Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

Even before I became a multisport athlete, I was vaguely aware of Powerman Zofingen, the duathlon equivalent of Ironman Hawaii.  When I started running and decided to race Ironman, I looked into Powerman but dismissed it as being too hard and out of reach.  A couple of years later, after I'd done an Ironman, a colleague talked about doing Zofingen and I decided to give it a go.  In the meantime, I focused on my running and marathoning and didn't think much about training for it until this summer.

After Lochaber, I had an excellent running base and my cycling didn't seem to have suffered much either, though I needed to put some time in on the triathlon bike to get comfortable to ride it hard for 4-5 hours.  Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan - I'd had an excellent winter of training but it wasn't to last and 8 days after the Lochaber Marathon, I was knocked off my road bike by a careless driver and I mangled my left leg on the kerb.  So, that stopped me from running for several weeks, although I could keep cycling and started working on the triathlon bike, entering a couple of club time trials (and even winning one).  Then, we went on holiday for a week in Corsica and I came back feeling ill and after a couple of listless weeks, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a bad infection and had to take a 3 week course of antibiotics.

It was the middle of July before I was able to concentrate on training properly again and it took a couple of weeks before I was doing anything seriously.  I rode my mountain bike quite a bit to build some robustness into my body but my running was poor and I wasn't getting any time on the triathlon bike.  I thought about pulling out of Powerman but I'd paid for the entry and my flight and I was sharing a hotel room with my colleague and didn't want to let him down.  So, I did as much training as I could and by the middle of August I was starting to feel a bit more confident of being able to get round in one piece.  

2 weeks out from the race and my colleague decided he wasn't going and I was left with a £450 hotel room, so I looked around and found out that I could get a bed in a dormitory by the race arena for about £15 a night - no question which option I was going to take, I could rough it for a couple of nights.

I went over to Zurich on Friday and getting to Zofingen was very easy, even with a big, heavy bike bag.  Swiss trains are efficient and punctual.  Finding the dormitory was easy enough and then I got something to eat, built my bike and walked the first run course.

Zofingen is well-known as a hard course.  The first leg is nominally 10k but it's a bit short.  However, it does start at the bottom of a 100m ascent, which has to be climbed twice.  The bike leg is 3 laps of 50k, each one with around 600m of ascent, much of which is on the Bodenburg climb at about 20k.  It's not particularly hard or steep but it does go on for a few miles and at the third time of asking, it's pretty tough.  There is another climb before the Bodenburg but it's over fairly quickly (and it's followed by a 75 kph descent, if you have the nuts for it) and there's one final long climb before heading back to Zofingen.  However, a lot of the route after the Bodenburg is blindingly fast.  It's an odd bike course - one lap is easy, two laps are tougher, three laps is nails.

I met a couple of good lads at the pre-race ceremony, who had 10 races between them, and I gleaned what information I could from them.  I had no real idea how I'd go but my original goal was to go under 8:30, with splits around :45, 5:00 and 2:45.  That seemed a bit conservative and I was hoping to get under 8 hours but I knew it'd be tough and much depended on how I rode.  I hadn't clocked up much time on my triathlon bike and only had 2 rides over an hour on it in the last 2 years, with a long ride of only 70 miles!  If I wanted to go under 8 hours, I'd need splits around :40, 4:40 and 2:30 with a bit of leeway.

So, I started conservatively and jogged round the first run in about 40-41 minutes for 135th place (out of about 275 starters, so firmly in the middle of the field).  No point getting carried away and blowing it early on.  Then I undid all that patient work by getting on my bike and putting my foot down.  I hit the Bodenburg and cruised up it, went down the other side and opened up, getting round the first lap in 1:29, which was probably about 4 minutes too fast.  On the second lap, I steadied the ship a bit and tried not to kill myself, the Bodenburg was much harder work the second time up.  Lap 2 was 1:33.  By the third lap, I was suffering and I dragged my sorry carcass up the climb about 5 minutes off my first lap pace.  I'd finished my multi-hour drink bottle, so stuffed some banana and energy bar in my face at the aid station and instantly I felt better.  Unfortunately, I was suffering in other ways - my shoes were too tight and my feet felt like I had hot needles being inserted into the soles, my aero helmet was pinching my ears horribly and my chamois cream had long run out and my undercarriage was on fire.  All these issues are avoidable and I need to work harder to sort them next time (adjust the shoes, get a new helmet, wear 2 layers to stop chafing).

My bike time was 4:42, which was pretty respectable but I knew that it had been badly paced and I could have gone 5-10 minutes faster if I'd cruised the first lap.  More importantly, it would set me up for a stronger final run.  I had the 92nd bike split and I came out of T2 in 94th position, so I was still moving up the field.  I didn't get overtaken by many cyclists apart for relay riders.

I bounded out of transition and quickly was out of breath.  I cooled it a bit and started plodding up the 3k ascent at the start of the run.  The long second run is difficult and the key to performing well.  It runs up for 3k out of town and into the woods, then goes up and down through the trees before dropping down to a park on the edge of Zofingen.  It then snakes around and in and out of the park before turning you around after about 4.5 miles to run back the way you came - so all the the climbs are now descents and all the descents are now climbs.  It makes it hard to get any rhythm on tired legs and most runners, including me, have to power walk up the steeper sections.  I kept plodding on and got round lap 1 in 1:11 or so, which was quick but I knew I'd be slower on the second lap, there was no way to avoid it on such an attritional course.  I needed to do my second lap in about 1:21 to go under 8 hours which I knew would be doable if I didn't blow up.  My quads were seizing up with all the descending but I felt that they would hold up.

I kept catching runners but on the second lap I didn't know whether I was passing people on their first or second laps.  The key would be to run all of the first long climb without being reduced to walking and I managed it fine.  It was getting very hot and every opportunity I took to pour water over my head.  I don't usually go well in the heat but I was doing ok this time, I think much of it is in my head.

At the turnaround, I was there in about 40 minutes, leaving me 41 to get back.  So, I kept pushing and gave myself targets to hit.  Soon enough, I was at the last aid station with only the descent into the arena.  Running downhill should be easy but this time it was tricky with sore quads.  I realized I was going to easily get under 8 hours, so I didn't push it.  I caught a couple of runners but they came past again and I wasn't in the mood to race for 82nd place!

I finished in 7:57:26 (results are here) for 83rd overall out of 274 racers, 19th out of 44 in my AG.  I didn't race particularly brilliantly and I'm not as fit as I hoped to be but I still hit my most ambitious target.  I definitely feel I could go 30 minutes faster with better preparation and more intelligent racing.

Powerman is a great race and I'm definitely considering going back next year to go under 7:30.  Switzerland is expensive though and I'd have to bring the girls next time, so I'll have to do my sums first.  I think I suit duathlon more than triathlon, cycling or running - I'm a decent cyclist (not great) and a decent runner (not great) and a slow swimmer.  I've also got many other plans for 2011, so I'll wait to see how I feel in a couple of months.

Thanks to Wayne Smith and Richard Day for befriending me out there, 2 top fellas and through them I met the race winners, Erika Csomor (delightful) and Andy Sutz (a lovely chap).  I got to hang out with them and many other elites after the closing ceremony when we all went for some well earned drinks.  I enjoyed Powerman much more than Ironman, much smaller and friendlier.