About IMRoycer81

Richmond, Virginia, United States
Thanks for visiting! I'm a civil litigator at KPMLaw. I attended Cornell where I swam IM and Breastroke. In 2007 I filled the void of swimming retirement with triathlon. In my first tri I thought, "holy sh*t this is painful" and "when can I do it again?" Things escalated quickly and my first half iron was in Augusta 2009 and my first full iron was Louisville 2011. Since 2007 I've been chasing a dream of qualifying for the World Champs in Kona, Hawaii. Prior to September 2017 this blog focused on attempts (and failures) to achieve an elusive KQ. I got the monkey off my back in my 10th Ironman at Chattanooga in 2017. I was fortunate to qualify again in 2022. There is always room to improve, and I look forward to putting in the work to become a consistent podium finisher. I couldn't do any of this without my amazing family. I am lucky to train in a fantastic triathlon town with inspirational athletes. My job, training, and daughters keep me busy, but I update as often as I can. I'm always willing to share the knowledge I've picked up along the way. Thanks for reading!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Overdue Richmond Rox 70.3 Race Report

RICHMOND ROX ENDURANCE TRIATHLON
4:32:25
5th Overall
1st M30-34

My last triathlon of the season was the Richmond Rox 70.3. This was the first half iron distance triathlon staged in Richmond. Richmond is definitely a promising venue for long course triathlon and I hope this event continues to grow and attract more athletes from across the mid-atlantic region. When I was planning out my season I was pretty excited about this race. I am much better at long course than short course and I was looking forward to doing a long course race in front of a "home town" crowd. I was also excited because I felt I had an opportunity to place pretty well amongst some strong local athletes. I thought that after Louisville I could keep my level of fitness with a moderate amount of volume and intensity.

What I wasn't counting on was a nasty case of saddle sores which developed sometime between Louisville and Rox. In addition to the sores, I was dealing with some kind of pinched nerve in my neck. About 90 minutes into every ride I was getting shooting pains on the right side of my neck which would radiate into my right arm. I guess this was my body's way of telling me to dial it back a few notches.

Now that I am a month post-race and had some time to reflect, I can honestly say that I am disappointed with my performance because of my poor attitude and lack of toughness on the swim and bike. I was fit enough to be much faster but my poor attitude was my biggest limiter. On a positive note, I had a great back half of my run and rather enjoyed the run course.

RACE MORNING
Race morning was pretty typical. It was nice to sleep in my own bed and have breakfast in my kitchen. I had my standard pre-race long course breakfast of about 800 calories. I ate oatmeal, a banana with peanut butter and a bottle of gatorade. I already had the car loaded up the night before and headed over to the race site. It was pretty chilly and windy on the morning of the race. This is where my bad attitude started. The two things I hate most about triathlon/riding are riding in cold and windy conditions. This race was going to be both. It was also the first time that I was going to race in a wetsuit. I generally avoid wetsuit legal races because of my aforementioned aversion to the cold.

SWIM- 25:10
Div Rank-2/OA Rank- 4
The swim was pretty uneventful. When we hit the water I remember thinking that the water temp was not as cold as I was expecting. I think I could have raced in a speed suit and ditched the wetsuit. My plan for the swim was to stay up with the front group and not over exert myself. My buddy Justin planned to draft on my hip and we swam side by side for the whole swim course. Justin is a bad ass. The kid did not grow up with a swimming background yet he consistently exits the water with guys like myself who swam in college. I look forward to training with him for Ironman CDA over the next 8 months. I anticipate that training with him will make me a much better athlete and I hope I can provide the same benefit to him.

I think that next year I am going to follow the advice of my coach and my dad and stop dicking around in the water. I think I need to take my swims a bit more seriously and utilize whatever additional advantage I can gain from my swim background. In years past I have been content to merely lay back on the swim and go with the flow. Louisville taught me that a minute or two might make the difference between a trip to Kona or watching it on my laptop. Next year I am not leaving any time on the table.

