70.3 Unfinished Business
I’ve been doing triathlons for a couple of years now, among other sporting endeavours, and thinking out my plans for 2017 I felt like I was ready to make my 2017 goal “Do well at a 70.3”. Of course it’s all relative, but in longer form, I wanted to train adequately for a 70.3 given the raw materials; I’m a 50 year old without much in the way of natural talent but I did rack up a lot of cycling miles a quarter of a century ago and I have mostly maintained an active lifestyle over the years. Given that, I had some ideas about what that means for me in terms of times; I’d realistically like to get inside 6 hours, but how much inside seems like the thing I’m trying to find out.
Success, anyway, can often best be judged retrospectively. In half a dozen sprint and standard triathlons, I have 2 that I was pleased with my performance in, after a bit of reflection. So after the fact, I think I will know what to think. The common factor in both of those 2, it turns out, is that I did them a month or 2 after returning from a bulk of cycling, of one form or another, in the mountains (Alps or Pyrenees).
With my usual inability to make plans concrete, I hadn’t signed up for anything before the Edinburgh “Ironman” 70.3 was announced, and despite some misgivings about the course, it did seem like the perfect solution to target a local race, so I paid my money. Since the race didn’t involve travelling anywhere exotic, I also felt able to book myself a week on a Pyreneen Tri Camp run by the excellent Karl Zeiner. Apart from a solid week of training, the camp was also a chance to get a few more training ideas, or even just reassurance that I was doing things right. The most important things I’m keeping in my mind from conversations with Karl and others are that cycling is the endurance base for triathlon, and training is based on an incremental, progressive increase in volume leading up to targeted events. But mostly just a huge tick in the “go cycling in the mountains any chance you get” box.
I finished a work contract at the end of March, and for family reasons not feeling able to pick up any more work until after the summer, this also freed me some time to train. Not as systematically as I could wish, but at least being sure that time windows would be there for me to fill. By May I had the bike legs to cope with putting in the solid climbing miles on the bike in the Pyrenees. After that I had to manage the fitness I carried and try to focus it for 2nd July. Positives from this phase included getting my setup on my TT bike nailed down and getting comfortable putting in long, faster rides on that bike. Negatives included not running quite as much I wanted due to persistent run niggles, and a feeling my swim was not at its peak as I wasn’t able to get along to regular club Monday evening 50m pool sessions. The majority of my swim training had to be done solo, and unlike cycling or running this is not any kind of pleasure.
It’s interesting to me that, having picked up using TrainingPeaks after the training camp, the official TP measure of my fitness was trending ever so slightly down post the big bump for the camp; I could view this an artefact of the way TP deals with the big workload during the training camp week, or the brutal truth that I couldn’t hold and wasn’t holding the fitness I brought home from the camp. Is there an easy and somehow objective measure of this fitness ? Nevertheless I was doing some training rides at pleasantly surprising speed, and the race would be the true test.
One of my reservations about the Edinburgh 70.3 had been the sea swim, and this was doubled when the swim got moved to Preston Links; you just need to go there and look over to the Forth Bridges to see how much fetch there is for a good westerly. Although I can generate a reasonable swim pace in flat water, I am still not a confident swimmer at dealing with bad conditions, and I was definitely not happy about the chances of a windy day without enough south in it for shelter. I do wonder how much crossing of fingers went on in the IM organisation when they traded off the convenience of the location at Preston Links for the potential for nasty swim conditions.
As luck would have it, the only chance I got to swim at the venue before the event the day was still and the sea pan flat, which reassured me. But on the morning of the race there were stiff flags, white caps on the waves and a shortened course; not encouraging. Everyone else seemed to be getting into the water, so I did too, and after paddling out through the breakers to the first buoy, I turned to attempt to make headway along the course and just got repeatedly lifted back by what seemed like massive swell pushing partly back to the buoy and partly in to the beach. After a few repeats of this, and the sight of a few people around me bobbing, somehow (it didn’t look like swimming), in the the general direction of the next buoy (which I wasn’t), I gave up on a bad job and drifted towards the nearest kayak, thereafter to be ferried to shore and an appointment with a polyester tracksuit.
