High Cliff Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The water was super gross and full of algae. It was also pretty wavey. No real chop, just 1-2 foot swells, if you will.

This year we started on the beach, which I thought was kinda dumb as the lake is pretty shallow. The run went off and it was a water-run for the first 100-150m. Found a spot, dove in and started swimming.

It was hard spotting in the water with the swells. Round orange buoys and orange swim caps made it a bit harder. A kayak was on the outside of the first turn buoy, forcing eveyone to go INSIDE the buoy. WTF?

Overall, I felt like I kept form as best I could and swam fairly hard, but I was all over the course. Not sure if it was the swells or myself, but I had to keep changing direction and did a lot of zig-zagging, I think.

Swim time includes a 100m run up the beach to T1. Took off about 4' from last year's time. So I'm happy with that.

Sight better and swim straighter.

Had my goggles and cap off as I was running up the T1. Wetsuit was 1/2 off already as well. Got to my spot. Wetsuit off, bike shoes on, helmet on, grabbed my bike and ran out.

Fastest T1 in AG.

Maybe try the bike shoes already clipped on method. But, with the hill so close to the bike out I decided to strap 'em on in T2 so I could hop the bike and get going right away.

Got clipped into my bike and started up High Cliff hill. I tried to keep my cadence around 90ish and spun up it fairly easy. I stayed out of aero until we hit High Cliff Rd, then I dropped down to calm my body a bit and get into a rhythm.

Got into rhythm fairly quickly and started picking off a couple people. Found myself almost all alone with people behind me shortly thereafter. All the while my mind kept wandering off as I really had to pee. Finally gave in and stopped about 60' into the ride to do my business. Stopping took about 45 seconds and as I was doing what I needed to I watched as my last hour of work started to pass by me. 6 people passed me while I was on the side of the road. Also when I stopped, as soon as I put down my feet my left hammy knotted right up. Knotted to the point of it being painful and me thinking this was going to be a LONG ride ahead of me. After about a mile of soft pedaling and stretching it out while coasting my leg started to feel a bit better so I got back to business to chase down all those that passed me.

It took 12 miles, but I caught all of them and dropped them all. A couple of the guys re-passed me after I passed. I stayed on them and shortly after I passed them again, laying it down so a thought of trying to pass me again didn't cross their minds.

My hammy and glutes were bothering me almost the whole ride. Sometimes more than others; sometimes it felt like I wasn't going to be able to hold that effort for the rest of the ride. I kept on pushing and kept my wattage right around 270s, with some parts holding 300-320 for a while. Eventually I pulled away from everyone that I passed and rode State Park Rd back into High Cliff Park all alone. Awesome.

Nutrition/Hydration: 110 oz water. 1.5 Srv Perpetuem w/ 2 S-Caps, 4 Srv Gu20, 4 Gu, 6 S-Caps. 1190 Cal / ~476 Cal per hour.

Calories: 2552
Avg/Max Watts: 265/1300
Avg/Max Cadence: 93/109
Avg/Max Speed: 22.8/35.0
Ascent: 1328ft

kJ: 2351
NP: 274w
TSS: 181
IF: 0.857

Dehydrate while riding.

Ran to my spot, racked the bike. Helmet off, socks on. Lost my balance almost a couple times and ended leaning up on someones bike (oops). Got them things on, shoes on, grabbed my fuel belt and race number and off I went.

Nothing.

Right at the run-out, I grabbed some water and started to loosen up my legs. My hamstring was pretty tight as well as my glutes - almost "crampy". I started off with a short stride, but running was easy right then. I was doing 6:15s, with what felt like very little effort.

I started up High Cliff and kept the stride short and easy. Taking baby steps I was running 7:30-8:30 m/m up the hill. I saw some guy at the top and was gaining on him fast. Shortly after getting on the trails I passed him, eased back a bit to calm the HR down and got in my rhythm. After about 2 miles running 6:15s were almost effortless. HR was in the low 150s, breathing was relaxed, stride felt super comfortable - everything was clicking nicely.

I felt some stomach issues coming on so I slowed down just a tad to keep them from coming on strong. I wanted to take the first lap a bit easier to neg split it so this plan was good for me. This first lap was very lonely. After passing that one guy at the top of the hill I saw absolutely NOBODY on the course until the very end of the first lap. I was beginning to think that everyone in front of me was in a big pack like 10 minutes ahead of me. I kept on pace and ran easy until I started to see another person in the distance.

I slowly reeled that dude in and got around him, then another. I picked up the pace for a while so they wouldn't try to hang on with me. I completed the first lap of the run in 42'. Almost exactly where I wanted to be. Once I got on that 2nd loop I started to pick it up a bit more. Every so often I passed a guy here and there, but still wondering where a few others that I knew of were. Lots more people were on the run course now and it was hard to pick out who was on the 1st lap and who was on the 2nd.

Once I hit 65' on the run, I started to notch it up for the last couple of miles. Kickin' it down I was laying down 6 m/m's in an effort to catch those last few people I wanted to. I started to gain on one and I knew that if I just ran past him that he would try and hang. So, to pass on hurt I ran by him running 5:50s so the thought of latching on wouldn't cross his mind. It worked and I continued on at that pace.

Just as we were turning to go down hill there was one more person that I knew I had a chance of passing. I opened up the legs going down the hill and started to gain on him. Once at the bottom I was in near striking distance and was running pretty hard. Just as we were about to hit the finisher's chute I lit 'em up and ran as hard as I could to get around him. At the very last turn, I was able to get past him and snag 4th place OA. Ka-Chow!

This run was good enough for fastest run split overall by almost 3 minutes!

Nutrition/Hydration: Water at each water stop. Also carried two 8 oz Fuel Belt bottles, each w/ 1 Nuun tab and 2 S-Caps mixed it. Took in 2 Gu @ 20' and 50'.

Calories: 1645
Avg/Max Pace: 6:19/4:35
Avg/Max Cadence: 93/103
Avg Stride Length: 4ft 6in
Ascent: 320ft

Neg-splitted by 2' on the 2nd lap. Took off 8.5' min from last year.

Nothing.

Crossed the finish line and got my lungs back. Walked around for while and talked with some people. Jogged over to the transition area in an effort to loosed my hammys up a bit and got all my stuff and headed back to the finish area. Drank my recovery drink, ate a bit and stretched my legs out.


Choppy water added a bit of difficulty to the swim.

Also, lack of higher intensity bike training. Up to this race Coach had me working mostly on Z1 watts bike training. Slight hammy cramps on the bike as well.


I'm very happy with my performance on this race. I was able to take off 12' from my time last year and run a good 1/2 marathon. Besides the minor cramping on the bike I felt really good as well. Gotta love that.

The race was put on decently, but seems to be always lacking really good organization and execution. The start was late, as always. Support on the bike course was good but the run could have used a few more aid stations on each loop. Overall a decently run race but it could be so much better.