Category Archives: Triathlon

Ironman 70.3 Hawaii (Honu) 2024 Race Report

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Well, another half-Ironman is in the bag; that’s number 11 for me. I don’t think I imagined that I’d be doing these so regularly when I started in 2016.

This wasn’t my best race, by a long shot, but I don’t feel bad about it. These races are hard and if you don’t smash it, you learn from it and, perhaps, you learn a little about yourself in the process. The race was different than my other 70.3s because the swim got cut sort due to high winds (15+ mph). I thought that was actually an overreaction by the race officials, but they have their rules. So instead of the usual 1900m swim, we only got 800m. So things were weird from the start.

I had a very quick swim, clocking in at 2:11/100yds. Instead of wearing my Form goggles (which had to be replaced because the display failed), I was back to Roka R1s. I guess I didn’t have them adjusted properly because they fogged up shortly after the start and, when I pulled them away from my face (while swimming) to clear them, they ended up leaking for the rest of the swim. Perhaps I didn’t have the strap tight enough. I think in the future I’m going to carry a small water bottle to the start of the swim so that I can wet my face and goggles to create a better seal.

I had a great bike ride, really too great. It was very windy up at Hawi but I hammered out a 3:32:19. That was about what I always do this ride in, except for 2022, when it must not have been windy at all and I came in with a 3:20. The tubeless tires worked out great, I got through an entire bottle of Perpetuem and hydrated well with Nuun. It was extra windy this year, and I put in the extra effort to have a good ride.

I paid for that on the run, where everything that could go wrong did. I felt a little tapped out when I started and 3/4 of a mile in, I got a cramp in my left hamstring that took a while to work out. When I finally got going again, my back started really hurting. It wasn’t the usual disc issue that I have – instead the left side of my lower back was really sore. Maybe that was from the bike effort or maybe something else is going on. But the pain made it hard to run. I had Advil but unfortunately I left it in my run bag – now there’s a lesson for the next race. In the first couple of miles I also ended up with a cramp in my right hamstring.

Since it’s so hot, they always have ice at the run aid stations, so I figured out that I could ease the back pain by putting ice down the back of my jersey. Since I wear a run belt, the ice generally stayed in place. That, plus making sure I took the salt stick tablets got me running a bit more. There was a point where I felt pretty good and ran about 3 or so miles without walking.

I had to pause the running again when my stomach did a couple of flip-flops. I usually have some cola about halfway through the run for a bit of energy, but this time I started it early since I was already a bit sluggish after the bike. A little over halfway through the run, I was looking for a restroom. Of course I had passed one not too far back and as doing the math of backtracking versus running into the woods. Fortunately I made it to the next aid station and took care of the problem in a more civilized fashion. I was kind of a mess at that point, but got it together to run the last couple of miles to the finish line. So whatever time I had saved from the short swim was spent on the run. Ugh!

What will I do differently next time? First of all, I think I have to be done with cola drinks. I should just eat the Honey Stingers that I know work well in my stomach. I carried two of them, but never at them. I probably also need more than two. I usually eat a bar (like an RxBar) in T2 but I didn’t do that yesterday – not sure why I skipped it but that would have helped my energy levels. I probably needed to eat one on the bike in addition to the Perpetuem. I need to figure out why I’m getting the leg cramps and back pain. I drank nearly 2 bottles of Nuun on the bike ride (no cramping there) but somehow cramped up on the run. Maybe I need to double to Nuun dosage on the bike ride – two tablets per bottle instead of one. And I realized the Perpetuem doesn’t have significant electrolytes in it, so maybe that’s something else to fix. I think I also need to do more brick workouts and longer ones as well. Maybe run 5k off-the-bike more frequently.

These races are always a bit of a science experiment. After 14 races (11 70.3s and 3 full IMs), you’d think I’d have this dialed in. Things rarely go perfectly in these races and we’re all human and make mistakes. I have another 70.3 in September, so that’ll be another opportunity to do a little better.

I do want to give a huge shout-out to all my friends who were at this race. I had friends who just came out to see me on the course as well as a group of friends that volunteered at one of the run aid stations. In addition, I met one of the race referees the day before and she remembered me and said “hi” from the back of her motorcycle while I was doing the Kawaihae climb-out – that was super-cool and very motivating! All of the cheering makes a difference in addition to the camaraderie between the athletes while we’re on the course. I had several great conversations during the run as we helped keep each other moving forward.

Aloha!

The Grumpy Swimmer

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I think I’m that grumpy swimmer. Today, someone jumped into my lane without giving me the courtesy of a warning, like standing in the lane corner or dangling his feet at the end so I could move over. Fortunately I’m not that good a swimmer, so my head pops up more than it should and I saw him before we had a head-on collision.

