Athlete Performance Breakout - IM 70.3 - Oceanside

For many people, racing in triathlon is about "fun" and living a healthy lifestyle.  While performing well is a high priority, it is not the end all by any means.

While "fun" is a relative term, what I'll try to do today is attempt to explain proper pacing through the bike leg of a triathlon using Ironman 70.3 Oceanside as an example.  Oceanside is a perfect example of what can go well, and horribly wrong if the bike leg is not given its proper attention either through under-training, or overexertion.  With this course's widely varying terrain, all skills of the athlete are brought into play with steep climbs, rollers, and good flats.  One must be adept at knowing how hard to push, or not to push in all these areas to have a complete race and legs for the run.

The ride through Camp Pendleton enables a special view into how participants fared in the race since these roads are mostly closed to outside civilians.  With limited rides taking place on this course and stretches of road, pouring over Strava ride data gives a perfect set of sample data without the masses of rides on normal routes.

If you are unfamiliar with Strava, a short synopsis is it compares GPS rides and run against other athletes' uploaded routes, and ranks them according to determined "Segments" set up by users who think they would be useful tools for training.  From this a reward system shows you how your latest performance matches you previous ride/ride, as well as the rest of the Strava world.  For example, Oceanside 70.3 has various segments set up and the major climbs and full route are below:

Full Oceanside Bike Course - 54.8 miles - 2,500 feet of climbing
First Pendleton Climb - .5 miles - 300 feet of climbing
Basilone Climb - 4.1 miles - 460 feet of climbing
Basilone Final Climb - .6 miles - 210 feet of climbing
Pulgas Basilone Climb - .5 miles - 170 feet of climbing

Using these segments, along with each athlete's half marathon and historical race results, we'll show how proper and poor pacing can effect a full race.  None of the above climbs are that severe, but the body only has a limited capacity to absorb major damage that can be inflicted on some of these short and steep inclines.  Each time an athlete overexerts on a climb, they may not affect their overall bike time, but more than likely, their run will suffer.

"There is no such thing as a great bike followed by a poor run." - I've seen this quote used a lot and would love to figure out the first to coin it. 

So, we now come to our stable of 31 athletes who have uploaded their data to Strava and are easily found in all segments. I'll leave them nameless and review them in general as to not overly praise, or poke fun at.  As I said, each athlete does this for their own fun and it is not our place to chastise.  An objective view of this data is what we are bringing to the table for those who would like to learn from these athletes.

In my analysis, the above segments are taken into account, as well as their full bike time, run time, as well as heart rate and watts when available.  To make the data manageable, the results were ranked against the smaller pool of participants, as some results from previous years muddle the Strava rankings.  

The 20 mile preamble to the bike course lets athletes thoroughly warm up, and usually provides a false sense of how the race will unfold with a normal south tail wind providing a push up the coast.  This can add to athlete's need to push harder up the hills as well as their goals may have shifted to faster bike splits as they hit the halfway point ahead of schedule.  

Full athlete data can be found here.  Any input is welcome to further the analysis.  Let me know if you have any questions.

From the first climb, we can see  a wide thinning of the field through the rest of the course.  Of the top half (15) of our sample, a drastic re-shuffling occurs.  By the second climb, Basilone-4.1 miles, 5 athletes have dropped to the bottom half of the field.  At the top of Basilone, many of these athletes felt a resurgence when seeing the peak and pushed their way back to their peak power and only two were left lagging.  Reaching the final major climb of the bike course it was surprising that only three athletes who took the first hill in the top half had dropped to the bottom half of the field.  I was thinking the theory of overexertion may be wrong?  Nope, taking the full course into consideration you can see that 6 of the athletes who charged that first hill, and the rest of the climbs, had dropped to the bottom performers.  

A better distinction of how the race played out for people is ranking their Average climbing rank, against their time rank.  For example, Athlete K ranked 20th, 18th, 19th, and 13th respectively on the major climbs.  Nothing stellar in that aspect, and bringing his climbing rank average to 17.5, making him the 19th best climber in our field.  What is stellar is that even while giving up time on those climbs, his overall time for the course ranks him 12th in our field, a 7 spot improvement!  A great piece to his data as well is that he was using a powermeter so further analysis can be gained.  His entire ride averaged 232 watts, and none of the climbs exceeded a 20% margin.  Marked with a PR Half Ironman Run, this was a near perfect race for this athlete.

The next example will be overexerting climbs and a severe drop in overall bike rank.  Athlete C ranked 5th in the climbing portion of the bike course, with charging the 1st Climb in 2nd, tempering his pace for Basilone in 16th, surging the top of Basilone in 6th, then climbing Pulgas in 5th position.  These were great climbs, but in comparison to the 24th best bike time, not as much.  This athlete also finished the run 20 minutes slower than his Open Half Marathon PR.

