Tupper Lake Half RR - PR with a flat
This is my ST RR with some add ins
Executive summary - 33/2:26:xx[with flat]/1:28:xx=4:32:xx, got beat by 10 40-44 year olds, new AG totally sucks especially when racing a couple hours from Ottawa
Long boring version:
Year 6 for me doing the half at Tupper Lake. Last year I beat my first tupper lake finishing time [5:40:xx by more than an hour 4:39:xx] so was looking to PR again. 3rd time doing it 3-4 weeks out from Lake Placid. About zero taper. Did only swim Thursday and tale Friday totally off. The week before the race was 22 miles running in 4 runs, one hard bike of about an hour and 4 swims. Had done well in the past on zero taper for this in the middle of IM build. Generally felt beat up all week. My buddy from high school came up and stayed at the camp the night before. None of the usual crowd from the last several years was up. Different vibe going in.
Did well with the 3 4 PB in that I actually followed the plan. Ate way too late, dinner started about 9 after we managed to get the kids in bed. Ate too much. Nothing new. Oh well. Slept like a rock. Always sleep great at the lake. Up at the crack of ass. Out of the house by 5.
As is usually the case at Tupper it was raining hard on the drive over. My friend Justin yelled at me pretty much all the way over for driving too fast in his car.
I felt like it was amateur hour on my part all day. Think it was a product of not racing much this year. Have done nothing other than AZ. Really nothing like racing to get ready for racing. Anyhow, saw the gang and got the stuff ready. It was raining on and off. Had to rush to the start like a jackass.
Odd swim. Super rough at the start. Not sure why. First time ever in a race my goggles actually got knocked off. Had to stop and deal with that. Never really had any feet. Felt pretty much awful swimming. Have been swimming much better this year and hoped to have a good split. The swim at tupper is really hard for me for some reason. Really hard to sight, especially on the way back. Got out of the water and saw 32:xx. Such is life, maybe next year. Official time was 33 even.
T1 seemed to take me forever. Had the shoes in a ziplock. Sat down and put them on. 1:43.
Managed to make it across the road while they were still holding traffic and get on the bike. Had to wait while they let cars by last year and it made me crazy. Started riding pretty hard from the start as I have been taking some shit from MurphysLaw about always riding like a wuss at Tupper. Wanted a solid bike split. Things were going well even though it was raining pretty hard until about mile 5 when I heard a hiss after going across a little bridge and the rear went flat. There was a nice big guard rail to sit on and change it. About 5 little cuts in the tire, have no idea what I hit, it must have been sharp. Took the time to boot it with the duct tape I have wrapped around the CO2. Felt like I got moving again fast but it was a little more than 6 minutes. Better to make sure it was done correctly. Seemed like the whole world went by me when I was working on it. Saw Dev for one. Got back on and kept riding hard. Payed very little attention to anything but NP for each 20 mile section. Other than trying to not climb over 330 watts just tried to ride hard. Rolled up Dev pretty quick along with some guys from the local club. Sucked having to pass all the people I had passed before. Was right on target at the turn around:
First Half:
Duration: 1:12:16 (1:18:27)
Work: 1122 kJ
TSS: 86.9 (intensity factor 0.849)
Norm Power: 267
VI: 1.03
Distance: 28.002 mi
Kept riding about as hard on the way back. Hard to keep the power as high as there are more down hills. I was moving well so I did not worry much about it. Rolled up MTLrunner at about mile 35. Did not expect that to happen. Saw KAlber about mile 45 fixing a flat. Ride was pretty uneventful. Rained for about half of it. Only really hard for about 15 minutes on the way out. Between the 6 minute rest stop and the new AG which meant starting later there were a lot more people to pass than the last couple of years. Happy to get off the bike.
Second Half:
Duration: 1:08:06
Work: 999 kJ
TSS: 75.9 (intensity factor 0.818)
Norm Power: 257
VI: 1.05
Distance: 28.069 mi
Tupper Ride:
Duration: 2:20:19 (2:26:30)
Work: 2119 kJ
TSS: 162.9 (intensity factor 0.835)
Norm Power: 262
VI: 1.04
Distance: 56.074 mi
Elevation Gain: 1681 ft
Elevation Loss: 1923 ft
Grade: -0.1 % (-241 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 592 252 watts
Cadence: 30 218 94 rpm
Speed: 4.5 49.2 24.0 mph
Pace 1:13 13:25 2:30 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 27 7 lb-in
Altitude: 1397 1831 1609 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1027 231 lb-in
Bike nutrition was one bottle of infinit with about 450 calories in it. I would have normally put 5 scoops but had run out [did i mention it was amatuer hour?] so I had a little less than 4. Also grabbed a couple bottles of power ade along the way. No idea how many calories were in those.
T2 was a bit of a horror show. My buddy was hanging out by my spot when I got there as he had done the sprint. I sat down and started changing shoes slowly then realized that I was sitting there chatting. Tried to get going fast then the race number belt came out the the buckle. Had to tie it in a knot. Amateur hour. Saw the family on the way out. 2:07 which is ridiculous.
Felt pretty good at the start of the run. Plan was to start running about a 7 minute pace for the first couple, drop it down to about 6:45 through 10 and then back off a tad so as not to destroy myself. Thought I could run 1:30 without killing myself and wanted to as that would be a new PR and is a round number. Got passed between mile 1 and 2 by the womens winner. No one else passed me on the run. That was good as there were no AG markings on anyone this year which was strange. Things went mostly according to plan. Started to feel pretty gamey out by that big mental hospital at mile 4-5 and was happy to run the long down hill and recover a bit. Was ticking them off all a bit less than 7 and the first half was over quick. The trail part was taken out this year as it was flooded and they managed to find another steep hill somehow to replace it. Very lonely during miles 9-11. Started to feel the legs hurting and started thinking about running tomorrow and all week. Backed it off a little which was easy to convince myself to do at that point. Happy to be done. My boy ran out of the crowd and crossed the line with me. It was applauded by the announcer and those around. No one was behind me for at least a minute. Not a lot of congestion at the line at tupper. PR for a half run by almost 2 minutes. Nothing wrong with that. Here are the splits:
6:50
6:49
6:21
6:47
6:43
6:45
6:38
6:43
6:43
7:06
7:00
6:55
6:56
Ate one gel and about half of another on the run. Had a few cups of power ade as well. Tried to only grab fluids at every other aid station and then pretty much nothing for the last few. Really is no need for aid stations every mile, especially in a half. Imagine that total calorie intake for the race was less than 750. Worked fine. Ate after.
Official time was 1:28:47. Total of 4:32:33. 7 minutes faster than last year even with the flat. Hard to be upset about that. 28th OA/11th 40-44. Not that 35-39 is a picnic but it seemed like every super fast 40-44 year old dude around showed up for this thing. Even if I took out the 6 minutes for the flat 4:26 still would have been only good enough for 9th. Regardless, hopefully have the bad juju with the flat tire out of the way for the year along with the stupid rookie moves. Feeling pretty good headed into the next 10 days or so before the taper into LP starts. Always fun to race and see everyone. Beers on the dock that night were pretty good also. All races should be on Saturdays. 
Dev, me, KAlber after the finish
Comments
Thanks.
That is a bag of ice. I have had a nagging Achilles thing going on. Been treating it and keeping it in check. Ice after running far/fast helps to keep it that way. Needs to stay a non factor for a few more weeks of heavy use.