Ironman 70.3 Calgary - Triathlon

I had a hard time getting my breathing into a rhythm at the start, maybe due to cold water and lack of warmup. Felt like I was sucking air, and then I got a bit nauseous. Not a panic issue--more like asthma. The same thing often happens in poorly ventilated pools or when it's polluted. I decided to swim to the outside of the scrum (closer to shore) so I could stay out of traffic and get my breathing into a good rhythm. Felt better by halfway and tried to rejoin the flow. Sometimes hard to sight due to rising sun.

It was weird--I didn't think I had a good swim, but I actually placed well both overall (better than run) and in my AG (2nd, just a few seconds back of 1st).

Do more swim warmup. My new wetsuit is warmer, and I think I would have been okay with a short warmup swim, even though the air temps were low and water wasn't very warm either. Maybe just swim for a few minutes and then tread water until the start.

Stupid transition issue. I did a good job of quickly getting my caps (neoprene and race cap) and goggles off and unzipping the suit. There were strippers and I decided to use them to pull off the arms and legs as my hands were pretty cold. I got to my bike quickly and put my wetsuit into what I thought was my bag....only to discover a Garmin bike computer at the bottom. It wasn't my bag. Somehow the bag from the athlete three bikes down had blown into my space, and my bag was out in the lane between two rows of bikes. Had to find my bag and re-bag my wetsuit, cap, and goggles. Grrr.... Also not possible to run bike out of T1 owing to narrow exit gate--we had to line up and walk.

Check the number on the bag before putting it in!

I worked this part really, really hard. Despite the difficulties of the course, I tried to keep a steady power in the 150-160 range and I succeeded in that (average power = 155, normalized - 159). Tried to keep pushing on uphills, downhills, and flats, and stay out of trouble with both car and bike traffic.

The race literature and results say the course was the standard 90 km and other athletes said they basically had that, but my Garmin showed 87.5 km (about 54.5 miles). Not sure why. It was consistently slightly off--by half a mile at 30 km and then a mile at 60 km. Gonna call it a GPS issue! This contributed to my T2 snafu (below) and possibly to troubles on the run.

It really would have been helpful to preview the course in advance (I wasn't able to, owing to logistical issues). I actually was riding a bike course and going through a T2 that I never saw until I raced it. In particular,, make sure I know when the bike leg is about to end. My Garmin said I still had 2.5 km to go, so figured we still had to ride a loop of the park, and all of a sudden officials were yelling at me to slow down and the dismount line was right there. I ended up only having time to get one foot out of my shoes!

As mentioned above, I didn't realize I was almost done with the bike till I was practically at the dismount line, so I didn't do what I usually do in the last mile or so of the bike--ease off a bit, go to an easier gear, get my feet out of my shoes with plenty of time to spare. Instead I had to come to a screaming stop and get off with one shoe on my foot and one on my pedal. My bike shoes are really hard to run in, so I stopped just past the dismount line (off to the side) to take the other shoe off. Other than that, a fairly good T2 for me. I did have some issues with cramping, so my run out was not very fast.

Errr.....pay more attention to my surroundings than my Garmin?

I cramped quite nastily off the bike (glute/hamstring attachment area plus adductors), maybe due to my abrupt end to the ride, plus probably using too high a gear uphill and into the wind. Felt very wobbly and was afraid I might not be able to finish, or at least might have to walk, but the cramp gradually resolved. It took 5-6 km before I could get to my normal stride, which was annoying. Ran well between about 6 and 16 km. Then I cramped again (calves and whatever muscle runs along the sides of your shins) just after going up the last hill. That never resolved and got progressively worse. By the finish, I was pretty much waddling. It was frustrating as I simply couldn't run faster since I couldn't push off my toes--muscles were totally locked up. Just kind of jogged/waddled to finish the last 4 km.

I think the run issues were mostly due to muscle fatigue from pushing too high a gear on the bike, and not backing off effort at the end of the bike. So pay more attention to proper gearing and transitioning to the run. Also, do more of my long runs on pavement. I have been doing most of my running on trails this summer. I tend to run on the balls of my feet (and on my toes uphill) and that can make long runs on pavement fatiguing when I'm not used to it.

None, really. I had to walk around quite a bit to retrieve my stuff and get food and beverages for myself and Mom. Checked the results and found I was second in my AG, so had to wait about 3 1/2 hours for awards. Tried to alternate between walking around a bit and putting my feet up, and keep replacing fluids and carbs. I really hurt after this one--it was worse than any HIM I've done, with the possible exception of my first, in terms of how trashed my legs felt. About average by Day 2, feel fine today (Day 3)--though I haven't tried to run yet!


*Lack of swim warmup.

*T1 mistake with wetsuit bag.

*Poor understanding of bike course. Some of this is my fault and some the organizers'. It wasn't possible for me to preview it for a variety of reasons, and I think I misunderstood some of the info on the website and at the briefing. Total altitude gain was MUCH more than I thought. It was not revealed until someone asked at the briefing that we would be racing on the highway shoulder with traffic in progress. I also thought we had to ride an extra loop at the finish and we didn't--that was the RUN finish!

*Tougher conditions than I had trained for or expected on the bike. Probably improper gearing on hills due to lack of experience with hilly courses on the tri bike.

*Cramping on the run--probably due to the bike issues.


If I had to summarize this race in one word, it would be HARD! The swim is okay (though crowded), and the run is pleasant and of average difficulty, but it is one humdinger of a bike course. The scenery on the bike course is beautiful, with inspiring views of the Rockies, but the so-called "rolling" course consists of a seemingly endless series of pretty substantial hills on the way out, into a strong headwind. Coming back is much faster owing to a net descent and (sometimes) tailwinds. But it's a point to point course with a large net elevation gain (over 3600 feet). It's not the best place to go after one's best bike split, which for some reason I'd decided to do! Racing on a narrow shoulder with traffic, sometimes heavy, just a foot or so away, particularly with the rumble strip, was also really nerve-wracking. I'd recommend that anyone thinking of doing this race have a good comfort level with riding hilly courses in traffic.

Despite the difficulties (and the fact that I actually signed up for this race by mistake, believing it was a late qualifier for 2016 Worlds, when in fact it's an early qualifier for 2017, which I'm not interested in attending owing to the location), this race was really useful for me as a confidence builder. It helped me to see that my win and Worlds qualification at IM Vietnam wasn't some kind of fluke. It was also fun for Mom to experience a bigger IM brand event as a spectator. I was glad that she was able to cheer me on and see me make it onto the podium of a big event.