Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz - Race report

Alright, two months after my inaugural 70.3, I was back again but with much more grit and excitement. Since one 70.3 finish was already in my pocket, I was excited for this second race and wanted to give it my best (with the learnings from my previous race).

Unlike Vineman, which had a lottery system to sign up and therefore only a few of us racing, Santa Cruz had the biggest ever (at the time) Team Asha contingent doing a half ironman distance race: Rajeev, Sony, Prasad, Amit, Surya, Karthik, and myself. Shashi was signed up but decided to skip the race. It was Karthik's and Surya's first 70.3.

The previous day, we drove to Santa Cruz and did all the pre-race checkins. Headed back in the evening. The best part was sleeping at home for the night :)

Race Day

The next morning, had breakfast and headed to Santa Cruz. Set up the water and stuff in T1 and was all set ... and then, suddenly felt slight pull in both the quads when I stretched. I freaked out like hell since it was almost at the same point where I got cramps during Vineman. This time I was sure I wasn't over or under hydrated. Within a few minutes it felt normal but I was still a bit concerned.

The weather was as perfect as I would have imagined. Cool late 50s and expected to go to 60s-70s during the course of the race.  

Swim

The ocean looked surreal and as usual was a bit nervous about the swim. The water was cold and so was the weather outside. Spent a couple of minutes warming up and getting over the initial water and cold jitters. Felt much better when I came out.

I knew my swim has improved since last time, so I guess I could be done ~5 mins faster than Vineman. The swim went according to the plan and I was out of the water in 46 mins! Was excited to see Neha right out of the swim and couldn't wait to get on the bike. 

T1

The T1 setup was a bit away from the beach (around 0.25 miles). I made sure I didnt over-exert and ran/walked the way to T1.  Was feeling pretty cold and the hands and feet were frozen. Couldn't feel them at all. Met Shashi in T1 was using his race band to just loiter around ;). Took some time to put on the bike gear due to frozen hands and was off to Bike out.

Bike

The bike course was supposed to be harder than Vineman due to a mile long hill and crazy headwinds and sidewinds. I was prepared for that since we did go on the bike course a couple of times during our training.

Started spinning with easy gear for the first few minutes and then settled into the rhythm. A few miles onto Highway 1 and voila! NO headwinds or any winds for that matter. Before I became too happy, I remember being told that last year athletes faced headwinds while coming back on the course. So I just braced myself for the headwinds on the way back.

The bike ride felt nice and I was cruising at 17-18 mph average pace! Got to the mile long hill on Swanton Road and just spun to the top without expending all my energy on it. The descent was nice and since we had done it before, I knew what to expect and maneuvered just fine. Got to the turnaround on Hwy 1 soon after.

Now on the way back, NO headwinds again! I was so excited and could easily continue with 17-18 mph pace. Around 40 miles or so in, I realized that I might be feeling a bit in the legs and my expected time to finish the ride would be around ~3:15. I immediately eased up a bit since did not want to repeat Vineman or anything close to it. I could easily cruise at around the same pace and finished the bike in 3:13. Achievement unlocked!

T2

Went into T2 feeling pretty strong. Tried to stretch out my hamstrings and damnnnn... was about to pull something there really bad. Such a terrible idea to stretch out for no reason. Anyway, managed to put on shoes and headed off to the run.

Run

Saw our Asha cheerleaders right outside run out. I started off the run at an easy pace and making sure HR is not exceeding 160s. The run felt good mostly because the weather wasn't too hot and the cool breeze from the ocean made it even better. At around mile 8-9, I suddenly felt that my legs have stopped working. I started walking and took some salt. It definitely made it better and by mile 11 or so I felt normal again. The body was feeling very tired by then and I managed to continue at a reasonable pace until I was very close to the finish. The adrenaline kicked in nicely and I sprinted my way to the finish line where Neha and other folks were waiting. Now I would like to think that my run was that fast that Neha could barely get a shot of me crossing the frame with my rear leg in view :P.

All smiles for a super strong finish -- much stronger and faster than I even imagined! Was hoping for sub-7 and got a sub 6:30 finish. Coach was very happy and gifted me his archaic steel frame Lemond bike (which he btw never actually gave me :-/). Promptly, he planted the seed for a full Ironman race as well.

