Jim Daley's Rev3 Quassy 2011 Race Report
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It was a great day Sunday in the Rev3 Quassy race. Low 50's in the morning, getting into the low 70's in the afternoon. Beautiful clear blue sky during the race. A little bit of a breeze at a couple of spots on the bike, but overall pretty calm winds. EN was well represented, and several of us managed to do a group photo.
While falling a little short of my goals, I had a great race, and learned a lot. Here it is in a nutshell:
Swim:
5 seconds faster per hundred than Timberman. 38:51
Pretty uneventful and I felt good.
Bike:
My bike split was 3:17, with an average speed of 17 mph. I was hoping to get off the bike in three hours (probably too optimistic in retrospect, especially given the course), and my target watts were 216, at 78% of FTP, which I was hoping would put me at around 182 TSS points. Unfortunately I ended up on the bike longer than I had hoped (damn hills), with NP = 218 (IF = .79) and a VI of 1.09, and a final TSS of 203 - in the "your are going to stuggle" zone of the HIM TSS chart. I did feel pretty good most of the ride, but could start feel a little fatigue in my legs by the end, and was wondering at the time if had blown too many TSS points by that point.
One 600 calorie bottle of infinite and water from the course seemed to work fine on the bike - although maybe I could have upped the concientration of infinit a little more since I was on the bike longer than expected. Never felt like I was bonking during the ride however.
Run:
It was a tough run course, with constant hills. But it was not just the hills - I could tell my legs were fried. I was hoping for an average run pace of 8:45, but ended up doing 9:25, including 10 minute miles over the last couple of miles. It was very difficult to hold any kind of constant pace for most of the course with the constant (and often steep) ups and downs, so I ended up relying on HR more than pace for most of it. During the race I was chalking the way I felt up to the difficult course, and kind of wondering if maybe I pushed a little too hard on the bike. Looking at the power file it is now obvious that I did go too hard on the bike. I started to really bonk at about mile 7 on the run, but remembered a comment from coach P about slowing down, getting in some calories, and regrouping. And that helped alot. Perhaps I should have gotten in more calories during the ride and early stages of the run, like we are supposed to. But I was feeling good earlier, and caught up in the excitment of the race, and ended up skimping on the calories early on.
Lessons:
While not a rehearsal for placid, it was good to get the experience of another long race under my belt, and appreciate how hard it is to stay patient and focussed on watts, eating, drinking, etc. during the adrenaline rush of a race. And it really is tough when you are going backwards through the field on those uphills!
I need to ride steadier on the bike during races, and do a better job at estimating my ride time. I came surprisingly close to hitting my target IF and watts, but the VI was on the high side and I was on the bike longer than I expected, driving up the TSS points. If I understand this correctly, if I rode steadier (lower VI), then my NP would have been lower, and then my IF would have been lower, and fewer TSS would have been expended. I wonder how my final time would have looked if I had done that. Would I have been much slower on the bike? Much faster on the run? By how much?
I also need to pay attention to getting in calories on the bike and early in the run, as per the guidance.
Anyway, was a great race, and I had a great day. I ended up middle of the pack for the clydsedale division, and I beat my time at Timberman last year by 8 minutes, and Quassy is a much harder, hillier course. Was hoping to break 6 hours, but fell 6 minutes short. I will get better at this power thing! And and I will break 6 hours in a half!!
On a final note, there were many "go EN" comments from the crowd and other racers. And one "Make Rich proud!" shouted out from a random spectator.
Comments
Love to hear your coments on the Rev3 organization. How did it compare to other events, particularly any IM branded events? Are they serious contenders to compete with the IM machine?
* From a racing perspective, both well-run with no issues - easy bike check in, well marked course, good aid stations, volunteers, transition area, etc. All good and very comparable. Timberman had wetsuit strippers, none at Quassy.
* Expo - similar size I think - Rev3 maybe a little better.
* SWAG - Rev3 much better. One tech t-shirt, one long sleeve tech finishers shirt, one visor. All excellent quality.
* Post race food - similar quality I think, but I'm never in the mood for lots of food after the race so hard to compare.
* Venue - Quassy much better than Timberman, although a harder course. Much more scenic bike. You are along a boring highway for much of Timberman, although the Timberman transition area on the lake is nice. The Quassy amusement park setting and beach were nice if you have some young fans with you. My daughter liked it.
And don't do the post race lobster dinner thing at Timberman - that was the biggest waste of money I've ever spent. I got the impression that Timberman used to be a great tri weekend, with fun, reasonably priced events surrounding the race. But now that WTC took it over they skimp on all the extras. Still a good race, but the post-race party, etc - not so good.
Bottom line is that Rev3, in my limited experience, at least matches a WTC race. I fully intend to do Quassy again (even though the course does not suit my body type!), but will unlikely do Timberman again, at least in the near future. Part of that is travel logistics - Quassy is only 2+ hours from my home, Timberman much further. I would like to try other HIMs before going back to Timberman.
Will Rev3 last? I hope so. They had less than 1,000 competitors, so Timberman was much larger. But they seem to put more back into the race in terms of prizes, SWAG, etc, and less into their pocket than WTC. That's my impression, anyway.
Hey, do you have the team photo? I can't remember who's camera it was, but I haven't seen it yet? Could you send it to dotcatlin@gmail.com. I want to upload it to my EN profile and FB, etc. Thanks!