Kansas 70.3 Race Report
As copied from my blog: spabbo.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer – this is fairly lengthy. And goes into more than just the race. You have been warned…
Wow! What a race! I must say, I am both excited by the finish, but disappointed as well. I had time goals that I did not make – but after reading below, you will hopefully have a full understanding of why. Also, I must say a big “Congrats” to my racing/training buddy, Kourey, who raced his heart out and finished as well – beat me by 8 minutes in fact! So – I have more work to do if I am to beat him at Augusta. Also, “Congrats” to my fellow Endurance Nation brethren who finished – Matt, William, Stephanie, and Randy with Matt and William earning spots to the Vegas 70.3 World Championships! Awesome!!
Anyway – back to my story. The raw stats are as follows: Total Time = 7:28; Swim = 1:00; Bike = 3:23; Run = 2:57. Details of each leg, of course, are below. Before that, however, I must point out that prior to the race, we were all hoping for a wetsuit legal race. Meaning temps 76.1 degrees and below. The temp was hovering so close to the cut off all week we literally didn’t know what the reading would be until race morning. So I packed the wetsuit just in case. When we arrived, we learned the temp was 76.8 degrees meaning no wetsuit. And being a fairly weak swimmer, this was the 1st mental challenge I had to overcome. Next was the wind – my goodness! It was frickin’ WINDY!!! This caused the water to be extra choppy (sure would have been nice to have that wetsuit). And made the bike portion quite challenging and often, very scary! And the run was – well – HOT! I looked up the temperature after we were done and it appears Lawrence set a record for the day with a 94 degree high. No shade either. Needless to say, for a newbie to this distance and a guy wanting to set a PR (Personal Record) at this race, there were a lot of mental obstacles to overcome! The training mantra of EN (you will hear a LOT about that below), knowing everyone was dealing with the same things, and the recent addition of mental fitness to my daily routines all helped to get through it. (Plug here: check out http://www.mental-fitness-challenge.com/ for more information on the mental fitness stuff!)
Nutrition wise, I woke at 1:30am and had approximately 3 scoops (495 calories) of protein shake with water and went back to bed. At 4am I had a cup of applesauce with a scoop of protein powder, banana, and 1 piece of toast with peanut butter. I think this set me up fairly well for the day.
The Swim (1:00)
Before the swim started, I downed 2 Gu’s. And Wow! Tough swim. My goal for the swim was 45 mins – but VERY choppy water and no wetsuit made for a slower than desired result. I know of at least 8 professional athletes who did not finish the swim. And have heard up to 60 total who didn’t. So, although the swim was slower than I had hoped, I am glad I finished. And honestly, I felt great during the swim. Some lessons from EN are that you should only focus on your “box”, or what you can control. I could not control the chop, other swimmers, or anything outside of me. So I focused on my stroke form, my sighting, my breathing, and pretty much counted my strokes the entire time. This allowed me to NOT focus on the chop, the occasional gulps of water, or the other athletes grabbing my ankles at times. And with the conditions, I actually felt calm and relaxed and somewhat enjoyed the swim. Well – maybe not enjoyed – but at least didn’t really mind it.
The swim was an out and back where we started in waves based on age/gender. To start, we had to swim maybe 30 yards to the 1st buoy and tread water until the horn went off. I stayed in the back of my group as I knew I would be slower than most. That kept me from others for a while until the next group caught me where I ended up swimming with them for the rest of the time. We went out, turned in a counterclockwise direction, swam parallel to the docks for a bit and then turned back towards to docks to finish. Total distance was 1.2 miles. When it was over, we ran up a slight hill into T1 (transition 1) to get our bikes. Because of no wetsuit, I swam with only my tri shorts, so I had to put on my shirt, don the rest of my bike gear, and then headed out on my 56 mile bike journey.
The Bike (3:23)
Nutrition wise, I think I overate a bit. I had planned on taking in 250 calories per hour, but ended up taking in 300 per hour. Because I use Gu for my calories, and each pack has 100 cals each, it was just easier to remember to take one every 20 mins. But later in the run, my stomach seemed to shut down making me think I over did the calories. I’ll have to figure that out for next time. Also, I took in 1 sodium pill (Salt Stick) every 30 mins which seemed to work well. The problem, however, is that I only packed enough for the bike – so I had NONE for the run! That came back to hurt later in the day. I used empty Mentos containers to hold my salt pills and some ibuprophen which I also took while on the bike at the halfway point. My back and hands were starting to bother me, so the ib was helpful.
