Kinetic Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had a little secret, that even though this was IM pacing day, I was going to have a little fun on the swim if I felt good. That meant I might push a little harder on swim and see how I feel (HR, etc.) getting on the bike to mimic IM day a little and just to see what I can do. I like the fact it was beach start and I started in front to get any practice for the IM mass start, but AG group was too small and I didn't he get bumped hardly, especially since I stayed close to front the entire time. I ran into water and dolphined a few times to get to deeper water. Before first turn, I was already into the group ahead of me and then by next turn I was into the lead group. I apparently like to meet all the kayakers, since they are always directing me back into the course, this happened several times and I know I lost some real time here again. I pushed to the end and was more tired than normal 1/2 swims I think, so I was curious about my time, which was a PR! I felt dizzy coming out of the water, more than usual. It also seems when I come out of the water they are always announcing the lead women coming out, last time I was battling her in, not knowing that or I would have gave way.

Not zigzag the course. It's obvious to me now that all the drills I had in my training plan should have been sighting practice. I will be building sighting into my warm up and easy swim sets going forward. I won't push this hard at IMCDA, but I think I settled HR down ok. Kick more last 50 yards of swim to get blood flowing, this may help my dizzy feeling when getting out of water.

Joe met me upon entering T1, thought WOW, he did great, he expected me to pass him again like I did at B2B. I didn't notice that he was already changed and ready to go too. He then told me he pulled himself out of the swim, but was going to finish the day. He kept trying to talk to me, but I was was feeling dizzy and thought, keep your distance and let me settle down. I did feel a little nausea.

Have a plan (and plan B) and execute it. I really didn't have any plan B for the rain forecast so I just expected to setup transition and even though it was forecasting rain all week, I didn't think of this issue frankly because I looked at this race as too much as "just a training day" rather than race day at IM pace. I had the intention, but I didn't prepare for a race day at IM pace.

Started out of T1 with Joe, hoped to spend the rest of the day with him since I would be in IM pace zone. He went a little ahead of me and then I caught back up to him at mile 20. I was concerned I was pushing too hard in high 17 mph and wanted to negative split. My stomach wasn't feeling right at least for the first half of the ride so I tried to settle it down with water. Took gels and shot blocks to keep calories on track. Not sure, but I think the bowl of popcorn last night was not a good idea, too much fiber, felt like it might be the reason stomach was upset. Nice ride overall, cool, drizzle a few short times. Hills weren't a big deal since I've been training on them, at least at this level, would have liked to know elevation, but think it was fairly small in light of what to expect at IMCDA. Second loop slowed down about 1/2 mph, but just wanted to feel good on the run I kept telling myself. Stopped to pee somewhere between mile 50-56, couldn't hold it any longer.

Have my HR strap and garmin on. Ideally, not have to stop and pee. Everything else went according to plan, except would like to have a negative split, I have a harder time doing that on the bike than on run for some reason.

Extra slow, thought Joe was right behind me and would come into T2 so I took my time. Also, the non-setup caused more time, still didn't think I took this long though.

Again, have a plan and plan B for transitions.

Felt good at the start, focused solely on HR and first getting it down to Z1 or low Z2. Surprisingly I was keeping it in Z1 and creeped at times into Z2 for first 2 laps (HR spikes into Z2 came with the hills as did a slower pace naturally). My HR (at below 10' pace) was really getting me excited about my fitness level. I ran next to a women and kept with her for the first lap, until she dropped into the potty. Every loop we went past the Papa John's trailer and it smelled so good, gave us some inspiration to get to finish line! Third lap I had to stop into the potty, but it was right on the course and was reasonably quick stop. I tried to stop there on lap 2 but it was occupied, think I scared the women inside by jerking the door handle, opps sorry. The cool weather made a big difference overall on pace and HR. Kicked it up when I knew there was just a 5k left, took off about a minute per mile in last 5k. My time was better than my open half marathon in February and was a PR in HIM. I was pumped when I saw a sub 2 hr time, even if it was by 2 seconds!! Ha!

Nothing really, run went better than planned.

Nothing, hanged out, ate my personal Papa Johns pepperoni pizza, never tasted better. Waited for Joe to finish and congratulated him, he was a little down due to not completing swim, says he really needs to train more so these races are more enjoyable.


Not having a race plan, slow transitions, other than that, it went as expected. Well, and my bike, I have a noticeable gap in bike rankings versus swim and run in every race.


this could have easily been a PR race for me, just by elimating the waste in transitions I could have PR'd and if I pushed a little more on bike/run, I think I had a more in me, but that wasn't for today. Overall, I got out of today what I wanted, IM fitness check and learn from a race day what to tweek in the plan. Main take away is to have a race plan and review it over and over. I did this well last year and it really helped, so I know what the benefit is now.