First I'll start off by saying Oceanside is a beautiful place, and the weather couldn't have been anymore perfect! This is an early season location I'd recommend to all triathletes!
I stayed at the Springhill Suits located right across the street from Ironman Village and the finish line. This was the recommended hotel, but the only downfall is that the swim and transition location was a solid 1.5 miles away from the hotel. The only way to get over there was by walking and a shuttle that got you 60% of the way. There was no other places to stay, so this only became an issue after the race when you're tired and you needed to make your way back to transition for all your gear. Still, I'd recommend this location to those traveling to this race.
The morning of the race I was feeling good, but my nutrition mishaps began early in the day at breakfast! I forgot to pick up my normal breakfast from the store which normally consists of a banana, bagel and some peanut butter. Luckily the hotel was giving out goodie bags which had banana and peanut butter in it, but no bagel so I improvised with a honey stinger waffle.
Once I got to transition I got all set up and ready to go. As I was setting up I couldn't help but turn around and check out my rack mates right behind me...it was none other than Andy Potts, Jan Frodeno, Lionel Sanders. Needless to say it was a bit intimidating!
It was a cold morning for sure still in the 40's I believe, so I was happy to get the wet suit on and start the day off! As I lined up for the swim I placed myself in the front the the 30-35min wave with a goal of 32'ish minutes. The water was in the low 60s, but it was extremely calm waters. Even though it was ocean water we never really felt the effects of that until we were out at the half way point. Swimming back into shore I struggled to spot as the sun was straight in our eyes. I never got to far off track though I did have one of the volunteers redirect me as I was swimming towards the wrong buoy at one point. I completed the swim at 34:44, slightly behind my goal however I attribute that mostly to my poor spotting. Coming out of the water I was in 67th place in my division and 491st overall.
Transition was a long run, and given how cold I was I decided to run a little hard to wake the legs up and build up a little warmth which seemed to work.
After a quick honey stinger gel and some water I grabbed my bike and head out! My target time was between 2:35-2:40 given the climbs and speed limits on the course. I was also supposed to target a normalized power of 270w (which I failed to achieve). The bike course started off in a rolling hill format which I love! I held a strong pace for the first 10-15 miles keeping my power up around 260-270w. I forgot to pack my aero bar hydration bottle...big mistake! I assumed I could just use my cages, but when I get in the groove I don't slow down to pull the bottle out so I paid the price. At this distance I should've had 40oz of my mix 20oz of water, 2 gels, and salt every 5-6miles. Well, I ended up only taking in around 18-19oz of my mix and roughly 14-15oz of water with 1 gel and hardly any salt! I totally botched my nutrition on the bike which didn't cost me on the bike, but did catch up with me on the run...more about that later. The bike course was beautiful, cruising through Camp Pendleton for the bulk of the race. There were 3 hill sections that were fairly intense, but the name of the game was push through those and smoke the rest! One of the hills was a solid climb where I averaged around 4-5mph up it! In total the course had around 2700ft of climb which is solid for a 70.3 race, but nothing crazy. There was one section of the course with a speed limit in place and was strictly enforced with timing mats at the start and finish of it to ensure 25 mph was met. There was also a couple sections of no passing which was a bummer, but all in all I finished the bike fairly close to schedule at 2:37:46. My bike effort was clearly solid as I moved way up in the ranking to 44th in my division and 229th overall!!
Transition 2 was another long run with my bike in hand, and as I was running into transition I was thinking in my head..."man, didn't seem like I got the nutrition I needed!?". After dropping my bike off grabbing my shoes and heading out I started to salt up a bit trying to revive what I was fearful could be my demise on the run.
As I head out on the run my target was a 8:45-9:00/mile pace for the whole 13.1 miles with my heart rate in zone 3 as much as possible. This pace would put my run time around the 2hr mark...slightly ahead if I was closer to the 8:50 number. My nutrition goals on the run were 1 honey stinger gel per hour, 2 base salt licks per mile, and 18oz of water per mile...with a little Gatorade at the aid stations as I was running through. Starting out in the run I felt good, and maintained a 7:45/mile pace for the first 1.5 miles!?! This was not a good thing! I convinced myself that this was not sustainable as started to back off the gas a bit getting my first 6 miles of the run to average right around 9:07/mile which was fairly close to goal...then it happened...the wall! Somewhere between mile 6-7.5 I started getting slower and slower and my HR was going higher and higher. My legs were shot, and I felt like I had nothing left to give. Every time I started to run a bit my HR was fire up, and I realized my nutrition had failed me along with the hard start to the run. My last 5-6 miles turned into survival mode of a run walk which sucked! My final run time was 2:14:36, which was 15min off pace!
At the end of the day, I'm actually not disappointed with my effort as my total time was 5:36:47 and I finished 118/422 in my division and 600/3430 overall. The reality is that my overall time doesn't reflect my current endurance level, but my own screw up on nutrition hindered my effectiveness on the course.
Next up is IM Chattanooga 70.3, and my goal is to figure out how to simplify my nutrition to ensure I get what I need without feeling bloated while ensuring I have the fuel I need to finish strong! I'm excited about where I am in my fitness, and I'm ready to unleash it all...just got to pull it all together! Onward and upward! My only limit...is me!
