September 14, 2013

Ironman 70.3 Zell Am See 2013 - The wet one

Ellen and I registered for the Ironman 70.3 Austria in Zell am See a very long time ago. But like all races, it seemed to creep in on us very quickly at the end of a summer of hard training. We arrived in Zell am See on Thursday. Although it’s very easy access from Salszburg airport with about 1h15 of very easy driving and only one road change, there may have been direct flights to Munich which could have saved an airport transfer. But even with a stopover in Frankfurt, it was a non-stress travel and we had two fantastic days before the race.

Zell am See is a gorgeous place. It looks like there are hundreds of Km of ski slopes and XC ski tracks around for winter, and loads of roads and MTB tracks for summer, along with the beautiful lake and an absolutely gorgeous, lush, green nature surrounding it. Although we stayed only a few days, we’re keen to come back for more!

During these couple of days we managed to get in a check of the swim course in water that didn’t feel as warm as they were saying it was, a few short laps around the lake on the bike, plus one full lap of the bike course. That one is flat. Yes, flat! (Ok, some will say undulating… for me it was flat) We’re in the middle of the mountains with numerous 3000m peaks around us, and the race course is flat! The course was changed from last year to avoid a cobblestone section that was probably dangerous in the wet, and it also got lengthened on the far south-west end. As this was not changed on the map, we missed the false-flat going down to and back up from the turnaround point during our recce. That’s something to keep in mind if you’re racing it next year! On the other hand, the road surface was fantastic on pretty much all the route, and even the “bad” bits were better than most our roads in the UK and it was definitely going to be a fast ride.

On Saturday, we completely missed the “compulsory” race briefing while getting in another little bike/run/swim, so we didn’t really know how the run course would pan out. But that wasn’t a real problem since the aid stations were well indicated on the race pack. I just didn’t know which way around the run would go, but there weren’t many options anyway and for sure there would be some snappy little climbs in town…

Racking and security was impressive, and for the first time I’ve had both an electronic wristband and bike number, and a photo taken with the bike! The only thing I didn’t really like in transition was the T2 bags being all grouped together, and generally were a big pile up of bags without clear stickers on hooks/railings to get there quick.

Electronic wristband

Check-in

As it was going to be wet overnight, and we got given a yellow sponsored cover so our babies would be somewhat dry for the race… (ahem!)

All tucked in!

In the evening, after a normal dinner and even a small beer (!!) we went through our usual race routine, laying kit out and rehearsing transitions. I’ve also taken my usual time to do a bit of visualising. I wanted to have good transitions this time, or at least try! Nicely enough, too, there would be no need to set the alarm for a wake up at crazy-o'clock, since the start was scheduled for 10am!!

On Sunday after a good night sleep we therefore had time to have a nice breakfast, take our time and walk to transition a km or so away, with ample time before the start. Some seem to be only arriving 1h before the start… No idea how they made it in, but they must have been pretty stressed out!

The start of the swim was not a small funnel where everyone piles into. Well, not to get to the water at least. Because the queue to get to the start area was gigantic, and no one seemed to understand which coloured hat was supposed to go when. That was probably because of plenty of overstressed people, but it was very clearly indicated and announced on the speakers. Anyway, the actual swim start is a “deep” water start (you can still touch the bottom at the start), in waves, and along the walls of a local swim centre. We must have been at most 4 or 5 deep, and on a very wide line, so that was a nice change from the Lanzarote start!

This time, I started the swim right at the front and on the right hand side. I needed to put myself in there if I wanted to home-in on a PB, and a swim I’d be happy of. That way I thought I’d be well positioned to get to the first buoy in more or less clear water, if people behind me would not swim me over, of course! But they didn’t, and with the exception of one feet-tapping idiot (who knew he was annoying me pretty quickly after I put my feet in his face) I had a very uneventful swim all the way around. I was probably a little bit further from the buoys than I wanted, but I played it a little on the safe side judging the melee of swimmers that was battling it out on my left. I think I got pushed to the side by a strong current in the last 300m or so, as I can’t remember swimming the wrong way at all (I’m getting better at this! yay!), but still having to keep making adjustments towards the exit. That exit isn’t an easy one to sight for, though. From as far as the second buoy, it was very hard to distinguish the little “return” buoys, and I would have liked to see a much bigger buoy or inflatable arch for the swim finish. Even the buildings behind weren’t easy to spot in the grey clouded skies. So overall I am not *too* displeased with the time (32'26" is a race swim PB for me after all) but I really hoped that I’d gotten closer to 30min given the conditions and the progress I’ve made this year in the pool. That’s for another time it seems!

