Last month I did my 3rd half iron distance triathlon but my first that was local and for which I got to sleep in my own bed. It was also my first in the US and my first that was not affiliated with Ironman. While it wasn't my goal race for the year, it turned out to be my best half iron race to date and a great confidence booster ahead of Ironman Mont-Tremblant.
For both running events and triathlons, I like to find a shorter distance race to incorporate into the training for my A race as a way to practice in race conditions and get a sense of how my training is going. With my first full Ironman on August 20, ideally I'd have found a half iron distance tri to do about halfway through my training plan, somewhere in the late June/early July timeframe. And initially I thought I had found one in the California wine country in early July--great timing, a race I'd heard great things about, and a good opportunity to leave the kids with parents and enjoy a kid-free vacation. Alas, that race rescheduled to mid-May and fell out of consideration for me.
I didn't really want to do my training race that early but then another intriguing late-May option came along: the inaugural Tri Fort Worth half iron race, just 45 minutes from home. Still a bit earlier than I preferred, but hard to beat the convenience and value of a local race, especially one without the M-dot price tag. So Tri Fort Worth it was. I didn't sign up till last month though, once I felt confident I was over my hip injury that kept me sidelined all winter.
Pre-race
My preparation for this race was different from my past 2 70.3s. I did this race 11 weeks into my 24 week training plan so it didn't have a planned taper; I just took it easy the week before and hoped that would be enough. I had swum much farther than 1900 meters in training so felt good about the swim, but my longest bike before the race was 40 miles and longest run was 6 and I hadn't gone half iron distances on either since last year.
And since this wasn't my A race I decided to poke the "don't try new things on race day" bear and put new wheels on my bike a few days before the race. I had considered renting carbon race wheels for this race as practice ahead of IMMT but decided that I wouldn't feel comfortable enough on them at IMMT to really get much value out of them if I couldn't get hours of practice in a variety of conditions. Instead I decided for about the same price I'd upgrade to a better set of everyday wheels so I got some Flo 30 wide rim wheels. They're just aluminum, not carbon and fairly shallow rim so they're not so much about speed as they are about reducing rolling resistance. What that seems to translate to is a more comfortable ride, easier climbing, and more coasting--in other words, lazy cyclist wheels ;) Installing them also provided experience in moving a cassette, adjusting brake calipers, and changing tires, and since I messed up and pinch-flatted 2 of them I got a little extra practice. But if I get a flat in a race I now feel confident that I can change the tube and get back on my way. I won't be fast or graceful but I can do it. Which is probably an apt motto for this whole adventure, come to think of it.
The day before the race I headed out to Fort Worth for packet pickup and to drop off my bike and gear. This was my first split transition race so I had to think about what should be at T1 and T2; aside from forgetting to pack extra sunscreen for T2 (about which, more later) I planned well. Then, since it was otherwise just a normal Saturday, I went to the grocery store to buy our weekly groceries, did the laundry, and we went to eat at the pizza place near the house. I prepared all my food and drink for race day, set out my tri kit, and went to bed.
Race morning dawned and as I got ready I debated waking Kevin up to help me put sunscreen on my shoulders but figured I could do well enough and let him sleep. I made 2 almond butter and jelly sandwiches on English muffins--one for breakfast, one for the bike--and a mug of coffee and drove for Fort Worth.
Watching the weather in the weeks before the race had been interesting as predictions alternated between stormy, windy, and, as of the day before, dry and clear. That morning however, I was greeted by thunderstorms. It felt like unwarranted optimism to drive through lightning storms to a triathlon I hoped wouldn't get cancelled. As it turned out the storms passed just in time and the day was a mix of sun and clouds with light winds and a high in the low 80s--darn near perfect weather for Texas in late May.
Swim
This race had a rolling swim start so we self-seeded into corrals by expected finish time. I was expecting to finish around 42 minutes so I seeded accordingly. We started by sitting on the edge of a dock and then sliding in. I started my Garmin and in I went. The water was high 60s-low 70s and felt pleasant in a sleeveless wet suit, relatively calm but no visibility (Lac Tremblant, it was not). I felt pretty good and settled into pace easily and was on pace through 500, 1000, and 1500 yards. There was a fair amount of bumping going on especially by the buoys. There were only 3 buoys on the whole course so while I held pretty straight lines, sighting wasn't easy, which probably caused some of the bumping.
