Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had taken about 3 weeks off of swimming to help with a back issue I have been having. My goal was to go easy and have a nice easy swim. The first half felt great. Passing alot of people from the early waves and just cruising. About 3/4 down the back stretch my back tweeked on me. It was bad. I was hurting pretty bad and its hard to stretch it out in the water. Had to stop 3-4 times and just float. I am certain if I hadnt had a guy in to do the run I would have hung it up in the water. It was hard to swim with the pain. My mind was just off and I focused just on getting done. Once done I had to just hold on to a rail and stand will the wetsuit stripper got my suit off. The timing mat was after the stripper station.

The thought was to just get on the bike. Just needed to get on the bike and get the back loosened up. It took some time to get through T1

Right out of T1 is a good hill to start. First thing I realize is I forgot to change my cassette to my 11-27 so I was stuck with my 11-23. That was going to hurt me on this ride. My plan was to go easier than I thought on the first out part. Push it a little more on the back part with the wind at my back. The 2nd out and back was going to be tough since the last 15 mi we into the wind. I stopped and stretched my back out twice on the first part. After than it was fine. The hills killed me with the wrong gearing on. The 2nd to last hill was long steep and winding. I was toasted after that one. I was behind a truck trying to go up the hill and stuck behind bikers. I was catching it and stuck behind it so had to slow but with no lower gears it was just killing my legs. So here I was 15 mi out riding into a headwind and just done. The thoughts of stopping crossed my mind. I turned that and got it in my head that this was a chance for me to gut check and get it done. I dug deep grit my teeth and got it done. I am sure there was some dehydration in there but the biggest mistake was the gearing. This ended up being the hardest ride I have ever done.

Dont be a dumbarse and change the cassette. Got too busy worrying about getting a runner.

JROLL did the run and he rocked it. Also a congrats to him on his 2nd place AG in the sprint the day before.

I did take away from this race was that I could suffer and get through it. The race wasnt good but i feel good about it. Now that its been about a week and now I think there could be a full 70.3 in my future.

The only bad thing was once I was done there was no place to get food there. I was really wanting something with meat in it.