I had a nice spot in T2, the changes in the T2 entrance and the bike dismount line meant that I had a long way to run compared to last year. My T2 time reflects that and the fact that I stopped to pee. 4:06 which was 1:15 slower than last year.
The run was hot, just like last year. I read Mike Robert’s Race Report and it may be the dew point but overall, I think that for me, I am just a big guy and I do not do heat well. I started off a bit too fast even though I was consciously trying not to. My HR gets up pretty quickly and on really hot days, I have not figured out a way to run slow enough to keep it from spiking at the end of a race. As a result, I end up running until my HR gets up in the 140’s (my max is 160) and then walking till it gets down in the high 120’s and then picking up the pace again. This is in addition to Icing down at every aid station. I got to the point that I couldn’t tolerate Gatorade or gels and so I switched to coke and orange slices for the last half. It was great to see the EN jersies on the course and meet new teammates.
I was able to pick it up pretty well for the last 3 miles and I finished the run a bit over 3 minutes faster than last year which made my overall race time just over 15 minutes faster than last year. Amazingly, I moved up in the rankings over the 3 events in spite of what I felt was a suboptimal run. I will take that.
The two things that really hurt were when the nice old lady volunteer asked me if she could help me to the medical tent and seeing Mike Roberts at the finish and noticing that he had time to go to his room and shower and come back before I finished.
Overall lessons from this race for me:
1. Work on the swim even more.
2.Riding the bike on perceived exertion is not that hard if you have to do it. (reading forum posts about what to do when things go wrong is a great help to keep you cool headed on race day)
3.I perform better and am much happier at cooler races so just because a race is close might not be the best reason to pick it.
4.As usual, TeamMates from EN make the whole race experience a lot more fun.
Comments
Did you have a chance to perform any open water swims prior to the 70.3? It's very difficult to transition from the pool to open water on race day if there has been no practice prior to that.
@Ralph,
Thanks for the great report. It was fun seeing you again - before, during and after the race. This was a really tough way to start the race season - choppy, against-current, no-wetsuit swim; challenging bike; and hot n' hilly run. But I really like the venue, course and local support. If it fits into my schedule next year, I'll be back. But I'll definitely prepare better for the overall challenge this course poses. Great job. Hope you'll be at BRC again. Oh, and the only reason I was able to catch a quick shower before you finished is because my hotel room was literally 10 steps from the finish line.
Always good to do a self-critique after the race ... best way to make sure improvements keep coming. Swim: "Working" on your swim would;t necessarily help the problem you identify - going out too hard and losing form as a result of over-exertion coupled with nerves and crowd. Suggestion: some EN swim workouts have us doing longer (300, 400) repeats at the end of an interval workout, noting the pace should be whatever is needed to maintain form. That might be the key to the "work you need to do, every swim session. Making the primary point of emphasis be holding good form, so that you ingrain indoor head what that feels like, and remind yourself of it immediately before the start of the next race.
This is what I like best in your report: "I end up running until my HR gets up in the 140’s (my max is 160) and then walking till it gets down in the high 120’s and then picking up the pace again...I was able to pick it up pretty well for the last 3 miles and I finished the run a bit over 3 minutes faster than last year which made my overall race time just over 15 minutes faster than last year. Amazingly, I moved up in the rankings over the 3 events in spite of what I felt was a suboptimal run." Excellent discipline results in improved performance on race day.