Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

While by the clock this was my fastest 1.2 mile race swim, I wasn't happy with my performance. I did not warm up and paid the price of the first 10 minutes or so. I also found myself not getting into a good groove - much too much time with head up sighting. On the positive side, I was not fatigued coming out of the water and was ready to go for the bike.

Better warm up. Need to work on mental toughness during swim - still a weak point - focus on the stroke and swimming rather than letting the mind wander. There are minutes to save in the water!

Very good transition - ran straight from the water to bike and quickly out of wetsuit and threw socks on. Helmet on and glasses very quick. Ran bike out of transition and quickly mounted.

nothing

After getting on the bike - I focused on a strong bike segment. I quickly got to speed and settled in. My goal power range was 250, with the average coming in right at 246, pretty close. The first lap was great, being out at the front of the race, the course was clear an little bike traffic to worry about. Loop two was a different story - The quarter race had started and the course was now filled with cyclists. I screamed through the turn around and pounded out the second lap. My second half effort was 5 seconds faster than the first. All in all felt pretty good with effort.

Hydration seemed pretty good - I had a full aero bottle, one 24oz bottle cytomax and a 24oz bottle of water. Did about a full bottle per hour, finishing with about a half left. Legs cramped a couple of times on the bike, enuralite capsules did the trick. Had gels about every 45 minutes chased with water.
Had trouble with speed pickup and HR. Didn't really matter - Power number was most important. Put them out of my mind and focussed on turning the pedals over.

remember to set the HR pickup once settled.

Test bike computer setup BEFORE - ensure speed pickup is working properly

Very fast transition! Ran bike in and quickly out of shoes / helmet and into running gear - grabbed race belt and hat, putting them on while leaving transition.

Nothing - went really well!

The run started out really well. I was shooting for 7:45 average pace. The first mile went down at 7:40, and I was feeling pretty good. My quads were really burning, but the lungs felt ok and was feeling good, all things considered. Mile 2 came in, 7:24, I was really feeling pumped, legs really sore, but felt like I could hold the pace. Mile 3 was 7:18 and I was having the race of my life! That's when things started to fail. My lower back started bothering me during that 4th mile, causing me to let up a bit, with mile 4 at 8:09. It started to get worse, the next split at 8:52. I took more enduralites, got some extra fluids and did my best to stretch the back out. I pulled the pace back in, 8:23, but just couldn't keep it there, back just really hurting. By the end of the first loop, I was right at 4 hours. I had 1 lap to go in under 60 minutes to break 5 hours. I could do it - I knew I could - that meant keeping the splits under 9 minutes. I took each mile at a time, working to keep going and keep under the time bar. Mile 8, 9 , 10 came and went - Eleven seemed to take forever. Finally 12 showed on the horizon - only 1 mile to go. Clock showed 4:48:30 - I gave everything I had, trying to fight back as many seconds as I could. The best sight was the finish line, hearing my name called out and being 45th finisher overall - it made it all worth it!

I'm really hard on myself - always room to improve. I know I can run faster and maintain pace, sub 8 minute miles should have been no problem. Will work the core more working towards next race and just keep up the training!

Overall a very good race. My main goal for the race was to break 5 hours and qualify for the HalfMax Championships - mission accomplished. I didn't quite hit my stretch goal of 4:52, but still a very good result, beating my previous HIM by 30 minutes! Season is still young - lots of racing ahead of me!