IRONMAN Barcelona 70.3 - 1.9km Swim, 90km Bike, 21.1km Run (1/2 IRONMAN)
Here goes, 20 weeks of focused training, lifestyle changes and some sacrifices bring me to the start line of IRONMAN Barcelona 70.3 my first middle distance race.
I'm not sure it means anything in the triathlon world but I will have now completed the "full house" one of every distance.
On arriving in Calella with my bike, all my race kit and the support fan club I could finally start to relax. After the complications before IRONMAN Wales (Bike accident & injuries) & the pre flight stress of getting my TT bike up and running I could now say for the first time the only thing stopping me from achieving my goal would be my physical and mental fitness on the day of the race.
Tapering had gone well and using the TSS (Stress) score from training peaks as a guide I could see that I had significantly reduced my training stress over the past 10 days which according to the numbers demonstrated that my form was increasing each day and by race day was well into a positive number. As mentioned before, this number have been great as a guide to help me manage my training load over the last 20 weeks. Although there is a lot out there from training peaks and other providers of such numbers.... maybe I will write up a short post on how they have been useful to me?
Bike racked and ready!!!
Quick spin to make sure the bikes survived the flight. Aero helmets make you look like a tool!!!
Race day started as ever with an alarm @ 0415 the plan was to get some porridge and caffeine in me to kick off the day. Not to go into too much detail but I find an early breakfast with some caffeine gets things moving which prevents race day situations which we don't want to discuss.
One of the funniest moments of the holiday was having Mike burst into my room stating "i'm ready" only for me to point out he had his Tri suit on the wrong way around.... admittedly this was probably only funny if you were there.
Breakfast done, all that really remained was a short walk to transition. This is where for the first time things started to feel very real. As we walked along the beach front with the sun rising the mind started to shift to a place I hadn't been before, one of expectation in terms of time/performance.
The swim was a rolling start, similar to Wales although this swim had pens for predicted finish times. My aim was to get in the 30 minute pen... as ever Mike convinced me to move up a pen and start in the 27:30 pen....
Post transition setup and pre swim pose
Swim
On reflection the swim is one of mixed feelings. During the race I felt link I was swimming at my race pace effort but it didn't feel like I was moving through the water.
The first 500m was frantic, I decreased my effort and concentrated on extending for the 2nd 500m as I felt I was swimming too hard, and then when I made the turn @ about the 1100m mark I ramped up the effort gradually to finish strongly. I very much expected to look down at my watch and see a swim time of around 32/33 mins, I was pleasantly surprised to see 30 something.
On entering T1 I forgot all about the swim and focussed on the job at hand. It felt very odd to only have to deal with putting my bike shoes, helmet and glasses on. No socks, no changing into cycle gear, no 3 course dinner. I short sharp transition and out on the bike.
I found my bike straight away, something I have never struggled with although I have spent many a sleepless night thinking I wouldn't be able to find it or grabbing another athletes bike by mistake.
Get this wetsuit off me!!!
Bike
Upon arriving at my bike I switched on my Garmin, my HR monitor connected up and as I was heading to the mount line my HR was @ 163.... at this point I knew I needed to calm down and control myself. Fortunately the first 3km of the bike heads through the town of Calella and no riders were allowed to be on their aerobars. This gave me the chance to catch my breathe, take on some fluid and prepare myself to ride with control.
The bike course had 3 hills, the first at about 10km, second at 32km and third at about 65km. It was when I started to approach the 1st hill I really started gaining on people. At no point was my aim to race people or pick people off, but I did want to ride the hills well and use them as opportunities to make up time.
Near the top of the 1st hill I caught Mike, he had as usual smashed the swim in around 27 minutes. Unlike Wales where we had a bit of a catch up and cycled together I pressed on after shouting a few words on encouragement.
After reaching the top of the 1st hill I hadn't expelled as much energy as I had budgeted for, this felt great and at the time I was convinced I was riding in a controlled manner.
As I had just gone up the course was then downhill/flat for the next 10-15km, time to get in the aero position and watch the HR. After over taking plenty people on the hill, some of the bigger athletes then came past me, clearly able to hold high power numbers, just not as good when there is an incline.
