2018 Boulder 70.3 Race Recap

Summary

I went into this race the most "fit" I've ever started a 70.3 race.  Yet, my body did not cooperate with my aspirations.  I had two main goals for this race: (1) ride more steady, and (2) demonstrate my run strength.  I did accomplish the first goal, but fell quite short of the second.  With the passing of several days since the race, I feel pretty confident that I did not race to my potential because the Lyme disease seems to have returned.

Race Prep

After IM Boulder, I took most of June to relax and reset a bit.  I did get some really good running in while we were camping, but the bike and the swim training took a back seat.  However, July was a solid month, but it has been a bit of a struggle to ramp the volume.  I logged a bike and/or run every day, except one during the month.  Like the early season, I returned to a good amount of intensity, with the basic week shown below.  The Saturday before the race, I actually hit a season peak running CTL of 60 (68 in TrainingPeaks), running 64-miles the week before.  Biking CTL is still coming up slowly, but was in the 58 (66 in TP) range.

Two weeks prior to the race I did a 5-day carb restriction diet and shed 5-pounds.  Because the training schedule was standard, I ended up burying myself on Thursday the week before the race.  It took a few days to dig out of that hole, but by Sunday I felt reasonably well again.  I also did the Creatine + Ribose loading the week leading into the race.  Based on how I felt race day, it did not give me the effect I felt in the prior 2-3 times I've tried this protocol.

On Tuesday race week, I set a new 18-minute bike power PR during my threshold interval workout; the run track workouts the week prior and race week were solid.  And, my swimming was really coming around, showing in my splits and power on the Vasa.  In short, all signs were showing positively that this would be a solid race.

While I have seen some very positive training response, my health has definitely been a bit of a struggle.  As an example, my asthma had returned in a cycle that was bad enough to wake me in the middle of the night several times.  In the last few months, I've returned to the Lyme Disease doc and learned a few days before the race that I still have one of the Lyme co-infections, Babesia.  I have a suspicion that this infection explains the challenge I have faced in ramping my training volume and the less-than-optimal race-day performance.

Race Report

Goals

• Ride more even -- While IM Boulder was an incredible ride, I still left some time on the table because my average power was lower than planned.  My variability Index (VI) for that ride was 1.10.  I set-out to ride Boulder 70.3 more steadily and raise the average power to ride faster
• Demonstrate my running strength -- I had put in a huge amount of work running this season and have set some race run PR's.  I was well-prepared to show another PR, especially with better bike pacing
• Win the age group -- I have been on a roll this year, with 3 AG wins and one 2nd place finish.  I knew my main competition would be Silvio Guerra, but I also knew that he'd have a lot of ground to make-up when his feet hit the ground after the bike 
• Race well enough to move me into the #1 USAT ranking position -- I am currently in 2nd place in the M50-54 AG, beat out by Robert Skaggs -- a SOLID short-course guy.  If I get 97+ USAT points for this race, that would put me in #1 position

Race Plan

Like IM Boulder, I established a pacing plan that optimized the combined bike+run splits by distributing the heart rate through both disciplines.  The image below shows that plan.  It should be noted that this bike power is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than any other HIM at Boulder I have attempted.  However, I did ride at 238Watts (NP) for the first loop at IM-Boulder this year.  So, this plan should be doable.

Pre-race

Prior to getting to the reservoir race morning, this was one of the most relaxed races I have experienced.  Perhaps it was because I was distracted with a busy and stressful work week, or that it was a local race.  Everything seemed so easy and low key.  Registration was quick and actually quiet.

Race morning, arriving at the reservoir and fining a mile-ling line of cars to turn into the reservoir changed all that.  I had planned on arriving at transition near 545am, giving me 75-minutes to prep everything.  As I arrived at 535am, finding this long line of cars, I wondered whether it was going to be another stressful start.  I had even considered driving up to Tom Watson Park and running into the reservoir (2-mile), but traffic control made that impossible.  However, entering the reservoir southbound on 119 was MUCH faster than had I stayed in the northbound line.

I eventually made it to the reservoir and was in transition near 6am, which still offered plenty of time before the 7am closure.  I was greeted with a nice compliment during body marking; the the volunteer responded to my age (50) as "well preserved".  As I setup the transition, I saw a few friends, like Steve Bell and, then Rob Gray with whom I spent the rest of the down-time chatting about all things long-course.

Swim (Estimated: 31:00 / Actual: 31:15)

This race was another rolling start.  And, like IM Boulder, there were a lot of people self-seeded ahead of me in the 30-33 minute group.  At the start, I saw Bryan VanMeveren and then Silvio Guerra.  My goal for each swim is to start as smoothly and comfortably as possible, resisting the trained panic response.  As the race organizers have figured out to do the rolling start quite well, this plan worked flawlessly.  Again, nearly zero contact the whole swim.  I was able to get into a comfortable rhythm pretty quickly.  And, like IM Boulder, I was in passing mode.  Of the 200+ people ahead of me, I probably passed 100 during the swim.

