Splash, Mash, and Dash

This year my main A race was an Olympic Triathlon at the beginning of September and overall this year I focused much more on shorter distances (ie. no 70.3′s this year)- so other than this race, the longest other race of the year was only about 2:40 of effort (but I did WIN my age group in that race!)  So all of that to say that I only really had about 9 weeks of real long distance focused training, though I was building longs runs before that. My longest long run was only 17.5 this year because I got behind in my progression early on.  Mileage averaged about 35 miles / week though my peak week was 45 miles.

The lady I’ve been coaching in triathlon this year was also running in this race and it would be her first. As it worked out, our race paces were going to end up being pretty much the same, so the week of the race we decided we would run together.

The weather was perfect for running - temp range from 47-51, overcast, dry, no crazy wind.  We were pacing at 9:20/mi (pretty spot on for the first 5 miles) but I knew we would slow down a bit from miles 15-18 due to some hills. We also planned to walk the aid stations (just while drinking) so I was hoping we’d end up averaging 9:30-9:40/mi.  Through the first 13.1 we were averaging right at 9:30/mi.  In past years I was really mentally challenged in the section from mile 15-18, but this year it wasn’t nearly as bad. Kinsey was fighting through some ITBS and knee pain and since I knew the hills would probably hurt a lot, I think my concern for her left me no time to worry about myself :)

As expected, by the time we got to 30k our average pace had fallen to about 9:40/mi, but seeing the 3:00:00 as we crossed was a good sign I thought.  The section from 18-22 on this course is tough for a number of reasons, but it seemed to pass pretty quickly for me. Unfortunately I realized at this point that I had gotten too far behind on my nutrition -- heart rate had started to drift and stomach was starting to get sloshy so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take on much more and I had only used about half of my planned intake by mile 20.

Around mile 22 my calves started getting crampy.  I had actually strained my left calf earlier this summer pretty bad (the main reason I got behind in my long runs) running cross country trails.  I’ve been using a Stryd powermeter this season and through experience I knew that when my output gets up above 330w I’m really pushing my calf to failure.  In this race my target output was actually only 235w so I thought I’d be safe, but obviously I didn’t have the muscular endurance to hold things together even at the lower intensity.  So anyway, back to mile 22 - I could tell my efficiency went to shit around this time because while we held our pace (around 10:00 by this point) my HR was pushing into mid-zone-4 and my power output was actually increasing even as we held pace (more effort going into less result).

From back at the 30k mats we knew that the 4:15 pace group wasn’t far behind us because we’d hear people cheering for them. I’m surprised we stayed ahead of them as long as we did (I never looked back), but they did finally pass us between mile 22 and 23 (darn!)  

As we got to mile 24, my calves were full on cramping.  I made Kinsey go on without me.  I could tell she was hurting (who isn’t at the end of a marathon?) but she was still moving with decent form.  I determined my best chance to finish was to run/walk it, so I went 1:00 walk/.5mi run (about 5 minutes of walking).

Though it was a disappointing to hobble to the finish line that way, especially after having a great 22 miles, there was quite a lot to come away happy with.  I beat my PR from 2015 by 4 minutes. I finished my 4th marathon and also completed the special “IndyThon Ultra” from running the 13.1 sister race the month prior.  Kinsey finished her first marathon about 4 minutes ahead of me (sub 4:20).

Swim 26:56 (1:38/100) Given that the canal the swim is in is only 4 feet deep it has very quick temperature fluctuations and so 2 days of cooler nights brought it down to 75F. Yey! Wetsuit legal. Also, while probably only psychological, colder water always seems fresher and hence cleaner to me. I was surprised that only about a quarter of the Oly field chose to wear wetsuits, but it made me feel super strong and fast.  I probably passed 20-30 people at least (it was a time trial start).

T1 1:32 I had a pretty good rack location and my flying mount (only the second time I’ve used it in a race) went off just fine. As I went to thank the volunteer manning the end of the transition chute I couldn’t hear myself and realized I had left in my ear plugs from the swim, haha.

Bike 1:06:32 (22.4mph) Felt really strong (as usual) on the bike - by far my strongest discipline. I passed countless people (seriously probably > 100), especially on the 2nd lap when the people from the Sprint were also on the course. I believe I was only passed by 2 people (actually 4, but since I later re-passed 2 of them they don’t count :)

T2 2:43 Funny I don’t remember this transition taking that long, but the results say I had the 36th fastest. Perfectly executed bike dismount - and it’s a good thing too because there were 3 of us coming in together. If any of us messed it up we’d probably all have crashed.

Run 54:50 (8:49/mi) A little bit disappointed that I couldn’t never find my speed here. I did injure my calf earlier in the week, but really after the first mile (which was probably one of the fastest) I didn’t notice it hurting much. I just kept feeling the need to hold back so I didn’t blow up (HR stayed right in high Z4 all run). I did manage to barely negatively split and did have a slight (fairly weak) kick in the last half mile. I guess even though I know I can run better than that, I think I really got the most my body had to give on that day at that time.