Jorge Duque IMTX Race report
Short version: Great race, too hot. PR by one hour and four minutes.
Detailed version:
I had a great race plan that took all the guessing off the table. I didn't have to improvise or waste time figuring what to do. I can't reiterate the importance of writing a plan and following it.
Pre-race Challenges: 1) Training during Holiday Season and "out of sync" with the team wasn't easy. 2) Training in cold weather (average 40-50), with every bike ride indoors while racing in hot and humid weather (80-90). The heat was a big concern.
Wednesday: Flight from Seattle to Houston
Thursday: Registration, athlete briefing, meet @Amulya Parthasarathy and @Tom Glynn, pack race bags, run a 5k to have a feeling for the weather. Easy run and I was soaking wet in sweat with a super high HR. My fears about the weather were confirmed, but that forced me to race a smart race. Attend the banquet. Back in the hotel by 7:30pm
Friday: Pick up the bike, make sure everything is working fine, put nutrition and tool bag in bike, take bike and bags to T1, release the air from the wheels, back to the hotel. Pasta lunch, movies all afternoon, pasta dinner. Sleep by 9:00pm.
Race Day: Wake up at 3:00 am. Peanut butter & Nutella sandwich with coffee and banana. (Same breakfast used during training). Picked up by Amulya at 5:00 am and head to race. Pump wheels, add fluids to bike, turn bike computer on, pair PM, long walk to swim start. Bathroom stop, wet-suit on, EN top and bottom, and calf sleeves underneath. Drop Special needs and morning clothes bag, seed myself for the swim.
SWIM: Expected time of 1:30 - Actual time 1:28. (Best swim to date)
I have been working hard on my swim by joining a masters program in town. The swim was very crowded and required to stop a couple times because of traffic. When I could find a clean lane, I felt pretty good and passed a lot of people, but then the traffic made us stop again. There was a bottle-neck effect when getting in the final segment that required to stop until there was enough room to move forward. The final canal was very choppy and required to swim with a high elbow and extended rotation to avoid drinking water. I never felt tired during the swim. I know I could have done it under 1:20 if there was more room to move.
Lesson learned: Next time line up with the 1:10 - 1:20 group.
T1: Expected 12 mins - Actual 7 mins: No fooling around, no talking. Do your thing and get out.
BIKE: Expected time of 6:00 - Actual time 6:06 (Best bike split to date)
The course is very flat and quite boring. I have been doing this distance on Zwift in 5:35 so I was confident on my skills. It is a perfect course if you have ride indoors only - Very easy to simulate in a smart trainer. The course is two loops in the highway going to Houston and returning to the Woodlands. After 20 miles of city riding, we reached the highway and faced strong headwinds going towards Houston. Despite of it, I could hold the aero position most of the time and barely touched the gears. On the way back we were flying due to the tailwind. Loop number 2 had very strong headwinds. A lot of shifting and even once I had to go to the small chain ring. Needless to say the final segment was crazy fast. Its the first time I run out of gears in a flat road. I was riding at 27 mph pushing only 120 watts (my FTP pre-race was 264) - absolutely crazy.
Nutrition was right on point. Gel on top of the hour, cliff block every 20 mins, and 2 GE per hour. (I had rehearsed this multiple times). I stopped at every aid station (every 10 miles), refueled GE, bathed my self in cold water, and kept moving. Pee stop and sunscreen on miles 40 and 80 (textbook). All and all in took 10 stops with an average of 1 minute and 40 seconds per stop. I know that I could have saved some time but with the intense heat, I needed to make sure to have all the GE I needed and the cold water. The wind was very high so fueling on the go was a little dangerous. After months and months of only riding indoors, the bike handling was a little "dusty" so I wasn't willing to risk it.
T2: Expected 15 mins - Actual 10 mins: Very long walk from bike dismount to bag. Also had to make a pee stop. Other than that, it was very efficient: socks, shoes, sunglasses, hat, Tylenol, race belt, out.
RUN: Expected 5:30 - Actual 6:16 (Not my best)
The plan for the run was to beat the heat. The idea was to keep my HR below 150. The first 9 miles where fantastic. I matched the bike HR, walked the aid stations, put ice on my hat, and sponges in my shirt. I was able to keep a slow but steady run for 1:45. For the second loop, the heat start to get to me. The HR was spiking so I run in the shade and walked in the sun. That proved to be a good strategy. Lap number 3 was survival. Mostly run-walk, but with great spirits.
The support on the run is fantastic. People everywhere cheering you on. I think I had a big ass smile during the whole race. The venue is spectacular and the finish line was absolutely crazy. They make you feel like a rock star.
Closing thoughts: Overall I am super happy and very proud of this race. PR of over one hour (14:09:33), great swim, great bike, and great venue. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the run. I have been with EN for 2.5 years. This is IM #4 during that period of time and I can see how the EN approach is taking me in the right direction. Each race has been better than the one before not only in terms of time but also in the way I approach training and racing.
Comments
Great report and well executed race given the conditions. Congrats on your PR!!!
@Jorge Duque Congratulations on a well-run race and it's fantastic you took over an hour off your overall time. You had a well-rehearsed plan and executed it in challenging conditions! Anything you would do different planning for an early season hot race? (I ask as I live in Minneapolis and am doing IMAZ in Nov. While likely not as hot, a good portion my last 8-weeks will likely be indoors)
@Amulya Parthasarathy thanks brother. You also had a great race. It was really nice to meet you.
@Jeff Phillips thanks. I am not sure I could have done anything different. I followed the sauna protocols for heat adaptation, hydrated pretty good for the weeks before the race, and structured a plan designed to fight the heat.
I raced IMAZ in 2017 and it's was different from Texas. The big difference is dry heat vs. humidity. Arizona in November is not that hot, and is very dry so you don't feel that short of breath sensation that humidity brings. There is very little shade at IMAZ so make sure you re-apply sunscreen consistently. I had sunscreen applied in Texas at the beginning of the bike, on miles 40 & 80, at the beginning of the run and on mile 10. You might loose some time but it's worth it.
I am pretty sure that as long as you pour cold water on you during the bike and hydrate consistently, you shouldn't have an issue. I scanned over my IMAZ race report and I didn't mentioned the weather once, which tells me that it wasn't an issue. I remember people complaining about the cold night (65 degrees) and I was just loving it. That's spring weather for me.
Hope you have a great race at IMAZ.