Carl Alleyne Atlantic City HIM race report
My first half!!! I feel like I’m officially apart of EN now haha. I thoroughly enjoyed this race. I got to Atlantic City late Fri night. I figured I’d give myself 1+ days to get settled for the race. I woke up early Sat morning, ate breakfast, ran a quick mile, got lost biking to the race transition to rack my bike and watched the athlete’s briefing. I didn’t pay attention AT ALL during the briefing instead electing to meet and talk to the other triathletes.
On Sunday morning, I woke up a 420am but I’m a slow morning mover. I didn’t leave the hotel until 540am. With a one way street and 2000+ racers, that was a horrible idea. I didn’t get to the transition until 615am and it was slated to close at 630am. On top of that, I left my helmet in the car. Luckily, my mom was there to save to day and ran back to get it for me. Going forward, I’m going to make it a sticking point of getting to transition at least an hour before race start.
Swim: Goal - 40 min, Actual time - 48:32 min
They did a self-seeded start and I elected to get in the 36-45 min. group. Given my several 40/41 min RR swims I thought I should easily be able to swim a 40 min half swim with a wetsuit. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I fault poor sighting and not being to handle jockeying with other swimmers as well as I needed to. As usual with every race, I can out of the swim dizzy and almost fell over while putting on my bike shoes in transitions. I’ll have to figure out a remedy for the post race swim dizziness. It’s annoying haha.
T1: 5+ min
These transitions were unusually very long so I don’t feel bad about these times. I took a page out of Jeremy Behler’s book and took a clif bar with me and my helmet. Very simple.
Bike: Goal - 2:30, Actual time 2:32
It was flat except course for the very short exit and entry ramps on the Atlantic expressway. The expressway segments (3 loops) provided an opportunity to really dig in and pick up speed. I finally was able to execute properly the beginning of the bike portion and keep down my watts and effort. 10 min in I started eating my cliff bar and drinking. 20 min in, I picked up RPE (Although my watts didn’t relay it from the picture below). I’m still discouraged about not being able to hold high watts for longer distances (25+ miles). My IF was only .75 when I was looking to do around .85. Along with swimming, I’ll be working on my bike heavily as well in the offseason. Overall my actually time was in line with what I wanted. It was cold and rainy so I didn’t need as much hydration. I had two bottles and didn’t even finish them. I planned on drinking 3 bottles.
T2: 5+ min.
I paused due to how rain soaked I was and everything I had in transition. I planned on wearing socks but they were soaked so I decided against it.
Run: Goal - 1:30, Actual time 1:33
The run is where I can really zone in. I don’t have an endurance running background but I feel like this is my best tri portion. I’ve never ran a standalone half marathon and have only ran one standalone 10k (after a heavy night of drinking haha). However, I have a pretty good run streak going and am pretty confident about my run fitness. For as well as I ran I didn’t execute the 3 miles well at all. Went out wayyy too fast. Luckily, I was to maintain a good pace throughout according to the pic below. Mile 8 is where it started to SUCK and mile 10 I actually wanted to walk at the hydration station. But I knew my run was the one time I can “make up” time on people so I pressed forward. My last half mile I was able to run at a 5:39 pace which was encouraging for me.
Total Time: Goal 5 hours, Actual time 5:04
Overall, I was very happy with my race/effort and look forward to doing more endurance races. Please comment, ask questions, critique and provide any tips. I have tough skin :).
Comments
First. Huge Congratulations! And a strong performance! For the swim, I think you just need to settle down and swim. You can easily lose a ton of time sighting and losing form.
The bike was great for your first half. It was fast. Those roads must be nice In my experience, I have found it hard to work as hard as a half requires. 0.85 is hard for that many miles. I think I came close my last half but I still had some fade. Your 0.75 is closer to a full IM which is around 0.7 - 0.72. I really have to push myself to get near the 0.85. To me it doesnt seem like you should be able to run after a hard effort but you can.
Your run was awesome! Wow! Besides starting out too fast you hung in there. That feeling of suck is what you should feel. You've been out there pushing for 4.5 hours! With that half time you could easily break 3 hours in a marathon! Keep swimming, biking, and running.
Awesome work.
Congrats @Carl Alleyne you can learn a lot from reading you race report. You pointed out some aspects that you will improve on next time. Honing the race plan/process is all about getting things done early.
Your swim sounded like you never really got to settle in. Continue to work on sighting and swimming with others if you can. There are great skills to work on. Figure out what you like, Do you mind having contact or being in the mix? Would you rather swim a little wide and avoid others as much as possible?
great job on a simple transition with minimal moving parts. Get in get out, ride your bike.
