2015 Finish Strong Half Iron Race Report

As I've mentioned before I wanted to replicate my successful 2014 race schedule as much as possible in 2015.  This meant a half iron race 4 weeks out from my ironman.  So the FS Series Finish Strong Half fit perfectly into this schedule.  Plus it was basically local so there wasn't a lot of extra time spent being able to do the race.

Event Area

I had done one FS Series race back in 2011.  It was a sprint in Raleigh in April, that I froze my butt off at.  I had a terrible race, but the race was run fine.  I knew it wasn't a very big race, and it turned out that they only had about 60 people signed up for the half.  With relays and the "Odd" distance triathlon (0.6 / 35 / 6.5), they had about 110 people signed up.  I figured that I would win it, but that wasn't the point today.  I wanted to test my fitness and my setup for Kona.

Since the race was at Vista Point in Jordan Lake (exact same starting point as IM Raleigh 70.3), I decided to just drive up that morning.  I got up at 3 am and hit the road.  Most races, I have to get up at 4 am anyways, so it wasn't a big deal.  When I got there, a line of cars was backed up at the gate.  One of the FS Series guys told me that the lock combination that they were given didn't work.  We sat there for about ten minutes, and they had the gate open just before 6am.

I parked in the closest lot and got my bike out.  I pumped my tires up and gathered my stuff and walked over to transition.  I had gotten an email telling me I was bib 68, so I racked my bike in transition before I went to get checked in.  At the packet pickup, they had a medical form to fill out.  As I was filling that out the guy behind me says, hey I know you, I read you're blog.  So I chatted with Dan for a couple minutes.

So I got everything setup for transition.  I trimmed my bike numbers so they fit on my seat post.  I'm really liking this wide aero seatpost.  Both races I've done now with the PRsix, I've put my number on the seatpost.  I put my bike helmet sticker on.  Put my run number on my Fuelbelt Racebelt.   Laid out my stuff, and that was pretty much it.  I had a couple more gels.  I had already had a bagel and a banana.  So then I put my Blueseventy swimskin on my bottom half and wandered out of transition to find the port-o-let.

They had a brief athlete meeting to go over a few course details and the swim start.  One cool thing about a small race like this is that everyone doing the half started at the same time.  No waves.  No swim staggers.  No trying to do math in my head at mile 7 of the run to determine what place I was.  When the gun goes off, everyone's racing.  If someone is ahead of you, then you're losing.  This doesn't happen that often, so I was looking forward to it.

Not a big Transition

No one really did a warmup swim.  We all just walked down the ramp and swam out towards the start line.  As I'm walking down the ramp I get a cramp in my left toes.  What the crap?  I stretch it out, but I wasn't sure why that happened.  It was an in-water start, and we treaded water til the gun went off (kinda like Kona?)

Swim
45:05 Officially 15th of 38 Men, 19th Overall of 53 finishers
Garmin had 44:22 and 1.3 miles.  In my defense, everyone was slow.  Maybe it was the 2 loop course and all the turns.  But the top finishers were only 6 minutes ahead of me.

I started off to the right and it wasn't too congested.  I had some contact, but it was pretty light.  I seemed to be swimming really straight.  I mean I only had to course correct slightly.  Maybe it helped that the double loop made each segment shorter.  You always had a turn buoy in sight.

Swim Exit

After the 2nd turn of the first lap I got more cramping in my toes and feet.  They weren't too bad and I was able to kinda kick them out.  I came back around the first turn buoy to start the second loop and I glanced at my watch: it said 21 minutes.  I figured that was about right.  The second loop was a bit of a mental test.  I was doing alright until the final turn for home.  This final stretch seemed to take forever on the first lap, so I just put my mind to it and kept pushing.

Midway through that last segment my calves started cramping up.  One would cramp, then stop, then the other one would start.  I actually stopped swimming one time it was so bad in my left leg.  At this point I thought I was dehydrated somehow.  I just stroked as hard as I could to get out of the water.  Once I hit land and started running, my legs felt much better.

T1
0:45 officially 1st Male
Nice to have the fastest T1, although my rack spot surely helped with that.  I did have to get the rest of my swimskin off, so I must have done a good job.

Bike
2:21:39 officially 1st Overall (2nd was 2:26:08)
Garmin had 2:21:19 for 56.16 miles and a 23.8 average on 230 watts

So the first 5 miles or so are just like Raleigh 70.3. A good climb and then a fast section.  The good thing is that you are pretty fresh for the 243 feet of gain in the first 5 miles.  And then by mile 10 I was back over a 24 mph average.

