Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Although my time was slower than last year, my percentile was slightly better than last year... everyone struggled, but it looks like I may have struggled slightly less than the others. I guess I'll take that as a consolation prize!

Practice in rough water? Not sure how I would do that practically...

The rain, & plastic everywhere made for slow times. I'm still slow though! Had 2 endurolytes on my way out of the transition area while preparing to mount the bike.

I gotta figure what the hell I am doing to cause me to be so slow... and practice it before my next race!

NUTRITION: My intent was to drink 1 bottle every 10 miles - 1/2 bottle of gatorade & 1/2 bottle of water every 10 miles. I would also eat a clif bar during the first 20 minutes and then have a Power Gel as soon as I got to Rt 106, again at the turnaround & a final gel as I made my way back to Ellacoya. I would also take a few endurolytes at that point. What really happened was it took over an hour for me to get that clif bar down. I did have ~1/2 of a gel once I got on Rt 106, even though I wasn't done with the clif bar. I was a bit concerned about not having enough fuel. Then the gas kicked in.... although my stomach wasn't giving me that "I'm shutting down" feeling, I did have some wicked gas! The water/gatorade combo worked well, except when I lost a water bottle after hitting a bump, shortly after an aid atation. The next 9.5 miles was exclusively gatorade, but it worked out well. And then with about 4 miles to go, I was trying to swallow a few endurolytes when I dropped my little container. I think I got 1 endurolyte down. In all, I had 4 gatorades, 2 waters, 1 clif bar, 2.5 gels, 1 endurolyte, and oh yeah, the wicked gas.
Only needed one potty break at about the 10 mile mark near the ice skating rink. At the end of the bike, I was only slightly ahead of my 2005 time, but I felt alot better as I transitioned into the run. I was hoping for a better time on the bike, but weather conditions made the 2nd half of the ride challenging.

I should have pushed a bit harder on the 1st half... also gotta figure out this gas. It has happened before on some training rides, but I can't figure it out. At least my stomach never shut down on me!

Again, I must be one of the slowest people in the transition area... because of the rain, I did spend some extra time drying my feet and gobbing body glide between my toes. BUT I continue to be a transition slug

Practice transitions!

I really felt great during the run, I ran the entire time, stopping once for a potty break around mile 4. I took water or gatorade at the aid stations, and stayed away from the buffet of food. In all of my training runs or bike/run bricks, the most I would ever have is a gel, but I didn't have any this time. In hindsight, I probably should have had one gel during the 1st half of the run. My 1st loop time was ~58 minutes, so I was feeling pretty good about a sub-2hr run. But during the 2nd half of the run, my pace started to slow. I was having a hard time trying to restore the pace I had set earlier. I was banking on a final kick that never really came... Was imy 2nd loop performance due to not eating during the 1st loop or was it a result of me staring at my HR monitor and not wanting to get my HR up too high? It was also clear to me that I wasn't going to crack 6 hours overall, so I recall thinking "why kill myself? at the end of the race - let me just enjoy the moment".Probably a little bit of everything contributed....

I'll take a gel at the end of the first loop of the run. I also missed not having a water bottle in my hand while I run. That is how I train, and it was a bit awkward having to wait for an aid station, plus, it is always a challenge trying to drink out of a cup while maintaining your stride.

At the end of the race, I didn't feel wiped out, like I did last year. I walked around for a bit and did some light strecthing. Headed over to the food tent and had a few things to eat.


I always want to go faster - I could have trained more, added more hours each week, longer bike rides, more time in the pool.... blah, blah, blah... I'm happy with what I accomplished this day!


Timberman is an awesome weekend. My first goal was to finish the race - I did that; My 2nd goal was to beat last year's time - I did that too. Other goals that I had but didn't make: 3hr bike; 2 hr run; beat last year's swim time; finish under 6 hours. I've gotta work on transitions, I need to look for ways to improve my bike time & I need to tweak my nutrition plan.