Ironman Wisconsin 2011 Race Report

Quick statistics:

• 73:51 swim (4 minute PR on course)
• 6:54 T1 (1:46 PR)
• 5:46:52 bike (2 minute PR)
• 2:29 T2 (2:34 PR)
• 4:12:53 run (34 min PR)
• Total 44 min PR vs 2009
• 22/271 age group starters; 22/237 age group finishers; 253/2243 finishers
• 2243 started/2449 finished = 8.4% DNF

Executive summary:  I am basically pleased, though I had hoped for a better time.  Run and bike went well.  I gambled on the run and paid for it; the last 2/3 of the run was very, very painful.  Overall, a B+ for doing well at parts of the race and gutting out the run.

Prerace

In the week before the race, there was an unfortunate confluence of many things happening in my professional and family life, and I didn’t have the ability to sleep or mentally prepare as you would like.  Nonetheless, I resolved to make due and get everything done Friday before the race as much as possible to at least give myself Saturday to rest and mentally prepare.  Cynthia was not thrilled with the idea of leaving for WI at 5:00 a.m. on Friday, but we got out the door (also with my mother) and made our way to Madison.  Friday morning, we met up with the EN crew for a bit and got a friend his wallet who had left it home the day before.

Check-in was smooth, except for my weigh-in.  They put me down for 158 lbs, which I knew to be crazy.  I had not weighed myself for the last week of taper, but I had been 143-145 lbs up to that point.  Give it 2-3 lbs for time of day, maybe another 2-3 in water weight from taper, and 5 lbs for clothes, but this still seemed crazy high.  Not that this mattered, but it comes up later… (Other people in line who used the same scale also thought their weight was quoted high to them.)

The rest of Friday and Saturday went pretty much as planned.  I managed to sleep well on Friday night and even got a Saturday afternoon nap.  Lunch was the last big meal.  At dinner with TRI racer friends, I had a small pizza that I removed 90% of the cheese from, so it was basically bread with tomato sauce and a bit of cheese and spices.  I drank quite a bit of G2 throughout the day.

Saturday evening, I showered and shaved and put on a thick layer of Bullfrog sunscreen before bed.  At 2:00 a.m., I got up and chugged two Naked Juice smoothies (about 750 cal) and was able to go to sleep again until 4:00.  Another thick layer of sunscreen, get dressed, and drink more G2 for the rest of the morning….

The big excitement of the morning getting to the race was that the car wouldn’t start!  Fortunately, we carry a backup battery in the car, and this also went fine.  I got to transition, and pumped up my tires, only to find I had not brought my electrical tape to close up my “gap” on my disc cover.  Oh well.  I tried to just let it go.  Evidently most of my friends had already been in and out of bikes by the time I got there.

I stayed in transition area until it started getting light because I need my glasses.  At that point, I handed them off to Cynthia.  There was no line at the helix, so we just walked down.  Getting into the wetsuit was leisurely and there was plenty of time.

Swim

I wanted to beat the crowd into the water, so I went in very shortly after they started letting folks into the water.  I made my way past the ski jump and hung out between there and the buoy line.  This also enabled me to do a brief warmup.  As people came in – closer to the gun time – I just looked for a less-dense area in that range. 

My swim goal had been to be “strong” and not get lost behind the churn in such a way that would cost me 10 minutes or something.  I had predicted 75 min time, with 70 minutes as a dream time.  I lined up 5-10 people back from the start, and when the start came, I was off.

I was fortunate that my choices worked out.  The swim was crowded, but not crazily for me.  There were long stretches where I was able to tactically draft.  I did have a bit of a delay at the first turn, but nothing that caused me to actually stop swimming.  I cannot overemphasize how I love the knowledge of this swim course being 800/200/800/200 and the buoys so easy to follow.

I got to the end of the first loop finally, wondering how I was doing, so I looked at my watch, and saw 35 min.  Awesome.  On the third 800, something not-awesome happened…I got an abdominal cramp.  I decided that there was nothing to do about it but keep swimming, but I knew I was going a little slower.  After 10-15 minutes, it resolved itself and I felt a lot better.  My watch said 73:40 when I got out of the water.  I figured that between the cramp and the extra time to get back to shore, this was a good result for the second lap.  I left the swim pleased.  Not extatic, but pleased.

T1

Another big plus from the swim was that I was not exhausted or incoherent.  Out of breath?  Yes.  But unable to run up the helix? No.  I have a 2-minute improvement in T1 in part because I exited the swim in better shape than I did in 2009.  I had to get and dump out my own bag, but this is not a big delay.  A volunteer delayed me maybe 15 seconds trying to mess with my number.  I had worn it under the wetsuit, but the low quality paper had scared me, so I had stashed the second race number in my T1 bag in case my number got ruined on the swim.  The volunteer (understandably) got confused and was trying to put on the number, blah blah blah.  However, he paid me back by letting me leave without stashing my wetsuit.

Bike

I had predicted a 5:45 bike time, thinking 5:40 would be my miraculously good time and anything under 5:50 would be fine.  Statistically, my bike came out almost perfect with my work goals:

• ·      163 W NP (target 161)
• ·      153 W AP (target 155)
• ·      NP 1.07 (high due to judicious coasting in certain places, not spikes)
• ·      IF 0.71
• ·      TSS 270-278, depending on which software I believe.

