Travel / PRE-RACE
Ironman Taiwan 70.3 2 November 2013.
We had a flight with
EVA from Haneda to Taipei Thursday 31 October at 10:40 which meant we had to leave home around 7:45. As I was to bring my bike bag in the subway we decided to head out at 7 to avoid peak hours. We partly succeeded…
This was our first flight out of Haneda and in general the airport was nice and had one of the better lounges I have visited with Star Alliance. EVA does not charge extra for bringing your bike as long as you are within the total luggage limit and with the Star Alliance Gold membership I could bring an extra piece of luggage which made bringing the bike free of charge.
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| Getting the bike ready for transportation |
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| Bye bye bike |
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| The ANA lounge in Haneda is nice and have more real food than most other lounges I have visited |
When we got on do the plane an insane amount of creepy Hello Kitty faces were staring at us. Apparently the designer of this aircraft was Hello Kitty fan so everything from spoons to toilet paper was Hello Kitty-theme. Even the freaking ”I feel sick”-bags!
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| The pillows... |
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| The seats... |
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| They were on the screens... |
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| In case you get sick from all the Hello Kitty stuff |
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| Even the cups and spoons were Hello Kitty! |
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| And why not put it on the toilet as well? Just in case you forgot about Hello Kitty for a short moment... |
The in-flight entertainment was however nice and more than I would usually expect from a 3-4 hours flight. It was far better than what you get with SAS on a 11 hours flight to Denmark. Here on the Hello Kitty flight you could actually start the movies whenever you felt like! :o
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| Mr Pitt saves the world |
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| And why wouldn't you enjoy some Hello Kitty mixed nuts and rice crackers with the movie? |
When we arrived at Taipei Airport our luggage was out right away and we went to hand it in to the black cat (yamato transport) so they could transport it to the race venue so we would not have the hassle brining it ourselves. Spoiled brats you may think, but since we were doing two subways from the airport to Taipei main station, high speed rail from here to Zuoying and shuttle bus from Zuoying to the race venue we chose to do so.
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| I hate when they ask you to sign documents that say you cannot hold them responsible for more than a very small amount in case anything happens to your bike... But you really don't have a choice do you? |
We did not know quite what to expect when traveling through Taiwan. When we were at the Philippines in March this year I was surprised by how much it reminded me about India in terms of how people were living, noise and chaos on the streets etc. I guess you kind of forget this when living in Tokyo. So this time I was mentally well-prepared and I was pleasantly surprised when we entered the subway station which was sort of a mix between a subway station in Tokyo and one in Denmark ☺
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| Looks familiar |
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| This could easily have been a subway station in central Copenhagen |
The trip to Taiwan main station was very easy to figure out and took less than 30 minutes. This meant that we had approximately an hour to kill before the high speed train was departing. We spotted a sign that said something something-mall and thought we would go and see if we could find something to eat. We were not really successful and as time went fast we ended up with something we usually try to avoid..
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| McD - perfect pre-race nutrition! |
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| Luckily we also managed to find the time to buy a new pair of shoes |
We made it back in due time and the high speed train pretty much looks like Shinkansen in Japan. The train is traveling with 292 km/t so total travel time was approximately 1,5 hour. I killed time reading ”Faster” by Jim Gourley...
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| Definitely a recommendable read for those with geek-tendencies looking for "free" speed |
When we arrived at Zuoying the officials informed us that the shuttle bus was 45 minutes late, so we grabbed something to eat at the airport. Around 18:00 we boarded the shuttle bus for the last two hours of traveling. In total the trip door to door was around 13 hours which someone might argue is a bit on the long side when we are heading back 3 days later.
When we arrived in
Yoho Bike Hotel we checked in, dropped our stuff in our room and headed out to find something to eat. On our way we met Mark and his wife which had arrived a few hours earlier. Mark wanted to go an swim Friday morning at 6AM, but since I did not expect to get much sleep the night leading up to race day (race start was 6AM and the last bus from the hotel to the start area was leaving 4:50) I thought that I would prioritize to get in a good night sleep from Thursday to Friday.
