June 2014: Training Ramblings......Eagleman 70.3m again!

I'm getting so bad at these updates but here goes for June 2014 (hopefully I get back on the wagon for July and beyond).

June was a pretty fun month.  After an encouraging and enjoyable race at St. George in May, the beginning of June was set-up for Eagleman 70.3m for the 9th time.  Yeah, it seems like only yesterday that I raced Eagleman for the first time and now 9 years later it's still the major race in the Mid-Atlantic.  After just hearing that it won't have any Kona slots from now on, it will be interested how the quality of the field changes in years to come. Perhaps 2015 is the year to make the break from Eagleman, it's not you, it's me!

The week before Eagleman, I well and truly shelled at the Leonardtown crit! Caught behind an early crash left Stu and I chasing the whole race, at least we got a good, hard workout!

Stu and I chasing, chasing, chasing

So then it was Eagleman 70.3m and very much like St. George, my plan was to go and enjoy the day with no expectations. The last few years at Eagleman have been pretty rough so I just wanted to go back and have a solid race.  I certainly had no ideas of World Championship qualifying or anything like that.  Water temperatures were such that it was non-wetsuit legal, not a great thing for me but I had a respectable swim time of 36mins and got out onto the bike ready to follow the plan.

The Eagleman course is really built for me, it's a drag race built for the uber-bikers and that's not me.  My plan was to hit the power numbers and hope for light winds.  As anyone who has raced Eagleman knows, anytime you get a light wind and you find yourself motoring along Egypt Road, it's a good day.  This year was a good day!  I was able to to stick to the power plan and averaged right on 242watts (about 80-85% of threshold) http://www.strava.com/activities/151156175  and post a 2hrs23mins split for the 56miles.

In an ideal world I would like to average slightly higher to 90% but knowing that my run training was lacking, saving more for the run was the better option.  On thiis day it turned out to be a good decision, heading off on the run I felt good and had the best run at a 70.3m in a long time.  http://www.strava.com/activities/151684259

The run just felt great the entire time, well it obviously got hard, but there was no nutrition issues not a hint of slowing down and it showed in the 1hr 30min time.  Overall the 4hrs 32mins finishing time put me 18th in age group and 118th overall.  Finally a good day at Eagleman, not a great day, but it proved to me that on the limited training time 70.3m is the right distance.  With a bit more focus for 2015 I think some damage could be done at the 70.3m races.

The 9th Eagleman 70.3m is in the books

The bad thing about Eagleman this year, having to leave immediately after finishing to head to the airport for a flight to the West Coast.....7hrs on a plane 4hrs after a 70.3m is not the ideal recovery situation :-)

June Total: 464.01 Miles / 28 hours 02 minutes

Swim: 2,100 yards / ~1.20 miles / 0 hours 36 minutes

Bike: 394.93 miles / 20 hours 31 minutes

Run: 67.88 miles / 8 hours 27 minutes

Eagleman 70.3m 2012.....Race Report

Typical for Eagleman, the weather really heated up just in time for race day! Temps had been sitting right at a pleasant 75 all week and then boom up to the high 80's on Saturday and over 90 for race day on Sunday....not ideal for anyone.

The past two years at this race the swim had been non-wetsuit legal but the water was just under the limit on race day so the wetsuit went on and fingers were crossed that it wasn't a case of boil in the bag.  Straight away as soon we got into the Choptank River it felt a little too warm.  The 35-39 AG went off at 7.34am in smooth water and then it was game on.  The goal for the day was to go hard, hard, hard and see what happens, based on the quality of the field it was going to be very fast race.  This Kona qualifying quest isn't getting any easier as the years go on.

Bearing in mind the lack of swim training since St George I was pleased with the 31min swim time but above all I was glad to get out of the wetsuit and onto the bike.  (Note 1: work on the swim more)