Either I slowed way down over the final quarter-ish of the swim or the course was long, as I ended up finishing in 51 minutes. Given that my Garmin reported long and everyone else on a race FB group also measured long, mostly around 350-400 yards long, I think I actually did hold my intended pace pretty well. Otherwise it's hard to account for why I'd be several minutes slower here than I was 2 years ago in Victoria with a rib injury that slowed me way down, when I felt good and had swum much further in practice. In any event, it was over and I went to T1 to get ready for the bike.
T1
Ate a gel, drank a 5 hour energy, got my bike gear on, sprayed on what I thought was a good application of sunscreen, and I was off...
Bike
My plan on the bike was to get some race condition practice on pacing and nutrition, test out the new wheels, and test racing with my power meter. Most of those things worked out well.
Having learned the hard way in Victoria 2 years ago that my stomach can only take so many sport gels and such before it insists on real food, I'm now on team real food for the bike. I brought an ABJ sandwich and 6 Oreos to eat and Skratch pineapple mix to drink, with a salt tab hourly and sport legs pills about halfway in. This combination worked well. I felt satiated but not stuffed, and while sometimes getting the calories in can feel like a chore with sport gels I eagerly looked forward to my next Oreo.
My power meter recorded ride data which I was able to review later but didn't show up on my Garmin during the race. For whatever reason, neither my cadence nor HR did either (HR I guess wet from swim, no idea the issue on cadence). All of those metrics worked before and after so I'm guessing it's something to do with being in triathlon mode rather than bike mode on the Garmin. In any event it was annoying not to have any effort metrics but I figured I'd just have to do my best and this was a good, if unplanned, chance to practice racing without much data. Cadence showed up later but mostly I just went on perceived effort and was fine.
The bike leg was both hard and easy. It wasn't a technically challenging course--mostly straight, minimal turning, the climbs were few and felt pretty easy to me--but the setup was rough. We had to do most of our riding on the shoulder, which had lots of gravel, drop-offs to the grass, and a surprising number and diversity of road kill. A non-exhaustive list of dead animals I saw: squirrel, rabbit, bird, armadillo, possum. Worse, it was not a closed course so we had traffic flying by in the lane next to us.
Having to stay in a relatively narrow space between debris on the right and cars on the left made me expend a lot of mental energy and made the bike feel harder than it should have. Also, I get nervous riding really close to a bridge railing or rough drop from cement to grass and felt like I had to do that a lot. It's a mental thing: have me hold a straight line on flat pavement and it won't feel hard. Take away my margin for error and it now feels terrible. In one particularly fraught spot the course really should have had a no-passing zone as we had a narrow shoulder with a 1'+ drop-off to the grass, a big divot-like barrier between shoulder and right lane, and traffic on our left. Most cyclists were pretty cautious in general on this course but one guy behind me kept calling out a pass like he expected me to move off the shoulder for him. I moved as right as I comfortably could but still felt like he missed hitting me by a millimeter.
This course was a far cry from the closed pristine-condition Mont-Tremblant course. And then there was the spot where 2 dogs ran out and chased me. That was exciting. I prefer boring.
All of that sounds bad, and I can't say I enjoyed the bike, but I did pretty well (for me; I'm still in no danger of a competitive finish). The new wheels handled the less than ideal terrain pretty well and avoided the flats that so many other athletes got out there. Not only was I able to coast downhill but the lower rolling resistance meant that on rolling hills I'd coast the downhill and much of the way up the next. I figured I'd let the wheels do the work and save my legs, and made good time anyway.
I finished in 3:37, good for a bike leg PR.
T2
This being a split transition race, I dismounted, gave my bike to a bike catcher to rack, and ran into the convention center to the changing area. I didn't change clothes (just stayed in my tri kit) but sat in a chair as a volunteer brought me my bag and a bottled water. I ate half a bag of potato chips, put some more bodyglide on my feet, fresh socks, running shoes, race belt, visor, sunglasses, and handheld flask with pickle juice. Nothing to do now but run a half marathon.
