June seems to be
half-iron month for me. In 2011 and
2012, I did the Patriot Half (in June), and this year, as a member of Endurance
Nation, it was the Rev3 Quassy that got the ticket due to it being a focus
event within EN. After the experience I had last year at IMLP while being
part of EN, it was really no contest to decide to join in on the focus
event. I had heard Quassy was a much
tougher course - while the Patriot is very flat, Quassy is noted as being very
hilly - and it did not disappoint, but we'll get to that.
For me, this race was
cursed from the start - more-so than I ever thought possible. In order to
fully appreciate what I mean, we have to go back in time a bit.
Got Anxiety?
The weekend before this
race, the long ride of 4 hours was scheduled for Saturday. Due to
inclement weather, I swapped the ride to Monday, May 27th. About 2.5
hours into the ride, I was riding along and hear the rear wheel sounding funny.
I look down just in time to hear a 'BANG!' and see the rear wheel blow
out. I pulled over, see that the tube has basically exploded, and has a
nice 6" gash in it. In other words, no repairing this one. No
problem - I always carry an extra tube, a patch kit, and two CO2 canisters with
me. I put the other tube in, inflate it, and carry on my way. No
more than 1/4 mile later, 'BANG!' - the tire blows out again. At this
point, with no extra tubes, I'm forced to call home and get a ride. While
waiting, I see that the tire itself has blown out its' sidewall - so even if I
could patch the blowout (and it is small enough that I probably could have),
without the sidewall to hold the tire in place on the wheel, it'd just blow out
again. Training session over.
The following day, I get
a new tire from the LBS. I go home, put it on the wheel, inflate it, and
just let it sit. With the sidewall on the previous tire having been the
clear culprit, I have all assurances that my bad luck on Monday was a freak
thing, and I'll be good to go. A couple hours later, I'm upstairs and
hear 'BANG!' again. WTF?! I go downstairs and see the tire has
blown off again. Now, I'm really starting to freak out that something may
be wrong with my wheel. If it was an average wheel, it wouldn’t be a big
deal - but it’s the one with my PowerTap on it, making it a critical piece of
equipment.
So I start going through
my options. Worst case scenario, the wheel is out of true or somehow
compromised and won't hold a tire, and I'll have to resort to the rear wheel my
bike came with. Obviously nowhere near ideal - but for the upcoming race,
it may be the only option. So, I mentally set my bar there and start
coming to grips with that possibility. Another option is that the tire
itself, a Continental Grand Prix 4000, is just not able to hold onto the wheel
that well - it has a flexible bead, and maybe that is causing problems (even
though it never did in the previous year that I've owned the wheel with that
tire on it). If that were the case, that certainly isn't that bad - I
have an old tire with a metal bead that can get me through the weekend, after
which I can revisit the higher performance Continental tire issue. So I
mount the old tire, inflate it, and go to bed.
I wake up the next
morning and find that the tire held. Phew - progress! However, I
unmount it and bring the wheel with me to work so I can bring it to a bike shop
for examination that day (I forgot to mention earlier that when the tire blew
off, I marked where on the rim it had done so, so that the apparently offending
portion of the wheel could be examined). Once I get to the bike shop, I
explain my ordeal to the person and see if they can check it out. He
patiently listens (probably thinking 'wow this guy is completely flipping
out!') and then, in short, says that while my wheel has signs of use, it is not
so out of true that it would pop tires like that - he's seen wheels in far
worse shape and still able to hold a tire. In other words - installation
error. User error. I'm doing
something wrong when mounting the tire.
I'm actually pretty
relieved to hear this news, believe it or not. The only problem is that
if I'm being an idiot, I need to find out how I'm being an
idiot and put a stop to it! The guy at the shop points out that tires
have a marker on them, that when they are mounted on the rim, when you inflate
to 15-20 psi, you can check that marker to make sure it is evenly spaced around
the entire wheel, and thus an indication that the bead and hook system will
hold. This bit of education, and explanation
for my problems, helps set me at ease a bit.
I also started an EN
forum thread on my ordeal, and a few people respond with having gone through
similar issues, to my surprise. In each
case, their problems were due to rim tape.