My display had current W,  lap average W and total average W, among other things.

I took the first “stick” easy, between 5-10 watts down from targets.  I had a bottle of InfiniT and a bottle of water, plus 2-3 gels in my bento.  I was riding fine, mostly getting passed.  Once I got to the loop, I decided it was time to get going, and cranked up to my target.  Always looking for a current W in the low 160s and keep the lap average power near 155.  I took laps about every 30 min after the first 45 min.

My first mistake on the bike came on a very early aid station (first or second).  I tossed both my home-brought bottles…the water was almost empty, but I had not yet started to eat much.  It was a water-only exchange!  Ouch!  After this, I wisely decided to take a gel at most of the aid stations whether I needed it or not, just to have some on board.  This turned out to be good, because I got one bottle of Perform that had a faulty lid (or at least one I could not get to stop leaking all over me) and had one bounce out at a railroad crossing.

Aside from this, I simply spent the bike trying to do it as wisely as possible.  I kept my max watts down and kept drinking and eating.  After things settled down a bit, I almost got to the point of laughing at a handful of guys who kept beating me up hills and letting me catching them going down.  I had learned the ride well enough that I knew where to apply some good downhill watts to get back up hills.  This worked great except for a spot where an oncoming semi took up almost 2/3 the road….

I very much enjoyed seeing Cynthia on the bike course.  I kind of wondered where my mom was, but figured she was just standing back, since Cynthia didn’t say anything.  There were some funny signs, and I ran into a couple friends along the way.  Other than fighting the water bottles that didn’t fit the cages and the railroad crossing that bumped anything out of them, my only problem was some hot-foot on my right side that I knew would be relieved by lowering pressure on the sole.  I loosened the strap on the front of the shoe and this helped but did not quite solve the problem.

I made a judicious decision in the last hour to let off the gas a bit on the downhills when there weren’t up-and-down features to get over.  I was feeling strong, but definitely the wear of 100 miles was there, so I was trying to preserve my leg strength.  However, I did make one mistake.  My GPS had my bike split a couple of miles too long, and I “checked out” too soon.  I probably rode 3+ miles with my feet on top of my shoes.  Was there even a full minute of time lost?  Probably not, but it was frustrating and a little mentally unbalancing to think you are almost done when there are 2-3 miles left.

I knew I had reached the end in good shape when going up the helix was almost fun.  However, this is where I made my second, and more critical mistake.

I knew the temps would be near 80, and that my “ideal” run time would be around 8:30 pace for the opening and 8:00 after.  But I felt great and did not feel hot, so I decided that instead of backing that down as I should have, I would start at 8:30 and see how it felt…if we were lucky on the temps and I kept myself cool, maybe I could hang on to 8:30 for the whole time.  This decision – and not knowing that it was hotter than 80 degrees (or shortly would be)  - undid my run.

T2

T2 was very uneventful and fairly quick.

Run

The IM splits tell the whole story:

RUN SPLIT 1: 8.9 mi	8.9 mi (1:15:22)	8:28/mi
RUN SPLIT 2: 13.2 mi	4.3 mi (39:40)	9:13/mi
RUN SPLIT 3: 21.95 mi	8.75 mi (1:29:34)	10:14/mi
RUN SPLIT 4: 26.2 mi	4.25 mi (48:17)	11:21/mi

My first 8 miles or so didn’t hurt that bad, and 8:30 was pretty easy.  I managed to feel cool (or at least not too hot) by keeping ice in my shorts.

But I had cooked myself.  My groin and the lower medial muscle attached to my knee (next to quads) started to SCREAM. I was in a lot of pain.  I managed it by running whatever pace I could go, then taking 20 steps, then starting again.  I never walked more than that, with the exceptions of Observatory hill and one other short hill, but I ended up taking the breaks more frequently.  The 20 step discipline, though, was key.  No “until the bush” or whatever.  I did not count my steps at aid stations, but I decided this was a necessity, since they were not as well organized as I had hoped.  Sponges were often warm; drinks came in different orders, etc etc etc.  But I never walked more than a couple of steps past the aid station either.

My mile-to-mile splits just kept getting slower and slower.  My shoes were sloshing with water from all the ice and sponges.  My young son delights in the image I told him of being in the big burlap bag with the Big Man With The Stick hitting you.  Well, unfortunately, that was where I was.  As poor as my run was, I am proud of the effort I put in on it.

Post race

As I crossed the line, I knew I was in bad shape because of all the suffering I had done on the run.  I got taken to the med tent and re-weighed.  Although I had been drinking constantly and never felt thirsty, they declared me to be over-dehydrated because my post race weight was in the 140s.

You may recall that my pre-race weight seemed crazy high.  Maybe this worked to my advantage.  I got a liter of IV fluid and felt a lot better.  Oh yeah, and 3 bottles of Perform, and felt like never drinking anything again.  They sent me home, which was too bad, because I didn’t get to watch some friends finish, but it was probably for the best.

