70.3 Gulf Coast: pre-race thoughts
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Race plan
PR everything.
25:30 Swim, steady and strong with a goal to find good feet. The time goal is ~25:30 at around 1:14 per 100 yard pace— this should be a comfortable pace without going too anaerobic.
< 2:14:59 Bike at around 285 watts normalized power. I weigh 145lbs (65.7kg) so this is about 4.3 w/kg. I plan to not look too much at watts, and just really race. I got a green light from coach to spike higher power for longer in order to bridge gaps and make any moves I need to. 285 watts is well in my training capabilities but the unknown for me is I haven’t historically “raced” and more paid attention to my own numbers - this definitely needs to change in the pro field.
~1:18 Run at just under 6:00 pace for around a 1:18 (5:57 pace) and “eat people up” haha. I have been doing around this pace for my quality runs and if I am feeling good it should be a solid one.
Overall < 4:05 My goal is to have a breakthrough 70.3 race, including transitions of course (my weak spot.)
Race thoughts
There’s a few areas from Oceanside 70.3 (my first pro race) I’d like to fix:
Swim aggressively, for longer, and stay on the right athlete. My coach thinks I should stay on Sam Long (he used to be his coach) since he’ll stay on course and be in the middle pack. At Oceanside I made the mistake of going all-out for only about 45 seconds, but then getting into a rhythm, following behind the wrong feet, when I should’ve pushed harder for longer before entering the rhythm.
Chopping my T1 in half: after having a 4 + minute T1 (3 minute T2 also….) at Oceanside I realized that wearing my Garmin during the swim was slowing down the entire wetsuit-removal flow. At Gulf Coast I won’t be wearing my Garmin until the run. Also, the cycling shoes I was using were finnicky for triathlon racing, mainly because they were dials instead of velcro (and also quite tight). I ran with my shoes in my hand and had to stop for a bit at the start of the bike to readjust my shoes. I’ve since invested in a pair of Lake triathlon shoes which are velcro and have a loop on the back & the tongue, for easy grabbing (My partner, Michelle, likes to jokingly say, “wanna get faster? buy buy buy!”).
Bike aggressively: I need to be willing to take risks. Oceanside was my first race, and I was afraid to pass certain cyclists, especially when I saw the refs and cameras nearby. The result: a bike that was steady, but incredibly lukewarm compared to my training. Hey, if I don’t try, I’ll never know. At Gulf Coast, I know what I’m capable of, and I’m hungry to push hard.
Unknowns
Florida humidity - San Diego, being a coastal town, is humid (~60%), especially where I’ve been training on Fiesta Island for my runs. But the Florida heat is a variable in the equation that my training hasn’t explicitly accounted for. The big unknown is how running hard will fare in humid Florida. However, I did race Puerto Rico last year which had similar conditions, and ended up faring pretty well. We’ll see.
Time zone difference - 5:40am Florida time. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a morning person.
Thanks for reading! See ya in Florida.
Stay sterdy - Ben
