Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was my best swim ever in a race. I started near the front and towards the outside. I noticed during my warm-up that there was a slight current pushing right to left. The water had some chop to it and there were some decent waves crashing in the shallows but a few dolphins dives got me out past the rough stuff. My wave went off at 6:20 and only the pros, PC, and M/W 50+ were out ahead so there wasn't a ton of slower traffic to navigate. There was a bit of bumping the first 200m but I didn't have any trouble settling into a decent rhythm. I ended up right along the buoy line and managed to hold a pretty straight course all the way out. I typically drift pretty hard to my left in OW but I think the combination of frequent sighting and plenty of buoys helpd me stay on target. I've never had much luck drafting but I managed to find a few guys swimming 3 wide and got behind them. At times they would split and I would try to stick with one of them. Definitely my best drafting to date. My shoulders and lats typically start to burn a little and I get some fatigue around the middle of the swim but today that never happened. I was surprised (and happy) at how I was able to maintain a steady strong consistent stroke without any signs of muscle fatigue. I rounded the turn for the final straight back to the beach and I was still feeling good. I didn't know what kind of pace I was swimming but it felt pretty strong and smooth with a good efficient extension and glide. If I didn't PR this swim I was going to be disappointed. About 500m from the beach I passed one of the PC athletes...NO LEGS! About 200m out I began to give a little extra kick to get some blood moving through my legs but didn't really pick up the pace any. I swam right into the shollows until I was in maybe 16 inches of water, jumped up and started making my way up the beach. There was a ~250m run up the beach before hitting the timing mat but the clock showed 28:40 when my feet hit the sand. My best swim to this point was about 30:30 I think. Good start to the day!

Now that I'm having a bit more confidence in my ability to actually race the swim I should probably begin to push myself in the water instead of just sitting at a comfortable pace.

Long run up the beach to T1 but they had wetsuit strippers...yeah! I felt pretty good making my way up the beach and actually passed a few guys in the sand. I had a good position in transition immediately adjacent to a big green Gatorade tent so my bike was easy to find. This race used a "clean" transition which meant everything had to be on the bike or in the bag they supplied. My helmet, glasses and number belt were on my bike and my shoes were in the bag with a towel to wipe the sand from my feet. I quickly got my shoes on, shoved my wetsuit into the bag, grabbed my bike and made my way for the exit. It was another long run out of transition and out to the road where the mount line was. The timing mat was right at the exit so the extra time running with the bike is included in my bike time.

I'm not really satisfied with my bike time although I haven't been as dedicated with my training as I could have been and I didn't expect any hills in RI. Most of the course is rolling but there were a few decent climbs. I came out of the water near the front of my wave and there were only the pros and one other wave ahead of me. I passed a few people in the first 5 miles or so but after that I spent a lot of time riding alone or maybe with one other person in sight. Every now and then I would pass someone and I maybe got passed by 3-4 people total, probably the top guys from the couple waves behind me. I felt pretty decent for most fo the ride, stayed aero 98% of the time unless it was a slow climb where aerodynamics don't come into play much. I was trying to ride smart...only reaching for my bottles or stretching when I was already below 15mph due to a hill or turn. There is no sense in breaking aero and pedal rhythm to drink when you'll be slowing down for the next hill anyway. At one point a guy passed me and I was hanging about 5 bikes back just using him as a pacer. He'd hit the hills a little harder then I prefer but then I'd catch up on the back side again. Ont the first long fast downhill I'm in the aroebars doing about 38mph as I get about even with him and I hear a loud BANG. One of us just blew a tire! My heart jumped into my throat...a high speed blowout is about my worst fear on the bike...next to drifting wide in a turn and eating a car. I get my hands to the horns and begin to ease on the brakes. I've never had a flat on tubies so I'm not sure what to expect or what it feels like but I'm going too fast tolook down and it's all I can do to not shake the entire bike. Next this I hear is the gy saying it's him. I look over and sure enough his front is flat as a pancake. Wow...dodged that bullet. The rest of the ride up to about mile 40 is uneventful as far as I can remember. I'm keeping an eye on my power meter but with the rolling terrain it isn't as easy to pace to my overall average goal wattage. I'm trying not to go too hard on the hills but definitely peaking up arounf FTP or higher for short periods. The legs wewre feeling good when all of a sudden I felt something along the inside of my left thigh statr to tighten and then sieze. It wasn't a knot, more like a long strign from my knee about 8 inches up my leg cramped. All I know is that I couldn't turn the pedals wiht my left leg. I backed WAY off and just tried to get to the top of the hill. I tried to stretch it out and spent the next 3-5min pedaling primarily iwth my right leg. It eventually went away but the rest of the ride I was holding back slightly for fear it would come back. On the last larg climb I was super conservative, just pedaling hard enough to keep making progress. I could feel a twinge in that spot but managed to avoid more cramping...for now. The last 3-5 miles of the course start working through town on some pretty crappy streets. It was sketchy trying to hold my speed with all of the auto traffic and turns plus I was constantly dodging lots of debris and pot holes. I took a couple of hard hits and just hoped my tires and wheels would hold out. I eventually made it through the gauntlet and rolled down the hill into T2. Why would you put the dismount line immediately at the bottom of a hill? I would find out later in the day that I actually did have a flat on my rear but I'm guessing it was a slow leak because it didn't notice it while riding.

