Race Report Long Form

OK here are some more details (gory and otherwise) about my HIM race last weekend at High Cliff. This may be a little long especially for those of you not into the detail of this. But I have a few folks looking in who will enjoy the detail and may be able to provide some feedback off of it so:

Saturday:

Left Jackson in early afternoon. Becky held down the fort for Saturday and Sunday; this is way more effort than I put in Sat and Sun. Thanks Beck; behind this Ironman is a special Ironwoman.

Arrived at High Cliff met up with Will and picked up our stuff (race number etc etc) and walked up and down the big hill so Will could get a feel for it. Then got Will checked in at the Paper Valley and met Joel and his wife for dinner at Victoria's on College. Great Italian carbo load and great company. Settled in and to bed early. Restless night of sleep as usually happens for me; basically up from 3am on.

Pre-race: Up at 4:45, breakfast of 2 bottles of Ensure and a Clif bar. Approx 700 calories which is many more than normal but still 300-500 less than I need to begin to get used to for IM breakfast. Water on the way to race. For whatever reason everything seemed to be moving slowly for me. I didn't get into transition and set up until about 10 minutes before it closed. This takes me out of my comfort zone; need to get there sooner.

Swim: Will and I were in Wave #8 which means we needed to hang around for 25 minutes after the first wave started. This wasn't much fun but at least we kept each other company. Some small warm up and then it was our turn. I started on the far left and a little behind a couple gals in the front row. Tried to start smooth and get into a good rythym. My swim has improved a lot over the winter and I wanted to go a little faster but more important swim easy and be fresh after. I was very surprised and a bit frustrated that after 150 yards I was in the second half of the 50 swimmers I started with considering I felt a lot stronger than last year. I put it out of my mind and concentrated on my breathing and turnover and body roll. Reviewing the results of the race I finished with the 46th fastest swim out of about 400 people so I think I later went by most of those in my wave (probably 6-8th fastest in my wave). Overall I was very happy with my swim considering it was the longest open water swim since IMWI in Sept. I have lots of confidence in this leg and need to just extend it and do some more open water in the next 2 months. I pushed a little too hard after the last buoy to shore and raised my HR a little too much but did a nice job of walking the hill out of the water up to transition to keep my HR settled.

Result: 34:13 about 1:30 faster than last year and much more fresh out of the water than last year.

T1: smooth transition in a very crowded area with one exception. I wore my tri top in the water under my wetsuit so it was wet and clinging to me. I kept trying to put my gels in the back pockets and I couldn't locate them/open them up. This had to have cost me 30-40 seconds. Finally just shoved them in my shorts and took off!! Need to tape them to the bike or get a carrier (bento box) on the bike for future.
Result: 2:32 or about 45 seconds faster than last year.

Bike: My total nutrition on the bike was: 2 bottles of Infinit custom mix fluid (approx 270 cals per bottle), 4 power gels (approx 110 cals each) and 2.5 bottles of water.

I spun up the big hill as easy and efficient as I could then began to settle in. I was riding low zone 2 watts and I couldn't drop my HR but I wasn't too worried about this. Ultimately I started out just a touch too fast. Instead of the plan which would have been about 140-150 watts for the first 30 minutes then slowly moving to 170-180 over the race I was into the 160's right away. I was also not backing off on the little hills early. All this came back to haunt me a little on the run. I did all of this becasue of:
1) normal early race nerves; I usually avoid this mistake that most make but not today
2) I knew I finished the swim in front of Will and wanted to stay ahead for a while so I was pushing scared off the front a little and
3) a little on purpose because I knew 1)&2) would happen and I wanted to push the envelope a little and see what it did to my body, digestion etc etc. as part of my learning process. I haven't gone outside my comfort zone since I started racing and I knew I could finish this distance now I wanted to see how my body would react to pushing a little.

Took only water until 30 minutes in then has a gel and began drinking Infinit. I took no salt tablets on the ride and I think this was a mistake. Settled in and rode well from top of the hill to 35 miles or so. Little bloating in stomach from 45 minutes to 1 hour but some plain water helped empty my nutrition.

