IM KS 70.3 - Ah, what the heck, let's do a HIM instead of an OLY!!

[Stringcheese]

Five days ago, I had no clue that I would be competing in Lawrence, Kansas at the IM 70.3 race.

As I'm sure most of you have seen on news reports, it’s been a tough week here in East Central Iowa. Flooding has just devastated many towns along the Cedar, Iowa, Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. I live in Cedar Rapids, which has been especially hard hit. (My home was not affected by the flooding).

My scheduled "A" race for the first part of the year was the Des Moines Hy-Vee olympic distance race on June 22. I've geared my training for the last 6 months toward that event. Mentally, I planned to be done and my wife and I planned our two week 25th wedding anniversary trip out west to begin the day after the race.. As it happens, Des Moines is one of the cities affected by flooding and as of last Wednesday, race organizers were unsure how and if they were going to be able to pull off the event. I didn't want to leave it to chance and needed to make a choice. It was race now or forget it.
My wife is an absolute saint, but there was no way I was going to train through our vacation.

On Wednesday night I went online looking for a race and found the KS 70.3 race was still accepting entries if you signed up at the expo on Saturday. I spent the night trying to decide if the training I had done in preparation to race an OLY, would apply to a challenging HIM. I've been following a modified version of the EN HIM advanced plan and the Daniels running program so I had a pretty good idea that I could finish the race in good shape, but I wasn’t sure if I could really race and compete.

I woke up Thursday morning and after discussing it with the better half, decided it was a go. It was now taper time. To rest, I decided to follow the last three days of the plans schedule.

I'm sure you've seen the Arby's commercials that show the guy or gal with the company logo superimposed over their head as they daydream...Well, I'm sure if you would have looked, hovering over our car as we headed to Lawrence, you would have seen a big question mark following us. I had 6 hours to come to grips with what the heck I'd gotten myself into.

The thing that I kept coming back to was a quote I read some where from Andy Potts. He says he doesn't train any different for his ITU races than he does for the HIM races... I'm sure I don't spend 25% of the time training that he does but what the heck, if it was good enough for Andy Potts, who was I to argue.

Needless to say, I was not feeling very confident about my chances for a good finish.

Race morning was beautiful.



One of the cool things that happened prior to the race was the Navy Seals dropped in for a demonstration...It was waaayyy cool to watch them..



Game Face..


Pre race nutrition was two blueberry bagels, two 20oz Diet Cokes and about a quarter bottle of Gatorade Endurance.

Unlike most races I’ve started, the 50+ wave went off immediately after the pro wave. There would be no one ahead us..how cool is that?? The lake was beautiful. Water temp was in the mid 70’s so I decided to just swim in the bottoms of my Desoto two-piece wet suit. I find I overheat easily in the full wetsuit if the water is over 70 – 72 degrees.
I’ve worked hard on my swimming this past year and just wanted to focus on keeping my stroke “long and strong”. For the most part, I was able to do that. I still have mental lapses in the middle of the race where I just fall back into old habits but I’m getting better at it.

Swim Time: 34:18 (this included a run to transition that was about 300 – 350 yards long)

As I was researching the race, I read that the bike course was “challenging”. That would be accurate. There were many tough hills. It had long gradual climbs. It had short steep climbs and, it had LONG, STEEP climbs.
Through out the race, Rich’s “smooth is speed” quote kept running through my head in a loop. For this course, it was a perfect execution point to focus on. It just popped into my head about 10 minutes into the race as I watched a guy get out of the saddle and just pound up the very first hill. I knew he was a "dead man riding". I’ll bet I repeated "smooth is speed" 500 times during the race.
I don’t race or train with a power meter. I use PE and HR as my markers. My original plan called for me to keep the HR between 150 – 155 on the bike. Using the smooth is speed mantra helped me do that. I never once spiked it over 159 on any of the hills.
The course was a series of four different out and backs. That was ideal for watching the pro race and watching your completion. I was 3rd out of the water in my age group and could see the guys ahead of me at each turn around around. The lead guy was about 2 minutes ahead after 10 miles. I didn’t get excited and try to overhaul the guys right off the bat.. “Smooth is speed, smooth is speed”. By mile 30, I had passed both and started to ride away.

