Ironman 70.3 Eagleman Triathlon - Triathlon

My entire strategy for this race was: cruise the swim, super-cruise bike, and run the run. I reminded myself of this right before the start. Gun sounded and took off in a nice rhythm almost immediately from my second row start. Drafted the fast guys for a good 300-400 yards and probably made it almost 500 before I lost the bubble trail from our pack. By this time we had worked into the main trail from the left side, all while sighting every 3-4 breaths, on a sailboat that lined up just about perfect for the first turn buoy. I remember looking up to see the turn buoy and seeing it only 100 yards away or so, feeling really comfortable with the pace and thinking "Here already!?" Around that time I started running into the waves that started before us. Was able to get through all of them without too much contact believe it or not, and for a race with 2000+ people, the swim felt really "lonely?" I didn't do much zig zagging, but approaching the turns, I stayed outside and just went right around the craziness at the buoy, the first time I've tried to do that, never had to break stroke, and sighted the buoys the whole time. Before I knew it, made it to the second turn, and there was people everywhere from all sorts of waves ahead. The water got shallow enough to walk probably a solid 500 yards before the end, but I had 1) swam it yesterday to figure out swimming was still faster/more effecient and 2) watched the pro's come in and saw them swim the whole way. Employed this technique, and it worked well, passed a ton of people from all sorts of waves while they were walking in, and I just swam right by them. It was a little weird having my hand hit the bottom every single stroke, but i just rolled with it.

Got to the beach to exit, stood up, and ran it in to transition. I would have liked to been a little quicker (3-4 minutes) but hey, for a non-wetsuit swim that I felt like I used the bare minumum of energy, I'm happy. I've put a ton of work in the pool this year and it is finally starting to pay off. The run into T1 (according to my race pictures) I wasn't even really breathing through my mouth....

Push a little harder when I was in a good rhythm. My stroke rate probably fell off in the middle while doing some daydreaming. I also should have pushed to stay in the draft of some of the fast guys from my wave a bit longer, would have easily helped me improve my time.

Really, top 15% OA and top 28% in a stacked AG i can't complain for my weakest leg.

Had an easy to find rack, and ran the whole way in. Helmet on, sunglasses on, hit the start button on the garmin and off I went. For such a long race, people sure decided to take a ton of time in Transition. I wanted to get going, and having everything I needed already on the bike, plus non wetsuit swim made for fast T1. Ran with the bike to the cluster **** of the mount line, watched a bunch of people swerving all over, ran past them and got to clear area and executed a flying mount. no issues.

Nothing, Practice your transitions, and they become pretty routine....

The bike is usually my strongest leg, but with a half marathon at the end, the method was super-cruise the bike, slightly more than a comfortable pace, especially at the beginning.

The first 5 minutes or so, I wanted to get the legs used to spinning, so I tried to put an RPE limit on myself, and then allowed myself to work the pace up. The wind, supposed to be calm, wasn't terrible, but the first 25-30 miles were right into it, maybe 8-10 mph. Enough to notice and be annoying, but not particularly demoralizing. For a while, only saw 1 guy in my AG go by my and was constantly passing people. Speed on the way out was between 20-22 mph, depending on wind and conditions. It was a fun game the entire ride of pick off the next person, which enabled me to keep my mind occupied. About 20 minutes into the ride, I started my nutrition plan. Had 150 cals in a concentrated water bottle of GU brew, 3 Gu Gels (100 cals) and a packet of cliff shot blocks (200 cals), so 650 cals total. Plan was to drink my first water bottle (actual water) skip the first aid station (it was only like 8 miles in) and every aid station after that, trade off water bottles. Every 27.5 minutes, eat a gel (or shot block 3 pack) as well as drink the Gu Brew as needed/felt like it. This worked out perfectly. I had a time reminder set on the Garmin and basically whenever my mind would be getting to the point of "I should be eating" I would try to get to a safe place among the people I was around and by then the timer would be going off. Only change I think I might make in the future, is start the bike with two bottles of Gu Brew, vice 1 water, 1 gu brew, and just go to water after finishing one. Never felt full or sloshy.

back to the ride: Around 25 miles in, 2 guys in my AG went flying by me (My avg was only 21.5 mph) and I decided now is the time. I picked up the pace a little bit, only needing to go to 23 mph or so, and one more guy goes by. The next 10 miles or so, had a four person "train" working, with everyone LEGALLY riding 6-7 bike lengths from one another. It was pretty good, even though you couldn't feel any draft, the motivation to keep up with the people in the AG was always there. One would make a pass ahead of some slower people, complete it, and then the next person would go for the pass. I slowed down at one point to make a bottle change at an aide station, and they got through it much fast then I did, causing me to get spit off. By that point, we had turned to go with the wind, and speeds were hovering between 25-26 mph, peaking out at 27.1 mph. Still making sure I was holding back, I began the process to catch back up, which never really happened. I could see them up ahead, but our speeds were so similar that I would have had to blow up to get back with them. The rest of the ride pretty much flew by until mile 50ish with the exception of Egypt Road. The roads had been sooooo smoooooooth before then and going onto that road was jarring. Bottles and crap everywhere (to which I wondered if no one had tested their setups prior to the race?). I had finished 4 bottles of water, 1 gu brew bottle, and ate my final nutrition at mile 50. The last of the water went on me as it was starting to get hot, and I was actually ready to start the run. My legs only had a little fatigue in them, and I was hoping I had saved enough. I realized I was pretty much going to peg my goal of a 2:30 bike split, but I did it with way way less energy output than I was expecting! Trust the training!!!! :) I could have easily gone 15 minutes faster, but that WOULD have impacted the run severely.

