Chennai Full Iron Triathlon – Reflections

Now that I am out of the state of ecstasy that followed the completion of Full Iron Triathlon at Chennai organized by Chennai Trekking Club, just thought of sitting back and articulating the Journey that culminated in breaking the 226.3 Km (140.6 Miles) barrier.

To set the pitch, let me start with a bit of my background. My involvement in any form of activity or sport has been very recreational in nature all the way till Jan 2018 and I was neither athletic nor tried to be one till then. Perhaps, it continues to be recreational with just a tinge of passion in Tri-Sport now. At the beginning of 2018, I had about 10 years of swimming acquaintance behind me with me being able to swim about 1500 m in 45 minutes without screwing my heart out. Had always liked cycling in childhood but my rendezvous with some serious cycling started when I was stripped off my driving license in 2012 in US because of my passing out in the middle of the night at home and having got admitted in emergency. Running was more like a make and break friend that I started around 2009 and it was limited to treadmill running with active running and hibernation periods alternating every few months. So, I had never run more than 10 KM, not swam more than 1600 m and had perhaps half a dozen century rides to my credit before Jan’18.

I started cultivating my tri dream and wanted to do a tri event just because I thought I was like Jack of all the 3 trades and I started believing that I should try a Tri. I was keen on doing 2017 Tri-Thonnur but was no way prepared for it. In Jan’18, decided to target Olympic distance in July Chennai Triathlon and started preparing for the same starting Jan/Feb’18.  It was the period when I just restarted my running and was struggling to get back to my previous best of running non-stop 60 minutes. Didn’t have any appetite for joining a gym and I eventually happened to get on to the road for the first time. I was very fortunate enough to have inspiring runners from Runaddicts all over the place in the mornings in RR Nagar surroundings where we relocated and I started running. The mere sight of Runaddicts on daily basis pumped enough Adrenalin in me to get back to my 60 minutes run target by end of January. Thanks to Mohan and I was soon a member or Runaddicts as well as Rideaddicts by Feb’18 and the Tri Journey was on the way. I happened to stumble upon Recreational Triathletes FB group and I got myself into the group with help from Anirban. Priority areas were clear – Swim was my comfort zone and my confidence level of getting out of water alive was high. Next step was to focus on the distance; Cycling also kept my spirits high but this area called for some significant investments as well as efforts; I never liked running but this was a necessary evil to stay afloat in the game. A plan to surpass 21 KM barrier was the next step and I had a steep learning curve too in this area. In the lines that follow, I have focused more on Tri preparation that followed before the events with some concluding remarks about the Chennai event.

Run

Once I managed a 60-minute run in February, next step was to appear for an exam. It came in the form of a 10 KM event towards Jan’17 end and I managed to clock 58 minutes for 10 KM. Despite flat terrain, there was quite a bit of fatigue which was an indication that there was lot to be done. Next came a 21 KM event in March and I clocked 2:12:37 in my first 21 KM event with again fatigue of course.  I was fortunate after that to have a blessing in disguise where I got introduced to Phil Maffetone’s method by Sai Giri of Runaddicts group. I happened to read about some extraordinary achievements of Flores Gierman (Extramilest) and I was fully sold on the methodology. At least, I felt it was right for my Tri preparation. Starting April’17, Personal Bests, Speed workouts, Tempo’s, Sprints etc. became completely insignificant. All that concerned me during the run was whether my HR was below 145 (My MAF rate) or not. Got a Garmin Vivoactive HR through some air-miles and later upgraded from wrist HR monitor to strap. Running became more enjoyable, distances increased, my family time improved due to reduced fatigue and my pace also started showing improvement over time. I was at 6:40/6:50 pace at MAF HR when I started and towards end of 6-7 months, I could get to a pace of 5:30/5:40 at the same HR. Beginning of June, I got very comfortable with weekly 21 KM runs. I managed to complete a self-supported Olympic distance in Jun and ended up upgrading my July Chennai Tri registration to Half Iron. My romance with MAF continues till date and hopefully will remain for next 6 months to 1 year or so. In terms of running gear, I have a $150 Brookes and INR 2500 Kalenji shoes and I derive the best comfort from Kalenji and leg sores from Brookes. So, a learning here that best brand may not be best for all legs. Regarding injury, MAF really helped with injury free runs. Injury prone parts of the leg showed up as discomfort areas from time to time and I could bake in some strength in those muscles through strength training. My concern areas were Calves, Outer Feet Edges and ITB and I ended up including some strength workouts for these areas and touch wood, I have remained injury free till date.

Bike

Next need of the hour for the Tri dream was cycling leg – the most expensive of the 3 sports. Now that I had made up my mind for Tri, I was in no mood to hang around with my old Schwinn hybrid given that investment will have to be done sooner or later. Thanks to Cyclop (FB Group) and I managed to get a good deal on a used year-old Scott Speedster 30. Initially confused about usage of cleats, I started on the roadie with traditional clip and belt setup and started building miles on my new stallion. Shivrudrappa, Sai, Rohit, Pratap and Shyam became my regular partners in crime. Best part of the rides used to be the average HR and it stayed within the MAF HR through the rides with occasional spikes on elevations. Task at hand was to build speed at the same HR. I gifted resistance bands to myself around Jun for bicycle strength training and I started seeing the results. I started spending 2 to 3 days a week on Resistance bands, Hill Repeats, pedal pulls in belt setup. I could sustain speeds of 25-26 KMPH over 100 KM after I started the strength workouts.  Next investment came in the form of touring pedals and SPD cleats 2 months before Kolhapur Tri and that helped me take myself to 30 KMPH during Kolhapur Tri. The last investment came in the form of aerobars and bike fitting about 2 weeks before Chennai and this gave me a further increase of 2 to 3 KMPH in my speed. I always belonged to the crowd that is skeptical of spending money on bike fitment. But, I am convinced now that bike fitment is critical. The tools, techniques, expertise and experience matter a lot during a bike fit and a job well done will not only help with speed but will also help prevent injuries. Also, I would like to mention a quote by Anirban here – “Tri Events are glorified cycling events”. Perhaps, I happened to take this quote too seriously and ended up spending most of my time, money and efforts on this.

