Post-season last fall was my decision to give the half distance a try. I began researching training info as previous tri experience was limited to sprints and olys. Thus, I became a lurker on ST and since a lot of input from STers was incorporated into my training and race plans, I thought I'd post some results. (Friel's TTB was the basis for the whole plan.)
The goal: finish and get some experience pacing and competing at this distance.
The day: you can't ask for a nicer day in Iowa in mid August -- little wind, high of low 80's. Up at 4:45 (my wave was to start at 8:06) and downed 3 Ensure Plus's (350 cal each) over the course of a half hour.
The swim: One gel + water right before the start. I'm a poor swimmer so my plan was to just navigate well, and stay nice and easy. Mission accomplished, until the final turn. I strayed away from the buoys (this happens to me a lot on final turns) and had to angle back to the finish. Cost me probably a minute. A previous wave breast stroker kicked off my goggles about 50m from shore... glad that happened late. 43ish min swim, but I felt great coming out.
The bike: This was harder than I expected to bring my heart rate down. It took 3 or 4 miles (plus there are some minor uphills on the way out of the park) to settle. Once out of the park on the flats I settled down to 145ish (my initial race pace target) and got on the hydration. Over the course of the ride I went through 7 bottles (4 nuun tabs in total) and one bottle of Perpetuem (loaded relatively densely, 900ish cal in one bottle). This is exactly what I did on all my training rides... which were only followed by 2-3 mi runs. In the end, I felt way too good on the bike and pressed the effort just a bit (it IS a race...) and my bike HR avg was 155. I felt really strong on the hill coming back into the park (I actually had to pass a car, wise or not) and ended with a 2:50ish ride. This is disappointing from where I think I could be, but was right in line with what I expected from training at these heart rates. Something to work on for next year.
The run: my legs felt good (they should, with the bike intentionally easy). The kinks worked out within 2 miles (the same hilly exit from the park as the bike) and I hit a nice easy stride. Aid station plans (every mile) was gel + water / water / gatorade / water / repeat 3x. I was carrying a flask loaded with 4 gels. I skipped the last gel because I felt really good coming up the last monster hill back into the park, and picked it up the last 2 mi. Got a lot of comments like "looks like you have some left in the tank" and "way to finish strong". Felt like I was running easy 8:30's, in reality they were 9:00's. I negative split the run by a minute and finished 5:40ish overall.
All in all I feel great about the race. I learned a lot about what I can tolerate in training, how to pace long races off of training performances, and nutrition. My overall avg HR for the race was 158, and I never felt bloated, ready to bonk, etc. Given that, I really think I paced the race pretty well for my current fitness. Pressing it harder any earlier would have bought me very little time at the expense of a lot of suffering.
I can tell my endurance isn't up to this distance yet, though. My training volume was endurance oriented and I sacrificed a lot of speed work to get in the Z2ish miles, but if I keep the same volume next year I'll probably be able to handle a higher workload.
I'm not sure I'll repeat this distance next year or not. It's hard for me to get the minimum bike hours in (was doing an average of 5 hrs/wk, max of 140ish) and that was a fundamental limiter for me -- my bike was relatively slow and still inhibited my run a bit.
The volunteers were awesome (there were hordes) and the quality of competition was significantly higher than local sprints. I can't be happier about how the training and race went.
Thanks to those who post on training and racing. This is a great forum for sharing info.
Now to plan next year!
----------------------------------------------------
Note to self: increase training load.
The goal: finish and get some experience pacing and competing at this distance.
The day: you can't ask for a nicer day in Iowa in mid August -- little wind, high of low 80's. Up at 4:45 (my wave was to start at 8:06) and downed 3 Ensure Plus's (350 cal each) over the course of a half hour.
The swim: One gel + water right before the start. I'm a poor swimmer so my plan was to just navigate well, and stay nice and easy. Mission accomplished, until the final turn. I strayed away from the buoys (this happens to me a lot on final turns) and had to angle back to the finish. Cost me probably a minute. A previous wave breast stroker kicked off my goggles about 50m from shore... glad that happened late. 43ish min swim, but I felt great coming out.
The bike: This was harder than I expected to bring my heart rate down. It took 3 or 4 miles (plus there are some minor uphills on the way out of the park) to settle. Once out of the park on the flats I settled down to 145ish (my initial race pace target) and got on the hydration. Over the course of the ride I went through 7 bottles (4 nuun tabs in total) and one bottle of Perpetuem (loaded relatively densely, 900ish cal in one bottle). This is exactly what I did on all my training rides... which were only followed by 2-3 mi runs. In the end, I felt way too good on the bike and pressed the effort just a bit (it IS a race...) and my bike HR avg was 155. I felt really strong on the hill coming back into the park (I actually had to pass a car, wise or not) and ended with a 2:50ish ride. This is disappointing from where I think I could be, but was right in line with what I expected from training at these heart rates. Something to work on for next year.
The run: my legs felt good (they should, with the bike intentionally easy). The kinks worked out within 2 miles (the same hilly exit from the park as the bike) and I hit a nice easy stride. Aid station plans (every mile) was gel + water / water / gatorade / water / repeat 3x. I was carrying a flask loaded with 4 gels. I skipped the last gel because I felt really good coming up the last monster hill back into the park, and picked it up the last 2 mi. Got a lot of comments like "looks like you have some left in the tank" and "way to finish strong". Felt like I was running easy 8:30's, in reality they were 9:00's. I negative split the run by a minute and finished 5:40ish overall.
All in all I feel great about the race. I learned a lot about what I can tolerate in training, how to pace long races off of training performances, and nutrition. My overall avg HR for the race was 158, and I never felt bloated, ready to bonk, etc. Given that, I really think I paced the race pretty well for my current fitness. Pressing it harder any earlier would have bought me very little time at the expense of a lot of suffering.
I can tell my endurance isn't up to this distance yet, though. My training volume was endurance oriented and I sacrificed a lot of speed work to get in the Z2ish miles, but if I keep the same volume next year I'll probably be able to handle a higher workload.
I'm not sure I'll repeat this distance next year or not. It's hard for me to get the minimum bike hours in (was doing an average of 5 hrs/wk, max of 140ish) and that was a fundamental limiter for me -- my bike was relatively slow and still inhibited my run a bit.
The volunteers were awesome (there were hordes) and the quality of competition was significantly higher than local sprints. I can't be happier about how the training and race went.
Thanks to those who post on training and racing. This is a great forum for sharing info.
Now to plan next year!
----------------------------------------------------
Note to self: increase training load.