After checking out the wheel, I find that portions of the rim tape seem
to have ridden (or were originally sloppily placed) up along the wall of the
wheel and could potentially interfere with the hook/bead system. I was also warned not to mess
with it - but my gut told me that if I didn't mess with it, and it popped, I'd
have wished I had done something. Like, listen to my
gut. So, I go home and throw the dice on
manually trimming the tape with a utility knife.
After that, I remount
the Conti tire, being very deliberate about verifying that the hook and bead
system are meshed together and that the tire looks like it is mounted properly.
I inflate it and cross my fingers. The next morning, I get up and
see that it held. Yay - progress! At this point, I decide to just
leave the tire on - I don't want to mess with it anymore before the race on
Sunday.
I think back upon the
sequence of events, and determine that the third blowout, the one while the
bike was on the stand, was probably a pinch flat - I probably pinched a small
piece of the tube in between the wheel and the tire, because I installed the
tube when it was completely flat, as opposed to inflating it even a tiny amount
to give it some shape before fitting it into the tire. The second flat was most likely the sidewall,
and there’s a good chance the first was as well (I just didn’t know to check
for it). At least I have an explanation
for all three flats at this point.
On Friday evening, I go
for a short 13-14 mile ride to make sure things hold up during bumps and actually
having weight on the tire. Every little noise puts me on edge, but the
tire holds. Things are looking up!
Ok, so with that
background, let’s get back to the race!
Race Morning
I show up race morning
with my spare rear wheel and tire (still don't trust it, even though it has
been holding), and my standard compliment of two CO2 canisters, an extra tube,
and a patch kit (actually two kits - one vulcanizing and one non-vulcanizing).
I'm ready to rock this thing.
Standard stuff with
setting up in transition - crazy traffic on the way in, take a back road
alternate way to the entrance, pump up the tires (I deflated them the night
before when leaving the bike in transition - didn't want to chance a blowout!),
sort out all my transition gear, and don the wetsuit. My wave, the
M35-39, starts at 7:10 AM. We're wearing yellow caps - the wave before us
was purple caps, and the wave before that was white caps. While milling around, waiting our turn, I
turn to my friend Dave and tell him that my tire just needs to hold another 4
hours or so. Easy.
The Swim - Like a Boss!
The swim was a pretty
standard swim, except that it was clockwise instead of the typical counter
clockwise that happens in most tri's I've been in. It was a triangle
shaped course with two turn buoys. It was pretty congested at first - a
good amount of rubbing (cuz rubbin', son, is racin'!) and contact initially
with people trying to clamor over one another. After the first turn buoy,
it cleared out quite a bit and I rarely bumped into anyone from that point on.
However, once around that buoy, the sun was right in my eyes when
sighting forward, so it made it tough to be certain I was on course. I
pretty much relied on seeing kayakers acting as lane guides to make sure I was
still generally going in the right direction. It was around the first
turn buoy that I also saw my first purple cap swimmer, so I knew I was going to
be meeting up with the middle of the pack of the previous wave soon. As I
continued on, I pretty much found myself surrounded by purple caps, with a few
yellow caps around as well. After the second turn buoy, I spotted a
couple white caps as well. That is always a nice feeling, ending up
having caught up to people who started a couple waves ahead of me. After
my first olympic distance a few years ago where I was being passed by people
two waves behind me, and keeping pace with someone in my wave who did backstroke the
entire way - I'm still rather proud of myself for the form improvements I've
made that have allowed me to go from the back of the pack to the front of the
pack in the swim.
T1 - Oh look, fancy new
910xt is misbehaving!
I got out of the swim
and into transition, got the wetsuit off, put on socks, cycling shoes, race belt,
helmet, HR monitor and was off. I noticed right away that my Garmin 910XT
was not tracking distance for some reason - I was using it in multisport mode,
so it would track through swim-t1-bike-t2-run.
While that annoyed me, I also put it in perspective that it didn't
really matter that much - as I'd be slave to the power meter
on this ride anyway. My target watts were ~230, hoping to hit an average
of ~220, as it seems my actual average is always about 10W lower than my
target.
