Wildflower Long Course- Race Report
I raced Wildflower Long Course in 2010 with very little run training. This year, I focused much more on run durability and hills. Going into race week, I felt good. My race rehearsals had gone well and I was hoping to really improve upon my finish time from last year.
After getting all of the racing/camping/driving logistics taken care of, I arrived lakeside early Friday morning. A buddy and I set up camp, I got registered, took a quick spin, and then relaxed.
Race morning came soon, and as forecasted, the trees were already rustling from the wind. Not good, I thought. I Got up, rode down to the lake, got set up in transition, and was ready to rock. My plan for the day was relax on the swim (35-38mn range), put in a solid effort on the bike (2:50 range), and to try and break the 2:00 hr mark on the hilly run course.
I started the swim a bit too near the front and had to fight my way through the first 100 meters or so. After that, the swim was pleasant and uneventful. I must have really navigated poorly because I came out of the water around 38mn even though I felt like I was moving through the water better than that. Oh well. I transitioned onto the bike and made my way out of the punchy climbs to Interlake. Upon making the right onto Interlake, we were greeted with a nice 15-25 mph nose-on headwind. I put my head down and tried my best to stay on my goal watts (200w, ~3.0 w/kg). I was moving steadily through the pack and was hoping that the right turn on the main road would result in a tail wind: no such luck. Instead of enjoying the fast, net downhill section of the course, we slogged through a tricky 25 mph cross wind from left to right. It looked more like a sailboat race than a bike race with riders tacking back and forth fighting to stay upright. There were several wind induced wrecks.
At this point, my goal bike split/finish time went out the window due to the windy conditions so I focused on preserving my legs a bit to put in a solid run. I was fighting to keep my normalized power over 195w and it was creeping closer to the 188 range. I was a little uncomfortable in the aero position; I think the aero helmet/sunglasses combo forced me to crane my neck more than usual. Note to self…
At the base of Nasty grade, we finally got some respite from the wind and I was looking forward to getting out of the aero position and climbing a bit. Nasty came and went and I felt good the last bit of the bike. I came in just over the three hour mark which, I would later learn, was a pretty solid effort given the conditions. Coming down Lynch Hill, another ENer passed by and gave me a shout out.
Out of T2 I applied another coat of sunscreen to avoid the sunburn-of-death that I received last year. I started the run and felt good. I ran the first three miles near my goal pace between 9:00-9:30 miles. At mile 4, where the course turns more into hike, I had no answer for the hills. I started to feel really sleepy, nauseous, and nervous all at once. I had used a different fueling strategy and I think I went into bonkville for a bit. I walked most of mile 4 and talked myself back into running again. Somehow, I began running and recovered mentally and "ran" well from miles 5-9. Miles 10-11 are brutal, but I did very little walking. I checked the watch and realized that I was moving at a glacial pace and that all of my time goals were going to be missed significantly. I crossed the line in 6:18 with a 2:20 run split. After cooling off, I was fighting the urge to be disappointed in my performance as being able to compete and simply finishing were reasons to smile.
After a few beers and some BBQ, I was much less crestfallen, but I still wanted to analyze my run explosion further: did I not eat enough on the bike? Did my bike position compromise my run? Am I just a wimp?
Most of the drive home was spent in analyzing my run performance (or lack thereof). I had ran a 1:46 at the Surf City half earlier this year, and had really stuck to the EN plan and ran lots of hills (Rosebowl up Lida, etc). Im still not sure what the answer is, but I know for certain that it was not going to hard on the bike (my normalized power was a conservative184 which was in the .75 IF range). However, my climbing FTP versus my TT FTP may be something to look into…
It’s back to the drawing board on the run for now. I will really need to step up my game for IMC (my first IM) this August. Any words of wisdom/encouragement would be much appreciated.
Photos to follow when available.
_Brendan
Comments
Sounds like you had a character building day. I'm pretty new to triathlon, so take my advice for what it's worth.
It sounds like your bike was off from what you expected according to your RRs, followed by a 'poor' run. Then you said 'I had used a different fueling strategy'. I'd take a hard look at your fueling, and your taper leading into the week - did you get enough cals/rest in the last day or two before the race?
Keep up your training and I'm sure you'll kick some ass in IMC!
cheers - mark
how did you do against peers in each of the s/b/r and transitions? A course like that can be brutal on a lot of people. Sometimes it's easier to see relative strengths and weaknesses when you compare to others.
tom
It sounds like you were pretty conservative on the IF, so maybe this is not an issue.
That said, I did a half a couple of years ago with brutal, gusty wind and rain and had a similar experience...more or less on target bike watts and decent-looking split, but bad experience on the run. At the time I wondered about whether all the other stuff you have to do to stay upright represents additional work that you're doing that just doesn't get translated to the pedals and thus the wattage...and thus the TSS is an underestimate of the work you do (overall) in those conditions.
I really appreciate everyone’s feedback. You all offer some great points.
@Mark: I think you’re right: the new fuel strategy may have been to scarce.
@Lynette: I looked at my ride file again and it was pretty surge-free, I spent very little time anywhere near my FTP. However, the first few minutes did have some spikes…
@Tom: Relative to my age group, I was MOP for the Swim, a little better than MOP for the bike, and near the back of the group for the run.
@David: I agree WF is unforgiving. I’ll let you know if I crack the code!
@William: Great point on the additional TSS due to the extended ride time. Most of my RR rides were in the 2:45 range. The additional 20’ on the bike plus the 40’ of swimming may have been just enough to throw the run off.