Warning: this race report is pretty long and not that well-written, but I'm probably never going to edit it more than I already did, so here it goes :-)
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I had planned to sign up for the ITU Long Course World
Championship in Penticton, Canada ever since Justin signed up for the Aquabike
World Championship (last April). The race date was August 24th. Due
to communication issues with Slovak Triathlon, I registered last-minute in July.
After a rather
disappointing race at Ironman Austria, I was glad to have another long distance
event on my race calendar.
I was back to serious training a week after Austria, with 7
weeks until Penticton. I really didn't want to repeat my mistakes in Klagenfurt,
that echoed pretty much all Ironman races I've done so far. Though my main
limiter in Klagenfurt seemed to be my running legs, which was not too
surprising given my injuries and limited run training, in retrospect I think it
was my mind/attitude and poor race day nutrition that ruined my race.
Honestly, I did not give much thought to race nutrition
before IM Austria. I thought I had it finally figured out since I didn't have
any major stomach issues in Lake Placid last year. So I stuck to the regime
from last year – Powerbars on the bike, gels on the run and nuun + water
throughout the entire race. Even though I put in a lot of training hours this
year, I did not really practice my race nutrition. One reason for this was that
I only did 2 runs longer than 13 miles in preparation for the Ironman. The
other reason was that ever since last year, most gels have seemed extremely
unappealing to me, so I would not use them unless I really had to. Needless to
say (and I can elaborate on this in a race report for IM Austria if I ever get
to write it), my nutrition at Austria did not go well. During the 11.5 hour
race, I probably didn't even consume 800 calories and I may have been pretty
low on electrolytes. 5 nuun tablets, 2 powerbars and one hammer gel + a few
sips of coke and sports drink on the course was all I had.
Therefore, I decided that I really needed to nail the
nutrition at my next race. I thought I'd give UCAN a try since it seems to have
worked for quite a few accomplished athletes (though I remember trying it long
time ago and not liking the taste of it). As I was googling around for UCAN
reviews and comparisons to similar products, I stumbled upon cranksports.com.
They had some pretty good arguments for liquid (and/or gel) fueling on their
website as well as the suggested electrolyte amounts to replace during exercise.
After talking to my friend, Jim, I decided to give them a try. However, I
didn't stop researching and eventually came across the Infinit Nutrition
website. A customized sports drink seemed like a slightly expensive solution,
but the time to my next race was slowly running out and my new e-gel and e-fuel
wouldn't be delivered for a few days. I decided to also order some customized Infinit
(they had an initial consultation before ordering, which I thought was very
helpful). I received both drinks about 6 weeks out from the race, so I had some
time to test them out in long rides and runs. Infinit recommended having a
little bit of protein in my bike drink to curb hunger, which made sense to me,
so I decided to use custom Infinit "bike mix" for the bike and then
experimented with a custom "run blend" Infinit and e-fuel (and some
Heed that I won at Nashua Y Tri J
) for the run. The bike mix seemed to have worked right away – I felt much less
wasted after my long rides even with no solid food – yay! The run mix needed a
bit of tweaking since the initial version was too sour and irritated my teeth for
days. I've had sensitive teeth for a long time, which is part of the reason why
I've never used a sports drink on a regular basis. Fortunately, with Infinit, I
was able to tone down the flavor (and the sourness) to a more acceptable level.
Some future adjustments might still be needed since my teeth still get a bit
irritated. Anyway, I used my new nutrition strategy for several weekends and
was able to bike-run and swim-run much better with no stomach distress AND no
lack of energy (and no major feelings of disgust over my choice of fuel). The
only downside was that with my usual between-bars aero bottle, the drink was
spilling all over my bike. I didn't mind this with plain water (or even nuun)
but the sticky Infinit was annoying and hard to clean. Justin was not happy
cleaning it off my entire bike after each ride ;-) So about 3 weeks prior to
the race, I bought a new, spill-proof aero bottle, which has worked great!
My training leading up to Penticton was pretty much the same
as the last 7 weeks of training before Austria, except that I was determined to
complete most of the runs (and bikes) on the plan. Before Austria I was still
very cautious about not overdoing it with running. Since completing Austria
I've been medium cautious, trying to make sure I ran at least every other day,
ideally 4-5 times per week (including 1-2 runs off the bike), totaling 30-45mi
except for the rest weeks when I did maybe 20-25mi. I continued with my
swimming routine (4-5 times per week, 12-17K total) and I tried to slightly up
my cycling by adding a weekday Z2/recovery ride in addition to one or two
interval rides, long ride on the weekend and of course my daily commuting. To
fit this all in, I decided to drop strength training (and physical therapy,
which might not have been the best decision…)
Race week:
Because of my limited vacation, we tried to make the trip to Penticton as short as
possible. We flew in on Thursday late evening and our flight back was next
Tuesday morning. In addition, the drive from Vancouver airport to the race
venue was over 4 hours, so there went another half a day of traveling each way.