Bike Out

The tops of my quads were hurting, so I just settled into the fact that this is how they needed to feel over the next 2 hours.  I settled in some over the next 20 miles, averaging around 233 watts for that stretch.  I kept reeling in people as I went.  Although, the further I got the more strung out people were and the longer it took for me to catch them.

It got a little more hilly on miles 30 to 50.  There was a total gain of 882 feet over that stretch, but I was still able to crank some watts.  I averaged around 233 watts there as well.  The last person I passed (Dan who I talked with before the race) I went back and forth with a little bit.  When I finally broke free of him I didn't see anyone. 

At this point I figured that I was either in the lead, or at least 5 minutes down.  I wasn't worried about the 5 minutes, since that was what I figured I would start the run with anyways.  So some of the last few miles are downhill, so I coasted some that last bit, only averaging about 205 watts for the last 6 miles.  As I made it back into transition, my dismount was flawless as usual.  Nice to have only a 10 yard run from dismount to transition.

T2
1:00 officially 10th Male
Not bad.  Typically that's the best I can do.  (Again with socks excuse!).  Socks, Shoes, Visor, Race Belt, Sunglasses, and I'm off.

Run
1:26:25 Officially 1st Overall
Garmin had 1:26:26 for 13.10 miles and a 6:36 average

As I come out of transition the announcer says that I'm the first half participant.  So that answered that.  I see Dan coming around the corner as I'm leaving the parking lot, so I had about 2 minutes on him.  But honestly (don't get mad, Dan) at that point I knew it was over. But like I said, that's not why I came here.  I wanted to have a strong run (especially after my 1:33 debacle at Eagleman).

 The first mile was relatively flat, and I felt relaxed as I came through with a 6:26 mile.  The second mile had 85 feet of gain, but again, as it was early on, I pushed a little and split that in 6:34.  I felt good the next couple of miles to the first turnaround and back averaging 6:26's.  There were people on the course from the odd distance event, but they weren't going too fast.  It was nice to have some company out there, but still the aid stations weren't crowded at all.

The next mile was a bit uphill and slipped to a 6:46.  I made that up on the totally downhill mile 6 that handed me a 6:08 split.  Nice.  I saw 2nd and 3rd come through, but didn't think to check and see how far back they were.  I made it back to the turn at the beginning feeling really strong, and even got that comment out of the announcer.  So through 7 miles I had a 6:28 average.

Then the hills got tougher, the motivation got lower.  At the turn I checked the mileage I was at, and then when I saw second place, I was 1.4 miles ahead.  I kept pushing the hills, but they got slower.  One mile in that final 6 was just under 7, and another was over 7.  Still when I hit the final turnaround and saw 2nd place I was 2 miles ahead.

I tried to push for home, and I did have a good last mile at 6:30.  But on those final 6 miles I only averaged 6:45's.  I did feel strong at the end.  So there's that.

Finish
4:34:53 1st Overall
Garmin multisport had 4:34:56

I came across the line to to very little fanfare.  Some people clapping and cheering, and an announcement from the race director.  I got some water in me and didn't feel too bad.  I found a place to sit and drank some soda.  I ended up winning by almost 20 minutes.  Full Results Here.

My calves still felt a little tight, but not too bad.  I just sat down and chilled some.  I eventually got some food and saw the next finishers come in.  I started to gather my stuff out of transition, and then I headed back to the car.  I packed every thing up and did a bit of clothes changing.  Dan was parked right across from me and we chatted for a bit.  (Kick some butt in Los Cabos, Dan! #Kona2016).

Fruits of the Labor

We walked back to the start.  They said there was not going to be an awards ceremony, but they would hand out awards at 2pm.  As we got back to the finish area, they announced that you could pick up your award.  Good timing for us, plus it was only 1:15pm.

I won a selfie stick and a FS Series toiletry bag.  Local Race Prizes can be fun!  As soon as I got that stuff, I headed towards the car.  I stopped at Subway on the way home.  All in all it was a good day.  I feel pretty good about my fitness.  I was glad to be able to run 6:30's off of 230 watts.  But more importantly I felt strong and wasn't dying.

4 weeks to go.  One more huge week, then a scaled down week, then taper time.  Crap it's getting close.  I just need to get these workouts in for the next couple of weeks and I'm confident I can enjoy the day on the Big Island.