Heading out of T1

The wind was calm and it looked like we would get out onto the bike course before any winds picked up.....the first hour was great and I was rocking along at just over 24mph and feeling good both physically and nutritionally.  Then my Hammer Nutrition Electrolytes tabs fell from my pocket over a pothole and for the rest of the race I was just waiting for the cramps to come.  I stuck to the plan though, picking up a water at each aid station, using it for both hydration as well as cooling.  For calories I was with Hammer Nutrition Fizz/Sustained Energy mix and a gel every hour.  The power was spot on again for the 2nd race in two weeks. Last week at Duathlon Nationals I was hitting the 256 watts, for Eagleman due to to heat I had lowered that slightly to 250watts and was hitting that through the first 2 hours.  The final 20mins or so I railed it back slightly in preparation for the run.  Getting off the bike at 2hr 24mins I was happy with the average....obviously I know that it isn't going to get me close enough to the top 5-10 (Note 2: work on the bike more)

Off the bike and out onto the bike

Transition was done quickly and then out onto the scorching run course.....no shade, blacktop and temperatures rising to the 90's, lovely jubbly!  Right from the start the running legs weren't there (unlike last week when they felt great), perhaps it was a residual from racing hard last week and the recovery from IM St  George, but the rest of the run wasn't overly pretty.  I made sure to get hydration at every aid station and just run as hard as possible.  Fortunately I seem to have a built-in slow pace of about 8min/miles which even with a short walk at aid stations turns into a 8:30min/mile.  I couldn't go any quicker and didn't go any slower....just kept on trucking but it gave me an uninspiring 1hr 45min run split. (Note 3: work on the run more)

Heading into the finish....phew!

I ended up at 4hrs 45mins for the race, 24th in AG and 144th overall (from 1800 racers).  So a nice finish but always some room for big improvement......as a reference the top 2 in the 35-39 AG did 4:02 and 4:04 to take 7th and 8th overall just 15mins back from the overall winner three time Ironman World Champion Craig Alexander.

 As the notes suggest, more work needed to get close to the Kona slots especially at the 70.3 distance.

Next post to describe the rest of the season......

Eagleman 61.2m - Race Report......

Yeah you did read that correctly 61.2m rather than 70.3m. This sums up my day......



As you can see it wasn't a glorious day at Eagleman 70.3m yesterday. I ended up with a DNF and now have to pick myself up and prepare for IM Lake Placid which is only 6 weeks away.

The race started out pretty well. The water was deemed too warm for wetsuits and typically I hadn't packed my speedsuit! But despite that I swam well and was out in 17th place. I was amongst the racers that I knew would be the players as the day went on.



Out onto the bike and I was rolling along pretty well, overtaking some of the faster swimmers and even in the headwind was keeping a decent average without working too hard. It stayed that way until about mile 30 but getting the advantage of the tailwind wasn't as good as it should have been. It seemed like I was losing power and that was despite taking in food and drink religiously throughout the bike nothing was being processed in my stomach. It was all just sitting there refusing to help me!



I headed back into T2 after a 2hr 21min bike split and was in 7th place. However, immediately on heading out onto the run I knew that it wasn't going to be pretty. I was slow out of transition and had nothing whatsoever in my legs, they were dead and it was the best I could do to run/shuffle the first two miles. The photo at the top shows me walking after the aid station at mile 2. I ran slowly past Sarah, and just wanted to hide. She sacrifices so much for me to train and race and I just couldn't deliver on race day. I knew that any chance of a World Championship slot was gone and just hoped the legs would respond to some nutrition and could get me to the end of the day.

It wasn't to be.....I walked/ran to the aid station at mile 4 and knew by then that the day was over. I probably could have continued for the next 9 miles but it would have been beyond my limits and it would have taken me a long time to recover from. With Lake Placid on July 25th I need to be back on it within the week and I don't think I would have been if I had continued. In hindsight perhaps I should have realised that something was up when I had too many trips to the bathroom on Saturday.....

Yes I am crushed that I didn't race to my potential but these things happen. It's the first race that anything like this has ever happened to me and I should count myself lucky after 6 years of long-distance triathlons that it hasn't happened before. I need to put it behind me and trust in my training and racing and make sure that it was just a blip, which will be rectified in Lake Placid. Today I've signed up for a triathlon on July 10th and so that will be the time to get back on the horse and get some confidence back!

How Far to the Big Island?.....415 Feet! (Eagleman Race Report)

The goal for this race was to try and get one of the coveted qualifying slots for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii....the holy grail of long distance triathlon racing! As I had previously stated, to get one of the slots I would need the race of my life, either that or hope for a roll-down.