Rolling on the Bike
I did notice pretty
quickly though that my HR was a bit high - 150's and low 160's. I was a
touch concerned about that, having the mental thoughts that I really should get
that down lower, but I allowed myself to get carried away by the fact that I was
feeling good. And that I was cruising! I felt like I was shot out
of a cannon - with the new aero race helmet, and the disk jacket on the rear
wheel, I could really feel a huge difference in drag as compared to my standard
training setup. It was like a hot knife through butter. Clearly, I was worthy of the flaming skull
decals I put on my helmet - I was constantly hitting 20-25 mph pretty easily,
and I was feeling like a machine. My main concern was to down the 2 x 20
oz of Gatorade I had on my bike before the first aid station, right around mile
15, where I'd be able to pick up more. I
wanted to make sure I started off the bike right – properly fueled and
hydrated.
At first, I was being
passed a bit on the bike, but I was also passing some people as well.
After a few miles, it seemed like I settled into a pack of other cyclists
- I'd pass them on the downhill, they'd pass on the uphill, and random jostling
on flats. Eventually, I got to the point where people were relatively few
and far between - I had a good sense that I was ahead of the bulk of the pack.
Clearly, my hours and hours of intense sessions on the trainer were
paying dividends - typically I've been pretty slow on the bike, but now I was
crushing it.
It took about 45
minutes, but my HR eventually did settle into the low 150's, so I was happy to
see that. I passed the first aid station, dumped off my two empties,
grabbed two gatorade bottles and a gel. My plan for the day was to take
in 24 oz of gatorade per hour (or more, if I could) to provide the bulk of
hydration, electrolytes, and calories, with a gel or two as a caloric
supplement. One thing I had determined in training was that I needed to
improve my overall nutrition strategy, as I was frequently starting to bonk
after 3.5 hours or so - and after some retrospective analysis, I went into this
race thinking that my primary problem during long rides and races has been
dehydration, which starts a downward spiral of coming up short on calorie
intake as well.
Ruh Roh...
About 70 minutes in, not
long after the 20 mile mark, I was descending a hill, and towards the bottom,
at a turn to the left, I ran through a patch of sand. As soon as my tire
hit it, I knew it wasn't just soft sand - I could tell there was a bunch of
junk in there. I even remember thinking 'wow - if I get out of this
without a flat, I'll be amazed'. Sure enough, within a mile, I hear the
'pfft.. pfft.. pfft' of the front tire deflating as it rotates. Damnit!
I pull over and take a look. Fortunately, I can see the problem - a
little piece of glass sticking out of my front tire. This is actually a
good thing and rather settling - much better to be able to see the
offending piece of trash as opposed to having a leak and not knowing what is
causing it! I debate - patch it, or replace with my other tube? I
start by thinking I'll patch it, but quickly change my mind to replacing the
tube - although I can see the piece of glass, it put a hole so small in the
tube that I couldn't reliably detect it. Not wanting to risk putting on a
bad patch in haste, I'll just replace the tube and be done with it.
Besides, this was my bad luck for the day, right?
After inflating with
CO2, I'm off and rolling again. That wasn't too awful bad. Lost a
little bit of time, but could certainly have been worse.
And then..
It got worse. I'm
off for about a mile or so, when I notice the front tire going flat... again.
WHAT THE F#@%?! Once again, I pull over and take a look, and
realize immediately my stupidity. That little piece of glass? Still
in the tire. I left it in there to give me a reference point for where to
look on the tube for a puncture - but forgot to remove the damn thing!
Well, that blows - but at least it is explainable. Now I have to
patch the tube. Fortunately I've got patches with me and yet another CO2
canister, but I'm not happy because I'm really burning through my reserves here
- and I still have 30+ miles to go and I've already had five flats over
the past six days!
So, I put the patch on,
grab my last CO2 and start to inflate (after removing the piece of glass!).
Can you guess what happens?
No, you probably can't.
Well, if you've been following along, you can probably guess that
something didn't go right - but I'm pretty sure you won't guess what specifically
went wrong.
