Victoria Triathlon - Half Iron Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Really choppy. I didn't ever have my usual, "OMG, I just want to go home" thing, but never really settled down into a smooth swim. A fair bit of body contact and I drank some lake, but nothing terrible.

I rarely see *any* wind at the Elk at this hour and was really surprised.

Think about *one* bit of swim technique that I can pull out and remember when the mayhem settles down.

Woohoo! tried shoes-on-bike for the first time and it worked out OK. The road shoes are fussy to do up, though.

Time to get my tri shoes set up correctly. They're designed for this sort of thing. Also want to start to learn to jump on the bike.

I deliberately rode this very conservately. Very, very. I have a history of crushing the bike and blowing up on the run. This was my first half-iron and I wanted to make sure the run wasn't going to be two laps of misery. On the whole, managed pace very well and am delighted.

Very, very windy from west-southwest made for challenging crosswinds with deep-dish wheels. Learned a lot about how to relax and flow through the buffeting. Some parts of the course were pretty exposed and all I could do was tuck into my helmet and be very small. Kept telling myself, "hey. everyone *else* is dealing with this breeze, too."

Course never became too crowded and folks did their best to avoid drafting when there was company. Whole vibe in my part of the bike course was fairly cheery as we leapfrogged each other as different strengths and weaknesses came into play.

Nutrition - started with one bottle of double-strength eload and one of water, and just exchanged water bottles as I went. Worked to get through the eload in the first hour and then switched to gu/water every 30 minutes. This worked well and my gut was fine. Although I am very tired of gu.

Pushed water a little, as was concerned about a dehydrating-bonk

Well, I'd drink less. Didn't need all that water and my body just unloaded it. Also would double-check my son's loving but somewhat inept bar-wrap job. One of the aero-bars came undone on the way and was a bit of a distraction.

Best T2 Ever. I got out of the shoes and kept riding in from about 200m out - jumped off and ran it over the line. Only error - it was cloudy and I left my sunglasses on. By the end of the first lap, they bugged me so much that I flung them at a friend on my way by. Thanks, Bob.

Try to remember to lose the shades.

Slowed a little as I went but kept it dialed at "comfortably hard." Opened it up for the last 1.5 km. I suppose I could have run it harder, but for a first time out, I'm happier that I chose a pace that meant I didn't blow up. Took water at each aid station, nibbled at a gu over each 5k segment except the last, when it just seemed silly.

Poured water on my head to keep cool, which worked great. No overheating.

And, as ever, my run is my weakest leg, which annoys me, because I was a runner before I came over to the dark side.

My forefeet fall asleep when I run off the bike. I need to look into why this happens.

As soon as I stopped, wet from all the water I'd dumped, the breeze ripped into me and I got sooooo cold. I had to go get dressed right away and missed out on my usual routine of stand-in-the lake to cool legs and then rinse salt from my hair. I think I'm going to pay for that.

Instead, wobbled around and spent 30 minutes on my feet before sitting to stretch.


I *decided* not to push hard in my first HIM and think I just about nailed a good baseline for future growth and comparison.


There was virtually no protein - no milk, no recovery bars, no peanut butter - by the time the HIM got in. I was frantic and hope they'll have more for us next time.