Peter Greagg at Chattanooga for the World 70.3
Introduction
I unexpectedly qualified for the World 70.3 Championships at Chattanooga, which was held on 10 September 2017. I am usually a MOP athlete who has podium ed a few times. This roll down slot was a surprise, but I though it was probably going to be my only chance. So I decided to take it.
I unexpectedly qualified for the World 70.3 Championships at Chattanooga, which was held on 10 September 2017. I am usually a MOP athlete who has podium ed a few times. This roll down slot was a surprise, but I though it was probably going to be my only chance. So I decided to take it.
The trip to the worlds started at 5:00 am on Wednesday in Canberra Australia. Flying to Chattanooga, via Sydney, and then Dallas, we arrived at 9:45 pm on Wednesday night 6 October. We had to hang around the airport because the airline had lost my wife's luggage, as well as a number of bikes from other competitors. By the time we got to the hotel in downtown Chattanooga, it around midnight. I had taken the precaution of having my bike sent to the hotel a week earlier by Luggageforward. They were great - very easy to deal with.
Because of the hours without sleep, we slept in until Housekeeping woke us at 10:00 am on Thursday. I cancelled all wkos because of how I was feeling. Instead, we decided to go to Lookout Mountain via a bus, then the Incline Railway, as the bike course goes straight up to the top of the mountain. I must say, I felt a bit intimidated by the steepness and height. We spent the rest of the day just doing tourist type things, after athlete check in and buying things at the Expo.
Only got a few hours sleep on Thursday night due to a combination of jet lag and fear about how difficult the course was and excitement. I just lay in bed and counted to about 1600.
Friday, I assembled my bike and went for a ride. Inside 200 meters however, I realised I had a loose front Magura brake calliper and couldn't see how to fix it (I am very in-technical) I went straight to the Expo where there was a bike tech tent. I stood in line for 1.5 hours in the sun waiting to be told that they were only working on women's bikes that day because their race was on Saturday whereas we were on Sunday. I started to walk back to the Hotel in my bike shoes, but within 30 metres, my ancles and knees were complaining. I walked the remaining kilometre to the hotel in my socks. I arrived back at the hotel with the start of a few blisters on my feet.
I picked up the bike on Saturday (no charge). I spent the rest of the day trying to relax and not worry about how difficult the course was (and the cutoff of 8 hours), and the hot spots on the soles of my feet.
The Race
I had a reasonable sleep Saturday night, and was over-joyed to get to T1 in the morning to hear the swim was wet-suit legal. As it turned out, I might have missed the 60 minute swim cutoff if it wasn't wet-suit legal.
I had a reasonable sleep Saturday night, and was over-joyed to get to T1 in the morning to hear the swim was wet-suit legal. As it turned out, I might have missed the 60 minute swim cutoff if it wasn't wet-suit legal.
The Pros left at 7:30. My wave was 8:12 am. We were sent off in groups of 4 (I think, it could have been 5?) and we jumped off a pontoon. My goggles filled with water immediately. I rolled on my back and cleared the googles. I needed two more attempts before they stopped leaking. The swim course went across the Tennessee River, then 850 metres upstream into the current. Then back to T1. I did 44:xx which is 5 or 6 minutes slower than my usual 70.3 swim. I was really feeling tired in my arms, shoulders and lats as I ran up to my bike.
I downed a gel and headed out of T1. Because of difficulty of the bike course, I JRA until we got to the base of Lookout Mountain. The road appeared to go straight up. From here the road goes about 15 km with an average 8% grade. I was glad I had selected a 11/34 rear cassette to go with my 50/34 compact crank. The crowd support was awesome and when we were approaching the top of the first climb they told us how far to go. I tried to keep my watts down but I averaged 160 watts over the whole climb (my FTP is only 190 watts). For the next few kms the rollers dictated that I was often in the 34:34 gearing. I saw a few peeps walking up the mountain - it was going to be a long day for them.
Here is a picture from this climb:
It took me 1:50 to go the first 38 kms. I passed a number of peeps who were obviously in worse shape than I was. I was very happy to get to T2 and get off the bike after TSS of 200 and VI of 1.09. I know that both of these are too high really to allow a good run. But given my FTP and my 68 kg weight, it is hard to see how I could have done much better. I had a bottle of Gatorade Endurance and a gel every hour.