"The Kona Block"

As I alluded to in one of my previous posts, the summer vacay put a hit on the training.  The week I got back, I had a good long ride and run.  But my intervals were horrible.  I just couldn't hold pace/power and basically couldn't complete the workout.  It is what it is after two weeks of just running every other day.

So I felt I really had to do well in my final 3 week block before Kona.  The goal was simple: Nail every workout.  The mentality is that every workout is hard.  Expect that.  Don't think for one second that something will be easy.  Beast Mode.  Get out there and just do it. "Don't think, it will only hurt the ballclub." The final 2 week taper will take care of everything.  Don't even let the word "rest" enter your mind.  Simple, yes.  Easy, no.

I was hoping to get in 900 miles on the bike and 165 miles on the run.  The first week went smashingly well.  I had in just over 24 hours of SBR.  I felt really good in my long 21 mile run as I averaged 6:58 per mile.  I don't think I had averaged under 7 in a 18+ mile run since 2011.

My long ride was tough, but I got in just under 138 miles at 192 watts for a 21.1 avg. My tempo ride that week was ok.  I didn't try and overdue it and did 25 miles at a 244w average.  Although, I had a really good brick run off of that: 7 miles at a 6:40 pace.

Week 1 of Block
S: 7,450 meters
B: 303.5 miles
R: 50 miles
Total SBR Time: 24:07

The second week we did not have any masters swimming practice. So being the devoted swimmer that I am, I didn't swim at all.  I'm OK with that.  Let's just say I won't be surprised when I exit Kailua Bay in a buck twenty.  Anyways, I had some family obligations in the evenings that week, so I shifted workouts to the mornings when I would normally be swimming.  The second weeks of my blocks do not have long rides or runs.  My run intervals went swimmingly.  Three minutes at a sub 6 pace.  I did some longer bike intervals, 8 minutes, and nailed my wattage target on those.

8 Minute Intervals

Saturday was Triple Brick time.  This isn't actually in my workout program, but I think it's a good workout.  I did it last year as well.  You end up getting a lot of miles in, but doesn't hurt you like if you ran that much straight.  With all the transitions and bike stoppages, it's almost an 8 hour workout.  I've said before that if you're gonna race for 10 hours, its not a bad idea to do an 8 hour workout.  It's also a good test of your nutrition.  Evidently that's working for me as each run got faster, with the final 6 miler being at a 6:48 pace.

Sunday Tempo Funday! 40 miles at 245 watts in the morning followed by 6 miles at a 6:15 average pace in the afternoon (plus warmups and cooldowns).  Nice strong finish to the week.

Week 2 of Block
S: A "Blutarsky" 0.0 meters
B: 314.9 miles
R: 55 miles
Total SBR Time: 21:51

And so it begins.  The biggest week of the biggest block.  Although I cheated.  Well, kinda.  I usually do my long rides on Saturday morning.  The Saturday of this week was my son's first high school cross country meet.  With the timing of that, it didn't really give me time to get the long ride in on Saturday.  But since it was Labor Day weekend, I moved my long ride to Labor Day Monday.  So I kinda made this week 8 days long.  Although day 1 was just 2,000 meters in the pool for an hour long workout. It took a few days before I started getting my second wind.  My run intervals on Tuesday went well (4 minutes at sub 6 pace), but I felt really tired on Wednesday and Thursday.

I moved my long run to Saturday afternoon in hopes of running it in 90+ degrees.  I did get a 87 degree afternoon.  I felt sufficiently melted on the second half of the run.  But I persevered and finished with the last few miles hovering around the 8 min mark.  I felt warm, but never overly hot.

4 x 20

My 4x20 tempo ride went pretty well.  I was able to hold about 90% FTP, which after running 22 miles the afternoon before, seemed pretty good.

So then it finally came down to the last workout: The Long Ride.  I surely didn't have all my mojo.  I was pretty tired at the end of this block.  That became evident pretty early on.  I started out at about a 180w average.  I thought maybe after I got warmed up I could start averaging 190w, but I just kinda sat there at 180.  On the plus side I didn't fade out near the end, as I could just kept hanging onto 180w averages on each 5 miles split near the end.  But, it was the longest ride I've ever time either by time or distance.

"Week" 3 of Block
S: 9,000 meters
B: 311 miles
R: 60 miles
Total SBR Time: 26:52

So if you take the last 7 days ending on Labor Day, I had 25:52 of SBR.  So then also over a 21 day stretch I ran 165 miles and biked 929.4 miles.  I'm particularily happy with that bike mileage, as that's a 309.8 avg per week.  My previous single week high was 308 miles.