Analysis

I give this race a solid B+, even though I thought I was in shape to break 11:00

• I was in shape and good weight.  My bike and run fitness were solid and had not fallen dramatically.  My swim fitness was peaked for sure.
• I executed the swim well.  I might have taken a couple more minutes off from a harder effort.  I definitely would have taken less time without the cramp.  That, however, is racing, and I am completely satisfied.
•  My bike season has been an odd one.  It has been a season of consolidation rather than gains.  I did not have any bike PRs at the half distance.  However, what fitness I did bring, I extended its distance-worthiness effectively.  I did not feel at any point terribly strained on this bike ride.  I executed as planned.  No miracles happened.  I made one very good decision (getting gels), one modestly bad one (underestimating the remaining distance of the leg), and one terrible one (underestimating the temperature).  For the bike leg itself, again, I feel good about the effort.  The VI looks high at 1.07, but this is partly a function of my relatively low FTP of 230 W.  I just can’t get up some of those hills at all without putting out 200+ W.  Again, I am satisfied that I did the best I could with what I had that day.
• I blew my race on the run with hubris.  I knew I had a good day going and I bet on pushing it for a statistically very good day.  I will never know what would have happened if the temps stayed around 79-80, but even then, I was probably too ambitious.  I managed to FEEL fairly cool in my white top and with the ice and I did not know what was happening with the real temps.  This said, I live with my decision.  I would advise myself against it doing things again, but I won’t beat myself up about it. I am pleased with my mental strength.  If I had known I was 30 seconds behind a couple more guys in my AG, maybe I could have caught them to get into the top 20.  But I did not and I did not.

This race probably fairly reflects where I am as a racer.  Pretty good.  Definitely above average…but having to have a perfect day to get into the sub-elite.  That didn’t happen for me.  I still put together a good overall performance, if not quite the one I was capable of, even on the day.  (I think I would have netted a faster run by slowing down more at the beginning.)  But it was close enough for me to feel good about it, and I know that – the one critical bad judgment aside – I left absolutely everything I had on the run course, given the pain and psychology of the day.

Chisago City Half Ironman Race Report

Race Report for Chisago Half Ironman, July 24, 2011


Executive summary:  “Local” quality race on a nice course, with attendant issues of “local” quality leadership.  Foibles on swim (my fault and that of course and RD) meant I have nothing to take home from the swim.  Otherwise, very good race for me, despite not really tapering or even training intelligently.  Smashed my HIM run PR. 4:52 final time.


Background/Prerace


I have been looking forward to this race all summer.  Although it was not a race I was going to “prepare for” other than taking a couple of easy days in advance, it was going to be special because Chris was racing it with me – in fact, that was the only reason I was going to do the race.  He has had a great summer full of elite soccer reffing, but has still worked hard to get the bike work in that he could, and he was running and swimming with organized groups, too, so I knew he would have a good race.  On paper, you could make a case that we should be VERY competitive with one another, but we all know that the first race at a HIM rarely goes perfectly (or even well), so the reality was that I probably had an advantage in the intra-family championship.  Nonetheless it was going to be great.


Saturday, we got packed up, got haircuts, and drove up to Chisago City, northeast of St. Paul.  It was raining, but this was going to be a relief, weather-wise.  We checked in and listened to a not-very-impressive course talk, then drove the bike course.  This was instructive, because I had thought the course was flatter than it was.  Actually, it was full of relatively gentle rolling hills.  
The rest of the evening was fun, if uneventful, except for having to find a new hotel room at the last second.


Race Morning


We again lucked out on the weather.  It would be in the 60s for much of the morning, before warming up to the 80s.  The transition area was – Chris’s words – a bit sketchy, but there was enough basic room, and we got set up, marked and the like.
The start was bizarre.  There was an elite wave, and the rest of the waves were in groups of 50 by registration number.  You therefore were not racing with people in your age group, nor did you know anything about where such people were.  Strict time-trialing I guess!  Chris was in the elite group because of his fast swim.  I was in heat 8, about 15 minutes later.
Right before the start, a fog rolled in.  The RD decided to go ahead and start the swim anyway to stay on time.


Race Plan


I did not really have a race plan. Those that know me will realize that’s pretty uncharacteristic.  However, my race prep for the three weeks in advance consisted of:

• July 1-4 very heavy bike and some swim
• July 5 Swim
• July 6-14 90 miles of running, mainly in 100 degree heat.  No bike, no swim.  (Business trip)
• July 15 off
• July 16-17 Long bikes in 105+ heat
• July 18-20 normal training (SBR) with surprisingly devastated legs
• July 21-23 hard swimming only; I just didn’t see the purpose in digging a deeper hole for my legs.
• I knew what I had been able to do for KS in mid June: aim for 180 W, average 170 after coasting, etc, which led to a run PR of 1:36:35 (7:22 pace).  Given my prep, I just figured I would go with trying to duplicate that effort if it was there, and just enjoy the day if not.  I guess that’s a race plan. :)

Nutrition was going to be sparse on the course; I took one bottle of 200 calories of InfiniT for the first 20 miles, and would then live on Gatorade.   They were vague about what would be available on the run, so I packed several gels, planning to take them at miles 1, 5, and 9, and have a spare if they ran out of Gatorade on the bike.


