Ironman 70.3 Muskoka - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Man, I am awful at sighting. I probably swam an extra... 100-150m. Everyone around me must have hated me. I was trying to sight and draft, but neither of those went well at all. I need to learn how to swim in a straight line, and sight more often. At times, I swear I was going 45* from where I should have been going.

The swim went pretty well, effort wise. Started out excited, and was going too hard. When I realized that, I dialed it back a bit and just swam. Got into a groove, and kept going. I thought I was way further into the swim than I actually was, but whatever. I just swam from buoy to buoy, and eventually, ended up on the green!

Learn to sight properly! And pick a better line. I stayed on the outside, which was a huge mistake. I should have gone closer to the inside, considering how well I swam. Will make sure to do that better next year.

Didn't use the strippers. I didn't want to lay down, so I just did my own thing while they tried to help. My watch was outside of my wetsuit, so I had to take that off to get out of my suit. More on that to come...

Long, 300m uphill run to get from the lake to the racks. Good support all along, and I took it nice and easy, in my usual calm panicked way. Wetsuit on the rack, goggles, swim cap and watch down (yup...), fill up my pocket, helmet on and I'm off. Very pleased with (most of) this transition.

I'd probably use the peelers next year. See how that goes.

Oh yea, also, not forget my watch.

So coming out of T1, less than 20m into the bike, I realize that I'd forgotten my watch in T1. Great. I guess I'm going at this one completely blind.

Road can use some maintenance..

Immediately on the bike, bad things started happening. Mount: Miss my cleat and land seat first on the saddle. OUCH, still hurting now (on Wednesday...). I start going, and something feels off. I don't know what it is. I try to drink some water, but that doesn't help. Thinking about starting my hap-hazard nutrition plan early, but with the hills, it's just not feasible. Oh well, push through, right?

Out to 60/35 felt alright. Things started to get better. Nutrition started happening, started spinning well, everything was getting better. Had a few conversations with other riders as they passed, or I did. Tried to gauge my speed/time based on asking others what time it was. Yo-yoed back and forth with a few people, Connor and Michelle are the only ones I remember. Connor was not having a good time, not having trained hills. Poor kid.

Around the 60k mark, I got a little bit lightheaded, which hasn't happened before. I realize that I'd only taken in about 400cal on the whole ride so far, so I took a gel that I wasn't planning on taking, but just decided to throw into my pocket last minute. That probably saved my ride.

A few km after the lightheadedness, cramps started coming. Quads and hip flexors were not happy with me, and the uphills really hammered them. I took it easy, trying to fend off the cramps. It seemed to work pretty well. Uphills sucked, downhills and flats were ok. No major problems.

Only time I wasn't having a good time was on the last major climb. Very seriously considered walking, but stuck to it and pushed all the way up. Last 2k was a fast, fun downhill, allowing me to stretch out my legs, try to get rid of the lactic acid, and just enjoy coming into T2.

Hard to say here. I felt pretty good throughout, despite a few minor hiccups. The course felt harder than it did either time I was out riding it in training. I think I would pay more attention to nutrition, and stick to a plan. Other than that, I felt pretty good out there. Obviously, a different race setup might help, with wheels and an aero helmet, but whatever.

Overall, I am fairly happy with the ride. I came in right where I thought I would, just over 3 hours for the 94k.

Everything went really smoothly. Absolutely no problems.

Nothing

The run was interesting. In training, I ran about 12k of the course... not realizing that the other 9k is the hard part. Good to know...

I had come out of T2 very happy with the day so far, so I told myself I was going to just enjoy the run. Whatever happened, happened. I was immediately reminded of my little saddle incident, as my tailbone was very aware of every step I took until I got used to it and stopped thinking about the pain.

First couple of kms were hard, tough to get my land legs back. I saw Katie et al at around the 1k mark, and told them not to expect me to be back in my goal time of 2 hours. I knew it was going to be a longer run than that.

By the first aid station, I was already really tired and walking a bit. I wanted to run as much as possible, so I did just that. I tried to focus on my form, but that wasn't doing anything to help. Just one foot in front of the other. Keep moving. I walked much more than I would have liked, particularly on the out and back section near heading to and from the turn around. Surprisingly, though, once I got onto the trail, I started feeling a lot better (probably because I had taken in a few gels), and started running more. "Running" is a subjective term, right? I was going faster than walking more than I had on the out and back.

All in all, I am fairly happy with my run in that I actually enjoyed it. I had a good time, joked around with the volunteers, let the kids splash me with water to their hearts' content... Just really had fun with it.

Living off the course went really well. I thought it was a gamble, and once or twice I wished there was an aid station right where I was, but with them located every 2 or so km, it was very doable. I actually was too worried about not consuming enough on the run that I probably took in too much nutrition. I was grabbing whatever they'd throw me. Felt a little bloated at some points, and wanted to evacuate my stomach once, but kept it all down, and used it all, so I guess it went pretty well.

Better nutrition on the bike. I was really dead starting the run, but once I got a bit in me, I started to perk up a little bit.

Also, I was probably a little undertrained for the run. I would put more miles in in my training, make sure I had adequate fitness for the distance.

Survive...


I think I was a little undertained for the run, and probably on the low side of the training for the other 2, as well. Had I put in just a little more, I think I could have easily been under the 6 hour mark.

Lack of a nutrition plan also didn't help.


Overall very well done race, however I was disappointed that the expo closed early, so I wasn't able to purchase anything to commemorate finishing the event. It's a shame, because I had money burning a hole in my pockets that day! Get them when they are tired!

Course was very challenging, but a lot of fun, and I think it was the upper limit of what I am able to do currently, but obviously not above! Very happy overall. I'm glad I did it, and will be back next year for more!