Chisago Lakes Triathlon - Half Iron Course - Triathlon

I started in the third wave with Carl. the waves were 100 people and started 3 minutes apart.

It turns out with the exception of the elites, the waves were pretty random. there were people in all age groups in all waves.

I got out quick. i wanted some seperation so that i could just put my head down and not have to worry about running into anyone. I had some clear water for about the first 1/3 of the race then i caught the bulk of the second wave. It was not too dificult to get past them. although it always amazes me when someone it swimming literally perpendicular to the direction the race is going. Anyway... after i got through that group of people then it was pretty open again for maybe another 400 yds. that is when i ran into the back of the first wave. they were a lot more spread out than the other group. So the whole way back into the beach had a smattering of swimmers and the sprint distance was already started. so with about 400 yds to go they were coming in from the right. i just stayed a little left of them and hit the beach.

register elite so i can draft off david Thompson. then i will be super fresh to start the bike.

I got to the beach and saw 26 on my watch so that made me a little happy. that was my goal. then i nearly crawled up that sharp steep yet thankfully short hill, into transition.

SO I tried a new strategy this race. Every other race i go sockless on the bike and have my shoes clipped onto my bike. the previous 2 HIMs my quads cramped up while trying to put on socks in T2. That coupled with it being cold and breezy out, i put socks and bike shoes on in transition and then ran to the mount line. It slowed me down from last year.

I think the desicion was sound. With hindsight i wonder if i could have shaved a few seconds off to get under 5 hours.

I still need to practice running right out of the water. I can be very plodding .

Right off the bat, i wanted to get my solid food in me so it can digest and not make me cramp on the run. so i was eating and navigation past the sprint distance riders. It felt good to pass people, I usually donot have that experience.

Almost right away i notice how cold it was. my legs and especially my feet were cold. I am glad i grabbed some "throw away" gloves the last minute. (dont worry when i got warm i stuffed them in my trisuit. I did not litter).

About mile 15 i was mentally breaking down. I am thinking to myself " what the heck you still have 40 miles to go and 15 miles into a ride is nothing".... My legsand glutes were burning. My feet were very very cold. and my "taint" was super angry. I did not know what the heck was going on. was it because i did not warm up, or the fact that i lifted on friday? And i knew why my feet were cold. it was chilly out. There was quite a breeze out in the farm land.

Right about then the first person in my wave slowly rode past me. I thought to myself, that at that pace she had to have gotten out of the water right behind me (in the results shegot out of the water about a minute after me) .And on top of that she was a woman. Not to be sexist ( i get beat by many women at every race) But very few of them can keep up with me in the water. she was not going much faster than me on the bike so with added effort i want to keep her in my sight and pace off her. (not draft, pace). she eventually pulled away, but that was exactly what i need to get out of my head. I just focused on her and pushed my legs. Then after a little bit my body (except my feet) went comfortably numb.

I was riding well. Too well. and with a tail wind. I knew we had to eventually turn back into that wind. I tried to put that out of my mind and just keep pushing it. My whole prerace goal was to push the bike more than i usually do. If i cant run after "oh well", If i can yeah.

I rode up the only major hill (its not big) out of the river valley, and straight into the headwind. On top of that the road was continuing to be slightly uphill. I pushed it as hard as i could, but i was struggling at 18MPH. I kept as low as i could and pushed on.

At mile 45 I switched my garmin over to overall race time for a second. It was at 2:33. right on pace to get off the bike at 3:10, which would give me time to run under 5.

if i could run. So i took a salt tab, finished my liquid nutrition and pushed on hard.

Unfortunately the new bike course (due to construction) is 57.2 miles long. I knew it would be longer, just not sure how much. So i got into transition just under 3:13. I figured if i just run 8 min miles i will still be good. so take the run out easy and go harder if i can toward the end.

Overall i was happy with my bike split. It was .5 MPH faster than last year with it being much windier, and very cold.

Warm up before the race. have toe covers on my shoes.

have more frequent hard long rides.

i stopped and dismounted while leaving my shoes on. I did not want the velcro on my shoes to stick to my sock and then lead to something worse happening.

that was a few seconds slower but worked.

