Rishi's Homepage

Race information

Goals

Goal Description Completed?
A Sub 6:00hr No
B Strong Bike Yes
C Strong Run No

Long wait to the Race

This is a race which took 2 years to happen.

I signed up for this race in March ‘20. Bergman Triathlon is a national triathlon, conducted in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. This race has good reputation of a well organized race. It was originally scheduled for Oct ‘20, but kept getting deferred due to Covid.

For me and most of other athletes, this was first race after Goa 70.3, which happened in Oct ‘19.

As I had no swim practice, my Race Strategy for Kolhapur was : Survive the Swim, Go Hard on Bike and Run.

The splits I was aiming for : Swim in 60”, Bike in 2:50 hr, Run in 1:55 hr

This race was also my experiment on two aspects of Nutrition - Carbs and Caffeine.

For both these as focus, I chose SiS Caffeine Gels as primary fuel source. One SiS Gel has 22gm of Carbs + 150mg of Caffeine. So, with 2 gels + snickers per hour would give me close to 75gm carbs per hour.

Pre-Race Days

The Uncertainty

After many deferrals, Organizers announced 30th Jan ‘22 as the race date. But this was before the covid third wave. In December ‘21, Covid third wave started. Country went in lockdown, all planned events got moved.

Kolhapur Tri Organizers still went about, seeking permissions to make this race happen. They kept sending regular updates and discussions with the race authorities.

Finally, on the morning of 19th Jan, just when Race was 11 days away, Vaibhav confirmed - YES, RACE IS ON!! Somehow, they managed the go ahead!! Wow!! I wonder what went behind the scenes :smile:

New Bike Bag and Travel Prep

As soon as race was confirmed, I booked my flight to Pune for 27th Jan.

Now, any triathlete will confirm - Triathlon Race Packing is a big task. First, there are 3 disciplines to be packed for - stuff for Swim, Bike and Run. Bike is usually the biggest challenge when race is outside your home town and flight is involved. Airport Luggage handling is famous for infamous reasons. So, bike has to be packed well and securely.

Before the lockdown, I had bought a new compact cycling bag - Orucase B2. This bag is designed for for ease of travel and convenient airport and city transfer of the bike. It has small wheels and very easy for a solo traveller to handle. The bag also has enough cushion to keep cycle frame and other components safe.

But this compactness comes with a cost - cycle needs to be completely unassembled. Thankfully, YouTube had good instructional videos on this, and the bike was packed quickly.

Very Compact Cycling Bag Orucase

Delhi, Pune, Kolhapur

After an uneventful flight from Delhi to Pune, I landed safely in Pune with my bag. Orucase proved to be a great choice as bike bag. Handling this was easy. No doubt, this bag will see lot of races with me in upcoming months.

Sujoy and Alok picked me from Pune Airport and dropped me at Maitreyi’s place. After a nice lunch at her mom’s place, Maitreyi and I went to get the bike assembled and then to a small swim in freezing Law School Swimming pool.

On 28th Morning, we drove from Pune to Kolhapur. The route was is smooth scenic Maharashtra - Goa National Highway. Took about 3.5 hours to reach, and we checked in at Hotel Vrishali Executive, small clean hotel.

One Day before the Race

On 29th Morning, we went for a Practice Swim. Rajaram Talav is the Swim venue for the race and Expo / T1 / T2 were all on the short 200m climb from the lake.

This was my first open water swim after a gap of almost 2 years. Reaching the lake, I hesitatingly checked the water temperature. Not bad! While it was cold, it felt ok. There were ropes all around the route.

Putting the swim cap and goggles, I borrowed a swim buoy from a friend and stepped into the lake. I took a deep breath and started to swim along the rope. From the first stroke, I felt comfortable. No panic, no cold water shock. I did a nice easy 200m round of the lake and came back. Feeling the water temperature I decided - no wetsuit needed for the race day.

Done with the swim, we took out bike from the car. Fixing the front tyre, we did a small 5” ride to confirm brakes and everything was ok. It was. Sorted, it was time to go to expo to get the registration done and check-in the bike

The expo was well organized. Many vendors had put their stalls - Garmin / On the Run Nutrition Bars / Swim Buoy stall. A Bike Mechanic was also available. We went to athlete check-in, showed ids, got race bib, lovely bag, tee and other goodies. The bag is very nice and sturdy. From the check-in counter, we moved to bike area (it is all in same place) and racked our bike.

Nice Bag
Racking the bike

Strangely, No one was bothering with Covid Protocols. There was no checking of RT-PCR test, hardly anyone was wearing a mask, anyone could enter the expo. None of the guidelines mentioned in the Race Guide were enforced.

All done with the expo, we went back to hotel. Evening was spent chilling - relaxing with friends over small drink and lot of good food.

