Mt Tremblant 70.3 Race Report
What a great place for a race.
This was HIM #2 for me. I did Austin last year. The two are about as different as they could be.
We got to town on friday. The village was 100% behind the race with signs everywhere and tons of support. The 140.6 in August is going to be a great experience.
On Saturday, I went to the swim site because the water was advertised at being 65 degrees and I had never been in a lake that was much under 80 (south texas races only till this one). I was more than a little concerned about the effect of the water temp on my body.
It turned out to be much more like mid 70's. And it was by far the cleanest lake I had ever been in.
Did bike check in and recon'd the T area. Tri bike transport is a great service. Gotta say. Very easy.
Went to dinner with the EN folks saturday. Thanks to Sebastian for putting that together.
Race morning weather was sunny and cool for me anyway. As I waited for my wave to go off I was shivering pretty hard even with my suit on. This happened to me before the mary that I ran in Feb. It might be nerves as much as the cold.
The beach start was fun. I think that I prefer it to treading water. I got popped a coulple of times in the water but I never got anxious. I feel much more calm in a wetsuit for some reason. I swam to my ability and PR'd vs austin by 2 min in 39:58.
One note for folks doing the full - the water gets shallow about 200M ahead of the swim out. I had to stand at one point and walk to deeper water. Visibility is really good though.
T1 was like 5:30 or so. But my garmin had the distance as .41miles from swim out to bike out so there you go.
Bike - I ride by HR and my target was mid 140's. I ended up right on at 145.
These are the nicest roads I have ever ridden on. But I did not really look at what the hills would mean and what gearing I should bring. My garmin says 6000ft of climb with the elevation correction on. I knew it was hilly so I trained on the hilliest routs that I could find esp for my RR's but they only had 1/3 pf the elevation changes. I am a beginner cyclist but I would suggest to those doing the full that you make intentional decisions about what gears to bring. I just went with what was on my bike and I had to push way too hard to get up the hills in the final 1/3 of the race. I tried to ride the EN way. Steady pressure on the feet from start to finish. Steady heart rate. But with my strength and the gears that I brought, I would have come to a complete stop had I not really worked up the last hills. Still, great course and great fun. Nutrition was 3 large waterbottles with 270cal infinite in each.
My bike split was 3:05. At this point I had a 4 min PR going even with the massive t1.
t2 was short and sweet. Shoes, hat and gone.
My plan for the run was to run what my vdot calculator said I should run. So 9min/mi for the first 3, then drop to 8:30 for the middle 6 and then whatever was left in the last 4.1.
I think that I stuck to that plan for 1 mile. I just couldnt keep the pace. I hit everything fine in my last RR but with the hills on the bike and the run I just couldnt go that fast on this course.
There is a good bit of elevation change over the first 3.5mi, then it is pretty flat for about 3 mi, then you turn around and more or less retrace your steps.
I went to 15 minute chunks. 14min run, 1 min walk. I was able to stay in these 15min boxes and I felt really good about it. All I was watching was the time left in each box. I let go of pace and time and distance and just watched my box. This was working fine fir me till I got to the turn around a little less that 1/2 way. I think it was the 10k mark. At that point, I switched views on my watch to total race time because I wanted to beat 6 hrs. This was a mistake. It took me out of my little box and I started thinking about the next 7mi and trying to do math and calculate needed pace. I got way out of my box and ended up struggling more between my ears. Next time I will stay in my little box and let the finish line come to me.
I felt cramp twinges pretty early on. high hamstrings first but they never really took hold. Once I got back into the hills on the way back they hit. Quads on the way downhill. Full disclosure, I have cramped in every event I have participated thatwas longer than 4 hrs. 6 marathons, 2 HIMs. Cramps in all of them. I have tried salt pills, more vol, less vol more intensity, slower pace. Hot weather, cool weather. I have not found the solution yet. If you have struggled withcramps and found an answer, please let me know. I will try anything.
With the hills and the cramps I fell off a bit more in the last 4 mi. But in looking at my HR info, I was still pushing. My tested LTHR is 170 and my avg hr on the run was 162. I KNOW how hard I was trying. I couldnt not have asked any more from myself. Pretty proud of the effort. One of these days if I keep at it I will race to my potential. In the mean time I learned a few things about elevation, had some success and some failure at staying in my box on the run (and learned from both) and had a really really great vacation.
Now I get 6 or 8 weeks to put strength and speed togeter then I get the real fun part of my season - getting to re race the courses that I raced last year pre EN. I am looking forward to some time improvements.
Here are links to my garmin data for those interested. Massive elevation changes on the bike and run for a flatlander. But downhill sure is fun!
Swim: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193449468
T1 .41mi! http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193448668
Comments
Good work. I am looking forward to the full.
I biked too hard. I am still pacing with heart rate. My understanding is that HIM is upper z3. That for me is about 141. My avg HR was 145. It trended down for the first 28mi then trended up for the next 28. There was also a huge range. 129 to 173. I tried to ride steady but clearly the data says otherwise. My avg cadence was low. 75. I tend to ride mid 80's. To me this reads as pushing too much gear up hills.
When it came time to run, My HR was way high relative to my pace. I would run for a while, push my hr up to lthr (170 for me) trying to get to my target pace and then walk for a minute to bring it down. I went like this for the first 10 miles. Once I got back to the hills in the last 3mi, the cramps came and I was forced to walk more and that brought my heart rate under control.
I really fought on the run. But to me this seems to be another proof of the theory that there is no such thing as a bad run after a good bike.
My race report is coming. I raced IMMT 70.3 and ride with power. I didn't pass a single person on any of the hills. In fact, my HR fell during the climb at the 40km mark before the second aid station. Like Coaches RnP say in the 4 keys talks, if everyone around you is doing the opposite, then you are doing the right thing. I had my best half IM run @1:46 at Tremblant, so I really think the going easy on the hills is key.