Pooja and Ravali made it just in time. Neha, Deepa, Venky, Shashi and Rajeev were all there to celebrate my finish.

Ironman 70.3 Vineman - Race report

My first ever race report (though not my first race) -- albeit an eventful one. Looking at the overall race, it certainly makes me sad! However, looking into it based on how the first half of the race went, I am elated that I came out finishing the race!

I came into the race a bit nervous and excited since this was my first ever 70.3. I thought I had prepared well and I documented my training here. There is a huge gap between what I was expecting based on my training and what I ended up with -- that is covered largely in this race report :)

Amit, Prasad, Shashi, Sony and Me!

Venki and Prakash met us at Dinner while their IM training

Race day

Had a good night sleep of 6-7 hours and woke up fresh and excited for the race. Drove to the start, completed the T1 setup. My wave was scheduled to start at 7:10 am.

All excited!

Da Coach, Athletes, Wives

Morning nutrition

1. Had a banana (~100 calories) around 5:40 am
2. Had a Rip Van Waffle cookie (~100 calories) around 6:25 am

Warm-up swim

Went into the water around 6:45 and spent 5-10 mins swimming around and getting used to the water. Water was warm and nice and fresh. Worth the time as it removed all water anxiety and I felt confident and excited.

Swim

1. It was a deep water start. Athletes in my wave were hanging around in the waters near the start buoy for about 6 mins before the start.
2. Started off towards the trailing end of the wave to avoid anyone swimming over me.
3. Got into the rhythm early on and started enjoying the swim.
4. Mostly swam straight as sighting was not much of an issue since mostly at the time, the course was shaded and narrow.
5. Turnaround: Reached the turnaround point around 29 mins. Had to walk around the turn buoys since the water was too shallow to swim. Even after the turnaround, still had to walk more to find decent depth to swim.
6. Felt a little bit of cramping on both sides of the chest. Don’t remember this happening in training. Became ok in a bit as I started swimming.
7. The turnaround walk disturbed my rhythm a bit though the swim back distance and time felt short. Probably due to a gentle downstream current.
8. Came out strong from the swim in 52 mins -- better than expected time of 55 mins. The weakest sport for me was supposedly over and in a good time.

All smiles before the start

Getting to the deep water start

.. and off we go!

Nervousness all around ;)

.. and here I come!

T1

Went smooth and got out with the bike in 6 mins. I wouldn’t stress about lowering it much more in the later races. Carpets from right after the swim exit to the bike was a bliss (compared to Tri Santa Cruz and Oakland I did last year which blistered my feet).

All set to spin!

Bike

1. As soon as I got on the bike, I realized that am having some Gastrointestinal (GI) problems and felt very uncomfortable.
2. Next my HR was constantly hovering around 175, so gradually slowed down to get it down to early 160s. Lesson: Should have just walked the bike out rather than running with it.
3. GI issues did not fade away at all. All the electrolyte drinking and Gu made the palate worse too. Ended up puking a little a couple of times. This was in the first 15-20 miles or so. I decided not to push as hard as I did in my training rides and just concentrated on maintaining a good pace.
4. Miles 15-25 were hard due to moderately strong headwinds. Getting on the drops helped tremendously though I am not used to those in regular flat rides.
5. Around mile 20-25 when I was off my seat for a stretch/relaxation, I felt an upcoming cramp on the inside of the right quadricep. I immediately got back on the bike and started massaging a bit. By that time, I had already taken 1 salt tab and was keeping up with my electrolyte intake. I soon took another salt tab in hope to fixing it. Soon enough, I got the same cramp on my left quadricep. This was the time I felt my race is going to turn up different from what I imagined.
6. So midway into the bike ride, I started fighting with cramps and kept massaging them one at a time. They got better temporarily on and off and I could not find any correlation between my nutrition intake (electrolyte, salt tabs and gu gels) and cramping getting better/worse.
7. The cramps got worse with time and I had to use every opportunity to save my quads. Did not pedal much during downhills. Took it easy and opportunity to stretch and massage the quads. At any uphill, however small it was, I switched to easy gears and spun off which was relaxing as it did not put any stress on the quads.
8. Between miles 30-40 I was cruising really easy as it was mostly flat and no headwinds (partial tail/side winds) without stressing out my quads much. Wanted to prepare for the climbs coming up between miles 40-45.
9. Found the climbs easy as I was on the lowest possible gear and was just spinning enough to go uphill gently.
10. By mile 45-50, cramps worsened and frequency of cramping pains increased and so did my massaging. By this time, my hamstrings started to cramp too.
11. Miles 50-56 were the most difficult. As I was 3-4 miles away from the finish, my conditioned worsened and I was literally counting every half mile and checking my watch to see the remaining distance. Literally ½-1 mile away from the finish, the cramps got so bad that even when my knee bent for any spinning, I got a sensation of getting a race-ending pull/spasm anytime. I was not sure if I would survive until dis-mounting. I somehow did after ridiculous massaging and got off the bike.
12. My bike time reads good on paper. However, per my training and no cramps, I could have bettered it by at least 10 minutes since my re-fueling stops were quick (thanks to the volunteers) and there were no traffic signals to stop and wait for. I found the bike course easy enough compared to the courses around Portola Valley here, but my condition made the experience bad.

