Miami Man 1/2 Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started from the left to get the shortest route to the buoy but let the more eager racers get a 5 second lead on me. Overall I felt smooth and comfortable for the whole swim, but a bit warm towards the end of Lap 1. I'd get in a groove and start feeling fast only to discover I'd forgotten to sight and was running off course. Overall the swim felt easy compared to the wetsuit-less, rough ocean swims I'm used to.

Sight more frequently. And get some lessons one of these days.

Long run from the swim exit to T1, esp. to my rack position. Stowed my suit, put on my shoes and readied my bike gear and nutrition. I lolligagged a bit to get down most of a Clif bar and a Starbucks espresso double shot. More caffeine!

Hurry, don't eat and practice transition a bit more.

Freakin' wind. I felt great about my bike fitness but we only had wind to deal with a few times over the past few weeks here in SoFla. I went out easy and high cadence and cruised when the wind was at my back. The crosswinds were considerable. According to NOAA we had 32 mph sustained winds with gusts to 38. Mostly headwinds on the return route and I was doing 14-15 in spots. My cardio felt great but my legs were getting destroyed by the power required to drive my bike fwd. My cadence dropped well below the 92-98 I'm used to. Developed some tightness in the quads the last 45 minutes that became pretty unpleasant by the time I made my dismount.

Not much. My cardio could have handled more effort but then my legs would have been more fried than they already were. I felt I bike within my ability but the conditions overexerted my quads.

Rolling dismount and ran my bike into T2. Legs were very tight. Racked the bike and ate a quick gel along with some 'lytes and a sip of weak gatorade. Took a bit to get my shoes & socks on because I forgot to lay out my body glide and had to dig thru may bag to find it so I could rub it on the old tootsies. Sunglasses, visor and race number and I was off. Slowly.

Run through my transition prep better and more often. I can't believe how slow this was; it felt like 3 minutes to me. The run out was pretty long, though.

Very rough run. I did two long bike/run bricks a couple weeks ago that had me feeling like a superman. Neither of them involved the kind of wind we had on this day so I was in new territory as far as my legs were concerned. I was hoping my legs would loosen up by mile two (they didn't). I saw my family around that time and joked with my wife that it was going to be the last time she'd see me smiling so she'd better take a picture. By mile 4 I has entered the pain cave and knew it wasn't going to get any better no matter what I did. I just tried to keep running. I'd stop to get some gatorade or ice or swallow some endurolyes, but pick it right back up. I might have walked a couple hundred yards the whole time when I let the pain get to me, but otherwise I just kept running. Slowly. I started cramping from my quads to my ankles by mile 9 so I ate a full pack of endurolytes at that aid station and that settled everything down.

I don't think I could run 13 minute miles on purpose, but that's what I ended up doing for the entire half-mary. Other folks were run/walking alternately and they were still as fast (slow?) as I was. No matter; the important thing was that I kept moving thru the pain and gutted it out.

Before the race I was game-planning with my buddy Carl, telling him how I was going to keep smooth and steady on the run and then pick it up at mile 11 for a big finish. After I crossed the line Carl gave me a knowing look and said "so, how much did you pick it up at mile 11?" I really had nothing more to give on this run than I gave. The unfortunate part is that I felt like I had plenty of gas and cardio fitness to do more but my legs were just totally locked up.

Hit the gate and handed over my chip. There was a cooler at the finish that had recovery drinks and one of the bins was empty so I just stuck my head in the icy water. Twice. I sat in the grass for a few minutes and pulled my shoes off to see how my feet were looking. OK but for a dime sized blister on my big toe. I felt salty and gross so I stripped down to my shorts and jumped in the lake to rinse/cool off. Muuuuuch better. I didn't even stop long enough to look at my time. We just jumped in the car and scooted back home.


Time & experience. This was my first HIM just 15 months after my first tri so I think building fitness over a period of years will help me improve.


I felt very confident with my training so I don't think there's anything else I could have done in terms of prep to perform better, aside from quitting my job and dedicating myself to training full-time. Ultimately I'm disappointed with my time since I fully expected to be in the 6 to 6:30 range. But for the crazy winds I think I would have hit my goal time. In the end I'm just happy to get this experience under my belt so I can train better for next year.

As it turns out I won first for the Clyde 225+ category. The problem is I weighed less than 225 on race day so I stole first from the guy who should have really won the AG. Like I said I split before even looking at my time or waiting for the awards, so I didn't find out until much later that night. My buddy who won Clyde 200+ (where I should have competed) stayed for the ceremony and grabbed the award when they called my name. I've emailed the RD asking to be DQd and for the actual winner's contact info so I can send him his award.