HIM race report
First HIM (Sunday Race) Goal time 5 hours. Actual time: 5:06:30 of fun
Nutrition: Tried to follow core diet plan. Started carbo loading friday afternoon. Saturday had the core diet big breakfast, turkey sandwich for lunch, and bottle of perform. Snacks included power gels between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. Dinner was pasta light sauce with bread and one glass of wine. Race morning woke and followed core diet routine.
Sleep: Woke several times throughout the evening.
Other: Had to use the bathroom many times race morning. Must have peed 5 times and pooped three times
Swim: Goal time 26-28 minutes Actual time: 27:25. Swim was an in water start. Nothing really remarkable. felt pretty relaxed and held a comfortable pace. Had some sighting issues but figured that will improve with experience. Was actually second out of water but figured would draft off the guy in front the final couple hundred meters rather then exhaust myself just to be first.
T1 (3:33) Up long ramp, a flight of steps and down road to transition area.
Bike: Goal time 2:35-2:40 Actual Time 2:39:53 Rolling hills but nothing to bad. Was windy and cool.
Npower (actual/goal): 220-232/221. VI: 1.07. IF: .792. Avg Hr: 149. Cadence: 88. Speed: 21 mph. Seemed to be some difficulty maintaining power out put not from an exertion perspective but from a technique perspective. New to power so hopefully that will improve with experience. Bike nutrition: power gel or three blocks every thrity minutes, salt tabs every hour. Drank every ten minutes finish three bottles. Third bottle was gatorade R2 or G2. Was a mistake considering had extra bottle of perform behind seat Had to stop and pee once
T2: 2:02.
Run (Actual/Goal): 1:53/1:40. This is were the fun begins. Left transition feeling pretty good had to remind self to slow down and follow EN execution plan. First three miles 7:24 plus 30, miles 4-10 7:24, 11-13 what ever I had left. Felt pretty good the first three miles and starting about mile four began to notice minor cramping in left quad > right quad. As the race continued cramping intensified. Miles 9-11 had intermittent walking bouts to try to work out the quad. Attempts at stretching would tighten the hamstring. Finally with about 11/2 miles left just decided to push through the cramps and finish strong. No way was I walking across the finish line. Run Stats for examination:
Mile 1: Npace-7:51. Avg Pace-7:58. TSS 9.3(0.91). Hr: 151. Mile 2: Npace-7:26. Avg Pace- 7:41. TSS: 11.7(.94). Hr: 158
Mile3: Npace-7:40. Avg pace-7:47. TSS: 11.8(.909). Hr: 160. Mile 4: Npace-7:09. Avg. pace-8:06. TSS: 13.1(.974) Hr: 162
Mile5: Npace-7:32. Avg pace-7:50. TSS: 11.8(.925). Hr: 162. Mile6: Npace: 8:23. Avg Pace-7:42. TSS 9.5(.831). Hr: 159
Mile7: Npace- 8:08. Avg Pace-8:01. TSS: 10(.857). Hr: 163. Mile 8: Npace-7:35. Avg pace-8:12. Tss: 12.5(.918). Hr: 163
Mile9: Npace-8:34. Avg Pace-8:41. TSS: 11(.813) Hr: 162. Mile10: Npace-8:48. Avg Pace-9:54. TSS: 10(.798) Hr: 161
Mile11: Npace-9:32. Avg Pace-9:28. TSS: 9.3(.735). Hr: 155. Mile12: Npace-9:47. Avg Pace-9:16. TSS: 8.1(.726) hr: 153.
Mile 13: Npace-8:09. Avg pace-8:42. TSS: 11.1(.855) Hr157.
Race course was basically flat with some off road sections couple of short steep climbs, and steps.
Run nutrition: gatorade at every mile, had power gel, cliff blocks every thirty minutes and finally got some salt tabs (not sure what stops but closer to the end).
During the run felt good from a cardiovascular effort. Once quad cramps started had difficulty running. Had to walk up hills and steps.
Even though i missed my goal time. I am overall very pleased with the day and no that there is plenty of room for growth and improvement.
Comments
Awesome race John. Really. You should be very stoked on what you've accomplished this year. Jealous.
Disclaimer: I'm no expert, I've done 3 HIM, but I've suffered leg cramps in EVERY-FREAKIN-ONE....so here my $.02
Swim: Speechless, whish I could do that.
T1: great. in and out, fast. but with the ramp was it too fast?
Bike: my guess is the run cramps are likely partially related to a high VI on the bike. I'd work to bring that VI as close to 1.00 as possible like 1.02ish is a good goal (VI is the ratio of NormPower/AvgPower or in other words a measure of your variability in power. How often you spike high and low.) 1.07 isn't bad, but like you said it means you were having trouble staying consistent. Your IF is right on target if not a little low for HIM, but given you got cramps on the bike, could it be, maybe, the FTP isn't quite right? Did you just recently jump on your TRI bike without testing again? Just a thought. Okay so why I'm relating run cramping to bike -- and I know about the misery run cramps
-- is that current research shows it has more to do with pacing and exertion than electrolytes. eg Over exerted? too fast? more cramps. So bike power plays a role in that. Just something to think about. Nutrition wise: given the effort level its sounds about right, maybe a little low in the fluid intake, but you would know best what works. I'd think about the sodium intake there and calc what the intake really was, since you got cramps on the run, uping that wouldn't really be a bad experiment. Really its a pretty awesome bike leg.
T2: Perfect.
Run:
Given your goal, which I'm guessing is based on your Vdot, you didn't go out deciedely too fast to make pacing an obious instigator on cramps. I know you've got solid running in your toolkit, but I know the experts here back off the Vdot by 2 for IM pacing (5k vs reality) so it still might have been a tad high (again just supposition dont know, just a consideration.) Still great split for what you were suffering. Been there.
Also, you might next time, try taking some picke juice (or Pickle Juice Sport) before the race, in each transition, and along on the run. Theres a growing body of evidence that something in the presence of the vinegar acid shuts down cramping. I've experienced this my last race, 6oz shut down cramps (and in like 50yds) from mile 2-9 but I didn't have enough to keep them from coming back in mile 9-13. Its not as bad as it sounds, I've tried it, it works. Ask ENer Paul Hough.
Great JOB!
Great stuff John. Awesome swim...man I wish I could swim like that!! I agree with the comment that the VI on the bike is pretty high. With practice you ought to be able to ride constant power with a VI in the 1.02 range on most courses...even lower for flat courses and maybe 1.03 if it's really hilly.
The cramping is a tough one that many struggle with. Your goal vs. expected for the run is almost identical to mine in a race last year when quad cramping totally derailed me and I was stopped by the side of the road massaging my legs for minutes at a time. I started a thread on this topic after my race in Kansas this spring almost ended up in the same place, and I got a ton of great input. I then trialed a sodium loading protocol that seems to have worked well in two subsequent races (details of which are posted in another thread around mid-July). Cramping and methods for solving cramps seem to be very individual but you just need to try things and find what works for you.
Congrats on a great finish!