Racine 70.3 Race Report by Brian Comiskey
IM RACINE 70.3 2011 Race Report
By Brian Comiskey
Background: Race was at end of Week 12 (Test Week) for IMOO. Took Fri and Sat off with bike test (FTP = 307) on prior Tues and run test (VDOT = 46) on prior Thurs. Raced Racine 70.3 in 2009 under perfect conditions with a shortened swim. 42 yrs old and 177 lbs.
Pre-Race: Nutrition:?Shotgun an Ensure at 1:30am for 250 cal and go back to bed. Breakfast at 4:00am consisting of 2 cups TJ unsweetened applesauce with one scoop vanilla protein powder and another Ensure. Total of about 530 cal. Had 3 Starbucks Via with 8 oz cold water. Went to transition at 5am to get body marked, put bottles on bike, and air up tires. On bike nutrition consists of 22oz aqualite with water in front, 600 cal bottle of infinit on down tube, and two team EN water bottles in back. Had a Roctane gel about 20’ before swim start with some water and one S-Cap about 30’ before swim start.
Swim: Goal Time: 35:00/Race Time: 35:26
Wave start at 7:18am. Walked 20 minutes to swim start and had a good chat with fellow EN member, Bryan Bird. Reasonable size start waves and the water temp was reported at 66 degrees. Water was very calm and excellent visability. Only had contact with one other swimmer (who was doing backstroke) and he apologized to me. Counted strokes and sighted buoys. Without the usual swim chaos, got kind of bored.
Bike: Goal Time: 2:30/Race Time: 2:29
My plan was to ride at Z2 (215-230 watts) for first 10 miles and then build up to Z3 (245-260 watts) for the remainder of the ride.
For nutrition, I drank water only the first thirty minutes and then two sips of infinit every 15 minutes (about 60 cal) to average out to 240 cal/hour. I refilled the 22oz aqualite at first and third aid station. I took 2 S-Caps (682mg sodium/42 mg potassium total) at 1 hour and 2 hour mark. I would estimate that I drank 24-36 oz water/hour. Here is the data from the ride:
|
Miles |
TSS |
IF |
NP |
VI |
Temp |
CAD |
MPH |
|
1-10 |
24.1 |
.729 |
224 |
1.04 |
83.2 |
86 |
21.4 |
|
11-20 |
24.5 |
.740 |
221 |
1.05 |
82.2 |
91 |
22.3 |
|
21-30 |
23.3 |
.721 |
221 |
1.04 |
84.2 |
92 |
22.2 |
|
31-40 |
20.5 |
.683 |
210 |
1.05 |
87.0 |
89 |
22.7 |
|
41-50 |
17.0 |
.628 |
193 |
1.05 |
89.6 |
85 |
23.1 |
|
51-56 |
8.5 |
.571 |
175 |
1.05 |
89.7 |
79 |
20.0 |
|
|
118.3 |
0.69 |
212 |
1.05 |
|
88 |
22.1 |
Bike course has a few rolling hills but generally flat. Light crosswinds for most of the ride, but more favorable on the return back to T2. After mile 40, there were some pretty long stretches where I would not see any other cyclists which was very strange. I felt good most of the ride but was getting shaky around mile 45 or so. I went to stand to take a quick stretch and could tell my legs were getting tired.
Run: Goal Time: 1:45 (91%) /Race Time: 2:26
I saw EN member Bruce Thompson across the fence in T2 and said hello. Given my early wave start time and decent bike split, there were not many bikes in T2, which was kind of weird. I put on shoes and visor and popped another 2 S-Caps. Also drank about 16 oz of water before starting the run. Temperature at the start of the run was likely around 90+ degrees with an even higher heat index. The original plan was to follow the HIM 3/7/3 guidance and go out at MP + 30” which would be a 8:18/mile. Given the heat, I was targeting a 8:48 – 9:00/mile pace to get things sorted before starting to try to get close to MP. I got about 0.5 miles into the run and had to stop due to cramp in left hamstring. I waited a few minutes figuring the S-Caps would be getting absorbed and the pain went away and I shuffled on. At first aid station, had a Roctane and ice and water. Never really got right on the run and it was a matter of doing what my legs let me do. Was in survival mode with trying to stay cool and get ice/water every chance I could. The last 1.5 miles my right calf would not let me run at all.
I broke the run down to the following segments:
|
Miles |
Pace |
HR |
CAD |
|
0-3 |
10:20 |
|
84 |
|
3-10 |
10:07 |
|
83 |
|
10-13.1 |
13:39 |
|
70 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11:12 |
|
|
I was really expecting to go sub 5:00 on this race. From a quantitative perspective and based on past performance in races that were not crazy hot, that was realistic. I am trying to figure out the mistakes I made in terms of execution and nutrition. I am pretty sure I totally underestimated the effects of the heat and should have paid more attention to hydration and RPE on the bike.
Comments
Brian - Good to see you @ T2, but I'm sorry to hear about your tuff run. I thought you looked ok, but not great @ T2, but since I don't know you I had no perspective. You looked to have no sense of urgency in T2, which usually means it will be a hard run.
My hunch is that you just needed more water. I didn't see anywhere in your report that you took a pee. Did you pee? If so, how many times? My experience with running marathons on +90 degree days is that most people vastly underestimate how much more H2O they need than at 70*F. Like you, I've completely cramped up in the later half of races before. When I've gone back and looked at my nutritian and hydration @ these races, I didn't take in enough water even though I took in plenty of calories. Your report says that you estimated you took in 24 -36 oz per hour. That's a big range and if your actual consumption was on the low end (24 oz), you could have been in significant dehydration after 3 hours of racing in that heat/humidity.