Swim


The swim course was a straight out and back.  In theory.  In reality, it was shaped like a fork, i.e., with a bend at the last buoy.  I know it’s the athlete’s responsibility to know and navigate the course, but between the fog and lousy buoys, it was darn near impossible to see where you were going.  Furthermore, the small waves made it worse.  You could easily get down to just a few people and no one really knew where you were going or could see anything else all that useful.  The kayaks were far too neutral, given the circumstances.  They could have done a much better job of keeping everyone on course.  We all watched in amazement as people in the elite/pro wave went all over the place…and the rest of us were not immune.  All this complaining is probably something I should just suck up and be silent about, but my visual difficulty didn’t make it any easier, and I went way off course I am sure.  I ended up swimming into people goin the other way as well.  [In discussing this with other people after the race, a lot of people said the same thing; additionally there were many reports of people turning around one buoy too early.]


I finished the swim in a disappointing 39:30.  I thought I was swimming fast enough for maybe 3 minutes faster, but of course we will never know.  However, I came out of the water in pretty good shape, not having had to deal with chop like at KS.


Bike


The first 15 minutes of the bike was a little ragged as usual.  I averaged 168 W excluding zeros or 157 including them.  Ugh.  But then suddenly I just felt a lot better.  I went up to targeting the 180, and it got easy.  Found myself targeting 190.  No problem.  A little taken aback, but what the heck.  This is where I should be based on FTP testing, even though I pooped out at KS.  I thought to myself that this is a fun race for me with no expectations, so let’s see what happens.  The long and short of it was that I stuck to it the whole way.  Final average of 187 W, several watts lower including zeros.  
While out on the course, I decided to play Ricky Racer to an extent.  There was a moderate wind, and a big pile of Sprint racers to go through.  The course was not especially crowded for me though, so I played the “legal draft” game of riding up directly behind riders to pass, then going around them at near the last second.  There was plenty of room, so it was safe, and I was entirely within the rules.  Whether I really saved time, I don’t know, but it was a fun game to play.  I had a good time with that.


At about the halfway mark, I felt pretty darn alone on the course for several miles.  Eventually I caught up with more riders, though.  I was passed by a number of VERY strong riders, but I did not get passed by people I would regard as contemporaries particularly.


The bike course has several sections of excellent road.  It also has a few (maybe 10 mi total?) of really terrible, bumpy road.  This was bumpy enough to jar lots of bottles out, and bumpy enough that I had a hard time maintaining power.


With the increase in power and flatter course, the result was better than KS – 21.6 MPH average.  This is not my world record, but I was still very pleased, given the circumstances of the day.  The only question was what would this harder effort do to my run.


Run


The answer:  nothing.


Again, just running the race for fun, I figured I’d just run the first few miles at a comfortable pace, see what it was, and just keep an eye on the pace to keep it not completely out of control, fast or slow. First mile 7:10.  Whoa buddy, just a little fast.  Relax a little.  Second mile 7:00.  I said, “relax” would you!  Third mile, 7:01.  OK, what the hell. Let’s just go with it.  I did my gels as planned and walked the 10 steps or whatever is required to get the water every time.


Ran the whole course at a 7:00 pace with pretty even splits, taking account for a bit of geography.  Yeah, ok, the last couple were harder, but not death defying.


Amazingly, this led to a 1:31:43, a FIVE MINUTE run PR for the distance.  


Back to the bit with Chris and the race:  the run course is out and back, mainly through residential neighborhoods.  It’s a very pleasant and pretty flat course.  I had expected to see him somewhere in my 5-6 mile range coming the other way.  In reality, I was closer than I thought and the out-and-back had a loop at the end, so I missed him.  I caught him at the 8 mile mark and he was clearly suffering.  He had had some cramps.  I didn’t get all the details, but I tried to encourage him because I knew he was really doing pretty well.  But, if there’s one thing that boy can do, it’s suffer with the best of us.  I worried a little bit, because I know what cramps can do to you, but I moved on and knew he would be ok.


I finished my race and wandered around.  Just a few minutes later, Chris came through…very excitedly.  I saw the whole thing; he ran straight through the chute and eventually just dived onto the ground. I misinterpreted his excitement for pain, but I was very proud.  I caught up to him and offered him my best.  It was great.


We finished the day with him picking up a 3rd place medal, and me finishing 7th.  There were quite a number of very fast dudes in my age group, even though there were only 56 entries.  I came away very happy with my time and experience.


Pluses and Minuses of this Race


The Chisago half is an inexpensive race, and they let people under 18 race.  Those are both big pluses.  The location means it is unlikely to be excessively hot.  That too is a positive.
On the negative side, there were consistently too few volunteers throughout the course – on the swim, at the aid stations, etc., and the transition area was crowded.  I have also alluded to the road quality, but the course has changed on the bike more than once and this may or may not be an issue going forward.


Overall, it is a good enough race if it fits one’s schedule and needs.  It is not as well run as Pigman, but the run is a lot more pleasant.  


Lessons Learned


I have been thinking about this ever since we started the drive home.  What did this race mean?
I’m not certain of that. I think I am pleased with my ability to adjust upward, as well as downward, from whatever low-grade “plan” I had.  I imagine I should take home the idea that – for me – “less may be more” on race week if there is any question about it for the last few days.

