High Cliff 70.3 Race Recap

Pre Race

Packet pickup was fun and well organized. But believe it or not I had some nerves getting to the site and seeing things all set up. Like I said in my previous post I met Michelle for a short open water swim and this somehow all calmed me.

I had my "stuff" together for this race and I felt really ready to execute the plan that I had. It really is not all that difficult, but when you are new to something you always feel like you are forgetting this or that. But I had my bag packed and bike in the Car already on Saturday morning. The Gels were taped to my top tube and my nutrition was mixed and in the fridge.

Race morning came and I was up at 4am for a Whole Grain Bagel with Peanut Butter. I had a cup of coffee and checked the weather and everything looked good. Got dressed, body glide and all that jazz and headed out the door slightly before 5am. I was at the race site by 5:30 and things were well organized. I racked my bike and dropped off my stuff and went to get marked and pick up my chip. Yada yada yada all boring stuff, bathroom, setup, wetsuit on, Garmin in a plastic bag, everything laid out in order, I was ready.

Before I get started here is how Garmin recorded the day, they said the bike was a bit long and the run was a bit short due to some construction. This seemed accurate. Notice the HR creep at the end of the bike and through out the Run. I used the auto Multisport function and just lapped the unit each time I crossed a mat. Times in the report are the official times from the race.



The Swim - 34:45 1:39/100yards



I headed down to the beach and was going to do a short warm-up swim but as soon as I hit the water they started calling all of the athletes back to the beach. So I dove in and got everything wet and headed back to the corrall. I really had no strategy for the start, I was in the middle to the back which I was ok with. I think I might try to get closer to the front next time. The gun went off and away we went, the first part was shallow so I ran for a while until the water started getting up to about my thighs. Then I just dove in and started swimming. Easy easy easy is all I kept telling myself. I know much of the stuff I work on in the pool went out the window but hopefully some of it translated into the open water. As you can see in the picture I feel like I sighted pretty well I was easy until the first right turn, then I tried to find a groove until I hit the last right turn where I tried to go a bit harder on the way in. The Garmin was in my swim cap on the back of my head inside of a plastic bag. As you can see it worked pretty well, I could feel the buttons and started it at the gun.

T1 - 1:52

I was happy with T1, suit off, shoes on, grab bike and go. I for the life of me can't figure out how T1 was slower then T2.

The Bike 2:55:09 19.2mph



The bike was great, really enjoyable. The hill out was a beast like I expected and my HR was spiked for some reason coming out of Transition. I was worried as I was in Zone 5 all the way up the hill and then for the first ten minutes on the bike. But then we turned South and with a tailwind my HR settled down. And I believe it or not was up over a 20mph average with a nice low HR. This had me fired up but I knew the tail wind was helping. I watched only my HR Zone on the bike trying to keep it in Zone 3 and 4. If it got low I would press, if it was high I would back off a bit. Once we turned back North and hit some hills my speed started to slip but I just tried to stay true to my HR and not let it bother me. About 30 miles in my back started to ache which was annoying but getting up on the hoods would help so I spent some time on the hoods and eventually it passed. By mile 45 or so I was getting fatigued and my HR was showing it spending more time in Zone 4 as it kept creeping up and up little by little. Basically I was right at my bike LT for the last 10 miles because I did NOT want to let my Average speed dip below 19mph. It got down to 19.1 but a fast last stretch South back into transition helped me get it back up to 19.2. All in all I was really happy with how the bike went.

T2 1:37

T2 was great, I slipped out of my shoes while still on the bike, and then ran and racked my bike. Pulled on my socks and shoes Yankz rock. Grabbed my visor and what water was left on my bike and headed out.