Post-race analysis shows that I was 4th out of the water in my AG, and only 30-seconds off the #1 position.  I am very pleased with this result and glad that the swim work over the last few years is starting to materialize during races.

As I swam with my new Garmin, I was curious whether I swim straight or not.  Based on the map below, it looks like I do a descent job, but could still work on sighting a bit more.

Bike (Estimated: 2:10:12 / Actual: 2:12:43)

I took a new approach of using the Garmin 935 with power brackets and alarm.  I still had my Powertap Joule that I used, but only to check nominal power (240Watts).  I did NOT consult HR during the entire ride; nor did I use any of the prior methods of correlating speed and power.  Of course, as I ascended I rode with more power, but that is intuitive.  Basically, I tried to stay between 220-260Watts the entire ride.

As I started the ride, the power felt harder than expected.  My legs were burning quite a bit, but I knew I was well within my capabilities.  After a while things started to ease up a bit and felt a bit better.  However, I did feel what might be best described as heart palpitations; like I was "stressing" my heart more than usual.  That aside, the ride went pretty well and, again, I was in passing mode.

At mile 40, I got a bee sting in my left upper thigh.  I pulled the bike shorts fabric away from the skin in an effort of also removing the stinger, but I am unsure how effective that was.  Other than the temporary distraction, and the post-race discomfort the impact was pretty minimal.

The actual time was about 2.5-minutes slower than plan, which is likely due to the average power being lower than planned.  I was shooting for an 240Watts nominal, but only achieved 225Watts average.  However, the normalized power was 238Watts.  While I was a bit short of planned power, post-race analysis showed the bike split was 4th among all the age-groupers.  I was also very pleased to see I was within a few seconds of uber biker Rob Gray.

Run (Estimated: 1:29:29 / Actual: 1:37:20)

As I started the run, the arches in my feet and the muscles on the front of the lower leg (tibialis anterior) were BURNING.  As a result, I had a difficult time dorsiflexing.  This was the same thing that I felt during the first few miles of Ocala earlier this year.  So, I told myself just hang in, modify the form, respect the edge.  I also though that perhaps this would be a good way to force pacing the run well.  Other than the distraction of this discomfort, I felt like I was running reasonably well, but not great.  By mile 6 the burning subsided and I was better able to hold a more familiar form.  As I made the pass through transition, I told Pete Alfino that I was "almost warmed-up".

Surely, the second loop felt better than the first.  I was able to negative split the run and run about 5-seconds per mile faster on the second loop.  Still, though, I felt like I was running OK, but not great. 

Near mile-11 Darren De Reuck told me Silvio was coming and was 3-minutes behind.  The report was probably accurate, but perhaps 1-mile old -- meaning, I had more like a 2-minute lead at that point.  I was able to respond to this news, but only slightly.  It was just enough motivation to push me to the end.  However, as I reached the final turn before the finish -- perhaps 200 yards -- Silvio caught me.  I was in disbelief!  He actually decimated a HUGE lead with an incredible run.  In the end, Silvio beat me by 13-seconds with a well-deserved AG win.

Because I was able to hit my target HR and actually elevate it on the second loop suggests my poor run performance was NOT a result of pushing too hard on the bike.  In both TX70.3 and St George, I rode with a higher power, but still ran faster.  Thus, my goals for Boulder 70.3 were reasonable.  In hindsight, it's possible that the 64-miles of running the week before may have been too much, too close to the race.  Or, indeed it was the Babesia that limited my run.   

Post Race

Describing the post-race week as a roller coaster is an under-statement.  The evening of the race I felt like I was coming down with a cold.  The next three days, the right side of my head, jaw, and ear were painful due to swollen glads and a persistent, yet radiating headache.  This seemed like it could be a neurological symptom of the Babesia.  In addition, by Wednesday, I could not hold a heart rate above 120BPM without extreme discomfort in my chest.  I was also experiencing some pretty significant depression, with some really,really negative thoughts.  I was concerned that my season was over, with no hope of even training for Kona.

However, things seemed to take a positive turn Thursday where I was feeling a bit better.  And, on Friday I had a breakthrough bike session.  So far, I have been able to re-establish some really solid training and had one of the best runs in YEARS this morning.

Lastly, while Boulder 70.3 was not quite the race I wanted, several positive outcomes did occur, including:

• The swim performance was excellent
• The bike performance was excellent
• The run was OK
• It was a well-fought race which resulted in a good outcome on a season-basis

As a result of the last point, I earned enough points to achieve a current Ironman 70.3 ranking of 5th in the World and 1st in the US.

Tags: Rob Gray, Bryan VanMeveran, Silvio Guerra, Kevin Konczak, Steve Bell, Daren De Reuck