My goal for the bike was 3:00 based on my training and the course elevation that was online. However, that elevation said there would be appx. 1100 feet of climbing, but in reality, my GPS says I did appx. 2600 feet of climbing. This, considering most training rides I do are between 2000-2500 feet, would not have been a big deal. But the winds!! Oh my!! Weather reports said the sustained winds for the day were between 16-20mph with gusts over 30mph. That made for some sssslllloooowwww and often scary sections. But again, the EN training got me through this tough spot. What could I control? My HR (my effort), my nutrition on the bike, my attitude, climbing hills smart, and sticking with my plan. What could I NOT control? The wind and how slow it would make me, the hills themselves and racers pushing up them too hard, other racers crashing, the heat. Based on the conditions and the fact that I was able to stick with my plan, I feel good about the bike portion of the race. Still have improvements to make in my overall power output (speed), but race execution wise, I am happy.
The bike started out simply enough – nice big hill at the beginning and some rollers getting out of the park. Once out, the road somewhat leveled off, but the wind was a bear! It was either pushing directly against us or blowing at us sideways. And yes, at times (especially on the return back to the park) it was pushing us. The hardest for me mentally was during a stretch at miles 35 – 40. Nice rolling hills and a constant wind blowing at our faces. My speed was a low of around 5 mph and got up to as high as 30 on the downhills. But man! That stretch was brutal. BUT – when we turned around, the wind was at our backs for miles 40 – 43 (where we turned onto another road where the wind was blowing at us sideways) and that stretch was FUN! I was cruising 24 – 26 mph for most of that. But then the fun stopped and reality hit again as we turned and the wind was pushing us sideways. The scariest part was the downhills where we would hit 30 – 35 and a gust would just blow us over – or come close to. Very difficult to keep the bike upright and not wreck. I saw at least 3 ambulances on course and numerous people sitting on the sides of the road. Not fixing anything, just sitting there. There were also a few who I saw walking their bikes up one of the last hills at mile 50. That hill was tough – but if you had raced properly it was manageable.
By racing properly, one of the things EN has taught me is to NOT charge up hills and NOT push my heart rate up too high. Their manta is “there is no such thing as a good bike with a poor run” and that kept going through my head. My goal was to keep my HR in the high Zone 2 based on my projected finish time so that meant trying to keep it in the high 150’s to low 160’s. I averaged 159 for the entire ride and was very watchful of it during the hard stretches and the hills to keep it low. As we re-entered the park, most people seemed to slow way down – as in, I easily passed many. And the closer we got to the finish, the slower people were going. And as we got to the part where the runners were, some people almost seemed to stop! Come on, folks!! Giddy-up and go!! The race aint over yet!! Anyway, I managed to get around those folks, get into T2 and rack my bike, put on my running shoes and hat and hit the road.
The Run (2:57)
Alright – the run is where I have mixed feelings about my execution. I want to start by saying I PR’d the run by 27 minutes from last year’s Augusta 70.3, so that is an improvement. But… Let’s talk nutrition first and get that out of the way. As mentioned above, I ran out of salt pills, so I was a little freaked out which got me out of my element. I allowed this to affect my mind more than I had hoped which resulted in some poor decisions during the run. I took water at every aid station – and ice at most stations. I used the ice to put inside my hat and to either hold in my hands or dump down my pants. That was the good. But because I had no sodium, I ended up also trying IM Perform at one stop, Gu Chomps at another, and Coke at another. This combined with over eating on the bike ended up locking up my stomach and by the time I was at mile 6 or 7 I was pretty much done. In retrospect, I should have again concentrated on what I could control and not what I couldn’t. At this point, I am not sure what I could have done to get in the sodium, but I do know that what I did do didn’t work. I’ll have to consider that a little more before figuring that out. But at this point, I think my best bet would have been to just stick with the water and ice and not try and compensate.
Now, for the actual run. After swimming in the choppy water, surviving the wind on the bike, we were treated with record highs for Lawrence, KS with a high of 94 degrees. And maybe 10 feet of the 13.1 mile run course was shaded. Yeah – it was HOT!! Oddly enough, our spring and summer in Birmingham has been fairly mild, so I have not had the opportunity to train much in the heat. And I think this affected me as well.
