IM 70.3 Waco race report

Me, for most of 2017: after this year I'm going to take a break from long races and stick to shorter stuff.

Me last fall: Hmm, the old Austin 70.3 is moving to Waco. Waco is a short drive...training for a half-Iron isn't that bad...

Well, you can guess where this is going. Next thing I knew, I was registered for IM Waco 70.3. So much for that planned year off! And I talked Lisa, my cousin's wife, into joining me. She'd talked about wanting to do a HIM someday and she had graduated from Baylor, so this was the universe telling her it was time!

The race was October 28, 2018 so I started training in June. I trained for this race differently from past years in 2 big ways. First, I finally upgraded to a Wahoo Kickr Snap smart trainer and the Zwift app for my bike training. I can count on one hand all of the training rides I did outside this season; all the rest were on the bike trainer inside. I had hoped the smart trainer upgrade would enhance my trainer rides and they definitely did. It was super easy--my scheduled ride from Training Peaks automatically synced with Zwift so I'd just log in, pick my ride, and boom, my bike resistance adjusted as needed so I had a ride with the duration and intensity my plan called for. A typical week for tri training is 2 shorter rides during the week and 1 longer one. The longer ride was usually done on Saturday morning while the kids and I watched a movie together. Pro tip: sports movies and superhero movies are good for this.

If my bike training was upgraded, though, my swim training went the other way. Last year while IM training I developed what I had thought was sciatica but later found was referred pain from lumbar inflammation. 3 cortisone injections temporarily relieved the pain (and, less temporarily, brought a 15 pound weight gain that took several months to work off) and physical therapy helped with the underlying issue. I discovered that swimming seemed to hurt my back more than cycling and running, and since the swim makes up such a small part of the race I decided it wasn't worth risking further back issues for marginal improvement there. So, I deliberately only did a small number of swim workouts prescribed, reasoning that I was in good enough shape and experienced enough in open water to manage a 1.2 mile swim on minimal training. Of all the swim workouts my plan called for I probably did well under a quarter of them. Turns out that was plenty.

Fast forward to mid-October this year. Training is going fine, getting excited about the race. Central Texas gets weeks of heavy rain. A week or so out from the race there's reason to wonder if the weather will affect the race course and lead to cancellation or modification of all or any of it. 

Friday before the race word came that the swim course had been modified from a loop to a point to point with the current. I'm excited about this--I barely trained for the swim, and now I'll have a super-fast swim anyway with the current! Then, Saturday morning as I'm finishing packing up, word comes that the swim has been cancelled altogether. As an athlete, I'm sort of disappointed not to get to do the full 70.3, but hey, that decision to undertrain the swim looks even better now ;) So, I finish packing, pick up Lisa, and off we go to Waco. Bonus of local race, can leave the morning before, still get there in plenty of time.

As the sign shows, this year is the 40th anniversary of the Ironman brand. I didn't know that when I signed up for this race but it was timely as I turned 40 last month too. Doing a half Ironman just before my birthday seemed like a good way to close out one decade and set the tone for the next. I hope Ironman and I have another anniversary date on our joint 50th birthday.

What do two married suburban moms with a night to themselves do in Waco? Well, if you're us, you go out for beer and pizza and then are in bed by 10 ;) As bonus, our hotel had overbooked so they upgraded us to a 2-bedroom suite at no charge. I sprawled out in the middle of that bed in a bedroom all to myself and slept quite well! 

The next morning we were up early, but since it's a time trial start instead of having to get there by 5:30 we were still there in plenty of time at 7:30. It was as well-rested as I've ever been before a race. The race had us starting by race number and I was 1929 so I had about an hour's wait before it was my turn. I wondered if a time trial start would have us too congested but it actually went pretty smoothly and I was able to get up to speed pretty quickly.

My previous best HIM bike split was around 3:37 so my goal for Waco was to get under 3:30 with a reach goal of sub-3:15. An hour in I was pleased to see that I was holding a stronger pace than I had planned and I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard to hold it. The course had a fair bit of chipseal and a few spots where all of the athletes had to ride single file but those issues aside it was a good course. There were a few small climbs but nothing big--I rode either all or most of the course in my big chainring and had all the gears I needed with an 11-25 cassette.

As I get further along I was still holding a strong pace and realized if I could maintain it I was on pace for a sub-3:15 split. I ended up just making it, finishing at 3:14:44. I actually could have shaved a few more minutes off of that pace too if I hadn't needed to stop to refill my water bottle. If it was just water I might have waited till a rest stop but I was using Tailwind liquid nutrition and didn't want to get behind on my fueling.