T2

1. Walking into T2, I had my doubts about the rest of the race. By walking to the transition area, I could tell that walking is probably feasible since it’s mostly the lower legs at work which were fine at the moment.
2. Got to the transition area and bent to pick up my stuff. Felt hurting cramps again. Got the stuff carefully and put on my hat and fuel belt
3. As I tried putting on the shoes, I had to bend my legs at the knee to hold my shoe to fit in my foot. Severe cramps as soon as I folded my leg. I immediately stopped and went for the other leg. Same problem! Somehow managed to put on the socks -- seemed it required different muscle usage compared to putting on the shoes.
4. I sat down on the ground to find another body configuration to put the shoes on. This body posture was even worse. Just could not apply any force to put the shoe in! I was left in a very desperate and helpless situation since I did not want to quit before even trying to walk.
5. Luckily my transition spot was towards one end of the transition bars so I crippled my way to the side and grabbed hold of the bars and helped my way up. Took me some time to figure out the right pose but managed to do it. I had only the toes inside my shoes. So I just forced my feet in and wiggled and eventually got my shoes on!!
6. I walked to the Run Out and there was an aid tent. I explained my situation and the guy said the cramps will just get worse if I don’t get any electrolyte. Of course I knew that! I had two options: 1) Quit 2) Not Quit. The reason for quitting was purely based on my physical condition. Mentally I did not want to. So I decided that I will give running a try and will take it 1 mile at a time. I knew I was far from the cut-off, so taking incredibly long time for this segment will still earn me a finish.
7. My cheerleading Asha team missed me by a few minutes and I could not see them at all during this time. That hurt me more mentally since I would have asked for advice and get some confidence going into the run.

Took me more than 9 minutes for this transition. But there was nothing at the moment that could have made it faster, and of course I was not even trying. In “usual” circumstances, this could have reduced to 3-4 minutes easily.

