2017 IMTX Race Report: Brendon Terry
Date: 22 April 2017
BIB: 168
Goals/Performance:
Overall: 10:15/10:23:30
Swim: 1:15/1:17:30 (1:12:05?)
T1: 3:44
Bike: 5:15/5:21:21
T2: 3:43
Run: 3:30/3:37:33
Results:
Age Group Rank: 35/320
Gender Rank: 182/?
Overall Rank: 215/267
Run FTHR: 176
Run FT Pace: 6:17
Bike FTP: 256 (Based 20 min critical power of 270 W)
CTL on Race Morning: 85.9
ATL on Race Morning: 50.7
TSB on Race Morning: 32.8
Gear:
Bike - 2011 Trek Speed Concept 9.9 w/ETAP, 54/42 Q-Ring Chain Ring, 172.5mm Red Crank, Vector 2 Pedals, 11-28 Cassette.
Run Shoes – Brooks Pureflow 5
Suit – LG Pro (Smile Train Team Kit)
Race Type: A Race
Weather: Mid 70’s, some overcast but Bob crept through and sunburned a little bit. Water temp was 78.8, so wet suit optional, wind was from the north and increased as the day went on. Some sun-showers during the bike.
Pre-Race Events/Schedule:
Wednesday night and Thursday morning were travel days from Kansas to Texas, departing at 1600 on Wednesday and arriving to RON at OKC at 2115, then departing again 0430 to arrive at IM Village by 1030 for the 1100 Athlete brief. Sleep in the OKC hotel was rough, partly due to the highway noise. I should have asked for a room on the opposite side of the hotel from the highway. Set an alarm for 530, but woke up at 0400 and got on the road again. Arrived at The Woodlands at 1030 AM, picked up packet, hung out with the Smile Train crew, then checked into the hotel. Dinner was the Athlete banquet at 1630, followed by Tiramisu. Went back to the hotel room to prep gear bags and bike for drop off and gear for the practice swim/bike/run the next AM.
Friday morning woke up a little after six and had granola, yogurt, fruit for breakfast. Headed out to practice swim location, parking about 1/3 of a mile away and biking over with swim gear in a back pack. Swam for 15 minutes and felt good, mainly focusing on sighting since I hadn’t had an OWS practice since August ’16. Got to the end and discovered that the garmin hadn’t tracked any distance. I figured I must have started swimming too quickly after hitting the start button, so I went for another 200 yard swim, giving it more time to get a signal before beginning, and it worked fine. That swim paced out at 1:38/100yds and I felt relaxed and comfortable. I then went for a short 3.5 mile bike ride, mainly practicing getting to and holding my planned power goal of zone 2.9/190 W. Ended the bike where I parked and went for a run, holding zone 2.0 HR which ended out to a 7:10 pace. This finished up at about 9. I discovered my rear tire had gone flat when I got back from the run. I then went back to the hotel, showered, then went to breakfast (omelet, muffin, coffee, water, fruit) with the Smile Train team. After breakfast I went to IM village to get a new tube, then to T1 to drop off gear bags and bike. The rear tire kept deflating. It would hold pressure initially, but would be flat 10 minutes later. Turned out to be a small pinch flat on the opposite side from the valve. Not sure if it was me with the wrenches or the tire beads that caused it. Tech support on site helped me fix it and it was good. Walked T1 and routes during this process as well. Lunch was at Jason’s Deli about 1400 (Sandwich and Chips). Went back to hotel room, napped, shaved, and mixed nutrition. Dinner was about 1730 at IHOP (Strawberry/Banana Pancakes and Syrup). Went back to the hotel to lay everything out and went to sleep about 2130.
Race Day:
Race morning I woke up before my alarm (0430) at 0400. I just went into my routine, brewed a pot of coffee, ate a smaller bowl of yogurt/granola/fruit, and packed everything up. I had a good solid poop and then met teammates for movement at 5:15 and was dropped off at T1. Added nutrition to bike (4 frozen 24oz bottles of Rocket Fuel, plus filled the 28oz BTA bottle, and kept the remainder of that to sip on), placed a frozen Nathan bottle of rocket fuel in my run gear bag phone into the race belt in my bike gear bag. Each race belt had salt and Gu’s if necessary.
Nutrition Plan: Rocket fuel was mixed at a concentration of 1 scoop hydro, ½ amino, and 1 salt per 8 oz of water, so each 24 oz bottle had 66 grams of carbs and a plan to take one per hour and supplement with water and Gatorade on course
Without my phone, I was unable to make link up for vehicle movement to the swim start, so ended up just walking starting at 0600. Made it to the Swim start at 0615 and the lines for the crappers were long and I had another one brewing. Ended up turning in everything in morning clothes bag and then got in line for the crappers, listening to the pro start and then the age group start as I got in the toilet. This poop was a little more liquidy, I was glad it was gone. Fortunately it was a rolling start that was supposed to be seeded by time, but they did not have signs posted for pacing. Got in the swim skin and into the water.