Bike time: 2:32:00. I drank 2.75 bottles of Gatorade Endurance, ate one Power bar and peed twice.

The run course was a two-loop affair that wound its way through a series of campgrounds. There was pavement and gravel roads..all in all it was very nice. Only one hill (you did it twice) to speak of and the finish was a long gradual down hill.



I was very leery how this run would turn out. I just wasn’t sure the combination of a tough bike course and the fact that my rides have targeted V02 and threshold training vs distance would carry me on the run..To quote Rich again, I’ve been doing the fast and haven’t been focusing on the far. If there was a choice between interval work or distance, I did the interval work. I wanted to be fast for an OLY and wasn’t sure there were enough bike miles in my legs to allow me to run effectively after a 56 mile ride. As it turned out, those fears were unfounded.
The start of the run felt like every other run after a bike…crappy. I really dislike that feeling of running out of transition with wooden stumps for legs. Exactly at mile one, I developed a cramp in my left quad. “WTF! I never get cramps! There goes the race” I tried slowly running it out for about a hundred yards by kicking my butt with my heals. I wasn’t going away. So, rather than let it get too bad, I stepped off the road and sat down in the grass with my heals under my butt. I stretched the quad for about 30 seconds and decided to give it another go. I felt it for about another half mile and then, POOF, it was gone. It never bothered me again…whew!
One really cool thing that happened occured at about mile 10. I just happend to noticed a guy with a smooth stride up ahead wearing an EN singlet..It was none other than Jayhawk. We introduce ourselves by our EN screen names, shook hands and then proceeded on to finish. He seemed like a great guy. Other than the fact that it took me five miles to get my running legs under me, the rest of the run was uneventful.


Run time: 1:33:08. I alternated water and Gatorade Endurance and each successive aid station and had one GU at mile three.


Final time: 4:42:25.47

As I sit back and review the past week in my head and think about how it turned out, I keep going back to my Endurance Nation training over the past 8 months. Nothing crazy hard. No top secret training regimes…just honest, consistent work over a period of time. Don’t follow the plan into a brickwall.. Finish one workout in good enough shape to do the next one.

Thanks for reading this and keep the good folks in east central Iowa in your thoughts. They need all the good karma they can get as the clean up begins.

edited 6/18: We just found out today the Hy-Vee race is not a Duathlon. Hy-Vee and the race organizers found an alternate swim site that meets the bacteria count requirements and are putting on Tri!!!
Two races in two weekends...I've never done that before. It should be interesting

[Michael Johnson]

Nice of you to say my stride was "smooth"....I was hurtin' there with severe gi distress. Will be talking to CoachP about this! Was a good pick me up when you came by......ran the rest of the course. It's funny how looming storms makes you pick up the pace.

[Linda]

Wow, what a fabulous day. Your thoughts on training and your results will help us keep on keepin' on. Congrats on one speedy outing all the way around!

I'm glad you posted about Iowa. You have been in my thoughts, and I was not going to let today go by without posting to ask if you and your family were OK. Glad you are, and hope that conditions there temper soon and resolver soon after that.

[meditationpresent]

Hey Stringcheese,

Wow!! Your modesty and humility is amazing. I tracked you back to the Kansas 70.3 race results and you aced your age group!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Impressive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great race report and impressive how your EN Oly training worked for your HIM. Thanks for posting it. It's inspirational and really motivating. Great work!

And yes, glad things are okay for you in Iowa.

[Jake]

Sounds like a great day ! Congratulations on a great race and pulling yourself out of the T2 "slump" It's amazing what the body can do with good form and a proper mental attitude.

Happy 25th also!