Larry's Steelhead 70.3 detailed race report
08 13 17 Steelhead 70.3 Race Report
Caution, section entitled "Digestive system" has details about my bowel movement schedule that most people might not want to read.
I'm not sure if the images will show up, so here is the link to the google doc publicly viewable:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzwHSfDZjCLMd4MzXT6PTsUaqyKK6HqFOnxyfjKwMC4/edit
Pre-race
Caught the 2 pm athlete overview on Saturday. Checked in and got “body marking” (but they didn’t do a very good job and it was just about washed off by Sunday. Sarah redid it with industrial strength sharpie after my shower).
Stayed up too late Saturday actually calculating my sodium & calorie plans based on EN’s recommendations:
Less than 250 calories per hour (HIM)
1000 mg of sodium per hour (I didn’t realize how far away from this I was! Sodium tablets were critical to get even close to this without spiking my calories). So I took more sodium tablets on my bike.
This was the first time I ever crunched the numbers for 1000 mg sodium per hour & 250 calories (or less) per hour. This was a great exercise & was pretty informative. 1000 mg sodium per hour is a TON, and I didn't realize how much lower than this I typically use.
Huge meal of pizza ~4-5 pm. We stayed away from heavy meats, but with all the cheese, it was still a heavy meal (probably not the best choice). Didn't eat much after that, 1-2 Orgain liquid meal shakes, I think.
Good weather conditions. Water wasn’t perfectly flat, but it was pretty flat.
Saturday had big waves.
Definitely did NOT allow myself enough time or take care of things ahead of time.
Saturday I was running around all day: spare battery for HR monitor, tape, permanent markers, etc.
DID plan nutrition & sodium out pretty well for bike (stayed up late for this). Did NOT plan it out much for run.
Did NOT organize transition area (or mentally prepare) as much as I would like for transition → slower transitions.
Race morning
Woke at 3:30 am (laid down for ~4.5 hours); had a kombucha, a cliff bar, an Orgain (meal shake) and my usual chocolate dose (2 squares 70+% w/ 6 beans). Also had some sports drink later in the morning.
Digestive system:
1 huge BM right before bed, one big one in the morning, one medium one in the hotel & one medium/small one in the porta potty ~6:50 am (cutting it close). (I normally need 3-4 in the morning before a big workout, with the help of caffeine).
My last bm was very shortly before 7 am, so I was a bit worried about making it to the my heat on time. Then I had to wait 40 minutes on the beach to get in the water (after putting on my wetsuit & going for a warm-up swim). Shortly before I started the swim, I had a slight feeling like I had to go #2 again, but luckily it never materialized (I think it was just some stomach discomfort from nerves). There was a couple times on the bike I was worried I wouldn’t make it to the end without going #2 again, but I peed & had gas & then was fine
(sorry for the TMI). I made sure there were no athletes behind me when I did this. When I started the run, I was almost certain I was going to have to crap at some point. At the 2nd aid station, I almost went into a porta potty to pre-emptively deal with it. But luckily, my body adjusted & I never had to go! I drank a ton of water prior to the race (worried about dehydration since I was going to use the bike aid stations for the first time); this led to me peeing on the bike 4 times!
I did a warm up swim thinking my wave would start swimming sooner, but we didn't start until like 7:40 am. It is a good thing my sister was there to bring me water & a gel.
Clothing
Endurance nation top I bought from Scott Dinhofer
Pearl Izumi tri shorts from way back when (2010, I think).
Louis Garneau TT helmet (Super Leggera, I think).
