White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was out of the blocks pretty strong, for me but starting with the 'Elites' (that's what they're calling us now, instead of 'Open', stupidly) makes finding a draft difficult -- I have to magically find the few 'elite' guys who swim as slowly as I do... In this case, the combination of foggy goggles and the fact that I can't swim soon left me in no-man's land. No draft to be found. I had to stop four times to clear my goggles -- I just couldn't keep them from fogging up and when they did fog up I couldn't see a dam* thing. But I held a fairly decent line (for me), and kept the effort smooth and comfortable. According to my watch I was out of the water in <36:00 (there was a run to the mat), which is about what I expected. Overall, given my recent training and expectations, I can't be unhappy with this swim.

Train more.

I couldn't get the stupid wetsuit off. Ugh. Everything else was fine.

The course was advertised as having good roads. For the first 35-40 miles that was true. Then it turned ugly. There was a lot of pavement with the cracks that go side to side about 15-20 feet apart, so you experience continuous "Tha-THUMP". I had to squeeze the botle on my aero bars to keep it from ejecting. It didn't help that this portion of the course was into a significant headwind. I was not enjoying myself at that point, but I tried to remain calm. Only two guys (young studs) passed me on the bike, and I passed about 15 or so, so I guess that's good. I spent long periods of time (15-20 minutes at a time) by myself, which is tough, psychologically. I do better when there are others around.

I'm happy with this ride. I kept the power right where I wanted it the entire time. Nutrition was perfect -- gel on the quarter hours, sports drink on the half hours, water as needed.

I pulled my feet out a bit early going in, but overall this was a good T2. One of the quickest in the race, even though I put on socks.

Ugh. Heat and lack of run fitness really killed me here. I got off the bike feeling great -- I had ridden quite conservatively hoping to set up a good run - but right out of the blocks I knew it wasn't on. The first mile -- downhill! -- was over 7:30. Normally I'd go too hard and run <6:30 off the bike then have to slow down. In this case, I just tried to focus on keeping a steady easy pace and forget about time goals, etc. The heat was killing me. By mile 8 I was running station to station and pausing at each to down water and dowse myself with ice, ice water, whatever I could find. By the end, it was just f-ugly. Still, I managed to run -- in some sense of the term -- the whole way (apart from pausing at aid stations), and finish feeling somewhat OK.

Not sure how to fix this. I didn't overcook the bike (for once). I think I just need to heal up and get in more run training.

Training and heat.


This is supposedly an easy, fast, course, and I can see why people say that. But today, it was anything but. The winning time here is normally ~4:00, and several guys go sub 4:20. Not today. Nobody went <4:20. I assume it was the heat and winds on the last part of the bike course -- those are certainly what got me. I'm proud that I didn't overcook the bike -- power numbers were right where they needed to be -- but I'm a little distressed that I wasn't able to put together a better run performance, even in spite of the heat. I've got a lot of work to do before IMWI....