Alex's 70.3 AC Race Report
TL;DR: Very happy. Best AG result ever (85/245 finishers), 04:32 off PR time. Done w/ very minimal run training due to a foot injury. PR swim, PR bike, 9min off PR run. Fast but treacherous bike due to the weather. I also won back my entry fee and hotel cost at the tables on Saturday afternoon ;-).
Areas for improvement:
1. Balancing HR/RPE vs power on bike
2. Keeping HR down early on run
3. Improving run form
Saturday: Pancakes and eggs for breakfast, one small cup of coffee. Bought my food for the weekend and got in the car around 10:30. Nuts, crackers, a bagel, and a plum for lunch. Arrived at venue, checked in quickly, racked the bike, attended the briefing and got out of there around 3. Got to the hotel, separated out all the stuff I needed for AM, T1, T2 and post race. Ate dinner at 5:00 (chicken, rice, apple and bar). Couldn’t resist so I gambled for about an hour. Hated to leave because I was winning but my HR was in z3 and it was time for bed!
Race day AM: Early is awesome, makes all your problems easier to deal with. 3:30 wakeup, breakfast of bagel, two eggs, banana, mini clif bar and coffee. Got to venue at 4:15. Blew out a tire AND lost my chip but neither was terribly troubling because I had so much time to deal with them. GE and clif bar up till about 5:35, a gel at 6:15. Pooped three times, took 2 Motrin for the foot.
Swim: 35:21 (38/245 in A/G) vs prior PR 35:37
Start was delayed for about half an hour because of thunderstorm warnings. One loop elongated rectangle with the current going against you on the way out and with you on the way back. Current is strongest where the water is deepest so I tried to stick to the outside on the way out and the inside on the way back.
My watch says I swam nearly 2,200 yards. Did the extra distance to stay in the deep water save me or cost me? Hard to tell, but the results were good.
T1: 05:49
A little surprised that it was that long, it felt smooth.
Bike: 2:41:01 (85/245) vs prior PR of 2:45:34; / 166w AP, 175w NP (0.696IF) / 146bpm Avg HR
This may have been the nuttiest 70.3 bike I’ve ever seen. Really dangerous. A lot of PRs, but probably just as many ruined days due to flats, other mechanicals and crashes.
The course is set up to be fast and flat. It’s three loops, mostly on expressways with one lane and the shoulder closed to traffic. The problems were that: 1) It POURED rain for the first hour or so; 2) Three laps means it got crazy crowded towards the end; and 3) The roads weren’t great - not so big a deal if it’s dry but bad news in the rain (is that a puddle also a pothole?)
Most people were good about staying right and trying not to cheat (there was a ton of legal-ish drafting going on, it just couldn't be avoided) but accidents were inevitable.
My plan was to get my HR down to the high 130s for the first 5 miles out of T1, then ramp up to 170-185w with a hard cap on my HR of 150bpm. The good news is that I was very consistent wrt HR, pretty consistent wrt power and got off the bike feeling not terrible. The bad news is that the HR cap governed most of the time and I wound up with a very disappointing < 0.70 IF.
Could I have been more aggressive and still saved my run?
I was lucky not to have crashed or had a mechanical, but I didn’t emerge totally unscathed from the conditions. My nutrition plan included draining 1-2 bottles in the first 10 miles and grabbing 2 GE bottles at each aid station (there was one physical aid station which you passed 3 times at miles 10, 30 and 50). Getting the bottles went went fine at mile 10 but a few minutes past the aid station I hit a bump and the bottle in my front holder went flying (note: the Speedfil Z4 does NOT hold GE bottles securely enough) and 100 yards after that my rear bottle went flying (note: the XLab Delta 105 does NOT hold GE bottles securely enough). So no fluids for 19.5 miles. Great. I didn’t feel any ill effects on the bike since it was raining and not that hot. But by the time I got to T2 I knew I’d pay for it. Thankfully I was able to successfully hold onto the new bottles I got at miles 30 and 50.
Otherwise, nutrition went fine. Alternated Clif Bloks and mini Clif bars every 30mins. I had some in my bento box and had loaded the rest into a mini ziplock I stashed in my trisuit pocket in T1. I took Motrin for the foot again around halfway through.
T2: 0:05:40
Included a stop to pee, which I obviously didn’t do on the bike. There wasn’t much, it took a while, it was orange and it hurt. Uh-oh.
