I used Ironman 70.3 California as a prep race and had a good day considering I had my first flat ever in a race. Based on this performance, if I improved my times similarly at WF I’d go somewhere around a 5:03, but my goal was to go sub-5 so I knew I had my work cut out for me.
I left for Lake San Antonio with two training buddies, Andy and Jeff, on Thursday around noon to avoid making the 5hr drive on Friday, the day before the race. We arrived at our campsite early evening and got settled.
We woke up early on Friday morning planning to go for a swim, but upon checking out the lake the algae was so bad we decided we’d greet the water for the first time on race morning. We registered and then hung around the expo checking out the vendors, listening to some live music, and just relaxing between intermittent showers throughout the day.
That evening we headed down to Coach Rich’s RV where he and a few friends had a grill waiting for our meat and pasta. After dinner we headed back to our campsite to pack our transition bags, get our bikes ready, and get a good night’s sleep.Race day morning we around 6am, lathered ourselves in sunscreen, double-checked our pre-race check lists, and headed down to the monster transition area.
My buddy Andy and I were both only three spots apart in transition so we walked the bike in/out and run in/out to make sure we could find our way amidst what has to be one of the largest transition areas in all of triathlon. Contrary to what the forecast had said all week long, it looked like it was going to be perfect racing conditions.
Swim: 31:12 (1:37/100m)
Given significantly less swim volume than the prior year and knowing that I’m still not in peak swim shape, I was just hoping to go close to a 31 flat. The swim was pretty uneventful. I found some fast feet to draft off for the first half of the out and back course, but lost ‘em at the turn.
T1: 2:32
Upon exiting the swim there’s a decent little climb up the boat ramp to transition. I slipped on my shoes, put on my helmet, grabbed my nutrition, and was off.
Bike: 2:50:09 (19.75mph)
My goal for the bike was just to sit at 85% or 225 watts which meant taking it easy on the climbs and pushing the downhills and flats. Unfortunately, the bike didn’t start so well for me. The first part of the course is fairly technical as it winds up the hill above Lake San Antonio. I knew this and should have taken it easy on this part of the course, but I didn’t. Stupid mistake. My speed combined with less than clean roads (no doubt because of the showers the past few days) caused me to crash about a ½ mile into the bike. I was coming around a tight right-hand turn when my rear wheel started to fishtail. I tried to recover, but there was debris on the road and I lost it and rammed into the inside embankment. Fortunately, I was fine (just minor scrapes on my shoulder and arm). After a quick inspection of my bike to make sure everything was working, I got back on and went to work.
If you look at my power numbers, I rode the bike almost exactly to my plan:
Entire workout (214 watts):
Duration: 2:51:54
Work: 2204 kJ
TSS: 207.6 (intensity factor 0.852)
Norm Power: 226
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: -2.35%
Pa:HR: 1.76%
Distance: 55.4 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 529 214 watts
Heart Rate: 112 178 155 bpm
Cadence: 33 244 81 rpm
Speed: 2.4 47.7 19.4 mph
However, after the first 30 or so miles I started to feel a lot of tension in my hips and just never felt as strong as I did on my long training rides. I was out of the saddle stretching a lot more than usual and just never felt great. I’m not sure what happened, but my guess is I just didn’t incorporate enough climbing into my training. It also appears that my average cadence was quite low so I probably need to work at spinning at a higher cadence.
T2: 1:37
I was a little worried about getting out of my shoes on the steep descent into transition, but did so a couple of hundred yards before crossing the dismount line without any issues. I bolted into transition, put on my running shoes, grabbed my visor and nutrition, and was off.
Run: 1:36:42 (7:23min/mile)
Despite (or maybe because of) my bike, I had one of my best runs ever. The course is relentless and just keeps throwing punches just when you think you’re going to get a reprieve. I started out feeling strong, but around mile 3 or 4, I was hurting and walked a few of the very steep hills. I also started to get some leg cramps, but kept taking my nutrition including SaltStick capsules and this seemed to help greatly. I didn’t start to do the math on whether or not I could get in under 5hrs until about mile 9 of the run. At that point I needed to run the final 4.1 miles in under 32 minutes. I knew I could do this and stayed under this pace until mile 12. I was taking my splits at each of the mile markers and mile 12 had to have been almost 2 miles long. I thought I only needed to run the last 1.1 miles under 12 minutes to come in under 5hrs, but I gave it everything I had and it seemed like eternity before I saw the finish line. When I finally did it was too late. 5:02:14.
While I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t go sub-5, I cut almost 20 minutes off of my overall time from last year (over 13 minutes on the run alone). That and I had an absolute blast during the weekend. After the race I had a beer with Coach Rich and replaced all of those calories and carbs at the LA Tri Club dinner which is always amazing.
This is such a fabulous event and one I hope to compete in for years to come (hopefully going sub-5 next year)! I’m sore as I’ve ever been after a race, so it’s time to take a couple of weeks off before getting back onto my Endurance Nation training plan to prepare for Ironman Canada.
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