#vineman

Cute! I like Vine Man's Sniper Joe face. [Insert lazy empurata joke.] Also: Me: haha Encore is a Bass knockoff *reads tags* "and encore would technically be a SWN..." :D Wait! What! :3 A younger sibling? A clone? AU version that got trapped here b/c shenanigans? Secret identity after he runs away from Wily? We need answers! Do you get these comments? I feel like I'm shouting into the void.

i see your empurata mention and, as a tf fan........ have to admit that was a concept i considered referencing myself (not exactly empurata all the way, but the idea was he was given that type of face for “efficiency”)

i would love to go in detail about encore too, but i think im gonna save the more important bits for whenever im satisfied with his final battle armor design and post a fullbody of him (so far they end up looking a little too much like bass, and while thats kind of what im going for... i still want him to be more unique than bass 2)

but bass and encore are definitely related, in more ways than just the type of identification code! (the exact label for their relation i wont get into just yet) encore is younger production-date-wise + mentally and compared to bass is a lot more morally grey and softer... hes definitely still a little jerk tho

In my Vineman 70.3 Race Report, I hinted that I'd do an addendum outlining some training notes since I felt pretty confident going into the race. And then I didn't think much about it after that. So some really brief notes on training elements that I thought were helpful: The Swim. I did some long ones, like the ones that made me decide against doing an Ironman this year. Several 4k days in the pool. I think this helped 1.2 feel very short, both mentally and then physically on race day so that I felt fresh for the remaining events. The Bike. I was trainered out. I worked pretty hard on the trainer in the build up to Oceanside, and then in May I sort of started to build back. But as the end of May neared, I was maxed out on dread for the Kickr. Mostly because I remember the suffering and how mentally taxing it was in some of the sessions just prior to the race. Fortunately, the days are long that time of year, so I was able to maximize outdoor time on the bike. Enter FoMo Race Club's Tuesday night Mount Diablo junction ride. The junction is six miles up the ten-mile climb, and you can ascend it from South Gate or North Gate - the two dovetail at the ranger station for the single road to the summit. I joined this group almost every week for the South Gate ride, and once or twice swapped it out for the Morgan Territory climb of roughly the same distance and a challenging section with 16% grade. I did some weekend rides that included these climbs as well, and also discovered a Wednesday morning ride up North Gate!

Sunset Junction Ride on Mount Diablo

Evening Ride up Morgan Territory, from the approach.

Summary Overall finish: 13:07:18. PR by 2 hours and 7 mins from Ironman Boulder last year with improvements in every single sport (and transitions, for that matter).

Pre-Race

We got to Santa Rosa on Thursday afternoon for the mandatory athlete check-in. Packet pickup was straight-forward and I was in and out of the expo in 10 minutes. Grabbed lunch with the family, Yohann and Kevin in Windsor downtown and then Yohann and I headed to Johnson’s beach for a quick 20 minute swim in the river to get a feel for water temperature (warm!) and then went to our airbnb to check-in and relax.

Friday was all about setting up the logistics for the race after a short sharpening workout in the morning. I wanted to get the bike tech to look at the shifting real quick so I went to the expo real quick and got that done, and then dropped off the T2 (run) bag, and then drove to the beach to drop off the bike and T1 (bike) bag - glad to have that done early because the traffic can get bad later in the day. Lunch was Pho (carbs, sodium, some protein) and Dinner was some fried rice (more carbs). I was in bed by 9 and probably asleep by 9:30.

I woke up a few times, but did sleep well compared to other races. Finally awake at 3:30AM and went through the morning routine per my race plan pretty relaxed, but feeling anxious at the same time. Funny, it’s only this way for Ironman but I feel completely relaxed before a gruelling ultra :) Left the house at 4:45AM as I figured there’d be plenty of time (transition closes at 6:15AM as race starts for AGers at 6:45AM). Arrived at Johnson’s beach by 5:15 and there was backup 1 mile out so decided to park the car on the street (River Rd) and walk about .75 mile to the swim start. Worked out OK as I didn’t have to use the bathrooms but might have been close if I did have to.

Swim

Time: 1:31:04. Swim PR by 12:39.

Div Rank: 211

Gender Rank: 1242

Overall Rank: 1655

Worked Well -

Sighted often. And a “sighting-friendly” course AKA River with banks.

Drafted. I managed to draft people in sections but not the entire way, of course. 

Shallow sections = dolphin dives. Lots of people walked but I think just walking would’ve been slower.

Consistency in training. I averaged over 10K yards and 4x swims / wk for months leading up to the race so the endurance was spot on. I also added a lot of long rep workouts which seems to help.

Needs Work - 

I need to get lessons to improve my swim technique. For the amount of training time I spend in the pool, I deserve to go faster!

More OWS sessions leading up to the race. Only got a couple of opportunities this time.

T1

Time: 05:50. At least 3 mins faster compared to previous races and can be better. Good call from Yohann for the reminder to bring a small towel to wipe off muddy feet since the changing tent isn’t carpeted (wtf).

Bike

Time: 6:23:28. Bike PR by 32:29.

Div Rank: 131 (up 80 places)

Gender Rank: 763 (up 479 places)

Overall Rank: 910 (up 745 places)

Worked Well -

Bike has been strong this year - I believe a lot of this has to do with the first 5 months being indoors (to manage time as I was ramping up for Quicksilver 100K), and also being consistent with biking throughout my ultra ramp.

Paced with Power only, and no HRM. Treated race plan numbers as caps and not targets but let the power climb if the effort didn’t feel crazy. I think I did a good job keeping a conservative effort, and still do well.

Good long rides + T runs leading up to the race

e-Gels (4x150) and Hydro gels (9x100 in bottle, and 3x100 in jersey) work well (used in training).

Nuun for electrolytes (used in training), and water at each AS to refill BTA bottle.

No meta salt. I learnt this during QS100K that meta salt was causing me to throw up. Surprisingly, I didn’t rely on any salt during training either so I’ve probably been overdoing on the salt in the past.

Needs Work -

I miscalculated caloric intake and should have taken in at least 4 more e-Gels. Had to rely on gel from AS (Clif) which is fine but I’d rather not try new stuff in a race.

Slight fade towards the end which was apparent from my splits so I need to make sure i can stay strong throughout.

T2

Time: 08:01. At least 1:30 faster that past races. Could’ve been faster if I didn’t hang out and wait for sun-screen which there was plenty of right outside the tent.

Run

Time: 4:58:55. Run PR by ~45 mins.

Div Rank: 108 (up 23 places from bike)

Gender Rank: 612 (up 151 places from bike)

Overall Rank: 752 (up 158 places from bike)

Worked Well -

Good run base. I spent Jan - May of this year training for QS100K which was very helpful in endurance, and speed (peaked at 80mi/wk and avg over 50mi/wk and over 100K ft of climbing in 5 months). I have been hitting some really good paces on all long runs leading up to the Ironman (longest run was 2:45H).

Run/walk strategy during the race during each AS (at the start) but also on uphills later in the race. It’s a rolling course w/ almost 1K ft of climbing so it seemed OK to do that and save my energy for flats and downhills.

Coke and Broth - as usual for fuel and electrolytes but I also relied on salt, oranges and bananas.

Needs Work -

Need to run this marathon thing. The last mile was fastest mile after mile 9 so I know some of this is mental and I need to dig deeper but I was suffering from cramps. I believe I can cut out an hour just on the run.

Need to figure out how to eat more on the bike so I don’t end up cramping and hungry on the run. Also - puking at mile 4 didn’t help. So - need to continue to work on nutrition.