The Run 1:54:23 8:44



I trudged up the hill with my left foot completely numb. The hill sucked, it was not what I needed coming off of the bike. My HR was at my LT of 170 and it never got down below it through the entire 13 miles. Once we crested the hill it was a right turn into a two loop trail run. The trial run was beautiful, soft and shaded for the most part, really pretty. You can see where the loop crosses if you look closely at the map. It took about 3 miles before I could feel my left foot again and at least that long to get into some sort of groove. My HR was as higher then I wanted it and I was going slow but I just keep running. I did not take my fuel belt as planned, rather I stopped at the aid stations and walked and drank. I continued to eat but I will not kid you the run was tough.
I went though many Rough patches and then periods of feeling better. I got a lot of support on the course, as I would pass people I would get a lot of "looking goods" to which I would respond "thanks, feeling bad" which would always get a chuckle. Once I got to the second loop I knew I had it but my stomach was done and my legs were starting to rebel against the effort. I knew I had less then an hour left so I just decided to stop eating as none of it would really help anyway. I starting taking water at every aid station but not walking just taking a sip and dumping the rest over my head. I ran, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I actually had no idea where I stood in relationship to my "A" goal of 5:30 until somewhere in the last loop. I decided to switch my Garmin screen for some reason because I got sick of watching my HR creep and really it did not matter anymore. I flipped it and saw I was just under five hours, I asked a lady at an ice station if we were ten miles in and she said that if I was on the second loop I was. It was here I knew I had 5:30. I was happy but I did not really have a big finishing kick in me. I just kept plugging away. I was worried because I had told A that I would be finishing between 12:30 and 1:00 and I was really looking forward to seeing her and the kids at the finish. I finished the second loop and turned right down the hill. I could hear the music playing and the celebration. I loped down the hill and one guy went sprinting past me. I had the energy to go but I was worried my quads might cramp with the downhill pounding they were taking so I just cruised down the hill and let him go. I looked over my shoulder and there was no one else there so it was just me and the finish, I like it that way. I approached the chute and there were still lots of people cheering, I saw my daughter first on the fence waving to me. Then my wife, I managed a wave and a smile but I mostly just wanted to finish and stop. Which I did, and I was spent and tired. I could barely get down to a knee to hug my daughter, but I did and it was worth it.

The Aftermath

We did not stick around long, opting for a quick trip through the food line and heading out to lunch. We lingered around for about 10 minutes and then I packed up and since my Daughter and her friend wanted pancakes we opted for Perkins. I packed up and on the way to load up my truck bumped into "Rural Girl" and family heard she had a great race and congratulated her. Now you GO and do the same.

All in all it was an awesome endurance event experience, I found it as challenging as anything I have ever done, and found that the 70.3 is a great distance. I have heard the siren song of Ironman, in fact I still hear it. No real decision has been made and I never rush into things anyway. But I will say that the race I did Sunday had plenty of pain and suffering to make me feel alive. If anything Ironman has lost some of it's allure to me, but tomorrow that might be different.

Recovery has gone well, I am sore, quads mostly. I mowed the lawn last night for some active recovery after sitting at my desk all day. I want to do a super sprint the Mighty Wolf (400, 15 and 3) over the weekend but we will see how I feel. Really I am not to bad off soreness wise, I am pleased about that. I may get on the bike Wednesday or Thursday.

Final Thoughts

Some things that jump out at me are as follows.

I think I raced this thing just about right, I feel like I just need more endurance on the bike. I never did any "over" rides. The farthest I went was 56 miles. I think if I would have done a few four hour plus rides I could have kept my HR down on the bike and maybe even gone a tad faster. Then I think I would have had a bit more left for the run.

I think I nailed the nutrition aspect of the thing.

Open water swimming is not pool swimming, I am going to lake swim all summer, no more pool time until fall rolls around. I bought this **** wetsuit, I may as well use it.

One more goal on this years goal pyramid achieved, I will review this in a later post.

High Cliff is a race I want to make as a regular on my schedule. Loved it even with the hill.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

It is all sort of ho hum right now, I am ready, healthy and basically pretty calm about the whole thing. My wetsuit is here, I tested it out in pretty heavy chop on Fathers day with a really short swim, just enough to make sure I could still breath properly in whitecap conditions. It was not a problem but heavy chop does not make the best swimming conditions.

No worries though the forecast looks promising for Sunday. So I am just kicking back right now, I have been busy and after only 6 hours of training last week I have 0 so far this week, but I plan on getting light workouts in Wed, Thursday and Friday. No plans really, just go with what feels right. Then I am thinking about swimming all our part of the course when I go to pick up my race packet Saturday. But I must confess, being a newbie I am not sure if this is bad ettiquitte, will other athletes or race directors frown upon this?? If you know please tell me becase you know me I am a follower and not a trend setter. I mean it's a park, would it really be a big deal?

Regardless one other revelation I had last week, your bike rides a bit harsher but goes faster when you have 100psi in the tires versus 80psi.

Basically it's Business Time and that always makes me think of this.....I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

High Cliff 70.3 Race Strategy Long post- But hopefully interesting

Well I was going to save this post for a bit but now that I have had a chance to ride the bike course and have a pretty good feel for what the run will be like I pretty much have it set in my mind as to how I want to approach this race.