T1 was yet another disaster time-wise. I had planned it well, but a combination of a long walk around and trying to put on my arm warms on wet skin didn’t help. I need to find another solution for wet days! I seem to have read that Steven Lord talks about some base layer under his wet suit from his Ironman Wales Analysis, I need to get some tips!! I then got stuck in a traffic jam of bikes exiting T1, further reducing my speed through it. I can always run fast with my bike, so that was a bummer. The transition area itself wasn’t badly laid out, but the exit/return funnel was a twisty 2 bikes wide lane with no room to overtake or do anything fast. So it was a bit of a patience game and I had to go with it.

The bike started ok, it was drizzling, but not too much, and after wading through the initial residential streets, some slow-to-start athletes, and finally managing to get my feet into my shoes, I could initially put the power down quite well and was happy for a little bit of time. That was until the heavens opened and it started pouring and pouring and pouring. I don’t think I’ve ever been so wet other than swimming or taking a shower! I’ve definitely never been that wet on a bike! As I got colder and colder, I slowly lost power and couldn’t push as hard as I should have been. I tried to take on gels and bars, but that didn’t work too well. Shivering and having to hang on to the bike on very, very wet roads definitely played a big role in *not* reaching the numbers there. Even in the heavy rain, the first lap seemed at the time to have gone ok. That’s possibly because of some adrenaline and some “targets” to catch. The second one, however, was hard going. Even if it was a little bit drier as the rain eased a bit (if you consider that dry). I strangely found myself alone with almost no one visible either in front or behind me for most of the last 40Km. That made it a well hard solo TT effort all the way to the line. I believe plenty of riders on the day didn’t have the nuts to push on the wet roads or were simply too cold to do so. I’m confident in the rubber on my wheels and my handling skills, but it was indeed borderline at times. Not so much because of the roads condition, but mostly because of riders coming the other way or swerving across the road to find dry patches and avoid the unknown of puddles. Pothole underneath or not? No need to end up with a mechanical! There was one thing that was absolutely fantastic though, something I really miss from short course racing: closed roads. That race was 90Km in two loops of completely traffic free roads! Pouring rain, but only other riders to contend with. Great stuff!! I passed Ellen just before I finished the bike leg, and that gave me a massive boost. Seeing her doing what she’s be trying to train for all this time was great! If you want to know someone with some serious determination, get to know her, and be prepared to be blown to bits when you know how she has to prepare and how much she trains! I was also relieved to arrive to T2, and not displeased with my bike time given the conditions. But with the training I’ve done, I should have been able to push a lot more on the bike! Looking at the data, I managed to get my target average power of 220W average ONLY on the very first 20min of the race. It went down from there to just under 200W at the end. Can do better! Still, 2h21'33"! Bike PB absolutely blown to bits, and under the rain!

T2 itself was *almost* uneventful. But in a stroke of bad luck, the BOA system on my left shoe got stuck and I couldn’t remove my foot from it before dismounting. This slowed me down a lot for the last 2Km of the bike as I tried to take my foot out unsuccessfully, and was further compounded by not dismounting the usual flying way, running on cleats all the way to the changing tent, and having to battle that pesky cable in the T2 tent. All valuable time gone!! I discovered since that this cable system has a quick release that I have never used and didn’t know it existed. What a muppet! (that’s like “anything” for newbies lessons: know your stuff!)