Swim

This has been my stagnant skill. Intention was to get out of water at a reasonable pace without exceeding Aerobic HR. With lack of coaching as well as lack of intent to improve, I just managed to improve from 2:50 to 2:30 per 100 m over 6 months. No qualms about this given that my perception of returns/efforts ratio was less in this leg. Looking forward to improving my swim in 2018 now that I have managed to find a coach in my vicinity.

Run up to Tri Events

With July Chennai Tri getting cancelled, I enrolled for September Tri Thonnur Half iron. Thonnur triathlon was preceded by Thonnur Swimathon in August. A couple of open water practices in run up to Swimathon followed by Swimathon gave a good open water swim practice for Thonnur Triathlon. I thought I had enough HM practice in the preceding months and was confident around biking too. Tri Thonnur turned out to be one of the grilling endurance events for me. Got fatigued in the 300m loop swim leg. Bike leg and run leg elevation profiles were killers and I finally managed to complete Half iron in about 8 hours with lot of fatigue under my belt. I had clearly underestimated triathlon and had overestimated my capabilities and I was glad that the learning came so early. My next choice was between Hyderabad and Kolhapur.  Given that Hyderabad was my maternal home, I was familiar with the weather conditions in Hyderabad and I ended up with a presumptive mental block that Hyderabad would be tough. Hence, decided in favor of Kolhapur – The unknown. As a preparation, the goal was to atleast do 2 rides of 100 plus KMs with 5 hours on the saddle, complete one FM and a couple of open water practices. Target was to spend similar amount of time in single practice of running or biking as it would take for both events together in Half Iron. Biking and Swimming practices went as planned. Participated in Bangalore FM three weeks before Kolhapur and I bonked immediately after 21^st KM. Not sure whether the bonking was mental due to impending Kolhapur event or physical due to fatigue. Nevertheless, I ended up finishing the FM in 5 hours and recovered in 2 days after a good massage and that pumped in some confidence that I was ready for Kolhapur. Kolhapur Half Iron turned out to be a fun with me clocking approx. 6:16:29 at an aerobic HR except few bike segments and with enough energy left in me after the event. I was glad that the training had paid off.  The reinstated December Chennai Triathlon after July Cancellation was supposedly Half Iron for me. But I ended up upgrading this to full iron after Akshay pumped in some confidence in me that I had done enough training to go for this. Thanks to long fruitful discussions with Akshay and Anirban 4 to 5 weeks before the event and I had enough action items with me to be taken care before the event. Given that I had completed a FM (in training mode) and had couple of 25K+ already done, I wanted to put in another 30K+ before the Full IM and that got realized through Magadi to Ramanagar Run with Runaddicts. This was followed by a long ride to keep my Bums on the Saddle for 6 hours. Though a slow ride, I did a 140K ride in 6 hours. This was followed by an Aerobar training of 1 week and a 100K ride on Aerobars on Bangalore – Mangalore highway with Rohit and Sai. Thankfully, all the training plans went fine and I had 2 complete weeks to taper down before the D-Day at Chennai. What followed was a blissful Full IM at Chennai and icing on the cake was that I still had energy left in me at the end of Full IM.

I have tried to focus more on the event preparations in the above lines rather than the event itself. Just to conclude, here are few takeaways from the event –

The Event – 16^th Dec 2017

Got up at 4:30 AM, had two peanut butter sandwiches and 2 Bananas. Swim started at 6.20 AM. Plan was to complete the swim leg comfortably and keep self-hydrated even during the swim. After every 900 meters (3 loops), consumed about 3 to 4 oz. water during the swim. Once out of swim, consumed 2 sandwiches and a banana and then on to the cycle. Cycling hydration included a bottle of water, bottle of electrolyte and a bottle of coconut water – all 750 ml bottles. Target was to complete a bottle of electrolyte and 2 bottles of water over 90 KM’s and one bottle of coconut water over 180 KM’s. Hydration plan was on track. Food intake included 4 dates, 2 bananas, 20 to 25 raisins (not able to quantify Raisins) every 45 KM’s and consume citrus fruits and curd rice at 45 KM aid stations. All solid food intake except for curd rice was as planned. Consumed curd rice at 90 KMs and 140 KMs and that was good enough for a smooth ride. In the run leg, just focused on hydration, citrus and salt intake and sponge baths at every Aid station. After 20^th KM, started stretching calves and glutes every 5 KM’s with help from Manjunath to avoid any cramping during the run.

The Goods

• Perhaps one of the most grilling events given some stretches of rural roads, Headwinds, Heat and trail running involved. Chennai will prepare you for the worst.
• Awesome management of swim segment. Despite such huge participation, Swim segment was scattered and coordinated very well.
• Awesome support by volunteers especially in the swim leg and run leg and 45 KM Aid stations on the cycling leg.
• Very well managed despite the rural setup and the low registration cost. Photos and results are published within a day after the event.

Improvements

• Lack of lighting in some stretches of run leg and stray dog menace.
• 22.5 KM aid station in biking was obscure given its presence in the town. Keeping the aid station out of the town would have made it more visible.
• Potholed 20 KM’s and another 20 KM of traffic prone stretch in cycling. But, again, we can never get the best in Indian cities.