T1- 3:17
Slow and awkward. Par for the course. Transitions are not my strong suit. Getting the wetsuit off was a bitch. It is hard to pull those things off in the heat of the moment. I elected to take my wetsuit off down by the water and then carry it up to transition. This was quite a long transition and there was a long run from the river front up several flights of stairs to the transition area. I was prepared to ride with arm warmers but I decided to ditch them as I didn't feel particularly cold in the transition area. Got my gear on and hit the bike course.

BIKE-2:27:35
Div Rank- 3/OA Rank- 4
Avg Power- 252
Avg Speed- 22.9 Mph
This was the most disappointing aspect of my race.  I have been very proud of the gains I have made over the last two years on the bike and I have been able to transform my cycling from a weakness to a weapon.  I can only blame myself for my poor effort.  I rode like a sally and was extremely negative from a mental standpoint.  My plan was to exit transition with Justin and try and hold his pace.  However, that plan went out the window pretty quickly when Justin dropped me about 1-2 miles into the bike course.  Justin is a monster cyclist and I look forward to chasing him around for the next few months.  After losing Justin, I was left out in no man's land and I ended up riding about 55 miles solo.  I didn't see a single other soul for the remainder of the ride. This gave me the opportunity to be alone with myself for quite a while.  Generally this is a good thing, but on this day it was just an opportunity for me to have a pity party.  "I'm cold, it's windy, this sucks, my neck is killing me, my saddle sores hurt...blah, blah, blah". 

I very rarely have mental break downs, and I consider myself an extremely tough competitor from a mental standpoint.  In fact, I think that one of my greatest strengths is my ability to get into a headspace of suffering that most people can't.  I definitely let myself down at Rox.  The silver lining is that the bike split wasn't totally disastrous and was pretty good given how crappy I felt, and my poor attitude.  Realistically I think I probably could have ridden about 2:20 like I did back in Charleston in April.  From a nutrition standpoint, I went purely with liquid calories and had a 500 calorie bottle of carbo-pro.  I drank about 2/3 of the bottle on the ride.  I also drank a bottle of propel zero for hydration and electrolytes.


T2-1:21
My second transition was much better than my first (as is usually the case).  I got into and out of transition pretty efficiently.  I was so relieved to get off the bike that my attitude immediately improved and I was actually pretty excited for the run and the run course.

RUN-1:35:01
Avg Pace- 7:05/mile
Div Rank-3/OA rank-5
The run was the only aspect of my race I was pleased with.  I felt strong and in control.  I especially liked the course and the fact that it overlapped with many of the trails and sections of road that I run frequently in the winter with the Steel Hammer Crew during Saturday "core" runs.  It had also warmed up by this time and the temperature was beautiful for running.  I know that I "under" biked because I had plenty of juice on the run.  On the way out of transition, I dipped into a porta-pot for a quick bathroom stop.  Then I worked on getting into a good rhythm.  I held steady and strong for the first half of the run.  In fact, I probably took it out a bit too easy.   My first 6.5 miles was about 4 minutes slower than my last 6.5 miles.  I really kicked it into gear when John Hessian ran by me like I was standing still.  He runs like a gazelle and he seemed to just float by me effortlessly (John is getting ready for Ironman Florida in a few weeks and I feel pretty good about his chances to qualify for Kona).  When John went by, I asked myself, "what the hell are you doing?  You have plenty in the tank...get busy".  I kicked it into high gear and the last few miles were at or under 7:00 pace.  At the turn around of the run, I saw that Marc Warner was gaining on me. Marc is a phenomenal cyclist and an amazing runner.  I knew that I needed to run hard if I wanted to hold him off.  Knowing that he was behind me provided some additional motivation to run hard.  I was extremely pleased with the last half of my run and showed me that my fitness was excellent.  On the whole however I was disappointed with my overall performance and mental breaks.