Rev3 Cedar Point - Half Rev - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This swim was absolutely brutal for me, not because of the effort, but the waves that were tossing me around and all over the place. On the 1st section the course went straight out from the beach, right into the oncoming waves. This made it extremely difficult to site and figuring out where I needed to be going, for the early part I was just keeping myself in the same direction of the group around me but once I fell behind I had to rely more on finding the buoy. For this as I felt my self come to the top of the wave I would take a quick glance make sure I was still going in the right direction and continue on. This for the most part worked ok as I stayed right on course and even ran into one of the markers. The other issue I ran into was the beating from the waves early on. As I would swim out and the wave would go past me, it felt as if I was being slammed back down to the water. There were a few times I hit hard enough that I lost my breath and others where I swallowed a bunch of water. I had to come to a complete stop gather myself before moving on. Once I finally reached the 1st turn everything calmed down as this section ran parallel to the beach and the affect from the waves was not as much. At this point the practice breathing only to one side earlier in the week started to pay off, as I was able to do this and stay out of the face of the wave with no issues. I think if I had not practiced this earlier on I would have had more difficulties. This long section also proved to be the most difficult to navigate as I had to keep redirecting myself as the waves carried me towards the shore. I still did decent on sighting though as I stayed close to all the markers.
Then came the final turn, this put me going at an angle towards the beach and I thought I was going to be able to ride the waves in and make up some time, and for awhile this worked. But as it went on the waves rolling under me and the beating from earlier on started to take its toll and my stomach started to do some flops. On 3 different occasions on this stretch I had to come to a complete stop to keep from throwing up. Then once starting back up if I increased the effort at all I would become nauseous again. I think this is the 1st time I can ever say I became sea sick from swimming.

Not much, I think with my swimming capabilities and how tough the course was I handled myself well and probably did the best I could. My navigation was spot on and aside from the sickness I thought I put out a pretty good effort. One other point though is the idstance my watch recorded, as stated I felt I navigvated fairly well but when I checked what the watch recorded it read almost 1.35 miles, I know I wasnt that far off!

After the wet suit strippers I headed up the path and quickly seen Isaac standing at the fence. He asked me how the swim went and my only response was I think I left my stomach out in the water. It was great to see him at this point and it gave me a boost knowing he was cheering me on.
The rest of the transition was uneventful, I tank the only hiccup I had was when I hit lap on my watch too many times and realized it had me going out on the run already.

The bike portion turned into a tale of 2 sections, the first 40 miles and the last 16 miles. Starting out everything was easy, and I did good at keeping it that way. My goal for effort was to be just a little under zone 3 for the majority of the race and maybe allow my effort to get into low zone 3, but not more than that. I felt that if I got into mid zone 3 or higher my run was going to suffer. To help manage this I set my watch to only show HR, HR zone, cadence and total time. This makes sure I do not start chasing some speed reading and eventually blow up my race.
The 1st 10 miles went by quickly, the road was rough early on and I think I lost half my water splashing out on me. I hit the 1st water stopped grabbed a refill bottle and kept on trucking, my effort stayed even for the next 15 miles. I was being passed by multiple riders, but I managed to hold back and not increase speed even though my legs were saying go...go...go....go! Shortly after most of these riders passed me, I quickly caught back up and re passed them. Seems maybe they should of not went out so hard :)
At the 22 mile mark is the only real hill on the course, and after surviving Mohican I didn't even consider it a hill. I Dropped gears and spun to the top, of course I had the grinders passing me on the way up, but by the time I made it to the top they were huffing and puffing and couldn't get speed back up as I passed them. This section is also the large cheering section of the course, as you come to the top there are bleachers and all kinds of people standing in the center of town, you make a lap through them before heading back the way you came from. At this point of the course my avg pace was holding around 20.7mph! Gotta love having the wind at your back and a little extra adrenaline early on in the race :)

1st 21 Miles: Avg Speed: 19.8, Avg HR: 130

Once heading back out of town though is where the difficulties begin. The course heads east and is almost directly into a head wind and is almost a constant steady uphill. Even with this I managed to keep my effort even and my heart stayed down in high zone 2 level. It was difficult though as I watched my lap counter click off slower and slower times. Around mile 35 the course made a turn and quickly became downhill, I picked up the effort and enjoyed the easy speed through this section. But this also turned out to be the downfall of the bike section.

Mile 21-40 Avg Spd: 18.9, Avg HR: 132

Once through the downhill section there were a few small hills and then at mile 40 the course starts heading back towards cedar point. Now I am heading directly into the wind, and still pushing like I am going downhill. I think this carried on for at least 5-7 miles before I realized that my HR was up in high zone 3 and my thighs were starting to burn. By the time I realized what was going on I was on the road heading back into the park and figured I could just hang on from there.

Mile 40-56 Avg Spd: 18.4, Avg HR: 135



Be more patient towards the end of the course, I definitely burnt several matches by holding the effort high on the bike and most likely the 5-10 minute I saved on the bike cost me 20 minutes on the run

no issues, One thing I was excited about was that as I came off the bike I heard someone calling my name. Realize quickly it ws my buddy Austin. This really raised my spirits as having anyone cheer for you is a good thing. As I was coming out of transition I talked with him a bit and then headed out for the run, where I quickly found Isaac in the crowd. Gave him a quick hug and told him I would be back in about 2 hours, turned out to be a bit more.....

Wow! Once again a run turns into a slog through Sandusky.
Coming out of transition I felt good, and quickly fell into a good stride that felt easy, all was good until the 1st mile ticked off and it said 7:47...Ooops! Not where I wanted to be and had to pull back or I was going to be in trouble. I was able to slowly get my pace down and by around mile 3-4 I was holding a 9m mile and was feeling good....except for my bladder. I think the 1st thought of a bathroom came up around mile 30 on the bike, but I didn't want to stop. Then at mile 1 when there was actually a green box, someone went in right before I made it to the door so I kept on running. Finally around mile 5 there was an open bathroom that i ran straight into, what a relief. Well except stopping was probably the worse thing I could of done, I struggled to get back into rhythm and honestly probably would of been better off with a full bladder :)
I carried on until about mile 8 when it seems the wheels just fell off. It became extremely difficult to keep running and I went into a run walk strategy. I would run for 1/2 to 3/4 mile then walk for a short distance and then start running again. By mile 10 I was really starting to feel the extra effort I put into the bike, mostly in my hips as they satrted to stiffen up and not want to function well. My thighs were also starting to go into full revolt at this time. I pushed on and gained a little momentum when I came back into the park but still struggled to keep running. That was until I had a little over 1/2 mile left and found Isaac waiting for me. He jumped on the course and started running with me, and with him by my side I defintely wanted to make it the rest of the way. He was talking and I just couldn't respond and realized that he was pushing my pace back down around 8m, maybe he should have ran the entire race with me :) Finally reached the finish line and wanted to do something when I crossed, but all I had energy left to do was a small hoppish looking thing.

Finally the run was done

Manage the effort on the last part of the bike better to make it easier on the run.

Overall losing focus on the last 16 miles of the bike really hindered my run, At Mohican I was able to hold my effort down and the run was much better even with the crazy hills. It just goes to show that no amount of run training can overcome a cooked bike ride!