Ochsner Ironman 70.3 New Orleans - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Hung out on beach for a bit. Transition closed at 6:45 so had a lot of time to burn for my 8:20 start. Watched pros come out of water. Front row to see Andy Potts blaze out of the water over a minute faster than the rest of the pros. Then was able to see Macca and Terenzo Bozzone exit the water. Cool to see these guys on my home turf. Then seen friend Leon who did a relay exit the water. Leon is a pretty decent swimmer who wanted to do sub 35 minutes and then I seen him come out at 38 minutes. At this point I knew this was going to be a bad swim. As time ticked by the wind continued to pick up as did the chop/waves. I knew this wasnt going to be a good swim. I planned on doing under 37 minutes easy and hoping to do a lot better. I started out just jogging through water at the start as it was shallow for about 150 yards and didnt want to start churning too early as I knew I had the whole swim to do that. Plus joggin in the water wasnt any slower than laying down early and swim. Going to the first bouy it was like swimming up waves and then suddenly falling down the back side of the waves. It was like this until I made the turn around the first bouy and was swimming parallel to the beach. Then it was side swells from here. Looked for a group to do some drafting on but this was no easy task as it was too choppy to follow feet so I found myself sighting every 4th stroke or so just to spot a person in front of me.

Hard to get a rythm with so many changes in directions as it seemed like no one was swimming a strait line. Found one guy I stuck with for about 1/3 of the first mile but by that time we were catching up to some of the slower swimmers from the last group. Then it was like weaving around people and made drafting too difficult to worry about. So I decided to just swim. It was hard to spot the buoys and with the chop I wasnt cofident I was swimming straight so I continued to sight around every 4th or 6th stroke or so. I couldnt tell wicth way the current was going but I believe going out we were swimming against a current. Swollowed some lake water with my breathing but knew I'd survive. At one point I was following other swimmers and then ended up close to a kayak. These swimmers were heading that way to hold on. Thought crap I must be off course so I turned left and kept swimming. Got to turn bouy and was feeling okay so far with the swim but still didnt have a good rythm. Got to next turn bouy and started to swim back. I was tempted to look at my watch but didnt want to be distracted and a disappointment so I decided to just keep churning.


I felt like I was getting over heated a bit in my Vortex wesuit so desided to pull the string in the back down some to let some fresh cooler water in. Boy that was a difference and felt good. Now sighting going back was bad. I couldnt really make out bouys because it was about 8:40 at this point and the sun was up good enough to be beeming right in my eyes. So the best I could do was try to trust the other swimmers and follow them. This was not a good idea because it seem just about everyone else was not on a straight line either. I had to stop so I could see where I had to aim and then I changed my direction and was attempting to swim tword bouys. I was probably way right of most of the people. Not sure how this happened but think the waves just kept trying to push me back inland. I had to keep redirecting myself left. At this point my breathing was fine but my stoke didnt seem that effiecent which probably ment I was not swimming to the best of my ability because my effort felt too easy. But I was convinced that I couldnt loose too much time in the swim because it is the shortest of the 3 events and I would make up the time later on in the race. Little did I know. So I just kept the easy effort because the swim was almost over at this point and jamming the end really wasnt going to do much but waste energy.

I saw the last bouy and I was way right of it and had to swim left so I woundnt run into the rusty pilings that were sticking out of the water by the swim exit. I saw a lot of people end up on the other side of the rusty wall and i didnt want to swim a U-turn like all of the other swimmers to get to the exit. The swim to shore wasnt too bad because the waves were kind of bringing me in. Swam till I saw others started to stand and walk and so I decided to do the same. Got to the point where I could look at my watch.....39 minutes. Dammit! Not happy about the swim but no point of worrying about it at this point. Trotted out of the water and I saw the timeing mat....looked at my watch and just convinced myself that I wanted to be under 40 min so I picked it up to cross the mat in time.....39:57

Wish the lake would have been calmer but that is just part of racing and factors cannot always be ideal so no biggy. Maybe I would have worn tinted goggles if I knew the sun was going to be that bad.

