elburrito99 wrote:
It’s taken me a week to post my thoughts because the morning after the race I left for a cruise to Alaska with the family. So I’ve purposely been disconnected from the internets to relax and enjoy some quiet time. It’s also given me a week to process perhaps the toughest/scariest race conditions I’ve yet to endure for a 70.3 or 140.6.
I think I have a similar aversion to the cold as Dev, perhaps because we have similar body compositions (though he seems much fitter!) as I’m 5’10” and was about 139 lbs. on race day (about 4 lbs. heavier than I was for my last 70.3 in December). I also have no genetic propensities whatsoever to handling cold weather as I was born and raised in Texas, I’ve lived in Southern California for the past 26 years, and my family’s genes go back over 400 years to the same small village near the equator in India.
With that said, I watched the weather reports daily with fear and trepidation for the week leading up to the race and then every hour in the final days before the race. I packed a good amount of cold weather gear in an abundance of caution and ended up using ALL of it for the bike. So I felt I was well-prepared.
I chose to wear my bike shorts under my wetsuit on the swim, since I figured the water was warmer than the air and I’d get drenched anyway on the bike. Other than that, I changed into the following in T1:
- Wool socks (kept in a ziplock bag in my T1 bag);
- Neoprene booties;
- 2XU sleeveless tri top;
- Local cycling club jersey and vest;
- Lined arm warmers (that I scotch-guarded before the race);
- Campy rain jacket that folds up to the size of a Cliff Bar (perhaps the best piece of cycling clothing I’ve ever laid hands on);
- Older LG winter “lobster-style” mittens/gloves (also scotch guarded before the race);
- Thin wool beanie; and
- Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet.
The wool beanie/Giro A2 helmet combo was key, as that helmethas very few holes and my race sticker seemed to cover those it does have. So my head was well protected from the cold and rain. I actually posted earlier on ST about whether to use the A2 or my LG Course helmet since the Whistler bike course is so hilly that perhaps a typical aero helmet might not be optimal. Thankfully, no one actually answered me, so I just with my gut feeling and chose to pack the A2. If I’d used my Course helmet, which has more ventilation than any other helmet I’ve ever used, my head would have been soaked and cold all day.
The Campy rain jacket was also clutch. It seemed to keep the rain off my body all day, though I can’t say for sure since I was wet to start the bike because my bike got soaked in T1 overnight by the rain. BTW, I cannot recommend the Campy rain jacket highly enough for anyone who is forced to ride in the wind, rain, or cold.
Other than my bike gear, the only other thoughts I have to post are:
- When it started pouring rain mid-way through the swim, I noticed a SUBSTANTIAL drop in water temperature. If that had happened before the swim start I might have gone down with hypothermia on the bike.
- I really enjoyed the deep water swim start. Treading water in the lake and looking around at the mountains of Whistler was a great way to start a race.
- The bike course is HARD, though beautiful. I trained extensively all the climbing, as I did several 7-11,000 ft. days of riding throughout the year. That definitely helped save my legs for the run. But even with all that climbing (and about 4k miles of riding so far this year), that bike course still beat be up fairly well. It probably didn’t help that my legs were exposed to the rain and cold the entire ride. Knee warmers would have been key in my T1 bag.
- The run course was tougher than I expected (this was my third 140.6, so I knew what to expect to some extent). I think I saw somewhere that the run course had 2,000 ft. of climbing. That’s not a lot for an open marathon but, after all the climbing on the bike, there were JUST enough hills to crush me on the run.
- The run finish through Whistler village with hundreds of spectators lining the course was a great way to finish the day.
- The volunteers and spectators were phenomenal, especially considering the cold and miserable conditions.
After a 5:08 on a 70.3 race in December, I was hoping to come in around 12 hours at Whistler. But that simply didn’t happen. I’d like to blame having an achilles injury 3 weeks before the race (though the achilles actually held up fine on the race), the cold temps, the wet weather (which slowed me down on the bike), an IT band that decided to go out on me around mile 8 of the run (never had IT band issues in my training – perhaps the cold tightened things up?), and inexplicably forgetting my Garmin on the bike (no GPS, no HR, nothing!), I was happy with a 12:50:xx. Simply put, the Whistler course is TOUGH and my 5:08 on a flatter 70.3 course likely would translate to a 12:50 at Whistler even under much better conditions. But who knows? That’s what’s great about LC triathlons -- you never know; you just have to train to race again another day.
Thanks for your update. I was really kicking myself for not packing the Giro Advantage 2. I made the mistake of only taking my Evade. It's not like I did not know that we were up against rain. That was a bad packing mistake. My toque inside the helmet likely saved my race, but it was soaked through. A skull liner inside an A2 would have been really good with vents all taped up. Live and learn. I will pack both helmets of 70.3 WC in Austria for this reason alone.
I think your volume to surface ratio is "better than mine" for heat but worse than mine for cooling. You have the same mass spread over 5'10". I am only 5'6" so more compact at the same weight so I would in theory get less cold on a day like we had. I was almost 50 min slower between 2014 and 2015, and in the month lead up my fitness was as good (maybe even better....just road 225W NP at Muskoka 70.3 3 weeks out, or 3.6W per kilo on a tough course). So I was not slower because of lack of fitness, it was just slower due to weather and execution issues related to it. I am more than certain you would be a ton faster on last year's weather given your "near equator genetic"....my genetics are more tropic of cancer, although 15 generations of people have lived continuously 10 months per year in 30-40C and super high humidity.
Well done on your race. Thanks for the detail on the run course having 2000 ft of climbing....ouch did not realize it was that tough, but not surprising.
