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Vineman 70.3 Race report 2014
Vineman 70.3 Race Report
5:41:38 624th overall, 101 in my age group. New PR.
This would be my 3rd time doing the 70.3 race at Vineman. My parents have a house right off the bike course in Healdsburg, so I am very familiar with the course. That made me feel very comfortable, almost t...oo comfortable leading up to this race. I’d had good training for the most part. I honestly didn’t swim much because it just took too long to get to the pool. So, swimming was the first thing to go when I was running short on training time.
I was mostly ready for this race until the week before it. Then I started to get sick about Wednesday. By Thursday my head was clogged and I knew I was in trouble. I had a tired body/head cold. I still felt tired/crappy on Sunday morning, but I was starting to get better. I’d done all the training, so it wasn’t as if I wasn’t going to do the race.
The Swim: 36:22 (612/2174 overall)/ (86/269 in division)
The swim was fairly relaxed. A little bumping/kicking etc but not bad at all. This swim is interesting because about ¼ of the way into the race, you can stand up and walk because the water is only like 3 feet deep. Then it gets deeper and around the turnaround and for 100 yards after it you have to walk because its about 2 feet deep. It was nice because you could rest your arms and catch your breath. I have this funny game I play when doing swim races. I try to draft off people’s feet. The way you see their feet is you look for their bubbles. So I spend the race thinking ‘bubbles’ like the crab in Finding Nemo. It makes me laugh. But my focus on this swim was maintaining my roll and pulling all the way until my hand came out of the water. I actually ended up doing ok.
Bike 2:46:59 489/2174 overall and 90/269 in my age group
This course is very rolling. You have to be aware of that and pedal over the top of the hills and get up to speed going down the other side so you can carry your speed up the next hill. That was easier said than done on the first 1/3 of the course. Going down Westside road, there was all sorts of people. There were people riding 3 wide. People wouldn’t move to the right after passing. It was a real problem for me. You aren’t allowed to draft, but I’d come up on someone who was riding right next to the yellow center line with someone on their right (or no one next to them) and they would never move over even after passing the person. So, I’m hung out to dry because I’m drafting only because they will not let me pass. There were 7-8 times this happened.
So, my goal watts for this race was 180 . My FTP is 229 so that’s just under 80%. I ended up at 179, so I was right on target. With my race tires on I felt fast and this was a 15min PR on this bike course. It was interesting passing so many people on the bike. That’s a foreign concept for me, but it seemed as if I was always passing people.
So, going down Westside road towards Healdsburg is a really rolling section of the course. They paved some of it so it was a lot smoother than in recent years. This was a very congested part of the course. I really tried to focus on going easy (about 170 watts at this point) but that was difficult because you had to pass people or be stuck going at 140 watts. But this was the typical slow and steady up the hill and pedal up to speed over the top and down the other side. Then carry that speed halfway up the next hill, then slow down, repeat, repeat. Once we get into Healdsburg, I get to see my family. That’s the best part of the race for me. The first aid station is in Healdsburg also. I needed a bottle of powerade and a banana and a bar. But they only had 1 person passing out food and they were reloading when I went by. That was the first nail in my coffin. I should have stopped and gotten the banana (I have low potassium).
The next section of the course down Dry Creek road is similar to Westside road. Rolling hills. Then you turn on Canyon Rd and go up a fairly long hill. It didn’t seem steep this year, you just go slow and grind it out. I think doing Ironman Tahoe and going up Brockway summit twice and put hills into perspective. This really wasn’t a hill . Once at the top, I think I got up to 47 mph on the way down. I consider myself a good decender on the bike. I’m not afraid of the speed. I flew past people on the downhill, but had to slow down because of slower people when you had to make a right turn at the bottom.
Then on to the next aid station. Same issue as the last. 1 person (or no one) passing out banana’s or food. Again, should have stopped. The next section was less busy not quite as rolling. I just kept focused on keeping my watts at 180. The 3rd and final aid station, I was finally able to get a bar, but not a banana that I needed. But I needed that banana. Oh well, I guess I’d get it on the run. After the 3rd aid station you turn on to Chaulk Hill road. It winds up over the hill back into Windsor. This is the ‘big’ hill on the course. I stuck to my usual strategy of just slowly going up, not spiking my watts. Others stood up and pushed past me as I chuckled at their wasted energy. But once again, I didn’t think the hill was that bad. Steep, but not horrible. Once over the top is where my issue started. On the downhill, I had the same problem as in the beginning, people would not move over. I’d come flying up to someone yelling ‘on your left’ and they would just sit there and I would have to break. Finally they would move over and I’d pass. Frustrating. From the bottom of the hill, you work your way through some city streets to T2. I tried to keep my cadence up about 90 for this section to try to wake my legs up for running.
One note on the bike. The best way to keep people from drafting you on the bike…. Shoot snot rockets at them. I got 2 or 3 people to get off my back wheel by doing it. Rules are rules. You follow me too close for 2-3 min. Splat!