It starts off with some
CO2 going into the tire through the adapter tube, but some of it kicking back
out between the threaded canister and the adapter. After fiddling with it
a bit, I determine that the valve mechanism is still frozen from the last
application. For those who haven't experienced CO2 canisters - they are
great because they provide simple and quick inflation of a tube on the go, but
they also get very cold because of the expanding gas - cold enough that frost
forms on the tire valve stem, and things get frozen and sticky. So,
apparently, I've exceeded the MTBF of the canister adapter by having two flats
in quick succession. Great. Now my
tube is half filled, and I've got no CO2 left.
Race done. Dead.
I start coming to the
realization that my day is done. I'm out - I bring two CO2 and a spare
tube with me, and I'm out before the 25 mile mark on the bike because I had two
flats. Wonderful. My only question now is: What do I do?
Do I wait for a vehicle to pick me up? Does the race provide
vehicles that patrol the course to pick up people who have shitty luck like I
just had?
Just then, I fall into
some good luck for a change. I hear the words 'Hey, you
need anything?' of a fellow EN member riding by. I yell out 'Yeah, you
got a pump?!', and he pulls over to lend a helping hand.
This, folks, is why EN
is the party that rocks the party. My fellow teammate lends me his CO2
inflation kit, and within 90 seconds, I'm thanking him profusely and telling
him he just saved my race and my day.
Now you can understand why I wanted to stick to an event with a large EN
presence. Well, one of the reasons,
anyway. I wasn’t anticipating this kind
of luck.
Pins and Needles
Now that I was back, I
had one goal - get off the bike as soon as flippin' possible. At this
point, while I've had a solid 20 minutes of rest, in retrospect, I didn't
manage it well. Sure, I got going again as fast as possible - but the
distraction kept me from taking in nutrition, which would have helped hydrate
and refuel and been a wise investment for later on in the day.
So I kept on truckin'.
Every little sound, I was nervous. I don't know how many times I
checked the tires as I was cruising along to see if they were flattening on me.
I really had no confidence in anything wheel related at this point, yet
somehow I did manage to feel comfortable enough for some 40 mph descents.
I must have been severely dehydrated and delusional.
As the miles went by, I
continued to count my blessings. Mile 30 - only 26 to go. Mile 40,
only 16 to go. Mile 50 - a mere 6 miles to go. I was going to make
it!
Not so fast, Mister!
Except - that I didn't.
Yup - I crossed the 50 mile mark, could smell the bike dismount line, and
whaddya know - the front tire starts going flat. Yes, you read that
right. The front tire had developed a third flat on this
day!
At this point, I really
just didn't know what was going on. This was inexplicable. Three
flats in one race - who does this happen to?! Honestly, I felt like very
little was within my control anymore – something else was clearly in control of
my day, and that something else didn’t like me for whatever reason.
But just then, I
realized I was actually in control of one thing - my bladder. Yup – all I could control now was a body
part. So I took my helmet off, walked a
bit into the bushes, and took control.
Finally, something had gone right, and the way I planned it. Hey, sometimes we need these little victories
to get us by, right? And at least I was
hydrated enough for that to happen.
Race done. Dead.
Again.
I walked back to my
bike, looked at the front tube, and saw that it appeared the patch I applied earlier
had failed. I'm not even really sure what I was thinking at that time,
but I think I tried to remove the patch and was about to put another patch on
it (a vulcanizing one - a different type of patch that is a little more
involved to put on, but which apparently works better. Probably should
have used that from the get-go). And I'm not even really sure why I was
bothering to do that. My day was done. Again. For the second
time today, I wondered what to do at this point - a mere four miles from
what would have been the safety of my running shoes.
It should be noted that
I realized quite a difference in folks passing by as compared to the two other
flats. With the others, I probably had at least six times each where
people asked if I had everything I needed. This time, nothing. No
offered assistance. Just an interesting observation.
Benevolence and Karma
One of my oldest friends
and I have a long running joke that we make little deposits into the bank of
karma, on the understanding that we may need to make a big withdrawal at some
point. Well, apparently RBK (Ryan's Bank of Karma) was open on Sunday,
because what happened next was almost enough to make me religious.
A complete stranger, not
affiliated with the race at all, was riding along in the opposite direction
with his wife. He calls over and asks if I need any help. Yup!
