Lets break it all down:
Prerace nutrition and set up: No issues, went as planned. Forgot to put Tylenol in my bento box as I tend to get headaches without my glasses. Luckily, no issues on Race day.
Swim: Lined up in the front row and quickly ate sand 5 secs after the horn. Made the mistake of not testing the depth of the entrance. The beach entrance was deeper than my warm up location. Regrouped and got moving. We had the current to our back and google maps shows the swim was more 1.0 - 1.1 than the official 1.2 mile distance.
Time: 24:09 8th / 101 M30-34
Transition: Pretty clean, but they can always be faster.
Bike: Settle into a quick rhythm after screwing around with my shoes. The Velcro band was causing issues and I had to pull over. My plan was to sit at 188 watts for the first 30' of the ride which pencils out to 76% of FTP.
After reviewing my power file, The first 30 mins Normalized Power was 187, right on target.
The remainder of the ride was targeted at 198 watts or 80% of FTP. This part of the ride was mentally challenging as big packs of riders would overtake me, forcing me to sit up to avoid penalty. This was the key lesson learned, when your race power file is littered with spots of zero power, you're throwing time away. I needed to make the mental adjustment and move the target watts up to compensate for sitting up. I was 10 watts short for the remainder of the ride with 2hrs at 188 watts normalized. Additionally, I had written my target % of threshold estimating the course ride at 2:38. However, I finished in 2:33:29. Given the faster time on course I was able to ride harder. Again, Lesson learned. I estimate I could have ridden 82% of FTP. As illustrated by VI (NP / AP) I did ride steady only losing 3% of my power.
Bike: 2:33:29 43/ 101 M30-34
Entire workout (181 watts):
Duration: 2:33:36
Work: 1672 kJ
TSS: 147.6 (intensity factor 0.759)
Norm Power: 188
VI: 1.03
Transition: 1:45 - Had to fiddle with the Garmin as I had accidentally left it running and need to clear 3hrs of running blank data. Dumb mistake.
Run: The plan was to run 8:15's through Mile 3 of the run which represented a very easy pace to build into my targeted pace of 7:45 and then kill it during the last 5K. Actual:
Mile 1: 8:35
Mile 2: 7:52
Mile 3: 7:32
The pacing error caused me to move into target pace too quickly creating a false sense of panic. My breathing was labored so I shifted back to target pace + X. Miles' 4 through 8 I was running between 8:05's and 8:30 to regain that safe feeling. Had I known my bike data was conservative I wouldn't have let this happen. After Mile 8, I knew I wouldn't blow up and it was time to get back to work.
Mile 9: 7:45
Mile 10: 7:52
Mile 11: 7:46
Mile 12: 8:00
Mile 13: 7:46
Run: 1:45:39 48 / 101
Final Time: 4:47:12 37 / 101 M30-34
A small shift from previous races as my relative bike results are generally below my running results. Despite my conservative race I still Pr'd the course by 27 mins. Later in the week, I would go race a local 5K and set a 1 min PR. I had the legs for a much faster 1/2 but was just Conservative. I learned some lessons and have data for future races.
Next Steps: Continue punching the clock and getting ready for Ironman Wisconsin Sept 13th.