Have you ever done a sweat test? You may want to do it 3-4 times at different temperatures to see how your body reacts. I know that I sweat almost double @ 90*F than @ 70*F, and have learned that I just have to drink, drink and drink some more on hot days. Instructions for a sweat test are in the wiki.
Hope this helps. BTW, I'd love to have your bike split someday.
Tough day out there! I have been hearing horror stories about Racine all day. There were so many people who didn't finish this one. Way to tough it out -- and I second the more water thought, too. You also probably could have taken a few more s-caps, too. You kinda win this one just by not ending up in the medical tent.
I would have to agree with Bruce's assessment. It must have been that you needed more water. Nothing else jumps out at me. You were very disciplined with executing your race plan. Conditons like that are brutal. I would say you definitely have a sub-5 in you.
@Bruce: I went pee at aid station at mile 3 of run. I am "lucky" that temps will continue to be hot in Chi so I can do a 90 degree sweat test this weekend. I think your assessment of how I looked was spot on. Thanks again for your support.
@Beth: I will definitely make some adjustments with S Caps in training and RR's. Thanks.
@Matt: I was lucky enough to have IMLP and IMFL be cool conditions so lacked experience in the heat. I will get this sorted out before IMOO. Thanks.
Brian,
As always, I can really only offer some anecdotal advice from my own experiences out there that day. Everyone's sweat rate and hydration requirements are different, but I certainly drank significantly more than you on the bike. In weather like yesterday, I require at least 40oz of fluids per hour and preferably more in the 44-48oz range. To be honest with you, I don't really know exactly how much I drank out there, but it basically worked out to the entire contents of my aerodrink plus another 1.5 bottles from my rear rack between each aid station. For me, almost no amount of hydration on the bike is too much, as long as I make sure it's not a high caloric concentration or too much straight water (as to flush all my electrolytes).
Learning to dial this in has essentially been the result of 3 years of trial, error and feeling bad during long course runs , but in general I really had to work to un-learn some bad habits formed during training and put a much greater emphasis on bricks after long rides on hot days. I find it very easy to misconstrue your true hydration needs by over-emphasizing the importance of the quality bike workout in training. If I go out and I do my hard Saturday ride, crush myself, drink too little, then make it home just on the verge of dehydration then my tendency was to declare mission accomplished and miss the point that I wouldn't have been able to run a mile to save my life at that point, reinforcing bad habits.
I certainly don't know your full training background so I could be completely off on this, but my shot in the dark at advice would to be to really try and emphasize "feeling good" at the end of your training rides in hot conditions as a somewhat subjective measurement of whether or not you'd be in a good state to put up in a decent run. Of course how you feel on a 20 or even 45 minute brick isn't guaranteed to tell you how'd you feel late into the run on raceday, so while I might not be able to prove that I could have gone the full distance, I can definitely feel when I've blown it.
So rewinding a bit, the reason I've somewhat derailed myself here on the topic of bike hydration was after looking at the relatively linear decrease in your IF/NP as the ride wore on and the relatively low overall IF in comparison to your FTP. This all seem to screams to me that you just were feeling crappier as the ride progressed, I think the limiter was an increase in your RPE, definitely not your legs if your FTP is accurate. For me RPE is all in my head (and stomach) versus my legs, once I get some water/sodium and a touch of caffeine in me, I am often outright amazed at how quickly my power comes back up.
Anyway, I'll try to curtail my rambling here, but in general, I think this race will be a good boost going into MOO. You had a solid swim, your bike definitely shows potential, although I'd still work on keeping that VI down, 1.05 is not bad, but Racine is a pretty flat course too so you'll have to work a whole lot harder to keep that VI down at IMWI. As for the run, and your overall time respective to your goal of a sub 5, all I can say is that those conditions made it extremely difficult for everyone out there to nail their goals unless everything went absolutely perfectly. On a day like that, any small mistakes were magnified several times over, so you just gotta look inward, make some tweaks, and I'm sure it'll come together for you.
Brian - So you lost 2.8 lbs on the sweat test in one hour. Since 16 fluid oz is 1 lb, you lost a total of 52 oz of fluid (2.8 x 16 = 45 oz + 7 oz that you drank). So if you were taking in 24-36 oz per hour in the race, you pretty quickly could get in a state of dehydration. You might want to do another sweat test to confirm results.
@Bruce: I lost 2.8 lbs indoors on the trainer in 60' at 70 degrees with industrial fan on Tues.
Today, I ran 60' when it was 85 degrees and humid and lost 4.8 lbs with drinking 10 oz. I will keep testing to get some more data points especially with longer duration training. More importantly, I will bump up the fluids significantly. Thanks again for your help.
Sounds like the 2nd test tends to confirm the 1st. Just like me, you seem to be a heavy sweater, especially when the temp gets above 70F. It just means we have to be extra concious of H2O intake and monitor it precisely. During long training workouts and races, I measure my intake by full bottles (it is easier for me to do the math in my head that way than keep track of oz). For example, I have learned that if it is 70 or below, I need one 24 oz bottle/hour on the bike and 1 bottle/hour on the run. If it gets around 80, I need 1.5 to 2 bottles/hour on the bike and 2 bottles/hour on the run. If it is above 90, 2-2.5 bottles on the bike per hour and for the run, I just drink non-stop by carrying a bottle with me. Usually re-fill it at least twice per hour. Sometimes I've taken in too much water and have to pee too many times (this happened at IMCDA 4 weeks ago) but I figure stopping to take an extra pee or two is better than getting cramps and suffering. At IMCDA, I was well hydrated and was able to finisn the run strong as my pace (8:37/mile) for miles 20-26 was my faster during the entire marathon. I passed many, many people who had slowed down or were walking.
Hope this helps. Sounds like you are on the right track to increase you fluid intake.