Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had a decent swim...nothing spectacular but I hit the beach feeling good about the start of my race. Although the rain had quit for the swim I still had trouble sighting because my goggles were fogging. I managed to stay more or less on track thanks to the rest of the folks around me. There was a bit of bumping but nothing too bad and my goggles only got knocked once. I went out at a comfortable pace and just maintained that...never really pushing. You can never really be sure how accurate the swim course distance is from one race to the next. I swam almost exactly the same split as Diamondman last year but moved up in the AG rankings from top 35% to top 20% so I'll take that as an improvement.

I ended up 47/180 in the AG which is about where I was swimming last season...maybe a little better. I was hoping for a better swim considering all the time I spent focusing on my technique in the past 6 months. I need to get to the point where I actually race the swim and I guess that just takes more time pushing myself. I want to make a point of pushing my limits a bit more on the swim in Clearwater.

I decided to wear gloves because of the rain

Nothing specific but I could probably be a bit more efficient in general.

This was a tough bike course compared to the stuff I train on. I've only done one training ride with any significant hills and that just isn't enough to get me ready for this type of course. I kept my ass in the saddle for the most part and tried not to go out too hard but my effort definitely decreased a bit over the last 20 miles or so. The other issue I had was that my new tri bike is a bit unstable on high speed descents and I'm not a particularly good descender anyway. I spent the longer faster descents on the horns with white knuckles just praying I'd make it without bailing. There were two instances towards the end where I was positive I'd be hitting the ground. At one point my front wheel got a bit of a shimmy that just seemed to grow to the point where I thought I'd never get it under control. By this time it was raining hard and I prepared myself to take a nasty spill at 30mph. I managed to get on the brakes and eventually got things back in line but I was good and scared by that time. With about 3 miles left I decided it was time to empty the bladder so I took 30sec to get out of the saddle and stretch the legs...I can go while I'm sitting on the saddle :) I spent the final couple of miles trying to mentally prepare for T2 and the run but honestly I was happy that the ride was over and I was still inone piece.

Well, I'm not sure exactly what went wrong with my stomach but it definitely impacted my nutrition intake. I'm not really comfortable on high speed descents, especially in the aerobars on wet surfaces so I lost a bit of time there...max speed ws only 43mph and I probably averaged 5-8mph less on average through the descents that I could have. And finally, I don't consider myself a particularly strong rider in general so I've definitely got some work to do.

I managed to bike in the top 20% of my AG (29/180) which is a serious improvement from last season when I was an average MOP rider typically in the 50-60% range. I'm looking forward to a flatter course where I can ride with a bit more confidence.

Nothing special to note about T2. Took the time to put on socks.

Coming out of T2 I still had some GI issues but I was able to get the legs moving at a decent pace. While my HR was a bit high out of the chute, I started to settle into a decent race pace and just focused on keeping my stride short and monitoring my legs for signs of fatigue. The first mile was faster than I expected (6:40) but didn't feel too hard so I was hoping that I'd be able to maintian sub-7min pace. Then without warning both my legs cramped on the first downhill segment. I tried to slow and continue but I had knots in both hammies and had to stop completely. I spotted a bottle of water on the side of the road and quickly downed some Endurolytes and began to shuffle on. That second mile was 7:38 but it looked like I might be able to get back to a decent pace as I clicked off a 6:39 for mile 3 and felt reasonably well. The next few miles were all sub-7min and I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't try to set any speed records as long as I could continue to run 7min miles. That would give me a nice PR on the day. I ended up tossing my gel flask around mile 5 because it was too concentrated for my stomach to handle so I was now stuck with Gatorade for the rest of the run (not good considering I was already behind on nutrition from the bike). I think mile #7 was a bit long because I logged 8:24 and wasn't really hurting too bad yet (notice I said YET). Mile #7 is the turn-around back down the grass to the transition and up the slight hill out of the main parking area so I expected into be a bit slower but I was surpsised to see an 8+ min split. The second loop is where the wheels started to fall off the wagon. I think the lack of nutrition and hydration finally caught up with me. My legs were starting to get heavy, although I didn't feel all that bad considering I was 4+ hours into the race. I just felt generally slow and not particularly efficient on my feet and my mile splits showed it...miles 8-12 were 7:16-8:12. I remember just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and trying to maintain a decent turnover but the hills were just killing me and my legs were like lead. Looking back at my HRM data my HR took a significant drop after the 8 mile mark...about 8bpm avg decrease for the remainder of the run. I think that's about where my body switched to survival mode...I just couldn't push any harder but I was only running in low Z3. From mile 11-12.5 my HR dropped all the way into Z2 even though I was giving it what I had left in me. It was also about this time that I remember my head getting a bit fuzzy and my ears starting to ring...I was kind of in a daze over those last couple miles. Once I could see the finish area across the lake and hear the announcer I knew I was almost home and I was able to find a bit of energy in reserve. I felt lighter and more efficient and was able to pick up the pace significantly running 6:52 for mile #13. I finally hit the turn down the finish chute and had maybe 200m to go...and I almost didn't make it. Just as I thought I had made it both my hammies started to cramp again and I practically hobbled to the line. I made it but it certainly wasn't pretty.




I think my poor run was a result of both limited training coming into the race after my accident and the limited nutrition through the ride. Not sure there was much I could have done today to avoid these issues. Some days things just don't go your way. I suppose I could have kept on the nutrition and hoped my GI issues would go away but it seemed a better idea at the time to cut back and give my stomach a chance to sort itself out...which never happened. I definitely could have used another 4-6 weeks of training but that wasn't an option in this case.


I ran 29/180 in the AG which is far from my usual top 3%. Looking at the results I figure I was capable of running in the top 5-10 of the AG if things went my way. Guess that just gives me something to shoot for in Clearwater.

By the time I crossed the finish line my legs were cramping, my head was getting a bit fuzzy, and my ears were ringing. I stumbled over to the massage tent shivering and was promptly given a blanket sent over to the medical tent. I had some gatorade, talked with the med staff a bit and kind of got my bearings before returning to the massage tent for a quick rub on my legs.


The conditions weren't ideal for riding fast, especially with my lack of comfort at high speeds on the descents. My biggest issue was the GI distress on the ride that resulted in cutting back on my nutrition and a poor run. If things had gone my way there is no doubt that I would have gone 4:50 or better. Some days you just have to take what you get.


Looking past the cold/wet weather this was definitely an awesome event from start to finish. I'm sure it was a massive job to plan and organize something of this magnitude and I think Keith did a fantastic job and we all made the most of some less than ideal conditions. I'll be back at Timberman again.