Rev3 Cedar Point - Half Rev - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I am somewhat disappointed in this time, I felt the swim went much better than what this shows, but....

the start was in a time trial fashion off a boat ramp, unfortunately because of this there was no swim warm-up! Started out and something crazy happened, I never got that wtf am I doing here thought. Normally in any tri I have a point early in the swim where I am struggling and my confidence is low, this time it never came. I even had a point where I thought I was in trouble just because I felt so good. Breathing was easy stroke felt good and I was making progress. For the most part this continued for the entire race, I ran into a few issues when I was in the middle of a pack but nothing major. When in the pack I would hit someone and get the pull back notion, this time though I concentrated on trying to continue swimming even though there was someone there.
I think maybe one reason my time does not match my effort may be due to poor navigation. At times I felt I was going back and forth across the course. I would sight and see that I was heading off to the left, worked to get back on track and lended up going off to the right.. I repeated this several times during the swim so maybe I was closer to 2500yds! :)

the hardest part of the swim came when I entered the channel, and had maybe 300 yds to the exit. I just couldn't stay on line and was all over the place. Tthen add on top of this all of the other swimmers converging onto one spot and it became chaotic. at one point i even had another swimmer grab both my legs at the same time and pull down. This wasn"t a rub or nudge but a full on grasp for life and hang-on, almost as if he was trying to pull himself over me, this really freaked me out for a bit until I gave a couple strong kicks and he let go! Maybe he thought i would tow him in? I took a quick look back and went on my way.

Not much, I felt this was my best swim at this distance to date, guess I still need more training time!

Holy,crap this was a long transition! From the swim exit to the transition was at least 0.6 miles. Because of this distance they set up a mini transition at the swim exit where you could stage your shoes, this kind of put a twist on it and wasn't sure if I wanted to take my shoes or flip flops. Then wasn't sure if I wanted socks or go sock less because I would not have a towel. I decided to take my shoes and go sock less, I then planned on going sock less on the bike and put socks on afterwards. Once back to transition I quickly changed my mind and took the time to dry my feet and put socks on. If I had to estimate the run to transition was around 6 minutes and then actual transition was the 3 minutes.

Seriously? I missed my goal by 12s, that's ridiculous!

Anyway the bike leg was one big fight..with myself! I started out and was feeling good, riding the wind and everything was going smooth but then I entered some sections where the wind turned to a headwind and there was some rolling hills. At this point my HR sky rockets up to 150 (target was 135). I had to keep telling myself that a 150 HR would lead to a horrible run, so I slowed but I wonder if these outbursts led to what would be come a horrendous run?

Anyway, there were really on 4 sections that stand out, 2 10 mile sections that were completely into a head wind, the 1st being around mile 22 and the other around mile 38. Both times my speed dropped to 15mph and I really struggled to keep the HR in check. The other section was about a 5 mile stretch where the wind was at my back and the course seems to be going downhill, I was able to push the pace up to 22mph without struggling and I believe this helped make up for the time lost in the wind tunnel. Then came the last 5 miles of the course, holy cow this seemed super hard! This stretch went right along the lake and the wind was coming in pushing me all over the place. Took quite a bit of effort to keep even pace and stay in one spot on the road.

as some may know my 1st attempt at a HIM in 2012 fell a part due to severe back cramping. Unfortunately I had similar problems today, but not as severe and I was able to switch positions often to get relief. But by the end of the race I felt I could only go 1 mile without moving around and stretching. Nt sure if it is just a weak core or other issues but I need to get it fixed! Mostly I think this year the biggest difference is that I was not going to allow it to affect my day, and definitely was not going to allow it to stop me.

Lap Data: 1 lap = 3 miles. time-avg speed-avg HR- max HR-avg cadence
Lap 1: 9:43-18.5-130-137-91
Lap 2: 8:51-20.3-136-154-93
Lap 3: 9:15-19.4-137-154-96
Lap 4: 9:20-19.3-135-149-94
Lap 5: 9:12-19.5-135-149-94
Lap 6: 9:14-19.5-134-143-97
Lap 7: 9:18-19.3-134-153-87
Lap 8: 9:55-18.1-140-157-89
Lap 9: 10:49-16.6-140-149-91
Lap 10: 10:55-16.9-139-151-83
Lap 11: 9:06-19.8-141-151-89
Lap 12: 7:55-22.7-138-150-90
Lap 13: 8:34-21.0-143-153-89
Lap 14: 10:21-17.4-141-155-88
Lap 15: 10:24-17.3-136-146-87
Lap 16: 10:07-17.8-142-152-90
Lap 17: 9:39-18.6-140-148-91
Lap 18: 9:51-18.2-143-153-89
Lap 19: 7:10-16.6-139-146-80 (only 1.98 miles)

Not much other than maybe a easier effort early on to save some energy. I did manage to make up 102 positions during the bike.

No issues here, took my time to get everything together and started out. I was able at this point to see Sara and the kids and give them all high 5's as I ran past them. I really enjoy when they are able to more to my races!

Ah the run, the pain of it all. Started out good, pace felt decent and I even had to slow down when I found myself running 8:15 pace, my goal was a 9:00 pace! Everything was gong smooth until around mile 3-4. I started to feel a knot forming underneath my rib cage and my stomach was doing flops. I was almost at the point where I should start taking in some GU but with the way my stomach felt I didn't think I could handle it. So I tried some coke, and that was just nasty. From this point on I decided it was water and Gatorade to try and help keep my stomach from going into full out revolt, but I think this strategy really cost me later in the run due to lack of good calories. The run continued on with a 10m pace until somewhere around mile 7, at this point my legs were tight and started to feel as if they had had enough. So I started walking the aid stations for some recovery, but this quickly became walking aid stations and half way between the aid stations. Probably 1/4 mile walk in each mile. Finally at mile 10 my energy dropped and was really struggling. The more I told my legs to move the less they did, it was definitely a battle of will power and to this point I still do not know who won.

lap data
Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR
1 09m 02s 1.00 miles 09m 02s /mile 151 161
2 08m 43s 1.00 miles 08m 43s /mile 160 164
3 09m 17s 1.00 miles 09m 17s /mile 157 162
4 10m 01s 1.00 miles 10m 01s /mile 157 162
5 10m 20s 1.00 miles 10m 20s /mile 152 157
6 11m 55s 1.00 miles 11m 55s /mile 150 161
7 10m 21s 1.00 miles 10m 21s /mile 151 158
8 11m 38s 1.00 miles 11m 38s /mile 146 155
9 11m 49s 1.00 miles 11m 49s /mile 144 152
10 12m 24s 1.00 miles 12m 24s /mile 140 152
11 15m 00s 1.00 miles 15m /mile 131 151
12 13m 12s 1.00 miles 13m 12s /mile 133 148
13 12m 38s 1.00 miles 12m 38s /mile 134 149
14 05m 23s 0.15 miles 35m /mile 141 153

found the closest chair and sat down.