From time to time I have shared my race reports here. They have all been fairly good performances. Well, now, I have a big bummer of a race report to share. And, I could use the power of ST to help me get an idea of what went wrong…
Check it out on my blog.
http://scottkmcmillan.wordpress.com/
Thanks
Scott
Triathlon Coach
www.f9tc.com
Unless you had a medical diagnosis, I’d say you simply had a bad day and your body didn’t want to play anymore. Not to be glib, but sometimes our body drives the ship, not us.
I could use the power of ST to help me get an idea of what went wrong…
You sound desperate 
How did race day stats match up to training stats?
Yes, I know, I should have been more specific,
“I am desperate - seeking Paulo’s ST advice”
.
I just read your blog and I think you know what happened. Just slaughter the (for you) sacred cow and move on.
Swim - very well, I expected 55-56min, went 57+ and eveyone else was a few minutes longer than normal. HR was bang on, 155-160.
Bike - good to start, after an hour, crap. Climbing Watts were bang on for HR, flat watts were low for HR.
Run - very good till mile 13 except that quads were more sore than usual going downhill. HR bang on 148-150 and pace bang on.
So, you really think (or know) caffeine could throw me that far overboard?
“I tried another coaches training program/philosophy for the past 4 months. For the most part, I did it to take the pressure off me in terms of planing my own training. You may know who that coach was. I do not think I can blame them for this race.”
And I don’t know who the coach was.
Snippets from your blog:
Swim: “took it out strong” and “HR was rising too high”
Bike: “Power was good for first hour. HR was a tad high though”
Fueling" "I was at 400 cals per hour which is my highest average to date on the bike … I used to ride with only 300 cals per hour. "
Run: "The first two miles were a touch fast " and then "Even if I did go out too hard, "
So, it looks like you started each event to fast and for some reason decided to eat more than you are used to.
I think that answers the poor bike and pace drop off late in the run (b/c I worked so hard on the bike). But, why would I end up shivering uncontrollably?
Sorry your race didn’t go as planned. This may or may not help,but I had a couple of races past year I thought I did really badly. I struggled to finish. What put it all in perspective was when someone asked me what my half IM time was. I told him and he said he would give his right arm to be even close to that. Same sort of thing happened at IM Couer d’Alene…I had a bad day, came in over an hour later than planned. Went to pick up my finisher certificate. I was all alone in the line. Another competitor asked me why so glum, told him my time and he said…holy crap…what I wouldn’t give to be able to do that kind of time.
So, after that…figured out how get past bad race days.
if you feel that stats were on… then how was the taper?
In my 2 IM races, I have had uncontrollable bouts of shivering that started within 30 - 60 minutes after I finished and lasted 15 minutes or so. Someone told me that the body’s temperature regulation can change during IM length exercise so that when you slow down/stop and have less heat generation, the body thinks it’s getting too cold and compensates by shivering.
You’re obviously racing at a different level from me but I experienced that weird shivering thing earlier this season at Liberty to Liberty when it was 93 degrees:
At the time I put it down as an odd reaction to being massively dehydrated but it doesn’t sound like that would explain your symptoms so I’d be really interested in the views of any medical folk on the board
.
Scott
I think we played tag for most of the day. I lost all my nutrition off the back of my bike before mile 5 so was stuck with Powergels at aid stations for nutrition. I had a very similar day on the bike to you, i just couldn’t go fast, not sure if it was the nutrition or something else. Anyway, somedays it just doesn’t happen.
I’m just taking what positive things i can out of the race, and i signed up for Florida to make amends!
Best of luck in the future
Richard Freer
Hi Scott,
Thanks for sharing the details of your tough day. So much to learn in this sport.
Climbing well relative to the flats MIGHT indicate trouble absorbing calories when aero, which MIGHT be related to elevated early HR (pacing) and MIGHT also be related to 400kcal/hr on a cooler day. As far as shakes and shivers, they aren’t uncommon after the body shuts down post-race so maybe that was just the consequence of a shut-down during the race (which again MIGHT be related to poor fuel absorption). How was your tummy on the run?
Wow!
That sucks. Very sorry to hear.
Wish that I had some useful advice but short of wondering if you might have been sick or have royally screwed up your taper somehow, I have no clue.
Just remember what a strong, fast dude you are. Think of all the really good races that you’ve done, pick a new goal and move on.
Cheers,
Miranda
Richard - thanks. Thank God you caught me on the bike after Richter. Staring at your backside for the last 60 miles was all that got me back to T1. Congrats of toughing it out!
Thanks Everyone for the thoughts.
Stomach? Was fine, actually felt great, never had problems taking in food.
Taper? Bike legs were pretty sore from weeks 4 through 2, performance in terms of watts on rides was dropping at times. Drop off, 2 week taper plus the big work in weeks 5 to 3 probably may have made me flat. Legs were not sore in week 0.
Pace? Sure, for this day, I did take it out too hard otherwise I would have finished no problem. But, I thought I was peaking and I was in my normal range for racing (watts, HR, breathing). The only bad sign were how my legs felt but I felt confident in my fitness that I could hold this (what should be) all day aerobic pace.
Shivers? I am going to say it was part exhaustion and part too much caffeine. I will still hit caffeine next time but will wait till mile 10 or 13 before I take it via coke (not gels) and therefore much less.
As Paulo and some others have pointed out…sometimes there are just sub-par days, time to move on and time to listen to my own advice…
Cheers,
Scott
I’m not a coach by any means, but I did read more than just the IMCanada report on your blog. You use the same words to describe how you feel in quite a few of the posts. From the outside looking in, and only looking at the blog, it appears that you’ve been flat in most of your big races this year. Could the IMC performance be attributed to a change in coaching over the last 4 months? Sure. However, it looks like there has been a problem with either preparation or execution all year. Again, that’s just from reading the blog, but I think the best reason to journal is so you can look back. Just my thoughts.
Mark