Took 2XU belt w/ race number & 2 Gu Roctane gels safety pinned on (neither caffeinated)
I ran in my new white nike visor & orange sunglasses
Running shoes: Asics Gel DS trainer (same pair as Riverbank) with stretch “yankz” laces (no socks)
New Sidi T4 shoes (no socks)
Musical inspiration & headspace during critical points of the race:
Pre-race Q - “Why am I doing this?” A - “I am an athlete.” (that means a lot to me)
Multiple times during the race I was reminded of EN’s race guidelines that say something along the lines of: “run your race, don’t make friends.” (especially during the first 10 miles of the run)
Musical inspiration
Didn’t have much time to rock out before the race (which is unusual). I did listen to some of my favorite Rainbow album (live in munich 1977) during the drive, but I wasn’t super pumped up at that point.
Probably about halfway through the bike, I knew things were going well (based in part of times & in part on passing lots of people), I started thinking about “picking off people,” and Megadeth’s song: “Take no prisoners” came to mind. So I chanted that periodically & got a mental boost from that.
When I decided to push my middle 7 miles of the run from ~135 bpm to 138 bpm, I channeled the song “The Melting Point of Wax” by Thrice. (because at the time, I thought it was a risk and that I might hit a wall (or enter what EN calls “The Suck”). Key lyrics below:
“I've waited for this moment
All my life and more
And now I see so clearly
What I could not see before.
The time is now or never
This chance won't come again
Throw caution and myself to the wind.”“There's no promise of safety with these secondhand wings
But I'm willing to find out what impossible means.”“But how will I know limits from life (lies?) if I never try?”
Racing with Team EN
It was really great to see other EN teammates out on the course & be able to give each other an “atta boy/you go girl.” That definitely gave me a mental boost.
Also, a lot of teammates made it a point to say hello after the race (since I had on an EN jersey), and it was really nice to chat with them.
Swim
TYR sleeveless wetsuit; Cat 5 Hurricane (new this year, on sale)
Got in the 36-40 min swim heat, thinking this would be “fast” for me.
I felt great when I hit the water & was flying by people.
I started to feel some fatigue by the halfway point & was a bit worried I went out too fast, so I rested behind some people for a bit.
Anytime I tried to draft, those people were usually going too slow. And lots of the swimmers were way wide of the buoys. I hugged the buoy’s tightly. I normally breath half on one side & half on the other. Today I was breathing almost exclusively to my left. I did look ahead quite often to check buoy sight (probably made my form worse), but it didn’t feel uncomfortable. I would say I did it around every 3-5 breaths.
When I got out of the water & saw ~35 minutes I was super pumped! This made me more focused on racing “smart” so I could have a shot at breaking the 5 hour mark (which I did).
Swim splits from me hitting my lap button in the water (HR not valid): First turn buoy (600 M), “halfway” based on change in color of buoys (I thought it was, but the map below doesn’t look like halfway), 2nd turn buoy (~600 M to finish)
The last split is me running into T1
The place where I swam out a bit in the 2nd straightaway (see map below), I think I was trying to get behind someone to draft.
T1 - 4+ minutes
Had wetsuit halfway off when I got to bike, but then almost forgot I had to take it off completely.
I had all my nutrition waiting in my helmet. I just needed to stuff it in my back pocket.
I did take some time wiping sand off my feet (don’t do this next time).
I did also drink almost a full bike bottle of Gu rocktane drink (was worried about sodium & dehydration). This was not part of the plan.
I had bike shoes waiting on the pedals.
Bike (so mad I didn’t hit the lap button at all during my bike to get a better breakdown of HR data)
One thing that brought down my avg. HR (artificially) on the bike was that it included some of my time in T2, and my HR was very low in T2 (~92 bpm).
New things for bike:
Brand new aero bottle & holder (X-lab torpedo) installed last night. It worked really well!
These three things I did sample on my last taper ride on Thursday
New saddle (Demo saddle), the kind with the big split down the middle (adamo)
New bike position - saddle raised ~0.5 inch (anything else?). Saddle also adjusts position a bit.
New cleat-pedal interface position too.
