GoldCoast Half Ironman
The Skinny
Swim - 0:30:53
Bike - 2:41:34
Run - 1:36:16
Finish - 4:49:00 (includes time in transition)
The Fat
Half Ironman (1.9km swim / 90.1 km bike / 21.1 km run) is not my goal race distance, which is currently Olympic (1.5km / 40km / 10km), but sat well in the training calender for this time of year. A time when you 're doing quite a bit of volume, i.e. 6 hr rides on Saturday (approx. 190km) and 2hr runs on Sunday (approx. 28km) to build overall strength and conditioning. Around this time of year the weekly training hours are between 16 to 19 hrs with peak volume weeks at around 22 hours (the body can only handle these in short doses).
Anway, I did my first Half Ironman in December in Canberra last year and followed up this year with the Gold Coast Half Ironman last Sunday, 1st October 2006.
My swim has been my weakest and continues to be my weakest leg but I was over the moon when I checked my watch as I got out of the water in 29 mins. I said I would be happy with a swim around the 30 min mark but was delighted to go sub 30 min.
Otherwise, the swim was uneventful (i.e. no kicks to the face) and I managed to make my way round the buoys pretty easily minus one navigational error, where I almost missed the buoy just before the swim exit (probably only cost 10-20 secs. no big deal!).
Unzip the wetty down to the waist into Transition 1 and once back to the bike rack, rip the sucker down to the ankles and slide it off with your feet and put your sunnies/helmet on at the same time (who says triathletes are uncoordinated?). Next, put on your race no. belt and on with socks (don't normally wear these for Olympic distance) and race out with shoes already clipped into the pedals and jump on at the 'Mount Line'.
Felt like cr#p for the first 10kms until the blood eventually got back into the legs and then focussed on getting into a good rhythm and settling the heart rate into a zone I know I can hold, with enough in reserve to bring it home a little stronger (or at least even split).
Triathlons' are non-drafting, i.e. you have to sit at least 7 metres behind the bike in front, otherwise you are considered 'drafting' and given a time penalty. Same goes for sitting next to another rider without passing, which is 'blocking' (blocking faster riders trying to pass). I was fortunate to get into a group (legally) of similar ability and ride with these guys for the first lap.
Continued on and all was going well... until about the 70km mark of the bike. I climbed a small rise out of the saddle (i.e. standing) and suddenly got cramps in both my lower quads, just above the knee. The 'bunch' I was riding with suddenly started to pull away from me and my heart rate dropped quite a bit. All of a sudden I lost a heap of power. Couldn't figure it out so continued on into a pretty serious coastal head wind (predominantly along flat roads through cane fields), which had picked up as the day went on.
Cramps are pretty normal (some people are more prone than others) but normally these occur at about the 18km mark of the run when the body is starting to badly fatigue. Not at the 70km mark of the bike!
A few more rises / undulations and bit more standing to stretch the back out and the same thing happened - more cramping and they weren't going away. This is not a good sign when you've been keeping up the fluids (water / electrolyte) and carbohydrate gels and can't nail down why the f#k this is happening for no apparent reason...and still 21km to run off the bike. Both my speed and cadence dropped and was feeling rather ordinary on the last 20km, so would have lost time for sure.
Came into Transition 2, racked the bike, helmet off / hat on, shoes on and off we go! Straight away the legs were heavy and leg turn-over slow. 300 metres into the run and straight up a short but steep 150 metre climb, grabbed some water and kept going with the cramps getting far, far worse.
At 1.5km into the run I had to stop to stretch (!) and had to stop twice more (ended up stationary stretching for 7mins). Went to stretch the right quad...and my hammy seized up (insert expletive!). Had to try stretch the hammy first then do the quad second (the same happened with both legs). As the race went on (approx. 14km mark) my calves started to cramp severely too. All rather sh#t, really.
All in all, it ended up being a shuffle (Clif would have been proud) of mega-pain for 21km (!) in Queensland heat, with no shade on the run course at all. Race was over, all I could do was try to survive and finish.
Amazingly, I ended up running a 1:36 half marathon (approx. 4:30 pace), which would place me in the top 18% of run splits for the day (out of approx. 900 competitors).
Thought about the cramps afterwards and realised my BSL was high before the swim start (14.2). Normally I test 5+ times before a race to get an idea of how levels are travelling (up, down, staying put?) In the excitement I forgot, only testing once and got the above reading!
It's 15 minutes before race start, you're about to jump in the water and swim hard for half an hour, what do you do? I decided to have 3 units of insulin and no food / drink before the start. I think this was the right decision, as I'd been loading for the 3 days prior and hence my glucose stores would have been at maximum. I'd also had to up my insulin doses accordingly.
I used carbohydrate gels on the bike and wonder (in hindsight) if I had too much given my high BSL levels (assuming I had high levels), although I don't have my blood tester with me on the bike and I have to go by feel and try using my heart rate. Knowing your BSL's before a race also helps! I think that was my no. 1 mistake.
Frustrating - I got Canberra (my first Half Ironman too) right to a tea last year - did everything right and crossed the line with a reading of 6.4. Beautiful!
I tested about 20 mins after crossing the finish line on Sunday and my reading was 17.8!!!!
My thoughts/ guesses? I think my BSL's were too high and my body was needing more water than I could give it out on the bike, hence causing dehydration and perhaps the onset of bl##dy massive cramps because of dehydration. First time it's happened and I think from the way I was feeling it may be a safe bet. It kinda also correlates with the loss of power I got on the bike - lack of insulin to distribute sugars to working muscles?
It's hard enough dealing with the varaibles of racing let alone the variables with Diabetes in such an event (and in the lead-up too).
Frustrating and painful but there are some positives to take away I think, from both a diabetes perspective and with regards to improvements in my fitness. In addition, my time was also quick enough to qualify me for Ironman Australia, though I declined the spot. I would prefer to have more kms in the body before I step up to that length.
Keith