I figured I’d resurrect this site and start putting up my race reports, so here goes.

Plan going in –

race-plan-for-superfrog-70-3-25-september-2016

Pre-Race – I got up at 0300, cooked, ate, and was out the door by 0400.  I got to the race site around 0450-ish, parked, walked over, and got into transition.  I was done and setup by 0530, so that gave about 75 minutes until transition closed.  I met my friend Kristen from the SMOG group and helped her with some transition items.  I also talked to Emilee from San Antonio for a bit.

Warmup – 1 mile ez, heavy band work pre-swim

Nutrition – 1 gu, 1 salt pill, big swig of water

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Swim – I lined up in the 30-35 minute corral next to Kristen since we swim around the same time.  They blew the cannon and everyone went in single file.  Here’s some of the “fun” that we got to deal with:

 

 

The first loop was pretty easy – due to the SMOG practice, the technical aspects of the waves weren’t too bad.  Managed to get past the madness and hit the first turn buoy pretty quick, then went right to the second, turned, then raced back to the beach.  The sun was right in our eyes the entire time as we were heading due east, so it was hard to see the arch until we got to the shore.  I tagged up with Kristen and we ran the 150m to the starting chute to begin the second loop.

The second loop was a bit more intense.  There were people all over and the currents were stronger.  I was trying to stay away from the pier so I deliberately started wide to angle in, but the waves and current were so bad it took me awhile to get through, so I lost some time.  Eventually, I made it past the break and pushed the rest of the buoys.

Final Swim – 32:32 (PR)

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T1 – Took awhile to get back through the sand, but they had a footwash station so that was good.  Managed to grab all my gear really fast and roll out – no issues.

Final T1 – 3:53

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Bike – this was a relatively flat course which I do better at, so my goal was to push but hold back and save for the run while focusing on nutrition.  I think I pulled that off quite well.  I stuck to the nutrition plan, so ended up with roughly this:

Hour 1 – 3x salt pills, 2x gatorades

Hour 2 – 4x salt pills, 2x gatorades

Hour 2 – 2.5 – 2x salt pills, 1x gu, 1x gatorade

Overall, bike needs work but I’ll take it – I think this is the longest ride I’ve done all year.  Slippery CdA on the flats + lots of trainer work = I’ll take it!

Final Bike – 2:34:22

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T2 – Came in fast, but the idiots around me racked their bikes in the same direction, and one idiot racked his bike by handlebars, so I had to physically shove them all aside to finally rack my bike.  Ran out of there as fast as I could, but still a mess.

Final T2 – 1:30

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Run – I had been saving up most of my power and rage to throw down on the run.  I started off with 7:30s and ~160-165 HR and I was feeling good.  However, we ended up hitting the beach and running through the sand, so I knew my PR was gone.  The goal at this point was to push as hard as I could and finish under 5.  I did the math in my head and I knew I’d need a roughly 1:46-1:47, so the goal was to keep everything at 8s.  I was starting to fade in the middle so took some cokes early.  I had to be careful since I was feeling full and bloated at one point, then out of energy 5 minutes later.  I kept up with the salt pills and sipped from the gatorade I was carrying, then tweaked some coke intake and took an extra gu.  That seemed to do the trick as I got most of my energy back and I could sustain the pace.

Hour 1 – 5x salt pills, 8oz gatorade, 2x coke, 1x gu

Hour 1-finish – 4-5x salt pills, 8oz gatorade, 3-4x coke (just taking everything I could find)

I pushed the last 2 miles to make the time, then sprinted the entire final leg once we hit pavement, so roughly 0.5-0.75 miles.  This is one of my worst run times and I think I could’ve PR’d if this was all on the pavement.

Final Run – 1:47:33

It wasn’t pretty, but I got sub-5 and this is the 3rd 70.3 I’ve done in a row with a sub-5 time…so I’ll take it.

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Overall Time – 4:59:51

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Conclusions

Overall, I’m pleased with my effort.  We took an extremely long and aggressive “taper” (I barely trained) the last few weeks to mentally refresh and take it easy in preparation for the final IMAZ build which starts here shortly.  My fitness wasn’t tip-top but I was satisfied with what my body was able to churn out considering my fitness wasn’t fully on point.  I recommend this course to anyone who’s a strong runner and can handle roughly 6-7 miles on running on the sand.  I caution injury-prone or weaker runners to find another race or to specifically train on the and in preparation for this one – it’s a smokefest.

Special thanks to Julie Dunkle and John for letting me stay at their house the night before.  They also made me dinner and gave me sagely training advice.

Also, thanks to Bryan Mineo for all the swim training over the year – this race sums up everything we’ve been training for at weekly Redondo Beach swims!  Here’s Bryan’s info for those interested in lessons or joining our weekly group:

http://theswimmechanic.com/#main

Lastly, thanks to Coach Mike of D3 Multisport for all the support, coaching, and advice over the last 2 years.  Here’s the D3 link to those interested in coaching services or reading about the group:

http://d3multisport.com/