I was now well into the bike, I had been taking a sip of my drink every 9 mins and eating small chunks of some energy bars I had chopped up. I was prepping myself for the "big climb".
As the big climb approached I once again I started to catch large groups of riders all grinding up the hill. I selected a small gear, kept the cadence high (around 90) and focussed on breathing. This hill was great, I went past at least loads of people..... all seemed to be breathing a lot heavier then me....
Reaching the top of a climb
Upon reaching the top there was a 3-4km decent which was very technical, I took this very easy. I have grown to love my TT bike and learnt to climb on it just as well as my road bike. However, one thing I dislike about this bike is it's inability to STOP. I can slow down.... but as for slowing down with control it was pants.
Once I got this technical section out the way the road opened up for about 15km, once again a handful of people came by me on the flats but I didn't chase them down or worry about that.
This 15km was fun though, I remember my Garmin flashing up every 5km, the 1st section 48kph, 2nd section 43kph and 3rd 39kph. With my efforts on the climbs and keeping a good average speed on the flats I knew with about 20km to go that I was well on track to achieve a sub 3hr bike.
Thumbs up
The 3rd and final hill was sparsely populated, this was to be expected as I had ridden up through the field. I by no means was right at the pointy end but I knew I had done well.
On the last stretch I flicked my Garmin screen to one which had duration, I could see that I was on for a ride of 2hrs 40 something I was over the moon.
Smiles all round as I entered Calella
Once back in Calella the last 3km aerobars were banned, I used this as an opportunity to pedal soft, finish off all the fluid I had on my bike and start to prepare myself for the run.
The lead into the dismount was a long 200m stretch, out of no where I decided it would be good idea to do a flying dismount and leave my shoes on the bike.... not once have I ever practised this....
Surprisingly, though it went really well, I slipped my feet out, jumped off before the dismount line and ran with a massive smile on my face into T2.
I racked my bike and headed off for a quick wee before picking up my run bag. I saw on my Garmin a bike split of around 2hrs 43mins. BUZZING!!!
Run
So after a quick pit stop for a wee, I slipped on my trainers and grabbed my small hand held bottle which has 3 gels mixed with water and my Lionel Saunders style headband, something which I haven't managed to quite look as good as Lionel in yet.
I headed out of the tent and set off, I couldn't believe how good my legs felt for the first 500m. I had been chewing Mike's ear off for the past couple of days about how excited I was about getting to the run section and after seeing some of splits in training I thought anything was really possible time wise.
There was a chap in front of me running about the same pace for the first 1km as he slowly pulled away I checked my HR it was at about 165!! I thought SLOW DOWN. It was at this point I was over taken by a bicycle and the chap in front was the 3rd place PRO Male!!! Defiantly SLOW DOWN I told myself. However, I felt great. So I committed to backing off gradually rather then suddenly.
This is me flying at about the 2km mark...
At about the 2km I saw my family for the first time. There weren't anywhere near where I asked them to stand.... perhaps at the next race I will do a bit of walk of the course with them to provide clear instructions...although their support and cheering was great!!
The run course is essentially 2 laps after you complete the first 2km. The first 5km mark flew by and I was really cooking on gas.... I even got carried away and starting dreaming of a 1:25 run split.... I'm an idiot.
First lap and still feeling good at this point
It was at about the 7km mark my watch vibrated and I clocked a km which was significantly slower then the rest.... I remember thinking that's weird, I haven't intentionally backed off or feel like I have spent less effort.... I did then tell myself to concentrate and ever so slightly increase my leg speed to get back to desired race pace. The next km came in @ bang on 4:16min/km which was perfect. I thought panic over, 1/3 of the run done still ahead of schedule, keep hydrating and keeping yourself cool.
It was at km 8 or 9 another slow km came in.... again I thought this was odd, but I knew I was beginning to fatigue and the heat was really picking up. I told myself to battle through to the 10km mark, something I have found in training is once I get a run into double figures distance wise I gain a big of motivation.
At about the 11-12km mark I passed the junction to the finish line that next time I got to I could go down the finish chute. This is always a good feeling in a race which has laps.
