Ironman 70.3 Steelhead - Triathlon

Yeehaw! Now that was an interesting swim. Let me preface this by saying I am not used to adverse swim conditions and living in AZ have never had the opportunity to swim in anything like this.

At the horn I just took my time walking into the surf until finally reaching the point that it was time to swim. Dove in and started fighting my way through the swells to get the short distance to the turn buoy. Normally I need to start in back as I'm just not a fast swimmer but I was amazed at the number of people I was running into or having to navigate around because they were pulled up trying to figure out what to even do. Made the right turn at the buoy and tried to find something to sight down the shore.

Sighting was, for me, difficult at the least. I simply could not find anything tall enough down the shore to fix on that wouldn't become completely obstructed by the swells. Buoys and boats were absolutely useless and I was relegated to just trying to get a glimpse of something whenever I ended up on the top of one of those swells. This left me constantly correcting my direction and fighting those swells every step of the way to figure out where I was going. I'm sure a more experienced swimmer in similar circumstances is able to adjust a lot easier and I will say that once I got a little bit of a sense of timing of the swells it was a little bit easier. Too bad that was halfway through the swim.

I need to pause and mention one thing, I actually enjoyed the swim. Sure it was hard as heck for me, I swallowed more than enough water, it was the most fitting race sponsor ever (Whirlpool) and I was SLOW. However, I never panicked for a single moment, my breathing was great, and every time I peaked up at the crest of one of those swells only to get face planted into the ensuing trough I smiled. Who needs an amusement park?

Also, as I've documented on here I managed to dislocate my shoulder again two weeks prior on an adventure course. Stupid move by me to go do something like that so close to a race, especially knowing that this is a previous injury that is now more susceptible to re injury. Going into that adventure course it was a worry yet I still did it, I can own that. By race time it was feeling pretty decent, not 100% but ok, and in practice swims so long as I didn't really try and hammer it it was fine. It held up pretty well during the swim but about halfway through I made the mistake of really trying to grab some water to get a view of a landmark and out it came again. Ouch! The good thing about it is it goes back in on its own now and I was able to keep going albeit a little more slow now.

That last turn buoy signalling swim out was a very welcome sight and I was ready to move on. Unfortunately I was pretty gassed coming out of the water, much more so than a calm swim would have left me, and I failed to adjust for that. More on that later.

Reflecting back though I am actually very satisfied with that swim and my ability to make it through it without panic or issue. I was figuring around a 36-38 minute swim in good conditions so while it really slowed me down and cost me much more energy I am still proud at getting through it.

More swimming? More practice in similar conditions? Unfortunately I'm not sure that more swimming would help although with a more advanced level of fitness I probably wouldn't have been as beat up once I finished the swim. As far as practice in similar conditions, that's difficult in AZ. Maybe it's time I make more road trips to San Diego and take the wetsuit along for the ride.

Steelhead has a LONG transition so times are always going to be a bit high. Exited the water, cap and goggles off first and left them in my sleeve as I pulled the wetsuit down. For the first time ever the suit got stuck around my right ankle but it only cost a couple seconds. There was a lot of talk before about WTC no longer allowing shoes on pedals and while I never heard a definitive answer I just opted to put them on and run in them rather than leave them clipped in. Didn't matter as transition is so narrow I was stuck behind a ton of people walking to their bikes or walking out of transition. That cost more time than anything.

Nothing

Given the amount of energy I left in the swim I should have backed off my bike pacing a little bit. I didn't and it cost me.

I love how scenic this route is, absolutely gorgeous. I didn't love all the traffic starting in the second to last swim wave leaves you with. The number of unaware, inattentive, and dangerous people on the course can be frustrating. People riding two and three abreast, swerving an entire lane to get drinks, etc. But we all know we will encounter it and you just have to do your best to get through it.

Maybe it's the AZ in me, maybe my memory fails me from this race last year but wow, I thought the roads absolutely sucked and I was happy to get off my bike. A few smooth, fast areas but some of the expansion cracks that a winter climate brings on and the rough, patchy chip seal rattled me to death and I was constantly having to grab hold of my BTA bottle to keep it from being lost.

Other than that the ride was uneventful. Great volunteers at bottle exchange, no issues there, and I brought it in looking forward to the run.

Bike a bit easier given the swim. Five to ten minutes less on the bike could have netted me 15+ minutes on the run.

Pretty good transition. Coming in to dismount can be frustrating as it's pretty much a very long one lane road so you're stuck following the pace of those in front of you...and that pace was crawling. Hopped off at dismount and thankfully had a fairly clean path to my transition spot. Threw on the NB 1600s, grabbed my visor and race number and headed out. A little traffic on the way out but nothing that I wasn't able to get around in a few seconds.

nada

Over swam, over biked, tanked the run. Bryan said it best, "And you are such a strong runner, you need to solve the bike part of the equation so you can run more to your potential." and he is 100% right. Biking by feel just wasn't the best way to go about this race, especially after the start but I can't control that now. I either need to learn some restraint or put the money into a power meter and then BIKE MORE. It was a 20+ minute bike PR over last year and I ran a minute faster so I apparently over bike the same amount. I find the humor in that.

Nutrition was fine, 2.5 Hammer gels on the bike per hour and then coke on the run as coke, coke, water at each aid station. I had plenty in the tank but nothing left in the legs and every little uphill just killed my quads. I tried adjusting my run pacing before even starting the run (what I should have done on the bike) as in training I was able to run sub 7s off the bike quite comfortably. Knowing I was biking a bit hard and already fairly gassed from that swim I decided to go out around 7:15 and just try and hold that.
7:11
7:18
7:38 (with a pee stop)
and then it slowly started coming undone. By mile 7 I was approaching 8 min miles and the reality that my goals were pretty much over at this point was enough for me to just slow it down and concede a bit.

It all started two disciplines ago.

I was tanked. Sat at the side of the finish line and tried to recover with some water and gatorade.


Swim and more so bike pacing


I really love this race and the RD puts on a great show. Awesome volunteers, plenty of stuff, but I really hope there is some road resurfacing in the near future. Looking forward to getting back at it for October's HIM and finding some strong redemption.