A little quicker, would have been nice to break 2:30. I'm willing to bet I could have taken 5 minutes off the time and not impacted the run at all.

I've done tri's for a few years (5 now) so I'm well familiarized with how your legs feel after the bike. Thing is, that is all on short course stuff. Hopped off my bike with the flying dismount and started running controlled. Remarked to the guy around me, "man this is a weird feeling!"

Got to the rack, bike away, helmet off. Decided to sit to put running socks on for the 13.1 miles to follow. It cost me a few seconds, but was well worth it, even though on sprints and olympics I wouldn't bother. Shoes on, grabbed my race belt and off I went, hoping I had enough.

nada.

Its all about the run. I knew I had to run this leg to do well and beat my goal times.

I listened to lots of advice to start the run easy. No one wishes they went harder in the first 5k of the race. Couldn't be more correct. I was trying to target hitting 7:45 in the first mile or 2 and then down to 7:30 until the turn, then 7:15 or so for the return trip. Didn't fully execute in the first mile. Went through it in 7:14... YIKES. Told myself to slow down... sloooow. Funny thing was, I was in a great great mood starting the run, talking with people, running through the hoses, everything. I think that set the entire pace for the run for me. I started grabbing ice and sponges right away at aid stations, and the people in the community that set up hoses to cool people down were life savers! Managed to get the second mile under control with the same effort level at 7:30 exactly. Decided that was the pace to hold till the turn around, and work from there. The pace still felt perfect, and by running that even, I was gaining back on people that went by me on the bike and early stages of the run. It was starting to get hot, but everyone was dealing with the same thing. Again, it was a game of pick the target and pass. 5 miles in made it to one of the guys in my AG who passed me in the first .5 miles of the run, ran with him for a few minutes, went by and never saw him again. Hit the turnaround feeling strong with minimal hurting. I knew the pain was going to come, and decided I could up the pace a little bit.

Worked down to a 7:20 (mile 8) pace on the long lonely road with nothing on it. I wanted to get out of there and back to community where I knew I could run. Passed Dennis (one of the guys I ride with often) pretty soon after the turn. Mile 10 is where the pain cave happened. My pace (without the aide stations had worked into the 7:10 range, but the stations were so crowded, I had to slow down to get what I needed. Ice, sponge, gatoraide and water every single stop. Just sipped the gatoraide and water, then water/ice over the head to cool down. (plus gels at mile 4 and 8) I think around there, my mind only let me walk the aide station. It was so hard to get going again, and my pace never really recovered. People had told me the pain cave will hurt, but only for a few minutes if you push through it. I tried, but my pace had fallen. 7:40 pace now, and I could feel my body saying, no more, but my mind said, less than a 5k.

It was hot. I don't remember to much besides it hurt, I wanted to be done, and try to keep pushing the pace. I ran with a 40-44 lady who had an awesome pace going, she would get through the aid stations faster, but I woudl catch back up right before them. At the last station, I decided I had enough, time to go. I got the pace back to about 7:30, and kicked it in. Broke 1:40 for the run.

All in all, hard to be disappointed, I wondered if the plan had enough running in it (and I would certainly do more knowing what I know now), but I felt strong for 10 miles. I would like to get that time down, running a sub 1:30 would be awesome, and I think I could do it with some better run training.

for a first half, nothing, pacing was great, passed hundreds of people and only got passed by a handful.

I finished, saw my wife, and was happy for about 5 minutes. Then the pain started. I didn't feel well. Everything hurt. I wanted to sit, but couldn't, wanted to drink but couldn't breathe if I did. Eventually just walked around.

Decided to try to eat. I wasn't sure if that was it, or what I wanted to eat at all. Grabbed a big plate of everything but the best thing was the bowl of white rice. Saved me, bringing me back from what felt like death and I started feeling better almost immediately. Went back and had 3 bowls of rice, and then surprisingly felt good.

Went to start gathering my stuff, BS'ed with my Brother in Law and a few other competitors and loaded up the car. I decided to stick around for Kona/70.3 rolldowns, just to see what it was like. Cool experience, even got to listen to Starkowitz comment on the course with his friends. Pro's are pretty much normal people, they just go insanely fast.

Turns out the winner of my AG went 4:05. I can't compete with that.


Hmmmm. lack of experience as well as some training. I crashed my bike 4 weeks before the race, so I missed the entire last build week with some serious road rash and soreness. I would have liked to get some more run training in, but thats life.