White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The water was an ideal temp for me. It was very comfortable to be in, but not so warm that you could overheat. Goldilocks. Started off pretty smooth. Not a lot of contact, a little bit of drafting. Found myself bearing to the right, but corrected and was on line with the first buoy. After a few hundred yards I felt kind of tight, but nothing as bad as my Columbia races. Kept my rythmn, focused to extension, early catch, fingers toward the bottom. Soon, was comfortable again and got to the first buoy before I knew it. Picked up the next buoy quickly, and again the turn buoy. Seemed to be keeping a good line. Outward leg, I thought, was very good. Didn't want to take it out too hard, and I was very comfortable - maybe too comfortable.
After the first turn, we headed into the sun and sighting became very difficult. I probably sighted too often and realized that this was slowing me down, so I just tried to keep with the pack. Found myself on the outside of the group and maybe this was part of my downfall, but when I got close enough to see the next buoy, I was headed right for it. Kept contact with the pack until we hit the second turn buoy. Still had a lot of gas in the tank on the inward leg. Never felt like, "Okay, I'm ready to be done swimming". Started getting cramps in my right calf. They would come and go. Just tried to put my focus out front and relax my legs. Finally got to the dock. Looked at my watch, expecting a really good time, while I waited for the guy ahead of me to get up the ladder and....
Okay, this is where I get confused. I have been busting my tail in the pool. Big workouts, lots of yards, getting faster Jan-April. Last fall I raced a HIM in a lake where my time was 34'. I felt confident that I was a better swimmer today than last fall. I had no issues with the goggles leaking. I thought my navigation was pretty decent. I felt good and was able to maintain form/strength through to the end. 40 minutes?! What the hell is that?! I was actually too confused to let myself get down. The course just had to long. There's no other explanation. 40 minutes?!

Duathlon

We had a long run down the dock and over the grass to get to TA, so I took mysuit off as soon as I got out of the water. Forgot to slip my right foot out right away, but, once there, two stomps on the left leg and I was running. Lost just a couple seconds. Official swim time was 41:29, but that was 40:09 in water and 1:18 on the dock (includes getting wetsuit off) before we hit the timing mats.

Practice transitions.

Should have practiced my starts, because I was stopped after the dismount and just got on like a leisurely ride. Once up to speed everything was cool. Checked the Garmin, hangin' around 22mph, so I was where I wanted to be. The Garmin started acting funny in the first couple miles - the speed would dip way down and it would stop for a few seconds, so I never really trusted it during the race. Not enough satellites over rural NC today, I guess. Lake Rd was good. Once I got turned up Rte 701 my avg speed climbed up to 22.2mph. I was pretty stoked. The course had to be one of the most bland courses I have ever ridden on. I just can not remember much of anything during the first half of the race. It was ES flat and only a handful of turns, so there wasn't much thinking involved. The wind started becoming a factor, and my avg speed started falling. No matter, for every headwind, there is an equal and opposite tailwind, right? ...right?
Around mile 25, my back started getting uncomfortable. Tried to concentrate on racing, passing whoever was ahead of me, and after a while the back discomfort just went away. But, not for long. The wind profiles never seemed to be favorable. A lot of crosswind, and I just couldn't keep my speed up. The more grinding I did into a headwind, the worse my back felt.
Saw the sign for the first bottle exchange ahead (~30+ mi), so I took a mouthful of gel. Well, the 'bottle exchange' was one guy in a pickup truck loaded with cases of water. So, you had to stop and wait for the guy to run over to the truck and get a bottle. I took a swig from my own bottle and kept on going. Yikes! I don't have enough water for this. I was counting on ~60 oz from the 3 bottle exchanges.
Kept grinding, back was getting more uncomfortable, avg speed kept eroding. Still tried to stay in the moment and picked off whoever was on the road ahead of me.
Got to the 2nd bottle exchange (~40 mi). Well, there was a sign where the bottle exchange was supposed to be. From a nutrition/hydration standpoint I felt pretty good, so, by this point, I wasn't too worried about falling apart, but I told myself that I would stop at the 3rd bottle exchange to make sure that I didn't get dehydrated. The break would do my back some good and it was a B race - don't worry about the time.
Somewhere around mile 40, my back was really revolting. I'd get out of the saddle and stretch the best I could every so often. Had a little friction happening on the right side of my crotch, so I'd shift. Every time I adjusted my position I'd stop pedalling for a second or two and hear, 'zzzzzz' from the rear hub. This became all too frequent as my comfort deteriorated. The 'zzzzzz' kept reminding me that I was losing speed.
Got to the last bottle exchange and .... it was a bottle exchange! A row of volunteers standing alongside the road with opened bottles of cold, fresh water and bright smiling faces. Hallelueah! Quickly gulped some gel and sucked down all 24 oz. of water.
The course took a small out and back on a very rough road. Got back on Rte 53 and started recognizing some landmarks. I was so ready to get off the bike. My avg speed had fallen to 21mph, so I tried to HTFU and at least keep what I had for the last few miles.

