Ironman 70.3 Steelhead - Triathlon

This was my worst swim so far. The surf was 1-2 feet and I had sighting challenges. I have neglected my swim this season as well, and with business travel, I missed weeks of swimming and had only two swims in the last 2 weeks before the race. One was a 46 minute swim in a small hotel pool. A couple times I mistook the red vest of a kayaker as a buoy, putting me way off course. I was counting on the extra speed wearing my wetsuit, but the water temp in Lake Michigan went up 3.4 degrees over night, making the race not wetsuit legal.

I need to swim more, especially at higher intensity.

For transition, it was a long single file run to the bike start. I got stuck behind some walkers. Arg! It took a bit longer than isual due to getting the sand off my feet.

Nothing.

I killed this one. I had my fastest bike split ever by far for any distance I've been trying to break 22mph for any distance, let alone a 70.3.

My great hydration plan went out the window just after the 1st aid station. My plan was to drink water with Nuun for the first two bottles I carried with Stinger chews, and the change to Gatorade and water on the rest of the ride. Just past the 1st aid station going thru an intersection, I hit a bump and my full bottle bounced out. I kept going and then realized my other bottle had come dislodged and turned over in the cage and was empty! To add insult to injury, I got a yellow flag for littering! I had nothing to drink for 50 minutes until the next aid station (and penalty tent stop). I got water and Gatorade and sucked down the water fairly quickly. I finished my last Gatorade with about 5-10 minutes to go

I was really amazed with my pace. I was kind of zoned out through most of the ride. When I hit my second 5 mile split at just over 12 minutes, I was pretty shocked. The only 5 mile split below 22 mph was the penalty tent split.

I need better bottle cages. The cheap water bottles don't fit tightly enough.

This transition was OK. At the end of the bike t was a slow single file for a bit and this gave me a chance to stretch my hamstrings. Typically, My hammys are super tight in T2 but this was not a problem for this race.

Nothing.

Since I was messed up on my hydration plan, I figured I was toast for the run. By the run start it was 79°, mostly sunny and humid. I started with 2 10-oz bottles of Nuun and 2 of Gatorade endurance. I think I was drinking every 3-7 minutes throughout the race. When my bottles were empty, I refilled one with half water and half Gatorade. I had 3 of these. My stomach stayed not perfect, but pretty good. For the last couple of miles, I realized that my stomach was OK and the only challenge I had were my wasted quads. From my bike training mainly, I was used to this and was able to pick up the race for the last 2 miles, with my last mile being the fastest.

Having knee issues in March messed up my run training fro march and April. This did not help. I also need to lose another 10 pounds. It's funny that I've been a runner since i was 15. Just under 9 minute miles I think of as very slow, but overall this run time was better than my bike time from an overall rank position. I think with better training and losing weight I should be able to do 8:30 to 8:45 pace.

I found a chair to sit down on and take off my shoes. I then went for a swim in the lake. My stomach was doing OK so I was able to eat afterward.


I was SURE this race would be wetsuit legal. I've really worked on the bike this year and neglected my swimming. With a decent swim I would have placed in the top 10% and qualified for worlds. Next year. . .


Race day was OK,but registration the day before was pretty bad. I stood in line in the hot sun for almost 2 hours. I've never had that before. They needed more shade. They did bring the people in line a small bottle of water. having to go almost an hour between aid stations on the bike I thought was too long.

This was my 70.3 PR by about 8.5 minutes. The last time I did this race was in 2009 and I beat that time by 30 minutes.