In the days leading up to the race, I came down with a head cold. I've noticed that with my improved fitness over the past year, I've had a good string of avoiding the 2-3 major colds I had traditionally been getting every year that would knock me out of commission. When I have caught a bug, I've been able to shake them off pretty easily.
This cold was sort of lingering, but hadn't knocked me out. It just wouldn't go away. Terrible sore throat, and a real stuffy nose, but it didn't move to my chest.
On race morning, I woke up feeling how I had the prior morning, really sore throat, and lots of head congestion. I spoke with David the day before and we'd decided not to take any meds. I hadn't been taking anything in the days prior, and we figured it didn't make sense to experiment on race morning.
I had a mini bagel with peanut butter, 1 vanilla ensure, a bottle of G2 gatorade, and about half a cup of coffee.
I rode to the race with David and Sarah. Sarah was doing the race with me along with 3 of David's other athletes (Fred, Katie, and Patrick).
It was unseasonably warm that morning. 63 degrees at 6:30am on our way over, with a forecast in the 70s with lots of wind. Not great, but better than 30 for sure. I wore shorts and a short sleeve dri fit.
I hit the porto-john, did some stretching and a light jog and was ready to go.
The course was a loop and change around White Rock Lake. With the wind to start, and against the wind to finish.
I wanted to get out in the 8:40s and sit there for the first 3 miles or so before dropping down under 8:30s, but only managed that for the first mile before my pace crept up. I thought some of it was due to the tail wind, by my HR would suggest that I was working too hard at the beginning. The RPE didn't correlate so I'm lead to believe some of it is elevated HR due to the respiratory infection, but who knows.
Here were the splits (HR):
1. 8:41 (170)
2. 8:26 (175)
3. 8:34 (177)
4. 8:24 (177)
5. 8:25 (176)
6. 8:24 (176)
7. 8:27 (176)
8. 8:37 (175) turned into the wind here
9. 8:27 (175)
10. 8:32 (175)
11. 8:53 (175)
12. 8:55 (174)
13. 9:20 (172)
13.1 8:58 pace (174)
Time was 1:53.39 (175 HR).
Things never really felt right. I could feel my lungs working real hard the whole way. I didn't have a cruise control I could sit in in the first half of the race and just commute and conserve.
Right at the 10 mile marker was where things unraveled. I was uncomfortable as I had been the whole way, but didn't feel as if I was coming undone. I'd just popped my last gel as I was approaching the aid station, and was looking for a lot of water to help wash it down, and because the heat/humidity had me pretty parched at this point. So I find my volunteer and plan to take two waters, but she only had one (the other hand had gatorade in it). No problem, hopefully it is a full cup, but I looked in the water cup she'd given me and it had about an inch of water in it. I had taken 6-7 steps past the station when I realized this, and decided it wasn't enough, and turned around to go back to the table and grab another cup. I walked a bit during this detour, and as soon as I stopped running, my quads immediately locked up something terrible. I couldn't get them going again, and the lactate just continued to build for the last 3 miles.
I was very close to walking a few times, but found that I could keep moving at about 9min miles, and that is what I did.
In looking back at my HRs, I think getting up over 174 so early in the race probably put me out of my aerobic zone too early, and too often, and I couldn't get rid of the lactate fast enough, and I was essentially a ticking time bomb that blew at the 85 min mark. In San Antonio in November, I didn't hit 175 HR mark until mile #9. Infections elevate the HR as does dehydration and I think I was impacted a little by both.
That all said, I think I did pretty well on the day. Had I gone out a little slower, I probably could have got closer to my PR (I missed it by 29 seconds), but I wasn't there to match a PR, and so I went for it from the beginning.
I'm very sore the day after in the quads. Ironically everything else feels fine. Hamstrings, calfs, etc are ready to go, but the quads are completely shot. And the little head cold has blossomed into a full on whopper of a cold, which will shut me down completely for at least another day or two and hopefully no more.
David's other athletes all did well. They are training up for the Lonestar Half Ironman in Galveston and seem to be progressing well.
Sarah's dad got some good pictures out on the course. Unfortunately I was in a world of hurt for many of them and don't look too good in any of them.
Any how, good experience, my running has jumped leaps and bounds this winter, and I'm eager to apply it to tris this Spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment