Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

this was a really easy start. People complained that they got clobbered but I've been more beat up in local triathlons. It might have been where I positioned myself. I started basically in the front about 150 feet to the right (it's a counter clockwise swim). My goal was to swim easy but under an hour.

Nothing. I felt I put in the right amount of effort for the swim.

The T1 transition times are slow because of having to run up the helix (the entrance to the parking garage). Wetsuit strippers were great as were the volunteers in the changing rooms.

I am a crappy cyclist. I am okay at swimming and okay at running. I only started cycling last summer really and I thought that I would pick it up a lot quicker than I have. The training plan that I made for myself was very much geared towards biking and I put in a lot of miles. It think that it paid off as I am no longer the worst cyclist. I was happy with my time, pace and effort.

The bike also went by very fast. The course if pretty fun with the hills and rollers. I don't think it is as difficult as many people make it out to be. At least with all the hills/rollers, it never gets too boring.

nothing really. I tried to let my HR spike too much on the hills.

Oh yeah. I got stung on the face by a bee. I felt that was unnecessary.

Volunteers take your bike so that's pretty cool. They also empty out your transition bag and sort it for you so it goes by quickly.

Right when I started running it hit me that IM is hard. I was prepared for this and I tell myself before every race that there will come a time when things will get very uncomfortable and that you train hard to be able to overcome those periods. The difficult period came at about mile 13-19. My stomach was not having a good time. I knew what to do in this case was to slow down a bit so for those miles I went from around 7:55mpm to 8:20mpm to let things settle. I refused to walk except at an aid station to properly drink) because I told myself that "chances are you will not be doing this again so you better do it right this time". I have a hard time with regrets. Around mile 20 things became brighter and I started to pick up the pace. I think my last few miles were around 7:50mpm and I was skipping aid stations. I wanted to finish strong and I feel that I did.

Not much. I actually went out a bit too hard. I sometimes have that problem when I do bricks and I have to slow myself down. I had a hard time slowing down in the first few miles. I don't think it really affected my run much as my problems were tummy related.

I finished and found my family. I was pretty dizzy/nauseated. I tried walking around because I didn't want to sit and never get back up but I finally had to sit down and eventually lay down. After about a half hour of that someone gave me a bunch of fritos and a coke and I felt much better. I have been eating crap like that ever since. I will probably weigh 250 pounds in about three weeks (from about 145).





I was pretty happy with my performance. This was my first IM. The training plan that I made for myself was based on volume for a few reasons: 1) I really enjoy training; 2) I recover pretty well; and 3) I was a pretty poor cyclist and I thought the best way to improve that would be by riding lots (but having a focus for each ride). I am still not a good cyclist but I have improved a lot and I am happy about that.

My goal was 10:15. I made that goal based on paying attention to what I was doing in training. So it was more like "if I stick to my plan and my plan goes well I should finish in 10:15". I figured 1hr swim, 5:40 bike, 3:25 run, 10min transitions. I came pretty close to that.

I think I benefited from having some idea of what to do when the train goes a little bit off-track like it did on the run. All in all, it was a good race for me. I am not sure I want to continue at IM distance, but we'll see.

The fans and volunteers for this race were spectacular. THANK YOU!!!!