Run
In my past 2 70.3s the run was a struggle. Looking back at those, part of the issue was that it was hot running mid-day but largely it was about going out too fast and not pacing well. I can't control the heat but I decided to go out conservatively and walk before I had to, with the idea that I could take shorter breaks if I didn't wait till I was already exhausted.
When I first started I was holding what felt like an easy 8:30 pace but I knew I couldn't maintain that so I slowed down to a 10 minute pace. It felt really easy and I didn't walk until almost 5 miles in, though by then my pace had slowed to closer to an 11:00 mile. I gave myself short walk breaks roughly every 10-15 minutes and tried to maintain a relatively comfortable run pace in between, which ended up in the 11-12:00 range. I took some flat coke, ice, salt, and water as needed from the aid stations but tried to avoid overdoing it and getting the sloshy stomach feeling. I ate a gel about every hour. All worked pretty well for my stomach. It was warm out but not unpleasant.
The longest walk break I took was up a pretty long hill about 2 miles from the finish, but once I got to the top of that, I knew I was almost done and found the energy to get back to a run. Once I came near the finish line and saw my support crew of Kevin, the kids, and some friends of ours, I found some bonus energy and gave them all high-fives on my way past.
I finished the run in 2:35, a run leg PR. My overall finish time was 7:20, which is still far from blazing fast but was good enough for a PR for me. More importantly, I felt good throughout the race and after.
This was the race where I feel like I really figured out the 70.3 distance and while I respected the distance, I wasn't afraid of it. Moreover, it was a great confidence boost 3 months out from IMMT.
It was interesting doing a local HIM. On the one hand, it definitely didn't have the IM big-race atmosphere or crisp attention to detail. And, because I didn't travel for it, there wasn't much mental energy expended planning ahead for it. No having the lay out all the gear early or shipping the bike off weeks in advance. Friday I put in a full day of work, then Monday I was right back at it like nothing had happened. In a way I missed all the hoopla of a destination race. But it was a nice change of pace to do it this way and I think being able to approach it a little more nonchalantly took some of the stress of a big race out of it. It felt more like the TexasMan X-50s I did in Denton County the past few years than the Canadian 70.3s I've done. With the first full IM coming up I think it was reassuring to make the 70.3 distance a little less intimidating this time.
When I was finishing this race I thought, I definitely couldn't do double this right now. But I know I've thought the same thing at the finish of every half marathon and even 10ks and 5ks, and of course on marathon race days I found it in me to go twice as far. I'm assuming this will be no different. My mindset on race day will be a full day's work and I'll pace accordingly. It'll be a hard day but one I'm looking forward to. A good day at Tri Fort Worth was a nice confidence boost toward that. Next stop: Mont-Tremblant!
Having learned the hard way in Victoria 2 years ago that my stomach can only take so many sport gels and such before it insists on real food, I'm now on team real food for the bike. I brought an ABJ sandwich and 6 Oreos to eat and Skratch pineapple mix to drink, with a salt tab hourly and sport legs pills about halfway in. This combination worked well. I felt satiated but not stuffed, and while sometimes getting the calories in can feel like a chore with sport gels I eagerly looked forward to my next Oreo.
My power meter recorded ride data which I was able to review later but didn't show up on my Garmin during the race. For whatever reason, neither my cadence nor HR did either (HR I guess wet from swim, no idea the issue on cadence). All of those metrics worked before and after so I'm guessing it's something to do with being in triathlon mode rather than bike mode on the Garmin. In any event it was annoying not to have any effort metrics but I figured I'd just have to do my best and this was a good, if unplanned, chance to practice racing without much data. Cadence showed up later but mostly I just went on perceived effort and was fine.
The bike leg was both hard and easy. It wasn't a technically challenging course--mostly straight, minimal turning, the climbs were few and felt pretty easy to me--but the setup was rough. We had to do most of our riding on the shoulder, which had lots of gravel, drop-offs to the grass, and a surprising number and diversity of road kill. A non-exhaustive list of dead animals I saw: squirrel, rabbit, bird, armadillo, possum. Worse, it was not a closed course so we had traffic flying by in the lane next to us.
