Ocean Shores/Toughman WA Half Iron Race Report
Race Report
SHORT VERSION
Blowing winds and rain showers on the bike and run.
Total time: 5:50:23 15/43 overall and 3/8 AG
Swim 0:34:04
T1 0:03:53
Bike 2:57:41*
T2 0:02:50*
Run 2:11:59
*extrapolated from Garmin. Official time had T2 at 0:00:28
This is a 46 minute PR, with 36 of those minutes coming from the bike.
TRAINING
My training was at about an A for the OS and a B for the rest of the season. Two sidelining injuries this past winter significantly impacted my run training. I was able to get my FTP number back to OS levels., running, however was a different story. The metatarsal stress fracture required a gradual return to volume and speed. While I completed 95% of the wkos, the majority of my HIM training was done at TRP pace. I was only able to integrate the prescribed EN intervals in the last three training weeks. I hit 13 miles on my long run three weeks prior to the race. The run would be my weakest link here.
As for swimming, I did not do so much. . I just couldn’t motivate myself to get in the pool. I worked on swimming form, arm entry and especially on the catch. Overall, swimming was :10/100 faster than last year. Thank you to David Richmond and Mike Roberts for the video critique and what I need to work on.
SUMMARY
This was the best result I could have expected with the level of fitness I had going in to race day. Based on RR#2, I had an estimated finish time between 5:30 – 5:45. Considering the conditions, I was only 5 minutes off from that. I’ll call that a win. The fact that I had very little run fitness/durability, on race day, leaves a lot of time on the table to work with.
Body comp didn’t fare so well here. I was 10 lbs over my intended race weight. This would have helped me most on the run. I will need to implement some form of accountability to achieve this for next year.
THE LONG OF IT
Ocean Shores is touristy little beach town set up in the 1960’s and much of the lodging and area still reflect this. It is a planned community built on a six mile long by .75 mile wide peninsula, oriented north/south on the long axis, and perched at the mouth of a Grays Harbor. This will come into play later.
For the past 12 years, this has been the home of the Ocean Shores Tri & Foot Fest. TriFREAKS puts on multi-sport and running events over a weekend. There are a number of Olympic distance events and the Toughman Half Iron distance triathlon. There is also 5k, 10k and half-marathon. This year, all of the events were compressed into a single day.
I wanted to race this event last year, but a flared up foot issue wasn’t cooperating. This year it would be my A race. The TriFREAKS website was very slow to update their 2016 events, and they canceled their spring indoor triathlons. I was getting the odd sense that the race may not happen. So much so, that I didn’t sign up until the week before the event. I was also holding out for any last minute injuries that may pop up.
Friday afternoon I gathered up the family and headed over to packet pick up. It was definitely a quiet affair, as I was the only athlete there. It was here that I learned that this would be the last year the event would be run. There may be a chance that this event will be picked up by another company.
Instead of having custom shirts printed and charging us athletes for them, Toughman supplied LS shirts from 2015’s championship race. A free wrong dated shirt is better than no shirt I guess. I knew that this would be a small and they confirmed that there were 65 athletes signed up for the half iron distance race, though only 43 showed up.
From packet pick up, we drove the half mile or so to the event location to scope out the lake and transition areas. Transition was a short 50 feet from the swim exit and on grass. The swim buoys were already in place and were quite different than the triangle illustrated on the website. It was a clockwise loop with 4 zig zag segments going out, a right turn to the opposite side of the lake and three zig zag segments coming back.
Remember the north-south orientation of the peninsula? Well, there was a strong, sustained wind blowing out of the south at 10-20 mph. The swim course is oriented south to north. Fear of big swells and a strong headwind started creeping into my thoughts. It wasn’t pretty, especially considering that the race day forecast had stronger sustained winds and rain showers in store.
We laid low for the remainder of the day, soaking in the pool, spaghetti for dinner and what would hopefully be an early bed time. Between 9:30 and what must have been 11:30 pm, our 5 y/o decided to run around screaming like a possessed demon. Even for her this was something special. To be honest, sleep wasn’t coming for me. I was seriously dreading coming out of the swim and onto the bike freezing my teeth off. I actually had dreams about this, as I was awoken numerous times by a wiggly 7 y/o. Good thing I slept for 9 hours the previous night, because I don’t think I got 3 hrs of sleep before the race.