On the bike it sounded like you did well at easing into it and getting in some food and fluid. Remember still wanna pee once in the bike, for the future this would have spelled doom on warmer day. You have the right idea, the OutSeason will give you a stronger bike.
You CRUSHED the run, great effort. You already recognized the mistake right out of transition but you reeled it back in and finished strong. Perfecting the bike and run execution will help you push your 5:39 last mile to 2-3 miles, who knows?
Great job, Very good first half iron!!
Carl,
Outstanding race! And very exceptional for your first HIM! You have great potential to knock off 20-30 mins just from swim and bike improvements, which will also set up an even faster run.
Well done!
Well done!! Early matters on race day. Don’t want to be late for your wedding or race day. Simple as that.
If you were early you might have been able to warm up to get swim jitters out.
Bike was good, that nutrition is needed even on cool days. Don’t fool yourself. And don’t worry about IF. Very hard to do that on a flat course. You don’t really need to as you can see your speed was still good.
Run was Just about right for a first timer. Kudos to you and being strong enough to hang in there, most would have cracked! Next time you won’t mess up those first 3 miles. It’s a lot easier when you have a heart rate monitor on so you can see how hard your body is working. Something to add for next time!
That was a great race Carl. Awesome time for a first HIM. The swim was a tough due to no warm up area, rough chop, and extreme saltiness of the water. The flat bike course makes it tough to get the IF up higher. you definitely need to keep to a hydration plan. It was great seeing you out on the course. If you come back next year we will have to meet up. "See you" on Zwift. Congratulations on your first half.
The comments are def appreciated.
Hey @Josh Church Thanks for the comments. I don't mind contact with other swimmers. I just have to do a better job of keep concentration and keep moving when the contact happens. It may be better though to start swimming on the outside. I guess I did leave out the fact I was able to pee on the bike. I read in EN forums, drink until you pee.
@Tim Sullivan @Coach Patrick Why is it harder to keep a higher IF on a flatter course? In general, next year I'm going to do a better job of getting to races earlier.
@Derrek Sanks Yup, that being said, see you at the OWS on Sunday haha.
@Robert Sabo Great seeing you too! Yup I'll probably do this race next year. I liked it a lot.
@Carl Alleyne my advice would be the next time you do your first HIM sand bag it a little, oh wait there won’t be a next time. That’s one hell of a debut. At least you know the low hanging fruit is in the water. Have you done much OWS?
@tim cronk Thanks!.......Not as much I should be. I'm def going to add more OWSs in the outseason and inseason.
Very, very impressive debut HIM bike/run, @Carl Alleyne. I second what Patrick says about the bike metrics. The key thing there is time, not watts. Getting up to 0.8 IF for 2.5 hours is possible, but takes some practice. and the delta in time is really not that much. Remember, you generate less power, but more speed when you are in aero position. That, along with all the race-day aero advantages - closed road, slick kit and helmet, maybe an aero wheel, and catered nutrition - mean you don't have to work as hard as you might think to get the same speed going. Which is a good thing for the run, as you well demonstrated.
I don't know what your experience with shorter races is, but doing a bunch of Olympic distance triathlons can really help lock in the ability to operate at higher watts for longer periods. To say nothing of giving you more experience with OWS in crowds, and for sighting. And then trying to run a swift 10K off of a 0.88+ bike rally concentrates the mind. There's nothing like racing to learn how to race.
Now imagine with a swim equal to the quality of your B&R.
I am glad not to compete against you. That race shows your potential!
well done!
@tim cronk Ha! Thanks! The swim is def the biggest area for improvement for me
@Al Truscott I started doing a good number of zwift races but slacked off within the past two months. Also switched TT bikes in the past two weeks. I'll def do more tempo zwift rides this winter.
@Francis Picard Thanks a lot!
@Carl Alleyne
I agree with @Francis Picard That is a very average swim paired with a solid bike and elite level run. Which is shockingly good on your very first 70.3! If you work on that swim a bit and spend another solid OS dialing up your FTP, you will be a real force to be reckoned with! And don't beat yourself up too much about your IF on the bike. It's very hard to hold a 0.75 IF for 2.5 hrs. Expecting to hold 0.85 (especially after a HARD swim) is really a lot to ask, and certainly would have cost you something on the run.
Now get to work because we now all expect big things from you in the coming years!
@John Withrow Makes sense. I'll stop being so hard on myself but that bike effort is def some I will working towards. Thanks for the uplift!