Galveston 70.3 Race Report

At last, I was able to put all the training to the test.  Amazing how much training goes into one day of glory!

I went down to Galveston Saturday to check in, drop the bike off, and relax a bit before.  It was nice to have some camaraderie with the Outrival Racing Group and to also spend some time with my parents.  I'm grateful I was able to stay somewhere comfortable prior to racing.  I'm actually glad I got there early since my brake calipers were not releasing.  I wasn't planning on using my brakes too much, but better safe than sorry.  The guys at Bike Barn replaced my front calipers and tweaked the rear and I was in business.  So, I dropped the bike off and then put the feet up before the ORR team dinner.  I stuck with something simple...spaghetti with meat sauce and water.

After dinner I returned to my parents house and mixed up my bottles of nutrition for the next morning.  I went with 1 sludge bottle and 1 regular bottle of Infinit Nutrition (900 calories total) for the race.  I mixed 1 bottle of Energy Lab Execute to sip on after breakfast and through the morning before the start.  Then it was off to bed at 8:30.

I actually slept ok considering it was my first race.  I woke up around 3:30 and then 4 and decided to get up.  Breakfast was a double serving of Rice Cereal, honey, glass of water, a banana, and a plain piece of toast.  Then it was off to transition.  I've never set up for a long race before so I wanted to make sure I had time.

I tried to go minimalist.  I put my shoes down with socks in each slightly rolled up and my gels and salt tabs in my hat for the run.  That's it.  I put my race belt and sunglasses in my helmet and was good to go.  Put my two bottles on board, a handful of Electrosalt, and a few PowerGels.  I aired up the tires to pressure and then began my warm up.  I did a little jogging and stretching and hit the bathroom to be ready.  Here is a picture of my set up.

At 6:30 I put on the wetsuit and walked over the the start.  Opening ceremonies and then it was time.  The pros got a swim warm up, but us age groupers had about 2 minutes per wave.  Looking back I should have swam a bit more than just jump in and wait for the gun.  The good thing was that our wave went off right after the pros, so clean water.  

Then 7:15...BOOM!!  Here is where I panicked.  I thought...go, go, go...go hard for a few minutes to warm up.  Bad idea!  The dark water, cold water, wetsuit, adrenaline, and everyone kicking and swimming made me panic and feel claustrophobic.  The negative thoughts immediately crept in.  I thought to my self...How would I ever do this whole race!  Give me a lifeguard and get me out of here. So, I paused for 20 seconds or so and caught my breath and reminded myself that I had trained for this (not the true open water experience), but I could do the distance.  So I breastroked a bit, counted the buoys, and put my head down.  After that, I got back into my rhythm and the buoys kept coming.  I just had to watch out for running up on people.  Soon, I could see the swim exit and I picked up the pace.  I felt good.  I put my foot down a bit early and WHAM!!  A charlie horse on my left calf.  I picked up my foot, did a few dolphins dives and swam a bit more and stood up slowly.  Still felt the cramp, but nothing that could slow me down.  I began stripping the suit off and ran to the strippers.  1, 2, 3 and they yanked it off.  Pretty easy.  I ran to the bike and race belt, glasses, helmet, and off I went.  Said by to my family and hopped on the bike.  Even with the start issue, my pace came at about where I expected.  Here is a picture of me on my way.  Swim time:  32:30