After my set, I flagged him down to tell him and all he did was deny it, saying he stood at the end and waited. He must have been standing on the pool deck instead of in the pool because there is no way I wouldn’t have seen him in the lane.

Anyway, I was grumpy afterwards. It’s a bit tough swimming at a facility that isn’t really for “swimmers”. The pool is way too warm and the other swimmers aren’t really dedicated swimmers. Triathlon woes …

2023 Athletic Recap

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I’ll start with a big thank you and much love to Sharon (@mtnester1) for supporting and cheering me on as I pursue my athletic endeavors. I know you are tired of me schlepping a bicycle around with me, but I love you for putting up with it :-) 

I also want to thank my coach Kimberly (@ladybaba_13) for her continued efforts to coax another iota of performance out of me.  Thankless work for sure :-)

I became a product ambassador for the first time for @nuunhydration.  It was an interesting experience and I have no idea if I’ll be invited back, but what matters more to me is that if you see a product on my posts, it’s because the product has been good to me as an athlete and I hope others will benefit .  So a shout out to many other products for which I receive nothing but goodwill (and sometimes better performance) – @wildcycler (rad designs), @altrarunning (these shoes enable me to run day after day), @zygogram (the best swim headphones ever), @formswim (smart goggles that let me focus on swimming), @desoto_sport (my tri-shorts and tops), @iamspecialized (my road and gravel bikes), @cervelo (my tri bike), @garmin (my watches, pedals, sensors) and there are others I’m sure I’m forgetting.

I did a smaller number of events this year because of injuries, scheduling and life events.  This year I only did one triathlon – IM 70.3 Honu in June.  As always, it’s a great race.  I enjoy the bike leg the most, trekking up to Hawi and back. 

I started the year with the New Year’s Cheer race in Volcano, HI at Volcano Winery.  It’s a 3 hour race – a trail run counting as many laps as possible – and it’s the first podium I’ve been on, maybe ever.  I came in second but, to be fair, there were only three of us running the race :-).  No matter – I was proud of the effort.

I also participated in a pickleball tournament earlier in the year and my partner Terri Lee (from Maui) and I secured a second place finish in our group.  As I did then, I continue to thank Terri for being a great partner.  

My biggest event of the year was L’Etape du Tour – a race on Stage 14 of the 2023 Tour de France.  It was by far the hardest ride I’ve ever done with 4100m of climbing.  I’ve posted about it before, but it was my athletic highlight of the year and one I’ll remember always.  If I can, I’m going to do another one, but not 2024 (I wasn’t very excited about the stage they are racing this year).  

Another great highlight was in April, when Sharon (@mtnester1) and I rode our bikes around the Tulips in Skagit county.  We don’t often get to ride our bikes together but every time we do, it’s special for me.  

I brought my gravel bike to Israel in October and was fortunate enough to get one good ride in before the terrorist attack on 7 October sent us to our bomb shelters and eventually home.

One interesting thing to note this year is that I started lifting weights again.  I’ve learned how to do belt squats to deal with my continuing back issues and have rehabilitated my separated shoulder so that I can now to push-ups and pull-ups again.  It feels good to be back in the gym.  

Next year’s calendar is starting to take shape.  I’m planning on doing two half-Ironman races (Honu in June and Tri-Cities in September).  I’m considering doing Levi’s Gran Fondo as one of my bicycle events.  If things are good enough to run the Tiberius race in Israel, I may do that 70.3 as well.  I’m sure I’ll find a half-marathon and other bicycle events as the year goes  but this is what’s on the calendar so far.  I hope everyone had a great 2023 and that you achieve your goals for 2024!  

Bicycle Gearing for Normal Humans

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I signed up for a gran fondo this summer that will have more climbing over 100 miles than I’ve ever done on a ride. I’m seriously concerned that I might not make it to the end, given the number of cat 1 and HC efforts required. So I decided to see if I could do something about the gearing on my bicycle. I have a OneNote page filled with interesting thoughts and links to products that might support this effort, but where I landed I think makes better general sense than what’s on most road bicycles today. So let’s start there.

The gearing on most road bikes today follows the Shimano pattern of 50/34 chain rings with cassettes ranging from 11-28 to 11-34. From a climbing perspective, your most powerful ratio is 1:1 (34/34). At the top end, you have the 50/11 combination. So what’s wrong with this? Originally, I had my triathlon bike and my road bikes configured this way (tri-bike 50/34 and 11-30, red road bike 50/34 with 11-28 and yellow road bike with 50/34 and 11-30). What I observed is that when I’m “on the flat” (which is never truly flat), I’m operating at barely in the middle of the cassette when I’m in the large chain ring and rarely do I ever use the small cassette cogs.