The hardest thing about the whole swim thing was, still is, the anger at myself for not toughing it out and somehow getting round the swim, because plenty of other people did, contrasted with anger at the organisation of a predictably dodgy swim (it’s probably like that there 1 time in 10). Although I never felt in danger, it’s clear that some of the many other (30 or 40) people who didn’t get round the swim course did, and that the rescue/support facilities were at full stretch for a while during the peak of the carnage. I have moments of delusion that I in particular encountered the 5 minutes of the biggest waves, but it’s enough to say that the course conditions were beyond a lot of solid swimmers who had their none too cheap day out thoroughly spoiled.
Finally, I have seen a lot of race reports by race finishers, but none by those who didn’t. In part I have written this because that feels wrong, and while I don’t want to take anything away from those who got through the swim and made a memorable occasion for themselves by their own training and their efforts on the day, there are legitimate questions to be asked about what can be expected of those signing up for a big (in this case Official Ironman Organisation) event, especially where the organisation can’t reasonably control things (e.g. weather). I’m not sure how the very different demands of the pointy end of the field and the relative novices / completers can be reconciled. Could one make a swim optional in these sort of conditions ? That would allow those who felt
So my day finished rather early. I collected my bike and rode back into town with another DNFer, then headed home; I really couldn’t face spectating the run later in the park, and left it until closing time to nip down and collect my unused kit. I’m not sure if this is a race I’ll come back to. I know the roads too well and either the swim conditions will be repeated in which case I need to have done some specialised rough water training to cope, or they won’t in which case I won’t feel I have had closure with this year.
Revised Goals. Yes and No.
Once the DNF sank in it became pretty obvious to me that I should find another 70.3 to try soon; my goal is to do well in a 70.3, so I can elide the ones I do less well in.
It felt too much like hard work to back off for a few weeks and build again for an August or September race, and I would much rather try to carry my current form for a couple more weeks. So I looked for something to do ASAP.
Luckily my family summer schedule fits around me nipping down to Yorkshire to do the 70.3 at Castle Howard on 23rd July (The Gauntlet). Which gives me a 2 week block of training and 1 week of taper; the first training week has gone well, I’ve got enough bike time and I’ve done more running than in ages, partly due to a new pair of shoes which seem more forgiving of my current running niggles. I’ll lighten the running a bit for the second week and then taper more generally in week 3, and I’ll hope for a bit better luck with weather conditions; the lake (three cheers) is currently reported at 19C, the bike course is claimed as challenging but the profile suggests slightly lumpy rather than Alpine, certainly less elevation over 90km than the Edinburgh route. And the run is mostly trail, so pretty much as perfect as it could be. I’m looking forward to it.
There will be things I can’t prepare for, such as a series of 6 punctures, a broken chain or a tornado at the swim, but it’s always worth remembering there are limits to what one can and should prepare for. My chain is fairly new, clean and lubricated, so it isn’t going to break unless I suddenly learn how to sprint like Mark Cavendish.
Now let’s see if the report I write after the race is a cheerful one.
Castle Howard Gauntlet
Weather forecasts leading up to Sunday were not very encouraging, low pressure, chance of thundery rain, but at least not much wind. It was sunny when I got to Yorkshire on Saturday afternoon, having driven through torrential rain earlier. The rain caught up later in the evening, but had cleared in the morning to leave puddled roads and a cool, greyish bright and still day. Low pressure weather, with a good chance of showers later, but what old TTers would call a float morning, perfect for fast bike times.
I got to Castle Howard nice and early, it’s a vastly impressive old pile, on the folds of the North York Moors.
