Ironman 70.3 Florida 2021 Race Report - Ed Croucher

For Florida 70.3, I didn't really taper. This race was a race rehearsal for Ironman Tulsa. My week leading in was very similar to a normal training week. Due to my work schedule, Thursday, Friday & Saturday are my big training days. Sunday through Wednesday are usually for supporting workouts since they are work days. I did not back off or shorten my workouts until Thursday when I only did a 1 hour bike workout. Friday was a travel day. We didn't get to the house until almost 7 pm. I had a light dinner and caught up with my friends. Saturday, I put my bike together and found the airline broke a part. Some good electrical tape made it manageable for the race. I received a gift of Nike Alpha Fly next % and took them out for a 1 mile test run. I ran very fast at a very low effort. I had brought my Hoka rockets with me for the race. I had only run one time in those. End result was that I chose to try the Alpha Fly's for the race.

I don't believe that I fueled or hydrated Saturday well enough. The swim was not wetsuit legal. I have never done a race without a wetsuit. I was not expecting a wetsuit legal race and I had low stress over it. I brought my swim skin and now I had an opportunity to wear it in a race. I had done two pool swims leading into this race with the skin on. I lined up in the 30 - 33 minute time slot with a friend. I did not expect to be that fast and I was not. I did swim far enough left of the buoys that I had no contact, but not so far that I swam extra. I felt smooth and steady through the swim. I passed many people but also go passed by many.

T-1 was very long, garmin said it was over a half mile. The the pavement was very coarse and quite uncomfortable to run on. I did not go fast. I did not make a real effort to execute a fast transition. I brought 5 bottles of infinit so I could load 4 bottles and have one for the run. However, the bike rack was so high, my front wheel was pointing down too far to load my aero bottle before the swim. Once I had my helmet and shoes on, I un-racked my bike, loaded the aero bottle and headed out.

I did not expect to be out on the bike course much more than 2:30 and 3 bottles should have been enough. Well, it was hot, and since I have experienced no training in hot weather this year, it was very hot for me. I drank 3.5 bottles. That pushed my carbs to 100/hour. By the time I was ending the bike, I was burping a bit but not nauseous. I rode until I felt I was at a strong pace but a pace, but one I could run off. I checked my watts and just stayed in that range. Those watts were right around 170. The end of the ride I had a tail wind and my watts dropped but my speed was good.

T-2 was no different than T-1 and I didn't race it. I wanted to make sure I was ready to run. I put on socks and the new alpha fly. I had my hat, sun glasses & neck gator. The new shoes have a unique feel and are very loud. My first mile was too fast. I settled down and just tried to run steady and stay around 8:00/mile. I walked on all of the steep uphill sections. I had to ask someone if I was in fact in Florida. I walked through the aid stations and grabbed fuel, water & ice. The new Zoot tri-suit with it's ice pockets was awesome. On the bike I had no hot spots or chaffing. On the run it really helped. My neck gator was also key. I filled it with ice. The run went well. During the run, I thought a full marathon would be a death march on this day.

My take away from this race was, the swim is really hard without more swim training. The bike power felt a bit too much but that may have been the heat. I lost 30 seconds per mile between the first half & the second half of the run so maybe the watts were right. I think I needed to lower my pace in the first few miles and perhaps I will not fade. The run was tough but most of that was the heat. My Garmin showed the first half of the run at 86 degrees and the second half at 89. I will need to run slower at the start of the marathon in Tulsa.

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