In the end, the real time we spent in Penticton and Vancouver was only 3 days
and we were quite busy with pre-race activities for most of it. It was still
very nice to be there – I've never been to British Columbia before! The drive
to/from Penticton was scenic and we had the chance to stop for a short hike,
and paid a visit to a local parrot rescue on the way back.
Both Justin and I were very excited but also a bit nervous
about our races. For Justin, this was the first World Championship and the
longest swim (3K) and bike (120K) he's raced at. For me, after 2 not too great performances
at Olympic distance Worlds (2009-10) and an unfortunate DNF at Ironman 70.3
Worlds (2015), I felt like I finally had a shot at the podium in Penticton if
everything went well. The taper was working – I felt more rested and ready to
race. Between the travel and the pre-race activities (packet pickup, bike
course pre-drive and pasta party on Friday and practice swim+bike, athlete
briefing and bike + transition bag dropoff on Saturday morning), we tried to
rest as much as possible. We also tried to stay closer to East Coast than West
Coast time zone in regards to our bedtime, so that getting up at 3am on race
day morning wouldn't be that much of a shock :-p
Race morning:
Woke up at 3:10am, had breakfast and prepared my sports
drinks – regular versions in my front aero bottle and my running bottle, 3x
concentrated version in the frame aero bottle, and 2 ziploc bags with one
serving each in my running bottle holder. This would mean up to 800kcal on the
bike and up to 500kcal on the run – a big improvement from what I've usually
done for Ironmans.
We arrived at transition right when it opened – 4:45. Justin
wanted to arrive early so he woul not be rushing and be stressed. It was
actually nice since we didn't have to stand in a long line for a bike pump. We
got all our stuff ready and hang out in transition for another 30min or so. We
didn't even have to wait in line for the bathroom since there were about 30
portapotties in transition and half of the 1500 people racing were not even
there yet J.
In retrospect, we probably should have headed to the swim start earlier to get
some warmup in (no swim warmup for me in the end) but this was still the least
hectic race morning I experienced + I didn't even mind waiting a bit since I
had Justin to talk to.
Swim (3000m, 55:43 – 1:42/100yd – ugh – 12th AG, 73rd
female (out of 334))
Made it to the start coral about 8min prior to my start,
which I think was sufficient. The pros and paratriathletes were gone at that
point and the first wave of age group men was about to start. My wave was the 3rd
AG wave going off at 6:43. Justin's wave went off at 6:51. I was hoping Justin
would not pass me in the water!
It was a beach start with quite a bit of shallow water to
get through in the first 100m. Since I didn't practice dolphin dives, I ran
through it like most other girls in my wave (women under 45 – about 110 of us).
The pack split quickly and within a few minutes I started passing people in the
wave that started 4mins before us (men 50+). It felt good to be passing people
this early J
The first 1100m went by quite fast (a straight line of red buoys). The sun was
barely over the mountains on our right, so it didn't bother me that much. Then
we were onto the 800m semi-circle marked by yellow buoys. I didn't have as much
of a problem sighting during this part as I was afraid I would. We were
partially facing the rising sun but it was eclipsed a bit by the mountains. It
was during this section that a few people from the wave behind passed me. I
tried to get on their feet, but with not much success – they were a bit too
fast. The good news was that it was just small groups of these speedy swimmers
– not a whole wave swimming over me (as was the case in my previous Olympic
distance world championships). I felt good during the swim and it looked like I
passed a lot of people from the wave before us and a few from the wave before
that too. I didn't push it too much, since it was going to be a long race, but
in retrospect I feel like I should have. After finishing the final 1100m red
buoy section, I came out of the water in 55:43 – 3 to 5 minutes slower than
what I was hoping for - oh well. Still, I was somehow in the top half of my age
group (12/29)
 |
| Not last out of the water - yay! |
T1 (3:40)
T1 was pretty smooth, though a bit long (quite a bit of
running around and across transition). The volunteers in the changing tent were
very helpful with putting my swim stuff back into my bike bag, so I could get
on my way quickly. Also, there were wetsuit strippers J.
Bike (120km, 3:30:20 – 21.3mph – 1st AG, 8th
female)
The course had quite a few turns, 4 longer climbs and
corresponding descents, some rollers and decent amount of flat. I was pushing
it quite hard on the uphills (over my estimated FTP), moderately hard on the
flats (70-90% FTP unless I was easing off because of a person passing me) and mostly
coasting on any longer downhills. (Better to be coasting than getting to too
high of a speed, braking too much and potentially melting my wheels ;-p).