I got to my rack and put on my left running shoe then tried to put on my right.... there was a cliff bar inside the shoe. so after i nearly fell over i emptied the shoe then put it on.

then i grabbed my race belt, sunglassed, hat and was off.

make sure my shoes are empty.

As soon as i started running out of transion, my legs worked fine in forward motions, if i had any turns, ups, downs, starts, or stops they did not work so well. I hoping that was just from the bike and it will go away. It did once i got out into first major flat section of rode.

Unfortunately right after that my right foot felt like it had something stuck in the shoe. right under the ball of my foot between my big toe and the next toe. it was not sharp or painful, but i did not want it to cause a problem. so at mile one i stopped and took off my shoe. shook it out; rubbed inside, wiped the bottom of my foot; NOTHING. what the heck. put my shoe back on and same problem. so i think it might have to do with how cold my foot got on the bike. I dont know why but my right foot was much colder than my left. so i am baffled but i could still run, so that is what i did.

first few miles i held back right at 8 min miles. i felt i could go harder, but i wanted to stay smart and not die at the end.

I dont know where my mind was. I was just zoning out, and i was pretty much by myself. i could not see anyone in front of me. we were zig zagging in and out of this neighborhood and i ended up taking a right. fortunate for me there were 2 guys not far behind me that i heard say hey this way still. so that added almost .1 miles. (46 seconds away from under 5 hours GRRRR) That was just dumb. i told myself to pay attention.

I got back on course and was maintaining my desired pace. but my foot was starting to hurt, and i could feel pressure (like swelling) in between the two toes. so at mile 6 i took off my shoe again and very thoroughly made sure there was nothing in the shoe. NOTHING again. So back to running.

That is when the course got a little hilly. I slow down way to darn much going up hills. I love running down hills. i can fly and just let gravity work going down. Up is just a struggle. so i was really struggling to keep my pace close to 8.

By this time i am wondering where dan is. he is a much stronger runner than me, so i was hoping to hold him off as long as i can. he started in the wave ahead of me so when he did finally catch me i new i still had a 3 minute lead on him. I figure if i dont crash and burn, as long as he passes me after mile 9 i might beat him. so i picked up the pace. not too much, just to 7:50 and then if i have more i can go faster the last 3 miles.

I held that until mile 10. man both my feet were hurting then. my feet dont usually hurt. well since i had bunyon surgery last november they dont. But dan had not caught me yet, so that motivated me to really push myself. However the headwind was very tiring.

I stayed strong until about mile 10 then i started to physically break down. i was still moving but closer to 9-9:30 pace. with one mile to go i thought i would check and see if i had any chance at 5 hours still. I hoped so, but really had expected it to have slipped away. watch said 4:52.xx Oh man pull an 8 min mile out of my butt and i will get it. so i went hard with what little i had left.

If the finish was on the street, and not back into a park with several switch backs up a hill of gravel and grass, i would have made it. I just did not have the strength to do anything but run in a straight forward motion.

not run on what turns out to be shoes past their lifespan. My feet hurt today. There is even a bruise inbetween my big toe and the toe next to it. I went and got new race shoes today.

Also i have only had one run of 14 miles and maybe a handful of 10 miles, this year. I have done zero speed work running. I think all of that contributed to slowing down toward the end of the run.

i grabbed some food. coke and pizza. Best post race food this year!!!!!!!!!!

waded into the lake and ice buckets to cool off legs.


the lack of hard interval training. and long rides. my overall mileage is way up this year, but that is beacause i have been more consistent on a daily basis, and i trained more this winter. I just need to have some more "quality" workouts. i think that phase will kick off now.


best race to go to this year. There are plenty of volunteers here every year. the race is very organized and well managed.

I personally was 19 minutes faster than last year. With the bike being a mile longer and it being much windier. also it was about 25 degrees cooler, so the run was not nearly the sufferfest as last year ( but my physical shape helped with that also) it really is an example of how every race is a race unto itself. even same races from year to year can be enitrely different.

I am happy with my performance. My goal was to break 5 hours. I did not reach that goal, but was pretty close. I did not rest for the race and am very motivated to take my training to a higher level in quality/speed for the races to come this year.