That was really f*cking hard (Karapiro Half report)

I apologise in advance, but this will be an expletive laden post (having now written it, there is only one expletive. I can add more if you are disappointed by this).

That was the toughest race I have done. I finished in about 5:35, and apart from the first 100m on the swim, I never once felt good.

Was a bit strange spending the night in my own bed, and eating breakfast at home. We got up in good time, but I was feeling a bit tired. Had breakfast, and headed down.

Swim

About 41 minutes (about 43:30 if you include run up to T1 and T1).

The water was lovely - calm, not too cold. The course was, after a buoy 100m out, in theory dead straight. That actually made it hard to navigate (or hard for others to navigate...).

Kate followed me until just after the buoy, then I did my best to draft off her, until she got a bit of a gap at about 1km, and I never caught up. I ended up doing about the second half on my own, and while my time wasn't stupidly embarrassing, I had to work really hard, which I think I paid the price for later...

One of my problems (fitness aside), was that I tend to navigate quite well - and struggle to follow people when they aren't... Something to work on.

Bike

About 3:07:11 (plus a bit more for T2). That is a really tough course. Really, f*cking, tough.

I tried to get into a rhythm early, but I just never felt good. I was aiming to hold 200 watts on the flat, and managed that (without seeming like I was working too hard) for the first half (apart from the hills). But I never felt great, and certainly wasn't flying.

At about 55km, I started feeling horrible. I had no power, couldn't get anywhere near 200 watts on the flat, and barely got above 200 on the hills. I did push for the last, flat, 10km (and was averaging a bit over 200), but I knew I was shot.

I averaged 189 watts, with a normalised power of 205. Last year, at Rotorua, I averaged 193 watts, with a normalised power of 207 (and was about 15 or so minutes faster - so there is scientific proof that Karapiro is harder!). My average HR was 163. This was disappointing, as on a training ride the preceding Saturday, I did the course (minus 10, flat, km), and I averaged 175watts, with a normalised power of 197 watts, and an average HR of 153. So my race performance was well below what I should have been capable of.

I think the bike difficulties were due to a few things:

• Generally not feeling awesome, which will obviously happen some times;
• How hard I had to work in the swim; and
• Nutrition - I had two bottles of drink, and two packs of Power Bar Energy Blasts. Plenty of calories, but I did get thirsty (so needed a third bottle of drink), and, even though I like the Power Bar things, I was so sugared out, I couldn't face any more. So next long race, I need some real food on the bike.
  

Run

About 1:45. The first 500m were in about 4:18 mins/km, but it went downhill from there. I was feeling just awful for the first 5km, and wondered whether I'd have to walk/actually finish. But I persevered, and settled into an ok (albeit that at the time it seemed like a terribly slow) pace.

The run was quite hard. In total, four steep climbs, and I was getting really hot (and having to tip a lot of water over me). I think I was probably a bit dehydrated/simply fried from the bike.

I tried to pick up the pace for the last 5km, but wasn't feeling it, and figured that I might as well just finish, which I did.

The time isn't actually that bad, and it's what I ran at my first Rotorua, but still.

Overall

Just not a good day at the office. Not a fitness thing (apart from the swimming), because I know full well I can ride that course faster than I did. It just wasn't my day.

But the race served its purpose. This was only ever a training race, a good way to kick off the season, and a good chance to race locally.

I will have received a good fitness boost, and nothing I do for the rest of the season will be that tough. I've also been really happy with how quickly I seem to have recovered (touch wood). Two days of compression tights, and my legs have never been particularly sore (I suspect because I couldn't push as hard as I normally can). I'm motivated to get back into it, and was looking forward to swimming last night (which makes a change).

I need to work harder on my swim (I was actually feeling pretty good on Monday) - not only so I'm faster, but, I think, more importantly, so I'm fresher. That probably involves more swimming, and less mucking around when I am. I took that long at Rotorua last year, but was not where near as tired. I also need to tweak my nutrition.

Otherwise, I can't really complain, and I know that in a couple of months (on a mostly flat course), I will be absolutely flying.