Race Morning

I prefer my race morning to be calm and organized. Everything was packed the night before.

Waking up at 4:45 am, I took a nice shower, wore my trisuit and had light breakfast - one banana, one whole foods energy bar and one caffeine pill (200mg).

After reaching the race venue, I went through the usual checklist:

All done, clicked some selfies with the friends.

With Maitreyi and Rohan
With Sujoy Sonia and DG
With SuBoy

Swim [1.9km]

Swim line-up was at 6:30am with race start at 6:45am.

Waiting at the start line

At 6:30 am, we moved from T1 towards Swim start point. The swim loop was L shaped - 350m straight, right turn for 600m and then come back the same path.

All gathered, we were waiting for first rays of sun to hit the lake. That moment was very serene. I was calm. I took the swim buoy as precaution as no open water swim practiced for 2 years.

Just before the swim start, it was announced that there was a blind athlete amongst us, along with a support athlete. They both were welcomed by huge cheer!!!

Rajram Talab, sunrise in horizon

At 6:50am, the swim was open. It was a staggered start, 6 athletes every 10 seconds. The swim start was rough - lot of jostling and kicking. I quickly realized that swim buoy was a very dumb idea. First of all, It was slowing me down. Secondly, it was not even needed. There were ropes throughout the loop, athletes could hold on to it if needed. Anyway, it was too late in the game. If this was my swim buoy (I had borrowed from a friend), I would have unlatched it and continued without it.

Swimming comfortably, I reached the 900m loop. I checked the time elapsed - 36 min. DAMN!!! I knew I was slow, but not this slow!!! Calculating, I realized I was in serious risk to miss the swim cutoff of 70 min. My race would have been over even before I reached the bike. I strongly suspect the slow speed was due to the drag caused by swim buoy.

I accelerated the return leg. Good thing is I was feeling calm and swim form was coming back. Pushing a bit, I finished the return loop was done in 31 min, overall swim in in 67 min. Phew!!! I made it just 3 min before the cutoff.

Other than almost missing the cut-off, I was happy the way swim felt. No fatigue, no panic.

Total Time: 67min Total Swim done: 1800m Strava Link

Nutrition: Nothing

T1

Coming out from the swim, I saw Rohan, waiting and cheering for me! It was so good to see a familiar face.

I dashed to T1, wore HRM, Helmet, Cycling Gloves, Socks, Shoes. I inserted one newspaper inside Zipper top. The paper helps to absorb the water and moisture. Last step was to insert 6 Gels in the 2 back pockets. Then I , unracked the bike and walked towards the cycle mount point, which was 100m away.

Total Time: 8 min

Cycle [90km]

The bike route is single out and back loop on the National Highway 48, Maharashtra Goa Route. It is a rolling terrain, with km 42 to 45 being at 5-8% gradient. . The U-Turn is at Km 45.

Highway was 1km away from the start point - sharp downhill and uphill ride to reach highway.

Reaching highway, I carefully merged into the main traffic and settled down in an easy comfortable rhythm. Now it was all about executing a solid bike ride. Something I had trained for well.

All settled, it was time for hydration. I’ve bottle holder under the seat back. It holds 2 water bottles.

In a practiced motion, I moved my right hand behind to grip the bottle. Eyes remained focused on the road. The hand moved in the air, no bottle came in contact. I carefully glanced back - no water bottle on the right side!! Oops, where did this go! Anxiously, I checked left side. Nope, no bottle there too. Somehow both bottles were gone!!

Damn, damn, DAMN!!!!

Before going to swim, I clearly remembered filling and racking the bottles. No idea what happened to the bottle. I was stunned here!

Going down on the aero position, I took deep breaths, calmed my mind and assessed the situation.

In long distance course, Nutrition plays a very key role. As the day is long, you need to fuel and hydrate yourself constantly. And bike is the best time to get some calories in. When you hit the run, your stomach can’t handle much calories.

With bottles gone, I had 6 gels still with me. My estimate was to finish bike around 3 hours. So about 2 gels an hour. Good. This would give me 44 gm of carbs. I was also carrying snickers, so another 10gm of carbs an hour. While not enough, it was not bad. It would take care of my fuel.

But I also needed to hydrate. And hydration is more than just plan water. Body loses lot of sweat in the race. To replenish that, electrolytes are needed. An ideal combination is mix of Sodium / Magnesium / Potassium and Calcium. But plain salt would also do, sodium is often most lacking.

Continuing pedalling, I took the first gel. I was slowly overtaking people. The first aid station came at 12km mark. I got 200ml Bisleri there, and NO SALT was available!! Even on all other aid station, it was all water / fast n up and banana. But no salt. This is something that organizers must fix for the future. Salt is essential for long distance races. Yes, I should have kept a backup. But this is a supported race, there should be salt at aid station.