My transition was the worst set up for swim exit bike start. I had to run all the way to the opposite end of transition to the other side and then grab my bike and run back to the middle. Just comes with the territory of racing that all things cant always be ideal. Were I was set up it looks like they cut the grass the week before and there was dead dried up grass everywhere. I decided to pull my wetsuit off myself as those xterra neoprene seemed to fagile for wetsuit strippers. Got wetsuit off and checked blood sugar 141. Not bad. Slammed an ensure and rinsed feet off with water bottle because there was so much debris and dead grass stuck to me. Desided to take the time to put on my compression sleeves now just put on my shoes and run out of bike exit because it was too messy to have shoes strapped to bike already. Put on helmet and went. Not too swift of a T1 but placement slowed me down a bunch too.

be at a better spot in transition.

some construction going on Lake Shore drive so course was changed a bit but changed in a way where you couldnt really hammer throught the first 3 miles. Once that neighborhood detour finished and where I wanted to start pushing the head wind started from mile 3 to about mile 10. I was nervous about this bike ride because I recently got a new bike and tweeked it to what felt comfortable. Then I got a new seat that I really wanted to use and put it on that monday before the race. Sure enought I called the bike shop for a proper fitting and they were so slammed with people trying to get stuff stait for the race they said they couldnt squeeze me in. So I did 2 shorter rides during my taper week to do some tweeking myself. At around 30 minutes I felt my glutes really start to bother me and thought to myself my own fitting may have not been ideal. Kind of wish I just rode my old bike for this race. But I was just so anxious to ride my new Cervelo as I thought it would make me faster than last year. Nope. Seen Andy Potts and the other pros coming back which was pretty cool.

My glutes hurt the whole whole ride and I was started to get nervous about the run. Took in a gel at 45 min and passed the first aid station as I had 1 bottle of water. 1 gatoraide bottle and my aero bottle filled with GU brand high electolyte drink. This was a mental game here because there was no real person here to help me push my pace. My wave was the last to start so everyone I caught was obviously slower than I was and was not going to be pushing the pace. There was only about 3-4 people that passed me the whole race and I was passing people which you would think would be good but like I mentioned no one I was passing was going to pass me back because they were just slower riders from earlier wave starts. I kind of wish I was around some faster people which would have made me push the pace a little more.

Ate a Cliff bar around 1:20 minute mark and felt comfortable and didnt really feel like I was hammering it which what I was afraid to do because my hammys and butt was soooo uncomfortble. So I decided to stick with the pace I was currently pushing so my run wouldnt suffer. If I knew how the run was going to be I would have hammered it more. Took a gel at aound 2:10 into it. Around this time I was out of fluids and was feeling thisty which made me kind of nervous. I actually thought of asking another racer with full bottles if they could spare one but decided to just remain thirsty till the last aide station. Got to the aide station and picked up a water at around 17mph pace. Not sure if it was me or a bad bottle but there was a crack in it and it went everywhere. I could not squeeze it into my aero drink so I unscrewed the top and got about 50% of the water in. I figured I didnt need too much because transition wasnt too far away. I took in about 1-2 salt tablets per hour on the ride for a total of about 5. I decided to ease off a bit too save some legs for the run. I did some standing on the bike and stretching to work out some sore feeling. I wanted to do around 2:45 or better but looking at my watch I knew that wasnt going to happen. Then I seen my time go over last years race split. At this point I just wanted to be done with the bike. I came in pretty fast and unclipped instead of flying dismount as I didnt want to pick up dead grass on my feet in transition.

I raced with a cadence of about 100 as 90 just didnt feel comfortable for some reason. 100 felt okay. I could have had more power with 90 but I afraid I would fry and jeapordize my legs

Get a proper bike fitting.

My transition spot was pretty good for bike in run out. Racked bike with shoes still on. Took off shoes and put on socks. I didnt bother checking my blood sugar because I was at 3:32 total time and my overall time goal was 5:30. I planned to run Sub 2 hour half mary. I put on my shoes and didnt bother putting on my right ankle brace because it hasnt been bothering me that bad the past couple of days. In retrospec I wish I did because now my ankle hurts!!! Tried about 3-4 time to get fuelbelt on but it kept flipping over and wouldnt velcro properly. I notice when im rushing to do something and it isnt going as planned I swear a lot at myself. So Im standing there yelling "S#%& come on!"

