The long version:
Saturday was the 27th running of the Muncie Endurathon - the longest running 1/2 in the country according to the organizers. Overall this is a very well organized race with a fast bike course and a slightly hilly run course.
The drive down as usual sucked. Traffic through Chicago sucks. It sucks a lot. It's even worse when there's construction. There is a ton of construction going on. Once through Chicago things went well until I hit Indianapolis at rush hour. Overall it took about 5 1/2 hours to get down.
Once in town I headed to the convention center to pick up my race packet. The expo had great prices on tri suits (1/2 off of a $110 DeSoto suit) so picked one up. Signs posted at the packet pickup area showed that the lake temperature was 82 so no wetsuits allowed. Oh heck why not - it's already going to be humid and in the 90's, why not make it worse by also making it my first wetsuit-less triathlon swim? Oh well - it is what it is. There was an all you can eat pasta dinner at the expo so I took advantage of it and then sat through the mandatory pre-race meeting.
After the meeting I found my hotel and got checked in. Read a bit and tried to get to sleep. I kept trying until about 12:30 when I think I finally did get to sleep. It was one of those "fast" sleeps where it feels like you've only blinked and suddenly the alarm is going off. Great - hot, humid, no wetsuit, and no sleep. I should have brought a hammer so I could hit myself in the head a few times as well. A full cup of espresso and a couple of breakfast cookies had me up and ready to go in no time. Got on my stuff, mixed up my bottles, packed up, checked out, and headed to the reservoir.
After setting up my stuff in transition I hung out and chatted with my rack mates. Most of them had done this race in the past and really enjoyed it - a good sign. The racks were preassigned which I like - it avoids people getting pissed off by someone squeezing in at the last second. I scanned around for landmarks so that I'd be able to find my bike in transition, then grabbed my stuff and headed down to the lake.
I was in the 7th wave so I had a 35 minute wait. They called my wave and I headed down to the water. 82 degrees was very refreshing actually so my apprehensions about the lack of a wetsuit were reduced a bit. I routinely do 2K swims during my mid week workouts so I wasn't too concerned at that point. I lined up towards the back to avoid the washing machine and waited for the go.
It came and I went. The swim was clockwise which suited me well as I breath on the right side. In addition to having large yellow turn buoys for sighting, each turn buoy also had a large sailboat next to it. Excellent idea - it made sighting a breeze. The lake was fairly murky and I didn't find any feet to camp on so slipped into my own rhythm focusing on swimming downhill and pulling from my back - a lot easier out of a wetsuit as it turned out. About 2/3 of the way through I started passing people from the earlier waves, though I didn't pass many people from my wave. As I climbed out of the water I felt my timing chip slip off my ankle. I stopped and grabbed it and ran up the hill to transition. Fortunately the darn thing didn't drop in the middle of my swim!
T1 without a wetsuit and with my shoes clipped to the bike was by in a flash. I didn't bother with socks for the bike - just grabbed my helmet, sunglasses, then stuffed my back pocket with my endurolytes and I was on my way. I definitely need to work on getting into my shoes when they're clipped in. It took me the first mile to get my foot into the shoe. After that things smoothed out and I settled in to the bike.
The bike course is relatively flat with a few false flats here and there. After a couple of miles you turn on to a bike path which you stay on for about 10 or so miles. After that you go out and back on a very smoothly paved county highway. At the 1:40 mark I saw the first place guy going by. After that a few more trickled by and then there was a steady stream of age groupers from the earlier waves. I stuck to my plan of hitting the feed bottle every half hour and refilling my handlebar water bottle at every aid station. There were four (I think) stations along the way and all of the volunteers were very good at the "hot handoffs". The only complaint I have (and one I'll send as feedback to the organizers) came at the turnaround. There was an aid station at the turnaround and I decided to grab a Gatorade at that point. I twisted the top and tried to take a drink - nothing. They hadn't to take off the protective covering under the cap - though I'm guessing they weren't told to do so so I couldn't fault the volunteers too much. In any case I chucked the bottle as I didn't want to attempt to get it off while riding.
During the entire bike ride I maintained a 21ish MPH pace at a 148 heart rate. I did feel like pushing a bit harder but kept it reigned in to avoid blowing up on the run, which had me pretty worried. I also stretched my back every 15 minutes or so.
In T2 I got my socks and shoes on, grabbed my run feed bottle, and headed out on the run course. Thankfully, there was no back pain off the bike - a very good sign. For some stupid reason I emptied my back pocket during T2 and didn't put my salt tabs back when I stuffed my run feed bottle in. Fortunately they had salt tabs at the rest stops though. The run is a moderately hilly out and back over a country road with just a little bit of shade. Aid stations were placed every 1-2 miles and stocked with gels, salt tabs, water, Gatorade, ice, and freezing cold towels. About three miles into the run the first place guy cruised by.
I settled into a 11 MPM pace and immediately got passed by a 25 year old who blazed by like a gazelle. I settled into the run and focused on sticking to my plan of walking the aid stations, hitting the feed bottle, taking salt tabs, and dousing myself in cold water. Normally I'm not very good at sticking to my plan during the run but I knew if I didn't this time it would not go well. I also had a gel at each aid station as well. Overall the plan paid off because I felt good through the entire run - I had a good rhythm going and only walked through the aid stations. The only problem I had was being a little over-zealous when dumping water over my head. A bunch of water got into my left shoe and for 8 miles I got to listen to squish-thud-squish-thud-squish-thud as I ran.
In order to keep focused and keep my heart rate under control I used counting - a tip I picked up from reading other race reports. I counted the number of steps I take during each breath (four) and I also counted each breath. When the breath count got to eight I'd restart. This kept me focused on my run rhythm and also forced me to control my pace to keep my heart rate and breathing under control. During the last five miles I upped the count to three steps per breath for a couple of miles and then two steps per breath as I brought myself down to an 8:30 pace. I'll definitely continue to use this technique as it seemed to work very well for me.
With three miles to go I picked up my pace and passed the 25 year old who blew by me on the hill. She was walking by this point. With two miles to go a spectator called out "Wow - you look great! Are you on a relay?" Wow did that make me feel great! I chugged up the final hill and rocketed down the finishing shoot.
All said this was a great experience. Due to various concerns I spent a lot more time than I usually do in prerace planning. By staying focused and sticking to my prerace plan I was able to avoid a total melt down during a tough and hot day - and I was able to bag a new PR in the process. Now that's a good weekend!
Workout Summary
1 comment:
I think part of it was pacing, and part of it was swimming without a wetsuit - being high in the water makes a big difference on my swim times. Overall my splits were pretty even - I was right around 110 - 120th overall for each sport which I'm happy with as it indicates to me that my training is well balanced.
Post a Comment