You can tell I was happy to be out of the water and on to the bike.  I've never raced on my bike nor done a true time trial so I didn't know what to expect.  The race plan my coach laid out was high zone 2 to low zone 3 on the bike.  Well, once jumping on I was at a low zone 4!  Holy sh&t!  How was I going to get it down???  Slow down...NO WAY!  So I kept pedaling according to feel.  One thing Coach Michelle said to me was during race day, feel is more important than data at times.  Hopefully this was one of those times.  Soon after a couple of miles my HR came down to high zone 3 and slowly to mid zone 3, but never below.  I told myself Oh Well.  Go with it.  My actual HR averaged mid to high zone 3 the whole way.  System checks and all felt good.  I made sure to begin taking on nutrition after 15 minutes and then grabbed water at all aid stations.  I have to say that the stuff from Infinit Nutrition rocks and an all liquid nutrition plan is the way to go.  I drank about 3/4 of a bottle from every station along the way to supplement and took a salt tab about every 15 minutes or so.  I felt good.  We also had a slight tail wind on the way out so I went with it.  At the turn (I didn't think to start slowing down early, so I skidded into the turn) I noticed that the trip home would be more of a head/cross wind.  I kept the pace going, but at mile 35-40 or so I began slowing down a bit.  The last 10 miles or so had my slowest splits.  I made sure to stretch the calf along the way too.  At mile 10, no more calf tightness so I couldn't wait to run.  I took a gel at mile 8-6 to be ready and then drank a bit more and stopped.  We had to ride through the airport and boy was that a rough ride.  I lost a bottle (good thing this happened at the end) and when I picked up my bike later in the day my rear tire was flat and gashed.  Several others had this problem.  Overall, I held a high speed than any of my training rides and was happy with my 1st bike leg effort.  Here is a picture of me coming off the bike and ready even though my legs felt like Jell-O.  Bike time 2:40:12

I racked the bike, sat down to put on socks and shoes and ran out as I put on my nutrition and hat.  I looked at the watch and 6:22 for the 1st mile.  Wow!  Could I maintain it?  For the 1st 3 miles I did, but I began slowing down.  I never felt bad or had cramps.  It was just the body doing its thing.  This was a 3 loop course and on the second loop the negative thoughts began creeping in...Why are you doing this?  Slow down!  Take your time.  You want to do IM?  I began battling these and pushed them out with thoughts about my wife, kids, God, how lucky I was to be racing and go so fast!  Then it was a matter of making sure to take on the nutrition.  I took 2 gels along the way (planned) and about 5? salt tabs and drank coke a bit along with water.  I wanted to make sure not to take on too much (coke was towards the 2nd half) and feel bad.  Then finally the last loop and I picked up the pace (at least mentally I did).  I sprinted into the finish with a 1/2 marathon split of 1:27:32!  Not bad considering this is only the 2nd half marathon I have every run (1st was a 1:21:53 in March).  My legs immediately cramped up.  So I walked a bit and said hi to the ORR cheerleaders and my family.  Then I found my way to the med tent and had them wrap my legs.  Here's a picture of me crossing the finish and my legs wrapped.

I race with a watch, but never kept the full time.  However, as I crossed the line looked up and saw 5:00:45 and was like what!  We started 15 minutes after so total time 4:45:45!  WOW!  I always told myself that I wanted to come in under 5 hours, but this was very good.  I am very happy with this result.  I am also stoked that this was my first ever full 3 legged triathlon.

I can't wait to race again.  I can't wait to keep training to get faster.  This was truly an awesome experience.  Maybe I will get a Vegas Spot in my next race (at least that is my goal!).

I want to thank my loving wife and family for putting up with my training and adaptation to triathlon.  I want to thank my awesome coach Michelle Leblanc of Outrival Racing for making me faster.

Here are a few pics of me in the race.

February Update

I need to try and update this more.  Last fall after my 1st race, I decided to start doing my own training. It was ok for a while as a break.  However, my workouts became very repetitive.  Late December I attended a happy hour with Outrival gain and ended up chatting with my now coach Michelle Leblanc. She recommended that coaching would be a good idea for me since I was basically doing none of the things that someone should be doing to improve.

I have a natural talent for running and other athletics and she saw that in me I guess.  It has been a great decision.  In the month that she has been coaching me, I have yet to repeat a similar workout outside the long runs and bike rides.

My swim (used to range at 2000 to 2500 yards) are now minimum of 3000 and getting into 4000.  I thought I could never swim that much, but I am making it.  Last week was my longest yardage total of about 11,000!  Sounds crazy, but it is a lot for me and I am seeing the improvements in the endurance.