Run: 2:10
The run course is semi-rolling also with more shade on the first half than the 2nd half. By the time I finished it was probably 85 degrees or more on the pavement. I started out trying to run slow per Endurance Nation protocol. 9:20-9:30 for the first 4-5 miles. I did stop and go pee at the first aid station and grabbed a banana that I really needed (it was probably too late by this point). After 5 or 6 miles I sped up to what I wanted to run at 8:30-8:45 pace. I felt good, I was drinking and had a gel at 4 miles and another at 7 or 8 miles. It was getting hot though and the pavement was getting hot. At one point I realized my feet just felt hot. At mile 9 or so I started to have my typical tingling fingers issue. From past experience I knew I had to watch it. So, I’d run until my arms would tingle and then walk for a bit, then run and walk. I tried to eat more salt etc at aid stations, but probably didn’t force enough. It was just hot and its hard to eat when its hot. Even though I knew better. That’s whats frustrating. I knew better. The first 3 miles of the run, I should have been eating 2-3 banana’s and drinking until my stomach started to resist. But I didn’t. So, I basically ran a good 8-9 miles of the race anad a poor last few miles because I of my electrolyte issues. Its not that I couldn’t have run, its that my body just tingled and from past Ironman experience, it tends to lead to tunnel vision and I didn’t want to go there. One thing I though was interesting was that after 9 miles when I started walking, I looked at my time and I was 5 hrs into the race which surprised me because that was fast. If I hadn’t messed up on the nutrition and was able to run the 8:45-9 min miles the last few miles, I would have had an awesome PR. Of course it could have also been my cold zapping my energy and dehydrating me also.
But in the end I did get a PR. I felt good afterwards. I dealt with the struggles that were thrown my direction as they came. But I’m left knowing I could have gone faster which is a lot faster than I ever thought I could go. Before the race, I would have been ecstatic to do a 5:41:38. My PR had been 5:45. But knowing I could have realistically gotten to 5:35 will make me do this race again in a couple of years. That’s what sucks you into doing long course triathlons, you can always do better!
5:41:38 624th overall, 101 in my age group. New PR.
This would be my 3rd time doing the 70.3 race at Vineman. My parents have a house right off the bike course in Healdsburg, so I am very familiar with the course. That made me feel very comfortable, almost t...oo comfortable leading up to this race. I’d had good training for the most part. I honestly didn’t swim much because it just took too long to get to the pool. So, swimming was the first thing to go when I was running short on training time.
I was mostly ready for this race until the week before it. Then I started to get sick about Wednesday. By Thursday my head was clogged and I knew I was in trouble. I had a tired body/head cold. I still felt tired/crappy on Sunday morning, but I was starting to get better. I’d done all the training, so it wasn’t as if I wasn’t going to do the race.
The Swim: 36:22 (612/2174 overall)/ (86/269 in division)
The swim was fairly relaxed. A little bumping/kicking etc but not bad at all. This swim is interesting because about ¼ of the way into the race, you can stand up and walk because the water is only like 3 feet deep. Then it gets deeper and around the turnaround and for 100 yards after it you have to walk because its about 2 feet deep. It was nice because you could rest your arms and catch your breath. I have this funny game I play when doing swim races. I try to draft off people’s feet. The way you see their feet is you look for their bubbles. So I spend the race thinking ‘bubbles’ like the crab in Finding Nemo. It makes me laugh. But my focus on this swim was maintaining my roll and pulling all the way until my hand came out of the water. I actually ended up doing ok.
Bike 2:46:59 489/2174 overall and 90/269 in my age group
This course is very rolling. You have to be aware of that and pedal over the top of the hills and get up to speed going down the other side so you can carry your speed up the next hill. That was easier said than done on the first 1/3 of the course. Going down Westside road, there was all sorts of people. There were people riding 3 wide. People wouldn’t move to the right after passing. It was a real problem for me. You aren’t allowed to draft, but I’d come up on someone who was riding right next to the yellow center line with someone on their right (or no one next to them) and they would never move over even after passing the person. So, I’m hung out to dry because I’m drafting only because they will not let me pass. There were 7-8 times this happened.
So, my goal watts for this race was 180 . My FTP is 229 so that’s just under 80%. I ended up at 179, so I was right on target. With my race tires on I felt fast and this was a 15min PR on this bike course. It was interesting passing so many people on the bike. That’s a foreign concept for me, but it seemed as if I was always passing people.
So, going down Westside road towards Healdsburg is a really rolling section of the course. They paved some of it so it was a lot smoother than in recent years. This was a very congested part of the course. I really tried to focus on going easy (about 170 watts at this point) but that was difficult because you had to pass people or be stuck going at 140 watts. But this was the typical slow and steady up the hill and pedal up to speed over the top and down the other side. Then carry that speed halfway up the next hill, then slow down, repeat, repeat. Once we get into Healdsburg, I get to see my family. That’s the best part of the race for me. The first aid station is in Healdsburg also. I needed a bottle of powerade and a banana and a bar. But they only had 1 person passing out food and they were reloading when I went by. That was the first nail in my coffin. I should have stopped and gotten the banana (I have low potassium).