Run: 2:02:00 (85/245) vs PR of 1:53:36 / 158bpm Avg HR (highest avg HR ever for a 70.3 run)
This was always going to be a wildcard. My foot injury meant that the last “long” run workout I’d done was a split 6.9mi/3.5mi on July 10th. I didn’t run at all for a month and only managed one very slow 10k about two weeks before the race. As it turns out, the pain was manageable and I was fitter than I thought I was! It’s really a shame because I feel like I could have set a new PR by several minutes if I’d had that little extra bit of run prep.
The run course was nice. On the boardwalk, very flat, lots of fans, nice scenery. It got pretty hot and humid by the middle of the day.
The plan was to get my HR down into the low 140s for the first 5k, let it rise up to the low/mid 150s for the middle 10k and then gun it in the last 5k. That plan never saw the light of day. I simply could not get my HR down below 150bpm to start. I walked the aid stations and the few little 20’ steep sections but still no luck.
Coach P mentioned that my run cadence seems slow for a guy my size (I’m 5’9”/175). I didn’t change how I ran for this race, but now I’m watching it and noticed that it slowed even more as the day wore on.
In training I’ve been experimenting a bit upping my cadence to 175-180 but it seems to come at the expense of a much higher HR, even when I'm trying to take it easy.
Does anybody have any advice about keeping RPE/HR down while keeping cadence up?
If you smooth out my pace, I slowed down a little but not much - my HR though was a steady climb. I knew I’d had a great swim and bike so I allowed myself to start having the PR conversation starting at around mile 6 but my 160-ish HR and the unknown of my foot were freaking me out. I told myself to wait until mile 10. Eventually I got tired of waiting and at mile 9 I started to let the HR climb into the mid 160s. Unfortunately by then it was too late for the PR, but not too late for sub 5:30.
I took in 3 caffeinated Clif bloks after mile 1, 3 more after mile 4, one after mile 8 and one after mile 9, most of which I gagged up. Gatorade & water at every aid station (at least one cup of each) and ice in the hat whenever I could. Carried a Base Salt canister and took a lick whenever I felt sloshy or a little unsteady. Felt some stitchiness in my side from time to time but I breathed it out and it never got bad.
How do I get that HR down out of T2 without walking? I was going about as slowly as I could!
In all, a satisfying performance to end a frustrating year.
Stretch goal for next year: Sub-12hr IMMT including a ~4 hour marathon. That’s a long way from here, but I have 11 months to get there. Ideally, I'd like to be consistently top-quartile in my AG to set myself up to shoot for top decile in a year or two.
Thanks everybody for all your help!
Comments
Congratulations on your race and your luck at the tables. Sorry I missed you. Primary off season goal is to get healthy. Run durability will build the skills of better run efficiency with lower heart rates.
Thanks @Robert Sabo , here's hoping.
Alex, Congratulations on a well executed race. Your training numbers and execution improved all season, and your race numbers and perceived effort are right in line with a majority of your training rides. You really can't beat that. Especially, with the additional challenge of the rain on race day, which didn't seem to phase you. Gotta fix those bottle cages though :) It is great to see you get the most out of your fitness on race day - including nursing your foot for the run.
I can't tell if you could have been more aggressive with the bike because your foot injury didn't really let you race the run. Your perceived effort on the bike, along with consistent numbers are well executed. It certainly would have set up a great run - without the the limitation of the foot. You have mentioned in your training how - getting your HR above 160 tends to "cook" you and have lasting impacts. So, your last few miles at 150+ seem to press the upper end of your limit there.
RPE/HR down while keeping cadence up. Like Rob said, run durability will help and this will take some practice and deliberate concentration for you until you can make it habit. You can experiment with various mental queues like thinking about heel lift or getting your foot under your center of gravity or thinking about quick feet, a slight forward lean, knee lift. Based on your own running style and mobility - you will eventually hit on the queues that work for you and practice them - especially late in long runs - to develop the habits and groove them into your unconscious as they become second nature.
Keeping your heart rate down out of T2. Try being really deliberate about your brick training. Really focus on the bike to run transition. Once you finish the ride, immediately put the shoes on to run. Don't change clothes. Don't get the extra drink. Don't chat it up. Bike stop. Helmet off. Shoes on. Run start. Those runs can be short. It is all about developing a skill. These sessions are really about managing those first couple of minutes and learning how to manage your RPE and excitement.
Congratulations.
Thanks @matt limbert . I'm looking forward to starting run durability and getting myself back on course for 2020!
