Kaboom! WTH Happened on My 70.3 Last Sunday?
Raced Eagleman last Sunday. My first 70.3. Finished.
Short story: Implosion on the run.
Short analysis:
- Swim: As predicted, about an hour at an easy pace. Can probably push harder next time.
- Bike: Held watts at np of 157 (EN guidance said 160). Nutrition on bike: 825 cal bottle of Infinite w/plenty of water. Only drank about 80% of the Infinite. Sweating a lot more than normal (compared to training rides) on the bike. Used Inifinite on last 3 long (3hr) training rides, but again, only drank about 75% of bottle. Weather generally 15-20 deg cooler on the training rides.
- Run: Foot cramp miles 1-2 so walked. Ran to mile 4 before stomach shutdown. Ended up walking about 50% of the run. Temps about 90 deg.
My full race report is below. But I would be interested in any guidance from the team or coaches on what might need adjusted here next time around. My own theories are:
- I don't need that much nutrition. The last half hour of the bike I was starting to feel full. Not like stomach shutdown, but just full up on sports drink. Maybe I can dial down the protein too in the Infinite? I'm 6'1", 182lbs, 51 y/o.
- Heat on the bike is still heat, just like on the run. Maybe I need to dial back the watts on the bike to account for hot and shadeless conditions?
- Would training/racing with HR in addition to power help me better monitor body performance or provide a better warning system?
- Pay more attention to RPE if RPE and power guidance seem to be out of whack?
Any thoughts much appreciated. Thanks, John Buchovecky
==================================
Full race report:
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 walks 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
Also, you said you sweat a lot. Are you taking S-caps or something along with the Infinit? Many of us crusty people need to take in additional sodium, especially on hot days. Also something to test out on some hot training rides. Check out the hydration article in the wiki if you haven't already.
Congrats on finishing your first HIM!
Thanks Jennifer. After looking at the Wiki again, I clearly screwed up by using the IM calorie guidance in an HIM!
More salt would probably help too, given the lower nutrition intake next time around.
1. Eat less! As noted in IM guidance, there is always more food at the next water station if you need it. Better to eat less than too much. I can do a HIM on 5 gel packs plus the calories I get from gatorade or similar.
2. Too much olain water! Before race starts, hydrate with Gatorade or whatever electrolyte solution works for you. Instead you were just flushing out what you needed.
3. For hot races, you need more salt! Take S-Caps or Salt Stick or whatever works for you. Test your plan in a hot RR.
4. Try some calcium/magnesium tabs during the run...they work for some people to alleviate cramps. Maybe not you but worth a shot.
Bottomline - you blew up in a HOT race...I've been there (2 IVs in the med tent after my first Florida 70.3). "There is no shame." Congrats on hanging in there!
I think the biggest issue was that you overdid the bike. You went 15 minutes faster than your RR on a much warmer day. That's what killed you. Are you sure your FTP is accurate?
You may have eaten too much, hard to say. Calorie needs are individual and some people can tolerate calories much better than others. I would also be wary of the conclusion that you biked too hard as well. It is certainly no uncommon to go a lot faster on race day than a sim ride. Things like traffic control, aid stations, legal drafting make a huge difference in average speed.
Hard to say but my thoughts from reading your report were that your foot really hurt after the bike. Because your foot hurt combined with the fact that you wer egenerally uncomfortable after swimming/biking for 4 hours you walked the first couple of miles. At that point you were pretty much out of the race really and your body sorta went into shut down mode. When you tried to then kick back into race/run mode it rebelled a bit. Running in the heat sucks. It seems like your body thinks you are trying to kill it by making it run when it is too hot and it uses every trick to get you to stop running. Massive GI pain is the best trick the body has to do this. It is effective.
Figure out that bike fit, foot hurting thing. That will help. This stuff if hard. Sometimes you are the windshield andsometimes you are the bug. Get em next time.
Thanks everyone, for the input.
It was a great learning experience, and will have better execution next time.