FL 70.3 (sort of) race report, would like some feedback please
For reference…my last RR was two weeks ago. Quick summary:
AHR: 129, Average speed: 20.6 (LT ~157/159, depending on weather conditions of testing), ave cadence: 86.8.
My run VDot is 49. I ran the 6 miles at 50.05, AHR of 156. Unsure how long that could have lasted though, but I felt very good after that workout and very confident.
Goals for FL70.3 were
Swim: 40’
Bike: 2.40
Run: 1.40-1.45
All were based off of workouts and tests. Going close to 5H was a little aggressive, but I felt doable, again based on testing.
Before I start in, I am well aware that there are lots of folks who wish they could go 5.45…heck I saw a competitor with two prosthetic legs and only one arm, so I’m not complaining.
Relatively short Race report.
Prerace nutrition…
Saturday, big lunch of pasta and chicken. Sipped on water and sportsdrink all day (maybe should have had a little more). That evening, about 6PM, had two McDonalds hamburgers. At about 8:30, had a boost and went to bed. 1:40A, woke up and had two Mix1 drinks and a Boost, then back to bed. Woke up at 4AM, had a banana and PowerBar Perform drink. Pee’d a couple of times prior to the swim.
Swim
Was almost perfect, getting out of the water at 39m54s. Some think the swim was slightly long, and it might have been. But given the amount of swimming I have done, I was very pleased with the result. Pee’d once in the water (sorry for gross-ness…). Swim was a non-event…
T1 – 5.37 (took longer because my safety pin came undone and I had to get a new one…forgot my race belt…
Bike.
First 10 or so miles were almost directly into a headwind. Brutal…just brutal. Last 8-10 miles were again, brutal, going directly into the wind. Middle 30 or so miles, not to bad. Lots of outs and back, plenty of tailwind, some very minor rolling hills.. AHR: 136, Ave speed 19.7, average cadence 83.7, time of 2h50m07s
Nutrition: ~3 bottles of water + ~3 bottles of PowerBar Perform and salt tab at 1H and 2H…exactly the same as the TT.
T2 – Pee’d heading out of transition to the run.
Run
I live in Tampa so I was used to running in heat/humidity. I think some people think it wasn’t that hot…BS. It was hot. First two miles were at 9.02 & 9.31. Mile 3 was 9.52. At this point, I knew there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to speed up at all. I wanted to speed up, and probably could have…and by Mile 8, I’d have been walking. So, the goal of 1.40 went out the window…”Don’t walk, except for the aid stations and don’t slow down.” Below are mile splits and AHR. HR isn’t my main metric, but I knew that if I picked it up, my HR would have been in Z5 by Mile 8, and that’s bad news….
9.03, 141
9.32, 150
9.53, 149
9.44, 146
9.32, 150
9.46, 150
9.52, 147
10.17, 145
9.54, 140
9.42, 150
10.16, 150
9.58, 154
9.35, 157
(My Garmin has a run total of 13.01 miles, last mile is 1.01 miles.)
Nutrition was ~2 cups of water at every aid station. Also, I put in probably 180 calories of EFS gel pre-mixed with water (drank about 85% of the water bottle), salt tab at about 1 hour into the run. I was thirsty, and didn’t pee until two bottles of water after the race, just before I left to drive home. So, I had some dehydration issues, I guess…
Total time was 2h07m04s…total time was 5h45m33s.
So, I have two ways to think about this…incredibly upset, particularly because my run was so poor, or proud…because I wanted to walk, a lot, and I didn’t. I kept my pace consistent, walked aid stations only, and finished. It’s a little bit of both.
What I can’t quite understand is my run was so poor. Can anyone offer some advice?
Thanks.
Comments
I recently had (I think) the same experience. On a flat 70.3 course, I thought I would do 2:30 on the bike and so dialed in the IF according to the execution spreadsheet. The bike had 20 km per hour winds and I therefore took 10 mins more to do a 2:40 bike split. According to my powertal and WKO+, I had a TSS of 182. I struggled a bit on the last 3 mile of the run as a consequence.
What do you think?
Cheers
Peter
a couple of thoughts. Racing with HR has certain challenges, and it seems that you discovered a few of them on the day.
1) your RR heart rate was 129, your race day HR was 136. Sounds like you were working harder.
2) serious headwinds affected your average speed significantly (20.6 in the RR, vs. 19.7 in the race). Without power, it's very easy to push too hard when you see speed numbers lower than you want/expect. Pushing hard in those sections can easily get up into the VO2-level efforts with no noticeable effect on HR, but it takes a toll.
3) you were feeling the heat, meaning that your body was working harder to cool you off = less your body can give towards
4) you were clearly dehydrated
All of those things add up to a day that was less than you hoped for. That's something to learn from. But definitely stand proud of gutting it out, and revising goals on the fly. It would have been very easy to throw in the towel, and walk big chunks.
