Multisport National Championship 2022

How did it go, Curtis?

Things Kick-off in two days.  My event won't be until Saturday the 29th though.   

This Saturday I did a metric "race simulation".  Instead of running 6.2 miles / biking 25 miles / running 3.1 miles I did 6.2 km / 25 km / 3.1 km.  My goal pace for the run is 5:53 pace.  I hit the first run at 5:54.  I thought I might be able to do 5:45 pace for run 2 since it is shorter, but off the bike my legs were not as fresh as they are at the end of a triathlon.  Running for the first leg is a lot harder on your legs than swimming is.  So 5:45 pace was a no-go.  I did the run 2 at a 5:52 pace. 

I don't have a power meter so I can't dial into a precise effort on the bike like I can on the run.  I just have to watch the gearing and cadence and go by feel and breathing.  I went conservative the first half of the bike then pushed things coming back.  I felt like I paced it pretty well.  So...going into the race in 4-1/2 days I am set up the best that I can be. 

I wish I had more time after my Marathon 7 weeks ago to build bike fitness.  The plan was to train to the Marathon and then change the focus to cycling for the 8 weeks after the Marathon.  Well...I didn't take into account that it would be three weeks before I would be able to do a full workout after the Marathon nor how much training those three weeks of recovery would erase.   So...I missed a lot of the base build and endurance work and jumped right into the race-specific work and speed work.  The speed is there.  If endurance holds up I should have a good race.  I am ready for it.

My race went pretty well.  My pace plan was 5:53 Pace on the opening 10K, limit my HR to 142 BPM on the bike, and to have an even pace 5:53 pace for the closing 5K.

I started with the 41 guys in the M40-44 & M45-49 Age groups.  Everyone had race number, but none had their age or age group on their race bib or their four mandatory body markings so We didn't know who was in out AG and who was ahead.  There was a group of about 8-10 guys that went out at about 5:20 pace.  That was faster than my plan so I sloe day and let them go.  Splits were as follows:

• Mile 1:  5:52
• Mile 2:  :547
• Mile 3:  5:52
• Mile 4:  5:53
• Mile 5:  5:52
• Mile 6:  5:58 

I finished the 10K right on target at 5:53 pace feeling really fresh.  I don't have a power meter on the bike so I can't be as precise on the pacing there as I am with the run.  I go went by feel.  I was in the 4th wave start so there were lots of people in front of me to pace on the bike.  It was a two-lap course and I paced about 40 people on the first loop with one passing me.  I hit I huge bump a mile 18 km into the ride and everything on my bike went flying off.  I looked back to see my GPS watch on the road and thought about going back for it for a half-second by decided to just stop on the 2nd loop.  So no speed, no cadence, no time, no heart rate for the last 22 km.  I didn't really need them for the bike.  I promise I was totally ignoring the HR.  I have no idea if I was under 142 BPM at 18 km.  I was just doing it all by feel. I wanted the GPS for run #2 though.  I was bummed about losing my GPS watch for 2-3 km, then I put it behind me and got back into my racing mode.  I had been pushing pretty hard and thought that coming off the bike might be uncomfortable, but I usually run well off the bike so I just went slightly more conservative but basically was holding the same effort as the first loop.  I was passed by 4 people on the 2nd loop.  I recognized them all as guys from my starting wave.  At 38 km I slowed down at that big bump.  My watch was no longer there, but I saw a spare inner tube, water bottles, and a ton of other items that other people had lost from their bikes at that point.  Slowing down to look for my GPS watch I had another 4 people pass me.  They all seemed to be going pretty slow so I had no problem passing them.  I saw the guys from my AG who were going pretty fast, but I figured It would be easier to pass them on the bike than on the run so I speed by half of them getting into T2 right with 3 other guys from my starting wave.  One was biked right next to me and two were in a different spots.  I figured the guy next to me was in my AG and the other two were the other AG from our starting wave.  The guy from my age group beat me on Run 1, but the other two guys we people I had passed on the 2nd loop of the 10K opening run.  I had no idea what pace I was going out at.  My plan was to just stay even with the other three guys from the starting wave and hope that they all faded like the two guys had that I passed on loop #2 of the 10K.  My legs were not feeling fresh like they do at the end of a Triathlon.  They already had run 10K and were feeling dead-legged.  I saw the guys ahead of me slowly pull away and I thought there goes my podium.  I was hoping that my legs would transition in the first 1-2 K and that I would get a kick back for the last 1-2K to possibly pass them all before the shoot.  At 1K I had both hamstrings cramp up.  I stepped out of the running pash to shake out my legs.  As I did another guy from our starting wave that I had passed on look 2 of the 10K ran by and told me to work through it.   I lost 4-5 seconds waiting for the cramps to pass but then jumped back in.  I had to slow way down though to prevent future cramps.  So instead of doing a 5:53 pace closing 5K, it was a 6:14 pace.  The guys ahead of me did fade at the end of the 5K to where I was almost making even pace with them, but the first guy was 40 seconds ahead of me, and then there were two more that were 30 and 20 seconds ahead of me.  At the finish, I was surprised to learn that the guy 40 seconds ahead of me was first in my AG and I was 2nd in my AG.  I don't know what happened to all the guys that went out at 5:20 pace on Run #1.  We must have passed them all on the bike.  I was even more surprised to realize that I had been right with the leaders at the start of the run and that the only thing that kept me from being with them going for the National Champion title at the end was the leg cramps 1K into the run.  It turned out that I had the #4 10K, #1 bike, and #4 5K run splits for my AG.  My finish time was 1hr 58min.  

Podium baby!!!  Nice work, Curtis.  Those run paces sound like km pacing for me. 

It sounds like you executed the race really well, even accounting for the watch issue (did you ever find it?).  I wonder what you could do differently to prevent the cramping...maybe hydration? or maybe it was just fatigue.  That's the razor's edge at podium for nationals, though, right?

Congrats on a great race!

Yes...I got the watch back.  I walked the 1.25 miles back to where I dropped it after the race and the officers said they gave it to the motor police to carry to the finish.  It wasn't in the finish area when I got back.  Apparently, the Motor police can't come off the streets until the roads close.  So it was like four hours later, but I got the watch back.

I dealt with cramping in every triathlon I did my first 3 years in the sport.  I lot of it probably has to do with the heat & humidity since I have lived in Texas and Oklahoma and done most of my race there.   I think that training and pacing may have something to do with it too.  When I I am going all out I tend to cramp, but when I dial back the intensity one notch I am not as prone to cramping.  My train volume was really low for this race.  I was averaging about 6 hours a week.  In an ideal world I would have built up to twice that. I also work up to long bike rides that are 3 hours long, but for this race, I only got up to 1hr 45min.  

I had a pace plan for the bike, but when you have to pass people 2-3 times every mile you are going a lot of surges that are way over your planned pace/effort.  Late in the bike ride, I did get a cramp once when I was speeding up to pass something.  I tried to ease up after that, but it is entirely possible that went harder than I should have on the bike.

I also probably could have taken more fluids.  I only was getting about 3 oz. of water at each aid station on the run, and on the bike I only took the between the bars water bottle (16 oz).  So for a two-hour event, I only took about 24-32 oz of fluids.  I think the rule of thumb is to take about 32 oz an hour.   

I nailed all my race-specific and speed work stuff before this race but missed a ton of the endurance workouts due to the short training time.  I was pretty happy with this race and feel I have room to improve.