Sunday’s Honolulu Triathlon went well, and it had its challenges. Before getting into the details, let’s take a step back and get some perspective.
Last December I shared here about my goals and reasons for doing all this crazy stuff – my why. The first version was “To live an active lifestyle and demonstrate that age is just a number.” Later I added a second, more succinct phrase, “Because I still can.” You could say that the first version looks outward, and the second looks inward. Two sides of the same coin. Or you could say that the first reflects a coaching perspective, while the second frames at me as an athlete.
My goals for 2022 are very ambitious, the result of believing at the time that I had this heart thing under control. Goal #1, return to Honu in June for the half Ironman. Goal #2 is to take on a full distance race, specifically Ironman Cozumel in November. Goals work better with commitment, so I signed up for both races.
My marathon DNF was the first step in undermining my belief that we had this heart condition under control, followed by a gradually evolving appreciation for what exactly is going on. The KRX 10K on March 6th gave me the opportunity to record my heart arrhythmia in action, and from that Dr. Cogan, my cardiologist, was able to make a diagnosis of Premature Atrial Contractions (PACs), a relatively benign type of arrhythmia. The good news is that PACs are unlikely to trigger a heart attack, as compared, say, to Atrial Fibrillation. The bad news is that every PAC disrupts the normal heartbeat. I feel the effects mostly while running. I do not feel the flutter other people report. What I feel is moderate to extreme fatigue above what I should be feeling at that effort, and this will be confirmed by a noticeably higher heart rate, zone 5 when it should be zone 2.
I have yet to find any description of the possible impact PACs have on athletic performance. My theory is that at low rates they have no noticeable impact, but as the frequency of occurrence increases, the brain responds to the disruptions in blood flow by increasing heart rate. Sort of like how you breath hard after holding your breath, even without changing your exertion. Your brain is just trying to keep you alive.
The effect on me is that running at a zone 2 pace feels like a zone 5 effort. Except respiration does not go up much. I feel very tired, as if I were working hard, while the muscular effort and breath rate are out of whack with how I feel. Something like trying to do a quality workout without enough rest.
I fully expected my PACs to show up for the Hapalua half marathon five weeks later, on April 10th. I set myself a goal of running at an easy pace, more like the long run pace I had been using for months. The first half was a struggle, and by halfway I decided I would be better off walking.
It was this outcome that led me to formulate a new approach, to forgo running for power walking. I wrote about this in March. For a long time, I have found myself running while surrounded by walkers. A few even passed me as if I were standing still. Instead of doing all the right stuff to improve my runs, which were stubbornly refusing to improve, I decided to abandon all of that and put that time into improving my bike time. In a triathlon the athlete is supposed to hold back on the bike in order to have enough energy to run. Overcook the bike, so the saying goes, and you end up walking the run. Since my run was not much faster than walking, why not go all out on the bike? I might even lower my overall time.
Sunday’s race was my first opportunity to put this plan into action. At the same time, I had it as a “B” race and did not want to go all out. To complicate things, my bike training has been specific to Honu, a hilly course that changes gradient constantly and includes one long, never ending climb to Hawi. The Honolulu Triathlon bike course is as flat as a pancake. I had no idea how well I would perform and was not expecting much.
After spending a few minutes consulting my crystal ball I came up with some estimates to share with my super sherpa, my wife Pattie. I present them here alongside my actual times, taken from my Garmin.
Event
Planned
Actual
Swim
0:50:00
0:52:00
Bike
1:40:00
1:43:13
Run
2:00:00
1:46:30*
To be fair, the run time was so far below my estimate because by the time I got back to Magic Island I was the last runner on the course and people wanted to leave, so I cut the Magic Island part and just run through the finish arch, greeted by much celebration. Why make them wait around any longer?
The best thing about my day was that when I finished each leg, I was not dead dog tired, like I have been in prior years. Walking the run made a huge difference in the energy required to finish. Kind of a no-brainer, but I was pleased to have the opportunity to prove my point.
Early in the run I noticed something surprising. I was pushing myself to walk fast, and without thinking I would shift gears into a running gait. I caught it when I felt my breathing get deep and my legs started to burn. I had to force myself to recall what walking felt like, at which point I had the big aha. As the run progressed, I found that I could easily sustain an 18:30 pace. Above that my legs would shift into run mode. At this point in a race my run pace would be about the same, even 19:00. This confirmed my guess that walking was not going to cost me much in overall time. Mind you, the elites run this in just over thirty minutes, so being out there for two hours is a long time. Possibly too much to make up with a good bike leg. I need to improve my power walking stride, but there isn’t much time until Honu.
This leaves the swim cutoff time. I know it is going to be close. My 2019 Honu pace was 2:42 for a time of 1:08:29. The cutoff is 1:10:00. Beyond cutting it close, such a long swim time increases the need for a miraculous bike leg.
My most recent swim T-1 pace test was 2:53. Sunday’s swim pace was 3:01, but that was holding back. Given the inaccuracies of open water swim timing, making the cutoff time could be more about weather conditions and not straying off course!
Talking about heart rate, I have a few more tidbits to share. As I have said before, this heart arrhythmia thing has been with me for a long time. I still have two Garmin chest straps hanging from my rack from when I thought the strap I had was broken. Long before that I recall struggles with certain fabrics, and wiping the skin with alcohol where the chest pads would make contact, all because of whacky heart rate readings. The first time I did Honu, in 2017 I think, I recall vividly being shocked to start the bike leg with my heart rate in zone 5. I spent several miles pedaling as lightly as possible trying to get it down.
On Sunday I saw the same thing. Heart rate in zone 5 coming out of T1. I just shrugged. I went by how I felt, breath rate, and power. If my legs started to burn and my breathing became labored I was too close to threshold, so I backed off a little. Dr. Stephen Seiler points out that breath rate closely follows RPE, so much so that a group he is involved with is developing a breath rate wearable athletes can use in real time.
Monday morning I got a notification from TrainingPeaks that my bike threshold heart rate (LTHR) has improved, from 127 to 137. That is a big increase! Back when I set it I based it on a traditional FTP test, but that was before all this Pineapple Hill work and lactate threshold intervals I have been doing for Honu. No sign of a power improvement, but I am pleased to see my heart willing to work harder. Or is it just beating faster to do the same amount of work? In any case, I’ll take it as a reward.
There is something that bothers me about this heart stuff. I am uncomfortable with how it comes off sounding like an excuse. Even as I write those words a part of me jumps in to reassure me that a physical limitation is a real thing. Was I right when I said age is just a number? The good news is that I can continue to be active. The lifestyle is the best defense against aging, better than any pill or exotic plant. I will wait and see how Honu goes before I make any drastic changes, but I am willing to consider that my desire to continue racing may require some adjustment.
To wrap this up, my reasons for doing all this are process oriented. Sure, it is nice to win something, and I begrudge nobody for winning their age group, or a Kona slot, and I won’t hold back when the opportunity presents itself to celebrate someone else’s achievement. That being said, I enjoy the process and the health benefits that come from an active lifestyle. For now, that means the triathlon lifestyle. I like a hard challenge, but at the same time I do not go to pieces when I fail to win. We have by no means closed the book on my heart issue, but indications are it is not going to get any better. In the meantime, I plan to continue doing as much as I can. A DNF is a lot better than a DNS.