Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

I am a fairly good swimmer but I tend to panic in large groups and with cold water at first so I seeded myself to the far right and about 3/4 back in the pack. My strategy was to walk into the water to avoid getting my heart rate up, navitage through the breaking waves. There were about three sets, do a little breast stroke, get my face used to the water and then once my heart rate was down and I was breathing evenly start my swim.

This strategy worked perfectly for me. I was hoping for 1:15 swim and was able to come in a little under it. I really tried to work on breathing on the upswell of the waves and keeping my head down so that after I sighted I continued to go straight. Everyone mentioned a current to the left but I did not feel much of that maybe because I was able to self correct with good sighting. I did pass a lot of people and tried to use their draft to save energy. But I would not have seeded myself any further up the beach because I don't do well in crowds in the beginning.

On the way in, I tried to glide as much as possible and use the waves to increase my pace and save energy. I swim until the last possible momement before walking through the waves because they were breaking fairly hard. I walked the sand to the second loop to avoid getting my heart rate up and used a similar strategy on the second loop. Second loop was much less crowded and I was able to swim a good line.

I was very happy with my swim. I would not have done anything differently.

Was shooting for 10 minutes but I was happy with my time. I did a full clothes change and took extra time making sure everything was lubed to prevent chafing. Volunteers were awesome at peeling station and in changing room. I did not put on my shoes and jogged to bike with socks. Ground was wet so my socks were soaked when I put on shoes when I picked up my bike. Glad I used lots of glide on my feet so that the wet socks did not cause blisters.

My gloves were inside out. I forgot to check those. YIKES. That too some extra time. I probably would have saved that extra minute.

I am not a strong rider. My goal was average pace of 15-16 mile and to finish arond 6:45. I really focused on RPE and spinning my legs. I was trying to not go out too hard on the bike. I did take advantage of the few times that we had wind at our backs but it was a tough bike. The wind did keep the temperature down for the first half of the bike ride. I did not really feel any heat until the second lap. The sun was shining but I was not sweating profusely.

So I was happy with my bike, but I did not take enough nutrition in. I started eating right away and drinking every half hour. Used my speed fill, but then I mixed Perform in with my water. I did not train with perform and found that I was not digesting it well. I did not eat my sandwich at special needs thinking that I just needed to settle my stomach. I did eat chomps and shot blocks and took endurolytes but this was not enough.

Eat more on bike. Even when I was feeling a little sick I should have stuck with my nutrition plan. It would have been better to take more food in earlier.

I was shooting for 8 minutes so it was a little long. Volunteer was very helpful. Again I changed full set of clothes and again lubed up all potential chafe areas. This really paid off as I did not have any blisters or chafed areas.

Maybe change a bit a faster

My plan for the race was 12:30 pace for 5:30 run. This did not happen. Plan was to run doing 4 min Run/ 1 min walk. This was my first marathon as well as first full IM. This was totally doable except for my nutrion issues.

Run was a little hot and seemed to have less of breeze then the bike due to the neighborhood setting. I was able to run the first 5 miles with no problem but after 5 miles, really felt nauseated and started focusing on just finishing the race. I should have forced myself to eat more on the bike. I somehow lost my bag out of my run pouch with my endurlytes and later was able to borrow some off of another runner. I got sick around mile 8 but still kept going and tried the chicken broth. The broth helped settled my stomach along with ice chips. I continuted to take endurlytes at each mile marker. I got sick again at mile 16 but was able to absord enough nutrion that after that I felt fine for the rest of the race.



Eat more on bike. Do not try new drink ( perform) during race.

Changed clothes right after race. Put on compression socks. Had Endurox recovery drink.


Nutrition


This was a great race. Very well organized. The volunteers were awesome.