Weather is always the variable but I feel like with my plan weather should nor really be an issue. If winds or rain slow me down so be it, for me it will be all about executing the plan and letting the chips fall where they may. I have dream times in mind but they will not be my main focus. I am trying to remember that this is a 5 plus hour endurance event, larger, longer and more demanding then anything I have ever done in the past so I need to be smart.

Pre-Race
Get a good nights sleep and wake up early and eat a pre-race breakfast at 4am. Lounge around a bit, hydrate, use the bathroom and be on the road to High Cliff by 5am. High Cliff is about a 30 minute drive for me so getting there, getting situated and ready to race should be easy enough. Continue to lightly hydrate all morning and 15 minutes before the swim start, 1 GU and some water. Loosen up and warm up.

Here is the basis of the nutrition plan I am trying to put together. I am going to base everything off of the idea that this will be a five to six hour event.
* Fluid intake of 20 - 30 fluid ounces/hour. Basically One Water Bottle per Hour.
* Proper Electrolyte Replacement Through various means.
* Energy intake of 250-280 cal/hr.

Swim
I am going to treat the swim as a solid warm-up for the bike, the swim is a large rectangle. The plan is to swim the first half exceptionally easy using very little kick then at the halfway point I will have hopefully found a nice rhythm. When I reach the last turn towards the beach I will begin to kick a bit harder to try and activate my legs for the bike.

Bike
Both the bike and run course start with a nice ½ mile steep climb away from the lake. I will spin this hill in my lowest gear seated the entire time. In fact I don't plan on climbing any hills out of the saddle. I will only stand up on occasion to stretch out and relieve some seat pressure. Once to the top I will settle in, get my HR in check and try to find a rhythm taking in diluted sports drink and one gel over the first 10 miles. I will carry two bottles of perpetuem behind the seat of my bike this will provide me with two full hours of nutrition, protein, electrolyte replacement and fluids. This should take me through a good chunk of the bike. At two hours into the bike as my Perpeteum runs out I will start eating Gels at a rate of about 2-3 per hour. I may sneak a Gel in early if I feel like I need a boost. And if it is overly hot I will add some Nuun to my water bottle.
I plan on racing the bike in sections, first 15-30 minutes is settle in time, up to and through the 28 mile mark I will make every effort to keep my HR around 20bpm below my AT or averaging about 140. At the half way point I will begin to try and take advantage of the faster sections of the course and try to finish the bike out as strong as I can. I would like to raise my HR average for the entire bike to end up about 10-15 bpm below my AT or about 145-150 bpm average. This means I stayed aerobic for the most part and should have plenty left for the run.

The Run
For the run I plan on using my fuel belt. Three GU's and two 8 oz bottles of water and two 8 oz bottles of Gatorade endurance. This will take the aid stations out of play for me and I am ok with that. Again this course starts up a steep hill I may walk this section or at the very least go really easy up it. Once to the top it is a two loop course through the park mostly on trails. Then back down the hill to the finish.
I don't have any idea how this portion of the race will go, if my nutrition plan and pacing is right I hope to be able to run a decent race with minimal walking or fading. I hopefully am experienced enough running wise to run this race on feel, keeping the first loop easy as I really want to have a strong finish. I will only watch the HR here to make sure I do not go anaerobic too soon.

All in all I think I have a solid plan, I did a run through with the Perpeteum and the GU on the bike last weekend and it went well. So I think I am good there. I have run enough races using GU, water and Gatorade Endurance and had no problems, so I know the products I am using work for me.

Summary
The real question is how hard and fast can I go on the bike. I averaged just over 18mph with an average HR of 140 on a great day last weekend. I feel like I can up the effort and hopefully the speed some and still stay aerobic. This is the crux of it all for me, how hard to go during my weakest discipline, the bike, but I hope the HR limits keep me in check, and proper nutrition leaves me with enough left in the tank for the run. I really do not know how else to approach an event like this. I would be very happy to finish the bike in under 3:00.

