Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim was much calmer than last year's. I thought I would've gone faster, but didn't gain much time because I probably swam an extra .2 miles -- That's not the way to improve one's swim time!

Sight more, Draft less. I must've chosen the feet of the lost to follow today because I kept sighting on the tetrahedrons (sp?) but ended up far to the outside of the course. Kayakers were visible on my left shoulder on every straight away, and that's not a good sign. Plus I had to swim back in from the far left edge to exit at the beach area. Ugh!

The wetsuit strippers made most of T1 easy, but mounting the bike was tricky today. My velcro'd on bike pump under the top tube slipped to the side, and my back wheel also seemed very under powered, so I stopped to fix the pump and check the tire. Lost about 20 seconds there, which isn't much in the big picture, but didn't bode well for the ride.

Secure my frame pump differently and Check pressure on race day morning, which is something I usually do but didn't do today.

I had 2 mechanical issues today:
1. My darn frame pump kept slipping and almost falling out into my bottles. This was annoying and dangerous as it was making me come of out aero, reach down and try to better secure it. I'd stand up out of the saddle, it would slip and I'd have to sit again. Finally, after about 30 mins of this nonsense, I got it secured in a slightly cock-eyed position that would at least hold over most bumps and allowed me to get out of the saddle. However, this pump issue soon became the least of my worries.

2. I started to feel fine and was making good time, but things went bad with my L-cleat at about mile 10. I was cruising up a hill when my L-foot slipped out to the side and got stuck. I freed it and tried to re-insert the cleat to the pedal, but it wouldn't go. I tried again. I kept seated on the incline just trying to click in again and again. My cadence dropped, speed fell to less than 8mph and I was passed by two A ladies - Athenas! I knew I had to just get to the top of the hill.

I decided to stop and look to see what was going on, then coast down.
I looked down under my left shoe and saw a *bolt missing* from my cleat, so the SPD head was just swinging side-to-side. Great. This sucks. I had a half-functional cleat. By tilting my foot out to the side with the toe pointed down, I could almost get the cleat to the horizontal position where it would engage with the pedal again. This was tricky. I spent a few minutes trying to get it right, and the Athenas were downhill and out of sight by the time I got rolling again.

With the cleat rather bungled, at this point my mantra became "I'm doing the best I can with what I've got... I'm doing the best I can with what I've got..." Every hill became a struggle to stay on the pedals and every time my cadence got up above 85 I would shift to a harder gear just because I couldn't trust my shoes/cleats to stay on the pedals at higher cadence. I had a few "fly-offs" which thankfully didn't cause any crashes, but my situation didn't improve. I could only maintain 15mph as my avg overall speed (though I did hit 45mph while coasting downhill in aero --yup it was a hill course, just like last year).

This situation of tentative pedal/cleat connection lasted through mile 45 or 50 when something made my foot slip off again, and this time I couldn't get it back onto the pedal's center at all. My shoe was just sliding all over the place. Thankfully the course was mostly downhill at this point, and so I entered T2, so glad to be off the bike with a pump still attached and pedals still intact. Sorta...

1. Get a better frame pump set-up by A. (less likely) drilling new pump holder holes into the frame or B. (more likely) using one of the bottle cages for a pump mount as I do on training rides but also getting a center-aerobar mounted bottle system inplace so I don't have to sacrifice extra fluids.

2. Get new cleats and don't rely on old bolts (as I had) to bolt old cleats to new shoes. I'd only had the new shoes for 2 weeks prior to the race day, and the test/training rides went fine, but the cleats really were too worn and the bolts to rusty to rely upon them for my big race. I won't be so cheap next time, and will get new cleats ASAP!

I looked down at my cycling shoes as I put on my NB runners, and there was *no cleat* at all on the L shoe anymore. Gone, completely. I let out an audible "HA! That explains it!" in reference to why I couldn't get connected on the last 5-10 miles and was fighting slip-off every bit of the way in. I'm sure the T-area spectators had no idea what I was talking (to myself) about.

I've never been so glad to leave my bike shoes and head out for the run! Usually the ride is my favorite part of the race, but not today...

I took off happy to be done with the bike, sure that nothing else terrible could happen now, and I was right. The run was fine, but I never got into a fast stride and kept a reasonable pace in Lap 1. By Lap 2 my pace lagged a little, but Matthew also ran with me for support, and that was nice. On the first lap I had roughly 10 min miles, but on the second lap I started to lag into the 11-12 min miles, and was walking every aid station. I could've done a lot better.

I tried to stay tough and keep my head in the game completely, and I guess I did my best, but was amazed at how slow the last 5 miles were. I just wanted them over with!

I think drank too much water/gatorade/flat coke and wound up having to pee at mile 10, which was distracting. I stopped at the porta jon, felt like the tiny green plastic room was swaying all around me, and could barely stand up again when done. Note to self: drink less and spit out half of it. Just wet the wistle, not soak the throat.

I'd have trained more 8+ mile runs, drank less fluid, and found a new mantra to chant while running. I had to dig deep, but didn't go deep enough I think.

Done, wow, can't stand up very well, might as well sit in an ice (melted) bath at the kiddie pool. Ouch, that's cold. I think I have a saddle sore and some serious chafing around the side of my knees where it kept meeting the loose pump and the flapping race number secured around my top tup. Everything hurts. I stagger to food. I get ice cream for him, cheez pizza and veggies for me, and I start to pink up.

Then I get cold. Really chilled and my chest tightens so I can't breathe very well. He walks me to the massage tent (no room, no more signups allowed) and then the medic tent (lots of open cots, warm blankets, bliss!). The medic put a blood oxygen analyzer on my finger tip and it shows slightly low O2 saturation -- 85% vs. 98-100%. Really? Odd. Brings a little O2 tank and mask over, all very calmly. I'm shivering. I can't stop shivering but try to take deep breaths. The medic then sees that the anlayzer has slipped on my finger tip, maybe due to my fingernail, so switches fingers. Now he says my O2 levels are fine and probably were fine all along. The fingernail may have interferred with a proper reading!

OK, then. I stay to warm up a little longer, maybe another 5 mins, and then change into warm, dry clothes...ahh, not that's much better. Much better indeed. I grab a few more free diet pepsi's, and we hit the road.


Obviously, the bike issues were huge, and I'll get those fixed. Swim sighting and stroke really needs work, too. But the real limiter was the run and the distance above 8 miles. I've GOT TO NAIL THAT in my training if I expect to nail it on race day. All the mental stamina in the world can't deny legs that are unaccustomed to going that distance on a regular basis, esp. after a brutal, hilly 3+hr bike.


I still love Timberman, and I'll be back.