Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I found some tall athletes near the swim start chute and chatted with them and let them know I may be drafting off them by tickling their feet. They had a good laugh about that but I knew they'd be able to swim faster than me due to their height and arm lengths.

As soon as the bell went off at 7:32am for me to go I jogged into the water and the waves were small so I was able to jog in the water until knee height water. After that I jumped and and went for the yellow buoys. I felt really good heading out and focused on high SPM solid hip drive form. I stayed inline with all the buoys and did not swim off that line too much and had my best swim time in a 70.3 in a long time. My swim training paid off and it could have been a bit better if I didn't have that shoulder injury in May. I would have had more swim training volume and a higher sustainable speed.

Nothing.

Exiting the swim went smoothly and I was able to unsuit halfway down with no issues. Getting my feet cleaned was a bit difficult with all the people around but as soon as I got my shoes on I jogged all the way to T1 with no issues.

At my spot I immediately mounted my Garmin 920XT, towel dried my hair a bit, Headsweats on, pocketed spare tube and lube and 3 Maurten 100 CAF100, Oakleys on, helmet on. Good thing I did that because I felt myself bumping my aero bar shifters a couple times as I tried removing my wetsuit from my ankles. Having no TriSlide there really slowed me down, argh!

Practice the feet cleaning and shoe insertion during open water swim practices and spray lube around ankles before putting wetsuit on. Or try taking wetsuit off sitting down.

With that big chainring shifter adjusted like it was I wasn't confident in my shifting when the hills started showing themselves. After wasting too much energy at low cadence I gave in and started shifting to small ring at the big hill after the first aid station. The volunteers failed to setup the bike racks for the portapotties there, argh! Found a spot to put bike and went to pee even though it wasn't that bad but I knew it would get worse if I didn't go then.

I gained confidence in my ability to shift between big and small ring but the tension was so great I wasted more energy being in the big ring too long worrying about the shift pattern. My normalized power output was too high at 180 watts before the turnaround but my HR was in Z2 and my RPE breathing wasn't hard.

I started feeling bad, like stomach bad and head bad when the winds came about 5 miles away from the turnaround. It was at this point where I knew my day was unfolding in a bad way and decided to bring my power output down more than desired on the return trip. Also because I had the urge to pee again forcing me to stop and do so the next 2 aid stations costing me more time. Easing my power output by 10% helped ease the bad feeling a bit but then I think it was too late to salvage the remainder of the race at this point (seeing how my running legs died at around mile 8 of the upcoming half marathon).

With all the bike training I've done the past 4 years I felt I had the fitness to break 3 hours on a course like this but my big ring shifting issues and unrested state entering the race affected my mental sharpness and my decision making was bad at the start of the bike.

1:38 out
1:41 back
~2200ft elevation gain

Figure out a way to get more sleep when there's a triple digit heatwave lingering around the days before a race.

Got to transition and got my helmet and shoes off smoothly. Racking my bike was a bit hard with all the stuff around. I had all this black stuff on my feet which I struggled to remove because I didn't want to run with rocks in my socks. That slowed me down bad. Finally cleaned enough, TriSlide sprayed my feet and put socks and shoes and went ran outta T2.

Put a new medium sized towel down so my feet doesn't get dirty.

Run started okay with no grumpy legs though my HR was higher than expected at the pace I was going. I even slowed down to compensate but that wouldn't work. I was already in low Z3 near the end of my 5:00 intervals before walking for 0:30. After mile 3 my quads started feeling some cramps but I went with it and slowed my pace down a bit more to compensate during the trail segment of the half marathon.

By mile 9 my legs were no longer able to run. Quads were very angry and every attempt to go running they said NO so I had to walk my way to the finish. I stuck with my nutrition plan too but by mile 5 every sip I took made me feel sick but I still consumed it because I needed the calories.

Better rest entering the race and more run training. I thought I did enough but apparently not. That and my bike pacing decision in my unrested state was bad too. If I had really taken my time and hovered in Z1/Z2 and no efforts above that I may have salvaged my run performance a bit but I don't know if that would have helped much seeing how bad I felt before the bike turnaround.

Felt like shit and didn't bother stretching. Got 2 tacos, 2 pizzas, 2 chips, water, Coke, banana, and orange and ate off it minus a chip bag and the orange.


Insufficient sleep and run training. Next time I get to the start of a 70.3 unrested, I'm going to pace it full Ironman style to put off as much walking as possible.


Good race for my fitness level. I aimed for a 6:15 to 6:25 finish but failed, ugh... Should I sign up for this or another 70.3, I'm gonna suck it up and race slower if my rest is suboptimal.