Allergies did flare up a lot early on the bike. This isn’t too surprising, because I’ve been getting my allergy shots every other week instead of every week (despite my plans to get them every week so I didn’t have allergies during the race). Also, getting up early aggravates my allergies & swimming really aggravates my allergies. So I was blowing snot & sneezing a lot in the transition and throughout some of the 20 miles or so of the bike. Several athletes said bless you when I sneezed in transition
. Gear/water set-up - 1 bottle of water between aero bars, 1 bottle Gu Rocktane on downtube (carbon cage), 1 Vittoria pit stop flat repair taped to top tube with electrical tape. Nutrition in back pocket (including 8 Gu Rocktane sodium tabs). That’s it.
Shoes were ready & waiting on pedals. Shoes were not rubber banded into special any position.
I followed the plan & spent the first 20 minutes riding pretty easy (Zone 2). Unlike the PJ hoffmaster RR and my expectations for this race, it didn’t seem too hard to get my HR down to zone 2...I was a bit worried about that, but it turned out not to be a problem.
At 20 minutes, I had a lemon Gu Rocktane (Last night i discovered that lemon has way more sodium than strawberry kiwi and some other flavors) & some water.
Then I aimed to hold HR ~129.
At mile 40 I started feeling more burn in my legs during harder efforts (up a hill, passing people, etc.). I was still trying to maintain at 129 bpm (middle of my zone 3).
My original plan was to increase HR to high zone 3 toward the “end of the bike.” (I was thinking 5-10 miles). But since I was starting to feel more burn in my quads & I was super worried about ruining my run, I kept aiming for 129. At the end, I think my HR was even down in low zone 3.
I peed 4 times on the bike.
I did not take anything from first two aid stations (I was nervous about it). I should’ve at least taken some water & drank some & tossed it (realized after watching others in front of me). Even if I had my own fluids, I was planning to run out eventually, so I should’ve used them more sparingly.
Later aid stations, I took water, drank some & filled up my torpedo.
45 minutes I had ~½ of my cliff bar (just guessed on half by biting off a chunk)
1 hour, had 3 Gu Rocktane electrolyte tabs w/ water.
Drank Gu Rocktane bottle on downtube periodically & it was empty at the end.
1hr 15 min, I had another gel or the rest of the cliff bar (I think it was another gel).
~1hr45 min I had the rest of the cliff bar
I tentatively planned to only have 2 gels on the bike to make sure I didn’t go over 250 calories/hour. I decided to have the 3rd gel based on how I felt mid-race, but just realized now the 3rd gel only put me a tiny bit over 250 calories/hour (negligible).
I had my caffeinated gu later in the bike (2hr15 min maybe?)
LOTS of other riders coasted or took it easy down hills. I tried to hammer to keep my HR in the target zone & passed lots of people this way.
Toward the end of the bike athletes were pretty sparse (athletes were dense when I started). I mostly passed people & rarely got passed (with the exception of the easy 20 minutes early on).
I only looked at MPH once during the whole bike. I focused exclusively on HR & time (just like race rehearsals & workouts).
I really thought I spent more time above 129 bpm than below 129 bpm on the bike. I wish I had the split of avg HR for after the 20 min easy and before entering T2 to know what my avg. HR was…
T2 -
Stretch laces on shoes are too tight (I kinda new this already), I think. They were hard to get on.
I ran in my new white nike visor & orange sunglasses
Run
Took 2XU belt w/ race number & 2 gels safety pinned on (neither caffeinated)
Started drinking water & gatorade at first aid station & continued every aid station; usually 2 cups water, 1 cup gatorade “endurance.”
I only ever ate 1 gel on the run (surprising to me)! After reading in the race execution pages about how the “higher intensity” of a HIM versus an IM means you should eat less to avoid digestive issues, I was more cautious about overeating.
Took 2 more sodium tablets early in the run.