2011 KS 70.3 Race report

Executive Summary

• Goal time sub-5:00; actual time 5:06:51 (slow swim for everyone)
• 6^th place in age group
• Swim improved regarding placement if not time; bike iffy but ok; good run
• Minimal nutrition worked fine for me. 300-350 cal total on bike. ~600 total for race.

Saturday

Christopher and I drove down to Lawrence on Friday night and had dinner with EN friends. Our plan was that Chris would ride the bike course Saturday morning while I checked in, etc. (He is getting ready for a race in July.) Then we would drive the course.

We slept in and then got over to the venue a bit before 10:00 a.m., which was the opening time for registration. Chris got his gear on and we headed up to the check-in area. After a bit of confusion from the staff, he found the volunteer check-in and got on his way. I checked in easily as well. I put my number on my bike and headed over to T1. I was pleased to find that my space would be very easy to find coming out of the water. I checked my bike in and practiced finding the spot a few times, then left happy after deflating my tires.

With Chris being out for about 3 hours, I went back up to the outdoor expo area. I was feeling optimistic; the T1 spot seemed like a good omen. I bought a few small knickknacks and met some friends from TRIracers and Endurance Nation, but tried to keep mostly in the shade and hydrated. After Chris returned, we got Subway for lunch and then drove the bike course. This was a good thing. Although none of the hills were outrageous, I had forgotten just how constant they were. Chris was an excellent and invaluable course guide.

We then checked into the hotel and joined the TRIracers for early dinner. I made sure to keep it very simple: pasta with a plain sauce. We sat outside in heat and sun, which I didn’t care for, but I did my best to minimize the problem. After dinner, Chris and I retired to the hotel after buying some stuff for breakfast in the morning. He went to sleep and I finished up packing for the morning. The last step was to shower and then (yuck) apply a heavy dose of sunscreen. As in 2009, I obsessed over the weather, which didn’t look good (storms…), but there was nothing to do about it, so I went to sleep.

Sunday Pre-Race

By morning, it was clear that the weather would cooperate. Breakfast was 500 calories worth of Naked Juice smoothies with protein and one small breakfast bar (so I wouldn’t feel hungry) all before 4:00 am. This worked fine. I was not hungry all day, well into late afternoon.

We arrived on site a little before 5 am, but that was not quite early enough to avoid the crowds. Chris took off for his volunteering duties on his bike and I walked up to T2 to set up my gear. (This was the first race in a while that I used almost all the available time; note to self: get to KS 70.3 VERY early next time!)

I headed down to T1 and set up my stuff – inflated the tires, set out my shoes and socks and laid my helmet on the ground by my bike with my glasses inside. I checked the straps of the helmet just to be sure they hadn’t gotten dislodged like at Steelhead last year…. After a final trip to the portapotties, I put on my wetsuit and tried using a new (to me) spray-on silicone lubricant to be able to get it off.

Swim

The swim was a deep-water start. I discovered that I hadn’t taken off my wedding ring, so I quickly transferred it to my bigger middle finger, knowing it would not come off that way. The course was approximately 950 m out, 200 m left turn, 750 m return – very simple.

I felt pretty confident starting out. The water was in the mid-70s but I felt very comfortable in the wetsuit. The gun went off, and I started swimming, focusing on the stroke I’ve been working on. Everything seemed to be going fine for the first couple hundred yards. It was not super-crowded, but I noticed right away that I was having some trouble drafting. Shortly I wondered what the hell was going on with some super-kicker next to me. Then I thought maybe it was some annoying boat not too far from us. Then I figured out that that we were actually subject to much choppier water than we had realized. This seemed to get worse as we got out into the water. There were two effects for me. First, drafting was near impossible because of all the water-induced jostling of bodies. Second, it was just more “work” to make progress. The first leg felt longer than it should have. The worst section, though, was the short leg. The current/chop just was making progress much more difficult. It was a relief to turn back to shore and get back to “normal crappy” conditions. I was never scared or confused, but I wasn’t happy about the situation.

As I got out of the water, I glanced at my watch and, in horror, saw 40 minutes. I was really disappointed, and knew that was probably the end of my sub-5:00 day. I heard Chris yelling for me, and that cleared me out of my funk and got me going again.

Bike

Transition was relatively smooth. My wetsuit came off easily, so I’m going to use this silicone spray again. I whipped off my goggles and got on my glasses and helmet. Sock, sock, shoe, shoe, grab the bike and run. I did cheat to get a drink from a water bottle. Bad idea to do anything standing still, but I was quite thirsty. (Bad William! Bad William!)

It was immediately clear on the bike that the swim had cooked me more than I was used to. I hoped that everything would calm down fairly quickly, but the swim-fatigue lasted longer than I would have liked, maybe 20 minutes.

My original aggressive plan had been ~175 W for the opening of the bike, and as high as 190-195 W after that, based on a guess of a 2:30-2:35 split. However, that first 20-30 minutes didn’t feel very good, and the speeds I was able to get on the day with the hills made it clear I wasn’t going to get that 2:30ish split no matter what. I made an on-the-fly decision dropped my wattage goal to around 180 W, knowing I would likely cook myself if I went 195 W for 2:45. I had a small snafu with my Garmin that caused me to miss a small portion of the course and I cannot properly input into PowerAgent or WKO+, but in the end, it was clear that I met this goal based on the analysis I can do with GTC and Golden Cheetah.

