2011 Muncie 70.3 Race Report - A PR Finally!
Cliff Notes:
- Overall a good race and great for building confidence going into IMWI
- My new approach to nutrition this year worked again
- I actually tapered and it actually worked
- Set a PR on the bike and a PR for a legit 70.3 distance race (I've gone 4:09 before but swim was short).
- Run was a little slower than it should have been but I'll work on that and be a little more willing to take risks in the future
Swim – 35:54
I must have got lost out there. The water was 81 so no wetsuit. I was expecting to go about 33-34 minutes based results over the last year and hoping for a little bit faster as I’m setting PRs in the pool right now. In past races I always seemed to go out a little too fast and end up at a pace I know I can’t hold the entire swim only to have to slow down. I figured this time I would just go out at a comfortable pace and try to hold that for the entire swim to see what happened.
Well it was the most comfortable swim I ever had, but based on my time it was a bit too comfortable though. I just focused on swimming with good form and found a set of feet that seemed to be going straight. When we hit about half way I looked at my watch and it was already 19 minutes, opps. On the way back I went around feet I was drafting behind and swam a bit harder but thanks to the sun directly in front of us I was having trouble sighting and swimming straight into people from earlier waves. The good news was I came out of the water well rested and ready for the bike…. but I was 26th in my age group after the swim.
Bike – 2:09:57 – 25.86 mph
Within about a mile of transition I could tell it was going to be a good day on the bike. My legs felt great, I was holding back and still above my target watts. It was tough, but I managed to hold back and stay right at my target watts the entire race. The best part was once we hit about mile 35 we had a tailwind and most people seemed to slow down, I stayed exactly at my watts and averaged 28.9 mph for 31 minutes, making up a ton of ground. This was by far my best ride ever in a race. I took in all of my nutrition exactly as planned, and my average power was exactly what I had in my race plan, thanks to a VI of 1.01!
The hardest part of the ride was getting passed. Local fast guys, Adam Zucco and Scott Iott both blew by me early in the ride. Since my legs felt so good I really wanted to try and hang with them. I’m glad I stuck with my plan as they both had an awesome day and I may have been in for a very tough run if I would have tried to go with them.
The great ride was able to move me up to 4th in AG by T2.
Entire workout (237 watts):
Duration: 2:10:27
Work: 1842 kJ
TSS: 157 (intensity factor 0.854)
Norm Power: 240
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 55.452 mi
Elevation Gain: 594 ft
Elevation Loss: 615 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-24 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 538 237 watts
Cadence: 21 116 88 rpm
Speed: 0 39 25.4 mph
Pace 1:32 0:00 2:22 min/mi
Altitude: 943 1156 1053 ft
Crank Torque: 0 681 228 lb-in
Temperature: 80.6 89.6 84.9 Fahrenheit
Run – 1:25:16 – 6:30 min/mile
All that I read and heard about this race was fast bike but hot and hilly run. That combined with a forecast of 88, high humidity and an 8:50 AM start time got in my head and I was worried about the run. For those reasons I forced myself to really hold back in the first few miles and focus on getting nutrition in. My plan was to hold 6:30 pace for the first half and then pick it up if I could. Well, even though it didn’t feel all that hot or humid, my legs didn’t have any kick and I couldn’t speed up. I did manage to run almost an exactly even split though and hold a 6:30 average pace. I’m a little disappointed as I went a full 5 minutes faster in Oceanside. I ended up passing 2 people in my AG and came in second.
Entire workout (182 bpm):
Duration: 1:25:19
Work: n/a
rTSS: 134.3 (0.919)
NGP: 6:31 (247.2 m/min)
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: 4.91%
Distance: 13.053 mi
Elevation Gain: 448 ft
Elevation Loss: 444 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-2 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 171 193 182 bpm
Speed: 7.5 11.2 9.2 mph
Pace 5:22 7:59 6:32 min/mi
Altitude: 971 1059 1016 ft
Summary – 4:13:48 – 2nd Ag – 5th Amateur – 26th Overall
Overall, I had a good day and am pleased with my race. I do think I could have done a little better on the run but it was good for me to prove I can stick to my plan exactly as I will need to do that at Ironman Wisconsin. I also now feel I really have my 70.3 distance nutrition dialed in and have a pretty good idea on how I can and should pace myself.
Nutrition
My nutrition felt perfect, no cramping, no issues, enough energy and I didn’t end up in the medical tent .
- 4:30 AM – Bagel, PB, Banana, Water
- Water while setting up transition and sitting around
- 8:20 AM – One bottle of IM Perform, One GU, One SCap
- Bike
o 625 Calories of Infinit (5 scopes of Kona 2010 Mix with Protein in 24oz bottle) – 4 sips every 15 minute
o 4 bottles of water
o GU Roctane around mile 50
- Run
o Water at almost every aid station
o Coke at every other aid station
o Scap around mile 2
o Gu Roctane around mile 5
- Total was about 1200 calories during race (~about 300 per hour) and about 550 for breakfast
Thanks for reading!
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Comments
Outstanding work on a tough day! That bike split is sick! Thanks for sharing all the detail as well.
Thanks for the RR! Important to realize the swim time included the run up the hill - maybe 75-90 seconds?
Jeff, that is a good point, it was a decently long run in the sand and the timing mat was at the top.
Great race! Great, informative report. It's a great thing that EN has some smokin' fast athletes that train the way the rest of us do. It gives me hope.
I'm curious -- What's up with the Ironman Perform pre-race, Infinit on bike, and coke on run? Were there experiments in diversification of liquid nutrition?
Going forward my plan is:
Pre Race - Gatoraide Endurance (or whatever it is called now)
Bike - Infinite / GU
Run - Coke / GU
As far as IM, I'm still trying to figure that out. I will definitely tale in more than I have in the past, however I'm not sure how much. Probably right in between my old IM plan and my new 70.3 plan... So maybe 275 to 300 on the bike. I need to start testing this out in training but I have only rode 4 hour twice this year and have yet to run over 1:20. I'm starting my IM build next week and then should be able to test and refine my nutrition plan.
BTW, my theory is that even though I'm only 135 lbs, I'm putting out 240 watts in a 70.3(210ish in IM) Therefore I need to fuel like someone putting out that level of power, not like a 135 lb person. The run is a bit different though as weight makes a huge difference on power output/nutrition needs.
Matt, sorry I'm late getting to this, (had to recover from another surgery this week).
WOW - it sure is a let down when everything goes right, eh? Just bask in the feel good vibes and let them steep inside all the way until Sept. And don't worry about your run - Oceanside is a "perfect" run course, flat, foggy and 60's, so anything 20 degrees warmer with elevation changes will be slower - 20-25 sec/mile seems about right.
About taking risks - unless you know whom you're racing against and where they are and what their capabilities are bike vs run - I'd think it's better to stick to the plan. If you find yourself near your competition and can judge their status - that's when mano-a-mano risk taking comes into play.