2011 Eagleman Race Report/John Buchovecky
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-update:auto;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
mso-outline-level:2;
font-size:11.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
--</style>
Woke up at 3:30, after about 7hrs solid sleep. Breakfast was bites of banana bread and some bottled caffeine. Double checked the gear and met Venkatesh in the lobby for a 5am lift to the transition area. Transition setup went smoothly. I started a new system of three 1-gallon zip locks. One for each of the swim, bike, run splits, with the corresponding gear and nutrition. It worked pretty well in terms of not leaving anything important behind at the start of each split. Boosted some bottled water from a Pepsi trailer and filled my bottles.
Met some local teammates at the DC Tri Club tent and we went down to the docks to recon the swim. No wet suits today. 81 deg. water. The water was calm, which was good, but the swim buoys seemed like orange and yellow dots almost over the horizon. At about 6:45 we watched the men and women pros start. Impressive.
I had been drinking water throughout the morning, and popped a pre-swim gel about 20’ before my start wave at 7:10, shortly after the pros. It always takes me good 20 minutes to warm up on the swim, before I can settle into a stroke and breathing rhythm. I spent most of the swim at about the back 1/3 of my wave, so there wasn’t a lot of swimmer contact. I did a roll at one point to look back for the next wave, because I knew at my pace I would be overtaken by the next (junior) wave at some point. That happened about halfway between the first and second turns, but I just kept in my groove and let them go around me. Made the second turn and followed the pack in. The water is shallow in the beginning and end of the swim so most people were walking in the last 100yds or so.
T1 went pretty smoothly. I took my time and got the post-swim breathing back to normal again, swapped to the bike zip lock gear, unracked the bike and rolled out of T1. I had ridden the bike course previously and did a brick (more on that later) about a month before so knew it was flat and could be windy. And scenic too, if you enjoy the view of people w/disc wheels shooting by you. The wind was moderate and did not strike me as a major factor that day. Held my watts at the target 160 for about the first half, but it felt a little too hard. Second half, I dropped the wattage, but the damage may have been done by then. I also noticed I was doing some odd supination movement with the right foot. Nutrition on the bike was a 3hr bottle of Infinite on the downtube, supplement by 3 times as much water, refilling the aero bottle on the fly. Bike aid station volunteers were great at the rolling bottle hand off. The 3hr bottle worked well in training, and it seemed to be working well on the race except that I was starting to feel full and only made it through about 4/5ths of the Infinite bottle. Took in plenty of water as well though. By the end of the bike was I knew I had been working hard, but didn’t feel over tired.
Off the bike into T2 I had a sore spot or cramp on the outside of the right foot. I literally limped into T2. I switched to my run zip lock bag, and walked through all of T2, and out the exit. Tried to start running at that point but the foot was killing me. Now I’m asking myself out loud, “crap! how am I going to run??? “ Time to regroup. Hit the porta-john, no hydration problem it seemed. Decided to try and walk out the foot problem. After about 2 miles it felt much better and I started to run. It was pretty warm out by then, and I felt warm, but not overheated. My plan was to walk each aid station and stay hydrated, which I did at the miles 1 – 3 tents. After mile 3, I knew something was wrong, and asked myself “this must be what they mean when they say your stomach is shutting down.” The real possibility of a DNF registered. I walked the last hundred yards or so to the mile 4 aid tent. It was time to radically rethink the game plan. The choices seemed to be: 1) DNF right now; 2) keep pushing ahead and then get an involuntary ride to the med tent within a couple miles; or 3) chill out at the mile 4 tent and see what happens. I picked 3.
While hanging out at the tent, a woman walked up, wobbly kneed, for water and ice. She was bright red. She took a seat in the shade while some of the volunteers tried to assess her condition. They laid her down and began to ice her. Her only words were “*F&%$ I’M HOT!!!”. The EMTs arrived, cooled her w/more ice, then stretchered her away for rehydration via IV.
I spent a good 20-25 minutes hanging out in the shade sipping water, Gatorade, and tiny salty pretzels (love those). All of sudden, I felt cool again. It was like someone threw a switch. Back from the edge. Back to the plan. Time to run again. Station to station. Water, sports drink, and ice all the way. Off I went.
This run had the best aid stations I’ve experienced, totally staffed up, no shortage of anything. Ice trucks were constantly restocking them. The ice was key to my cooling plan. I put ice everywhere I could fit any. Cap, front of jersey, filled the jersey back pockets, waist of shorts.
I was feeling pretty good and the plan worked for the next few miles. I crossed the 10K split mat, then on to the cherry snow cone station feeling not so bad. New problems coming soon though.
I was keeping cool, not overheating, but now the calves started cramping slightly, and the back muscles are now hurting too on the run. I’m now paying the price for neglecting a lot of strength training over the last couple months. Now my walk intervals are getting longer and the runs getting shorter. At this point, I decide that I’m not going to wreck myself so that I can finish in 7:10 instead of 7:30. The last 3-4 miles were mostly a nice fast walk from aid tent to aid tent. I had lots of company. On the approach into town, residents had sprinklers set up, or some sat in front of their house with hoses cooling off the racers. Just about everyone was taking advantage of the hospitality.
Mile 12. I can now see the finish area out on the spit where the park is. Finish strong (or at least look like you finished strong). Juiced it the last few hundred yards down the block, into the chute and across the line for the photog’s.
Analysis:
1. Swim: I think I can push harder on the swim w/o too much downside.
2. Bike Power: I should have let RPE override my watts target on the bike. I think I didn’t realize the toll of the heat on the bike effort because of the cooling 17-18mph breeze. Time to go back and reincorporate HR to monitor body function? My previous race sim ride/brick on this course was about 20 deg cooler and about 3:15 instead of 2:58. I had no problem with a 1hr brick run at 9:40 on that sim ride.
3. Nutrition: The 3-hour bottle might be too much. By the time I got off the bike, I think my stomach just had too much to process, hence the shutdown early in the run. In contrast, I didn’t do anything near that amount of calories (825) on the previous course sim ride/brick. On that ride I got by on some gels, a clif bar, and water. A 2-hour bottle might be enough for me on a 70.3. On the other hand, the 3 hour bottle seemed to work just fine on my 3 hour training rides.
4. Bike Fit: Get a fit tune up to figure out the foot position issue.
5. Conditioning: Back to the core strength work.
Comments
EM is a rough one, not only the distance but the heat and wind...and the toll it takes. As I think we discussed, Matt S's analysis on heat and your race is great help. Kitima has also done a nutrition/hydration analysis - with respect to GI issues (which can be heat related). It's definitely hard for your body to process calories and protein (in infinit bike mix usually has some) when it's also working like crazy to keep your temperature regulated. I did get through my 3 hour infinit bottle on the bike and didn't even try a gel or anything solid on the run. Very smart of you to stop and get your core temp under control so you could continue. I usually recommend folks wear hats on EM so they can put ice in them (I put ice down my shorts, in my bra, etc... anything to keep my core temp as cool as possible).
As far as cramps, do you supplement your nutrition with S!Caps or something. Definitely important when we sweat as much as we did Sunday.
I need to work on my core, too...being in aero for 3 hours solid is really tough to do!
All in all, you did great, learned a ton and, I hope, had fun!
Thanks Becky and George.
I definitely learned a lot on this experience that I can take to the next race. Had a great time too. John