Ironman Maryland - Triathlon

New start strategy -- I built through the first quarter of the swim instead of swimming hard from the gun. Caught a draft for nearly the whole first lap. Led a group of six out of the water. See post at http://radicalimmersion.wordpress.com/

N/A. It was just the right effort for the day.

I am just slow here. I struggled a little with arm sleeves in tent but waited to pull them up until on bike. I ran through the bike area and from the water. Not sure what to do other than cut down on the amount of "stuff" to do.

Move FASTER.

I consciously went easy for the first ten minutes. Fixed arm sleaves, took drinks, got organized. Then I went to work -- too hard. For half an hour or so I rode closer to 220 watts before I calmed down. Several times I got into groups of 3-5 people. Invariably I would end up on the front because they weren't pushing enough. I peed twice at 50 miles and about 95 miles. I wasn't ready for the unrelenting pressure on my position. There is no variation in the topography although the landscape is gorgeous and changes.

Train on the Eastern Shore. Also, my plan was to ride loop 1 at about 200-205 NP and loop two at about 205-210. I rode the first half at 192NP and the second at 192 NP. My expectations were probably too high for myself because I was working. On the other hand, the TSS was only 241 so maybe I could have worked harder/longer and pushed it up around 260.

There was probably about 150-250 meters to cover and I think I handled it much better than T1. I ran with visor and racebelt in hand and that was easy to take care of on the move.

Nothing.

I bailed out of the run strategy around mile five. The times held through about 12-13 miles and then it was triage. Twice I had walks that were embarrassingly long -- perhaps 90 seconds. Both were on the second half. It got really hot.

More training. I went in thinking my run was fast enough. I was confident in the long runs. But I had only been running for 16 weeks. The resiliency necessary to keep on just wasn't there. I turned in a pretty okay time but had hopes of a great time.

I sat on a chair at the finish line for about five minutes and then wandered over to the massage tent. Ate. Changed and walked up to the Tri360 aide station.


More training -- better strength on bike, stronger legs for run.


Close to home, extremely nice people in host community, lots of friendly faces. See also https://radicalimmersion.wordpress.com/.