This course was mostly rolling but I still expected to ride at least as well as Eagleman back in June. I probably gave up at least 2-3min due to the cramp and my conservative riding over the last 15 miles or so. My power meter file shows that I was 3-4% below my target NP for the ride, probably due to backing off after the cramp.

I haven't been as strict with my training this season as I would have liked. Add to that the fact that my training in the hills was minimal and I guess I shouldn't be suprised by not having my best ride. The cramp was pretty random but likely related to climbing...lesson learned about training specificity. Looks like I'll be taking lots of day trips to Charlottesville next season to prep for IMCdA.

Another "clean" transition so everything was in a bag on the ground. Again, I had a very good spot, near the bike-in and on the first row along the fence with a blue flag right where I needed to go. It also helped that there were very few bikes in the transition when I got there. I almost blew through the dismount line, which was at the bottom of a hill coming into T2. I pulled my helmet off as I ran with my bike but my glasses fell off into the grass and I had to make a quick stop to grab them. I really liked the grassy transition area. I racked my bika nd quickly sat down on the ground, dumped my bag out and grabbed my shoes. I pulled on my socks/shoes, stuck my clamshell of Endurolytes in my back pocket (had a hard time finding the damn pocket), took off at an easy pace through transition with my hat, and Garmin in my hand. I had about 150m to run to the other end of transition and by the time I got to the timing mat I had my hat and watch on. Pretty good clean transition...maybe could have shaved off 10-15sec. Looks like I was on the slower side compared to most in the top 50 overall though.

Not drop my glasses :)

I left T2 feeling pretty good. That first dwonhill was a good test for my quads to see if I was going to have any bad cramping issues and everything felt fine. I got to the big hill and just shifted into a high gear and "spun" up it. It wasn't fast but it was efficient and I wasn't hammering my legs. From there my stride felt relatively light and quick. I was constantly trying to keep my pace in chack and hold back slightly. I decided not to carry my usual hand flask of gel but had my clamshell of Endurolytes. Good thing because when I came through an aid station asking for electrolytes they all looked at me like I had 2 heads. This is amazing...both here and at Eagleman there were no electrolyte caps to be found on the run course. I grabbed a gell every few miles and water or gatorade at every station. The back part of the loop was down a nice tree lined street with some decent shade. It wasn't too warm through my first lap but I still took some water over the head from time to time. The real bummer about that big hill was that it was way too steep to take advantage of on the way back down and actually ut a lot of stress on your quads to control the speed...that's when cramps happen. I made it down without a problem and rounded the corner through town, up the hill and around the cone for lap 2. 42min flat at a comfortable effort - on track for a 1:24 run. I figured I could at least even split if not knock a little time of on the second lap. An even split would have given me a PR right around 4:26...looking good. Then it happened. About 1/4 way up the big F'ing hill that cramp in my left leg came back...HARD. It stopped me dead in my tracks. Lots of other people were walking up but all I could do was stand there and pound on my legs. I also had a few choice words and a guy passing me asked if I was okay...NO. I forced myself to start walking and then started jogging through the pain verbally abusing myself like some sort of crazy man...it's only a cramp, don't be such a *ussy, keepp running. By the time I had peaked the hill I was back to running but it took another 1/2 mile before I could hold any sort of reasonable pace. The cramp didn't come back after that but something about the experience took a little snap out of my step and now it took a lot of focus and concentration to hold something close to my goal pace, although I was typically down 10-20sec/mile compared to the first lap. It was just hard now. I knew i didn't have too far left to go so I just kept focused on putting one foot in front of the other. i knew once I slid down that big hill I was about home free. With about a mile to go I was able to start picking up the pace again and managed 6:37 for mile 13 which included the decent hill up towards the finish line. As usual I was giving it everything I had left through the last 400m and passed a bunch of people (some likely heading out for their second loop) as I hammered down the finish lane towards the timing mat. As I entered the chute I saw the clock and was instantly a bit disappointed...4:27:xx. Now I know that's a good time, but to miss a PR by about 1 min after having my best swim ever was tough to take.

I guess I could have prepared better for the hills but I actually didn't know RI had hills until about 2 weeks out from the race. That big climb hurt LOTS of people. If that cramp hadn't come back I probably would have been satisfied with my run and had a PR for the day.