Race Day
Up at 3:30 am. Got the coffee going. I started eating the apple sauce, bagel with peanut butter and a banana. I could only get in 1.5 cups of apple sauce before I could stomach no more. Fired up Strava for some form of encouragement and found it in droves. Reviewed my race plan and worked off of my check lists. Pumped up my tires in the room, and proceeded to load the van and head to the venue.
I was the third car in the parking lot and still had 30’ before transition opened up. My first stop was the swim start. To my surprise the lake was calm, with only a light breeze going. I was quite relieved at this sight. I headed back to the van, set up everything on my bike and then double checked the remainder of my gear. It was then a leisurely walk over to transition, where I took a spot at the end of the rack, which was ten feet from the bike exit.
Rain and wind were in the forecast, so I went with the EN jacket, throw away glasses and full gloves for the bike, all kept dry in a grocery bag. I also had an old phone in a Spibelt that I would use to provide Live Tracking for my wife to view. This would add another moving part, but it worth spending a few extra seconds on. Garmin 810 on and sync’d with phone. For the run: socks in shoes, go bag (hat, belt with number & bottle, gloves & sunglasses) and a wind jacket were also in a grocery bag. The only choice for T2 is jacket or no jacket.
I had plenty of time to mill around, sip water and use the bathroom. At 6:30, I stopped drinking and had a hammer gel. It was time to get into my wetsuit. Sprayed Pam on my legs, not sure how much it helped in the removal process though.
SWIM 34:04 - Shortened
6:50 – cap on goggles & earplugs in hand and headed to the swim start for the race meeting. After the meeting we entered single file over the timing mat and into the water. By the time we all got into the water, it was past the 7:00 am start time. Unsure of when they would start the swim, I didn’t get in a swim warm up. They gave us a 10” countdown and then we were off.
There was some light contact in the beginning, but hardly much worth mentioning. The swim to the first buoy (300 yds) was the hardest for me as it usually takes 400-500 yards to really settle in. Between the first and second buoy I settled into a good rhythm and focused on sighting every 4 or 8 strokes. By the second buoy I looked for someone to draft off of. I was able to hold onto a pair of toes for the remainder of the swim.
I did experience cramping in my quads and hamstrings for the last half of the swim. Not sure why, as I only had a light two beat kick when I would focus on it. The rest of the time I just wasn’t kicking. I had some real cramping when I stood up to walk up the boat ramp at the swim exit. The cramping continued all the way to my bike and definitely added to my T1 time. I was expecting a 37:XX-40:XX swim time, and was very surprised to see 33:XX on the clock.
T1
Wetsuit was at my waist by the time I reached my bike. It took some time for the leg cramps to stop so that I could bend down and remove it. Toweled off, helmet, shoes, Spibelt, jacket & gloves on. I unracked my bike and jogged 10 feet to the mount line.
BIKE - 57 miles
Plan was .70 or 185 watts for 30’, then .80 or 210 watts. Hourly nutrition: 1 to 1.5 bottles sports drink and .75 Powerbar. I had two bottles on board and three PB Powerbars cut into .25 chunks and wrapped in edible paper ala Tim Cronk. I started drinking and eating early, but kept my watts as close to 185 as I could.
The first leg was southbound and headed into the wind, with gusts that continually caused me to spike my watts. The course meandered through residential areas at the south end of the peninsula, which alternated headwinds, cross winds and some tail winds. It was finally time to head north and enjoy a tail wind for a change. After six miles I reached the turnaround and first aid station. I didn’t take anything as all they had was water and I would have had to stop to get it. Oh, and the rain showers started.
I had to recalculate my nutrition and fluids as there would be no sports drink available, only water. Luckily, I had extra salt tabs and calories on board to finish the race. It was now back into the headwind which had to be a continuous 20+mph. About 5 miles later, I made the mistake of stopping to pick up water. I was still headed into the wind and it took a long time to get back up to speed without burning a match.
Back through the residential sections and headed towards the turn around at the venue. I took this tail wind time to attempt my first pee on the bike. It eventually worked out saving me a lot of time on course. I am glad that I brought a 3rd bottle of water to rinse off with. By the 4th nature call, I had it down pat.
I hit the 3rd turn around, marking the half way point and headed back into the wind. This was more of the same, however the winds and gusts had definitely picked up. I was worried that the cumulative spiking of watts was going to affect me on the run, so I backed my ceiling down to 200 watts.
I rolled through the 3rd and final turn around, slowed to a snail’s pace to grab a water bottle and headed for “home”. The last 6 mile stretch of headwind was just brutal and I was so happy when I was done with it. I caught a second wind during the last northern segment and readied myself for mentally transitioning to the run.