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| The Yoho Bike Hotel was well-prepared for the triathletes. E.g. breakfast could be delivered in your room at 3AM on race day. |
We had dinner at a restaurant (El Toro) at the resort and the staff seemed to be too few to handle the number of guests. And we were probably not the most patient audience this night...
Despite the long day of traveling I had difficulties falling asleep. I guess the focus on getting a good night sleep almost kept me awake. I ended up sleeping from app. midnight to 5AM and got out of bet at 6AM. Not because I intended to join Mark for a swim, but because I could hear heavy rain outside. It’s usually a very relaxing sound, but when it is there the day before you are doing your first 70.3 the charm kind of go away. The weather forecast said rain all the time through Sunday which was not exactly what we had hoped for.
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| Not the race conditions we wanted |
Anyway, it was not really something we could change, so we might as well get on with it. We headed down for breakfast where we met Mark. He had also skipped the swim and based on the waves we could see from the restaurant discussions around a potential cancel of the swim started…
After breakfast I went to register and picked up the luggage which arrived at 9AM. I wanted to assemble my bike early rather than later and moreover I was eager to get some air in the rear wheel as it was as if it was losing air after I mounted a new tire before leaving home. It was not flat, the pressure just wasn't very high the day after the new tire was put on.
This was the first time I needed to assemble the bike after traveling and it went pretty smooth. I took my time and was done in less than half an hour. After an hour the rear wheel was still hard as stone and I figured that what I at home thought might be a leak was probably just me not putting in enough air after changing the tire.
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| Bike arrived safely |
I had to bike to the transition area which was app. 10 km from the hotel and get back to the race briefing at 16:00. The rain was replaced by sun and Maria decided that she would like to take a run from the hotel to the transition area if I didn’t mind going slowly.
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| The organizers in general provided very clear guidance on most of the things you needed to know. Here it is the road from the Yoho hotel to the transition area. |
The trip to the transition area was actually planned as my pre-race day workout, but I have previously not done a lot of workouts on the day before a larger event (e.g. a marathon) so I decided that this time I could also do without (and the planned swim and run was cancelled too - mainly because of rain and laziness☺).
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| I was not the only one suffering this weekend :) |
When we got to the transition area I sat up my bike and covered the bike with the bike cover we were provided. I did a final check of the rear wheel and it was still good.
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| Sleep tight my love |
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| Transition area - the only time I saw the sun shining here |
We went down to the beach to check out the start area of the swim. The waves seemed to be at a size where it could be a challenge to swim out and I remember thinking that this would probably increase the chance of the race being wetsuit legal. The temperature the organizers posted a week before the race was exactly 24,5 Celsius which is the highest temperature allowing wetsuits and it kinds of makes you wonder whether they are just keeping all options open.
At the race briefing they informed us that due to a typhoon the government had put up red flags at the beach, i.e. no swimming allowed. And even if this would change the organizers would still consider whether swimming would be advisable. If not, the swim would be replaced by a 6 km run. As this was my first HIM I guess I kind of hoped that the swim would happen. On the other hand, I also knew that the swim part is by far my weakest discipline and hence in terms of competing the run was probably preferable. Still, there was really nothing to compete about, but I guess I just wanted to place as high as possible in my age group.
After attending a fairly packed pre-race dinner I went to bed already at 8PM Friday evening as I felt tired and thought I might as well get as much sleep as possible. The bus was leaving from the hotel between 4:00-4:50 and I took the advantage of getting the breakfast delivered in our room at 3:00. As I have previously experienced stomach problems during races, I wanted to eat as early as possible and try not to eat to much. I found some earplugs and they did the job very well and I feel a sleep not long after.
Race plan
Swim
As I have previously went out too hard on the first couple of hundred meters of the swim in the Olympic races I decided that this time I really needed to try not to do that as I believe it would not increase my total swimming time significantly, but get me out of the water in a better condition. Depending on how the waves would be I would like to swim around 38 min (2:00/100) if the race turned out to be wetsuit legal. Everything under 40 min would be acceptable.
I didn't really had much of a plan in case the swim was cancelled, besides taking the first run easy in order to not get the legs to smashed from the beginning.
