Timberman 70.3 Race Report

I'll start off by saying where in the world did the last three weeks go?  I always try to write my race reports within days after a race, but for some reason it was very difficult for me to find the motivation to sit down for an hour to write about how the day went.  That could be in part because although on paper it appeared that I had a good race but in my mind often times a good race is never good enough.  Coming off a a great month of racing in July, I had high expectations coming into Timberman given where my current fitness level was at (that was until I got my race week training schedule from coach).  

When Derick and I setup my year we both new that come August, Timberman would be a low priority race and more or less a test of endurance to see how my legs respond after a big week of training.  This is a similar thought process and mindset that comes about late in an Ironman race.  If I could race well being fatigued at Timberman, then when my legs begin to scream at me out on the Queen K highway next month, I'll know deep down that I had already been to those low spots earlier in the year and I'll have the confidence that is needed to push through the pain.  

Backing up to the week before the race, I was fortunate enough to spend the week in Newport, Rhode Island.  Tuesday (5 days prior the race) called for a rather big day of training but when I went to bed on Monday night something wasn't right.  I must have picked up some sort of 24 hour bug on the plane, had a sore throat and had some body aches.  Thankfully I was feeling better later that day after 12+ hours of sleep and managed to get in a 2hr ride with 1hr of hard interval efforts.  No better way to get rid of a cold than to sweat it out right?

Thanks to Top Gear Bike Shop for hooking me up with the new Firecrest 808s.

Wednesday (4 days prior) was a nice and relaxed recovery ride, but I came back Thursday morning with another hard bike which was done at beyond threshold power ranges.  Thursday afternoon I ran along the Cliffs and Mansions and although the sights were out of this world, my legs were trashed.  I suffered through a 7 mile run and wondered how in the hell am I going to race in just three days.  But then I remembered adrenaline is an amazing thing.

The walking/jogging trail runs along side these cliffs.

Friday came and I drove up to Boston and picked up Jennifer from the airport.  Timberman would be her third half Ironman for the season, and would prove to come at just the right time as Jennifer would go on to PR at the distance on a very challenging course as well as finish within the top 10 of her age group.  

After visiting a friend of ours on Friday in Boston, we drove to this little quaint Bed & Breakfast where we'd spend the next three nights.  This was our view every morning from the front porch. 

What a fantastic way to relax before the race.

Fast Forward to Sunday morning, the race was upon us.   Based on how my Saturday pre-race sessions went, I knew the legs were feeling a little bit better but I still didn't have that one-two punch on the bike that I was accustomed to.  I continued to tell myself that this wasn't my top priority race, I'm already a week plus into my Kona build but let's be honest, when I got to that starting line, no matter what my body was telling me, I want to win.  Plain and simple.  

Transition was rather hectic race morning and right after I finished setting up my bike in transition, Jen came to me and said that her rear tire was flat.  So I changed her tire, put air in tire #2 and I must have done it too quickly because that tire also had a hole.  We tried to stay calm and collective and headed over to the race support tent where the mechanic fixed the tire and Jen was all set.  However by this time, I was already off of my nutrition plan and had two options and made a rookie mistake which was to not rehearse the transition layout prior the race.  I thought no big deal.  I've raced over 50 times and they're all the same right?  My bike rack was next to a big tree, so I thought to myself all I'll do is look for the tree and then look for my bright yellow Newton shoes.  This would however come back to bite me later in the race.  In desperate need of calories, I headed back to our car and finished my breakfast and did NOT go back in to transition.

My wave did not start until the 12th heat which didn't get going until around 8:00am, a good 1+ hours after the professionals.  I understand the logic behind this which is to get send the slower athletes off the course earlier, but I often question the safety of doing heats this way especially when I'm blasting by them at full speed on the bike.  The waves went off in five minute increments and my wave was broken up into two waves and there were only around 80 people in my wave if I had to guess.  When it was finally our turn, the horn sounded and I did my typical ~200-300 yard sprint off the front.  I had absolutely zero contact off the line and before I knew it I was leading my heat.  Being a bigger Ironman event I kept waiting for someone to go off the front, but it didn't happen.  There was another swimmer swimming near me but I was starting to pull away.  I knew right away that I would be swimming this one solo.  Not even to the first turn buoy and I had caught the swimmers in the wave that went off five minutes prior.  I was swimming straight and surprisingly felt very strong!  On the final stretch in to shore not a single yellow cap had passed me so I knew I was exiting the water in first place in my division.  My swim time was 28:20 and this was two races in a row where I emerged from the water in first place (well sort of).  Later after looking at the results, there was somebody in the 2nd 30-34AG wave that did swim a little faster.  As I entered into transition I found my bike and off I went in just 90 seconds.  