I thought I would have to pee coming out of T2 but I had absolutely no urge too. This was strange. I was thinking I drank about 4 bottles and no pee in bladder ment I might be under hydrated. I slammed another Ensure for the calories and took off.

Put ankle brace on!!

First off Ive been having an ankle injury since Feburary. My run training has not been on key. Back and forth pain. After every run ive been icing it and it remains sore for a couple of days. Ideally I should have just rested it all together so it would heal. But right when it starts feeling better I go out and reinjure it. Been training with an ankle brace which I should have wore during the race.

So on the start of the run I immediatly didnt feel good and I was nausious. That Ensure wasnt sitting well. Right after the start of the run I wanted to keep a good pace and I knew my stomach wouldnt hold the ensure. So I made the decision to get rid of it. But there was a lot of spectators and youngsters around who would be scared for life if they seen me trying to get rid of that chocolate Ensure. So I ran in the parking lot outside of transition and went behind a truck and did the finger trick. I know......not flattering....but I didnt want to start the run off like this. So made 2 attempts and nothing was coming up. I desided to just take off and say screw it. Wasted about 30 seconds with that nonsensence. The feeling kind of went away after a couple of minutes. Hit mile 1 at around 9minutes. My legs didnt start off as bad as I thought they were going to be after the bike. They were kind of stiff but not super bad. I decided that I was going to take in fluids every aide station because the heat was kicking and I knew staying hydrated was going to be a task. This is when I was missed my garmin because I had no clue where my pace was. I decided to hit the split button on my timex to find out but I was hitting it at every aide station and apparenty they were not at the correct mile markers. So it was hard to find a pace. But at about mile 3 my pace was not on point to run sub 2 hours because my legs just werent firing. I started to get passed frequently. I wanted to follow but it was just too early to try to be a hero and my legs wouldnt be able to hold up tword the end of the run. Found a comfortable below ideal pace and just decided I was going to stick with it. Heat was in full effect and I was pouring water on my head and ice in my shorts at every aide station. At around mile 5 I finally felt like I had a pace I could stick with but the thing was it was around a 9:30-10min/mile pace. Not cool. But I felt I could hold it for the rest of the run and not walk which is what happened to me last year around mile 9-10. Mile 6-9 felt good. Around mile 9-10 legs started cramping by Tad Gormley stadium. I just desided to hold on and fight throught the stiff legs. The last 5k was not fun and I believe it was evident by my facial expressions. The last 5k was all shade and heat was not so much a factor anymore.It was all about just holding on. Mile 11-13.1 I was just telling myself dont stop. So I just pushed through with my pace. Last 1/2 mile down Decataur seemed to take forever. Finally finished and saw Mom and Pops at finishline and my brother was there too. I was happy to see them there and glad they came.

Heal my injury. Do bricks. Run long runs at a higher effort and faster pace.

Sat down with mom pops and bro in the shade on the side street


ankle injury, no bike fitting, probably need to do more bricks too.


After went to post race events to see awards. I wanted to see Andy Potts and Terenzo in person. I see so much of them in my Triathlete Magazine that I feel like they are celeberties. So im standing there waiting for the awards and tjere is this tall character about 6'2"-3" is standing in front of me almost in my way. He all of a sudden puts on a jacket that is covered with logos. I looked at my brother and said.....DUDE!!!! Thats Andy Potts!!!!! I didnt think he was that tall. My brother was like....."who is that?" (My brother isnt into triathlons by the way). I was like he just won the whole race today by like 5 minutes!!! I said I have to talk to him! I was super star struck and I walked up and said "Hey Andy good race today how you do? First?"...Wow what a classy guy. He turned around and was engaging in conversation with me. He asked how I did. I jokely said...."oh I came in second". His jaw dropped and said "REALLY?!" Aparently he didnt get I was joking and looked at me like he should have known who I was to come in second place. Haha. Then we chit chatted a bit about the race and I said, Well congrats and almost had to cut him off of conversation.....I was just too nervous to talk to him. Right after that they anounced him as the winner and he went on stage and made a speech. Cool guy!