Two years, same race, opposite bodies: felt awful and came 2nd, felt great and fell apart

[ruurdjan]

I raced 70.3 Warsaw again this year. Last year I came 2nd in my AG while convinced I was coming down with something all race week, so I wanted to come back and go for the W. Instead I had the opposite experience: felt great on race morning and completely fell apart. Still trying to make sense of it.

Last year I started getting sick during race week. Sore throat, run down, convinced I was coming down with something. I threw every vitamin and pill at it, and on race morning I genuinely thought why even start. I had a poor swim, but the second I got on the bike I felt strong. I cut through the field, worked my way to the front, and came off the bike in 2nd. My HR was higher than it should’ve been, probably the illness brewing, but for whatever reason I could fight through it. I finished 2nd and was totally surprised.

So I came back this year to try and win it. I also needed my Worlds slot here. Every other race I could’ve entered was sold out, so this was my one shot at qualifying this season. So there were real stakes.

This year during race week I was just exhausted. The whole week, and I couldn’t rest it out. Naps, sleep aids, nothing shifted it. I knew it wasn’t normal. I tried to blame nerves because I wanted the slot so badly, but deep down I knew something was off. The day before the race I got this weird tingling in my arms and legs. Then race morning I woke up fresh. Good sleep score, HRV normal, all lights green. I thought I’d turned a corner and was ready to go.

I had a front row start and stayed out of the washing machine I got caught in last year. Then 500m in I cramped in my foot. Never happened before. I swam through it. At 1700m my hamstring started cramping, and I barely kick, so this made no sense at all. It was bad enough that I could hardly run into T1. I’d had 1000mg sodium and 750ml before the start so this wasn’t a hydration thing.

I figured I’d ride it out. I got on the bike and there was just no power. Hamstrings and glutes weren’t firing, HR too high, watts low for me. I normally make up huge ground on the bike. This time I was hanging onto a group for dear life, legal distance, at a pace slower than last year in better conditions. By the end my quads were cramping too, and I’d put away two bottles and about 3 bags of Maurten 320, so nutrition was well covered. I got onto the run and knew inside the first km it was done. Not “I’m unfit, I don’t have the pace.” More like my body did not want to move.

For context, I’m a pretty data-driven athlete. I always go to the numbers first to work out what happened and what to learn from it. I even built myself a tool to generate these debriefs from my race files. But this one is the case that shows why the data on its own doesn’t tell the full story. I fed it this race and it told me I went out too hard and faded, which is the obvious read from the splits but completely wrong. It has no way of knowing about the race week, the tingling, or the cramping from 500m in. Put the two years side by side though and the difference is stark, and it’s clearly not fitness.

I knew it felt wrong before I looked at a single number. The data just told me what was wrong. A heart rate I couldn’t push past no matter what I did.

So, how much do you actually trust race-morning feel? Last year I felt like death and had one of my best races. This year I felt great and it fell apart. Mine has now lied to me in both directions. Curious if others have had the same.

[kajet]

Yeah, while reading your post I had a little mean theory creep up on me that one or more of the pills you took last year contained pseudoephedrine or something of the kind. (If you did, don’t say it, this stuff is banned in competition.)

But the delta is just too big, that doesn’t explain it.

It would take a shit ton of medical tests I suspect to explain what happened this year.

I for one don’t trust the race morning feel, but I’m nowhere near your level.

[monty]

My guess is that your illness forced you into a proper taper, and your body almost completely recovered and was 99% that day. As long as you are on the downslide of an illness you are usually good to go. If you are near the bottom of that slide, you can be on fire. I have had this happen to me many times in my life, enough that I can say with some confidence that it was a forced great taper.

This latest race you just didn’t rest enough, and you raced during the shit part of a taper it sounds like..

[Lurker4]

I was going to say something like, when we are really fit, we often go into a race a bit over trained, and perhaps combine that with the expectation of fighting for the win.

Don’t discount the mental component. I’m worried a bit about this myself, being much fitter (I think) than I was last year going into a race in the next 6 weeks. The expectation might mess with me.

But I would agree that the sickness last time likely forced some rest you needed. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if you raced in a week or two you’d crush it. When I look at how others taper into races, I always wonder how they aren’t still tired on race day. But we’re all different. I definitely like a longer taper.

[Stafford_Brown]

I can relate to your experience. For me the best thing I can do is going into a race making sure I’m feeling very fresh. Other than that any race over three hours will always be a coin flip.

Eventually I learned to live by the Karen Smyers “It’s better to be 10% under trained than 1% over trained” motto.

Sometimes endless data doesn’t really help. Also some of us just cramp at the most odd times and we are more prone to it.

I get the exact same cramps in the swim you do only in races….so I just started extra hamstring stretches before swim starts. I’ve also learned getting out there and racing more frequently helps. I never knew this until recently, but Criag Alexander revealed in an interview sometimes he would cramp bad running into the water at the start.

[ruurdjan]

Interesting, so you’re saying I didn’t fully “process” the taper, and went into the race in the bad part of it? Started tapering too late, or didn’t go hard enough that first week? That could explain the extreme fatigue. Thing is, I did do a two-week taper with a pretty hard recovery week not long before it. If anything I was more worried about the opposite, that I’d over-recovered and gone in flat. So I’m honestly not sure which way it went.

[ruurdjan]

That’s the weird thing for me, I thought I went in under trained and thought I’d be perfectly rested. I do like the idea of the stretches, gonna do that in Versailles next month. On this day it was something off entirely, but I’ve had cramps during full distance races before. Not as severe, but it happened, so that’s actually a great tip

[ruurdjan]

I hope you’re right, I have Versailles coming up next month, so hopefully I can convert the fitness there being more rested. The mental aspect I do agree, when you have high expectations it can definitely mess with the nerves. For me usually when my feet hit the water that goes away entirely. Oddly enough, on this race, on the train to the start I physically felt the stress leave my body, which at the time I thought was a good sign. Now I’m not sure if it meant my body was holding on to something until that moment which put me in a bad place.

