Square Lake Tri - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

the swim went great. last year i started in the back of my wave, and ended up moving though the majority of it. this year i lined up on front inside(for first turn). spent a bit longer than i thought in the first 200 meters kicking and being kicked, but that wasn't a big issue. it took me a bit to settle into my rhythm because of the kicking and such. navigation went well the first lap, the second lap i was a bit wide on the last long "leg" of the rectangle, no big deal though. i swam though the majority of my wave by the middle of the first lap, and spent the next lap and a half in no mans land between the first few swimmers and the rest of the wave.

nothing, i went out and swam the race i wanted, i felt great and shaved 3 minutes off my time from last year. i maybe went out just a bit harder than i wanted, but nothing that set me back in the rest of the race.

wet suit was at my waist by the time i exited the water. goggles and cap off running up the stairs. the stairs, by the way, always surprise me by how long they are... spent more time than i wanted getting the wet suit the rest of the way off. dried my feet quickly, and fumbled with my socks a bit. shoes went on quickly. i did dry off my upper body a bit, but still struggled a little bit with the bike jersey. helmet went on while running to the mount line.

time estimated...

1) actually practice the transition, and get comfortable with a flying mount.
2) try sock-less biking to remove socks from the equation.
3) get a real trisuit/top.

it was cold this morning, and i couldn't decide if i wanted to put my light underarmour on at T1. i'm glad i didn't, i was very comfortable all day on the bike. big hill .25 miles out of T1 was an interesting way to warm the legs up to biking. after the hill i was working on putting on my gloves. i should have skipped them, because i dropped one, and ended up turning around for it. a waste of maybe 1 minute overall. the first lap went by really quick, and i gave up maybe 5-7 spots from my super swim. about 20 minutes into the bike i took a GU and some water. i felt really good, and was cruising along between 20-25 for quite a few miles. the hills got to me a bit, but nothing terrible, i decided to sit and spin most hills, with a "stand and stretch break" thrown in for good measure. the wind picked up on the back long "leg" of the course, and really surprised me on the short side of the course which made up the last 2 miles of the loop/first 4-5 miles of the loop. i grabbed a bottle of HEED at the bottle drop(start of lap two). side note: i really like HEED, tasty without the sugar of Gatorade. it went down quite nice, and overall played nice with my stomach. /end tangent

I really suffered a bit on mile 25-30 into the head wind. after the turn where the wind turned into a cross wind, i got everything back under control again, and had a second GU. the remainder of the second lap passed uneventfully, with the exception of the last few big hills on the back side of the course. again, i sat and spun up most of them, but they were slightly more annoying this time around. I had a third GU, and finished most of my HEED a few miles from T2. the last mile or two before T2 i sat up, stretched, and shifted up a few gears to start loosing up my legs. i also munched on most of a clif bar at this point. on the second lap i might have lost 7-10 more places. felt good at the end of the bike. ready to run.

1)i put aero bars on my bike two weeks prior to the race. a few more miles prior to racing would have helped, as my neck was a bit sore. but otherwise i spent most of the race in the aero bars and felt good about it.
2)no gloves, or put them on prior to leaving T1.
3)be a faster biker. i focused most of this year on swimming and running, and let my bike time be what it was. as such, i only improved slightly over last year.
3)more aero stuff? zipps? no flappy bike jersey?
4) ride more hills.

i need to practice transitions. i almost botched the moving dismount(faceplant anyone?) speed plays are inherently hard to run in so i thought i did pretty well there. racking bike went fine. helmet off quickly, and shoes off next. bike jersey came off fine. running shoes went on fine as well. running shirt went on next. took another bike of the clif bar that i was munching on while on the bike. i took two advil because i was nervous about the run. and off i went.

also of note, there were very few bikes in the transition area at this point. i didn't count, but made a note of looking. made me happy. :)

time estimated.

more practice. otherwise it worked out fine. again, trisuit/top would have sped things up a bit.

i knew this was going to make or break my race. at the beginning of my run, i was roughly 15 minutes ahead of last year, and 3-5 minutes ahead of my plan. i felt stellar leaving T1. at this point, if my knee and foot agreed, i would be finishing just sub 5 hrs. wohoo! (side note:i tweaked my left foot/knee 1-2 weeks prior to the race. no running during those weeks.. made me very nervous about the run.)

stretch goal of 8:00 minute miles. goal 8:20 minute miles. it was getting warm by the time i left T2, but the wind kept it comfortable. i could tell there was something up with my foot leaving T2... Uh Oh..

luckily, the first four miles melted away so fast without issue. i really don't remember running them, i was running slightly slower than my goal pace, but i wanted to see how my knee and foot was going to work out. by the time i reached mile four i was feeling just stellar, and was very satisfied by my race so far. I felt like a million bucks at this point(minus the one 21-29 AG guy who i saw passed me-dang, no first in my AG).

at mile 6 everything changed for the worst. i took two more advil, to help me get back, but it was too late. my knee was having none of this. i was reduced to walking/running. by mile 8 i was walking about as much as i was running. its funny how quickly everything can change, i watched as my sub five hour pace evaporated, and quickly changed to finishing faster than last year. that quickly shifted to finishing as fast as i could without having to spend the next three months in rehab...

mile 8-10 were the worst. anger shifted to regret, which shifted to helplessness very quick. the worst part was looking down at my HR and seeing 115. that really angered me. i really haven't come across a situation where my body gave out on me, and it was tough. more than that, keeping my mind from giving up was almost a bigger struggle. just before mile ten, while walking, a really great woman came by, touched me on the shoulder and said, "run to with me to the water station?" to which i replied, "if my knee would let me." mentally i had given up, and my knee wasn't far behind. she gave me her condolences, and continued on.

out of frustration, i ran, and caught this lady a bit after the 10th mile. we talked, we ran, and we walked together for a mile or so, and that really meant a lot to me. she ended up running off ahead of me at mile 11.5 ish, but she really was the highlight of my run.

ultimately i struggled to run across the finish line, but i finished. check off the "work on mental strength" box for this race. 45 minutes short of my goal, which i was so sure i was going to get, with just 7 miles to go.




work on my mental strength. i can deal with being down in a race, and i can deal with pushing into the "red-zone" too much too early, and a host of other issues. but when my body refuses to go when my muscles, heart, lungs, and head say "go", thats tough.

not much. asked around at the finish line for some ice, and couldn't find any. the woman who i ran with offered me some ice while running, and she was just up the hill from the finish, but i wasn't going to make it up a hill at that point. so i ended up in the lake(which was surprisingly cold in the afternoon) which helped quite a bit.

i was just really disappointed, because i had so much to give after crossing the finish line. i had really set myself up for a perfect run off the bike. but, i never really got my HR up to my goal HR for the run, and on top of that, i spent the last hour or so walking(running when possible)


my knee/foot. i doubt i over-trained. i swapped my seatpost out for a non-setback seatpost maybe three weeks before the race, which ultimately moved me forward by 1-1.5 CM's. i know this put me in the right position on the bike, and felt much stronger. but maybe this change proved to be too much too late in the season.


only triathlon Ive ever done, so i don't have anything to compare to.