Unfortunately, as I set off for the last 9km I knew it was going to be hard and any aspiration of running a 1:30 run split needed to be parked for another day. I had over cooked the first half of the run and with the temperature rising I needed to manage my effort so I didn't embarrass myself by DNFing with exhaustion.
When I hit 13km I took a specific gel which had some extra ingredients in it, (it was in Spanish...) I was told this would get through the last 8km. I have say I didn't feel the effects.
At this point I knew there were 3 aide stations left. A wise man once said to me, walk aide stations take on board all you can and then get on the move. I committed to walking the aide stations.
After reaching the first of the last 3 this short 10/15 second walk felt AMAZING!! I decided that a few more of these short breaks were essential to ensuring I don't blow up.
With about 4-5km to go I changed my watch screen from HR to time of day. I knew I had set off around 7:06 in the morning, which meant I need to be done by 12:06. At this point my watch had 11:35 displayed and I knew I had 25-30 mins to complete the last 4-5km. This was more then achievable and meant I could run/walk my way in and ensure I dipped under 5hrs.
As soul destroying as it was to walk for 10secs every couple of minutes and have people over take me (even if most were probably on their first lap) it was completely essential.
As I approached the last 500m I had about 3 mins to spare, as ever you pick up the pace and try and finish strong. I picked off a few people to gain some confidence and made my way down the finish chute.
The pain is real!!
The finish line was very underwhelming.... I have been slightly spoilt by completing IRONMAN Wales where the finish line was packed with 100's of people. But it's not until you complete another event and you look back on reflection and realise just how special Wales is.
Crossing the finish line
Overall
So I set out to go sub 5hrs and I managed it. I gave everything I had on the day which was a sub goal and I did. So this race will always be remembered as a success.
The race plan I had put together I feel like I executed well. On reflection it was this race plan that was my undoing on the run, but lessons have been learnt.
Mike and I went to the awards ceremony for the free beer and the chance to meet some PRO's. Rather unexpectedly I was called on stage to collect the 3rd place trophy for Clapham Chasers in the club championship. Me being the only Clapham athlete there. Big shock but one which has fuelled the fire beyond belief.
Collecting the trophy
Finally a cold beer by the pool
One very proud Mother :)
My trade mark medal pose
I have a coach!!
So before I wrap up this rather lengthy boring tale of my time in Barcelona. I thought it was worth announcing to the 3 of you who read this (Sister, Mother and Smithy??) that I have teamed up with a coach.
Over the past month I have put a lot of thought into if I should make the leap or not, I have also spent considerable amount of time researching individuals I thought I could be coached by.
My rough intension was always to get a coach for next year if all went to plan this year. However, with my relative success and progression so far I thought now was the time to bring in a professional.
I knew I was doing a lot of the right type of training, I knew I was managing my training load in phases in terms of load/intensity and fatigue. But I knew if I really wanted to reach some pretty big goals I needed someone in my corner who could guide me and equip me with more tools and techniques.
Post Barcelona we met for a coffee... and we had a brutally honest chat about the race. In short I was praised for achieving my goal but also given the tough love with how I had achieved that. In essence I had pushed too hard on the bike, which ultimately lead to my downfall on the run. I was filled with some confidence though as we agreed in my current state of fitness I could have gone up to 10 mins faster.
Anyways, line drawn in the sand. Lessons learnt. Time to plan for the next event.
I have always wanted to do another full IRONMAN in 2018, it was just a case of which one. Originally, I was hoping to join Dom on the start line of IRONMAN UK in Bolton in July. However, in terms of what I would want to achieve I would need more time to prepare.
We briefly discussed Vichy in France which was at the back end of August. It was at this point where I thought if i'm going to train and commit for another 12+ block I want to go back to Tenby in early September target what I think i'm capable of doing on the coast of Wales.
So within 60mins I had gone from Bolton to France to Wales.
On top of IRONMAN Wales I have decided to give the middle distance race at Hever Castle a crack on the 8th of July. This works out perfectly in terms of focussing on Wales but gives me a good opportunity for a hit out in what will no doubt be a strong field as this is now the GB qualifier for this distance.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Get in touch via Instagram if you have any questions
Thanks
@Triathlon_Ross