A prime example of under-exertion comes from none other than me!  I think I got into my own head a bit too much in preparing for this race.  I am still a bigger guy, so I climbed conservatively.  In looking at my ride files, it was much to conservative.  Even as a bigger guy, I didn't increase my watts on the climbs enough and ended up with the 20th ranked climb average.  When you compare this to 8th ranked overall time in the pool, there was probably 4-5 minutes left out on the course.  The one bonus of under-exertion is that you guarantee legs for the run!  Even while coming off an injury through January, as well as running the new, convoluted run course, I managed a faster half marathon time than the previous year at 1:27:14.  This adds to the adage that pushing harder on the bike can exponentially slow your run time.  It was the choice to make sure my under-trained run had a chance, but looking back, the bike could have been better.

Back to the climbers once again to measure how their climbing rank, pairs up with their overall time.  I would say that a 4 spot margin would be acceptable change in climbing rank to overall time rank.  That equates to around a 5 minute change to overall time from the rankings.  Outside of this margin you can see many incredible climbing efforts.  From the field, you have the 3rd, 5th, 13th, and 17th ranked climbers.  Unfortunately, these athletes averaged a drop of over 10 spots in overall time rank.  All of these athletes were in our first group of climbers to charge the first climb as well.  You can see the destructive power of charging a hill from this group and the importance of proper pacing.

Hill climbing is only half of the equation.  Even if an athlete managed to ride a continuous effort through the bike course, it still may have been too much for them on that day anyways.  Unfortunately, since I can't interview each athlete to find their overall biking ability, we will have to assume that they are trained for the event, as well as research their best historical run times to help reveal overexertion on the bike.  The 70.3 distance is also a place where things can go wrong and effect finish times wildly.  Its hard to really pinpoint if someone just had a bad day, fueled improperly, or was just injured.  

I'll leave the run analysis to the reader now.  Unfortunately, without knowing the athlete, or speaking with them, it is extremely hard to tell if they under performed or not in the run.  The rudimentary data I can pull from other race results doesn't show a distinct trend either except for the severe over and under performing climbers.  The lesson I guess is finding the edge you can push on the bike and be able to hold it together for the run.  It seems simple, but watching people pass you on a hill can drive even the most disciplined athlete crazy.  Today's world also rewards cyclists for their efforts with KOM's.  If that is your motivation, have at it.  I'm going for a PR.

Training Partners

While I'm sure there are plenty of "Lone Wolf" types our there, training partners are the unsung heroes of our training.  Be it for triathlon, running, cycling or anything, these are the people that help get you where you need to be for almost no cost except friendship and reciprocated support.  The one "rub" here is that it may take some time to find the right people who fit with your training philosophy. 

Friends are always great to try out first for this role, but their thinking on what a training session should accomplish is not always the same.  This isn't a bad thing, just not what a training partner is for.  Heading out on an intense hill climbing expedition with intervals may be your objective, your friend may just treat cycling as their social interaction for the day and dilly dally through the ride.  Not a great combination and ends with frustration either for taking too long for an expected ride, or not attaining the effort needed.

Searching outside of normal friendships is another step to take either through a training group or regular group rides.  These have a wide range of abilities and philosophies to take into account.  Putting a staunch Zone 2 athlete together with a minimalist high intensity athlete is a recipe for disaster in the long run.  Not saying either way is better, at least not in this posting, but to each their own, and training philosophies should be respected.  Once you find those with the same attitude towards training you'll find these become good friends in the end as well.

Skill is an elusive aspect to account for, especially with triathletes.  We were all once really good at one sport, and trying to catch up in the others.  Nobody can be perfect in all three, so some understanding is necessary when training with someone in the weak link.  Mine is swimming for the sake of this post.  I get lapped in the pool all the time.  While I do have the skills on the bike, I'm a good 20 pounds heavier than most of my training partners, so I'm last up the big hills, but not by much.  The real skills to be aware of are etiquette and proper pacing.  We covered Pacelining on my Coach's blog last month.  Other things to keep in mind is people's self sufficiency.  While training partners should and will always help each other out, with flats or injuries, there are instances where people get lost, or you just lose them.  I'll be the first to go looking for them, but knowing they will either be on their way, or trying to fix their problem on their own is much better than finding them stranded and having given up.  Riding with someone who is oblivious is just the worst as well.  I can take accidents happening, but not when someone rides into the road after a pull without looking.

All in all, when you find those people you can train with, you'll bend your workouts to fit theirs as well because the end result will be better and more enjoyable.  Adding some distance here, or pushing intensity there is easier with others around.  Climbing Tunitas this past weekend, every switchback I would see my buddy Mike.  I was pressing to close the gap the entire way up to as a result.  I love my toys, Heart Rate and Power Meter, but going outside those tools it was much more exhilarating turning the effort into a mini race and chasing someone.