So the massive block comes to an end.   I'm utterly exhausted, but I guess that's the point.  "That which does not kill me, will only make me stronger".  33 Days to Kona.

The New Green Lightning

Four Years and Seven Months ago, our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new bike, conceived in aerodynamics, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal when they are rocking a tri bike”.  So in January of 2011 I walked out of Inside-Out Sports with a brand new Felt B16 Tri Bike.  At that time, I believe, it was the best value in tri bikes that there was. Period.  I grew to love that bike.  I mean I didn't really have much to compare it to, but I loved it.  I mean the profound, uncompromising, long term type of Love.  The kind of Love that exists deep down in places you don't want to talk about at parties . . . but I digress.  Let's just say that "Life is too Short to Ride something you don't Love". I loved that bike for all of the 21,655.74 miles that we spent together.
 

But time marches on.  The frame had become dated.  Felt doesn't even sell that frame shape anymore.  There had been so many advances in aero tech in the bike world, and all the major players have their "Superbike".  With the IA, P5, Plasma, Shiv, and Speed Concept all being recently released or revamped, there are a lot of choices out there.  I had decided I wanted to get more than an entry level bike again, but I also don't have $10,000 to spend.  So here we are again looking for the best value, but this time in a superbike.  So as you know, Quintana Roo Bikes are a sponsor of Big Sexy Racing.   That's what got me looking at the new Quintana Roo PRsix, QR's brand new entry into the "Superbike" category.

The PRsix is not the fastest frame out there.  But as Slowtwitch has mentioned, it is in the conversation.  It sits nicely amongst the others on the aero chart.  It is however, one of the lightest, and simplest to maintain.  Both of those factors were big selling points for me personally.  Then with one of the 2015 options being black with lime green accents, I just knew it was the bike for me! The new Green Lightning.

My Frame!

So then the question came up, Entire Bike or just Frameset?  Well, I really like my Felt Devox Aerobars.  I obviously want to keep my Power2Max Powermeter and Lightning crank.  I wanted to try the new Cobb JOF 55 saddle.  I also wanted to get FLO30 wheels (same width as my 60/90 set) to make it super simple to swap them out.  I wanted to put my Tri Rig brake up front (although the frameset comes with brakes).  Add in that I wanted to build the bike up just how I wanted to build it, then it made the most sense to just get the frameset.

So being the engineering geek that I am, I studied the geometry of the 2015 PRsix and compared it to the 2011 B16.  I saw that the size 52 PRsix was actually bigger than the size 54 B16 that I had.  I had always thought that maybe the size 54 was a little big for me anyways.  After discussing with James at IOS, and with the proprietary stem that is on PRsix, I decided to order the size 50 frame.  I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get low enough to replicate my current position.

The Build

In March I placed my order.  Unfortunately they said they that the frames wouldn't be available until August.  I was a little bummed, but realized that gave me time to get everything ordered.  Several of the items I wanted to procure myself, and the rest I was going to purchase from IOS.

Cobb JOF 55
I really liked my Adamo Road saddle with the split nose.  But I had ripped the side of it in one of my crashes last year.  I have been riding with it taped up.  I thought: new bike, new saddle.  Since the JOF55 has the similar split nose and it is even narrower, I thought I would try it.  Plus it come in lime green, duh.

Rear Mount Hydration and Flat Kit

I also got the rear mount hydration system.  It is just a bracket that bolts to the bottom of the saddle.  You can then attach 1 or 2 water bottle cages.  It also comes with a bag that I put my CO2 fitting for tire inflation, tire levers, and a spare gel.  I was also able to velcro strap a spare tube under the seat and the bracket as well.  That frees up my Dark Speed Works pack for nutrition.

11 Speed Carbon Fiber Shifters

MicroShift BSC-11 Bar End Shifters
My B16 originally came with MicroShift bar end shifters.  I had them replaced with the Dura-Ace ones a couple of years ago.  I never really liked the Dura-Ace.  They are hard to push, and the cover keeps coming off them, even after I Gorilla glue it back on.  So I ordered the carbon MicroShift ones from Taiwan.  The action is so much lighter and there is no cover to come off.  Plus they are carbon fiber, duh.

FLO30

11 Speed Hub

FLO 30's
As you know (yes, there are people who know this) I race on a set of FLO 60/90's.  But I was torn between getting the FLO30's or the Reynolds Stratus.  Ultimately I went with the FLO's because they are 26mm wide and the Reynolds were 21mm wide.  Having my training and racing wheels' brake track both be the same width and material (aluminum), it makes it uber quick and easy to swap them out. I also got a hub to convert my FLO90 rear to 11 speed.  I had IOS install that.

