Ironman 70.3 Muncie - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Water was a little warmer than what I like but not so hot that I found it unbearable. I felt slower in the water and am not really sure why. I am guessing it probably had something to do with waiting around an hour for my wave start and not fueling closer to my wave start. That said I felt extremely comfortable at that pace and felt I could hold it for another 1.4 miles.

If I can hold this pace at Lou that would be roughly 1hr 16m for 2 miles, throw the extra .4 on there and I should be looking to come out of the water in about 1hr 30min.

I am not sure that I would do much different. I was extremely happy with my stroke, rhythm, breathing and sighting.

So a slow transition for me, but I was expecting it to take around 5 minutes. Today's race really was a preview of everything that I want to execute during Lou.

Sat down and drank some water. Dried my feet off before putting on my socks and shoes. Stood up and put on the arm coolers, then slipped into my biking jersey. Decide to skip the biking gloves, but put them in a back pocket in case I changed my mind. Sunglass on, followed by headsweat, followed by helmet. Crack open my stinger waffle package so I don't have to worry about that on the bike. Took a sip from the aero bottle which had an electrolyte fizz in it and head out to the bike course.

I am not sure what I would do different here. I know there are seconds that I could be shaving off from each individual thing that could add up to minutes, but I am not concerned with a super fast transition at the half/full distances.

Again today was all about executing my long course strategy even though the distance was reduced. I tried to drink a little bit during the first 10 minutes on the bike to ensure I would have enough fluids in me.

The first loop with all the people on their second loop was really fun, but once I made the turn around it quickly become very empty on the road. (Joy of being the 2nd to last swim wave) I purposefully kept from hammering as hard as I could. There where several sections I felt that I could have pushed but instead went with coasting down the hills. That is the game plan for Lou, any time a downhill speed hits over 21mph stop pedaling and recover. When I hit the few little inclines, I dropped out of the big ring and into the small ring for an easy spin up it.

Not much, I executed my race plan and ignored what the others riders where doing around me. My goal was to be between 18-20mph and I hit it. Going to speculate about nutrition in the run segment

The main slow down in this transition was my garmin. I don't know a way to enable multi sport mode to use a preprogrammed workout for the run portion. I had decided that I wanted to do a 2min run / 1 min walk split to practice for Lou. So I had to reset the garmin, change sport, select the workout I wanted and then get going.

Remember to take a salt pill or at least grab them out of my bento box and throw them in my jersey so that I have them with me.

The only good thing I can say about the run is that my second half was faster than my first. I had originally planned on doing a 2m run/ 1m walk but was unable to execute that. I have to ask myself why that is? This run's pace ended up being 5 minutes slower than all my other races average this year.

Was it the heat? I figure that did play some factor into it. By the second half of the course I had picked up some nifty tricks for staying cool, like dumping ice down my sun sleeves. However, I don't believe the heat accounts for the full 5 minute different.

Was it proper fueling? I have a suspicion that this is the culprit for the miserable performance during the first half of the run. I ate a stinger waffle on the bike and drank 1.5 aero bottles of water with electrolyte tab. But I only drank a little bit or perptuem on the bike. (I understand why pat hates the stuff. Didn't upset my stomach but just tasted horrible.)

During the first half of the run, I popped some stinger chews and hydrated up on water. I think that combination with my new cooling techniques are what enabled me to negative split the second half.

Pay more attention to nutrition on the bike. I don't need to be starting the run in a hole. I also need to practice various run / walk timing methods and see which one gives me the best performance and recovery.

Bar-b-Que sandwich followed by a 4.5hr drive home.


Heat


It was very disappointing to have them cut the distance to an oly, however I don't believe the decision was made lightly and ultimately it was about the athelete's safety. I would definitely come back next year and give it a shot at the full distance.