Ironman 70.3 Pocono Mountains - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

swim cancelled

no T1

Ow. So this course really hurt. In fact, my quads have never burned like they did on the hill around mile 5/6. It was also extremely technical, there was one corner that I took too fast and if there would have been another biker behind me, we certainly would have crashed. I got lucky.

In an effort to eliminate calf cramping on the run, I used a timer on my watch going off every 10 minutes (thanks Colleen!) to make sure that I was drinking enough fluid and getting gel. Every other 10 minute beep I would take gel. Once per hour, I took two Enduralyte pills. I went thru 1 1/2 bottles of sports drink and 20 oz water. I had probably 3 oz gel and 6 Enduralyte pills in total.

I was really happy with my shifting - when I had energy, I shifted in to the big ring for the flats/downhills and was able to shift into my easiest gear to get up *almost* all of the hills. Really pleased with my ability to maintain pace overall in a really tough course.

A flat race. Oh wait, if I were doing it again, I would have done more and more hill repeats. I would have done squats to focus on strengthening my quads. I torched my quads on this race. Also need to learn how to take the Enduralytes better... i threw like 10 of them on the course as I was trying to eat 1. Fail.

I really took my time here. Hey, I was wiped out! I walked my bike to the rack which is unusual for me. Also, the port-a-potties by my bike rack were full with a line, so I went to the other side of transition to use those before leaving. I triple checked that I had everything and then I took off.

I think I did the best I could considering my state at the time. I didn't want to hurry. My actual transition was pretty good, my slow times were walking my bike to the rack and then walking back/forth to the bathroom. I didn't really feel like running my bike, and I didn't feel like waiting in line, so I did the best I could.

So my main goals for the run were 1. Do it in under 3 hours. 2. Don't cramp up my calves. I have cramped my calves in pretty much every single race I've ever run (13.1+). Today I changed my nutrition, I took in more calories and electrolytes on the bike and took in electrolyte pills (1 every hour) and gel every 10 minutes under my tongue. I didn't take any water on the course - only powerade. I run/walk and I stuck fairly well to my walk breaks, but ran the full first mile without realizing that I forgot to set my beep-beeps for the run/walk. Then I had to walk a little bit more than I planned up the hills and run more than I planned in the downhill/flat. It all worked itself out to a PR on my half marathon at this race! YAH! Plus, super bonus, I saw almost everyone if not everyone on the team during this out and back which was really fun - everyone looked so great and it was a real energy boost!

I'm super happy with my nutrition plan, but I should have done more running volume with more hill repeats. I slacked on this in the past months. But I guess I can't argue with results.

Eat cheesburger. Drink beer. Cheer for friends. Oh yeah, and stretch. Definitely could have done this better... really didn't want to. Am prepared to really feel this tomorrow.


Not being a thin as Todd. HA!


It was the first race for Pocono. It will be better next year. They couldn't control the swim or the flooding, so I understand these things. Race morning they changed the start time from 7 AM to 7:25 AM. It was continuous change from the moment we got there on Friday till the race went off. Not that it wasn't executed well, but it's hard to deal with continuous change when you just want to count on SOMETHING during a race this long. Hard to mentally prepare in any way. Beautiful area though, really tough race, but a ton of fun. Would I do it again? Probably not, but that's not because of the race leadership, but rather that I have retired from hilly races. At least for a while...

As for the post-race activity? Only one comment; there was no free beer at the Oktoberfest celebration. To that I say, what the hell?