Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens - Triathlon

I really haven’t been swimming with the same mileage as last year. I was confident that I could finish within a minute or two of last year, which I was pretty confident I could make up on the bike. I went out easy and tried to build through the swim rather than chasing some of the faster swimmers. It was a little foggy, (ok a lot foggy) so it was almost impossible to see beyond 1 buoy away. I stayed within myself and had a decent swim, but I felt a lot better coming out of the water than last year.

Really, the only thing I need to do differently is swim more. Given the volume I put in, I couldn't have asked for a better time.

It obviously will be the trend of no age groupers clipping shoes on the bike because it happened again at Lake Stevens. I put everything on pretty quickly and ran towards the bike out in my bike shoes. It actually wasn’t terrible, but I’m going to see about getting some of those speedplay cleat covers that allow you to wear them on your pedals.

Not a whole lot. I was around 45 seconds faster than last year (basically making up the majority of time I lost from last year's swim.

I spent much of the winter on bike training as I was nursing a foot injury in late 2012. In January I started training with a powermeter with the Enve wheels I picked up for X-Mas. This has made a huge difference in my training/race pacing. On the LS Recon ride I rode a 2:47 on 248w Avg (273w NP). This was without my disc cover, aero helmet or TT cockpit (just clip on aero bars and drops but also no swim or run involved). I forgot to write down the power profile I had worked out after the recon ride, so I just set an average watt goal in the mid-low 240’s. I stuck to this religiously. First I will say the TT cockpit made a huge difference (even though I broke an aerobar extension on Friday night and switched to aluminum from carbon on Saturday AM after the initial meltdown). Pacing felt great and I felt good. I ended up sticking to the low 240’s pretty well (238-243 range average power the whole time). I’m not sure what it was, but things were just clicking. There were a few packs that blew by me, but I was moving very well and my pacing was balanced across the whole race. Looking at my splits, I was within .5mph on each of the splits, which considering the hills on the Lake Stevens course is pretty awesome. Calories on the bike included 550 calories of shot blocks and about 250-300 calories of perform.

I should have increased my hydration a bit the more I think about it. I only finished about 28-35 oz of fluid(3/4 bottle of concentrated perform and 3/4 bottle of water) but it was a pretty cool day. May have helped a bit on the run, but I was staying well hydrated out there.

Pretty much the same for T2, except I dropped my glasses about half way between the dismount line and my rack. No big deal, just grabbed them and kept going. Shoes stayed on the bike, helmet off and running shoes on. The only thing I forgot to do was press the lap button when I hit the dismount line so my T2 time was not accurate on my 910 because I noticed it as I was leaving T2, I did stop my 810 on my bike as I got to the rack)

Obviously not drop my glasses and push the lap button on my garmin as I cross the dismount line but overall it was fine.

Being totally blown away by my bike split, I knew I had a strong shot at sub-5 hours as long as I stayed consistent on the run. I felt good coming off the bike and my feet weren’t bothering me at all. I’ve been dealing with Morton’s Neuroma for a long time and I may just have it worked out. I started out in the 7:30 range but noticed my legs were a little tired so I didn’t want to blow up and blow the sub-5 hour race. I slowed down to around 7:45-7:50 miles after the 2-3rd mile and just figured I’d cruise along at that for as long as I could. My run mileage has also been lacking a bit because of the Neuroma treatments and 2 weeks of being sick (2 year old brought something home). I’m also about 4-5lbs heavier than last year so I know I have a lot more speed if I can shed 10-15 more pounds and keep my bike power high. I was drinking 1 cup of Perform, 1 cup of water and pouring 1 cup of water on my head at every aid station. This seemed to work very well. At mile 9, my right quad started to tighten up a bit, but was still ok. Mile 11 it got a bit worse and one of my feet was bit sore but it was mile 11 so I just powered through.

A lot more run volume as well. Having been sick a few times, my run and swim were the first to suffer. It wasn't terrible, but it just could have been better/more consistent.

Walked around as much as possible. Drank 48oz of water, 32-40oz of perform and 32oz of chocolate milk plus 4 slices of pizza.


Overall run volume and training time. There were some time challenges and minor nagging foot issues that limited the volume I could put in. The winter really helped with my cycling and I won't take as much tme off this coming year.


I wish they could get the awards/rolldown started a little sooner than 4pm. It turns out I might have received a vegas slot had I hung around.