Race Report & RR#1 - please critique!
Race Report & RR#1 -Race: Swashbuckler Middle Distance.
This represented a number of 1st for me as a Tri newbie – moved from MTB XC last November;
- 1st Tri – ever!
- 1st open-water swim
- 1st time in a swim wetsuit
- Longest swim without stopping & all FC.
- Started swimming FC & training last November (previous to that was as a kid but not freestyle/FC).
- 4th ride on my Tri bike.
All in all – this set up quite an experience! Plus, hottest day in UK this year, typical! Late 70’s.
Pre-race nutrition - with a 6:15AM start & waking at 3AM, didn’t consume cals late evening – at 3am eat my normal 100kc of oats and 600kc of Ensure+. Sipped water in car to race site & took down a gel 30mins before start. All good & no ‘repeating’ during the swim.
SWIM – 1900m in a tidal river – total time 56mins incl 400m run to T1 (up a grassy hill!)
Didn’t enjoy this at all – mass start on an out & back x 2 course – strong current running 1 way (leg 1 & 3) – guys hanging off moored boats trying to keep stationary, I couldn’t make the boats in time so was mid-channel (doofus!) swimming fast BS trying to keep on station. Start gun surprised everyone and I kinda went too hard and forgot all form & breath – then got demoralised when I was getting swum over etc.
Issues – didn’t relax – despite a pre-race strategy to hug the river bank & cheat the tide, I didn’t – couldn’t chill and focus on my own box – sighting! Weaved all over the place (being so tidal & flow head-on, any deviation in body-line pulled you sideways & off course) – didn’t stay with groups to also cheat the tide, I was often in clear water & mid—channel! Sucks! – Basically lost it and got pissed –off instead of rationalizing the situation and focusing on the ‘now’.
Winner & 1st out of the water by miles did the swim in 28:37 / last years winner & 6th this year in 42’.
Reckon I lost a good 5’ due to poor or no sighting – as a 1st OW swim it was tough circumstances.
BIKE – a 50miler – narrow country lanes, ‘technical’ with junctions, twists & turns, open-roads with traffic & for me, loads of faster swimmers but crap bikers to pass!
Bike Nutrition – scored some Infinit at pre-race expo so went with 1 x 750ml bottle @ 325kc – used 260kc. Aerobottle with c.750ml water. No feed stations on bike course – had emergency gel. Infinit rocks! Best tasting/most palatable I’ve tried plus great to get all nutrition in 1 bottle.
Good fun but frustrating – passing 100’s of riders & thinking, ‘how the hell did he/she beat me out the water’ – only 2 guys passed me & that was on steep hills when I was spinning & drinking & they were out the saddle hoofing up the hill – guess what happened at the crest & descent/next flat? J
Messed up the pacing a tad – difficulty seeing/focusing on new Joule numbers (too small) & have a suspicion the watts screen had been accidentally switched to ‘max watts’ instead of actual.
My total bike time was in top 30 overall – .85 would have equalled??
Pre-Race Plan:
Target Time: 2:15 (based on mileage but also ’09 results) BUT not at expense of correct pacing & executing the bike leg – overtaking, legal drafting etc. Ride legal, lots of ‘street furniture’, country lanes, livestock & Sunday tourists (livestock have more sense!)
Current FTP: 296
Goal IF: 85%
Goal TSS: 173
Race Gears
- 1st – 239w – first 20 min and downhill
- 2nd – 252w – target watts
- 3rd – 264w - long hills (>3’)
- 4th – 277w – short hills (<3’)<br />
- DO NOT GO OVER 277 EVER
ACTUAL STATS:
Entire workout (214 watts):
Duration: 2:18:23
Work: 1781 kJ
TSS: 134.7 (intensity factor 0.764)
Norm Power: 226
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 5.09%
Pa:HR: -2.61%
Distance: 49.513 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 718 215 watts
Heart Rate: 125 153 140 bpm
Cadence: 31 196 97 rpm
Speed: 0 38 21.5 mph
Pace 1:35 0:00 2:48 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 33 6 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 997 192 lb-in
My thoughts: poorly paced @ .76. However, i did back-off a little and was feeling heavy-legged (trained thru this race) on the climbs – found it hard to focus on watts and keep it even – lulled into feeling fast ‘cos I was passing everyone & no one could even hold my wheel – in last 2 miles I started to get better company but still I was overtaking.
!!!! nutrition – I consumed Infinit at the rate of only 96kc p/hr !!! (started out with 325kc, had 65 left over = 265kcals consumed over 2hrs 18mins & after 56min tough swim).
Perhaps this did contribute to not achieving target IF/TSS and also the poor run…………………
RUN – 14 miler on roads & forest trails - did a nice rolling dismount into T2 leaving shoes on bike – wobbled a bit running off bike!
Pre-race plan here was to run to pace for 7miles and then either jog the last 7 or quit (again, training thru this race) – I’d also picked up a slight hammy pull in the week b4 which was aggravated running; add the heat & I mentally decided to shut down pretty early within the first 7miles! Probs a wise decision considering. Wasn’t feeling good at all – went too fast (yes, it did feel too slow!) and I think lack of bike nutrition had an impact:
Target Stats:
Current vDOT: 48
Pacing Plan
- 3 miles @ ;8:00 (MP+30”)
- 7 miles @ 7:16 (MP)
- 4 miles by feel (and considering RR) ?? push @ HMP (6:59).
Ideally - DO NOT GO UNDER 7:16 until after mile 10.
The race starts at mile 10
Negative split the last 4 miles – focus on form, faster runner to work ‘off’? – head to toe ‘inventory’ – hip position/lean.
ACTUAL : (garmin got messed up on d/load but have run splits for 7miles):
Mile 1 = 7:36 /2 = 7:44/ 8:18 (toilet break)/7:39/8:29/8:18/8:25.
Quit at 7miles (2 lap course so was too tempting) – good stategy, probably the best decision/execution of the entire run!
OVERALL – good to get it done! With 4 weeks until my A-race 70.3 I now feel I have a better understanding on what I need to do.
A tale of poor nutrition, poor pacing & getting freaked out in the swim.
Don’t think I really understood the EN philosophy to the full until after (& during) the race – you’re right RnP – 90% racing had no clue at all about race execution!
Winner:
|
|
|
M30 |
28:37.2 |
01:58:55.00 |
01:24:37.50 |
03:52:09.70 |
Total: 3:52:09.
This guy did IMAustria ’09 in 9:08 so kinda quick age-grouper! He also beat me mid-week in a local 10m TT by 2 mins! I did a 23:08 which was quick for the course but he murdered it. Good to have him as a local triathlete.
Comments
David - Great job given all those firsts! And only your 4th time in the TT bike?! Don't worry about the detailed NP/IF numbers; this was first and foremost a learning experience, I suspect. You learned: you can go pretty fast on the bike even with seemingly low IF; you need a fool proof system to remind you to take in the calories; and easier on the bike does make for a more manageable run I bet you cold have done the second loop no problem, You did take those first three miles out a bit too quick, so you need some time synching your RPE to your speed when running off the bike, something to focus on during upcoming bricks.
Ever do an Xterra? Or plan to?
Super impressed given so many firsts; don't be too hard on yourself!!!! Once you dial in the swim and being conservative for the first few miles of the bike, you should be all set! Nice work!
P
Great job!
@Al - Xterra would be cool but not much of a scene in the UK; also, reason I switched to Tri was due to MTB racing beating up my body too much plus tech skills was always a limiter (although apparently xtrerra courses are pretty lame compared to national/world-cup races).