THE AFTERMATH: 70.3 Boulder
The #sterdy was alive and well in this race.
Picture this: I emerge from the swim in a daze, beat up by the thin air…to find most of the pro bikes are gone. For a brief moment, I consider dropping from the race. The lack of acclimatization and high elevation seem like an uphill battle. Spoiler: I didn’t quit. Here’s what happened:
Plan vs. Reality
Planned time: ~4:02 | actual time: 4:06:42.
I ended up getting 29th out of ~53 on the start list.
25:30 swim | 27:34 - The swim was not my best; As soon as I started, I had a technique breakdown which made it tough to do what I have been doing in practice. Back to the drawing board pre-ironman CDA!
T1 2:08 one of the slower ones- I was dazed and struggling post-swim.
2:12 bike | 2:09:36 - This was the part of my race I’m most proud of. I didn’t have a good swim pack to ride with, so this ride was mostly solo. I pushed 320 watts out the gate to play catch up, but after 15 minutes quickly found myself feeling breathless and feeling really bad. Tripp Hipple flew by me like lightning, then my 320 dropped to 300, then 280, and finally settled at 270. A few more thoughts of quitting. What kept me going was that an hour in, I saw two riders ahead of me. I focused on bridging the gap. Just get on their wheel. Eventually, I passed one of them, Andy Kreuger. The mayhem of the two loop course kept me occupied, so I kept on riding.
Other notes: I rode the course well and was pretty strategic about my aero position and nutrition.
T2 2:02
1:19 run | 1:25:24 - To be honest, I felt like crap at the start of the run. But I saw another pro ahead of me and kept my eyes on his back, and spent about 3 miles following him before finally passing. I could hear foot steps behind me too, and looked back once or twice, but then told myself not to look back in this race. That athlete never passed me. My run kept chugging along in this manner - always on the verge of breathlessness, with a tiny fire pushing me to keep the gaps behind me.
It’s not the time I planned, but to be frank, it was the run time I’d back-up planned when discussing my “what if the elevation messes me up” scenario with Michelle. This was a balanced effort based entirely on how I could breathe while pushing harder.
I’m most proud of my bike time. The #sterdy was alive and well in this result. If I’m in the 4hr time on an off-day then I’m definitely on the right trajectory! This is about 20 something minutes faster than last year as an age-group racer. Trusting the process is certainly working.
How did my focus areas go?
I wrote out my “focus areas” in my pre-race post. Oh…they went:
Glide swim - I scrapped this in the first 30 seconds of the race😬 it was one of those things where I wasn’t able to focus on the stroke enough to do it mid-race. I started breathing on the wrong side of my body, and honestly it’s all a blur to me! Swimming is the quickest to go wrong at elevation.
Stay on Sam Long’s feet - I lost the pink cap in the “washing machine” and was limited in my takeout speed due to the hypoxic feeling.
Be less dazed coming into T1 - I was SUPER dazed! See: my transition time.
Listen to my body - I did well with this the whole race and had a balanced overall effort!
Learnings
I went into this race with some optimistic focus areas and goals, but also a healthy dose of realism towards my body and acclimatization.
I’ve got a lot to think about for my swim, but I also don’t want to overthink it. Swims aren’t made in a month or even a year.
I think this race proves again that I listen to my body well, and that I should keep doing so; There was potential for a bonk in the swim and in the run, but I cleanly avoided that and put a solid time on the board.
What’s next
Ironman CDA. Like I mentioned previously, I’m looking forward to tackling the full distance. I’m rooming with a few elite buddies and it’ll be exciting to beat them on race day.
Thank you to my sponsors, Zoot Sports, The Feed, and Firefly Recovery.
Stay sterdy - Ben