Door County Half Ironman...two PRs!
Well this is one of my first attempts at a race report. I completed Ironman Wisconsin last year but failed to write it up. I have been a member of EN for almost 2 years now and have really learned a lot from both the forum and from the coaches. I am pretty easy to coach as I follow almost all of the principles of EN except sometimes I just ride 80-85 percent on my Saturday bike rides (2x20 for two years with a few breaks here and there gets old!). I did IM Moo in 11:31:xx last year and it verged on easy (I was so well prepared by the 20 offseason and 20 week IM plan) so this year I was interested in seeing what I could do in an Olympic and Half. I did Buffalo Olympic in 2:16:xx this year which was a 1:10 minute PR. I was hoping for a bigger drop but realized that I am better designed for longer races. I lack pure run speed so I was hoping for a good half.
This is my second time doing Door County Half Iron in Egg Harbor Wisconsin. I did a 5:13:xx in July of 2008 right before I signed up for IM Moo and joined EN. I had a 12 minute flat tire so my ability was closer to 5:00 hours.
This year I completed the EN 20 week off season followed by the 20 week half iron plan. I trained around 2-3 hours less per week than in 2008. I cannot run more than 3 or 4 times per week and like to swim a little hard than written in the plan but other than that I stuck to the plan.
It was perfect day temperature wise…70s with clouds, it rained on the bike pretty hard once and was really windy (15-20 mph winds). I lived in northern Wisconsin where 10-15 mph winds are a calm day so I was fine with the wind. I would take a blizzard over heat any day. Heat kills me.
Pre race….as recommend. Light dinner on Saturday evening, Ensure (350 calorie bottles) at 12:30am, 3:00am, 6:00am and then sip Gatorade till the start. I was a little hungry at the start but that was normal, my stomach was empty which means I would easily digest food on the bike. I have an iron stomach so I made an 850 calorie bottle of Infinit for the bike. I did 500 calories during my RR and that was not enough. I give up caffeine one week before the race…so I had 200mg 30 minutes before the start with another (hopefully) 200mg before the run. I loaded sodium phosphate for one week but I am unsure it helps me but it does not hurt me so I use it.
The Swim:
I am a good swimmer. My goal was sub 30…I did a 29:45. Dropped my goggles and cap walking out of the water so I lost 30 second right there. Lesson learned, leave cap and goggles on. The water was perfect; I dropped my entire wave of 90+ in the first 100 yards and nailed my sighting. Door County has tons of markers on the swim course so it was easy to stay on course. I swam a little more than recommended and did a lot of 20x100 on 1:30. Hard but made the swim a lot easier. I passed a least 200 people during the swim. It is amazing how far off couse some poeple can get even when you have perfect water conditions.
T1:
I don’t hurry…1:38 which is slow but I wanted to do everything correct.
Bike:
I have all the right gear and set up (wheels with cover, power meter, good positioning, and I only ride my tri bike). When I joined EN I simply did everything the coaches said, got professionally fitted and have not changed a thing since way before my IM last year. My threshold is 255 (tested one month before the race) and my weight is 140, so ~4.0 watts per KG. I wanted to hit .78-.80 IF but here is what I rode:
Duration: 2:32:49
Work: 1747 kJ
TSS: 148.4 (intensity factor 0.763)
Norm Power: 195
VI: 1.02
Distance: 56.406 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 315 191 watts
Heart Rate: 113 156 135 bpm
Cadence: 36 174 89 rpm
Speed: 2.5 38 22.2 mph
I road conservatively especially as the roads got really wet. I am NOT a good runner and I am a pretty good biker. I wanted a good run. I believe the two best pieces of advice I have learned from everything in the EN world is “There is no such thing a good bike followed by a bad run” and “If you go to easy on the bike you have 26 miles of running to make up for it”. I used both on my IM and this Half. I could have easily rode 22.5-22.9 mph but I do not think those 5 minutes were worth the possible damage to the run.
I rode a low VI for the hills (a lots of small hills and two larger hills, 1000 plus feet of climbing, a lot of false flats) and wind; I practice a low VI on every solo ride…rode a VI of 1:05 for IM Moo for comparison. I drank over 100oz of water and probably gained weight during the bike. Drank my entire bottle of Infinit and got off the bike feeling totally fine. Easiest Sunday ride this year. I only left my aero bars for 30 pedal strokes every 15 minutes as I have some issues with my left hamstring which this takes care of and when I drop to 14 mph, other than that I do not move from the aero bars. I remember reading somewhere, there is no point of having a tri bike if you don’t stay in your aero bars…which I think is true. It was nice starting in wave 8 as I passed another 200+ people on the bike.
T1:
1:34 which is slow but as above I wanted to do everything correct. I did forget to take my second 200mg of caffeine.
The Run:
My best half marathon ever (my old PR for an open half was a 1:47:xx). I ran a 1:45:22, which is a new PR for a half marathon. My Vdot is between 46-50. I can’t run 5ks as I get really bad shin splints. I went with a 47 Vdot (based on my Olympic tri 10k time) so my first mile was supposed to be a 8:15. I ran an 8:08. My Garmin is broken so I just used my mile splits to pace myself. My second mile was an 8:04 and felt easier than my first. I really concentrated on 90 steps per minute. By mile 4 I was at 31:50 so I was running sub 8s for miles 3 and 4. I was uncomfortable but feeling good. You learn how to be uncomfortable in the EN world. I used my fuel belt with 4, 8oz bottles of Gatorade as Door County Water stops are 2+ miles apart. I needed three of the bottles as my energy levels dropped a little.
The run course has two huge hills. The first is a half mile long with at least a 7/8 percent section at the top. The second is a monster. 15-20 percent, 300-400 yards (both are guesses) I hammered the first hill and power walked the second. My last three miles were around 7:40s as I lost a lot of time on the second hill which is in the middle of mile 9. My final overall pace was 8:02.
Overall 4:50:31, I was 5th out of 107 in my age group (40-44) and 70 overall out of 924. The age group splits are not posted but I believe I was 2nd in my age group in the swim, 8th on the bike, and 15th on the run.
It was an amazing day. I truly believe in the EN methodology. It works and as I repeated to myself a number of times over the last few years, get in your box and race, ignore what you can not control.
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Comments
Hey John,
Good to see you again! Great race report (many, many lessons) and congrats on the PR!
Great race John! I think we talked at the swim exit while waiting for the delayed start?
The hills on the run were tough....great race, congrats!