Race Rehearsal for Kansas Half Ironman

Today's training session was a "race rehearsal" as I go through final prep. for the Kansas 70.3 Half IM in 2 weeks.  I did a full 3hr bike followed by an hour run that was to simulate race day so that I could learn and improve.  Well - I make plenty of mistakes that I can fix which means, for the purpose of this session, it was a success.

The mistakes started right away by not getting enough nutrition in before I started out.  Again, I was doing a 3 hour bike ride and an hour run - so ideally I would have had some nutrition/calories prior to starting.  But I was meeting a Kourey at 5am, so I got up, drank some egg whites and Powerbar gel, then headed out.  Yeah - that's it.  WTH was I thinking?? 

Rode 4 miles to our starting point and headed out.  Rode 54 miles in 2:58 and felt pretty good actually for most of the ride.  I ate a Gu every 30 mins at the top and bottom of the hour and a Salt Stick capsule every 30 mins on the 15's and 45's.  About 2 hours in, though I started getting hungry and I could tell my legs were starting to get a bit tired.  That's when I realized my morning nutritional mistake.  But at that point, there's not much to do other than suck it up and finish.  Lesson learned:  remember race day (and race rehearsal) nutrition - ALWAYS! 

As I was riding, I noticed my HR was jumping all over the place - as low as 150s and as high as 210 (while I was cruising in Z3)  This has happened before when the battery was getting low on my HR strap.  I can only assume I was in Z3 based on RPE.  Lesson Learned: ensure new batteries before racing.

We broke off when we got back to our meeting point and I rode the 4 miles back to the house.  By this time, I was out of water (carried 4 bottles with me) and Gu, so I refilled a bottle to carry with my hand bottle holder thingy and 1 Gu (another mistake).  As I started off, for the 1st 20 mins or so, I found it quite difficult to run as slow as I was supposed to and had to walk a few times to slow my average down.
 
After about 20 mins, however, my mistake mentioned above caught up with me (only taking 1 Gu with me on the run).  My last Gu on the bike was taken at the 2:30 mark of the ride - almost an hour prior to this point of the run.  Since was in a nutritional deficit anyway as mentioned above, I started getting nauseous and very fatigued - not quite "bonking" but close.  I wanted that Gu, but knew that I needed to wait at least until the 30 min mark (halfway).  So - I just kept going as best I could and counted down the minutes until I could have it.  At 30mins I took it, but at only 100 calories, it didn't really do much.  I ended up walking a bit and my average pace dropped to about a minute slower than my target pace.  Lesson Learned:  take more than enough Gu (or other nutrition) for every leg of the race or training session.  Better to have a bit more than needed than to run out.

Then about 45 mins in, I emptied my water bottle.  I had been nursing it for the last 15 mins or so, but it finally ran out.  Most of my runs are either short or early in the morning when it is still cool.  By the time I did this run, it was pushing the upper 80s and I was in direct sun most of the way.  The finish was less than stellar due to lack of nutrition and water - but I got through it.  Lesson learned:  find a way to carry more water training in heat.  Not sure the solution when running since my bottle holder thingy only holds 1 bottle - perhaps getting a Fuel Belt??  But for race day, this will not usually be a problem because of the aid stations.

Overall I think this was a successful RR in that I did learn a lot and have a lot to correct.  And as mentioned, better today than on race day.  I think doing this will make be better prepared for KS and for future training sessions as the summer gets hotter.

Lastly, I ended up making some changes to my bike fit prior to this RR based on feedback from some Endurance Nation folks.  I moved my seat forward, moved the aerobars forward, dropped my handlebars and adjusted the angle of the aerobars up.  This proved to be a much more comfortable position and I think I'll keep it this way for a while.  Lesson Learned:  don't be afraid to experiment - but be smart when doing so.  IE - this could have turned ugly if, 1 hour in, I realized I had made a mistake and couldn't do anything about it.  BUT - I did mark everything before moving so that if it did mess things up, I could put it back. 

Ok - that's about it.  Thanks for reading - if nothing else, it helps to write this out so that I can process it in my little brain for future improvements.