Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I started right in the middle. Things were pretty calm and I got into a comfortable pace pretty quickly. I thought I drafted well, sighted well, and was swimming a good race. The last 3/4th of the course was a little choppy but nothing bad.

I look at my watch and saw 40:30. I almost puked in disgust. Granted, I a pretty bad swimmer but I haven't swam that slow in a long, long time. I saw Rob early on the bike and he mentioned that he swam so I knew something was up with that course.

Looking at the results, I finished mid-packish. That is fairly routine for me.

Hire a swim coach. I'm in search for one right now and hope to have things set up within the week.

I'm happy with it. I don't have the rank but it seems faster than most and I had a pretty crappy transition spot.

nada

With the 40+ min swim, I was determined to have a solid bike preformance. I was a little discouraged that breaking 5 hours was a long shot at this point but I thought with a strong bike I could make up some time.

I spun up the first couple hills to get my HR down as it was sitting in the low 160's and I just got myself in a comfortable pace. I started picking off people one by one until the first real long hill about 6 miles out. As I started pushing up it I hear a terrible squeaky noise from my bike. It was that unmistakeable sound of wheel rub...I pulled over about halfway up the climb and flipped open my brakes. Start up again and the sound was still there.....At this point I couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. I unhooked my back wheel and pull back the wheel from the seatpost cut out. The noise continued. I decided to just forget about it and continue on. Every hill the noise would come back.

I figured out what the noise was when I got home. It turns out that when the bike shop tighten my rear brake cable last weak then tighten it just enough to not rub on flats or roller, but it rubbed when during wheel flex with the up hill climbs even when I flipped open the brakes. Needless to say that little mistake cost me a bit on the ride and run.

At about mile 10, just at the start of the rt 106 cruise area, my bike computer died. So I relied on my HR and RPE to gauge how things were going. I kept my HR in the low 140's thoughout the out portion of 106 and I was passing at will at this point. I think I remember being passed about 3 times all day and I can't count the number I passed.

As a side note, I saw Bjorn going the other way somewhere around Loudon. He is my new bike here....whe I grow up, I want to bike like Bjorn.

Nutrition wise, I tried disolved lava salts in my Carbo-pro mixture. I had terrible stomach cramps the first two hours of the bike until I finished that bottle.

At the turn around, I continued to pass the pace line and occassional draft line. A couple notes of concern. First, I felt like I was putting threshold effort on the climbs coming back, but my HR wouldn't go about 149. Second, My quads were spent on the climbs the last 15 miles. I tried to stand and climb a few times but my legs lack power and were uncoordinated. Not sure why, so I need to figure that out.

Overall, I thought it was a good effort given the annoying things that were thrown at me.

Triple check the bike to make sure everything is perfect. Don't put lava salts in my nutrition drink.

pretty good T2 for me. Only 27 seconds behind Simon Lessing or just about the time it take to put wet socks on.

Not put my wetsuit on my socks.

I was pretty spent off the bike and I really was in no mood to run anywhere. Just started to move my feet and tried to put my mind into a better place. The first mile came at 8:22....blah. I thought to myself if this pace keeps up, I'm going to be out there all day. I pulled into the mile 1 porto potty, took some salts, drank some gatorade, dumped some water on my head and started off again. Mile 2 passed a 16 min. So things were looking better. My legs felt a little better on the down hill and I got into a relaxed pace. My HR hovered around the 149-153 range the entire run, which again I thought was low.

The best moment on the came at the end of the first loop when Desiree Ficker passed me on the run. A couple minutes later Kate Major did the same. They certainly gave me motivation to keep them in sight.

Leg number 3 was the worst of the 4. Twice, I had to stop for hamstring cramps and I couldn't tell if my body was numb with pain or just numb. A couple times I forgot which mile I was on. Each loop I would see Rob (huskyboy) getting closer to me and I was actually hoping he would catch me close to the end.

When I got to 2 miles out I knew it was basically downhill to the finish and I just gutted it out. I actually passed a few in my age group towards the end.

Overall, this was the toughest run I've experienced. I'm glad I didn't without stopping (except to rub out a cramp and take a leak).

Re-evaluate my nutrition leading up to the race and during.

My legs were in all sorts of hurt after the race so I sat in the kiddie pool for a few minutes. After I went to the car, put on some warm clothes and grabbed a warm beer. That was the best damn warm beer I've ever tasted.


I didn't feel exactly 100% before the race and I think my overall nutrition and diet has something to do with it. I have hired a nutritionist who I will start seeing next week. I'm also determined to improve my swim, so I'm searching for a swim coach and will hopefully start that very soon.


Keith's races are the best. I got to toss some of my best one liners to Desiree Ficker during the rolldown. I made her laugh, even in front of her BF. I did hold back the "Hey, Desiree, I have a picture of you as the background on my computer at work, do you want to see?" line as I thought she might find that a little creepy.

Also, I picked up a Clearwater spot which was my ultimate goal as my wife parent and my folks both live in that area and it would be a great opportunity to have them experience an event with me.