I’d really enjoyed IM Staffs 70.3 on the previous two occasions I’d done it. The course is in my neck of the woods, with the bike route going through lots of the villages where myself and my friends grew up in around Lichfield. I was feeling good going in to it, particularly on the bike and run so I was going for a time quicker than 5 hours 40 minutes which I’d done previously. This was going to be a good race test pre Alpe D’Huez.
There was a change to the route this time though with T2 and the run being in Stafford town centre rather than Shugborough Hall. Everything else was the same, but the logistics of registering and setting up the transition areas the day before were far more complicated. These are the challenges of point to point races I guess.
As usual it was an early start to get the car dropped off in Stafford and then catch the shuttle bus to Chasewater park for the swim. I faffed about for a while as usual before catching up with Palmer, Aaron and Marcus. As we were waiting around near the start funnel to enter the water, the race announcer told us that the swim was delayed due to heavy fog. Fair enough, you could barely see 50 metres in front of you so it clearly wasn’t safe for sighting or for the race marshalls. However, the longer it went on the more likely it would be that the swim was either shortened or cancelled. This was not a good scenario for me given the swim is my strongest discipline. I really didn’t fancy a bike run only event, although the lads were getting quite excited about that prospect. However, after almost an hour of waiting around and endless trips to the toilet, the fog lifted and they got us going. Game on.
I’d decided to go for it on the swim and bike (well, as hard as I could). All was going well on the swim until around 1600m when I got my first twinges of cramp. Aaaagghhh. I couldn’t believe it. Same old story. I managed to shake it off, but this didn’t bode well.
Out in to T1 and then on to the bike for 56 miles through Staffordshire. As usual I was reeled in by the decent cyclists over the first 20 miles, but I was feeling good. Got some more twinges of cramp as I went along, but nothing too severe. I was fueling well and staying hydrated, so I wasn’t too worried.
That all changed on the run. I came out of T2 and started pretty strongly for the first few miles through the town centre. I took on plenty of drinks at the feed stations as it was getting warmer. At around 6 miles in I got my first major cramp in my calves so I slowed down to a walk to hopefully stretch it out. I managed to get going again after a few minutes but by 8 miles it was clear that the cramp was there to stay. I walked the remaining five miles. Gutted. I finished in 5 hours and 59 minutes, twenty minutes slower than my previous times. This was not the kind of race outcome I had planned.
It was clear I needed a cramp Armageddon avoidance strategy for Alpe D’Huez. Training for months on end to have my race ruined by cramp was not the plan. I needed a strategy. Marcus had also suffered from cramp during the race (although he still made the podium, so it’s all relative right!) so we compared notes. He was looking at magnesium being the main problem which he tested out on a 2 hour dehydrated endurance run. He took a magnesium supplement powerbar which seemed to do the trick. Having read around the topic, I concluded that I was losing too much sodium and probably was carbohydrate depleted.
I also spoke to my coach Kirsty and we went through my normal nutrition strategy during a race. The conclusion was that I was massively under fueling for the length of the race, even with my trusty superfood cake (which was in no way scientifically proven, but it had worked well for Ironman UK last year). We started to work out what I needed to take on board over the next few months. I took on extra carbohydrate powder supplements in my drinks, along with sodium tablets and nutrition bars. This seemed to work well during the long distance hilly rides I was now doing in preparation for Alpe D’Huez. Unfortunately, this was only part of the solution. There was no way of replicating the long Alpine ascents in the UK, or the weather conditions that I would face. There was always going to be a step in to the unknown. But that’s the thrill right!?