My 1st mile was way too fast! I could not run slow enough right off the bike and ended up running around a 10 minute mile – BAD! Based on my vDot, I was targeting a 12min mile for the 1st 3, so doing a 10 to the 1st aid station probably hurt me later on. But after walking the aid station, I was able to slow down and averaged 12’s for the next two. But when it was time to crank up the speed and hit my target of 11:30 pace for miles 3-13, I simply could not. I steadily got slower and slower – and ended up walking more than I had hoped during the last half of the run. The good is that I did run a whole lot more than at Augusta last year. The bad, I screwed up my nutrition and allowed it to affect my mind and allowed that to slow me down. And the heat messed with my mind as well. So again, mixed feelings about this performance.
One of the things the EN folks talk about for race execution is that when things get tough, you need to have your “1 thing” – your inspiration or your ‘why’ to help get us through when the pain and desire to stop gets high. For pushing ourselves to the limits and putting ourselves inside that dark and painful place. Well, I am still trying to figure that out. I was asked over the weekend why I did triathlons. At first, it was just to see if I could and it seemed like a natural progression from spin classes to cycling and then triathlon. Now I know I can do it. So why keep doing it? Well, I do enjoy it – love accomplishing something many can’t or won’t do. And my “BHAG” (Big Hairy A** Goal) is to qualify for Kona. But at this point of my journey, that is a long way off and easy to dismiss when things get tough. And some could say that is unlikely based on current performance. But – that is the goal. So I have to figure this stuff out b/c I do plan on achieving it.
The next ‘reasons’ would be so that my kids could see me, their dad, finish something I have started and endure through tough challenges. But just finishing these things is an accomplishment and not really something that can get me through the toughest of times. They just see the medal and don’t really understand the difference in ‘just finishing’ and ‘pushing to the limits’.
Another, and probably the most likely, is because I want to see just how far I can push myself. How deep and how painful I can go and still endure and fight and finish. I know I have more inside that I just need to find. I’ve come a long way since last year – and most of that has been since training with Endurance Nation. And with more training, more knowledge, and more discipline I will keep finding more and more of it until I get there. And knowing I will not grow until I pass the next test, I have to keep going. (Not sure if what I am typing here makes sense to anyone other than me – hopefully it does).
I know that what I experienced at Kansas in no way will be close to what I will feel at a full Ironman – and not even close to what I will feel on the day I do qualify for Kona. I have to learn how to go deeper, learn how to focus, how to stay sharp when things don’t go as planned, how to execute all portions of the race including nutrition and transitions.
The Finish
As I ran (yes, I ran the end) towards the finish, I was quite happy to my lovely wife there to greet me and put the medal over my head. She was able to volunteer because one of her brothers and sis-n-laws took the boys to the lake so she could stay long enough to see me at the end. That was pretty cool to have her put the medal on me. And after flashing the EN gang sign for a finisher’s pic, I headed to the beer tent and – well – drank some water and just sat. Not sure how folks drink beer that quickly after laying it all out like that, but I couldn’t. Granted, I would later that night – but right after? Nah!
Anyway – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Overall I am pleased but know that I have much more to improve on for Augusta. I did learn a lot that will help me in the future which is also good. I guess that’s the good thing about doing multiple races per year – there is more opportunity to learn and then execute.
For those who have stayed with this story to the end, well, thanks. I hope it wasn’t too dull. It is helpful to write this out to get it out of my head and onto something I can refer to later. And with that, I bid you a good night and farewell until next time!
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Comments
I'm from the midwest, and we just haven't had heat much (at least recently) either. Just over in Iowa, we had a cool week while it was broiling in KS. It only got hot in IA about Friday.
I don't want to project falsely, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the level of suffering isn't too different in those conditions on the HIM to an IM with nicer conditions. I've done both. :-) Different and longer for the IM, but if you were pushing it on Sunday, you were hurting no doubt!
Terrific stuff...keep it up for Augusta!
I will not be doing this venue again since I am bored with the course and I feel we are offically 1-1. The only reason I went back this year was to tighten up some unfinished business on the swim. It took my sole last year and it tried this year but I prevailed LOL. Nice Job !!!
The mid-July race works fine, but I think KS is closer to ideal.