Run

1. Started walking for the first 100m or so and then switched to a really easy run. Kept switching back and forth between walk and run and things went ok with that routine.
2. For first 3-4 miles, I balanced my arbitrary switching of run/walk to make sure things don’t get worse and I do get some non-snail’s pace since I wanted to minimize the time I spend in heat walking, but also wanted to exert less. Got into some rhythm and still lived one mile at a time.
3. Since my body was cramping and it was hot, I made sure I drank enough electrolytes and took salt pill once every 45 mins or so. I was carrying a cooling towel around my neck, arm coolers and a hat -- I poured water at every water stop and made sure heat does not add itself to the factors that were killing me or my race.
4. Reached mile 5 water stop where Venki and Prakash were waiting. Most embarrasing moment award goes to that moment ;) I burst in tears trying to vent out whatever I was going through. Just seeing them and talking to them for those couple of minutes made me feel so much better mentally. It was the kind of reinforcement I was subconsciously looking for.
5. I carried long for next few miles without getting much worse. I did start feeling stress on the outside of the knees due to ITBs. And at mile 8, I suddenly got a cramp in my left upper calf. I stopped right then and noticed a medical van literally a few feet away. I limped up to them and asked if they can do “something” to alleviate this condition of mine. They said they can take me to the finish line and attend me there :-/. That was not an option for me. I was still functional and decided to just keep going while adding my calves to the list of muscle groups to worry about.
6. I reached mile 9 to see Venki and Prakash again. Another reassurance and a landmark since now I could start counting backwards. “Only” 4 more miles to go from there.
7. Running intermittently became more of a problem that earlier. By mile 10.5-11, got pretty worse. From mile 11 onwards, I decided to walk for a mile and then re-evaluate. Walking also started to become an issue since bottom of my feet were also calling out for help. Not cramping but just tired. Tried to stretch my calves all this while after every few minutes. Did not really seem that it helped much.
8. Walked until mile 12 without running, and then tried to run again. Cramps made me stop immediately. So I decided that I will just walk until close to the finish line and run the last few meters.
9. Came close to the finish line with 0.5 mile to go to see such a wonderful crowd cheering for me. And then I saw our Team Asha folks cheering including Coach Char. I just cannot explain how it felt. I was sure from here on I will make it to finish either walking or crawling while meeting the cutoff. Then saw Neha cheering with full stream a few dozen feet down the road. There was a bunch of ladies who started cheering me from their tent and almost coerced me to run to the finish line. After their constant cheers, I could not avoid the urge and started to run to stop immediately due to both legs cramping. So I just continued walking until I saw the finish and jogged on to the finish line to get the medal.
10. I met Neha there and asked me to get me seated somewhere where I can sit for some time since I knew I would not be able to get up from there for a good amount of time and effort. Good call on that!

Struggling to walk... just waiting for the finish line

Seeing the first hint of the finish line

Barely making it!

I managed to somehow finish this race with plenty of time left before the cutoff. Of course this was not the kind of race I had imagined even in my dreams, so there was a significant disappointment factor in my mind. However, the feeling of finishing the race given the state of affairs from the middle of the bike ride was amazing. As of this writing, one day has passed since the finish and the latter feeling is what I have with me. There are more races to make up for things that did not go well. On the bright side, it’s easier now to create a PR in the next race B-).

Summary

An ordeal it was!

What worked

An easier section to write :P.

1. The swim went well. I was most concerned about the swim going in the race and it turned out to be a comfortable one. I got into the rhythm early on and finished it few minute ahead of usual -- probably wetsuit swim over pool swim advantage played it part since I was not tired after the swim as I feel after a long pool swim.
2. In my training report, I did mention that I had focused a lot on the bike ride to shave off good chunk from the total. Even after a sub-optimal bike ride, I would say the plan worked. I found the course easier than many of the folks and even with cramps I did well with time without pushing very hard. All this came from my focused training which also gave me some experience with when and how to dial back the effort when needed. Most importantly, I had enough time left for my run/walk.
3. Since my run was the most painful, I did pat my back for finishing it in a way I have never experienced it before (my first ever half marathon which was the SF 1st half comes close). Especially after being down from mile 0, I could make good judgement calls regarding how should I cover the distance with walk and run. All this came from the experience I gained from 3 years of running which is more than the biking or swimming experience.
4. Lining up my socks with Vaseline (on the inside) helped prevent any blisters that have happened to me earlier during long runs.

What did not work

Of course we now know what did not work. But the real question is what was the cause to such an outcome? I still say that I trained well for the race and was well prepared to take it on. Probably need to dial in more electrolytes and salt tabs than I used to do but I feel the pre-race day preps might have had a big role to play.

Day before the race

Minor factors could be not enough rest due to jetlag since we returned from Japan three days ago. Or not a very good taper since I did not do a bike or a run in the last few days. However, one major factor that I find convincing is a mild version of Hyponatermia.

1. I woke up early and headed to the Crissy field where Neha was running. We started for Windsor around 10:15 and reached by noon. Did all the check-in and briefing stuff for the next 2 hours, then headed to the swim start to do the bike check-in. Until this time which was around 4pm, all I had was 250 ml of water only!
2. We then had lunch and had a cup of Pepsi since I was thirsty :-/ We bought 2 huge bottles of water and headed to our cabin that we rented. I noticed that I was dehydrated a bit after seeing dark yellow color of my urine.
3. In one go I had around 750 ml of water. (In general, I drink close to a liter or so for my entire day).
4. We then went for dinner where I remember drinking at least two glasses of water i.e. another ~500 ml.
5. Went back home, prepped up for the race day and went to sleep after having some more water. I went to the restroom quite number of times and I remember I had perfectly clear urine color which at the time I thought was a great sign of hydrated body until I read this article a few minutes ago:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-properly-hydrate-before-race-day. It's published on trainingpeaks so I do give it some credibility.