Registration and setup was fuss free, nice to do it all in 30 minutes rather than 2 days. The worst thing was seeing how far away down a hill the swim lake was from transition. I toddled down to the boathouse with 200 others for the briefing and then in for the swim, water waist deep and incredibly sensation free at about 19 or 20 degrees. The “Great Lake” may be great in expanse, but its depth is about 1 metre of water and half a metre of weeds below that. With such benign flat water, the main problems were seeing on the return leg into the sun, and catching handfuls of weeds. I swam somewhere in the middle of the pack, always with people nearby and able to catch some draft from time to time; it seemed very sudden that we rounded the return turn at 450m for the first time, and from then it was a pleasure to be able to relax into a nice long, steady stroke, with head space free to focus on swim form. The results said 35:09 for the swim, which I’m very happy with, and didn’t take too much out of myself.
Then run up to T1, make a last minute choice of my light cycling jersey (with gels preloaded), suncream up, and a not too terrible, for me, transition.
The bike route is 2 laps of a 45km course, and starts with a series of sharp ups and downs which I could bludgeon over with fresh legs. Then it’s rolling, but does gain height with a couple of more significant uphills amongst the rolling. The race sorts itself out a bit, and as my bike is better than my swim I pass a few people on the uphills. The distances are marked every 5km so I know when we’re over the worst of the hills and trending downwards towards the halfway feed station. Now it’s time to focus on holding pace and not letting my attention (and speed) drift. I’ve just got my watch to show current speed, and I make sure to stay in the tri-bars and keep pushing. The lap ends with more short, sharp hills back into Castle Howard, and we’re joined by a lot of cyclists from a wave of the Standard race (1 lap) which started later. They’re useful targets on the hills, but make the road busy and difficult to get draft free space for a while. After a wee bad patch starting the 2nd lap and feeling the hills a bit harder this time, I get settled into a pace again and finish the bike leg feeling I had done it justice; I wasn’t sure of the time due to some watch stoppages, but I was targeting 3 hours in my head and it turned out to be 2:54 on a course slightly harder than I had anticipated. Lack of wind clearly played a large part, and I did manage my nutrition plan (gels every 20–25 minutes, caffeinated every 2nd or 3rd one).
In T2, my main mistake was to not apply suncream to my shoulders after getting rid of my cycling jersey (Rule 7). I had ridden the bike with just enough in reserve, I thought, to manage the run, and set off at a decent enough pace. The run was 2 laps of an almost completely off road course, a mixture of stony landrover tracks, greasy grassy paths and unmade roads, with enough up and down to hurt, especially on lap 2. I ate and drank well enough, took walk breaks on but I was starting to get sick of gels, and a bit footsore, as lap 2 progressed. I passed someone doing lap 1 who cheered me up by professing jealousy at my being on lap 2, but I don’t think I was able to help her morale as much in return. The last few km I was fading, but the smell of the finish line kept me going, and I managed to keep running up the final hill and summon a little sprint for the line. My time (1:53 for 20k) was about what I expected, though not having finished a 70.3 the run was a bit of an experiment at what I could manage.
Review
Slightly to my surprise, I ended up sneaking under 5:30 for the race. I had set 5:45 as a goal, trying to not be too optimistic and give myself a chance to be pleased with my performance. And it was a nice feeling to be 2nd MV50, even if only in a field of 7 and a good 10 minutes behind 1st. Looking at the splits, it’s certainly the case that my run is my weakest discipline relatively speaking; people finishing 10 or 15 minutes ahead of me were taking most of that time on the run. I’m not really built to be a runner, but focusing on running (and running form) over the coming winter may be a good investment. Taking positives, the bike went really well, I’ve got the miles in this year, I’ve got comfortable with long rides on the TT bike, and May’s Pyrenees training camp felt like a step up in form that has held my cycling together over the summer. I think I know much better now how to replicate this bike form on a 6 month build, and I’ve got a few months of TrainingPeaks data under my belt to refer back to. All of which puts me in a better place to do better next time.
And the Howard Castle swim, after the horror of IM 70.3 Edinburgh, was just about the most delightful part of the day. The question is whether I should accept that these are the kinds of swim I am going to enjoy, and stick to them, or attempt any more potentially rough sea swims, and work on technique to get through that, and onto the bike.
