Toughman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had decided not to push this swim and take it easy the whole way. This was the best race swim I've ever had. I didn't feel especially fast, but really comfortable. Kept form until the end. No real contact to speak of and I had plenty of room to get around the occasional breast stroker from the wave before.

The water was super calm on the way out and just a little choppy coming back in. I thought my sighting was good until I had a kayaker stick his paddle in front of me and tell me to make a left to get back on course.

I think this course was a little short so I'm still curious about my current OWS times. I can't bring myself to wear that giant watch in a race where it must create some drag.

Nothing really.

Pretty smooth transition and no disorientation from the swim to speak of. I guess the T1 mat didn't work for me, so no time and no ranking for bike segment.

Tried to pace this at ~150 watts average for each 4 mile lap. The hills messed this up some, but overall did okay. I'll need to drop this some for IMAZ if I want to be able to do a marathon after.

Ate my calories every 30 minutes and this felt spot on. My stomach told me when it was time within 2 minutes or so of each feeding time. I took it pretty conservatively on the big downhills.

4 Mile Laps (LAP/NetElev/Speed/Pwr/HR)

1-365ft-13.0-187wt-164bpm
2-(3ft)-17.6-159wt-146bpm
3-(266ft)-20.4-145wt-141bpm
4- 26ft-18.2-155wt-137bpm
5- 6ft-17.2-153wt-136bpm
6- 27ft-18.9-156wt-134bpm
7-(79ft)-19.6-133wt-129bpm
8-292ft-13.3-182wt-143bpm
9- 23ft-17.2-160wt-136bpm
10-(368ft)-20.6-143wt-135bpm
11- 49ft-17.7-167wt-140bpm
12- 10ft-17.1-169wt-142bpm
13- 33ft-16.8-146wt-141bpm
14-(112ft)-18.5-139wt-140bpm
Total- 3,179ft climb-17.3mph-158watts-141bpm

The only problem I had was on the second loop the tendon behind my left knee started hurting and I thought it might kill the run, but it went away.

Also had to make a pee stop about 8 miles from finish that took me some extra time to get back on course due to traffic. I tried to push it for the rest of that lap and probably made up the time.

Fix my aerodrink before the race (no extra splash guard thing, It's only water). Pee at the end of the swim. Get stronger on the bike. I'm really happy with my bike setup and for once, don't want to buy anything (except for maybe a replacement bento box).

Get new Yankz before next race. Put on socks for a HIM, my toes are a bit chewed up.

I started out with the goals of running the whole way and not letting one person pass me. I figured that being in the last wave, the really fast bikers should already be ahead of me at the run start. I realized that this goal was too ambitious 2.5 miles in when I started holding off a guy who was knocking at the back door and was pushing it so hard that I knew I couldn't keep it up and finish running. I think 4 people passed me in total and I caught at least 2 of them in the 2nd half.

I paced off of 2 different women at different points in the race. I always find myself pacing off of women. Not only is the scenery more appealing, but I firmly believe that guys (especially me) cant pace worth a damn.

The support was great on the run with everything you could want along the way. My legs were fine but I was getting some pretty nasty stomach cramping. It really flared up whenever I drank so I thought it was a nutrition thing and cut back on the water/gels. Now I'm not so sure if it was nutrition since the next day I still feel some lingering pain in that side.

During the 2nd half of the run I started questioning whether I really want to be a faster runner, and question my post-IM winter goal of trying to BQ. Running fast is not nearly as fun as biking fast, and there is a good chance that no matter how hard I train, I won't hit 7:15 miles over distance. I need to put this out of my head until after Thanksgiving and focus on current training.

The finish is nice and flat and I had my favorite type of finish. I passed the last passable guy (my age, too) a couple of minutes out so got to finish pretty strong without pounding it out the last few feet.

Laps (#/Distance/Pace/Net elev/HR)

1-3.0ml-8:08/151ft/158bpm
2-3.0ml-8:57/111ft/155bpm
3-3.0ml-8:21/(150ft)/155bpm
4-2.0ml-8:43/17ft /160bpm
5-2.1ml-7:52/(83ft)/167bpm

Nothing.

Not much. Got stung by 2 bees within one minute of finishing the race. They handed me a Gatorade that attracted some and there was actually a bee in the bag they gave me with a bagel and some other stuff in it. Apparently, while I was out there racing the bees TOOK OVER the whole area. It think they love them some sugary sports drinks and they were very aggressive.

They had BBQ and beer, just 1 though :-( and I was actually able to eat right away. After the Quassy sufferfest back in June, I couldn't eat for 6 hours after the race. Today I was tired, but fine. Really a great day.


I executed very well given my strength and I'm happy. It is just a little depressing that my best effort may only get me to MOP when the fast folk show up. There are a lot of fast SOBs out there...


This is a nice varied race with great support. Everything happened on time and there was hot food waiting for us. They even had local school cheer-leading squads along the run, and a marching band near the finish.