Having to stay in a relatively narrow space between debris on the right and cars on the left made me expend a lot of mental energy and made the bike feel harder than it should have. Also, I get nervous riding really close to a bridge railing or rough drop from cement to grass and felt like I had to do that a lot. It's a mental thing: have me hold a straight line on flat pavement and it won't feel hard. Take away my margin for error and it now feels terrible. In one particularly fraught spot the course really should have had a no-passing zone as we had a narrow shoulder with a 1'+ drop-off to the grass, a big divot-like barrier between shoulder and right lane, and traffic on our left. Most cyclists were pretty cautious in general on this course but one guy behind me kept calling out a pass like he expected me to move off the shoulder for him. I moved as right as I comfortably could but still felt like he missed hitting me by a millimeter.
This course was a far cry from the closed pristine-condition Mont-Tremblant course. And then there was the spot where 2 dogs ran out and chased me. That was exciting. I prefer boring.
All of that sounds bad, and I can't say I enjoyed the bike, but I did pretty well (for me; I'm still in no danger of a competitive finish). The new wheels handled the less than ideal terrain pretty well and avoided the flats that so many other athletes got out there. Not only was I able to coast downhill but the lower rolling resistance meant that on rolling hills I'd coast the downhill and much of the way up the next. I figured I'd let the wheels do the work and save my legs, and made good time anyway.
I finished in 3:37, good for a bike leg PR.
T2
This being a split transition race, I dismounted, gave my bike to a bike catcher to rack, and ran into the convention center to the changing area. I didn't change clothes (just stayed in my tri kit) but sat in a chair as a volunteer brought me my bag and a bottled water. I ate half a bag of potato chips, put some more bodyglide on my feet, fresh socks, running shoes, race belt, visor, sunglasses, and handheld flask with pickle juice. Nothing to do now but run a half marathon.
Run
In my past 2 70.3s the run was a struggle. Looking back at those, part of the issue was that it was hot running mid-day but largely it was about going out too fast and not pacing well. I can't control the heat but I decided to go out conservatively and walk before I had to, with the idea that I could take shorter breaks if I didn't wait till I was already exhausted.
When I first started I was holding what felt like an easy 8:30 pace but I knew I couldn't maintain that so I slowed down to a 10 minute pace. It felt really easy and I didn't walk until almost 5 miles in, though by then my pace had slowed to closer to an 11:00 mile. I gave myself short walk breaks roughly every 10-15 minutes and tried to maintain a relatively comfortable run pace in between, which ended up in the 11-12:00 range. I took some flat coke, ice, salt, and water as needed from the aid stations but tried to avoid overdoing it and getting the sloshy stomach feeling. I ate a gel about every hour. All worked pretty well for my stomach. It was warm out but not unpleasant.
The longest walk break I took was up a pretty long hill about 2 miles from the finish, but once I got to the top of that, I knew I was almost done and found the energy to get back to a run. Once I came near the finish line and saw my support crew of Kevin, the kids, and some friends of ours, I found some bonus energy and gave them all high-fives on my way past.
I finished the run in 2:35, a run leg PR. My overall finish time was 7:20, which is still far from blazing fast but was good enough for a PR for me. More importantly, I felt good throughout the race and after.
This was the race where I feel like I really figured out the 70.3 distance and while I respected the distance, I wasn't afraid of it. Moreover, it was a great confidence boost 3 months out from IMMT.
It was interesting doing a local HIM. On the one hand, it definitely didn't have the IM big-race atmosphere or crisp attention to detail. And, because I didn't travel for it, there wasn't much mental energy expended planning ahead for it. No having the lay out all the gear early or shipping the bike off weeks in advance. Friday I put in a full day of work, then Monday I was right back at it like nothing had happened. In a way I missed all the hoopla of a destination race. But it was a nice change of pace to do it this way and I think being able to approach it a little more nonchalantly took some of the stress of a big race out of it. It felt more like the TexasMan X-50s I did in Denton County the past few years than the Canadian 70.3s I've done. With the first full IM coming up I think it was reassuring to make the 70.3 distance a little less intimidating this time.
When I was finishing this race I thought, I definitely couldn't do double this right now. But I know I've thought the same thing at the finish of every half marathon and even 10ks and 5ks, and of course on marathon race days I found it in me to go twice as far. I'm assuming this will be no different. My mindset on race day will be a full day's work and I'll pace accordingly. It'll be a hard day but one I'm looking forward to. A good day at Tri Fort Worth was a nice confidence boost toward that. Next stop: Mont-Tremblant!