In my group now, everyone seems to find their place to contribute.  Some organize, others lead by example, or just act as a rabbit to chase down.  Its a great group to be a part of and I'm looking forward to seeing great things from everyone this year.

It won't happen to me!

Dang it, it did.  The post IM illness and slight depression.  Seem to be over it now and actually got a good weekend in after fighting feeling crappy for a week and a half and hammering out a 10k in the process (2nd overall!).  The 10k should have been a "happy" race, but that's just not me, so I crushed my body, and heart, which needed another week of rest before doing anything too crazy.  Instead it left me feeling like death and no workouts!

M2's actually giving the rout of our run, but lent itself perfect for this post.

What do I get from my coach when I finally feel good enough to train with the group?

"I TOLD YOU SO!  Didn't you read my Pre/Post IM article?"  Well, coming off a Kona spot high, I thought I was invincible and more to prove this year, so I ignored it.  Stupid me.  Fortunately its still early in the season, and a full week off probably did more good than bad.  Luckily I didn't hurt myself.  Not sure what I hate more, hearing everyone say to "take it easy" or actually admitting it, lol.

It was a very fun Sunday up in Marin running around Bon Tempe Lake.  Taking it easy, but the sun was out and it actually got warm into the 70's!  SF in the summer is one of the coldest placed you can be, but just over the bridge is so nice.  Running with our group from M2 was nice since I hadn't been around in a month and this was a new route we had planned for today.

Great 2 hours out in the sun and with some beautiful terrain.  On to Vineman 70.3 and IM Canada training now!

Rule #1 post IM, listen to your coach.  That's what you pay them for and they know more about this stuff than you do.  Don't act like the 16 year old version of yourself that thinks they can run through walls (we all would love to be that kid again, and sometimes act like it).  Find something else to distract you for two weeks at least and then come back re-energized.  Being sick is not a fun way to spend that time.

Remember recovery is the 4th part of triathlon.  Sleep, stretching and light work are the efforts to put in for nearly three weeks after an IM.  Lots of swimming, and no real intensity.  The heat in Texas did a number on my body and head, so I'll be more cautious in the future.  I think the post race dull-drums are much worse than a the pre-race TAPER.

Ironman Lessons

After finishing my first Ironman and making it out unscathed I do not want to take anything for granted. Thinking my preparation was perfect would be a recipe for dissaster next go around, and if you are not improving, you are taking a step back. Two weeks have passed since the race and many points have come to mind, both good and bad that will help in the next race, and hopefully others venturing out on their first Ironman race, so take these as a grain of salt, because everyone is different and that leads me to my first point.

Everyone is different - Just leave it at that leading up to a race. People prepare and strategize for Ironman in their own way. Different coaches, different goals, different abilities. The only thing that comes out of trying to convince someone else, or defending your plan is doubt entering into your mind about your plan. Confidence is a huge part of making it to the finish line, so come up with YOUR plan and leave the race to unfold.

Fueling - M2 has it right in that people tend to over-fuel during a race. Some tweaks may come for my next race which will be HOT, but here is what I took in on the bike. 1 Bottle Perpetuum, Powerbar Chews, 2 Gu, 2 half bananas, 2 bottles Powerbar drink, 2 bottles water, half bottle cola. The run was alternating between Water and Cola to Powerbar drink, 1 Gu, 2 handfulls of pretzels.

Let people be - The day before a race people need to do what they need to do. If someone wants to leave dinner, let them, but make sure they pay first. If they want to sleep a little longer, fine. Just don't expect anyone to help you, or get pulled into other's problems (if you have the time or want to, that is entirely up to you). Personally, I'm extremely selfish race morning. I hope that doesn't come back as bad Karma for me, but anyone who races should understand (significant others will not).

Ab work - After countless hours swimming, thousands of miles biking, and hundreds running, don't neglect the core strength. This was missing from my workouts in the last month and that is probably where the ab spasms in the beginning of my run came from. It took a lot out of me in the first quarter of the the marathon so I need to remember this come next race.

Stay with your strategy - On the bike I got away from my original goal and tried for more. I was on track for my 5:00 bike, and got greedy too early and hammered out on the the way out of the second lap. Sticking to your plan is the best antidote if you can keep control of the devils in your head. Hammering a flat when hills are coming may feel great, but the end result is a slower hill climb, and legs that won't perform over the long haul.

Hopefully this helps me for next time, and maybe for someone else too, but like I said, everyone should race the race they prepared for. Its a shame to go out and feel you left something out there.