During the bike course, I passed more often than I was passed, but I did notice a couple of guys in my age group that blew by me. I was using the even-power strategy, so over and over I got dusted up the hills only to catch people down the hill or on the flats. There were plenty of spots where I could cruise without pedaling with speeds in the mid 30s mph. There was this one guy that did this repeatedly with me during the course… he would repeatedly get out of his seat and destroy me going up a hill and I would catch him. There were a few guys from my age group that I thought I was keeping close enough to catch on the run, but I wasn’t going to kill myself on the bike to get them. I did catch a couple of friends (Nelson and Jass) who routinely out-swim me, but I was glad to see they seemed to be biking strong. I did not see a lot of drafting, and the course was not packed in my area, either.

Because of the mild weather, I had opted to put all my nutrition in a single bottle and drink water from the course. I had a 500 calorie bottle of InfiniT and made sure to drink some about every 15 minutes. I didn’t finish any of my water bottles completely before any of the aid stations, but exchanged for a full one each time.

As the bike was approaching the 2:00 or 2:15 mark, I was pretty sure I could come in somewhere around 2:45. I had hoped to go faster, but I knew I didn’t have anything much faster that day. Mentally, I resolved that I would just live with the result. I was pretty spent and knew that I hadn’t had 2.5+ hours worth of harder riding in me that day. I think the swim bothered me more than I would have liked. I decided to play the run in a very “normal” strategy, not being super-aggressive to try to catch anybody, taking risks for places. I thought I was too far back for it to make much difference, and I figured I could put up a decent run and be happy with a good, if not killer, day.

As I pulled into the end of the bike, I took note of the amount of my calorie bottle that remained. It appeared that I had only consumed about two-thirds of it, i.e., around 300, maybe 350 calories. I decided I needed to be careful about nutrition on the run.

Run

I came into T2 smoothly and found my spot. I took off my helmet to find that I had done the whole bike with my swim cap on! I quietly and quickly wondered how much that had cost me, but there was nothing to do about it. Got on my shoes, grabbed my stuff, and went. At the first aid station, I popped a gel and got some water to wash it down.

My super-aggressive goal had been 7:30 for 3 miles and then as close to 7:00 as possible for the remainder of the run.

I resolved not to look at my Garmin for half a mile so I wouldn’t get all upset that I was going too slow coming off the bike. I looked finally and found myself going along at around 7:15. I deliberately slowed down to the easiest pace I could bring myself to go, which was right around 7:30. The geography of the course was generally mild with some slight gradients, excepting one big dip/hill. In the end, that geography put me at around 7:15 for the first three miles. The hill was too steep to run fast down it but it would definitely cost some time going up. By this point, I was aware that I was making progress through the crowd. I saw several EN and TRIracer friends, which is always great. The turnarounds were long enough that it was hard to judge about any progress from one to the next. Crowd and teammate support was awesome. It is so cool to get a boost from seeing folks.

After the 3 mile mark, I tried pushing closer to 7:00 for a little while, but it felt too hard. I was feeling good near 7:15 and decided just to stay in that range, and if there was a lot left, use it in the last 5K. I realized that this has been the pattern of my good HIM runs. Instead of running the first three miles as slowly as I’d like, I tend to find an intermediate pace that feels very easy. Then I tend to keep the pace constant, but it just feels harder and harder.

The one concession I made to speed was that I came to a walk for 5-10 steps to get my nutrition at the aid stations. I never felt close to a bonk or anything, but I knew I was going on the low end, so I felt like I had to be sure I got something down. I believe I took the “Gatorade” (PowerBar brand…) 7 times. That would mean 125-150 calories at 3-4 ounces on average, plus 100 calories from the gel, for a total of about 225-250 calories total on the run and under 600 during the whole race.

The KS course is two loops, so there are people coming onto the course at the same time at the I’m starting my second loop. Some of them look pretty good; some are suffering already. I will admit to getting a private chuckle from passing a few people who clearly had no idea I was a full lap ahead of them when they said something about good going. I was always as polite as I can manage.

From mile 3 to 9 or so, the run was pretty uneventful except for a near-constant mild abdominal stitch. I was starting to want to see the miles tick off as it got notably tougher to keep the pace. I had to start looking at the Garmin to assure myself I was going as fast as I needed to. The fatigue was definitely muscular, not bonking.

The last 5K was an exercise in following through what I started and giving pretty much everything I had, even if the splits of 7:20-something do not show I was working so hard. I got into the beginning of the very long chute, and Chris yelled at me to hustle as there was someone behind me. It took an incredible distance to accelerate to my top available pace, but I finished as hard as I could and held off the guy behind me. I knew I had given my best, at least on the run.

The race-based splits were way off. Accounting for the race geography, my splits ended up about as even as they could possibly be, with a few seconds per mile fade at the end. But not more than a few seconds. My final run time was 1:36:35, a PR by a little over a minute at the HIM distance.

That was it. I was spent. I just put my head down on something (about a 4 foot stack of water bottles) and stood there for quite a while. Someone came over to ask me if I needed medical assistance, but what I needed was time to recover.

