Oliver Half Race Report by Tim

Race Day

Heavy rain. Temperature about 8 degrees. Already soaked in transition before the start. Covered my race bag with my bike rainwear as I’d rather have dry gear than a dry body. No room to lay out my transition gear as I am accustomed. Need to work on transitioning from a bag.

Swim
I felt quite calm before the swim; I left my training group and stood alone. HR was quite normal – no HR monitor. Need to get HR monitor mended. Seeded myself in the middle of the pack – one rank behind the front starters. Very heavy traffic for two-thirds of the first leg. I had to stop twice due to heavy kicking. Found clear water and was able to get into a rhythm, then caught up with more traffic !! Kept a good straight line to the first buoy. By the first buoy I was beginning to overtake swimmers, cut past the buoy on the inside and took direct line to the second buoy, traffic was thinner and I was able to work on glide and my weak left-arm catch & pull. Moving through slower 2nd wave swimmers and the occasional 1st. wave.

I walked through the first turnaround, there was still some traffic on the second loop, but I got into the swing and was passing swimmers quite easily. Second loop went past very quickly.

Walked up the ramp and into transition to avoid stressing my calf.

Race gear was soaked. Forgot to put on GPS – as it was deep inside my bag – probably a good thing as it’s not waterproof.

Bike
Went out slowly, hydrated with water only and settled in – quite comfortable with being passed !! Very soon after I started I fell down a major pothole, and the magnet flew off my front wheel – so I had no readings on my computer – probably a combination of both the wet and the lost magnet. Anyway, I did the race not knowing elapsed time, distance or cadence – so just raced by perceived effort – important to train on PE as well as HR and wattage. After about 15 minutes I picked up the pace and began to pass other cyclists. I spent the entire three hours on the ‘bars with the exception of some of the turns and the hill, so was comfortable with the new bike setup.

I was relying on CarboPro for food – using one bottle for concentrate and replenishing water at each aid station. Tri-It had to return their liquid Carbo-Pro as it was “stale-dated” and didn’t get replacement – and I couldn’t find any in Penticton, so made do with Hammer Gel – which I diluted because it was so viscous. But I didn’t dilute it enough so it was very hard to get it to flow from the water bottle. Ensure I get ample supply of Carbo-Pro before IMC. I think that nutrition went well enough as I consumed the planned amount – I just wasn’t sure of timing and amounts.

From perceived effort, I think I was strong for the first 70/80 km and even had I been tracking power, I would have ridden with the same effort. However, lack of race-conditioning showed in the last 20 km or so, as I felt tired and began to get passed by others. Work on strength and endurance … surprise !!

Back in T2, the rain had stopped but everything was totally soaked. Must ensure I have a good supply of plastic bags just in case. Changed into compression socks and my normal running shoes (not the Newtons which emphasize forefoot running and consequently emphasize the push-off, which is the muscle I’ve damaged). I ran about 300 meters out of transition, but I could feel my calf pulling – so stopped and DNF’d on the spot.

Conclusions:

Work on Bike endurance and bike/run brick.

Work on running endurance.

Work with perceived effort to ensure I can continue to race when technology fails.

Ensure practice for transition out of a bag – with waterproofing as necessary.

Get HR monitor fixed.

Get adequate supply of Carbo-Pro.