[ruurdjan]

The medical tests angle is where I’ve landed too, the delta’s just too big to hand-wave. I’ve started taking more magnesium, but I’ll be honest that’s me grasping at something without any data behind it. Annoyingly I’m in the Netherlands, where getting a GP to do proper bloodwork is its own battle. But two years of race week going sideways is enough, I want to actually understand it rather than guess.

[Lurker4]

@ruurdjan

For me usually when my feet hit the water that goes away entirely.

From my own experience, if running a 10k, the last 1 mile I’m waiting for it to end. If running a half marathon the last 5k I’m really paying for it. With a marathon that comes around 7k for me.

Now, obviously I’m at a different pace and intensity on all of these, but I also think there is this mental, “I’ve thought about being almost to the finish line and somewhere something in my body says I want to be done now.”

For me, if I start thinking about time, where I’m finishing etc somewhere in my body something is already thinking about being done. The best races or sessions I’ve had, I didn’t have this expectation of being done, but just putting in the work.

So that gets at what I mean with mental, at least in my case.

[Stafford_Brown]

Yeah man, it’s really hard to say but that’s what worked for me. After 20 years of this sport I can say the hamstring and foot cramp is a thing for me also. There is a possibility its something about the pre race tension and all the standing on the beach - swimming in a wetsuit that could contribute to the hamstring cramps.

The issues you had appear to be complex and you may only be able to validate your conclusions by doing the next event.

Some years ago one of the triathlon series hosted a separate swim only event with a 1 mile and 2 mile option. Doing the one mile option helped so much for my very first 70.3 just some weeks from it.

I still have a bad cramp occasionally - at Oceanside one of the years I had to float for a moment and stretch it out good then get back to it. I mean what can you do - just roll with it and get back on the track.

[Stafford_Brown]

I can resonate with this. With half the conditioning, half the knowledge, half the strategy, my very first marathon and very first half ironman were my fastest. Both of them I stopped frequently during the event. The uncertainty and unknown keeps your mind busy.

[monty]

@ruurdjan

Thing is, I did do a two-week taper with a pretty hard recovery week not long before it.

Yes but all tapers are not created equal, and time is not necessarily the biggest input factor. I presume when you were sick that you just laid in bed or on the couch mostly. Took a ton of sleep and probably didn’t eat much. You let your body truly heal itself.

In this latest one you probably had some formula for downsizing mileage, perhaps increasing some intensity for short bursts, etc? Of course just a guess on my part, but like I said, I have experienced this same thing, sick for 4 days, sleeping all day or just laying around, and going into the race still with little cough and runny nose. But mostly over, certainly on the low end of the down slope, and had the best races in years. And I have yet to repeat that taper, but have come close a couple times. It also might be that you actually have to be sick and your body is working super hard on the inside to heal you too. But that is not a theory I will test on purpose.. (-;

[Lurker4]

@monty

It also might be that you actually have to be sick and your body is working super hard on the inside to heal you too. But that is not a theory I will test on purpose.. (-;

Heh, that brings to mind the athletes who have surgery and come out flying as well. I think the forced rest, intentionally holding yourself back because you are worried about getting reinjured or making it worse has everything to do with it. Thinking about it like a race. If you come out flying, you’re probably not going to end well. If you hold back a little bit you’ll be stronger (typically) throughout.

We probably all don’t do the best job holding ourselves back a bit when fit, because we feel so great. Lionel Sanders St George 2022 IMWC(2021) comes to mind. He held back on the bike when everyone else was feeling great hard charging and finished strong. When he tries to repeat that, he has the expectation of being strong throughout and faulters.

[Stafford_Brown]

I tested the theory. At my Olympic distance event 3 days ago I did additional hamstring stretches and also standing up and down on my toes and stretching those muscles midfoot-toe that always cramp in the swim.

No hamstring cramps but I did get those annoying mid-foot cramps a few times I just pushed through squeezing and relaxing the foot very aggressively. Happens in my pool swim sessions also - so strange.

[devashish_paul]

@ruurdjan

Interesting, so you’re saying I didn’t fully “process” the taper, and went into the race in the bad part of it? Started tapering too late, or didn’t go hard enough that first week? That could explain the extreme fatigue. Thing is, I did do a two-week taper with a pretty hard recovery week not long before it. If anything I was more worried about the opposite, that I’d over-recovered and gone in flat. So I’m honestly not sure which way it went.

Last year you may have done little things inside the race just leaving some reserve respecting you had just been sick. You can have all the data in the world, but almost none of us have zero record of how many breaths we did or did not take at the right or wrong time during the swim…surges to buoys for turns, getting on a draft, pulling more vs drafting. There is huge variabity inside a swim of how you build up a deficit that can bite one later in the race and of course this carries into the bike and run….a lot lower number of micro surges relative to the race course and competition makes a massive difference over time. As Monty said, you may have not started your taper early enough this time and last time you’re 100% tapered because of illness.

I would not dismiss all those microsurges in all three sports when we feel fit….one or two no big deal, but its easy to do 50-60 of them over 4-5 hrs, and suddenly its a lot. Literally these can be two strokes on the swim or bike (and in a few pedal strokes they don’t show up in the data) that are easier or harder or certainly in the run, literally ten hard strides shows in no data…but the only data you need is how your body felt because over time the body will give you the feedback