Post Race

After the race, I spent most of my time standing, as I was sore all over. It felt like every muscle I had was sore. I saw friends and Chris and got to check in with everyone. I thought I had PRed the run, but hadn’t seen an official time. Finally I got my phone and Cynthia had texted me to tell me I got sixth and I almost started to cry; I couldn’t believe it. I checked and she was right.

Before the race, I had written “I will NOT fall asleep on the swim. I will ride steady at first and hold hard in the last half hour. I will show discipline in my run and I will have nothing left at the end.” Aside from the mental compromise I made with myself about where “riding steady” was, I have to think this was a success.

As the statistical measures below will show, the lesson I really need to take from this race is that I should not get discouraged from my mid-race numeric results. I need to just bear down and stick with the plan or improvise as need be…but focus on doing the best I can and let things sort themselves out in the end.

Some technical/statistical notes

Transitions

We can’t all swim as fast as Andy Potts or run as fast as Rini. But we can try to be as fast at transitions. I’ve tried to go minimalist, with the exception that I generally put on socks and shoes before mounting my bike.

T1 had a pretty normal setup, but my tactic had been to be as sure as I could where it would be. I was far from the bike exit, but it was paved, so I figured I could run with my cleats pretty easily. I still spent an extra 10 seconds finding my bike, and I cheated by taking a drink, but otherwise, it was at least OK.

At T2, I had a very minimalist setup. A pair of shoes and a ziplock bag. Inside the bag was my hat and a can of sprayon sunscreen. I dropped my helmet (and swim cap!!!), slipped on my shoes, and picked up the bag. Before hitting the exit (again, the long way from where I was), I was jogging/running, had my hat on, and had sprayed my arms, ears, and neck. I was lucky that Chris was at the exit, so he kept the sunscreen, but I had been prepared to just toss it in the garbage on the way out.

So let’s see how I did compared to some random pro, like, say, Chrissie Wellington:

• T1: Chrissie 1:28, William 2:51. Ouch. That whole glasses and shoe thing clearly costs me. She’s also probably better at getting off the wetsuit. I can improve.
• T2: Chrissie 1:09, William 1:08. OK, that’s better. J

Statistical measures

Swim:

• 2011 KS, 41 min , 437^th, 70.3^rd percentile overall, 79^th percentile AG;
• 2010 Steelhead, 34 min, 542^nd, 70.0 percentile overall, 85.8 percentile AG
• 2009 KS 38/5 min, 722^nd, 67.5 percentile overall, 73^rd percentile AG
• If the larger events grow mostly in the middle, not at the top, I am improving. If they grow in a “flat” way, my progress is minor. This is my worst event in terms of placement, no matter what.

Bike:

• 2011 KS, 2:45 290/1476 overall, 17/124 in AG
• 2009 KS, 2:45 484/1487 overall, 41/156 in AG
• Clearly enough, the conditions must have been a bit tougher in 2011. I still wish there had been a more measurable time improvement, but clearly enough I moved up within the cohort by holding the same time.

Run

• 2011 KS, 1:36:35, 189/1476 overall and 5/124 AG
• 2009 Ks, 1:39:12, 484/1487 and 27/156 AG
• In 2009 there were 16 male 45-49 runners under 1:40 and there were only 11 in 2011. Again, this indicates at least anecdotally that the race was a little slower in 2011. So this represents my best improvement. This is ironic in that it was already my strength. Maybe, though, it represents better management than actual run improvement; hard to say for sure.

Drake Half Marathon report

Drake Half Marathon Race Report

April 30, 2011

Des Moines, IA.  56 ˚F and cloudy at start time.  Moderate wind.  Moderately rolling loop course with 433 ft total climb (source: USATF map)

Course: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=122478

Gun time 1:29:00.  Previous PR for the distance: 1:38:12 in 1990, and 1:37:57 for the run leg of a half ironman in 2010.

Background

The Drake Half Marathon was a B+ race for me this year.  I spent all winter on a “get fast” program for both bike and run.  My best 5K time trial was 19:15.  I did another one at the very end of the training cycle, at which I thought I had a chance to go to ~19:00 or just under, but I couldn’t hold it mentally and fell apart.  I did not adjust my VDOT paces, took 2 weeks of transition time, and am in my 4^th week of training for a HIM distance triathlon.  As prep for this race, I moved a weekend bike ride to the beginning of the week, dropped the mileage on my mid-week long run to just an hour, and did only biking on Thursday, and only swimming on Friday.  The race was Saturday morning.  I felt reasonably rested.

Those that know me are aware that I am the calculating sort.  I looked at several calculators to see if my 5K augured well for a sub-90 min race.  The straight VDOT equivalent time was 1:28:15, but other estimators ranged up to 1:31:30.  After careful consideration, I set sub-90:00 as my goal.  The required pace for 90 minutes is 6:52. 

Based on a 90 minute goal and the course map, my plan was

• Miles 1-3 at 7:05
• Mile 4 at 6:35 (downhill)
• Miles 5-6 7:00 in the long uphill part
• Remainder 6:48, not being sure of the significance of one other hill

Day before

I’m an old-school carb guy.  Nothing very special here diet wise, save that I consumed quite a bit of carb until early afternoon.  Meal size at dinner was reduced to keep the colon fairly clear on race day.