Time Goals
I have been trying very hard not to get hung up on time goals but honestly I don't believe in just racing to finish. I did a quick check of my age group last year and there were 51 male athletes in the 35-39 age group. Two DNS and one DNF leaving 48 finishers. Middle of the pack or 24th place finished at 5:28 and change. I think that should tell you about the fitness of the triathlon community right there. Middle of the pack is 5:28!!, I checked 2006 and middle of the pack was 5:27 in my age group. All I can say is these guys are pretty darn good. Percentile wise I was often in the top 10% of my age group in road races, even some of the bigger ones I did. I don't stand a chance of sniffing that in this race. Not to mention I feel like I worked fairly hard to get ready to do this thing. Honestly I like it, here's to being in the middle of the pack! It makes that post race beer taste better. So here are my tiered goals for the 70.3 on June 22nd

Stretch Goal - 5:30 or less
Realistic Goal - 5:45 or less
Bad Day Goal - Finish before the awards ceremony starts at 1:00
Worst Case Scenario - Finish on my own two feet

Last but not least, tasty tidbits I have learned and will try to remember
Goggles first swim cap second, so you don't get your goggles kicked to the bottom of the lake
Leave your swim cap and goggles on your head until you have your arms out of your wetsuit, duh
Lube your wetsuit where it will need to slide over the timing band and chip
I will not strap my shoes to the pedals to start, I don't care to wipe out
I will try to undo and slip out of my shoes before I dismount the bike, I will practice this
Yankz shoe laces, these things rock
Good body position goes a long way on the bike leg
Find a good checklist, there is a lot of stuff to remember to bring
Figure out where to stash a spare tube and C02 Cartridge, just in case

That is it, that is all I have. I am just trying to fit in some final workouts, nothing to earth shattering. I would like to hit the bike group tomorrow but I am not sure if that will work out or not. I need some open water swims, but it looks like I will be doing them on my own as the group swims are on Thursday nights and that is the night I coach my sons soccer team.

For my next post I will hopefully don a wetsuit and give you a report on an open water swim and hopefully a Garmin track of said swim. Until then everyone, have a great week.

Well this is my last big weekend, then I am thinking I will taper things back a bit so that I am hopefully rested and ready for the race. It's odd because I feel pretty darn good right now, no aches no pains aside from my normal issues. The ankle is believe it or not still mildly stiff but it is basically healed, I am not sure that it will ever be right, to many issues with it from High School to the present.

Yesterday I went for a beautiful 1 hour ride over lunch and loved every second of it. I am not sure, but I think I might be falling for my bike. I mean we had a rocky relationship at the beginning but over time I have grown to appreciate her more and more every day. If she treats me well in a couple of weeks we just might be in for a very long road together, I am very loyal. But here is the deal, I think one of her best attributes is she seems to be a very adept fat removal tool. I have trained for a marathon and other road races and never lost a pound, at times even gaining weight. But with my increased cycling I have been leaning out and losing weight. I am solidly down under 170 lbs right now and feeling lithe, well at least by my standards. I credit all of this weight loss to the increased cycling. Ah my little Kestrel, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.

This weekend I am doing run club Saturday morning, 10 miles at my FIRST program long run pace of 8:00 miles. This pace has been going ok for me, a little tough but I have managed runs of 6 and 8 thus far holding pace so I will press on. The plan calls for no specific pace this week but I think I will push the pace this week and go easier next week during the race taper. I have to admit I have been a bit of a cheater on the FIRST program, I fear injury running the intervals to hard so I have been cutting them back, doing maybe half or 2/3 of them before stopping when I feel my legs straining. The tempos have been fine, I actually for the most part enjoy tempo running, sort of strange and twisted I know. It's hard because I have not really focused on a fall race yet and committed mentally, I was leaning towards keeping it simple and just doing tri's all summer and then the Fox Cities Half in the fall. But I have been getting the bug to run a full marathon, NY did not pan out again, but Lakefront still interests me. I have mentally committed to it as my future course for an attempt to run a qualifying time for Boston. So it might not be a bad idea to experience the course. I am really up in the air with all of this, hopefully I will sort it out in a few weeks.

Sunday I want to go for a simple three hour ride, no distance requirements. Just spend three hours on the bike and keep it all easy, zone 2 and 3. Get out early and get home early to enjoy Sunday with my family.

Looking forward to cutting back a bit for two weeks and really looking forward to my first 70.3 triathlon. Did I mention I purchased a wetsuit?? I comes in next week FINALLY and I plan on a few open water swims to get used to it and the murky vision, choppy water breathing and sighting required of open water swimming.

Next post will be my race day plan. Yea I have actually been thinking quite a bit about it lately, especially after reading about a few brutal "bonks" people have had lately.