I always joke that the cleanest cog in my cassette is the 11T cog. Maybe I’m just not a fearless enough descender to really take advantage of it, but frankly having it is a waste. And the jumps between the cogs when I’m in the big chain ring are so large I find myself constantly struggling with a gear selection that’s a little too easy or a little too hard. So after a bunch of research, I’ve changed the gearing on one of my road bikes to see if it improved things.

I’ve updated my yellow road bike with FSA K-Force Light 46/30 cranks paired with an 11-34 cassette. The first question everyone will ask is – what did I lose by going with such a small set of chain rings? Only one thing – the equivalent of the 50/11 combo. The gear ratio of 50/11 is 4.55. The gear ratio of the 46/11 is 4.18, essentially the same as a 50/12 combination. It turns out that an 11-34 cassette jumps from an 11 to a 13 (there is no 12 on most of them), so the sacrifice is really small. But the benefit from the smaller 46T chain ring is that all of the gear ratios are closer making it easier to find the optimal gear to be in. For an 50T chain ring, the ratios for the top cogs are 4.55 to 3.85 to 3.33 to 2.94 to 2.63. With a 46T chain ring, the ratios are 4.18 to 3.54 to 3.07 to 2.71 to 2.43. While the numbers don’t look to dramatically different, the jumps are smaller with a smaller chain ring (the numerator is smaller) leading to a better road feel when trying to get into the ideal gear. With this setup, I find it easier to hit my power targets while spinning at a comfortable cadence.

On the climbing side, there’s the addition of a the 30/34 combination for a 0.88 climbing ratio. On an 11-34 cassette, the next cog up is a 30T, which is 1.0. The smaller chain ring leads to closer gear ratios for climbing as well, so instead of a jump from 1.0 to 1.13 to 1.26, I’m jumping from 0.88 to 1.0 to 1.11 to 1.2. Everything is tighter and better. And the extra climbing gear is great for when the grades go over 10%. Last weekend I did a ride with some unexpected climbing and plowed my way up a 10% hill with a crescendo of 13% at the finish. The gearing really helped and I wasn’t trashed at the top. Similarly, I did a really nice 60 mile ride yesterday with rolling hills and I never used the small chain ring until near the end where there was an actual climb. The entire ride felt strong.

So, in a sense, I’ve traded the 50/11 for a 30/34 but I actually think I got a whole lot more. I’m way more comfortable pedaling now and not finding myself stuck between too easy and too hard. Given my cycling strength (probably average for a dude my age), it’s not clear to me why Shimano persists in putting gearing on bikes that’s really not well suited for most riders. Strong riders will always find ways to move up but average riders will usually just stick with what they bought and be miserable. I think they are making the wrong choices here. SRAM is doing a better job with this – they are offering a wider variety of chain rings and cassettes, targeting their 46/33 chain rings and 10-33 cassette (12-speed) for someone like me. The new Roubaix Comp is equipped with SRAM 46/33 and a 10-36 cassette, which makes it similar to my bike, although I’m not sure why they decided 33 was a better number than 30 for their small chain ring.

As I continue to tinker, I may opt to go with an 11-36 cassette instead of the 11-34. The Shimano R8050-GS derailleur capacity is 37T, so a 46/30 and 11-34 cassette is 16 + 23 = 39T, so I’m already a little over spec but it’s working just fine. I actually think the capacity is incorrectly stated on the Shimano site since they indicate support for 11-34 cassette with this derailleur and they only offer cranks with a 16T delta. Wolf Tooth offers a derailleur extender to allow me to move to an 11-36 cassette. I’m a little concerned about pushing the derailleur capacity but I might give it a try since it’s an inexpensive change. The 11-36 cassette doesn’t match up exactly with the 11-34 so I’ll have to decide if I like the ratios I currently have:

11-36t: 11-12-13-15-17-19-   22-   25-   28-   32-   36
11-34t: 11-   13-15-17-19-21-   23-25-27-   30-   34

But two sub-1.0 ratio climbing gears might be nice.

WIth my success here, I may also move my tri-bike to the same gearing, again driving for the same benefits I’m seeing on my road bike. I’ve already ordered the cranks for the red road bike and can’t wait to get it set up. To circle back, for the normal humans that are reading this, I encourage you to consider this setup as I think you’ll ultimately be a happier and more successful rider. Ride on!