Bike
The bike course is a two loop course with one larger hill. I had not prepared much climbing and hence the plan was to keep app. 160-175 watt (70-75% FTP) until the first hill (after app. 10 km) and try to keep power below 230 watt (100% FTP) up the hill. After this, settle in at around 185 watt (80% FTP) an see how it feels.
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| The official bike elevation map |
Run
The plan for the run was basically to take it easy at least the first 8 km where it seems like the course profile is slightly uphill. From there try to increase the pace if it does not feel like it will mess up things and push me over the edge.
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| The official run elevation map |
Race day
I woke up around 2:45 and got up for breakfast at 3:00 well rested. I had a small box of apple juice, two pieces of bread, two eggs and two bananas and headed out the door around 4:30. In the bus I met Mark and on the way to the transition area it started raining again and short after the bus dropped us off hell broke loose and the sky just opened. We managed to find shelter in a tent and people started putting on their wetsuits in order to keep warm. I started to worry about whether they would consider canceling the entire race (or maybe just postponing) as it would not be possible to conduct a race in this weather. Mark concluded that we were supposed to be Ironmen (of at least half-Ironmen), so we should stop whining and we decided to head out to the bikes as the rain slowly took off.
When I came to my bike the first thing I did was to check the rear wheel and the god damn thing was flat! I had a spare tube in my transition bag so I did not have to use the one on the bike and I quickly removed the rear wheel and headed towards the mechanics with my wheel and my spare tube. I needed some professional help to avoid messing up. The guys from Shimano quickly changed the tube but the flat was not the only deja vu from
Murakami. Despite the fact that I had bought the tubes with the longest valves at the local bike shop the valve was too short. I felt like the biggest rookie on earth. Fortunately the Shimano guys were kind enough to mount a valve extender and I was happy that they did not wanted any payment as I had not brought any money to the transition area. For a short moment I considered what I would do if I had a flat during the race, but I didn't really know, so I quickly stopped thinking about that (great solution - I know).
When I came back to my bike they announced that the swim would be cancelled and that we would do the 6 km run instead. I got the bike ready, put on my running shoes and headed to the start area together with Mark.
SWIM - replaced by 6 km run (Official time: 00:26:34)
Link to Trainingpeaks
Average pace: 04:21 min/km (garmin)
Average HR: 155
Max HR: 167
Average cadence: 182 (91)
AG rank: 30
I started out in the front of the field and settled in at a pace around 4:30 min/km. The course started out uphill and in general I think people went out pretty hard. I don't know whether that is the preferred tactic, but I chose to stick with my go-easy plan. This is definitely also reflected in the results as I only managed to post the 30. fastest run split in my age group for the first run (10 guys in my AG ran with an average pace below 4:00 min/km! However, only 5 of them ended up with a total time faster than mine, so I am still not sure which approach is the preferred one...).
T1 (Official time: 00:02:21)
AG rank: 53
AG rank (after T1): 30
There is not much to report from T1. Everything was completely soaked and you went from one pair of wet shoes to another pair of wet shoes. Looking at the time I felt it went pretty good, however, a closer look at the numbers shows that 52 guys in my AG had a faster T1! That needs to be improved. Overall I headed out on the bike with 29 guys in my AG ahead of me...
BIKE (Official time: 2:37:12)
Average Power: 164 watt
Normalized power: 181 watt
VI: 1.10
Average HR: 142 (estimated based on data from the first 65 km as the HR strap acted weird during the last 25 km of the bike leg).
Max HR: 160
Average speed: 34,14 km/t
Max speed: 63,13 km/t
Average cadence: 90
AG rank (bike leg): 19
AG rank (after bike leg): 16
I took it easy the first 6 km averaging 144 watt (NP: 168) and a average HR of 139 (max 151). The first 500 m of the climb is pretty steep and although I tried to go as easy as possible, average power was 260 watt here. However, the ascent flattens out and I manage to keep a total average power of 177 (NP: 200) and average HR 144 (max 159) up the first climb. So overall the first part went according to plan.
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| Looks to be smiling :) |
Hereafter I slightly increased the effort trying to keep app. 185 watt. I could really feel that the legs wanted to push harder, but I reminded myself that it would probably not end up well doing so. Still there was a voice inside my heading saying "
you are aiming for 80% of FTP - fit people usually aim for 85% in a HIM" and "y
ou have not estimated your FTP for months - it is definitely higher than what you think - push through"! But fortunately the lazy part of me won and I stayed around 185-190 watt.
