Ironman Kansas 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim was surprisingly easy, probably could have gone harder. Breathing stayed under control, sighting was good. Overall I'm very satisfied with the result, particularly given my lack of swim training over the last couple of months.

I might have lengthened my stroke a bit, and tried harder to find someone to draft behind.

didn't worry too much about taking my time. Got a drink, at a gel packet, took off.

nothing, really.

I felt great on the bike, even at the end. I got dinged with a drafting penalty which I thought was kind of bullshit (I can't figure out when or where I was doing it, because when they gave it to me there was nobody within 100 ft. ahead of me), and that cost me 4 minutes. The upside of that was it gave me a chance to pee. Aside from this silly penalty (without it I would have been at around 18.6 mph), I'm satisfied with this result.

Pay more attention to following too closely, I guess. More long training rides. Again my shifting was a problem, especially on a rolling hill course like this, and it's due to having to reach back to my shifters. It would be nice to stay aero when changing gears.

Not sure where the time went--seemed like I was off the bike and out of there pretty quickly, but it was a very big T zone.

I would have taken an extra couple of minutes to stretch.

Obviously this is where everything went to hell. I came off the bike where I wanted to be time-wise, and was feeling really strong. Within the first mile the muscles just above the knee and to the inside (vastus medialis?) locked up and I had to stop and shake them out. They never really recovered. I would run a bit, then have to walk some, etc. It sucked. I drank plenty of water and Gatorade, and took Enduralytes, and i think this was just the result of poor conditioning. Oddly, it's usually my calves that cramp up in races/long runs, and they were fine the whole way!

Stop pretending that I'm still in my 20s and can run a half marathon after a 56 mile ride with a minimum of training. Need to do more running in general (it's always my problem), and a lot more long runs. More bike-run bricks.

Stretched and ate a cheeseburger. I was really hungry, but my stomach felt good.


Conditioning. My legs just weren't ready for the shock coming off the bike. And like I said, it might have made sense for me to take extra time in T2 to stretch.


I'm happy to say I completed the race, and it served part of its purpose: to motivate me to train hard this summer and knock a LOT of time off that result when I go to Branson in September. I found that I like the 70.3 distance a lot in spite of the leg difficulties, and I definitely want to do more of these. Also learned a good lesson: no matter how warm the water is the day before the race, ALWAYS bring your wetsuit. I was one of many who had to ride the bus back to the car to get mine.