That's a solid, well-executed race, with a lot of positive reinforcement to give you confidence going forward. Your questions:
Could I have been more aggressive and still saved my run? - Your variability index was 1.05, somewhat high for this course. On flats like that, you want closer to 1.03 or below. So steadier riding may have given you more bandwidth come run time. OTOH, an IF of under 0.7 (assuming your FTP is accurate) is well below what a well-trained racer can handle on a 2:40 bike and still achieve a satisfactory run. For a ride of 2:40, an IF of about 0.8-0.81 is probably the upper limit to allow a good run; if its a hillier course, and your out there for about 3 hrs, more like 0.76/7 IF. So, yeah, once you get your run back, a harder, steadier bike would work. Your IF was probably a good conservative RPE for a Full Iron Distance race!
Does anybody have any advice about keeping RPE/HR down while keeping cadence up? - Cadence can be trained just like anything for our sport. The key, I think, is to remember that when upping the cadence, the stride needs to be shortened, or you will reworking harder! Rather than "experiment" with getting that cadence up to 180, make it a prime focus on every run you do. It will seem at first that you are taking mincing little short steps, but keep at it the same way you work on those intervals in the pool, on the trainer, ar at the track. In the end, at the same pace, a cadence closer to 180 will use less energy. Analogy: like weight lifting - you can do a lot more reps with smaller weights than heavy ones. Each step you take is basically a hop, you are lifting your entire body weight off the ground and moving it forward; a faster cadence will have you using less force with each step. Over time, your body will adjust, and your RPE/HR will get closer to where you want it. Keep at it. There are some watches which have a metronome chime you can turn on, or you can buy a timer to use while running, or you can just look at your watch to check your cadence (that's what I did to ingrain a quicker cadence). But however you do it, make it a point of emphasis every time you go out the door for a run, until it becomes second nature.
How do I get that HR down out of T2 without walking? I was going about as slowly as I could! - My personal rule for coming out of T2 is: if I can hear or feel my breathing, I am going to fast/hard. Most people are shooting out of T2 onto the run, and the energy you feel being surrounded by them is almost irresistible; again, it's a matter of discipline, letting them all do their thing while you do yours, just like staying in your box on the swim, not being affected by the turmoil around you, and "flattening the hills" on the bike, being willing to let others hammer up and coast down while you save your matches on the climbs.
Thanks so much @Al Truscott . I've got cadence on the front screen of my watch now, so I'll focus on it during run durability.
I'm also going to try to make sure I do at least a short brick run IMMEDIATELY off my bikes in the OS so I can practice discipline and low RPE/high cadence out of T2.
Great race @Alexander E Evis. I missed you as well. I hope your foot gets better!
Thanks! It will....
congrats. nice work.
xlab gorilla xt cages.
i am tall. 6-6. part of the rehab plan for my knee issues has been to increase cadence. it is still not a very high cadence. but has improved. like Al T says, just train doing it and the cardio system will come around. I think for most folks a higher cadence is better for longevity of joints.
sorry about the roads. would be ok if dry ? there is some neat biking in the Pine Barrens, as Dr. Sabo knows, but I gather the bike course doesn't give you much of that. South Jersey has some pretty areas. Hard to not get tick bitten and Lyme infected in the summer though.
i need to do the race sometime. my mother lives near there. I was actually born there but moved to Hawaii at 2 years old. my great grandfather was a dentist there. my great uncle and aunt were jewelers there. My grandparents were part of the first housing development on Brigantine (next to AC). I hate to admit it but in my 20s I worked at Trump Castle (casino) as an analyst. (never met Trump luckily).
Thanks @robin sarner ...I'm in my mid 40s now so longevity of my joints is key. Five runs in and I think I'm starting to get a bit better - when I get fatigued its still hard to keep the cadence up.
Re: the roads, yes they would have been fine had the weather been better. Like I said, they were a little chopped up but not awful - it was more the uncertainty of what may be under a puddle and the slippy paint that was stressing me out. The one thing I would say about the 70.3 AC course in particular is that - as you alluded to - much of it is on the freeway. They blocked off one lane and the shoulder is wide so in theory there was lots of room. BUT there is a rumble strip between the blocked off lane and the shoulder. So it really was more like two normal sized lanes. No big deal but just a little wrinkle.
Funny about the casino story. Traffic was backed up for an hour or so on the Saturday before the race because Mike Pence was coming into town. I guess his nephew was getting married at the Hard Rock.