Rest of the bike pretty much went as planned. Around 70 km the legs started to get a little tired, but nothing that was not expected. After app. 75 km I manage to pee while on the bike, which I was quite happy about, since stopping either on the bike, T2 on during the run would have cost a few additional minutes. I will not go into details, but it was not something I had practiced (and it was already wet all over the place :)).
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| ...still smiling! |
My nutrition on the bike was a bottle with 200g maltodextrin, 20g of protein 4 salt stick capsules and some fruit juice. It gave me around 280-300kcal per hour which was fine. Besides that I had plenty of water.
It was like the weather also made the referees stay away and some people definitely exploited the opportunity to draft - not pretty... Below is some random video from the bike leg shot outside Yoho...
T2 (Official time: 00:01:37)
AG rank (T2): 22
AG rank (after T2): 16
Again I felt my transition went fairly fast, but it is still not at the same level as the people around me.
RUN (Official time: 1:39:35)
Average HR: 146
Max HR: 162
Average cadence: 178 (89)
AG rank (2nd run): 5
AG rank (after 2nd run): 7
My legs felt pretty tired right from the beginning, so I just started out in easy pace and focused on getting through the first 8 km where the course was slightly uphill. I passed a few guys and was only passed once by some fast guy which I later found out was participating in the relay part of the race, so he was on fresh legs :)
There were aid stations for each 2,5 km and I slowed down and had a glass of water every time I passed one. It had also stopped raining and started to get warm and very humid, so a cold cup of water on top of the head also became mandatory at each station.
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| Heel strike?? |
Although the legs were tired I actually felt okay. After passing 8 km, the next "goal" was passing the Yoho Hotel where the supporting crowd was waiting.
Before the aid station at 12,5 km I took a gel and a saltstick capsule. After passing Yoho I felt that the finish was within reach, but it was not really until the last 2 km I really managed to pick up the pace.
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| How can you have double chin when you are training +10 hours each week?? |
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| Finally! |
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Mark beat me by 7 minutes and won his age group 30 minutes ahead of number 2!
Impressive! |
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| A "Swim"-time I will for sure never beat :) |
POST-RACE
The finish area was great. You were offered free massage and there was plenty of beer, cola etc. Athletes also went directly into the pool for recovery. At that point in time it seemed like the right thing to do, but I am not sure I wanted to go for a swim in the pool on the following day :)
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| Beer and massage - that is post-race for you! |
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| Done! |
After a shower, we managed to catch the breakfast buffet which was open until 1PM. And I was eating all the dirty stuff (french toast etc) - just because I could :)
I felt the race went well, so I was eager to see my ranking. Also, I had no idea how many slots there would be for the World Championship in my age group and how many people from Asia who actually want to go all the way to Canada for racing. So I was determined to participate in the slot allocation session at 16:00. But before that, I needed to go to the transition area, pick up my bike and bike the 10 km back to the hotel as we needed to ship bike+luggage back to Tapei no later than 19:00. While the race was still on, the bus stop for the bus taking you to the transition area was moved 2 km down the road and it was set to leave every 30 minutes. At 13:40 I left the hotel determined to catch bus at 14:00. All my shoes were wet, so I was flopping around the free hotel slippers. Still, my sore legs manage to keep an acceptable pace and I got to the bus stop 13:55.
When I arrived at the bus stop people was waiting in line. Small chairs were provided by a local restaurant and once again I thought, this event is pretty well organised. That was however soon to change...
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| Jaapense cue-culture - we like it! |
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| I think I counted app. 40 people ahead of me and I thought that we could at least squeeze 60 people into a bus. |
For some reason, the driver of the bus did not wanted any one to stand up in the bus. I could imagine this happen in Japan, but China/Taiwan does to me not appear as countries where you always strictly obey all rules. Anyway, the sun was still shining, getting the bus at 14:30 would still give me plenty of time to get back to the hotel at 16:00, so I gladly accepted my spot as number 4 in line for the next bus.
