White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


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Elizabethtown, North Carolina
United States
Set Up Events
54F / 12C
Sunny
Total Time = 09m
Overall Rank = 0/220
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Going into this race I had decided that I would not do the whole run. I have had all sorts of running woes this year. I had run a grand total of 23mi in the 4wks coming in. I really need to try and stay somewhat injury free prior to Raleigh 70.3 in June hence the decision to just run some off the bike and then quit.
In the week leading up to race day, the focus was sort of taken away from my run issues because of reports of 52deg water at the race site. I am very much a non swimmer so I was getting a little nervous about such cold water and the fact that I do not have booties or a hoodie and quite frankly did not want to drop $80 odd on things I would in all liklihood not use again.

Race morning and I was up at 5:30am. Had coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. Got ready and left the house at ~6:40 for the 75min drive to the race.
Got to the race site about 1hr before start. Picked up my packet and set up my bike, put on the wettie and headed to the start with about 10min to spare. As I walked to the start I saw pretty much everyone had booties on and just figured I would have to HTFU a little on the tootsies. As the lake came into view the wind chop shifted the focus from temprature to oh crap that is some rough water out there.
Event warmup:

Got into the cold water, hopped around a little, naturally warmed up the wetsuit, and took about 15 strokes w/up.
Swim
  • 38m 40s
  • 2112 yards
  • 01m 50s / 100 yards
Comments:

So it turns out the cold was not really a factor in my swim. i ended up having other things to worry about. I started in the open wave (forgot to change it when I decided I would not be finishing) so there was not really any congestion with only about 20 total starting in that wave and the fact that I was at the back from the very 1st stroke. The water was really rough and the wind and chop were directly into our faces. I just could not swim and got smacked in the face by some waves, also got some moutfuls of water. I guess I sorta freaked out. I started to tread water trying to figure out where to go and what to do. There was a boat close by and after about 200yds of basically very slow arm flailling I thought about putting up my hand for the boat to come pick me up. I treaded more water and convinced myself to just get around the turn bouy and things would improve. I eventually mad the turn and things did get better. I never did find a decent stroke and although the last 2/3 of the swim were better than the start it was still not good. In retrospect even the top swimmers were 5-6min slower than what they normally do, so for a total non swimmer I guess I did not do as bad as I thought, but still feel it was bad.
What would you do differently?:

try to stay more calm and just work on being smooth and long.
Transition 1
  • 02m 20s
Comments:

I was in no hurry during T1 as I was not racing and just wanted to get through it sorta of smoothly.
What would you do differently?:

turn on my garmin 1st thing b/c it caused a litte issue at start of bike.
Bike
  • 2h 28m 2s
  • 56 miles
  • 22.70 mile/hr
Comments:

I need to make sure to turn on the garmin 1st thing in T1 because by the time I got going it was still searching for a satellite. Now I do not need gps but my date would not show for those 1st 4mi while it searched. I would like to be able to see power data from the get go so I can be sure to go out at right pace.
My piriformis was super tight and sore from the get go on the bike. I think this was maybe due to a harder and longer than expected swim. There was a big headwind in the 1st 12mi. I actually held my planned power for the 1st 27mi and it did not feel to bad. The next 12mi or so my power was down, but I was trading back and forth with a guy I caught so my speed stayed up. As we turned right onto Hwy 53 I sort of lost it. This stretch of road is nortoriously rough and bumpy. I was not able to maintain my power and I struggled over the final 20mi. In the last 10mi, the hammies/glutes/piriformis resurfaced and really start to hurt.
Coming up tp T2 it would have helped if knew the course. I thought I was pretty close and got my feet out my shoes. Turns out I still had 1mi to ride, so that was sort of stupid.
What would you do differently?:

really try to stay focussed and concentrate even if conditions are not ideal
Transition 2
  • 01m 52s
Comments:

Again my plan was not to try and fly through T2. The fact that my butt area was so sore made it even slower. I decided to put on socks (normally I would race sockless) b/ c 4wks ago at the duathlon I ended up with a crazy blister and there is actually still a scab in place. I had to sit on the ground to get socks and shoes on.
What would you do differently?:

would not have done much different under circumstances, but in future I need to be able to go sockless again and speed things along.
Run
  • 00m
  • 13.1 miles
  •  min/mile
Comments:

Going on to the run course, my butt area problem was very evident and was quite sore. It did not restrict my run per say but it did force me to go slow for fear of getting hurt. My plan was to run 7:45's for 6mi and hope that my calf did not experience any ill effects. Got throught 1st mile in 7:30. The hammie issue started to ease somewhat after a few miles. Lose 1 problem and gain a new one. After 1mi my feet started to go numb and progressively got worse to the point that I could not really feel my feet and it felt like I was running on wooden pegs. Miseed 2mi mark, but got 3mi and I went through those 2mi in 13:08. I really just saw the 08 and thought I just went 7:34 x2 but it was actually a 6:34 avg. 4mi came in 6:27 and not realzing that the previous 2mi were at about that pace just thought they must have put the 4mi marker in the wrong spot. Kept the next 3mi all in the 6:30 range and it did not feel fast at all. I think I could have kept going at that pace till the end. A thought crossed my mind to finish the whole thing, but with the numb feet not getting any better but maybe worse I thought it was wise to stick with original plan to end my day at half way. I stopped running at 7mi mark after a 6:14mi. Not sure how accurate the mile markers were b/ c it did not feel like I was running 6:30 pace
Time to make the walk of shame of not finishing. I was going to be walking down the end of the bike course. If that was not bad enough little did I realize that my walk back to transition would actually end up being about 2.5mi so took a quite a while. Wow even my walk of shame had some issues today.
Post race
Warm down:

grab a can of Dr. P

What limited your ability to perform faster:

liited swimming ability in rough water.
Unexpected pain son bike
numb feet on run
longer than expected walk of shame.

Event comments:

Overall a good race, but not sure I would want to finish the bike on Hwy 53 again




Last updated: 2012-12-27 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:38:40 | 2112 yards | 01m 50s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 66/220
Performance: Below average
Suit: Xterra Vortex Full
Course: clockwise triangle
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 54F / 12C Current: High
200M Perf. Bad Remainder: Average
Breathing: Below average Drafting: Bad
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 02:20
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed:
Biking
02:28:02 | 56 miles | 22.70 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 13/220
Performance: Average
Wind: Headwind
Course: 1 loop flat. Rough road last 20mi
Road: Rough Dry Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 01:52
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Below average
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Bad
Running
00:00:00 | 13.1 miles |  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/220
Performance: Average
Course: Flast out and back
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4