I am not certain this is the cause for all this but it does explain why I started cramping as early as the swim and was nauseatic on the bike and threw up too. In any case, pre-race day hydration did go wrong!

Lessons learnt

1. Nutrition/Hydration on the race day and before is equally important.
1. Start having more electrolytes and salts during bike rides.
2. Start taking care of hydration and food both before the race and on the race day mornings. Need to practice that on weekend training days.
2. Maybe should have relaxed even more on the bike. My mind was playing games of finishing the distance to reduce the time for cramps vs. slowing down to tend to them. Mostly the second won but it is possible that slowing down more would have helped.
3. Practice more open water swim to bike transitions including biking for a bit after since I have had minor GI issues during Oakland olympic last year (which was minor compared to this and became ok with time). Need to really sort this out.

Alright, off to training for Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz! I really hope this was the worst race ever for me and lessons learnt would help me make a better triathlete.

This race was a physical failure but a mental win -- a big one!

More pictures by Venkat: https://teamasha.smugmug.com/SV/2016/Triathlon/Ironman-703-Vineman/
Official pics: http://www.finisherpix.com/gallery/photos/en/USD/1357/982

Training for my first Half Ironman (70.3)

Summarizing my training for the 70.3:

1. Started off with pool swims and short runs in January/February just to get the body warmed up for the season. Have been running a bit until early December last year, but swims dried out by November.
2. Started following a little bit of the training plan in March with more rigorous workouts and adding biking to the mix. The last real bike ride I did was in September last year when we went for IMLT.
3. Went to India for 2 weeks and was back by April 10. From there on, have been pretty regular with all three workouts.
4. My workouts: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/sumitj83
5. Workout schedule that Coach Char gave us. Later on, it was replaced by this schedule.

Swim

Focused initially to get back to where I left it last November. Then, I was able to do a 1.2 mile (actual ~1.35 miles) swim in Santa Cruz in  about 57 mins. This was a huge confidence booster for me since it meant that I can clear the cutoff and maybe improve my time too.

1. Did a lot of distance workouts as per the schedule, but not fully following the exact mileage.
2. GOOD:
1. Was able to do the listed distances either at one go (less often) or by breaking into batches of 200, 400, 500 etc.
2. Improved my bilateral breathing which I kinda picked in the last season. Now I am able to breathe both sides almost with equal comfort and that allows me to breathe every 3 strokes as opposed to every 2 which I did last season.
3. After Pooja gave me a couple of pointers in where my technique was not perfect, I did the best pool swim on my training 2 days after. Decently consistent and continuous 2000m swim within 1 hr. Tried to improve my kick from the left leg and stronger kick when pulling.
3. BAD:
1. Timing did not really get better and neither did endurance over the long-term as much as I hoped.
2. Mostly since I DID NOT do speed workouts and technique sessions. Partially, since I was stupid enough to not clarify with the Coaches what does focusing on technique really means.
3. Could not follow the distances as on paper since they always seemed more than I could especially speed and technique which lead to point b) above.
4. Did only a couple of speed workouts in the last month or so. Felt incredibly hard, but I was happy I did not give up and was able to last a session that Coach Char recommended.

The swim speed that I have settled into is around 2:45/100m or 2:30/100yd. This translates to around 55-56 minutes for 1.2 miles. Still the weakest sport for me and its a shame that mentally I am not very happy/confident of my swim.

Bike

Focused on getting better with bike since I knew there was the most bang for the buck in shaving off a lot of time since it is the longest segment. I started biking with Team Asha in 2014 and did a 100k ride. All the training and the event ride included a lot of stops and longer too, so never had a good grip on what speed can I sustain myself for longer distances. In 2015, the distances for Spring and Olympic were small enough that still did not get much read into it. This was the same for bike nutrition since never paid attention to it earlier.

