EagleMan Ironman 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim felt really fast because there was a solid current going on with it. I was never able to grab anyone's feet b/c I usually swam by them once I caught their draft.

My sighting has improved tremendously this year and this race was no exception. I was direct and right on the bouys. Only point of confusion was at the boat where they said "Go to the yellow bouys" and there were two sets close together, one right (outbound) and one left (inbound).

I kept my stroke steady and solid and swapped around between breathing 4 strokes to the right and 3 strokes bi-lateral depending on the waves, who was around me, and generally how I was feeling.

Train more. Sounds obvious, but I love OWS MUUUCH more than pool swimming.

As I headed into transition, I saw my parents along the rope with these GOD-AWFUL purple clappy hand thingys. It was good to see them, though. :)

I got to the bike rack, got out of the wetsuit, and grabbed the bike.

Nothing.

The bike is BY FAR the discipline that I have trained the most on and that I feel is my strongest area.

My coach had me focusing on my bike nutrition as a tune up for IMWI, so I had 2x600 calories bottles of eFuel on the bike. Every 10 minutes, I was to take a drink and wash it down with some plain water from my aero bottle. At each water stop, I was to grab a fresh bottle of water, top up my aerobottle, and spray the rest on my head and back, if I was warm.

It took me about 20-30 minutes before I could settle into my appropriate pace and bring my HR down into the range of 150 which is my Z2 level. Once I did, though, I felt really strong because I knew I could hold that pace for forever and a day, if I had to.

At the halfway mark, I realized that I *REALLY* had to pee. I tried 3-4 times to release it while on the bike but I was never able to relax enough to get it flowing. Eventually, I had to stop by the side of the road. That cost me probably 1-2 minutes (I told you I REALLY had to go).

I was passing people pretty consistently for the entire ride, but there were certain areas where it was more frequent. When the headwind picked up and people started dropping their pace, I kept the hammer down because these were exactly the same conditions that I had trained in for the last 2 months. Then, at the 45 mile mark when most others' tanks were starting to run empty, I picked up the pace.

Only once did someone try to draft off of me. I looked back, saw him there, pushed my pace for about a minute, looked back, and he was nowhere in sight.

The nutrition was spot on and I felt really strong at the end.

When I got in and saw my time, I couldn't believe it. I knew I had 20mph while I was on the bike, but knowing it when I got into T2 was completely different. Last October was the first time I'd ridden 20+ in a race, and that was a sprint. Now I've done it in a Sprint, an Oly, and a HIM. There's just something special about crushing a 20mph avg over 56 miles.

Learn to pee on the bike.

I still haven't learned to time my 'out of shoes' element, so I actually kept the shoes on all the way to dismount and just ran into T2 with them on.

Grabbed the FuelBelt and slipped on the running shoes.

As I got out of the transition area, right before I was about to cross the timing mat, I ran back b/c I knew that I needed to pee again before I went out on the run. So, that cost me about a minute.

Learn to ride with my feet on my shoes.

In my run training, I have been following a 4/1 run/walk method to build my endurance and that was the same process I was to follow on race day.

When I got out of T2, I looked at the clock and knew that I had a fighting chance at 5:45 if everything went well.

The opening 5k was really good. I was clipping out 10:00/mile using the run/walk and thought it would be great to keep up this pace and come in strong at the end.

After mile 5, though, things started to change. I was carrying 2 gel flasks with me. 1 was eGel and the other was Gu. I was supposed to take a pull from one of them at each water stop and wash it down with a cup of water. The problem was that it tasted so thick after 5 miles that I really didn't want to keep taking it. Plus, because they were from flasks and not packets, I didn't know if I was getting the right amount each time.

At the turn around, I was at 1:09 and knew that I had to beat 1:07 to get home in 5:45. I tried to make my run splits longer and my walk splits shorter, but it didn't work. My mile splits just wouldn't come down.

Around mile 9, my left hamstring started to seize up on me.

At mile 10, I was supposed to open it up and give it everything I had left. Unfortunately, I knew there wasn't enough left to meet the 9:30/mile needed to make 5:45.

After the last water stop, I knew I had to run it all the way in. I had given up on 5:45 but now it was about pride. The pride to slug it out and not walk for the last 1.5 miles. It hurt. It hurt A LOT! But I didn't stop running.

As I turned the corner and saw the park with the finish line, I knew that I had, at least, broken 6 hours.

All in all, I should be happy with my run. I raced 15-30 sec/mile faster than I did my training. But I'm probably not going to be happy until i can run the whole 13.1 after coming off the bike.

Simply more years of training the run. I'll never be lightning fast, but I can become more consistent.

I grabbed some water and headed over to my tri club tent. On the way there, I ran into Eric and he gave me hug and walked with me. At one point, my left hamstring finally cramped and I crumpled to the ground. He helped me stretch it out and then helped me up and over to the tri tent.

Once I got to the tent, I found my parents and gave them a hug. I sat down by them and one of my other friends brought me over some food and put a cold towel on my shoulders.

I just sat there for quite a long time. Thinking. Feeling. Understanding what I had just done. And realizing what I have to do over the next 12 weeks.


Conditioning base.


I know that I should be happier about my results than I am. I crushed my previous best HIM time by over 30 minutes. I broke 6 hours. I broke 20mph on the bike. But, I feel like I let my coach down because he said I should do 5:45. Maybe it was a stretch goal and his way of motivating me to push beyond what my own expectations were. But still, I feel like I came up short.

Plus, I raced in the uber-competitive M30-34 AG instead of in the Clydesdale category b/c I didn't want to be going off last and coming in when there was no one in the park to cheer me on. However, after all the improvements I've made and all the training I've pushed through, realizing that I'm still just a BOP age grouper is tough to swallow.

Maybe, if my run nutrition had been a little better, I could have broken 5:45. But its just something I can take with me and improve upon for my next race.

And that next race is going to be even MORE brutal. That next race is my first IronMan. :gulp: