I love reading race reports on Slowtwitch, they are easily one of my favorite parts about the forum. In fact, most of what I’ve learned about endurance training I’ve learned from Slowtwitch. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Slowtwitch is basically my coach. So since I finally have something worth reporting, I thought I’d contribute my own two cents as well. I’ve included a bit about my background, in order to give some context, but you can feel free to skip that if you like.
Background (feel free to skip)
TLDR - former college athlete who got fat, then fit-ish, then fat, now fit
I am a former college wrestler and then wrestling coach who, after leaving the profession, proceed to gain about 50 pounds. My brother and I took up triathlon around 2010 and I was able to lose a good deal of that weight. At that time, I wasn’t real serious about racing, I was mostly just interested in losing weight. I did Augusta 70.3 in 2012, the only other 70.3 I’ve ever done before this race, but I wasn’t really that fit and was mostly just happy to finish. After that we stopped training and I gained even more weight than I lost, ballooning all the way up to 240 pounds (I’m 5’9), which is about what I weighed when my brother emailed me in October 2016 asking if I wanted to do St. Anthony’s that coming April. I was energized and started training immediately, though at that time I was hard pressed to run 1 mile non-stop. I ended up losing close to 40 pounds by St. Anthony’s 2017 and decided I was ready to get serious about this. So I signed up for NOLA 70.3 and trained all summer. I had lost about another 15 pounds as I headed to New Orleans. Unfortunately that race got cancelled the morning of, and while I was disappointed, I was still eager to keep training, so I used the credit Ironman gave us and signed up for IM Gulf Coast 70.3. I trained even harder over the winter and am currently around 180 lbs. I still need to lose another 15-20 pounds, but I’m as fit as I’ve been since my college wrestling days.
Actual Race Report:
PreRace:
I slept ok, but woke up around 3:00 am. Breakfast was coffee, gatorade, apple-pie trail mix from Lucky’s and a bagel.
Swim: (Goal 39 minute)
I had swam a low-to-moderate amount during the summer of 2017, probably averaging around 6-8k meters a week. Over the winter, however, I was following the standard triathlon winter swim training plan, which means I didn’t start swimming until the beginning of April. To top it off, since we had some chillier weather in April, and I swim at the Y which is an outdoor pool, I didn’t even get as much swimming in April as I would have liked, only getting in about 25k meters.
At St. Anthony’s 2 weeks ago, I had a 30 minute swim, which was slower than I expected, but there were some reasons for that as well. Given all that, my goal here was to do the swim somewhere between 38-40 minutes.
Getting into the water I reminded myself to not go out too hard, and to find a nice steady rhythm, which I was able to do rather quickly. While I’m not the strongest swimmer (obviously), I tend to swim pretty straight. So I sighted around every 5 strokes or so, rarely having to readjust my heading and just kept the rhythm. I felt great getting out of the water, looked down at my watch and saw 37 minutes. Given my current level of swim training, I was very happy with that time.
Official Time: 37:14
T1: Made my way quickly to my bike, taking a GU gel on the way, put on my shoes and helmet and made my way to the bike course. Still feeling great.
Official Time: 2:47
Bike:(Goal NP 240)
The out and back bike course was slightly uphill on the way out, and the weather report I looked at that morning indicated we would have a slight headwind on the way out as well. So I decided to push 250 watts on the way out, then let my NP settle back toward 240 on the way back in.
For nutrition, I had 2 scoops of Infinite in the BTA bottle, and 1 scoop in the BTS bottle. I elected not to include a 3rd bottle with water BTS, as my training seemed to indicate I wouldn’t need it. At St. Anthony’s I didn’t finish my BTA bottle. I also figured, if I did need more water, I could get it from the one of the aid stations. It turns out I was needing more fluids than I thought though, as I finished the BTA around mile 20, and finished the BTS around mile 40. However, there was an aid station at mile 45, so I got a water bottle there and was fine.
I was pretty much able to follow my pre-race plan. I hit the turn around at NP 249, and finished the ride at NP 242. I did have to accelerate several times, especially on the way out, to pass long lines of people. Several times I had to push my power up towards 400 watts for anywhere between 30 seconds and 1-2 minutes. I was worried this might not have been a good decision, but I was unsure how else to pass. There were marshals on the course, and I did see people in the penalty box and I didn’t want to draft. Not sure if this hurt me or not, but I still felt great at the end of the bike.
Official Time: 2:24:18 on 233/242 AP/NP
T2: Felt good jogging back to the bike rack and I took another GU gel. My legs felt pretty good heading out and I was excited that I was having a great day.
Official Time: 2:21
Run: (Goal 1:50)
Running off the bike is the one area that scares me the most, probably because I’ve never really been able to do it successfully. That’s mostly because I’ve never really been fit enough, and in maybe some cases I’ve also over-biked. At St. Anthony’s however, I had felt pretty good on the run, so I was optimistic that I could execute this longer run as well. I knew I wanted to try and keep an 8:15 - 8:20 pace. I ran a 49 minute 10k at St. Anthony’s, so this seemed like a reasonably goal. I felt great as I hit the course, but probably ended up starting out a little too fast. I ran the first 5k at a 8:09 pace. At this point I was still feeling pretty good, but I was starting to tire a bit. As I hit the 10k mark I started sensing that I might be in trouble. I ran the second 5k at an 8:39 pace. At around mile 9 the wheels started falling off, and I knew at this point a sub 5 hour time was out the window. My pace for the third 5k was 9:19 and rising quickly. The last lap of the course was strictly survival mode as I just kept convincing myself to keep moving to the next aid station. I was pretty much shuffling at this point and my pace for the last 4 miles was 11:10 minutes per mile.
Nutrition wise my plan was to take water and cola at the aid stations, which is what I did for the first lap. I started getting pretty thirsty, however, and so I was drinking 2-4 waters at every aid station along with a cola. As the wheels started falling off, I got the idea that maybe I wasn’t getting enough sodium, so I started taking Gatorade instead of colas, sometimes taking both, along with water. In the end, I think I may have drank too much, but I’m not sure.
Official Time: 2:05:33
Final Time: 5:12:11 good for 16th in the 45-49 AG.
Overall thoughts:
My main thoughts have been based around how I could have avoided the blow-up on the run. It’s possible that I may have over-biked a bit, especially the matches I burned passing people. I estimate my FTP to be ~300 watts, which works out to a 150 Tss for the ride, which I believe should have been fine. Though I suppose it’s possible I’ve overestimated my FTP. I did feel great coming off the bike though.
My other thought is that I started the run off too fast, which I think I definitely did. I’m not sure if this is the main reason I blew up, but it certainly contributed. Obviously I think the heat and humidity played a part as well, as did the extra 15-20 pounds I’m still carrying. I think probably the biggest reason is, I just need to get some more miles into my legs. During my 6 month training block leading up to this race, I averaged just over 20 miles a week, with maybe 6-8 weeks above 30. I was much more consistent with my bike training then my running, and I think that showed itself on the course.
I really thought I had a good chance to break 5 hours here, and honestly I still think I had it in me. But as a wise man once said, “You are what your record says you are.†So at this point I’m a 5:12. That being said, given were I was a year and a half ago, it’s hard for me to be too upset placing 16th in my age group.
I’ll now shift my focus to NOLA 70.3 in October. I’m thinking I need to increase the run mileage to around 30 miles a week with some 40+ mile weeks mixed in. I want to do everything I can to make sure I’m ready for that run, and ready to break 5 hours.
Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated, for as I said earlier, Slowtwitch is basically my coach.
Also raced and ended up needing more fluid on the bike than planned. I use more Infinit and three bottles but ended up grabbing a Gatorade at mile 45. Even with that, I ended up on the ground in T2 working out quad cramps for four extra minutes before starting the run. My bike was 2:26 averaging NP at 216 which is right on target for expectations for me.