This was a "C" race for me... I'm not racing that often this year, but I knew I needed to race a time or two before my A race at the end of July (a half-iron). It was about a month after Boston, which seemed like long enough to be recovered and getting going in training again, but I guess that's pretty accurate - just "getting going" again. I did not taper for the race, save for shortening Saturday's ride to two hours.
Christopher and I got up about 4:30 in order to get to transition as close to 6:00 a.m. as reasonable in order to get a decent transition spot. I wanted to get a good spot, plus with my bad vision coming out of the swim, it's important for me to find a place I can easily see. We got to the race a little after 6:00 and got good places. Everything was fine. Christopher found his friends/teammates who were all doing the sprint.
I did a short run warmup and found my quads surprisingly dead. This didn't seem like a good sign. However, I figured that, as often, after a good warmup (read: swim), everything would be fine.
We took the bus over to the swim start, and I took a short swim warmup to find out what the 60 degree water would feel like. Fortunately, it didn't seem too bad. It was a bit cold on the face and feet, but I knew it would be ok once we got going.
The swim course is harder to navigate than many if you can't see very well because you have a very wide "lane" between the shore and a big turn, and then the swim exit isn't very easy to see after the last turn. As a result, I think I probably swam longer than I needed to. The effort, though was pretty good. I looked at my watch and saw 28-something getting out of the water (there was a very long run up to T1, so official time was 30:44). So far, so pretty-good.
T1 was a touch slow due to being a little off-balance, but I felt fine. The heart rate was high, but I was ok with that.
I started the bike, taking the first half mile or so, getting out of the park, a little easy to let my HR get down. The main part started then with the wind at our backs. I started going well and slowly catching up to some people, but I noticed that I was having trouble getting up to my target power of 200 W. This was disturbing, but again, I hoped that with more warmup, I could get there. In the long run, this did not happen, though power did slowly trend up roughly from 180 to 190 during the sections I could ride at steady state.
I falsely attributed some of the early low power to the strong wind at our backs. After a few miles, we turned east and had huge crosswinds. I have ridden enough in this kind of wind that it didn't bother me especially, except that it's obviously harder to do. But I was still disturbed that my power wasn't going up.
We hit the Pilot Mound river valley crossing (Twister Hill). I flew down the hill pretty much alone, so the blustery wind pushing me around a little didn't matter too much. Topped out at 46 mph. I could have hit 50 I'm sure, but didn't have the nerve under those conditions. Going up the hill, I tried to keep the watts under control. Didn't want to burn out, especially because of how things were already going. I had to crank it up to 250ish in a couple spots, but felt ok about it.
After getting out, a pattern emerged. I was getting regularly passed any time we'd go uphill, then pass back on the flats (or on the downhill). This pattern was ok with me, because I knew I was trying to flatten my effort, but it's a little embarrassing, especially when it's the same 2-3 people over and over again! I decided, given that the legs just weren't happy, not to pedal when I was going 32+mph if I didn't feel like it and wasn't moving relative to the field. I know that from an efficiency standpoint, you want to pedal with the wind at your back, but from a gearing standpoint, I spin out in the mid-30s. Perhaps a wider gear range would be better for these very windy rides.
By the turnaround, I had drunk most of my bottle and was very glad that another bottle was available as an exchange. This was the first indication that the heat and humidity were going to be a factor. I didn't feel uncomfortable on the bike, but I definitely was consuming water faster than normal. My recent less-is-more strategy was failing...
The last section of the ride with crosswinds felt longer than I remembered going out, but I felt like I was making progress relative to the field, so this was ok.
- Ave Power = 170 (including zeros)
- NPower = 181
- VI 1.06 (probably not bad, given the wind and hills)
- Ave speed 19.53 (ouch)
- Target power had been 200 W. Ouch.
Getting to T2, I thought everything was ok, if not great. I got on my shoes and made decent time getting out.
But as soon as I hit the trail, I again realized things were going to be tougher than I thought. I felt like I was going at a snail's pace, and I quickly got a nasty side stitch. I NEVER get side stitches, so that was pretty annoying! After getting out to the road part of the run, I looked down at my Garmin to see my pace, hoping against hope it would be faster than I thought. I saw a number that started with 9. Uggh. And now it was hot. And humid. And windy. That heat just didn't hit me the same way when I was on the bike.
At that point, I made another quick decision. The run was going to just be from one mile marker to the next, and I wasn't going to use the Garmin particularly. I would just meter out what effort I had and get through it. If things got better, I'd reconsider.
During the run course, I was passed by a few, and passed a few, but the placings seemed unusually non-dynamic. It was as if everyone in my time range were all suffering. I was personally disappointed I couldn't give it my usual effort. I pride myself in running well, and I just couldn't.
Fortunately, the side stitch went away after a couple miles, and I felt marginally better. I took lots of water and gatorade from the aid station and was pleased to see Joe Robinson and a couple other fans along the way. Thanks guys!
Eventually, of course, the race ends. After I was able to get my times, I was actually relieved that the run was "only" 51:10, or about 8:15/mile. Now that's easily a minute per mile slower than I'd like to go, but I realized in the end that it wasn't the utter disaster that it felt like. I realized that a few bouts of mental toughness where I had stuck to it instead of walking had paid off at least modestly. I was hoping to hit a 7:00/mile Oly this year, but it sure wasn't going to happen today.
I found out that Christopher won his age group in the sprint, so that was a fantastic plus. I should have been mean Dad and made him drink more, though, because he got sick later in the day in a way that sure looked like dehydration.
Some statistics and remarks:
- Start time was 8:30ish. At 10 a.m., the temp was over 80, the humidity about 90%, and winds 20 mph, gusting to 30+ according to the local weather web site
- Could I have just plain bonked? I've been trying to take off a few last pounds, and did not take any calories on the bike on Saturday 2 hour ride and really didn't eat more than normally in anyway after a post-ride clif bar. Normally, this isn't a problem, but did it just put me in too much glycogen deficit?
- Obviously, the legs weren't ready today, on top of the heat. How many days does it take after some hard work to get them there? I wonder how much this really mattered as well.
In the end, I have to reconcile myself to being satisfied with this race. It was a disappointing performance, but I didn't really set myself up for success, and the conditions were tough.
If it's a test of fitness, then I know where I am. More work to do.
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