Ultegra 6800 Mechanical 11 Speed

Then I had IOS get my front and rear derauillers, chain, brake levers, 11 speed cassettes, bar tape, cable housings, bottom bearing bracket.

Dura-Ace Brake Levers

Ultegra Brake Mounted Underneath

The first week of June I was surprised to find out that my frame was ready to ship.  So I got everything coordinated with IOS and the last week of June I took Green Lightning in. "To get a little work done" as they say.

Greg Doing Work

The build went pretty smoothly.  I dropped by a couple of times to check out the progress.  I picked up the unused parts of GL.  Basically the frame with the seat and wheels.  They had it done on Thursday afternoon.  Luckily I had Friday off and I was able to go in and take my time to check the fit.  I even toodled around the neighborhood for a bit to check everything out.

My initial reaction was that it looks so incredible.  Melissa had found Jagwire Orangic Green cable housing that perfectly matched the frame.  They also had Fizik Apple Green bar tape that perfectly matched the Cobb Saddle.

On my first ride, it felt so stiff!  It was awesome.  It took a little bit to get used to that. Even now I sometimes notice it.  But more power going to the wheel and not to frame flex is a good thing.  I felt very comfortable on it from day one.  Obviously my fit hadn't changed, my shoes/pedals were the same, and the Cobb saddle was even more comfy than the Adamo.  So of my 3 points of contact, 2 were the same the other was better.

James Doing Work

I'm also glad I got the size 50 frame.  QR sizes their bikes by stack.  So a size 50 is 50mm of stack.  In order to get my position exactly replicated from before, they put in (1) 5mm spacer under the aerobar.

(1) 5mm Spacer on the Stem

So that means that had I gotten the size 52 frame, I would have been 15mm too high.  And stuck up a creek without an aero paddle.  Not sure how to say this without sounding egotistical, but my position is pretty sweet.  When I keep my head down (not like in the pic in my blog header) my position is almost perfect.  I'm glad I was able to keep that.

First Test

Eventually I got my Dark Speed Works pack on the top tube.  I have the 483 with the straps.  I cut the straps off so I could directly mount it to the top tube bosses.  The holes in the plastic that it came with put the pack about 1.5 inches back from the cable entry.  I wanted it closer.  There were not any holes in the pack, just the plastic insert.  I drilled new holes in the plastic and through the pack so it would mount snug up against the cables.  I like the way it looks with out the straps.

Bolted on Nutrition Pack

I had been struggling with leakage on my BTA hydration (and I may do another post just on that).  But I've finally settled on the Speedfil A2 system.  I also have my Garmin mount tie wrapped between my extensions.  This has been working quite well for me.

A2 Fits Great

It feels so smooth and fast and stiff. I love the 11 speed gearing with the new Ultegra Mechanical on there.  The frame and aerobars are compatible with DI2, but I ain't made of cash.  I would have loved to put DI2 on there, and maybe I will someday.  But you have to ask yourself, is that a good aero return on investment?  Definitely not.  DI2 doesn't make you more aero or faster.  So mechanical it is.

Initial Pics when I first brought it home

I put 11-25 cassettes on both my 30 and 90.  I contemplated getting a 11-23, but decided against it.  I might put that on a disc if I get one next year.  It took me a while to kinda get everything mounted on there the way I like it.  It's got a lot more bosses than the B16, with bosses on the seat tube, down tube, and top tube. That's pretty standard, but the B16 did not have bosses on the down tube or the top tube. 

I also like that it has a restraining bolt, that only allows the front stearer tube to turn so far.  It helps when handling and working on the bike.  The front wheel won't go all jack-knifed on you.

Large non-drive side chain stay. Shift+ Technology.

The thing is fast.  I'm not gonna lie.  After I got my position dialed in last year, I basically knew the only thing that as holding me back from an aero standpoint was my frame.  With my aerobars and wheel setup along with my position, I was ready.  This PRsix shoots me up there.  It makes bike envy a thing of the past.

Inside Out Sports Gang

I'm absolutely pumped to race this thing in Kona.  I just gotta keep my head down and I will be cheating the wind like crazy.  My speed per watt ratio is usually higher than most everyone I race against.  Hopefully I can stick to the bike wattage plan and come running down Palani and Ali'i feeling like the freaking man!

#limegreenworld