The next section of the course down Dry Creek road is similar to Westside road. Rolling hills. Then you turn on Canyon Rd and go up a fairly long hill. It didn’t seem steep this year, you just go slow and grind it out. I think doing Ironman Tahoe and going up Brockway summit twice and put hills into perspective. This really wasn’t a hill . Once at the top, I think I got up to 47 mph on the way down. I consider myself a good decender on the bike. I’m not afraid of the speed. I flew past people on the downhill, but had to slow down because of slower people when you had to make a right turn at the bottom.
Then on to the next aid station. Same issue as the last. 1 person (or no one) passing out banana’s or food. Again, should have stopped. The next section was less busy not quite as rolling. I just kept focused on keeping my watts at 180. The 3rd and final aid station, I was finally able to get a bar, but not a banana that I needed. But I needed that banana. Oh well, I guess I’d get it on the run. After the 3rd aid station you turn on to Chaulk Hill road. It winds up over the hill back into Windsor. This is the ‘big’ hill on the course. I stuck to my usual strategy of just slowly going up, not spiking my watts. Others stood up and pushed past me as I chuckled at their wasted energy. But once again, I didn’t think the hill was that bad. Steep, but not horrible. Once over the top is where my issue started. On the downhill, I had the same problem as in the beginning, people would not move over. I’d come flying up to someone yelling ‘on your left’ and they would just sit there and I would have to break. Finally they would move over and I’d pass. Frustrating. From the bottom of the hill, you work your way through some city streets to T2. I tried to keep my cadence up about 90 for this section to try to wake my legs up for running.
One note on the bike. The best way to keep people from drafting you on the bike…. Shoot snot rockets at them. I got 2 or 3 people to get off my back wheel by doing it. Rules are rules. You follow me too close for 2-3 min. Splat!
Run: 2:10
The run course is semi-rolling also with more shade on the first half than the 2nd half. By the time I finished it was probably 85 degrees or more on the pavement. I started out trying to run slow per Endurance Nation protocol. 9:20-9:30 for the first 4-5 miles. I did stop and go pee at the first aid station and grabbed a banana that I really needed (it was probably too late by this point). After 5 or 6 miles I sped up to what I wanted to run at 8:30-8:45 pace. I felt good, I was drinking and had a gel at 4 miles and another at 7 or 8 miles. It was getting hot though and the pavement was getting hot. At one point I realized my feet just felt hot. At mile 9 or so I started to have my typical tingling fingers issue. From past experience I knew I had to watch it. So, I’d run until my arms would tingle and then walk for a bit, then run and walk. I tried to eat more salt etc at aid stations, but probably didn’t force enough. It was just hot and its hard to eat when its hot. Even though I knew better. That’s whats frustrating. I knew better. The first 3 miles of the run, I should have been eating 2-3 banana’s and drinking until my stomach started to resist. But I didn’t. So, I basically ran a good 8-9 miles of the race anad a poor last few miles because I of my electrolyte issues. Its not that I couldn’t have run, its that my body just tingled and from past Ironman experience, it tends to lead to tunnel vision and I didn’t want to go there. One thing I though was interesting was that after 9 miles when I started walking, I looked at my time and I was 5 hrs into the race which surprised me because that was fast. If I hadn’t messed up on the nutrition and was able to run the 8:45-9 min miles the last few miles, I would have had an awesome PR. Of course it could have also been my cold zapping my energy and dehydrating me also.
But in the end I did get a PR. I felt good afterwards. I dealt with the struggles that were thrown my direction as they came. But I’m left knowing I could have gone faster which is a lot faster than I ever thought I could go. Before the race, I would have been ecstatic to do a 5:41:38. My PR had been 5:45. But knowing I could have realistically gotten to 5:35 will make me do this race again in a couple of years. That’s what sucks you into doing long course triathlons, you can always do better!
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Comments
Good report Pete, I'm doing the full Vineman this weekend (4th time) so I know the route well. I'm glad to hear that they paved Westside. I had read that they paved the worst part so I'll be happy to see that. It looks like it's going to be a high of 85 this weekend so I'll hit the run course in the worst of it. Thankfully I've gotten some heat training in the last few weeks. I'm carrying most of my nutrition with me on the bike and a bottle of concentrate to make my drinks with. Hopefully the cold water will be plentiful at the aid stations. I've had good luck with them before.
Cheers, Mark
Great report, Peter. And great race, particularly powering through the end of the run despite nutrition and cold/health being out of balance.
Your explanation of the bike course is spot on - I had similar issues/challenges with the number of people at aid stations. They seemed pretty tight, and only had 1-2 people with each of the options. I was in an early wave so did not have to deal with the 3-wide traffic, but also heard about this and would have been frustrated by it.
Well done