As usual, I gave it everything I had left over the last 200m and had to spend a little quality time with the ground immediately after crossing the finish line :) I didn't want to have the medics and volunteers swarm me and drag me to the med tent so I got back up pretty quickly and did my best to put one foot in front of the other. I grabbed a bottle of water and started slowly making my way towards some grass and shade. It took about 10 min to start feeling decent again and I eventually found katie and my dad who were patiently waiting for me to pull it together...they know I need some along time immediately following a hard race. Once I got to walking around we headed up to the hotel room so I could shower and then walked down to the brewery for some quality recovery nutrition.


If it weren't for the leg cramp on the bike and gain on the run I probably would have been very happy with this race. That's really the only thing that was an issue and cost me a PR. It might have been a random incident or could have stemmed from insufficient preparation for riding/running hills...I'll never really know.


Overall they did a great job planning and organizing this event. I think they can make some improvements, like working a new bike route into the Capitol, but generally I enjoyed the race. Downtown Providence was great...spent a few bucks at the Brewery and really enjoyed the Renaissance Providence hotel, literally overlooking the finish line...gotta love walking across the street to T2 and the finish festivities, plus being a short stroll from the restaurants and convention center. T2 was a nice grassy area on the Capitol grounds. There was also a lot of "festivities" happening this weekend and particularly Sat night in and around town, which made for a fun time for my friends and family while I was back at the hotel trying to get some sleep before waking up before the butt crack of dawn.

The event was well organized although logistically a bit difficult to prep for having to rack your bike 45min away from town on Sat. Not sure why they decided to start the race at 6am...that made it an insanely early wake-up call at 2:45 to catch the 3:30 am shuttle. The weather was beautiful for racing, considering it's summer. The water was close to 70 and although there were waves rolling in close to the beach the rest of the swim was pretty calm with only a very light chop...nothing to cause a problem. 98% of the bike course was pretty decent, especially the first ~20 miles along the coast. The run really wasn't bad aside from the one big hill (X2). It started to get warm (and the wind picked up) as the day went on but I was fortunate to start at 6:20 and was done by ~10:50.

There were several complaints I read on other forums that should be easily avoidable if you do a little planning...and use some common sense. Yes, driving out to rack bikes was a bit of a pain but I took a 9:30 spot and had no traffic issues either way...40min out and 42min back...smooth. It's a summer weekend at the beach...of course traffic is going to suck later in the day. My bigger beef with that situation was the 30min limit. I typically like to get out for 30min on the bike and then get a 20min swim. While they weren't being super strict with the 30min limit I didn't want to push my luck and take 60-90min. Registration - I got there Friday afternoon around 4pm and waited exactly 2min to take a seat and get checked in. My family/friends waited in the car in the 15min parking lane and I was in and out under 10min. We walked back down Sat to look around the expo. Shuttle buses - first off, the buses weren't the only option, you could have someone drive you. If you were there by yourself then yes, that was the only way to get there. They could have included the cost in registration...good suggestion for next year...but then someone will bitch because they had to pay for a shuttle that they didn't want to use. I registered for the 3:30 shuttle and showed up at 3:25 (early as suggested), walked right onto the bus, sat down and we were rolling at 3:30 sharp. 35min later I was getting body marked...smooth again. Not family friendly? Why drag them around with you to do all of your prep and setup? I let my family and friends sleep in, enjoy the downtown area and relax while I got my business taken care of in the morning. By 11am I was back and we were all hanging out enjoying some lunch and a tasty stout at the brewery around noon. While it isn't the most spectator friendly course from the perspective of seeing the athletes at multiple locations along the course, my crew was able to drive to the start (slept about 1:45 later than me) in time to see me as we were clearing out of transition then watch me come in from the swim and ride out (6:20 wave start). They made it back to the hotel in plenty of time to enjoy breakfast and make their way over to transition to watch me come in off the bike around 9:20. They really enjoyed seeing everyone coming in off the bike and taking it out on the run as well as making the turn for loop #2 on the run. They said the announcer kept the commentary going and moved around the area as things were happening. They got to see me make the turn for my second lap, watch the winners finish and see me cross the finish line. They all had a great time and didn't need to wait around for me at any point in the weekend...aside from while I was out on the course obviously. The run course - yeah, that's a pretty tough hill but otherwise everything else was very gradual grades, false flats even. As for the heat, low-mid 80s isn't hot. Try Eagleman back in June - 100 degrees and not a spot of shade on most of the run course = DEATH MARCH. So maybe I just got lucky and everything went smoothly all weekend, that's possible I suppose. But honestly, I just did a little planning (and thinking) ahead of time. Sure, they can definitely make some improvements for next year but I don't think this was a bad first shot. They'll never avoid the beach traffic on a weekend in the summer and the heat in NE/humidity is hit or miss. The run course could wind through Brown a little more and have fewer long straight stretches although they weren't too bad with nice tree lined streets. Reworking the end of the bike course or fixing the roads should be a priority for next year IMO.