After the completing the last turn, I loosened the shoes shoes, placed feet on top and got ready to dismount. I received a big surprise when I saw my wife and kiddos at the park as I rode on in. I wasn’t’ expecting to see them until the finish**. Anyway, I dismounted onto the left side and jogged into T2.
T2
I quickly racked my bike, removed my jacked, gloves and glasses. Put on socks, shoes, grapped go bag and wind jacket and I was off. But, I ran the wrong way. They told us about the run exit at the pre-race meeting, as it wasn’t set up prior to the swim start. It cost me about 20” or so, but out I went.
RUN
My goal was to run by HR. First 3 miles 138-140, miles 4-10 150 cap, miles 11+ whatever is left over. Nutrition: gel at miles 1 & 7, 4 oz HEED every mile. Socks and shoes on, grab go bag and jacket and get moving. Out of the shoot it was hat on, belt on, glasses on, jacket & gloves on, gel down.
Once I had the go bag empty, it took a lot of focus to keep my HR down. My legs were hurting, not quite cramping, but definitely not happy. By mile 1 my legs started feeling better and I took a potty break along with the only cup of HEED I would find on the course.
Mile 2 marked the start of the beach running. The sand out was hard packed over pavement for a ¼ mile, then a left turn onto hard packed sand. Even though it was hard packed it still caused more rubbing on the tips of my toes. After making the turn south, I was hit by an immense wall of wind that would continue for the next two miles. It was far worse that what I experienced on the bike course.
Mile 3 came and so did an aid station on the beach that had only water, so I skipped it. I also saw the only guy that passed me on the bike. He was at mile 10, going the opposite way.
Two miles later I was back on pavement and a little more sheltered from the wind. Mile 5 had an aid station with food, but still no sports drink. I took a bunch of everything: ½ a banana, gel & shot blocks. I saved the shot blocks for later, which saved me later on.
Just past the 5 aid station I was caught for the first time on the run. I used him as a carrot to maintain my pace for the next mile. I held on as long as I could before taking a 30 step walking break to rest my quads and bring down the HR.
The turnaround at mile 6.5 was a sight to see. It was a huge milestone. It not only signified the half way point of the run, but it meant the end of running into a headwind. My pace surely didn’t show it though. It was an effort in not slowing down. The 30 step walking breaks were decreasing from every mile to .75. By the time I got back to the beach at mile 9, I was struggling to stretch them out to half a mile.
Running out to the beach, I started clenching my jaw and things felt off. I took another salt pill and popped in two shot blocks. Black cherry was a new flavor for me and I had to force them down. Well, most of them down. That did the trick as the clenching went away. The beach was much harder this time, even with a tailwind. The 30 step walk breaks came more frequent. I was still determined to keep the walking to short intervals.
Back on pavement and two miles to go. The effort was harder and my pace continued to slow. The last turn home is a half mile stretch where I could see the finish line. I pushed it with all I had left. This huge effort kept me from slowing down any further and a nice run through the finish chute. My wife and kiddos were still out braving the elements awaiting my arrival. Great times.
**I had the car so my wife rode over to the venue on her Kidztandem with Trail-A-Bike attached, in the wind and pouring rain. It was so amazing to see them at the finish. This picture isn't from race day, though I wish it were.
Comments
Great effort on a brutal day, this is where we find our grit and you certainly found yours. Congrats! Rest up this OS, get healthy
@ Francis - Thank you. Hopefully not too detailed though.
You have got to be proud of what you accomplished both leading up to this race and how you managed yourself and executed during this race. Confronting the injuries, working around them, pushing forward and dealing the with cards you have during the training cycle vs. losing focus is a HUGE example!
Managing your race day, knowing your fitness level/limits, staying in your box and being careful/patient with the winds on the bike just shows a lot of maturity/experience/discipline.
BIG day man, representing strong and getting it done as the quote above calls out.
Thanks for leading and Congratulations!
SS
@Dave - Thank you. I was the first race that I was able to focus on what was going on around me rather than just pushing to get through it.
@SS - Blown away by your comments. Thank you for your encouragement and motivation this season, it was invaluable. You have a special knack for distilling out the important details that help bring out the best in others.
Phil - boy, that sounds like a character building day...the sparse field, the winds, the rain, the do-it-yourself aid stations. All in all, a day to be proud of, that you managed to keep the motor running thru to the end.