Anyway, I focused on task at hand and maintained a steady 30-32 kmph pace. The Km 42 to 45 were expectedly very steep and challenging. I kept an eye on the power reading on my garmin. The idea is not to go too hard on this and suffer later. Power reading gives a concrete reading on the effort you are putting in, no guess work needed.

My Cycling FTP is 229 watts. I was racing with 170-190 watts as my target race power. For these inclines, I went till 200-210w but nothing beyond that. Thanks to all the low RPM work MD made me do, I was able to push through the long climb.

After 45km turn, it was time to take benefit of all the climb. I tucked myself in the drop bar, and I went speedy. Next 5km came in under 8 min, av speed of 38kmph with top speed of 60.8 kmph. What a rush!

Steep Downhill
Smooth Roads, staying aero
Posing for the camera

The bike was overall well executed. First 30km came in 60min. Second in 64min, and third took 61min. My Normalized power was 166w. Last 20km I faded a bit, the heat was on and I started to feel the dehydration impact.

Total Time: 3hr 5min

Elevation: 804m

Elevation Chart

Strava Link

Nutrition: 2 Gels every hour + 1 snicker every hour. Small banana twice on the course.

T2

Reaching transition area, I racked the bike, rushed behind the transition area to pee. Now, this was another struggle with single piece tri suit. Noted for the future.

After the pee break, I changed into my running shoes Vibrams, grabbed running cap, stuffed 4 gels in back pocket, had 2 salt tablets with Gatorade.

Total Time: 7 min

Nutrition: 2 Salt Tabs + Gatorade

Run [21.1km]

It was close to noon when I started the run. First thing I noticed was the heat. Temperature was 30 degrees and rising. For me personally, coming from peak Delhi winters, this was quite a change.

The run route was out and back loop of 5.5k. So, 4 loops were to be done. Timing mat was there on both ends of the road.

The route was rolling, with decent elevation of 175m over the half marathon.

I started off well. First 5k came just in 29 minutes. Easy and comfortable pace. I was surprised at the elevation though. Running on Delhi flat roads, any small elevation is a challenge.

By the time next loop started, body had started to slow down. I still maintained pace of 6. But the Rate of Perceived Exertion was extremely high. Heat on the run course, dehydration from the bike, elevation - everything was making me struggle.

This is where things turned dark. My mind decided this misery was not worth it. All pessimist, dark thoughts came running in my mind. I was cursing my life choices of this sport :joy:

Now, endurance sports is a game of managing pain. Everyone goes through the dark phase. It is inevitable, part of the deal. I’ve done many long distance triathlons - 2 full ironmans and 7 half iron distances. So I know this phase. But I was not prepared at how strong it was this time. I wanted to quit at 8 km mark itself. This has never happened to me, not even in Full Ironman where I’ve struggled.

It was all downhill from there. My mind was complaining about every single thing - the heat, the hot road causing blisters with thin vibrams sole, the fatigue. Every km I wanted to quit. I somehow managed to continue running, with very uneven splits and walking every few minutes.

The volunteers were lovely though, cheering, offering food, salt, ice sponges. I used all of the, but I did not benefit much.

Managed to finish the run in 2 hours 34 min, badly fatigued / in pain / disappointed.

Pace split

End time: 2hr 34 min

Sun was full on
Road was very hot and I could feel heat through my thin vibrams
Posing for the camera

Strava Link

Nutrition: 4 gels + coke every aid station

Total Time: 7 hr 4 min

Post Race

Crawling through the finish line, I met my friends. They would have been wondering why I am looking like shit :laughing:. We clicked some pics and then I just went aside for few minutes.

Just few weeks back, I had a local race, where I ran 20k in 1 hour 38 min(Pace: 4:49 min/km). So, I was not in a bad running shape. I was just not ready to struggle this much. I introspected later what went wrong. During that time, I was just angry at myself and frustrated.

After resting for a while, drinking Gatorade and popping salt tablets. I recovered and went back to the gathering area.

Smile, it is DONE

Here, I learnt that Maitreyi got podium - second fastest female of the day!! So, at least some cheer on a dark day!!!!

One with the Podium finisher

Later news came Sonia also got podium in her Age Group category. DG finished race close to Sub 6 time, that was a solid performance after Jet lag. Sujoy being Sujoy was most chill on finishing and a fast bike executed (the dude was not doing this race till 2 days before the race!)

So, all this news helped to cheer up a bit. While my race personally was disaster (we will call it learning experience :laughing:), it was wonderful to learn that my friends got a good race.

Going back to the hotel, I made loads of notes on what went wrong. While I was down and out, there was no way I was not going to capture this.

Looking Back and Learnings

Now, while I am writing this after a week, when things have settled down, there are some very clear learnings.

It was not all dark and bad. There were some aspects which went well

What went well

Till next race, then!

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