My first 70.3 was Victoria BC in 2015 and I took about 4:10 there so I've shaved nearly a full hour off my bike time in the 3 1/2 years since then. Now with the smart trainer/Zwift combo I feel confident I've got more room for improvement. Can I shave off another 5 minutes next time? 10? 15? It'll be fun to find out. But I really enjoyed the Waco bike course. I was having my best 70.3 bike split and I knew it at the time--always special to know at the time that you're having an awesome race!

I got off the bike feeling great, happy about my strong bike split and ready to get to the run. It was about 12:30 and it was hot, no shade. I had put on sunscreen that morning but remembering how badly I got burned at Fort Worth last year I decided a stop at the sunscreen volunteer station was time well spent. Then, onto the course.

On the race Facebook group beforehand people had asked a lot of questions about the bike course. We didn't talk a lot about the run course and I specifically and the group as a whole underestimated the run course. I looked at elevation maps but didn't see anything that worried me. I mean, I just raced in the Canadian mountains, right? What elevation is Waco going to throw at me?

See, when you hear "Waco," you don't necessarily think "hilly," but apparently Cameron Park, where the run course was, is in fact quite hilly. That took the wind out of my sails pretty quickly. The course was 2 loops and each loop took you on a windy road that climbed and descended several times. Hot and hilly made for a physically and mentally challenging combo. I ran where I could, walked where I had to, and just tried to keep moving forward as best I could. As I was coming in to finish my first loop I saw some of the later waves of cyclists making their way in. I don't envy them the heat they faced for the run course!

As I headed out onto my second loop there was a lady offering jello shots. It seemed like a good idea to take a jello shot from a stranger during a taxing athletic event on a hot day...my second loop didn't feel slower than my first, so I guess it didn't hurt me? I had hoped for a sub-2:30 run but ended up with 2:39. All things considered, I'm okay with it, but if I do this race again I know to train for the hills!

All those hills I had gotten to enjoy before were there for one more round. Up, down, up, down, lather, rinse, repeat. Finally I was out of the hills and back on flattish road and almost to the finish. Oh goodie, they saved us one last hill to climb before we reached the suspension bridge we'd run across to the finish line. The bridge was wooden so I watched my footing to make sure I didn't trip; apparently several people did trip and ended up with unintentionally funny finish line pictures. I saw my family on the bridge and waved as I ran past. My 4th 70.3 was in the books, with a time just under 6:04!

Here are pictures of finish line celebrations with Lisa and with Jess, a friend from a lawyer mom FB group. Most races I don't know anyone else there so this was fun to get to hang out. Also ran into my friend Ryan out on the course too but he was such a blur rolling past I didn't get a picture ;)

Had we done a full 70.3 with swim and T1 my primary goal was to best my 7:20 PR, with reach goal of finishing under 7:00. Since we didn't have a swim or T1 it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but even with a slower than best swim and average T1 I'd definitely finish under 7:20 and sub-7:00 wouldn't have been out of possibility. Disappointed I didn't get to find out for sure, but this race leaves me confident I have a sub-7 finish in me someday.

All in all this was a satisfying race. I remember feeling like last year at Tri Fort Worth I really "got" the 70.3 distance and how to pace and fuel it. Waco was my first race to rely primarily on liquid nutrition and I was pleased to find it worked well for me. Looking ahead to someday when I tackle a full IM again, I want to have my liquid nutrition plan dialed in.

Also, it was a nice redemption for my tri bike, which had to stay home and miss IMMT last year when I didn't get ample opportunity to test my derailleur bolt fix before the Tri Bike Transport ship date. I made the right choice last year to take the road bike instead and I'm looking forward to getting to know that road bike better over thousands of miles, but Trixie the tri bike and I have been through a lot together and I felt fully comfortable relying on it in Waco.

Looking ahead, of course I still believe my best race is yet to come and that there's room for improvement. The biggest thing on my list is doing some exercises to strengthen my back and address muscle imbalances in general. Even cutting out swimming my back was still hurting by race day so I've got more work to do before my next HIM, and for sure before my next IM. Once that's addressed, I can get back to swimming, keep up the indoor trainer work on the bike, and get serious about practicing running inclines. If I do Waco again I want to plan some run practices of just running up and down the ramps of a parking garage. As the saying goes, to get faster, don't buy upgrades, run/ride up grades.

Yesterday marked 5 years since my first marathon and 4 years since my last one. Stand-alone running events haven't been my focus in the years since but I'm not done with marathons. Every year I enter the lottery for the NYC marathon. Thus far I'm 0-for-5 but maybe next year is my year...we'll see!

For now though, it's the offseason. Time to rebuild, and more time to hang with my Ironfans.