SAG Supported Run/Ride/Run

Carlos and Sue held a SAG supported event today for their athletes that was intended to simulate portions of the actual IM race.  Before I go any further, every time I told somebody about this event, they inevitably asked me, “What does SAG mean?”  You know, I’ve used the term hundreds, if not thousands, of times and never really knew myself.  Well, thanks to Wikipedia, here is what I found out:

"SAG" (most commonly written in all uppercase in the United States but without capitals elsewhere) comes from a 1930s British expression about riders "sagging" off the back of a group.  It was adopted in the 1940s when road-racing restarted in Great Britain to mean a following vehicle into which riders sagged when the effort became too much and they dropped out of a race. SAG is sometimes described as an acronym for 'support and gear', 'gear' referring to: mechanical support.”

When the alarm went off, I was supposed to get up and have my traditional pre-ride/race breakfast, but for some reason, I had absolutely no appetite.  Instead of forcing down calories, I elected to hit the snooze button and grab a few more Z’s.

With that in mind, my schedule for the day was going to be a 40min run, 3 loops on New River Road, and another 40min run.  New River Road is about a 6 mile ride from where camp was set up and is approximately 10 miles long.  There is a slight downhill when heading east and the wind is as unpredictable as the Beeline Hwy (Ironman bike course).

When I arrived, I quickly learned that the majority of the other athletes were doing a ride/run only.  After Carlos sent them off, he brought over a foam block and a roller.  He told me that he thought my “injury” could be tight muscles in my calf.  The tightness could be the cause of my pain or the tightness could be affecting nerves in the surrounding area.  Either way, he wanted me to use this roller on my calves.  He put the roller on top of the foam block, had me sit down, and place my calf on said set up.  I slowly rocked my leg back and forth over the contraption while he, and Sue, looked on.  “Can you feel that?” he asked.  Could I feel it?  HOLY COW!!!  Talk about some pain!  I’m talking about the “good” pain that is associated with a deep tissue massage.  After hooking up both sides, it was off to run.  I ended up putting in a pain free 4.72 miles in 41:21 (8:45 min/mile).  Run Before Long Ride 

Stock pics of the contraption and how I used it:

Carlos now wanted me to warm up on the bike before the other athletes returned from their warm up ride.  Around this time, I got a glimpse of all the goodies he had in his van.  Gels, Blocks, bananas, Perform, you name it.  My appetite suddenly kicked into gear, so I asked for a PowerBar.  After downing just about the only nutrition of the morning, I headed out onto the blacktop to warm up.  I got in about 10 miles before they came back.  Before I knew it, we were all rolling towards New River.

I was in front, all alone, from the start.  Once on New River, I got into IM mode.  I had my aero helmet on, the necessary calories on board, and kept a steady race pace effort.  Just like in 2010, on the Beeline, I quickly noticed that there was a pretty good tailwind.  On several occasions, I ran out of gears while hitting speeds of 39 mph.  This only meant one thing….the return trip was going to be S-L-O-W with the headwind.  I was right.  On my three laps, I averaged 31.1, 31.2, & 28.8 heading west and 15.5, 14.2, & 14.0 into the wind.  Occasionally, Carlos and Sue would pull up next to me and ask if I needed anything.  I was trying to be self sufficient, and was doing a pretty good job, so I declined every time.  The only time I took them up was at the turnaround where Sue had her truck parked.  I got a refill of water for my last loop.  Overall, I felt pretty darn good.  I took in 1100 calories in the form of:

·         400cals EFS in 56oz water

·         400cals in Powershot

·         300cals of Gu.

Here is the links to my ride (STRAVA) and (Garmin)    

After the three loops, we cruised back to camp for a brick run.  Sue had set up an aid station that had the exact same stuff we’ll see on the IM course.  It was pretty cool for sure.  As I made my first lap around the designated course, she asked what I wanted.  I wanted both Perform and water.  “Water goes here” I said as I dumped it over my head, “And Perform goes here” has I shot it back.  It was getting hotter now.  I’d say it was low 90s.  Towards the end of my second lap, I started to feel those twinges in my knee area that were all too familiar.  Once I told Carlos what was going on, he had me shut it down.  I sat in the shade with an ice pack on the area.  I put in 2.38 miles in 21:33 (9:04 pace that included that aid station stop).

After it was all over, Carlos told me to keep his roller and wanted me using it 3x a day.  What the heck, nothing else has worked, so let’s just throw this at it as well!!!!

Oh, and that groin pain?  It wasn't even a factor today.  It took exactly 2 weeks to subside and nobody knows what the hell it was.