BTW, you may want to look at the total calories you're taking in day before, race am, and during the race. Just at a glance, it seems really high.
Mike
I don't know that giving up 5 minutes on the bike (for a 2.53) would have given me 15 minutes on the run, for a net gain of 10 minutes. Just not sure of that...
Also, I don't know the HR racing guidelines as well, but I'm pretty sure that the recommendation is to start out below target, and end up at target, which doesn't sound like the description you just gave.
re: giving back time on bike vs. run, you can only appreciate how it works after trying it once. Until then, it will continue to sound suspect.
On the last RR, for the run at slightly below 8' pace for the last 3 miles, I was just getting into Z4 at the 6th mile. I figured that I was tired from the work preceding the RR, I was definitely dehydrated in the RR. My assumption, based on VDot, etc., was that a 1.45 was absolutely possible...tough, but possible. I was no where near that.
For the first 10 miles on the bike, it was straight into the headwind, and my HR was just under/over Z2, so it was like 1.8 - 2.2 ish. I don't think I blew my wad in the bike.
I'm just stumped as to my run. Maybe it was one of those days.
Please, keep the feedback coming.
McDonald hamburgers are not nearly as evil as people want to make they out to be:
250 cals/80 from fat. 9 total fat grams/3 saturated. 12 grams protein. 520 mg salt.
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutr...nfacts.pdf
As for why you ran slower than you wanted, that is a lot harder question. Based solely on what you wrote, your pacing and nutrition plan seemed a bit haphazard. Headwinds can certainly make a difference and running in a half IM is really hard, especially when it is hot.
Why are you disappointed? Have you done the race before and expected a better result this time based on better conditioning and execution plan? Is it your first half? Just chaulking it up to "one of those days" is a great way to have a repeat of a disappointing performance.
Testing and planning is great, however, racing is really not a math problem where you plug in T time, FTP and Vdot and a time spits out the other side. Even having great training plan, properly done tests and a great plan going is does not guarantee anything. Racing is hard, really really hard. All of those things mentioned above are only designed to put yourself in a position that when it gets to the really hard part you have a chance to hold it all together. Sounds like you made a decision after mile 3 that there was no way you could speed up - but then you did, sorta, and then slowed a bit but generally held it together just fine except for a rough patch at miles 7 and 10 where you gave up less than an additional minute. You had the lowest heart rate at mile 9? A true fail at running in a half generally does not look like that. I would be steady through 7 or 8 and then a lot of walking. Your pacing really was not that bad, just slower than you would have liked.
Chris, the nutrition plan was three bottles of PowerAde, three waters, two salt tabs, tested in training, on the bike. I was just about at that. Tested the run/brick in training also. Those two slower miles were because I stopped at the aid stations for a few moments more making sure to drink more water (vs. walking through them). I don't specifically recall, but that's my best guess.
Done 3-4 halfs in the past, so this wasn't my first rodeo; last one was maybe 6 years ago or so though.
I'm disappointed in what training indicated I COULD do in a race setting, then when it got time to doing so, it didn't happen. And I can't figure out why. It might be as simple as pushing just a little bit too hard on the bike. It could be that simple. I guess the delta between what the slow end of predicted time (the run pace schedule indicated about 1.45 or so) and my actual time was so huge. If I had gone 1.55, that would be much different. I just flat out couldn't accelerate like I wanted (to 8.30s or so). That's where the disappointment in performance comes from.
Make sense?
I think it comes down to this...
- I pushed just slightly too hard on the bike, in the beginning. Not much, but enough.
- I was slightly dehydrated, not enough water on the bike. Not too short, but enough
- My goal was a bit too lofty/aggressive. A goal of 8.30/mile probably would have been more appropriate...then my run doesn't look quite as "bad" compared to my goal.
Sound about right?
http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/108/Default.aspx?topic=Race+Execution,+Half+Ironman
says for bike pacing using heart rate:
-Z2 pace/heart rate for 20-30'. Then:
-If split 2:30-3:00, ride low to high Zone 3
-If split >3hrs, ride mid to high Zone 2
I don't know where 136 falls in your zones, but based on the fact that your HR was the same at the beginning and end, it sounds like you were an entire Zone off for 30 minutes. I don't want to come off as harsh, but that's not "just slightly too hard", that's too hard, based on the race execution guidelines. In addition, since the average for your race was 7 beats higher than the average of your rehearsal, I'd again suggest that "just slightly" may not be the right modifier.
157-159 is my bike LT. So, 136 is right at Z2 for me...unless I'm 110% dyslexic and I completely screwed up. I didn't even breach Z3, for an average HR at any 5M stretch on the bike.
If anything, based on HR, I could/should have racheted up the intensity at the end.