The great thing about triathlon is that every race you do is different even if on the same course.  There is always something that will not go your way and it's your job to figure out the most efficient and fastest way to correct the situation.  For me, this race it would be a dreaded helmet sticker.  Not even 2-3 miles in I noticed something flapping on my front tire.  This was not something I wanted to deal with for 56 miles so I had two options.  Option one was to stop and lose time...or try to get the sticker off of your tire while moving at speeds in excess of 25mph.  Of course I went with mission impossible, option number two.  I got this brilliant idea that I could use my finger nails and in a Macgyver type motion the sticker would miraculously come off.  Well this method proved that the only thing that would come off was half of my fingernail and skin.  The tire grinded my fingernail down which left this lovely burning sensation and I had to revert to option number one which was to come to a complete stop and peel the thing off.  The remainder of the bike was actually pretty uneventful until around mile 40.  Up until this point not a single person had passed me all day but then I had gotten passed as if I was standing still.  I knew my power was starting to decline and my legs were starting to fade but this was my opportunity to push strong to the finish.  The rider in front of me gave me the instant motivation to up my wattage by 10 and give it one more hard push.  Although I wasn't able to hold that pace, it did manage to get me through some difficult miles out on that bike course.  

Coming into transition there were two 1/4 mile long single file no passing zone areas that we had to abide by and since there were slower riders that started in front of me, this made for a very frustrating finish on the bike.  I got behind one guy that decided to coast and then passed another guy coming out of a turn of which he exchanged some choice words with me because I passed him coming into a really tight turn.  I had to remind him that this was a race!  My plan was to bike around a 2:18 on this course but as I crossed the dismount line the clock read 2:20:29.  This would still add up to a 24mph average on a tough bike course and had moved my overall position up to 8th place overall (including the pro's).  

This is where my biggest transition mistake to date occurred.  I could not find my bike rack and when I told myself that morning that my bike was near the big tree, I must not have realized at the time that there were two other big trees nearby.  I broke one of my fundamental pre-race rules which is to ALWAYS walk the transition area in both directions!  After looking at splits of others, I lost a full minute in transition. Doesn't sound like much, but the guy that finished next ahead of me only beat me by around a minute!  It felt like an eternity.

The Timberman run course was a two loop out and back run.  It was tough knowing who was on their first loop versus their second and who you were racing against for a podium spot.  I had to race my own race.  Again, only one person passed me on the run.  My legs felt okay and I'd have to say that even though I only ran a 1:30 half marathon (again), the run course was tougher than most and I felt steady through out.  I felt like I could hold that 6:50 pace for another 13.1 miles which is actually what we're after right now.  

I came across the finish line in 4:22:59 which was good enough for 2nd place in my age group out of 175 athletes, 11th Overall Male and 5th Overall Amateur.  My goal heading in to this race was to go top 3, but today just wasn't the day.  The good news is that I'm continuing to see steady improvements and I have a feeling that come October, good things are going to come.  In addition, also by finishing 2nd in my age group I qualified for my third Ironman 70.3 World Championship next September in Las Vegas. 

Vegas Qualification table

As I indicated at the beginning of this post, Ironman Hawaii training is in full effect.  I was talking with someone last night and he made a comment to me that he would like for me to keep posting some of the workouts I'm doing to Facebook or wherever.  Well here are five Epic workouts that I have on my plate and it should give you a taste of what I've been up to these last couple of weeks.  Right now, workouts like this are a daily occurrence.

• 7x1 mile repeats starting the first two at 5:30-5:35 and bringing the pace down from there.
• Swim with 4x1000 intervals descending set.
• 6 hour bike with 3 hour time trial in middle with 4 mile run off bike at 6:45 pace
• 20 mile run keeping first 16 nice and relaxed going into 3x1mi repeats at 5:35-5:45 pace.
• Don't stop riding the bike until the Power Meter shows 4600-4700 Kilojoules then transition to a 8mi run off the bike at 6:55-7:10 pace.
• 25-26 mi run, just focus on getting the miles in today, don't try to push it here.  (Yes just a marathon...)