Vineman 70.3 Race Report - David Lesh
Vineman 70.3 Race Report
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Overview
This was my first 70.3 race. I did the full 20 week Oct OS, 2 weeks transition, 6 extra weeks of OS, and then dropped into the 12 week HIM Intermediate plan.
Pre-Race
Arrived Thursday night and had a nice relaxing evening.
On Friday I slept in a little and went for a recon swim at the river. There were a bunch of people there doing the same and then going out for rides. I swam about half the course and stopped in a few places to get visual markers and see how strong the current is on different sides of the river. Seemed like the right side had a bit less current. After the swim I drove the bike course and noted the rough areas and dangerous turns. As recommended by some EN members I also noted where there were some sudden hills where I would need to shift down early to not get stuck in the wrong gear. As I had never ridden the course before, driving it really helped me on race day to know where some trouble spots were and to just have a general feel for where I was on the course.
On Saturday I slept in and had a nice relaxing breakfast by the pool before heading to the expo for registration. I had to park fairly far away and walk to the expo. We had to attend a mandatory meeting before waiting in line to register. I found a shady spot to sit and sipped on Gatorade. The expo was pretty hectic and I just got all my business done and got out of there to get off my feet. After registering I had lunch with some friends and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon. Through training I have been testing an all liquid diet the night before and race morning. For dinner I let my wife and friends go out to dinner without me and drank my liquid dinner. The rest of the night I organized everything for the morning based on my checklist and watched the TDF in bed. I passed out before 10pm.
Race
My wave started at 7:42. I woke up at 4:30 and drank some more liquid nutrition. Watched some more TDF to keep the mind distracted a little while. At around 6 I rode my bike the half mile down to the beach and setup my stuff in transition. I watched the pros and a my old training buddy start the race while I sipped on Gatorade. One last trip to the porta-potty and it was time to put my wetsuit on and make my way to the start.
Swim - 30:45
The water was warm (70s). I got in and swam a little to get warmed up. I seeded myself just behind the pack that looked like they were really jockeying for position on the line. There was quite a large gap that I fit into between them and a second pack behind me. When the horn sounded I started swimming at a pace that felt super easy. I've learned that I go out too hard in the swim I will fade, but if I go easy and build I can maintain a much higher pace. My plan worked and I was able to keep pushing throughout the swim. There were very shallow spots where everyone around my started walking, but I just used the gravel to help push me forward and pass the walkers. I finished strong and am quite satisfied by my time as I am not a fast swimmer.
T1 - 2:26
I went down the wrong isle and had to slip under a rack. I setup transition so that I would just have to strip off my wetsuit, shove it into my transition bag, put on my helmet, and go. Everything went pretty smooth. The small hill coming out of transition was the one area of the race that I wasn't sure about. I didn't know if I should run with my bike shoes and mount at the bottom of the hill or if I should leave my shoes on the bike, run up the hill, and do the flying squirrel mount at the top. After checking out the chute on race morning I decided to do the latter. The chute was fairly narrow and with my later wave start I wanted to get through that section as fast as possible to avoid all the people that will be clogging that area. During the race there were a bunch of people struggling to mount at that point and crashing into each other. I avoided it and ran up the hill and jumped on my bike.
Bike - 2:38:20
My tested FTP is 240 and I set a goal of 0.8 IF for the ride based on the fact that I have never done the 70.3 distance before and wanted to have a solid run. For the first 30 min I tried to stay at 180-190 watts. There was a small hill that forced me to spike the watts above that to get up it. It was fairly difficult to stay consistent with all of the rolling hills and rough pavement. After 30 minutes I upped my effort to 190-200 watts and around 210 max. Because of the taper the pace felt really easy but I kept reminding myself that I need to stay focused and not push it. On sections where it was flat and smooth I was really able to get into a groove and hold my watts exactly. Felt great. People were definitely crushing it up hills and coasting down and I played the EN yoyo game with them and eventually passed them for good later in the bike. There were 2 close calls with some reckless drivers on the course. One almost took me out on a descent going 40+mph. The one climb (Chalk hill) came at about mile 45 and I just spun up it at my target watts. No problem. The one problem of the day came with my nutrition plan on the bike. I had concentrated Infinit (625 cals) in my speedfil and a torpedo mount to take water at the aid stations. I took all of my nutrition in perfectly but somehow took in very little water. I think I was concerned with making sure I got my nutrition in and with the sport top water bottles they were handing out I wasn't getting the same amount of water with every sip as I usually do in training. I totally spaced the water levels. I tried to correct it late in the bike but it was too late. I came into transition with my feet already out of my shoes and flew past a bunch of people trying to unclip at the line. I finished the bike with a VI 1.04, IF .76, and TSS 157. I think I could have pushed harder but am glad I was conservative for my first 70.3.
T2 - 1:58
The run from the bike dismount was really far. It was made nicer by my friends and family cheering me on though. I racked my bike and put my socks and shoes on but had a pebble in my shoe that I couldn't get out for what seemed like forever. Finally grabbed my bag with my hat and glasses and ran out of transition.
Run - 1:37:52
Starting the run I knew that I was dehydrated even though I felt really good so I kept the pace down. I drank just water at the first few aid stations because I could feel my stomach wasn't going to handle anything while I was so dehydrated. I briefly tested upping the pace after 3 miles but it felt a little strange and I was scared about what would happen to me later with my dehydration issues. I just kept a steady pace and focused on my form. At the 4th aid station I started doing coke at every other aid station and water at every aid station. I would stop, take drink, and then immediately start running again. People who were running at my pace would get maybe 20 yards ahead of me but I would catch them within 30 seconds. I continued to feel pretty good. At mile 9 I could start to feel the fatigue in my legs and had the feeling that I could have some cramps in my quads when going down the steep downhills but I was able to continue my pace. When I started the run I came out with another guy who was in my age group. He started running pretty fast right off the bat and I secretly wanted to beat that guy because I knew he would come back to me. Sure enough at mile 10 I saw the guy struggling. As I ran past him I think he recognized me and started running next to me for the next mile. I could tell he was really struggling and I tried to run as smooth and effortless as possible to show him I wasn't going to slow down. He eventually stopped and had to walk. That made me smile. With a half mile to go I caught up to my old training buddy who had started over an hour ahead of me. I told him to pick up his pace and run with me to the line. It was a great feeling to cross the line and seeing my friends and family jumping up and down. I negative split the run but I was not able to run the paces that I had hoped because of the mistakes I made hydrating on the bike.
Total Time - 4:51:21 - 30/213 age group -114/1376 males
I didn't have any time goals going in because it was my first attempt at the 70.3 distance. There are many areas that have room for improvement. I definitely need to focus on getting water in on the bike. I also think that I had a little more room to go harder on the bike. The EN plan has been great I finished over an hour better than my old training buddy who started training for triathlons at the same time as I did but is using the traditional LSD method. Overall I had a ton of fun and learned some valuable lessons that will help me for Ironman Arizona.
Comments
Awesome job! Seems as if you learned a lot that you will be able to apply to IMAZ. Great job! Sorry I didn't see you out there.... You were just too fast for me! ;-)