Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire - a day in the furnace
10:37am, 20th Jul 2021 | 18 Comments
Blog by TROSaracen
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Preamble:
This race was deferred from June 2020, and then JUne 2021 and is my Kona Ironman World Championships validation race (more on Kona later). The new date fell one week before the full Iron distance Outlaw. I went into it with a 3 day mini taper and no expectations other than to race well and hope for something around 5 hours and to test heat management strategies given the weather forecast and take any learning into the final training block.
Split transition was a bit of a faff, but managed to complete everything on the Saturday and recce'd the bike course as the route back to Stafford. It was good to be back racing and feeling the buzz/nerves - and especially good not to worry about rain, cold, wind as per normal British summer racing.
Swim - 34:09, 16th AG, 181 o/a.
Swim was solid - at my best I'm around 31:30 half iron/1:04 full iron so probably a couple of minutes off that. I had a goggle issue early and had to stop and reset them and of course with Covid restrictions the athletes were starting at a trickle (even compared to 'normal' IM rolling starts) so there was no pack drafting which would have both cost time, as well as the lack of swim fitness due to missing training while pools were shut. Overall it was drama free and I was happy with the time.
T1: 5:37
Pretty slick by my standards.
Bike: 2:36:44 - up to 8th AG, 86th o/a
I had around 2:40 in mind for the bike but the course was a bit quicker. I enjoyed the bike, plenty of variety and nutrition plans worked and I had just enough fluid on board to miss all the aid stations. I was just a little off power wise, probably about 10w - suspect that's the shortened taper and the 2 100 TT's in last 2 weeks, although one only lasted 74 miles. I didn't chase but accepted the lower power, long experience of IM racing has taught me that your power is your power and chasing a target does not bring an overall faster race time.
That said, I was moving well and chewing through the field, with only a few faster riders flying by. The main climb was a bit of a shock as on the recce I decided not to do the mini loop at the top but turn when the two way ended - but I'd turned much too early so had a lot more climbing than I thought. The descent was fun, and at the bottom it's a shortish run into town.
Really enjoyed the fact that the spaced out swim start created a really sparsely populated bike course, and there was no crowding and no drafting - either deliberate or due to the volume of bikes. Excellent - if only all IM races were like this.
T2: 3:07
Another decent one.
Run: 1:38:07 - up to 6th AG, 61st overall
This was a good run. Legs felt good straight away and I was controlling the heat well, and had good energy. I felt as if I was fairly high up in the race and AG so it was time to go huntin' - there were definitely a couple of AG rivals racked near me who were out ahead, one had passed during the bike and the other had left T1 ahead and I;d not seen. Plan was something to drink and water over my head at every aid station.
I was hitting around 7:00-7:15 a mile early and the drag up to the castle was hard but I felt great and kept pace below 8 min miles. The last kick up to the castle stung, but I knew there a long recovery back into town. I had reeled both known AG rivals in over this first lap - I knew there'd be others ahead so it was a case of keep pushing.
The second lap was harder - temperature was climbing and I slowed up on the second drag/climb to the castle and couldn't quite pick the pace up as much as lap 1 coming back down. Back on the flat I was 7:20-7:25 miling - still decent. I hadn;t checked my overall time but guessed around 5 hours so I kept pushing, and was soon heading up the chute to finish.
Finish: 4:57:46
Overall I was pleased with the performance and to get sub 5 and nicely in the top 10 of the my AG with 6th. Brilliant to be back out there racing, laying it on the line and seeing where I'm at. As a 54 year old in M50-54 I'm at the older end of the AG - an AG where age really does start to bite. I noted that M55-59 my time would have seen a 2nd place finish so plenty to play for next year.
Good to see Adam after, who put down a really strong race and only a run blow up from an outstanding race. Mrs TRO struggled massively due to losing gears on the bike and then heat on the run but got over the line.
As agreed we discussed Kona on the drive back. It's been a dilemma for the last week or two as cases in the UK have risen sharply and cases in the US have started to rise as the delta variant takes hold over there. Talk of a US-UK 'travel corridor' from August have receded, and the US now has the UK on its 'red' list. This is unlikely to reverse in the near future - so best case is a 'will it/won;t it' cliffhanger for the next 2 months before going. The worst case is that travel means I can't turn up, after another 2 months training and even harder to get deferral and rebooking of flights etc.
So the deferral request has gone in. It's strictly a first world issue so no dramas. Now for the Outlaw next Sunday (rain forecast) and to find a race or two late August or September.
