Orangeman Half-Distance Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My swim performance this time was better than Malibu. I felt a lot more comfortable in the water this time. I got kicked around a few times, but remained focused on form. I was really trying to focus on hip rotations, balance and pull. It turned out to be a decent swim for me.

As with any other race report that I write about in swimming, just to do more swimming.

We had to run up a hill into transition, and it was pretty long. I had a lot of trouble getting my feet into my shoes. I don't think I thoroughly secured it until the start of the 2nd mile.

Spend more time getting my feet into the shoes with it clipped on my bike

This bike course was tough. 3400 feet of climbing and it is a steady climb from mile 20-28. I was trying to maintain a 160hr the whole time and I avg 157 the whole time. I took a gel every 20 minutes, and on the climb up to ortega, I took it easy, going anywhere between 9-12 mph. The turn around was at the top of the hill and at that point, my legs were starting to tighten up.

I started to crank it all the way down at 160hr. At some points I was going 50+ which was pretty damn scary. I started to pass some people in my ag and then around mile 40, both of my hip flexors cramped up. My hammies, quads and calfs started to cramp up too. I started to drink some gatorade at the aid stations, took a gel and it went away for a little bit. There was one last hill on the way back to t2 and that stung me a bit. My legs at that point were pretty tight and tired. I just wanted to get to the run because I was looking forward to see how my run was going to push through cooked legs. I ran out of water 5 miles before the end of the bike and I think I was a little dehydrated.

Nothing really, I just need to climb a lot more. I'm a decent climber, but I need to climb a lot better if I want to be competitive.

It was a decent transition for me.

nothing

This is where my race completely unraveled. I started the run with quad cramps and so I stopped to stretch. And when I did that, my other leg cramped, so I had to stretch that one out. I stopped for another 2 minutes to the side to take a piss in the bush somewhere. I then proceeded to keep running. My plan was to run low 8s and high 7s, but when I saw the course, I decided that mid 8s was more doable. I could not run that fast at all. I gave everything I had to run mid 8s, and the fastest I ran was a 8:45. Hill after hill and then I changed my goal to running low 9s. At the turn around, I looked at my watch and I had run 3.65 miles already which was a bit odd. Came back around to the start to run the 2nd loop

The 2nd loop was where I was just done. I was hoping to finish in the top 5 and I knew that in order to do that I would have to finish with a 5:20. I started the 2nd loop at 5:20. My cramps got worse and I had to walk. People behind me were encouraging to keep going and the spurt of optimism would get be to run for about 200 yards and I walked again. When I reached mile 7, I was just pissed and wanted to walk off the course. I couldn't run up the hills anymore as it just would flare up another cramp, and i didn't have anything in me at all. My goal was then now to finish under 6 hours.

At 5:45, I was 2 miles away from the finish line and I just thought to myself, "One last surge man....com on...one more," I ran for about half a mile and that was it. I had to walk. I was trying to remain positive the rest of the way, but I was very disappointed. I was even thinking to myself "yo man..you just engaged, you're going to see your beautiful fiancee. Suck it up, shut the hell up, smile and enjoy the rest of the race." I couldn't even do that. I was pretty upset. All the while, I just kept run/walking the whole way down to the finish chute.

Before the finish line, I saw the gf/fiancee, kissed her and trotted through the finish line. And finally, I gave one last smile for the camera.

I need to run train on hills alot more, more bricks and more HTFU PERIOD!.

I told the fiancee about how disappointed I was and she told me that everyone had a rough day because the course was very tough. I sort of got some comfort from that; however, it just made me think about how IMAZ is going to be a lot tougher with the distance. I ate some pizza, talked to some people, got packed up and ate lunch at chipotle. I sent an email to my coach about my frustrations.


Events 2 weeks in a row? Complete debacle of my mind. Run fitness, lack of race strategy. Not clear, but I can be damn sure that I'll figure it out.


My coach sent me an email back and told me that he rather me have tough races like this than one that was easy because it would cause me to learn from the mistakes and take IMAZ a lot more seriously. Well, I didn't think it would be possible to take IMAZ more seriously, but I am. I've never really experience low points in a race like I did in this one, but I am glad I did because I'm sure it's going to happen in November. My friends ask me all the time why I spend so much time, energy and money on triathlons; ironically, I asked myself that same exact question while I was on the run. I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to 2 things. It's the same motivation I approach playing ball, I just want to win and improve on my abilities while trying to enjoy the process. Although I didn't enjoy it too much today, I did learn a lot about myself as a triathlete... and that is I need to HTFU.