Miami Man 1/2 Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had a bottom 15% swim, but I expected that since I didn't swim *once* since my last race in August. I think I may have swum just 6 hours all year. This was a deliberate choice. I swapped all my swim workouts for run workouts remembering how dreadful my run was last year. I'm a crappy swimmer anyway, so I figured I could make a lot more progress on the run than I'd give up on the swim. I figured I'd only lose 3 or 4 minutes off last year's pace, but in reality I was 6 minutes slower. At any rate I felt fine and found a slow rhythm on the second loop.

Train and get lessons. I'm a self-taught swimmer and it shows.

My wetsuit got shredded by the strippers, but heck I got 3 seasons out of a used $40 suit so no worries. Took my time in T1.

Not much. I could rush thru transition but I was out to have fun and not rush and forget something.

Given the insane winds last year and how blown up my legs were when I got off the bike, I planned to take it real easy on the bike and save my legs for the run. I paced myself like it was an easy Sunday long ride. It was a gorgeous morning so I just wanted to stay cheerful and enjoy myself.

Nothing. This was an experiment to see what effect an easy bike would have on my leg's readiness for the run.

Got my feet outta my shoes in the last 1/4 mile, but had to run over some rough gravel to get to T2. Ouch. Took it slow since I wasn't out to break any records. I was worried about the nasty blister I've been dealing with the last few weeks so I took lots of time to get my feet prepped for the run.

At first my legs felt pretty good; way better than last year. Thus far I was racing according to plan: survive the swim and go easy on the bike to leave as much leg as possible for the run. In the 13 weeks before the race my run volume was just a bit higher than last year, but my peak weeks closer to race day were way higher than last year. That said, there was also a lot of missed training in the 2 weeks before the race. At any rate I was very disappointed that I was slower than last year when I worked at, and expected, to be maybe 20 minutes faster.

I felt Ok for the first loop but as soon as I began the second loop trouble started. I started feeling sore in my L kidney and I knew I was dehydrated. My nutrition and NaCl consumption had been spot on, but I hadn't been drinking since peeing at mile 3. I've never peed ever during any race or workout. Ever. So when I peed I figured I was plenty hydrated. I guess not 'cause aside from the discomfort I also noticed I wasn't sweating much and my heartrate was going nuts at low effort. I spent the next three miles walking and shuffling as I drank as much water as I could without getting to sloshy. I think I drank three liters over that span. Walked/shuffled the rest of the way in as my calves started to spasm when I would run for more than a couple minutes. Ended up a lot slower than last year. Blech.

Get lighter, concentrate more on my run over the next year.

Ran thru the chute and went to the food tent to see what was up. Grabbed a banana and a few slices of pineapple. Remarkably I had a serious appetite when I typically won't eat for hours after a race. Saw Jim & Carl in transition and we walked out together.


Heading in to the race I felt fit, but outta shape. I felt like my run was much stronger but that proved not to be true. Ultimately I was way undertrained for this race. In the 13 weeks leading up to this race I averaged 5.75 hours a week compared to last year's 7/week and I was undertrained last year. I have a litany of good excuses: my wife was traveling constantly so I was busy w/ the kids, I hurt my back & then got sick leaving me w/ zero training in the last 2 weeks before the race. Hey, I'm a busy guy. My biggest problem was weight. I was 210 for this race last year and clocked in at 230 this year, when my plan was to have me at 200 on race day. Next season I have to put weight control and running as my top priorities. I'm disappointed in my performance but in retrospect my expectations were largely unrealistic. You're only going to get as much out of a race as you put in to training.


I love this course and have to give the RDs lots of credit for keeping things fun, smooth, well supported and punctual. It is a great event.