My first 70.3 HIM
My official results:
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman-70.3/maine/results.aspx?y=2018&rd=20180826&race=maine70.3&bidid=1650&detail=1#axzz5PPGtwBNp
Garmin:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2965305737
Some notables:
- I swam some extra. The swim was chaotic and I wanted nothing to do with the mass of flailing bodies in the choppy. I wanted a relaxing swim. If anything, I swam slow. I wanted to guarantee no stress and no elevated HR. I definitely self-seeded myself too slow at 35-40 min as i did the swim in 32 min. Next time I would seed myself at something like 30-32 min as I easily could have swam faster with a true avg HR of less than 160. I could also have swam closer to the buoys, but in the moment I didn't care (no pincers). Not sure I care now either as 32 min for the swim was good enough to finish in the top 1/3rd.
What was nice about this is I did have a couple times where I wanted to pass people who I thought were out of control in sighting. At the pace I was I had plenty of gas to get by them quickly
[*]Took my time on T1. No rush, didnt want to miss anything. I was also a little worried about the salt water on my body. Spent prolly a good 30 seconds under a water shower trying to get excess salt off.
[*]I was targeting above 17mph avg for the bike at around 135HR and ended with an average HR of 146 and 18mph, I cant be disappointed with the effort. I was surprised with the cadence average. I bet this was due to the amount of coasting I did. I bet if you took it out I was much closer to 90+.
Side note: I averaged 17.8 mph and 174 HR for 11mile Bare Hill Bike leg. Significant improvement in the execution of the bike.
[*]18mph is rather poor for a standard bike split, like horrible in my AG (134 outta 185). That said, I was on the hoods for 95+% of the ride since I didnt have any aero setup going on. Need to save for a tri-bike which will cost more than my car.
[*]One bottle drop on the bike in the first 20 miles. I was out of the saddle going up a hill and wanted to hit it harder. The bottle popped out the back of the jersey, I had to stop and pick it up
[*]Stopped halfway on the bike with full bladder to use porta-john. I so wanted to pee on the bike, which I have never done, but there were too many people around to think about it.
[*]Felt great on the bike fueling wise. I also consumed a clif bar like mid way. Went through about 3 of the 22+oz bottles each containing ~325 cal +electrolytes.
[*]Took a GU just before the end of the bike
[*]Took my time on T2, didnt want to miss anything
[*]Felt like I had a full bladder on the start of the run. However, never stopped and was fine. Didnt end up going until 1 hour after the race while at dinner
[*]My watch was set for 37min reminder to fuel. Took a GU at the first 3 reminders. Didnt take one for the last. I also took 2-3oz of water at almost every mile. Only used my Gatorade Endurance on my belt once.
[*]Potential GI distress: At about the start of the run I felt "full". I think this was because I consumed so much fluid on the bike. Im not sure if it was total calories, but since I peed halfway through the bike and felt like I wanted to at the start of the run, that is my guess. I felt this way most of the run. I consistently felt like I was on the brink of stomach cramps. Not anything I have felt before. The last GU I did take I had to force down. I was not wanting it. Also, I forced myself to drink some of the Gatorade endurance I brought to make sure I had enough electrolytes with the temps.
I was thinking of trying to half my water intake on the bike, but keep my calories the same. That would mean ~45-55oz of water bottle instead of 100-120oz. Any thoughts here?
[*]The run was good and hard. When I started I felt like I was running a 9:30 pace, but it was a sub 9 pace. I was very surprised and happy. It was sunny and hot so I tried to keep to around a 165 HR. I was surprised my sub 9 min pace was only good enough for bottom 1/3rd
[*]I started to feel it about mile 4. Got a few mental thoughts about stopping and "is this worth it". Fortunately they were easy to disperse. I tried to steady my pace through mile 9 and then start going faster.
[*]While you cant tell I was going harder in mile 9, I chose it because that part of the course started on a trail. It was packed dirt/gravel, not my favorite running surface, especially with my knee. At the point my HR goes up some, but its a downhill and my pace doesnt change much. I was a little hesitant to really push it on those conditions. I exit those conditions shortly after mile 10. From there on you can see my pace pick up and HR grow when not on a downhill. Mile 10-13 I kept pushing and I was able to negative split from mile 9 through the end (GAP pace): 9:06, 9:02, 8:37, 8:21, 8:19
Finish the race fine with a small amount of suffering. I could have suffered a lot more, but for my first race I feel like this was the right call. This was the plan was perfect and it came off perfectly. Very happy to have a solid race and meet all my goals for it:
- Sub 6 hours overall
- 17+mph
- Sub 9min pace on the run
- Didnt suffer horribly
I have been incredibly sore yesterday and today. This tells me I worked nice and hard in the race. I did my active recovery ride today and it was painfully good.
I just scheduled my first 100+ mile (120mi) bike for 9/7.