Florida Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The portion of the race I typically feel the most nervous about I seemed to excel in in this event. I know for the average athlete my time was not that impressive, but for myself I am very happy with my finish out of the water. I was able to settle in from the beginning and find my rythem.

One issue I had was a leak in my left goggles which I had to adjust three times on the swim on my back, however I'm happy with that being the only serious glitch.

I think I would have been more confident with my bilateral breathing. I used it only 25% of the swim and feel I could have increased my performance by settling more into it.

Not so concerned about my transition time performance as I take whatever time it needs to be adequately prepared for the next event.

Nothing

Belly wash the first hour on the bike. Could not swallow water without it coming back up. My fault for not focusing more on nutrition and sodium intake the days leading up to the race. Also, the cytomax settled better with me than the gatorade endurance.

Took it easy on cornering after seeing an athlete go down on a very serious accident at mile 14. It didnt appear she did anything wrong that would have caused it, her front tire just turned in as if she was on ice and she skid accross the pavement for quite a bit. Thus, I held back a bit more.


My approach was to keep enough in the reserves on the bike to have a solid run. I feel I was successful in doing this and came off my bike with the legs to be able to complete the run solidly. Unfortunately the heat took more out of me than I would have ever guessed.

Again, not so much focused on T times

I would have probably spent an extra 5 minutes with ice/water to cool me down and get my thoughts in line before hitting the run.

I approached the run with the thought that the "worst case scenario" would be 10 min miles. I did not think for a moment it would be worse than that. When i looked at my split after the first mile and saw a 12+ minute mile I immediately lost motivation. The heat was unbearable for me. It wasnt that I didnt have the strength in my legs. Others were complaining about cramping which I didnt experience. It was just the heat that held me down.

Looking back, I would have regrouped mentally and created a "new goal". I was so focused going into it on finishing between 6-6 1/2 hours that I was devistated to imagine where I was going to finish. I probably walked 80% as I just couldnt mentally overcome what was happening to me physically. It was hard to go from 8.5 min miles in training to barely being able to walk in this event. I reached the finished and couldnt talk to anyone for about 10 minutes without tearing up. Overly dissapointed, but now I realize I adjusted to atleast reach the ultimate goal of finishing. I am not happy with my finishing time, but I AM happy with finishing. Theres plenty of racing to be done in the future and I have to prove to myself that I can have a better race than this one.

depression? :)


HEAT, Nutrition, Mental Strength


They did a hell of a job putting on the race! Definately one for the family to attend as well.