Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

Average swim overall. The start was OK, but definitively nasty. That mass start was very crowded, and kept bumping into many others until I got some clearer water. So to keep myself clearer, ended doing a lot of my swim on my own, and not much drafting. Not a great thing on such a distance. But overall, happy as I still did it under an hour for the swim.

Practice more often swimming in packs, and work on endurance. Need to move my tempo faster to get faster in the water.
Also, do longer swim with high speed at beginning, settle down, then pick up again at end. Repeats.

Got out of the water, wetsuit peelers had a hard time getting the zipper down as neither of us could find the tag to pull.
Then a long way from exit, to bags, then tent. Took a little longer to get ready. A little winded from swim to bike.

Practice swim/bike transition. Need more speed.

Splits from course.
Lap 1 = 1:49:10
Lap 2 = 2:03:22
Lap 3 = 2:06:34
Big issue I had to day, is that my bike computer was busted the day before, so I had to ride the whole race blind folded, with no way to measure my performance on the course. The sensors tabs broke off, and no specific repair stuff. This part really sucked, but still managed to break 6 hours, so happy with that.
On the second loop, found myself stand a little more often up to stretch my back, but felt good, and on the third loop, stretch even more often.
But overall, my back did not go into muscle spasms, so happy with that.
Hydration and food was good overall with my performance, but needed some more salt. Got some cramps in my legs on the third loop, but managed to finish fairly strong.

Need to practice long bike sessions. The longest I did was 80 miles before and only 1 of them. Then did one 72 miler in Tahoe, and all others were less than 60 miles. Not much on the endurance.
Practice to the approriate distance you are racing.
Make sure you have a computer that works.

Since we can't leave shoes on bike, got to get off bike position. Once there stepped off my bike, and when started to run, my legs just couldn't fire in that direction. They were locked up into you know what.
Had to wooble around to bags, then tent. Stretch legs and was able to get off for the run. Felt good initially.

Need serious practice with this transition. Mainly long bikes and run transitions. Even if it is half a mile.

Splits on run.
Runa1 23:25
Run 3.5 49:00
Runa2 2:33:29
Run 12.1 3:01:22
Runa3 4:54:25
Run 20.4 5:23:25
As you can see, the first loop was OK, and even up to the half point. But for the second and third loop, my legs were just gone. Having cramps on the groin muscle, upper and lower quads, hamstrings, and my calf occasionally Kept changing my my walking/fast walking pace to keep them moving. Then about a mile from the finish, my wife kept by me and pushed me through the finish. Then here is that famous shut that we all see on the computer. People were high fiving me, felt that energy go right through me, and there I was, blind, just supper happy, some energy tranfer that I think I hard, and ran through that finish, and there I was, two people catching me at the finish. My legs were done. I mean really done. Nothing there. We all know what happens after that. Great day, and God bless you all.

Run, run, run, run. I have to run way more often. Having my longest run before that as an 8 miler, and being deployed and taking a 10 day vacation right before this was no justification either.
Train, train and train running.

None that I was able to do. Was carried to food tent, ate ad ate and drank. Then all to the massage tent where this young lady work on my for almost 45min. Seemed for ever, but did a wonderful job on me.


Training properly. Train, then deploy, train, deploy, makes for an Ironman training hard to come by.


Great race, and will do it again in another few years. Need to concentrate on shorter distances for right now, and build my fitness level. So doing Olympics and HIM for the next two years.