High Cliff Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

After yesterday, I felt I had a reasonable handle on what the swim would be like. When I woke up Weather Channel had the winds at 25mph from the west. Got to the race site, checked out the water condition. Holy sh$t. Got in the water to warm up and decided I needed a better strategy than the one I came up with last night. I decided that by hanging closer to the shoreline, I was able to swim, but had the ability to stand up for some period of time to get used to the 4 foot waves. They were coming in a lot faster than yesterday and I wasn’t sure how breathing would work. Practiced that during warm up and still really didn’t know what I was going to do once I couldn’t touch bottom, but figured I would be at least acclimated to what was to come. Got out, lined up with JAM as we were Wave 3 so early in the process. She asked me if we could swim tandem.


Wave was called and we all got in. The prior waves were walking as far as they could so I did that for a while. I knew I needed to actually swim or the rest would be a disaster. I executed the strategy above and felt a little better about things. When I resurfaced, I heard the first cry for help. I got to the point where I decided I just needed to get on with it…all that took about 5 minutes. I started swimming and it was awful. I had JAM in site for a while then lost her. That is when the lady grabbed my legs in a panic and pulled on me to resurface herself. She wanted me to save her and I really didn’t know what to do. I was barely hanging on myself. Her head was now above water so I kept swimming. I feel awful now, but what should I have done? I really thought she might drown me in the process. There were zero kayaks for very long stretches. The race had asked if anyone needed help to take off their cap and wave it. Crazy request IMO.

I thought going out would be the worst so I basically swam until I got slammed in the face by a wave and then resurfaced to see I was on course. For some reason, I was staying in a straight line. I managed to round that buoy which was awful with all the people trying to make it. So I thought I was home free in the long stretch since I am a right sided breather. Nope. For some reason waves crashing over you makes it hard to breathe. I started doing 5 strokes and resurfacing to breathe and make sure I wasn’t getting pushed in…when that started working I went to ten strokes. I really just wanted to make the turn because I thought that for sure would be easy. It turned out to be the worst and I temporarily lost it…..every breathe I took made me swallow water, going vertical didn’t help because the waves were cresting over me. All I could think about is the shore is right ahead of me, but every time I tried to go, more choking—it totally freaked me out. I treaded water and then told myself to just do it and I did.

When I got to shore my Garmin told me 40:26 and I had to laugh. I couldn’t believe it. I waited to see if my training partner was in view, but didnt see her so headed to stripping and then to transition.

I really have no idea. This was the best effort I have ever given in OW. It is a HIM PR in really poor conditions.

I took my time here as you can see. Put on compression socks, sunscreen, grabbed my nutrition, tried to calm down and hit it.

In retrospect, my T1 and T2 really cost me in my quest for a sub 6 effort. Going to transition workshop on Tuesday!

The 25mph winds that were present for the swim were definitely there for the entire ride. Lots of crosswind and the last 10m were all headwind.

My goal was to take 20 minutes to get my HR down so I could start fueling and then stay between 120-130W (80-85% FTP) for the rest of the ride. Today was the first long distance race with the PT.

I went into this ride thinking about how I would execute in September, really watching Watts and cadence. I used the spin up the hills strategy my coach shared with me and was able to drop Watts quite a bit to stay in my zone. There were a few times I realized my cadence was mid 70s so I geared down to bring it back up to mid 80s. I didn’t check to see if this lowered my watts too much and maybe I should have.

My Watts were on the low end (80% FTP) and my settling in was actually the highest because of High Cliff:

Interval 0= AVGW-127
Interval 1= AVGW-121
Interval 2= AVGW-120
Interval 3=AVGW-122
VI-1.017

I wasn’t sure if I should be modifying my strategy for the winds. I thought not, but also didn’t want to blow up. I swear I felt like I was pushing more than these averages because I felt like I was riding strong even into the winds, esp those last 10m.

The good news is my stomach really didn’t bother me much coming out of the swim which is a miracle given what I went through. It did bother me some on the ride and I started burping up SE. I didn’t back off it, just took in less with a little more water and kept burping as needed.

I took in only water for the first 30 minutes and then Sustained Energy/Gel every 15 minutes after that. I was a little worried I wasn’t drinking enough. I was about the 40m mark before I had to refill my front mount which meant I drank only 27 H20 for the first 40m. During the refill, I took 2 more SS caps.

Ingested 289 calories which is on the low side compared to when I just do rides and 41 oz H20 and 8oz Sustained Energy so 49oz liquid overall.


Maybe increase nutrition and hydration, this was a HIM PR for me, but would like to see MPH improve.

Slow poke

Transition workshop!

Started running and my right shoulder was killing me. I never noticed it on the bike, but it hurt like hell the first 5m of the run. It finally went away.

I turned on my GPS and never looked at it. I wanted to start out in Z2 and build. The first mile was all grass and then I hit High Cliff which was tough so I did a run three cones and walk one up to the top. It blew time and I knew it, but I was hot and wanted to keep it together for the entire run. Once at the top, my strategy was to run the entire thing, but walk through the water stops so I got hydrated. I felt a little behind. I was shocked when the entire thing was cross country but I went with it. I tried to have the mindset that this could be IM and my goal was to keep moving one foot in front of the other. My stomach started bugging me a little, but I also felt a little low on calories so I took about ¼ gel with H20. Gel got stuck in my pocket so that wasted time and then I dropped both SS caps in the dirt. Stomach was worse after eating that darn gel, but I was able to work through it. People passed me, but I didn’t care…these were the guys on their second loop. There were points where walking seemed like an excellent idea so just kept talking myself through why that wasn’t going to happen until I hit a water stop and then once I drank the water I was running again, not walking. On one of the steeper downhills my left foot caught a tree root and I totally rolled my ankle. The same one that got hurt in my bike wreck on Wednesday. It didn’t hurt to run on it so I kept going. I am guessing it will be sore tomorrow. I started passing a lot of people and felt strong. I discovered how much I like ice…the race had it at several places and I threw it down my shirt, held it in my hands and rubbed it on my neck and ate it of course. I drank and walked at every stop for no more than 15 steps. I had thought of carrying a fuel belt, but the water was warm and the thought of it around my waist was not appealing. I think the terrain was also a source of a very slow half for me. Despite the 310Xt not picking up my HR data, I felt like I was in low Z3.

Took in ½ gel total, 45 calories and water at every stop….not sure how much.

I had no idea of my run time until I crossed the line. I left transition at exactly the 4 hour mark. I wanted to break 6 hours, but I don’t think knowing would have given me back all those 8 minutes, but maybe???


Not sure, carry fluids or learn to run and drink...normally when I try that I end up getting dehyrated.

Looked at the food and nothing looked appealing so I grabbed coke. God knows why since I would never drink it. Followed it up with 8 oz CM and a water. Didn’t eat until about 3 hours later on the drive home.


Experience...


I never like to second guess RDs, but I question whether they had enough support on the water today or whether people should have even been out there at all. Other than that, a great event with lots of volunteers.