Swim: The goal for the swim was sub 1:15. I’d done a 4200 yd pool swim in 1:12, so I was fairly confident in my ability to do that and not overcook for the rest of the race. There was a little bumping into others, but not too terrible. Unfortunately, my lap button got kicked just after the first turn buoy 1200 yds into the course and I began T1 in the middle of the lake. I let it keep running and made the decision to end this multi-sport activity and just begin a new one at the swim end timing mat. Ended up swallowing a fair amount of water and peed twice during the swim. Traffic was just enough that I never really felt I got into a good rhythm. First swim with a swim skin. Got out of the water and began T1. IMs chips had my time at 1:17:09, but my watch had it at 1:12:05. I have inquired to see what time they had me as starting the swim, as I think somehow my chip was missed by the first timing mat and so it defaulted to when the gun went off at 0640 instead of when I entered the water at 0645.
T1: nothing truly remarkable. I had a pole position right by the bike exit, so I put my helmet and belt on in the tent, then carried my shoes as I ran up the muddy grass to my bike, then put my shoes on and ran my bike out the exit. Hadn’t practiced mounting with shoes on the cranks, so didn’t try it here. Could have saved a little time by practicing taking skin off, race belt and helmet on, etc. Got sun screened on the way out by the pit crew.
Bike: Plan for the bike was to try to maintain about 185/90 W initially, or an IF of .77, and then step it up after the first half depending on how it felt. This was my first time actually racing with a power plan as opposed to looking at it afterwards to see what it was. Got going smoothly on the bike, and was moving along quite well after the first lap heading southbound. Coming north on the Hardy Toll Road the first time, there was some head wind, but not too bad and I was still able to maintain about 20mph. It was about this time that I lowered the goal for IF based on feel, now shooting for about 185 W /.76 IF. The wind got sporty on the second lap north on Hardy, and that and the over passes shot my variability to hell for those laps especially. Overall variability was 1.05, IF was .71, normalized power was 183, avg power was 175. Garmin clocked the course at 109.66 Miles and 5:21:53. I lost about 2 minutes due to having to put the chain back on after it dropped 3 times when shifting from the small ring to the big ring. The Q-rings make that shift finicky sometimes, and while sometimes I can just down shift immediately and get it back on the small ring, other times it jams. Just need to get out there and practice shifting and learn the q-ring quirks. I was a little late getting my feet out of the shoes for the dismount, and almost rolled past the dismount line. Handed off the bike with the shoes still attached and went into T2. I executed the nutrition plan as planned, supplementing the rocket fuel with 1.5 bottle of water and a half bottle of Gatorade.
T2: Only thing to note here is that I should have a towel to clean off my feet. A piece of mud caused a nice angry blister later in the race from running barefoot through transition.
Run: Goal for the run was 3:30. I started out maintaining a low zone 2.2 HR at about a 7:15-7:30 pace. After a couple miles, I got tired of the Nathan bottle bouncing in my tri top pocket and chucked it at an aid station. I still had the Gu’s for back up and the salt tube, but mainly took in water/coke for fuel. After the first lap, I started walking the aid stations, but still running an 8ish pace in between. I started to slow a little, but then caught a second wind and picked back up to a sub-8 pace between stations. 11.2 miles into the run, my watch battery died. I continued walking the aid stations, slowing slightly in pace, and then didn’t walk the last one to finish out the run. Downside of the watch failure and the earlier activity restart was that I had only a very rough idea where I was on time. I did have a little bit of a stomach cramp about mile 22, but continued the walk/run routine. The crowd was great for the run, but starting my second lap when it was the most congested on the south side of the canal I was worried that a bystander or runner might get bumped into the water.
Overall thoughts: 95% achievement of the individual event goals got me an overall PR by 12-17 minutes depending on the swim start, especially since the previous PR was with a wet suit and tide assisted swim of 54 minutes. I was able to make up that difference and then some on the bike and the run. Unfortunately, that did not get me to a top 10% of the age group to qualify for nationals, and I think I went a little bit into coast mode not knowing how close I was to finishing. When I initially crossed, I thought I had completely bonked and run 4 hour marathon, as the clock said 10:43, but it had been started at the pro start and was 20 minutes off. It was a pleasant surprise to see the race results update and reveal the actual run and finish times. Overall a great race that I’m very pleased with to start the season. Now to see how hard I can push the paces on shorter races.
The Watch Battery Dying: It’s a Garmin 920XT, which I had run my full previously with no issues on battery. I realized later that I had not turned back on the auto-off feature on the backlight, and so it was likely running for much of the race in the daylight. I typically have the light on all the time so I can glance down and check pace, HR, etc without having to reach over with my other hand to turn it on. So the watch dying was completely my fault and nothing to harass Garmin over.
Oh yeah. I felt the urge, but decided I could avoid it and did not pee on the bike. Ended up just running into a porta potty at the 3rd aid station on the run. If it'd been hotter, I would have needed to hydrate more and pee during the bike.