Patriot Half Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This would be my first OWS of year. Despite soaking my wet suit in water during the week leading up to race it still took a little effort to get it on. Decent start, swam comfortable, sighting every 6 strokes. Thought I was swimming fairly straight but suspect I was wandering a little (judging by my time). Never seemed to find any feet to stay on so most of swim solo without any drafting. Surprised by time as my effort was good and I felt like I was swimming fast. Slowest HIM swim of all I've done. Finished swim feeling fresh and ready to roll on the bike. Only reason HR was up entering T1 was because I was running to bike.

More open water swims and swimming in the wetsuit to get comfortable with position and restriction again. Just couldn't get any in before race day. Went in confident that I've done this enough times that I'd get through fine but clearly need more time in open water to get used to swimming in wetsuit versus swimming in 25 yd pool.

Too slow! And the trouble getting wetsuit off continues. Had top off before I was very far into transition. Got to bike and tried to get out of bottoms and once again it stuck on my heels. Need to do something with the legs of my suit. Just can't get it over my heels. Once off the helmet, sunglasses and shoes on very quick. Had everything else I needed in ziplock that I threw in back of jersey pocket. Tried to go with a cleaner set up on the bike and didn't want crap hanging everywhere so threw it in back pocket.

Cut cuff on bottoms of wetsuit to make easier to get off heels.

Starting in Wave 11 and knowing my bike is stronger this year than anytime in my life I anticipated passing a lot of folks early on. Left transition, settled in at target watts and tried to navigate / pass groups of people. Some scary sections as traffic was trying to turn to right and required us to slow so as to not t-bone turning car. Found the first 1/2 of loop 1 a little challenging to race my plan and race clean. Passed lots of people and on any uphill was getting past by folks who were crushing it while I held my watts. Would drop back to get out of zone and then have to pass back when they backed off effort cresting hills. Far too many folks not passing, blocking, riding side by side.

1/2 way through lap 2 the sun had broken through the overcast skies. Started to heat up. Not an issue on the bike but I did anticipate that it could make for a tough run.

Nutrition: Hammergel 10' into bike, ~75% of a triple concentrate bottle of Infinit, 3 bottles of water, 1 S-Cap hourly, 3 Cliff Shot blocks every hour. Probably slightly more calories than I needed but felt great the entire bike. Had to pee with about 10 miles left in the loop and managed to make it back to T2. Thought this was a good sign that I had taken in enough fluid to set myself up well for the run.

While I'm pleased with my time and pace (fastest I've ever ridden this distance) I did not ride hard enough. Race with power so plan was to ride at IF of 0.8 (224 watts). Tried to keep the wattage there and thought I was doing ok but looking at file after ride, NP was 182 watts for an IF of 0.65. VI was low as I avoided spiking on what ascents there were. Bottom line, I didn't execute per plan and probably left some time on the bike course. However, given my run issues (see later) going too easy on bike may not have been a bad thing.

Again a little too slow. Time includes trying to get socks on. Always adds to my T2 time but a necessary aspect. Socks took a little extra effort / time to roll on as feet were wet from running through a puddle entering T2.

nothing other than stay out of puddles and keep feet somewhat dry.

UGLY! Came out of transition feeling great. Like I had just had one of those no chain type of rides (which was explained in retrospect by my IF of 0.65). Wife even caught a picture of me with smile on my face which is atypical when I'm racing. Tried to hold back with plan of running MP+30 for first 3 miles. Mile 1: 8:53 which was too fast. Felt awesome though. Walked aid station taking only some water figuring I had gone a little heavy on the calories on the bike. To avoid any stomach issues from heat I wouldn't take any cals (only water and S-Cap) until mile 3 when I would take gel. Tried to back off effort for mile 2. Mile 2: 8:35. Still too fast but again feeling great. Finally Mile 3 I had dialed it back to 9:33 which is where approximately all 3 were supposed to be. From there ran 8:45's (MP) for a few miles at which point I started to overheat and the wheels fell off. At each aid station was grabbing water and ice. Ice went in to my hat. Water in mouth and then over me. First time ice in cap gave me a brain freeze. Every subsequent mile gave me about 2 minutes of feeling good. The remaining miles were just tough. Ran as much as I could fighting off quad and calf cramps. As soon as I would feel spasm/cramping I would slow/walk to allow to subside before resuming. Made deals with myself to only walk "from here to the sign" or "from here to the driveway" to minimize getting sucked into the comfort of just walking it in. At this point was taking an S-cap every 30 minutes hoping this would help keep the cramps in check. .

Nutrition: Miles 1-6 Water. After mile 6 switched to water and/or coke. After mile 9 just coke. Gel every 30-40 minutes. 1 S-Cap every 30 minute. Ice every opportunity I had which I put into my hat

I need to figure out a hydration / body temp cooling strategy for these hot days. Despite my nutrition/hydration on bike and run I still managed to lose ~9 lbs.

Need to do better job of following pacing plan at start of run. However, given how easy I went on the bike I had plenty of energy and pacing shouldn't have been an issue but for the heat.

Would be easy to blame it on the heat but ultimately just poor execution on my part.

Received medal, bottle of water and cold towels (awesome touch). Immediately put towel on head / neck and soaked down with more cold water. Immediately knew I needed to sit and get into the shade. Would learn later of the ice tubs I could've sat in. Would've helped dramatically. Hindsight. Walked over to tent/shade and sat down. Felt VERY hot. Wife thought I was starting to look a little out of it (she's seen this look twice before in my IMs when I needed med tents) and suggested I lay down and put feet up while I tried to cool down. Felt better getting blood back to head. Continued with cold towels and drank cold Coke keeping a couple of cans next to my neck/arm pits to try to use to help cool down. Ate 4 slices of watermelon which were AWESOME! Managed to sit for awhile before standing to walk over to transition and retrieve my stuff. Unable to stand still long without quads, calfs, feet cramping up. Packed up my stuff and we got out of there as I just wasn't feeling up to hanging out. Family had been troupers waking at 4am and hanging out all day while I raced. Figured it was time to get them home and let them begin their summer vacation with their friends.


Heat! Set myself to have a great run and just didn't manage to stay cool or hydrated enough.

This spring has been pretty cool and rainy. Just no opportunities to get acclimated to the sun and heat we had during the run.


Race started 15' late due to number of people still in registration. Otherwise a great race. Well run. Cold towels at finish a great touch. Organized. Would definitely do this one again.

Swim buoys spaced a little far apart. Made it a little difficult to sight.