I do! I'm on my third flat today and I'm pretty much shit out of
options!
He comes over and
quickly starts getting to work. I try to tell him I can replace the tube (yes,
he gives me his spare tube) and remount the tire myself, but he insists on
doing it. Ok, sir - you are the one helping me out, I am in no position
to make demands!
Here's where things just
get ridiculous, though. He gets the tube in, gets the tire on, inflates
with his CO2 (yes, he also donates his CO2), and right away - guess what
happens. Yup - the tire blows off the rim! Un-freakin-believable!
Fortunately, the tube didn't pop - so he gets his other (and presumably last) CO2
from his wife, readjusts the tire on the wheel, and finishes inflating the
tire.
I tell him that I wish I
had some way to get his name and address so I could send him something as a
thanks for saving my day, but he just brushes it off and seems happy to just be
able to help me complete my race. I tell him that I guess all I'll be
able to do is pay it forward - and I make a mental note that if I ever see
anyone on a bike on the side of the road, I'm pretty much obligated to pull
over and offer any assistance I can. I
also decide that at some point, I should ride the bike course of a triathlon
backwards with a stash of CO2 and tubes, looking for poor souls who have come
across bad luck. Maybe I can save
someone’s race.
Bike Dismount
Finally - the end.
I was completely mentally checked out of the bike portion of this
race. In fact, I was pretty much checked
out of the race entirely. I think I kept
going for two reasons – someone donated their spare equipment to me so I could
finish – I had to honor that. Also,
while I wasn’t happy about what my performance was going to be – I’d feel
incredibly lame about myself if I just gave up and tossed in the towel while I
could still put one foot in front of the other.
I get back to the transition area, and I've never been so happy to see
the bike dismount like as I was on this day. I can't wait to get my
flat-factory in transition and get my shoes on to start out on the run.
Zombies
I said this was a zombie
run, and it was - in multiple respects. I shouldn't have been running. My day should have ended. Twice. But it was still going. So.. zombie.
The first few miles
weren't too bad. Some gentle descents, some time in the sun, but also some
time in shade. Then mile four comes, and it starts getting brutal - the
hills get steep and long. I start seeing people walking. I run up
the hills a bit, but learn pretty quickly that doing so is just preventing me
from cooling down, and it's racking up heartbeats for no real benefit. So
I make the decision that my strategy for the rest of the day is to allow myself
to walk up the steeper hills - but on flats, descents and gradual uphills, I
have to keep running.
So that was the story
for most of the run - walk when necessary on the uphills, when I saw my HR
creep up, and force myself to pick up the pace after flattening out. I
stopped at every aid station, filling my hat with ice, and more often than not
taking a cup or two of ice water and dousing myself with it. I started realizing
that a major problem was overheating, and after cooling off with ice water, I
felt much better for a couple-few minutes - which was often a good chunk of the
distance to the next aid station.
By halfway through the
run course, it was total carnage. People walking huge swaths of the
distance, and running was reduced to shuffling. It was so bad that even
though I was 45 sec/mile slower than my easy pace (so, doing an average of 9
min/miles), I was still passing people. It was brutal - the heat and the
hills were really doing a number on everyone.
Zombie.
To add to that effect - my shoes were completely soaked and
every step you could hear the sound of compressing water-logged foam. Not
only a slow plod that was zombie like - but even had the appropriate sound
effects.
Miles 8 and 9 were
actually an improvement, as they were a gradual downhill. In this section, I was able to muster up some
time at just under 8 min/miles, but that was pretty much all I could do while
conserving energy for later.
Miles 10, 11 and 12 were
relatively flat and tended to be right around my easy pace of 8:20-8:30
min/miles. About ½ mile before the
finish was a nasty hill that pretty much knocked everyone out – we were all
walking up it.
The Finish
Finally, it was here -
the end. Somehow, I actually managed to sprint the last couple tenths of
a mile.
