The well laid plans of mice and men…not. So I signed up for this race and made it a B priority for 2010. Then I decided from a periodicity standpoint that it would work better as an A race to gear up now and then have a long base build period for the big boy, Ironman Lake Placid. This was a risky strategy particularly for bike training since I would be dependent on the Colorado weather, which was the worst I’ve seen in our 3 years here. Lots of snow and cold down in Denver Metro. This meant lots of time on the trainer. Anyway everything in my prep and taper went well. I felt strong.
We arrived in San Diego on Thursday March 25 and got the bike and luggage and headed to the rental car. All was relatively smooth, and no the rumor that Southwest flies bikes for free is not true, 50 bucks each way, which is cheap and respectable relative to some of the price gougers out there. And the rest of your luggage is indeed free of charge. We drove up 45 minutes to Oceanside, in about an hour with some traffic. It seemed like there were a lot of chain restaurants on the web and once we checked into the hotel, the girl at check in confirmed our best bet were chains. So we had some Mimi’s Café for dinner, salad for Thursday. Friday we did Macaroni Grill with a build your own pasta. The chain restaurants were made up for with a Trader Joe’s where we stopped for supplies, including coffee and filters for the tiny coffee maker in the room. I went caffeine free for 3 days leading up to the race but no Starbucks would be open at 4:45am for my wakeup on Saturday. But this plan fit the bill and will be utilized going forward.
Saturday morning, up and at ‘em at 4:45am. I slept great actually, a solid 7 hours. I felt great and the coffee was gooood and worked it’s digestive magic (yes you know what I mean). I ate 2 bananas and a cliff protein bar at 5 giving me 2 hours before my race start. We packed up the car and headed over to the race start.
We arrived to the parking area no problem, topped off the tires and headed by bike to the transition area. Dana took a shuttle bus. The swim to bike transition had a quarter mile run in the wetsuit. Then you quarter mile coast into it off the bike to the run and still have a solid 300 yards or so back out the start so reallllly long transitions. There were tons of race waves (3 for my age group alone).
Swim 1.2 miles – 40 minutes
The swim is cool. An out and back and my first deep water start. Also my first salt water swim. Hard to site into the sun on the way back in though. I puked after about a mile in the water. Dana read some funny stories about triathletes swimming through the puke of their fellow racers on slowtwitch. I wonder if anyone swam through mine, haha. I wasn’t really sure what that all meant but I knew I should hit my spare water bottle in transition. I ran through transition with my legs feeling a little wobbly. Got situated and downed the water. I was a little bummed I was slow but I figured no biggie, 35 minutes would be good 33 optimum, but plenty of time to make up 5 minutes.
T1 – 5:42 minutes
It was long, 2 minutes probably just running around. I was wobbly and tried to get the puke and salt taste out of my mouth.
Bike 56 miles – 3:00 hours
So the first half of the bike is pretty easy in terms of hills, but this is where I knew there was a problem. My riding on Friday had me sailing up slight inclines at 21 mph with no discernable effort. I was struggling to keep over 18 mph and my rpe was through the roof. It just felt like nothing was working. I was getting depressed and couldn’t figure it out. Then it dawned on me I was sucking down water and not needing to pee at all which is uncommon for me on the bike if I drink too much fluid. I realized that the puke was all salt water and I was dehydrated so I just kept downing water and not sure how the race would turn out. About mile 40 I started feeling better but I knew at that point even a PR would be tough. Because even feeling better your bike legs are tired and there isn’t much room to go. The course is beautiful, but windy, hilly and humid. I saw people walking up some hills. I used my triple on 2 hills. It is the first time I was ever scared of being blown over on the bike.
T2 – 3:08 minutes
Long again but feeling less wobbly at this point and my head is feeling better, now I’m sort of just mad. I decide I will go for broke on the run.
Run 1 hour 44 minutes – 7:56 min/mile pace
So I rolled out of T2 not sure where my total time was but thought maybe I can eke out a PR but I planned to run till it hurt and just keep going. It did hurt. So seawater over ingestion works like this. First response, puke. Lots of folks end up pulled out of the water and day over. Dana says I should be happy just to finish. Next step, your body sucks water out of your bloodstream and muscles to neutralize your stomach, thereby dehydrating everything else. RPE increases but performance rapidly declines. Your muscles don’t fire. That’s what the first 40 miles of the bike felt like, just like your riding through really thick fog. Once you start to rehydrate you can feel the bloating which feels like cramps. I did feel that and thought I was cramping on the run. I did pee a tiny bit at a rest stop which helped a little. I just kept running and every time I looked at lap or avg pace I was seeing 7 handles so I just said keep pounding this out at least get a 7 handle pace and call it a day. The run course is awesome, two out and backs, jammed with crowds cheering. Music blaring definitely keeps you fired up. I strolled across the line and saw 1:44, happy with that but spent. The run saved my day, but it was tough.
I had some pizza and water in the tent. Started to feel the full effects of that bloating. Decided time to get moving. Well run race except transitions are too long and getting back to parking was a pain. Some lessons learned, March is early for a race if you live in Colorado. Never underestimate humidity, wind and hills on the bike. A trainer won’t prep you for that. Lots can go wrong in a race. We are fortunate to do each and every race. I appreciate all the more finishing my first full Ironman last year. Goals for future race...Goal 1: Have Fun, Goal 2: Finish, Goal 3: PR. Anyway IMCA70.3 served its purpose. I finished in the top 3rd overall and the top half of my age group.
We met my buddy Scott and his family (Trish, Cassie and Nick) for dinner Saturday night down in San Diego at World Famous Seafood. That was great. On Sunday our friend Gary showed us around San Diego. We got to check out Coronado Island and the Navy Seal training grounds. Very cool stuff. Had a nice open air lunch at a Greek restaurant. All in all a nice vacation.
Happy Training.
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