Full Vineman Triathlon - Triathlon

I am usually a 1:30 swimmer for 2.4 miles but I think the shallow water at the turnaround slowed me down because I had to walk and I also think the course may have been a bit long. Otherwise the swim was very nice. The water temperature was perfect and the whole experience was refreshing. It definitely was slower swimming upstream than downstream even though the current was very, very slow.

I need to trust myself and engage in faster turnover in my stroke. I think I can probably comfortably bet around 1:25 by simply increasing my turnover as I do in training. I just need to have more confidence in my ability not to exhaust myself with faster turnover.

My heels, once again would not come off my wetsuit when the wetsuit stripper was trying to pull it off. I smothered my heels and the wetsuit in Body Glide but it made little difference. I also had a horrible time putting on my tri-top. It was bunching up and I couldn't get it over my wet shoulders.

Get that spray on "Body Glide" for the suit and see if that helps. Practice putting on the tri-top.

Very fun bike course but you need to be careful because areas of the road are very rough. I lost a bottle of Infinit and everybody was losing all sorts of stuff all over the course. I controlled my pace through heart rate (tried to keep it between 130-140 throughout the entire course. I had an awesome ride and only felt tired over the last 30 miles but heat had a lot to do with that. I felt good coming off the bike. Soooo much better than my IM last year.

Find a better way to secure my bottles. Train MORE on the bike. This is where the big gains are had.

The distance to transition is HUGE. Little can be done about that. Where I totally failed was in strategically placing my run gear at T2. I could not find my run gear and I wasted about two minutes just trying to find my stupid run gear.

Place my run gear in a spot that is crystal clear to find.

The heat was brutal (well into the 90's). I walked the first quarter mile and jogged the flats and walked the hills. This was the only way for me to keep moving forward. I did a good job at drinking my Infinit and staying hydrated. Volunteers poured ice down my singlet and that was a lifesaver. I also pored water over my head at every aid station and drank Coke at every other aid station. i also had three salt tablets throughout the course. Nutrition-wise I was fine but my feet started blistering because they were soaked and my quads were killing me because I couldn't dedicate that much time to strength training. I did not use GPS and went strictly by heart rate and perceived exertion. I was able to really push for the last 4.35 miles by using this method. This allowed me to keep moving. My goal was 5 hours and I ended up with 5:06, so I felt pretty good about the time.

Train more on the bike to be able to have more for the run. Dedicate more time for strength training. Overall I am happy with my effort.

Walked around and had some water and chicken noodle soup. I also had some fruit. I was upset that they had no protein recovery drink. Last thing I wanted was more freaking water.


Slow transitions. Heat on the course. Too much conservatism on the swim. Not enough training on the bike.


Vineman is an incredible race. The organization was superb and the volunteers were great. The course is hard but not ridiculously so. It makes me mad that it was so unusually hot because i think that under normal conditions I could have achieved a sub 13 performance. However no race has all go perfectly so I will take my result gladly. I would love to do this race agin and i would recommend it to anyone. I improved my time from my first IM last year by 1 hour 28 minutes. I did 14:50 last year and 13:22 at Vineman. My marathon time was 5:50 last year and 5:06 this year. My bike was 7:08 and this year it was 6:25. So, overall, Vineman for me was a big success.