This race was deferred from June 2020, and then JUne 2021 and is my Kona Ironman World Championships validation race (more on Kona later). The new date fell one week before the full Iron distance Outlaw. I went into it with a 3 day mini taper and no expectations other than to race well and hope for something around 5 hours and to test heat management strategies given the weather forecast and take any learning into the final training block.
Split transition was a bit of a faff, but managed to complete everything on the Saturday and recce'd the bike course as the route back to Stafford. It was good to be back racing and feeling the buzz/nerves - and especially good not to worry about rain, cold, wind as per normal British summer racing.
Swim - 34:09, 16th AG, 181 o/a.
Swim was solid - at my best I'm around 31:30 half iron/1:04 full iron so probably a couple of minutes off that. I had a goggle issue early and had to stop and reset them and of course with Covid restrictions the athletes were starting at a trickle (even compared to 'normal' IM rolling starts) so there was no pack drafting which would have both cost time, as well as the lack of swim fitness due to missing training while pools were shut. Overall it was drama free and I was happy with the time.
T1: 5:37
Pretty slick by my standards.
Bike: 2:36:44 - up to 8th AG, 86th o/a
I had around 2:40 in mind for the bike but the course was a bit quicker. I enjoyed the bike, plenty of variety and nutrition plans worked and I had just enough fluid on board to miss all the aid stations. I was just a little off power wise, probably about 10w - suspect that's the shortened taper and the 2 100 TT's in last 2 weeks, although one only lasted 74 miles. I didn't chase but accepted the lower power, long experience of IM racing has taught me that your power is your power and chasing a target does not bring an overall faster race time.
That said, I was moving well and chewing through the field, with only a few faster riders flying by. The main climb was a bit of a shock as on the recce I decided not to do the mini loop at the top but turn when the two way ended - but I'd turned much too early so had a lot more climbing than I thought. The descent was fun, and at the bottom it's a shortish run into town.
Really enjoyed the fact that the spaced out swim start created a really sparsely populated bike course, and there was no crowding and no drafting - either deliberate or due to the volume of bikes. Excellent - if only all IM races were like this.
T2: 3:07
Another decent one.
Run: 1:38:07 - up to 6th AG, 61st overall
This was a good run. Legs felt good straight away and I was controlling the heat well, and had good energy. I felt as if I was fairly high up in the race and AG so it was time to go huntin' - there were definitely a couple of AG rivals racked near me who were out ahead, one had passed during the bike and the other had left T1 ahead and I;d not seen. Plan was something to drink and water over my head at every aid station.
I was hitting around 7:00-7:15 a mile early and the drag up to the castle was hard but I felt great and kept pace below 8 min miles. The last kick up to the castle stung, but I knew there a long recovery back into town. I had reeled both known AG rivals in over this first lap - I knew there'd be others ahead so it was a case of keep pushing.
The second lap was harder - temperature was climbing and I slowed up on the second drag/climb to the castle and couldn't quite pick the pace up as much as lap 1 coming back down. Back on the flat I was 7:20-7:25 miling - still decent. I hadn;t checked my overall time but guessed around 5 hours so I kept pushing, and was soon heading up the chute to finish.
Finish: 4:57:46
Overall I was pleased with the performance and to get sub 5 and nicely in the top 10 of the my AG with 6th. Brilliant to be back out there racing, laying it on the line and seeing where I'm at. As a 54 year old in M50-54 I'm at the older end of the AG - an AG where age really does start to bite. I noted that M55-59 my time would have seen a 2nd place finish so plenty to play for next year.
Good to see Adam after, who put down a really strong race and only a run blow up from an outstanding race. Mrs TRO struggled massively due to losing gears on the bike and then heat on the run but got over the line.
As agreed we discussed Kona on the drive back. It's been a dilemma for the last week or two as cases in the UK have risen sharply and cases in the US have started to rise as the delta variant takes hold over there. Talk of a US-UK 'travel corridor' from August have receded, and the US now has the UK on its 'red' list. This is unlikely to reverse in the near future - so best case is a 'will it/won;t it' cliffhanger for the next 2 months before going. The worst case is that travel means I can't turn up, after another 2 months training and even harder to get deferral and rebooking of flights etc.
So the deferral request has gone in. It's strictly a first world issue so no dramas. Now for the Outlaw next Sunday (rain forecast) and to find a race or two late August or September.
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