After this, it stopped raining (I think!), so the run was relatively warm and humid, but not too wet. This time I tried to go out hard and keep that hard pace for as long as I could, taking on coke at every other aid station. The run course was a nice mix of gravel path and tarmac + some flat cobbles in town. Twisty too with quite a few switchbacks and some nasty little inclines in Zell Am See’s town centre, which were killing my legs every lap. But things were going all right and I was only battling my own usual demons telling me to stop and take a rest. No, not this time! I walked at 70.3 Lanza last year, I walked at the Swashbuckler, I walked at Lanza IM (although this was planned), so this time, I would dig as deep as I could and push myself! I managed to hang on to some heels that were going at a pace I was happy with for pretty much all the way too. Drawing energy from others certainly helped! I had also decided not to use my fuel belt to run more freely and it worked running-form wise. But it meant I carried my gels in my hands, and I lost one early on. I had to hang-on to the second one until late but I think I left it too late as my legs became jelly with about 3Km to go and I started to wobble across the track. That was probably because of that poor bike nutrition (again, when will I learn!?), but fortunately it happened right before an aid station, on the last lap at the start of the home stretch. Incidentally, it happened also right after I gave Kate Driskell, Freespeed athlete a shout. Give a shout and bonk is probably not the best thing to do! I gulped two cups of coke, my gel and some fruits, then resumed hard to get to the line and it was ok. Thinking about it now, I did indeed dig a lot deeper than ever before, but would I have been able to resume so quickly if it was a real bonk? I’m not too sure, and that’s something I still need to make progress on. With around 500m to go, I sighted one last “3 arm-bands” runner ahead of me and I went for it. I had no idea about his number, his age group or how he was running at the time, but he was the perfect target to finish hard. I passed him with about 150m to go, which possibly helped me get under the 4h40 bar.

Sprinting for no reason but hurting for sure

For the first time, and I’m sorry for it, I didn’t see the cheers, and didn’t high five anyone. I was in a “you won’t get my slot” mode and raced to the line as if he was hunting me down in the finish chute. He wasn’t so that was not necessary, and completely useless slots-wise as we were far down the numbers, but I didn’t know that. I knew the time wasn’t bad, and a scalp is a scalp! Also, that’s great practice would the situation arise for real at the top end of a race some day! I can still find something at the end!

I don’t think I’ve push myself that hard before on the run, so except for the nutrition mishap which started on the bike, I’m happy with it as I managed to get in that dark place and almost get through it. And yet again, in this race that threw so much at everyone on the day, I managed a race best for a half marathon. I haven’t run that fast over this distance other than in a straight run race, and this one wasn’t all flat either.

I’m not going to lie, it was a hard day out there, but for once I’m happy with my performance. I’m starting to get into this zone of knowing how hard I can go. I’m definitely not there yet, but racing makes perfect to get to know where the “hard” zone is. Don’t ask me why, but I secretly hoped for top 25. That’s idiotic since with last year’s results, that would have required to finish in no more than 4h30m! But with a massive PB of more than 15min (previous was 4h55 in California, in the rain too), on a dirty fast course that wasn’t really suited for me, I can only be pleased! With that time last year I’d have been… 57th!!

But looking at my transitions times, which altogether for me nearly account for 14min of my race, I think they’re absolute rubbish. Not that I have a cup of coffee and a natter, but this time in T1 putting on arm warmers and socks was in a way necessary given the weather and my lack of fat (!), but I need to practice and find other solutions. In T2, my shoes got jammed. How is that possible? I’m your worst nightmare for taking care of any kit, and it’s MY shoes that get jammed… I can only slap my own wrist though: I didn’t even know I could quickly release the cable on these shoes. Anyway, needless to say that I have a lot of work to do on transitions! With 5 to 7min less spent in the tents (which would give me around the same cumulative transition time as many of the guys ahead of me), I’d have possibly grabbed P12. Only with faster transitions!!

After the race, I refuelled aplenty chatting to other guys around who were still pretty cold and all wrapped in thermal foil, and the nice soup and plenty of local pizzas helped getting back on our feet. After a nice warm shower (I’m glad I wasn’t too far down the ranking, showers weren’t too full of crap yet!) I headed out on the run course to see were Ellen was, and it was great to push her around. She was visibly hurting, and I’m guessing that’s a lot because of the weather, but she was still going well and it was fantastic to see her cross the line after last year’s disappointment in Lanzarote.

Ellen crosses the line

The shoes cables are now replaced, I got myself some new shoes too (without any complex system to break!), and I’m ready for the next one. Bring on Lanzarote 70.3 (again)!