Overall I rode the course well and did a great job of staying aero (probably 85% of the ride). Will finally caught me about mile 30-31 and after a brief chat he was off the front. I kept riding smooth and kept him in sight until about mile 36 (so 20 miles to the finish). The last 20 miles were harder as I didn't know how much time he was gaining and I was getting tired. I still need lots more base bike miles this summer because I should be able to go 2X as far before I feel that way. I did a nice job of maintaining watts and speed all the way to the end but overall I pushed the bike about 7-10 minutes too fast. And I think I needed a little more water and a few less calories and some more salt in the heat.

Result: 2:57:39 about 13:30 faster than last year. 171 avg watts which is right at the 170-175 I wanted to ride.

T2: Very good T2. When I stopped the bike I immediately realized how hot it was out and how overheated I had become (need to monitor this more during the ride). Had a chance to say hi to my sister in T2 (thanks for being there sis; sorry we didnt' get more time together).

Result: 1:52 or about 1:20 faster than last year.

Run: My legs felt good right away off the bike. Took a minute to hit the bathroom just out of T2 then ran easy to the base of the big hill. Brisk walk all the way up the big hill to keep my HR down. There is a section in the middle that I could probably run in the future. It is very frustrating to have to walk up that cliff early in the run but any little time you save by running up it in the first mile will really cost you (me) big time later on the run. Got to the top and allowed my HR to settle. Then settled in to a smooth 9:15 per mile ish pace. Got a bad side stitch from mile 1-2 but some deep breathing worked it out (haven't had one of those in a race before). Was taking water every station but my stomach was bloated and didn't want any more gels etc. Also started to get a little crampy in my hamstrings and realized (too late) that I was probably at a sodium deficit (but I couldn't stomach gels to compensate). Kept a steady pace though. HOT OUT!!

Caught Will shortly before mile 5 and he informed me he had a flat tire late in the bike. I felt bad but also felt I had enough room to put any time necessary into our results to cancel this out. After a minute together I moved ahead and kept a good pace (just in case he decided to chase :-) . Mad my way through the rest of the first loop feeling and running strong. Things got progressively tougher from mile 6-13. Again much of this is just a base of fitness that needs to improve by Sept along with some smarter pacing early on in the bike and better nutrition management. And some of it was just racing in this heat which hasn't happened much this early in the year. Lots of time to work on.

The last 4 miles were pretty brutal. My feet got real sore and my salt deficit was costing me time. I needed to walk the aid stations and try to get water in my bloated stomach and some salt pills provided at the aid stations (though I knew in my heart that the pills wouldn't have enough time to take effect before the end. The water provided on the run was from a well at the park (from the taste of it) and that didn't help me much either. Finished pretty weakly the last 1.5 miles but I finished.

Nutrition on run: 1 gel at mile 4-5, approx 6-9 cups of water, approx 1-2 cups Gatorade and approx 4-8 salt pills (though all of these were in the last 60 minutes).

Result: 2:08:51 about 2:30 faster than last year. My bike time and efforts cost me a number of minutes here.

After: Sick to my stomach the last 3-4 miles of the run and for about 45 minutes after race. This (I think) is primarily the result of:
a) efforts too high early in the bike
b) temps higher than I am used to and
c) not regularly practicing my race nutrition yet this year and
d) a little base fitness deficit.

most important above is A as doing this caused the early nutrition I was taking on the bike to begin to back up and not clear my stomach (body trying to do other things; setting priorities). Once this happens it has a cumulative effect during the day, unless you slow your pace (or stop) and allow it to catch up. This was ok for this race as I was trying to learn something. And you can manage through this over a 1/2 ironman but it would be a pretty nasty mistake in an Ironman and would probably cost me 30 minutes (or worse) on the side of the road.

Postscript: Pretty busted up the rest of Sunday (overheated, dehydrated etc). Not what I wanted to do. But felt very good the next day and mostly recovered and ready to go in 48 hours. This is a big change from previous years and tells me my fitness is improving. And no lingering sore spots or injuries which is fanstastic.

Overall a great experience. In addtion to all the people I have thanked here and in earlier posts a special thanks to Mike Pierson of Your Training Zone (see my links for his web page) for not only helping me prepare in the last 6 months but for the good advice and insight for this race and for convincing me to push me comfort level here a little mentally (ie. knowing that I could go harder than I believed myself and still be in an ok position especially on the bike).

I will be posting a completely seperate thread about Mike, his business, our work together and training in the proper zone in the near future. For now, thanks Mike I am a believer and my 20 minute PR is proof!!