Official results (sorry for the formatting - I have neither the desire nor the time to fix something blogger should be able to handle):
Race Results
Athlete Information
| Name: | Ryan Miller |
| Bib #: | 2640 |
| Home town: | Framingham MA - US |
| Status: | OK |
| Division: | 35-39 Male |
| Wave: | Males 35-39 |
Swim | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Arrival Time | Total Time | Split | Place | Time Behind Leader | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Split Time | Course Time | Pace | Distance | Division | Overall | Gender | Wave | Division | Overall | Gender | Wave | |||
| Swim Finish | 6/2/2013 7:44:39 AM | 00:33:24.016 | 33:24 | 33:24 | 01:44 /100m | 1931.21 m | 32 / 140 | 194 / 997 | 164 / 727 | 32 / 139 | 07:59 | 11:16 | 11:16 | 07:59 |
Bike | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Arrival Time | Total Time | Split | Place | Time Behind Leader | |||||||||
| Split Time | Course Time | Pace | Distance | Division | Overall | Gender | Wave | Division | Overall | Gender | Wave | |||
| Bike Start | 6/2/2013 7:48:55 AM | 00:37:40.743 | 00:00 | 00:00 | 0.00 mph | 0.00 mi | 40 / 140 | 266 / 997 | 215 / 727 | 40 / 139 | 10:06 | 13:16 | 13:16 | 10:06 |
| Bike Split | 6/2/2013 10:14:27 AM | 03:03:12.886 | 2:25:32 | 2:25:32 | 15.91 mph | 38.60 mi | 95 / 140 | 618 / 997 | 507 / 727 | 94 / 139 | 46:21 | 51:18 | 51:18 | 46:21 |
| Bike Finish | 6/2/2013 11:26:07 AM | 04:14:52.560 | 1:11:40 | 3:37:12 | 14.57 mph | 17.40 mi | 104 / 140 | 662 / 997 | 533 / 727 | 103 / 139 | 1:08:19 | 1:15:43 | 1:15:43 | 1:08:19 |
Run | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Arrival Time | Total Time | Split | Place | Time Behind Leader | |||||||||
| Split Time | Course Time | Pace | Distance | Division | Overall | Gender | Wave | Division | Overall | Gender | Wave | |||
| Run Start | 6/2/2013 11:28:05 AM | 04:16:50.906 | 00:00 | 00:00 | 00:00 /mi | 0.00 mi | 99 / 140 | 652 / 997 | 524 / 727 | 98 / 139 | 1:09:19 | 3:42:47 | 3:42:47 | 1:09:19 |
| Run Split 1 | 6/2/2013 12:18:28 PM | 05:07:13.613 | 50:23 | 50:23 | 09:10 /mi | 5.50 mi | 93 / 140 | 591 / 997 | 476 / 727 | 92 / 139 | 1:21:43 | 1:30:37 | 1:30:37 | 1:21:43 |
| Run Split 2 | 6/2/2013 1:06:10 PM | 05:54:55.886 | 47:42 | 1:38:05 | 08:50 /mi | 5.40 mi | 84 / 140 | 510 / 997 | 412 / 727 | 84 / 139 | 1:32:08 | 1:44:24 | 1:44:24 | 1:32:08 |
| Finish | 6/2/2013 1:28:10 PM | 06:16:55.530 | 21:60 | 2:00:05 | 09:60 /mi | 2.20 mi | 82 / 140 | 494 / 997 | 396 / 727 | 82 / 139 | 1:37:54 | 1:52:12 | 1:52:12 | 1:37:54 |
Transition(s)
| Transition | Time |
|---|---|
| Bike to Run | 01:58 |
| Swim to Bike | 04:17 |
Closing Thoughts
There are a lot of
things I have to say about this race.
For those who just wanted to hear the recap, you can probably bail
here. For those interested in learning
experiences and somewhat of a close-out analysis, here you go.
First off, the
challenges of the day, in all their forms, made this one hell of a race. Never before have I gone through such an up
and down race day. While my total time
is nothing I’m terribly proud of (basically all I can say about it is that it
was still faster than my first ever half-iron, and that was on a flat course!),
there are actually a few diamonds in the rough.
Obviously, the swim was
a shining moment, being a couple minute PR for that distance (33:24 vs
36:something), and being 32/140 in my age group. This year, with EN, my swim workouts have
actually been structured, as opposed to jumping into the water and knocking out
1.5 miles in one shot. I had been
feeling like this style of workout was providing benefits, and it showed on
this swim.
