70.3 Cozumel: Pre-race thoughts
Hey I'm on an island in the sun, getting ready to run!
I’m in Mexico, and 70.3 Cozumel is on Sunday. The lead up has been tropical and hot (85+ degrees at 8am). I’ve been itching to race since the cancellation of Ironman Canada. I’ve also realized that, going without a race for so long can make training a little bit monotonous. So, I’m excited to see what my body can do, and give my supporters something to be proud of!
So, here’s my plan:
Race plan
1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, and 13.1mi run. This race is hot. Mentally, I’m treating it like a full ironman in that I expect my body to melt, and for it to be a final battle of the wits. So, I feel totally comfortable writing in my run plan as open-ended
25:00 swim - the ocean swim is a little unpredictable due to currents. Last year it was done in ~20 minutes. The previous year - 30 minutes. One thing remains constant: the water is lukewarm in the way that makes you sleepy while swimming.
2:12 bike - the roads on the island are pancake flat, but there’ll be headwinds that slow everyone down. So, at times I’ll be riding high 20s, and other times…who knows.
Survive run - the sun will be beating down on everyone. If my body can handle it I’ll be happy with a 1:19 PR. If it all starts to melt, 1:25-1:30 would be great too.
Overall ~4:00-4:10, inclusive of transitions. EYEING TOP 10! Historically, this race is slower than most 70.3s so I’m lowering the time bar slightly to take that into account.
Race thoughts / focus areas
Not gonna overcomplicate this one. The winner of this race will be the person who can handle heat. I’m curious how I do, because in 70.3 Florida, I ended up eating a lot of athletes up on the run as they boiled in the heat. I hope to do the same this race, but also go aggressive in the bike so my performance doesn’t just depend on others failing.
Run FAST in the transitions. I know I’ve been mentioning transitions in every pre-race post. Honestly, I wasn’t doing the right drills to move the needle in this area, and simply wanting to do faster transitions wasn’t gonna make it a reality. Once I started doing (read: my partners started forcing me to do) drills in the park after training, I realized my run is so lacksadaisacle because it's hard to do anything full force when you’re dizzy from the swim. So…I just started doing timed drills preceded by spinning around in a circle 10x, and have gotten a little more used to that feeling. Gonna treat it like the sprint that it is!
Get in a good bike pack. Stick with it. This outcome requires a lot of quality inputs - I gotta stay in the middle pack in the swim. My transition has to be speedy, so I don’t lose the men who I enter T1 with. I need to push extra wattage for extra time, burning a few matches, to get into the right pack. My coach also mentioned that I might feel like I can’t keep up the pace with the men who I’m chasing after, and reassured me that most of them will be slowing down later too. So, to just try and stick with them.
Don’t overdo it out the gates on the run. Ah, the run is definitely where it can all fall apart. The sun will be beating down on me, my core will be tempted to overheat. The good news is - this’ll be happening to everyone around me. There’ll be zero ego in the front half of the run. It’ll be my normal pace + a ton of ice cubes down my suit. Hopefully at mile 9 when everyone else is melting I’ll have it in me to finish off strong.
I’m feeling fortunate to be traveling to a beautiful destination just to do my job. It’s also been a while since my partner has spectated a race, so I’m excited to hear her cheers on the course. She’s been dragging me to hole in the wall restaurants (though we’ve been trying to keep it conservative leading up to the race.)
Thank you to my sponsors, Zoot, The Feed, and Firefly Recovery!
Stay sterdy,
Ben