At about 9:30 pm the night before, my 16 year old son Christopher figured out that I was running and gave me a hard time about having not told him.  Since he is in the middle of both high school track AND soccer seasons, and had had three soccer matches and a track meet that week, it hadn’t occurred to me that he would want to run.  By 10:00 pm, he had secured permission from his track coach.  This threw something of a monkey wrench into my mental preparation, because I realized now that I would have to deal with him as well (sign up, transport, etc.).  But I resolved just to roll with the punches and have a great bonding morning.

Race morning

Chris and I got up at 5:00 and got to the race site by 7:00.  Sign up for him and packet pickup were uneventful.  I had a very light breakfast of toast and brought a 300 calorie bottle of InfiniT with me.  I consumed about 2/3 of the InfiniT by about 7:30 before final lockup of the car and strip down.

The other issue I had to deal with was that I had to give up my Garmin.  My old Garmin finally died a few weeks ago, and I had been using my son’s for the last few weeks.  Given that he had to totally SWAG a pace because he hasn’t trained for the distance (and it was his…) I agreed to give him the running watch.  I pulled the computer off my bike and calculated what my paces were in miles per hour, though I knew the speed would not be as precise as pace would have been. To carry this would be a pain, but better than nothing.

We lined up near the front of the crowd at the start.  Both of us expected that Christopher would beat me, but there was more uncertainty in his time than mine.  He had a race plan, but it had more RPE variability than mine.  We agreed just to meet at the end of the race.

After the gun went off, I quickly found that the bike computer was not very useful for determining current pace.  It just isn’t designed to go as slow as a runner and the fluctuation is too high to be very useful.  I had set it up to auto-lap every mile and give me average speed for the mile in addition to current speed.  This meant I would at least get useful data for the latter half of each mile.

The first mile was an execution disaster – partly as a result of using the bike computer instead of a running watch.  I went out in about 6:40.  This said, it was a struggle to slow down.  The first few miles felt ridiculously easy.  There was a pack of people running in view of me that I was tempted to catch and run with.  I decided not to; I decided I needed to run MY race, not do whatever that group was going to do.  The middle section of the race, until about mile 9 or 10 just felt like a garden variety run at some effort, and the last 3-4 miles were fairly hard work, but grossly uncomfortable.  I took a gel at the top of hills at about miles 6.5 and 10.5.

Mile splits were

1. 6:40
2. 6:52
3. 6:53
4. 6:26 downhill
5. 6:42 up and down
6. 7:04 uphill
7. 6:51
8. 6:47
9. 6:49
10. 6:50
11. 7:03 included uphill
12. 6:48
13. 6:40

I adjusted these up a few seconds per mile from the raw Garmin data, since my auto laps were slightly shorter than the mile markers indicated.  Examining the splits, I ran the last ten miles or so almost exactly as planned, and picked up half of the minute faster than I intended in the first three miles.  The rest was just a couple seconds here and there.

My final placement was 58^th overall out of 1061.  In the last mile, I passed 8 people and was passed by one guy whom I estimated to be in his early 20s.

I learned as I finished that Chris was half a minute ahead of me, since I heard his name being announced as he crossed the line ahead of me.  I had not been aware I was anywhere close to him.

Final gun time was 1:29:00.  Actual time was only several seconds less.

Post race analysis

I was very pleased with this time.  I had run 3 half marathons in the late 80s, none nearly as fast as this.  My marathon PR (from 2010) is 3:16:40; this time is faster than the half-marathon equivalent – so this is undoubtedly progress.

I feel like if I had known how to do this race optimally, I could have shaved another minute or so off the time.  My heart rate was under 160 for miles 1-4, between 160 and 165 for miles 5-11, and between 165 and 170 for the last couple of miles.  My threshold HR is in 168-170.  There was no long period of intense suffering.

That said, this is a very good compromise.  I learned that I could pace with much less than optimal feedback.  I set a big PR.  Even better, my recovery is pretty quick.  As I write this (Sunday), I am sore, but not overly so.  I am pretty sure I will be able to be running back to normal by Tuesday.  Had I really blown everything out, recovery would have been longer.  Thus, this race fits well into my training regimen for my first A-race of the year, in mid June.

My only lingering question is my mettle as a RACER as opposed to making my own personal achievement.  I am confident – after the fact – that I could have raced with that pack.  Over the rest of the year, maybe I should focus on being a Racer instead of a Runner after I get to The Line in my races. Feedback on this point is appreciated.

On the side, I will also say that I’m proud of my son’s effort.  Dude hasn’t run any longer than 6 miles since last fall, but has run fast this spring.  With zero taper, the fourth competitive event in a week, and a seat-of-the-pants race plan, he crushed the race for the first time at the distance.  Undoubtedly, if I had figured out he was only 30 sec ahead of me and somehow caught up…he would have outsprinted me the last half mile, and both of us would be in bigger recovery holes; he has another track meet and soccer match this week, and I have a triathlon to get ready for soon.  So it’s perfect.  He beat me, and I was close, so both of us can soothe our egos…and both of us have times to be proud of.