Ironman 70.3 Muskoka - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My plan was to start at the back and to the outside...and so I did, and the swim went excellent. I had lots of open water to start and try and figure out how I was going to do with this head cold. Took maybe 300m to get into a good rhythum and from there, I would have to say I had the best OWS ever. Found a set of feet to draft off of and was really setting a solid pace for me. My sighitng was great, all i had to do was pick up the swimmer in front of me, as he was spot on with his/her sighting..made life easy for me.
Breathing was mostly laterl but alternated from left side to right every 2-300m to avoid getting dizzy.
There seemed t be a couple of scud type swimmers, directionally challenged and zig zagging all over....had this one guy bump into me from my left side 3 times before I could pick up my pace and get past him.
When we made the lsat turn, I felt strong, lots of pull left and turned up the pace and finished strong. passed a few folks on the way to the water exit which gave me some confidence heading into T1.
Best part of the swim as usual...exiting the same way I entered...upright and breathing....whoohoo.

since this was my first HIM and not fully knowing what to exp[ect at that distance in a race environment, I now know that I can pick up the pace alot sooner.

Solid transition....I used the wetsuit stripper upon exiting the water...suit came off lickety split...and off to the 300m dash up to the transition zone.

Not a thing...I practiced the T1 routine over and over...so when it came time to excecute...it was second nature...really happy with T1

I was really looking forward to the bike course...its a hilly course with about 1000M of climbing and I like to climb. Again, with the head cold I had to change my approach and having the cold probably saved my whole day. I was forced to pace back and controll my HR more than ever if I was going to have any legs for the run.
The winds were pretty much favourable for the day...with some head winds but not enough to slow the train down.
The first 30 km were all about settling down and climbing smart to get my HR into a good zone...the next 30 km were fast and rolling and that is were I stepped back a little and recovered without giving to much back...kept my HR in Z3 and was able to still push a reasonabley good pace. The last 30 km and in particular the last 20 are challenging with some good climbs and relentless rollers...sweet, I love that stuff.
When I got to within 50m of the moun/dismount line I got my feet out of my shoes and made the flying leap off the bike...except this is the first time after racing for 94km...I staggered like a drunken sailor garnering gasps from the crwod as I wobbled ot find my terra legs...to funny...there was a volunteer with arms out ready to catch me..all i caould say was I only had tee martoonies and smiled...oh and no face plant...found my legs in time and off I went to T2.

Remeber that my legs may do some funky things at the dismount and not take it so fast....

Again, I had run thru my transitions over and over...everything went off without a hitch...maybe a little slow but all went well

Also, my bike was racked the furthest from the bike entrance...pre determined by AG...had a long run.

not much other than speed up a bit.

At this point everything was going as to race plan...I had taken an Aspirin 15 min before gettin goff the bike and my head felt better and sinus's were good.
I wanted to get ut on the course easy and slowly work to a 6:30 pace.Everything was going very well and when I hit the turn around I was at 1:07 and stoked. No GI issues, hydration/nutrition was spot on and felt like I could run forever....until....about the 15km marker I started to get a little soft in the legs...the climbs were becoming arduous and I was beggining to loose pace. By the 18km marker I was hitting the wall...struggling to keep a run going I ended up doing a couple of short speed walks to save the remainder of the run...there was a killer climb at the end of the run, with fresh legs not issue however with 19km behind them, it was a killer....I made my self a deal...run the hill and take a short walk then run the last 500M to the finish...I ran up the hill and was maybe two strides into my walk when a guy rode by me slowly , looked at me and said" 500M to go...make it count" and with that bit of encouragement, I found a little more in the tank and finished out the run.
Overall I was very pleased with the run even thou I was forced to a walk run for the last bit but I hit my goal.

i have been analysing my whole day,my pace on the bike was bang on and figured my tanking in the end of the run was more fitness than anything. Perhaps I could have gone out a little slower on the run but overall I think the plan came together nicely.

Fluids....wife, daughter, food, chair.


Overall my fitness...I have been pretty much dormant for the past 3 yrs with no physical activity. I started this goal to complete a HIM a yr ago to the date of the race...I dropped my weight from 210 to 170 and got back a good portion of my fitness from previous yrs of racing MTB's and DU's but in the end, I think my base needs to be stronger in order to drive home the run.


First class event all the way.