I headed out from T2 and my heart rate was showing 65 bpm. Given that I was feeling trashed, I knew that couldn't be right. After another 5 minutes, it had fallen to 50. Now that upset me because I have been working with Coach P to stop blowing myself up on the run, which I have consistently done for the last 3 years. When I qualified in May that was the first time I have had a reasonable run, and I did that by using heart rate. So I swapped to run power but my Zone 2 power was obviously unachievable based on how my legs were feeling and the fact I still had about 19.5 kms to go. The run course has an elevation change of 600 m (or 1200 ft). So I tried TRP power. That only lasted 30 minutes. After that, I didn't look at my watch at all. I just ran as hard as I could. I had a gel every 30 mins, and walked my 30 right foot steps each aid station while I had 1 cup of Gatorade Endurance. It was the toughest run course I have ever done. As it turned out, my run was the same time as my qualifying run in May on a course with half the elevation change.
My overall time of 7:16 (my slowest ever 70.3) was good enough for 48th in my age group out of 65, and 2234 out of 2800 overall. This is proudest race. I am not sure how I managed to run so hard (for me) on such a difficult run course after such a tough bike leg. But it showed what me what I can do by never giving up, even if things keep going wrong.
Thank you for reading.
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Comments
The fact you were able to run what you did on that course, on that day, is very impressive. It gives me a high hopes for your future at all distances. After all, the run is where it’s at.
I will come back to you in a couple of days in a new season micro thread, where I will talk about a longer term goal (Ironman in December 2018) and how best to get there.
I will also interact with you about my run, which you mention here.
cheers
Peter
re my heart rate comment - I should elaborate a bit. In the two years leading up to May 2016, my right knee was becoming more and more unstable, which had knock on impacts on my running form and consequent running durability. As a result my RPE, pace, run power became disconnected.
Since then I have been successfully treating my knee and running form with a physio once a week for an hour.
I have been using heart rate to 'help me' make better pace decisions early in the run. That said, I expect to move back towards using RPE in the future, as I become familiar with the 'new' relationship between RPE, pace and running power.
As to the specifics of the race at Chatanooga, my bike heart rate average was 112 bpm, which is a little on the low side, but not by much and probably explicable by the above average of downhill sections with much bike traffic impeding me. However, the heart rate coming out of t1 and the early part of the run 'should have been' around 120 bpm, based on long time experience. So I deduced that the heart rate monitor had developed a fault (perhaps a flat battery, I can't recall when I last changed the battery. A knew learning for me.)
This race had an average run heart rate of 95, and the course had an 300 metres of climbing. Compared to my qualifying race in May, where I had an average heart rate of 130 bpm, and that course had only 100 metres of climbing, and both run legs were within a few minutes of each other. Finally, my long run average heart rate is usually around 130 bpm. All of which tells me that there was a problem with my heart rate monitor.
Btw Tim, do you use WKO4? And if you do, I would be very interested finding out what your Stamina (30 day) was before one of your IMs where you had an IF around 0.74 (or higher) and ran well off the bike?
I am speculating that the higher the Stamina, the higher the TSS you can rack up on the bike, and still run well. My Stamina before this race was 88%, whereas it has always been 80-81%. And I think that much increased Stamina meant that I could run much better than I normally do, notwithstanding the 200 bike TSS, and the tougher than normal run course.
I have a post in Power and Pace on the subject if you are interested?
376 PMAX , 4.4 FRC , 212 mFTP , 82 Stamina , 32:30 TTE , 207 sFTP
I plan to follow those threads, engage, and learn this WKO4 but will most likely be after KONA/IMAZ
Given your obvious focus on Kona I wouldn't suggest you change anything based on a superficial understanding of WKO4.
For post Kona, there is a graph (in the graph pack that you need to select) that shows Stamina over what ever date range you select (which you need to learn how to do that).
The top line is called 'Your Hero Bar' and that is based on your last 90 days of data.
Btw, your Hero Bar tells me a few things about your bike training that I would be happy to share with you, post Kona (Rich would probably tell you the same things)?
Now if I could just get down to your weight............
Btw, I always enjoy your reports of your mainly overseas jaunts, although I am usually only lurking.
Like you, I usually race, then enjoy a holiday with my wife. In fact once my wife was asked whether we were going to Alice Springs (in the centre of Australia) for our holidays next year. Her reply was : 'I don't know. Do they have a race on?"
Cheers.