The bike has improved.  Michelle immediately pointed out that my bike training should be about 50% of my weekly volume.  Prior to working with her I was shooting for about 33%.  I also wasn't incorporating long bikes on a weekly basis.  That has all changed and I feel that I have improved and my it shows on my longer bikes.

On the run side, I am starting to go very fast (more than I though I would).  I have brought my mid zone 2 run HR pas to 145 bpm or so at 7 min miles.  That is very fast!  Last Friday, I did a 70 mile bike followed by a 6 mile brick run and came off doing 6:30 - 6:36 miles at the top of zone 2 and a few into zone 3!  Incredible that I could do that.  One of the weirdest things lately has been getting used to this faster pace and having a low heart rate.

The other thing that I have been experimenting with is nutrition.  I referring to both daily and race day nutrition.  On the daily nutrition, I bought Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight, 2nd Edition.  This book is like a bible to me.  Since starting to follow the daily steps on nutrition, I have seen my performance, recovery, and overall health improve.  One of the things I took for granted, was my carb intake.  Since reading and re-reading this book, I have almost doubled my daily card intake.  This has mad a huge difference.

The other nutrition aspect has been race day nutrition.  I had been experimenting in the past with gels and bars on the ride.  As many know, this can be tricky.  Thus, I ordered some Infinit Nutrition a few weeks ago and am loving this stuff.  The consultation was quick and easy and the formula came custom for me.  Many triathletes swear by liquid nutrition and I am a believer now.  It's so easy to drink every 10 minutes and know that my nutrition is coming in.  I throw a salt tab from Energy Lab every 20 minutes to make sure I hit my hourly electrolyte need (per Michelle's race planning worksheets).  I feel great during rides and feel good on the run.

Back to the title of the post, I am doing my 1st half marathon this weekend here in The Woodlands.  I can't wait and I'm pumped.  This will be a good test for the Galveston 70.3 in April.  I hope I can deliver per my training results.

I'll update that later.

Time Trial

Today started early.  I ran to the track for an early morning 2 mile time trial per my Training Peaks calendar.  Did the 10 minute warm up, striders, and then took off.  Drank some freshly made Execute by Energy Lab before starting the time.

Now, I didn't have anything prior to running.  No gels, bagel, cereal, fruit, etc...just some water before I left.  The Execute is all I had before starting the time trial.  I'm still trying to get used to it.

I started the timer and off I went.  Pacing is something that I am still working with.  One lap then two.  I felt good.  I mentally told myself then that 25% done.  However, after that, I started to worry that I wouldn't finish.  My heart rate monitor kept buzzing me since I was exceeding my typical threshold (note to self...turn that sucker of next time).  But, I kept going telling myself that I would look until mile 1 and that I could do this.

Mile 1 came and I looked down...6:21!  Not bad considering 2 weeks ago I did my 1 mile TT at 5:53.  I kept going thinking, I could keep this up.

Lap 8 finally arrived and I held back until about 200 to 150 meters out.  For some reason, I was afraid I would bonk, barf, trip, pull something, etc. etc.  I for sure picked up the pace the last 100.  As I crossed I stopped the time and looked...12:44.  My second mile was almost exactly like my first.  Overall, not bad for my first 2 mile TT.

Now to reflect:

• My heart rate peaked at 182 bpm
• My heart rate held around 175 almost the entire run until the last 150 or so and then spiked
• My speed (per my Garmin 310xt) stayed very constant upon evaluation on Training Peaks
• What does this mean?  Not sure, but...

Result:  I probably could have pushed it harder.  I know this is just practice, but mentally I need to get rid of those doubts in my head and push.  It's not like I would explode (no one has yet).  Next time will be better.

Funny that I mention this and ran across an article in Lava Magazine today about teaching yourself to suffer:

http://lavamagazine.com/features/mind-games-learning-to-suffer/#axzz22utfFgMR

I'm still alive today, no pain now, and even pulled off my swim at lunch today.