Surprisingly I did not fade too much in the second half of the course even
though my normalized power was quite a bit higher than what I did for a half
Ironman earlier this year. I think nutrition + good taper + determination made
this a great ride! My normalized power ended up being about 83% FTP and I
averaged 21mph over a moderately hilly course (1000m over 120km or 3300ft over
75mi), which resulted in 3:30 bike time, which was my goal!
Justin passed me about 12mi into the bike – he supposedly
made up 4min on me in those 12 miles! (his swim was 6min faster but his T1 was 2min
slower than mine)
Once I ran out of the drink in my front aero bottle (a
little over an hour in), I took a bottle of water from the aid station and
squeezed it into my front bottle. Then I proceeded to try to squeeze about a
third of the concentrated drink from the aero bottle on my frame into my front
bottle. However, the frame bottle was not very good at releasing liquid by
squeezing only L,
I didn't practice transferring liquid from it into my front bottle, which was a
mistake. I probably wasted 30s to 1min soft-pedaling on a climb while I was
trying to transfer the concentrate into my front bottle. In the end, I managed
to transfer maybe a half of what I wanted and my fingers ended up all sticky…
So from that point on I decided to alternate between sips from the concentrate in
my frame bottle and the water from my front bottle. Not ideal (and not too
appetizing) but it worked – I think I drank about ¾ of the concentrated bottle and
2.5 bottles of water.
I eased off a little bit in the last 5 miles or so, not
wanting to cause any accidental crashes (especially with the aquabike finish
coming close) or exert myself too much before the run.
T2 (3:13)
After handing my bike over to a volunteer, Irun into a
portapotty, since I needed to pee for a while but I was not able/willing to do
it while riding… It was a very quick (30s) and the only(!) pit stop during this
race, so I don't regret it J.
I quickly changed my socks and shoes (plus put some completely melted Vaseline
on my feet) and off I went.
Run (30km, 2:24:37 – 7:45/mile – 1st AG, 9th
female)
I tried to start at a moderate but not too slow pace. Since
my HR monitor was not working at all during this race, I probably started a bit
too fast, but that's OK. First lap went by quickly – I did the first 10K in
about 47min, which was faster than I expected! I suspected I'd slow down but it
was still a good start of the run J.
The sports drink in my water bottle was rather warm to start with, even though
the bottle was insulated. I guess not insulating enough when lying in the sun
in 80+ degrees for 3 hours. I took some ice and cold water from the aid
stations, which made the drink much more palatable.
As I expected, the second loop was a bit slower than the
first one. Still a tiny bit under 8min per mile though, so I was pretty happy
about that. I was taking water and ice from the aid stations and mixing it with
my Infinit powder. Pouring the powder from a Ziploc bag into a water bottle was
a bit cumbersome to do while running – perhaps I should practice it for next
time or get the powder into a solid-walled container, so that it's easier to
pour with one hand.
I finally saw Justin (who finished his aquabike race a while
ago) around kilometer 17. He said I was in 2nd and the 1st
girl in my AG was only 1min ahead of me and seemed to be slowing down. Wow. I
was hoping I'd do well but this well?? It was exciting to think that I had a
chance to become a world champion. Sadly, my legs were getting pretty tired. I
tried to push harder on the 3rd lap but it was harder and harder to
get my pace back under 8min/mile. I was slightly afraid I might blow up from
exhaustion or bonking, even though I was feeling more energized than usual at
this point in a race. My legs started feeling sore and for the last 5K my knee was
hurting too. By kilometer 27 I dropped to 2min behind the 1st place
(as reported by Justin), which was a bit disappointing but I did not give up
and continued pushing (even though the 3rd girl was supposedly far
behind me). In reality, I never came closer than 3.5min to the first girl in my
AG. When Justin said 1min, it was actually 5min and when he said 2min, it was
actually 4min. But it's all good J
I think the slightly optimistic splits were more motivating for me anyway.
I was very glad when I finished. My knee was in moderate
pain and it was painful to walk for the next 2 days. Also, even though Infinit
doesn't usually irritate my teeth while training, drinking it for 6h during the
race did (chewing was painful for another 5 days)… I guess I might need to
taper the flavor/acidity down even more :-p But all in all, it was a very good
race. Justin finished 2nd in his AG in the aquabike, so we both experienced
standing on the podium at World Championships!
Lessons learned:
1)
Fueling strategy is important and it looks like
all-liquid approach works for me, so I'm planning to stick with it.
2)
Even though I've done much more swim volume than
ever before this year, most of my race swims have been kind of slow… I probably
should incorporate more intensity, especially in longer sets, so that I swim at
higher intensities while racing… (I definitely felt a bit too comfortable
during the swim portion of this race…)
3)
Improve transitions? I was 1min 45s slower in
combined transition time than the first girl in my AG…
4)
Allocate more time for travel + race
preparations.
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