Went “easy” for first 3 miles (~bike HR, ~129 was my goal)
Then planned to run at 135 bpm for the middle 7 miles. But after a while started feeling good & feeling competitive (wanting to chase down other guys in my age group), so I decided to “go for it” and run more like 138 bpm. Based on Coach P’s guideline, the middle 7 miles should be 5-10 bpm higher than bike. During the run, I thought my bike HR was ~129, so I figured 138-139 bpm was still within his guidelines (and still kept me below 140 bpm, the ceiling of my zone 2 run HR).
Continued to feel good, but a bit nervous about when I would get to “the suck.”
Looked forward to the last 3 miles to really push. I had 1 cup of red bull after the 10 mile mark & kicked hard to the finish. I would’ve had more but was worried about overdoing the caffeine.
There was a point early in the 2nd lap (so maybe 6-8 miles in) where I had a sharp pain in a tendon in arch of my right foot. It is a spot that can be periodically sore, and is made better by my weekly calf/shin raises (and stretching). I didn’t do my weekly calf shin raises until TUESDAY this week, which was cutting it really close to race day. Saturday, I still had some tightness in the right arch of my foot (the spot being discussed), so I’m thinking I should have rolled it when it was tight saturday, and I obviously should have done my calf/shin raises earlier in the week.
I got REALLY worried about this pain, because other than that, I was feeling great & I wanted to push. But I eased up a bit and changed my right foot plant a bit (more push off from middle & outside toes, & less from big toe). I also ran on the grass for a while (see next comment).
Much of the course was on the left side of the road, with a right to left down sloped shoulder. So I think this may have played part in aggravating my foot.
Whatever it was, it did eventually go away.
See splits below: My first mile (and HR) appears to include running into transition with my bike (based on the map on Strava).
Strava suggests I did finish the run strong with 3.2 fast miles (even when you account for the hills). But the Steelhead athlete tracker suggests I was slow during those last three miles. Based on looking at other athlete’s splits in the Steelhead athlete tracker at the 12.9 mile mark, I think there was an error with that.
Run laps
Altitude for the final ~3 miles of the run (based on Suunt [top] & strava [bottom]):
Run splits:
HR across all 3 disciplines:
Comments
Full results here:
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman-70.3/steelhead/results.aspx?rd=20170813&race=steelhead70.3&bidid=1010&detail=1#axzz4pktgV0cO
Yeah - you were way to speedy on the run to see me. Dude, you are a gazelle!
I purposely went pretty much full gas the entire race. I'm 47 and my average HR was 150 for the bike and run, not what you'd consider the EN way of execution. I finished well, but those last 3.5 miles on the run were just brutal.
It takes a lot of guts to go full gas for that long! I'm sure you spent a lot more time in "the suck" than I did. I can imagine those last 3.5 miles were painful! 12th in your age group on the swim?! Nice work!
Did it deliver the results you wanted (your times look great to me!)?
Wow, thats impressive - you're a natural
Yeah, I'm a swimmer - its on 2 feet where I struggle. Hoping for a 30 minute swim, but the lake needed to be flat - my sighting wasn't great, especially the first 650 meters.
I was hoping for 5:30 overall, but super happy given my level of training and the fact I said the hell with the execution rules and went full gas - left everything out there. I probably could have went faster on the run if I properly executed. Of course, I'd be slower on the bike too. My PR is 5:34 flat on that course
No kidding you're a swimmer. Ahhh, well I'm glad to hear someone suggest my swim could've been faster in flatter water
Well, it sounds like you were close to your PR, and that is very solid.
Al, yes, I agree about the negative split data suggesting I may have been able to go a bit faster. That is why I looked at it so closely & described it carefully here (wondering if anyone else would think that). The good news and bad news: yes, that probably means I could've gone faster at this same level of fitness (but at least this way, I didn't hit a wall on my first 70.3 and really felt great all day.). I was trying to follow the EN race execution guidelines. Also, in one of my RR's I biked a little harder than this (based on HR), and the run went a lot worse than I thought it should go, so I was worried about that.
Yes, I'm very excited to see what I can do in some tris next season.