Nutrition

1. First thing I sorted out in my initial longer rides was nutrition. Tried to carry Potato sandwiches which worked out great. They were close to 300 Kcal (2 triangles) so one was good for an hour by itself.
2. Used Gu Gels along with for having more options for the palate.
3. Was using Nuun tabs for electrolyte. Later realized that they do not have calories and I prefer drinking over eating. So replaced it by Gu Endurance electrolyte which gives me 250 Kcal per bottle.
4. Tried a few snack bars like Larra Bars and they work well too. So settled with electrolyte, gu gels, and bars as my final nutrition. Ditched the sandwiches since they require prep and also cannot have more than one odd due to taste/staleness.
5. Once I started paying attention to proper nutrition, I noticed that transitions were easy and could run well even after a tiring bike ride (compared to last year training where nutrition intake was certainly bad).

Riding discipline

1. Converted leisure stops to only required number and amount of time actually needed. This was to prevent unnecessary cool-down and get back wasted time.
2. Started riding once a week to Mt. Eden as a benchmark ride and to practice hills since Vineman has a similar hill at mile 45. Really helped to push myself on flats and hills equally. Saw dramatic improvement in average time.
3. Started attending Spin sessions regularly on Thu and paid attention to the form and made sure I am pushing hard by adjusting the resistance on the trainer well.

Notable training rides

1. Pushed hard the first time for a longer distance: 52 miles in 3:25.
2. Long brick workout: 56 bike + 7 run: The weather was cold and had an awesome brick session. Absolutely no problems in transition and ran at a good pace - just 30-60 secs per mile slower than usual. The idea was to push as hard as I can on the bike to see how the run goes, and the result was a success.
3. Long brick workout: 56 bike + 8 run: Hot weather and definitely the hardest training workout. Transition was fine but heat got to me in the run and barely finished my 8 miles. Did not have a strong finish.
4. Montebello ride with Venki: Toughest climb to date but was happy to have done it in good time, ~50 mins.
5. Tour de Cure 100k with 5.5k elevation: Rode with the Google team and did Kings Mountain and Tunitas Creek in the same ride. Pretty hard ride but took long meal breaks.
6. Flat and windy 40 bike + 5 run on Oracle trail: Perfectly flat ride but plenty of head winds in one direction. Got done with bike in 2:18 but headwinds were a nice surprise and a good challenge to face.
7. Last 56 mile bike ride: Weather was really hot (85-90F). I pushed as hard as I could to meet the 3:30 mark (missed by 30 seconds) to see how it feels to run a mile afterwards. Felt a bit hard to run the mile. So have a reference for how hard I should try on the bike.
1. Felt bloated since since used 5 bottles of water with 4 bottles worth of electrolytes.
2. Transitioning to run was hard as a result.

Run

Been running since last 3 years and have a good grip on the run part when running independently. The main goal was to see how much I can exert before the run to get a good run out.

1. Brick runs mostly went well, with the exception of heat, which is there in my independent runs as well.
2. Averaging around 1 min/mile slower than the regular HM speed. 11:00 min/mile vs 10:00 min/mile.
3. Got shin splints later in the training - so dialed back the runs and foam rolled to get it fixed.
4. Got leg massages a couple of times to loosen the tight muscles. Mostly every muscle needed loosening though none was very bad.

Learnings

1. Need to do more disciplined speed and technique workouts. Maybe take a few lessons to have someone look at my technique.
2. Carry extra food and electrolyte for unexpected situations -- hot weather, losing a packet or so on the way etc.
3. Carry salt tabs both fro run and bike again when exceptionally hot and starting to feel bloated.
4. Foam roll regularly.
5. Do tracks and interval workouts for run to improve run efficiency and performance since its the next segment where I can shave off some time.

Expected time to finish a 70.3 as per training:

1. Swim: 1:00 with T1
2. Bike: 3:40 with T2
3. Run: 2:30.

TOTAL: 7:10-7:30.

NOTE: These are NOT the targets for me to out-do myself. These are realistic goals with a bit of optimism (rather than a wishful time target). Lets see how the Ironman Vineman 70.3 goes (July 10, 2016)!