10 minutes later I was, for the 2nd time today, completely soaked. Rain was pouring. It was not that cold, so you basically did not care. I tried to cover my phone in my bag, bud besides that, I just wanted to get to the transition area, so I just kept my spot in the cue keeping up with the heavy rain. So did the people around me. The officials were busy trying to get another bus and the crowd started to get impatient. At around 14:25 the officials suggested all of us to move into terrace of the restaurant that provided the chairs which seemed kind of strange since the bus would arrive in 5 minutes, so why move now after sitting 15 minutes in heavy rain.
More people came from the hotel and the cue was non-existing by now. The three guys in front of me were from Australia and we agreed that it would be a mess when the bus came... IT just never did. People was starting to catching taxis and it was obviously that the locals was also stopping do provide some spare time overpriced transportation service to the transition area. My three Aussie-buddies started to get eager to get a taxi as well and I asked them if I could join them if they succeeded. "
Sure mate"! Aussies are nice. I felt bad when I had to tell them that I had no money (again, that was the second time today I was in this situation) and that I would have to owe them until we got back to the hotel. That was not a problem, they were happy to bring me for free and especially after I told them I was from Denmark, the connection between Crown Prince Frederik (
which by the way did Copenhagen Ironman in 10:45 this year!) and Princesses Mary who is also Aussie made us best friends. That brought me to the transition area where I got my bike and managed to get back to the hotel around15:30.
It turned out that it was only the results and the number of slots to each age group that were posted at 16:00 and not the roll down it self. Anyway, I was excited to see that I placed 7th in my age group and that 5 slots were allocated. Suddenly a slot at the World Championship seemed possible.
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| At least two had to skip their slot in order for me to get one |
I guess I kind of expected that at least two would skip their slot and I would have been disappointed have I not gotten a slot. Fortunately things turned out as expected and there was only one of two among the first 4 that claimed their slot in my age group. As I felt this was definitely something that I had to jump on I gladly raised my hand when my name was called out :)
After the slot roll down I hurried back to pack the bike and rest of the luggage that needed to be shipped before 19:00. The awards ceremony was 18:30 so we missed that and went directly for dinner. At dinner we met some other danish guys from Shanghai and they informed us that the awards ceremony was postponed so we could still make it. I was happy since I had heard that top 10 would get a price and I honestly wanted to bring that home since this was my first 70.3 race :)
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| Top 10 were called on stage and handed over their price :) |
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| One happy kid :) |
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| The Danes in general did good and I was not the only one qualifying for Mont-Tremblant in 2014 |
Next day when we woke up the sun was shining and we agreed that we could have used another day here. We had a very squeezed schedule where basically nothing could go wrong if we had to make the plane at 16:00 from Taipei. Fortunately the bus left the hotel on time everything from here went according to plan.
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| The High Speed Train |
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| Two weeks of complete rest and no limitations in terms of eating habits. I am starting now! |
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| Fortunately the returning flight was Hello Kitty theme! |
Learnings:
- Don't mess up the wheels and make sure you have the right tubes/length of valves
- Earplugs are awesome!
- Improve transitions - it is not (only) meant as time for relaxing!
- Focus on increasing FTP as it seems like most of the guys around me has a higher power output
- Push harder at the end of the race
- The nutrition plan worked well. Don't overeat prior to the race and stick to the plan during the race.
My goals for the 2014 season was to qualify for the World Championship and go sub 5 in a 70.3. I believe the swim would have added 10-12 minutes to my total time, so I feel that this race counts for sub5 and thereby both goals are achieved :)
Hence new goals are:
- Sub 4:45 in a 70.3 race in 2014
- End up in the upper half of my age group at the World Championship in September 2014
- Increase FTP from 231 watt to 260 watt
- Do a bike leg in 2:30 in a 70.3 race (avr. speed of 36 km/t)
Although the swim was cancelled and we did most of the race in pouring rain I am very happy with the race. Mostly because of the qualification, but also because I had a good race where I was not in big trouble, so I know I can push harder in the next race. Also, several people mentioned that this was one of the toughest 70.3 they done so I am already looking forward to the next one :)
And then I am just really looking forward to Mont-Tremblant. If you wonder why, take a look
HERE.