Not much to say about
the bike splits. I started off 40/140 in
my age group, and ended at 104/140.
Obviously I’d have been in much better position if I didn’t have the
flats – but I’m actually rather surprised I didn’t sink further behind.
One major surprise – I
entered T2 at 104/140, and exited 99/140.
So I made up 5 spots just by switching shoes. I must have really thrown my bike or
something to have made up that kind of time on my peers.
Another surprise, which
I didn’t know until I looked at the results – was how I progressed through the
age group during the run. As brutal as
it was for me – a 2 hr half marathon is well below what I’m capable of – it was
apparently more-so for others. I left T2
@ 99/140, and by the 5.5 mile mark, I was up to 93/140. Another 5.4 miles in (so about 10 total), I
was up to 84/140, and by the end, I reached 82/140. I’m shocked I made up 17 slots in my age
group on that run. I give a lot of
credit to the strategy of conserving energy on the uphills, and not allowing
myself to wimp out on the flats (and continue walking) for that.
Overall, I passed 158
people on the run. That is shocking to
me – but it just goes to show that as much as I may not have had great
execution, it was still better than a lot of people.
But results are results,
and only apply to that one day – there are several long-term takeaways and
lessons to be learned that can be applied later.
Lesson 1 – Go slow enough to get the HR down as quickly as
possible on the bike
I admit, I
under-appreciated this distance. Having
done a half-iron twice before, I allowed myself to fall into a false sense of
complacency. In my mind, I knew I had to
execute well to have a good race, but I allowed myself to get carried away at
the start of the bike – which is certainly contrary to good execution. So while I drank the 2 x 20oz Gatorade I wanted to drink within the first
hour, my HR was probably a bit too high (often 155+) to process it effectively
– to the point that when I took the gel at mile 15, it didn’t sit well. Put another way – I Ricky-Racer’d the start,
which is something you can only afford to do in sprint and Olympic distance
triathlons. The half and (obviously)
full distance is simply too long to be able to do that and get away with it.
Lesson 2 – Keep sweating
This is a lesson learned
during training sessions, but reinforced here.
I need to do a much better job of taking in, and absorbing, hydration
early, so that sweat rate doesn’t slow down as much after the first 90 minutes
or so. Until I have this part figured
out, I need to be ok with the idea of lowering the intensity, so that I can
absorb fluids, so that I don’t start compromising my abilities later on down
the line.
Lesson 3 – Never give up
The EN coaches often say
during race recap podcasts that the best part for them is seeing how people
handle challenges and solve problems throughout the day. I was ready to give up simply because “it
wasn’t my day”. In the end, I needed the
help of others to complete the race, and I’m glad I did complete it. It would have been very easy to just give up
and mail it in – but I’d have lost the great learning opportunities that came
about during the run
Lesson 4 – Keep core body temperature low
This is tied in with
continuing to sweat, but I’ve determined – thanks to the run in this race –
that a large part of my problem is core body temperature. When I doused myself with water, I was in
much better shape. During those times,
my HR plummeted from the 150’s to the 130’s almost instantly. It needs to start on the bike, though – take
advantage of water at the aid stations to cool myself off. Not only does this assist in cooling, but by
doing so, more blood is available for digestion and moving fluids through the
gut because it doesn’t need to be used for sweating.
Lesson 5 – My bottleneck is not fitness, it is nutrition and
hydration
I spent a lot of time
and effort this winter on increasing my fitness. And my fitness did increase by measureable
amounts. However, none of that matters
if I am unable to keep up with nutrition and hydration. I absolutely must prioritize getting that completely sorted out. There are two approaches one can take during
something like a HIM or IM – go slow enough that you can get away with not
paying great attention to the details of nutrition and hydration, or you can
really dial that stuff in so that you can increase the intensity and perform to
the level your body is actually capable.
The former will work, but it’ll leave one feeling like I felt last year
after IMLP – like I left some performance on the course. I was ok with that because I just wanted to
finish – but this year I want to see significant improvement. The path to that improvement is currently
blocked by nutrition and hydration puzzles to be solved.
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