The weather was almost perfect for fast racing, there was cloud cover, a slight breeze and no blazing heat. The 30-34 age group swim wave was one of the last to start and was an hour after the pro's had already started. By the time that we got onto the course about 90% of the racers were already out there.



The swim was slightly choppier than I expected. The swim is always relatively choppy in the Choptank River, but with only a slight breeze I though it would have been calm. I felt good in the swim, not super fast as the swim is the weakest of the three elements, but I came out in 24th place in age group. I really need to try and work hard on my swim training as I generally lose a couple of minutes to the rest of the top guys.



From the off I felt strong on the bike and was quickly at race pace and trying to keep it powerful and efficient. Having been out on the course the last few weeks and all day on Saturday, I knew that the first half of the bike would be a tail or cross wind and so decided to make hay while the going was good. At around mile 8, I had a minute or so of panic as it felt like the front tire was going soft....fortunately it wasn't and so must have been the pavement surface or something like that. The bike continued to go well and a few guys from the 30-34 age group gradually caught me and we had a group of us together for quite a period of time (5-6 of us). Some of the guys were blatantly drafting while the rest of us were working together (legally) and trying to push the pace. It wasn't until the referee's came by at around mile 35 that a couple of the guys got drafting penalties (fortunately they were the ones drafting the majority of the time) and then the group split for good. The headwind started to kick in at this point and I rolled off the front of the few remaining guys to try and get some separation. It was at this point that you noticed that the slight breeze at the start had kicked up a few notches around the bike course and the going wasn't so easy now!

After 2hr 22mins on the bike at 23.7MPH (12th in AG) I rolled into T2 and exited for the run in 14th place. The run is an out and back and so I knew that at some point I would be able to find out my position, or at least approximate it. This is when it really becomes a mental game. I knew that if I had had a good bike split then the real strong cyclists would have had equally as good days and it would be up to me to run everyone down. I really need to drop a few minutes off the bike but keep my run speed!



So the run started off real well at 6min/miles and the legs were feeling good. That's always a positive thing as you never get quicker, you only gradually get slower on the run! By this time in the race the sun had come out and was beginning to make you bake....water, gatorade and ice were my choices at the aid station with the ice going straight down the top. Coming to the turnaround I had calculated that I was in approximately 9th place and was 12mins off the leader...the goal continued to be to get as high as possible for any slots that might roll down! Over the remaining half of the run I settled into a solid 6:30min/mile pace and tried to focus on any potential guys from my age group that were up ahead. It was difficult to make out those guys as the course was pretty full at this point and people get crafty about showing the age on your calf! (i.e., rubbing it off or smudging it etc)



Coming into the finish it was cool to hear Sarah and Lisa cheering as they had been all day but I knew the Kona slots were out of my hands....no top two, so I would have to hope that people would turn it down! I placed the 5th fastest run at 1 hour 25mins and a final time of 4hrs 20mins 53secs....a PB for the Eagleman course.



The final results went up and I was in 7th place in age group (although the first two placed overall in the amateur so I did get a 5th place award) and 33rd overall (out of 1600!). The World Championship slots would be given out at 1:30pm and so it was about an hour to hang around and wait....and wait......

After going through the younger age groups we finally got to 30-34 age group and the first two guys quickly said no to the slots (both Kona and Clearwater)....their was a glimmer of hope! From there it all went a bit awry, one guy I think he was 3rd took a slot but they didn't announce what slot he was taking....still a chance. 4th placed guy was a no-show and so was 5th place. We still didn't know if the 3rd place had taken a Kona slot....6th place was called and took a slot, what was it, tell me god damn it, did they not know that people wanted to know! The 6th place guy sat down near us to fill out his forms and we saw it was a Hawaii form.....one had definitely gone! We needed to find out what 3rd was taking!

In a matter of seconds the dream at Eagleman was shattered, Sarah asked the 6th guy what Kona slot he had taken.....2nd slot! NNNNNOOOOOOOOO! And then my name was called, did I want a Clearwater slot at 70.3M Worlds, I double checked that Kona had all gone, which they had, and declined my Clearwater slot.

I had missed out on Kona by a mere 31 seconds....at my running pace I was 415 feet away from the Ironman World Championships on the Big Island. That was my day at Eagleman 2009 and that 31 seconds will stick with me for a long time :-(

Onwards to Ironman Louisville at the end of August where there are tentatively four slots for Kona!