Start thinking about new aerobars and bike position last November. Top 16% AG for the bike was not too bad considering my discomfort level. Feel like I left a good bit of speed on the course. Avg HR was 132. During 2007 E-man, it was 139. So, I didn't push as hard as I could have. I've got a month to adjust/adapt before 2008 Eagleman.

Took a little extra time to get another swig of gel and a drink from my bike bottle. Also slowed down to get water heading out of T2 to swallow an S-Cap.

Didn't lose any time to the competition, so I'm good.

Happy to be on my feet after the bike. Started off pretty smooth. First split came up at 6:52! Cool! Everything felt reasonable, not like I was going out too fast at all. Second split, 6:56! Now I'm feelin' it. Thoughts of a half marathon PR start running through my head. But, I also notice that I'm running with a tailwind. Well, I may lose a few seconds on the return, but, at that moment, I was on autopilot. Could have kept that pace going for a long time. The course took a turn and now the headwind really made a difference. Took a gel at an aid station, so I wasn't concerned that I had fallen back to a 7:13. "I'll get it back". Next mile was still slower and I wasn't feeling so spry anymore. Started feeling a little unsettled in the stomach (wonder if it was the S-Cap). Leg turnover seemed to remain about the same, but I sensed that I didn't have another gear if I wanted to go faster. I started downgrading my goals HM PR -> HIM run PR -> Break 5hrs. The heat was starting to be more and more noticeable. One very good thing that this race had was wet, icy towels. I'd grab a towel and wrap it around my neck at every other aid station. The middle to late miles were tough. I kept telling myself to keep it on auto-pilot. One of the bad things about the course was the narrow shoulder - maybe 4'. We were warned to stay inside the cones that lined the road edge. Jockeying for position and/or hopping onto the uneven grassy surface next to the shoulder was a chore. I was actually passing some other runners. Some had a 40something on their calf, which helped with motivation. On the second loop, more runners were on the course and the running surface was simply not big enough to accomodate that number of athletes, especially of different speeds. I was passing quite a few 40s now, but I assumed most of them were on their first loop.
Mentally, this run became quite a challenge. The ultra I ran in January exposed some weaknesses. Not so much physically, but it revealed to me what happens when you give in ... nothing. 'Go ahead and walk, it's okay.' 'Slow down and be comfortable, no big deal.' I had to stave off the trap of lesser expectations. I did stop looking at my splits - 'Whatever happens, happens, it's a B race'. Eventually, as the finished neared, I got happier that I would soon be done. Started down the road into the park and caught sight of the clock - '5:20:xx' I had started 20 min behind the first wave, so i knew I had just missed breaking 5 hrs. Pfffft! But I was done!

Heading into this race, I thought that my running was in top form, so a 1:35:40 half marathon was a bit of a disappointment at first. After seeing the results, I was quite happy with this effort. The heat must have been more of a factor than I had thought. The run moved me up quite a few places in the standings.

Drank some Endurox, which was 20 ft away from the finish line, and walked around. Went down to the lake and waded in to cool off. Drank copious amounts of warm (ugh!) water.


Ha! One of the 'golden rules' of endurance sports is to not do anything differently on race day than you have done in training. I had a bunch of firsts. Never swam in my wetsuit, never rode/run in my trisuit, new cassette, never ran the disc (wide) with the new brakes (narrow), never used S!Caps in training, new nanoflate (still unused, whew!), new hat (may not count). Everything worked out with the possible exception of the S!Caps. I had stomach issues that flared twice on the run - possibly due to the S!Caps. The flip side is that I never got cramps in my quads like I have done during every other half.
Back pain was really a limiter on the bike. Hopefully that will get corrected very soon!
I am clueless about the swim. Apoplectic. Poor navigation? Too much sighting? Not aggressive enough?


The good and bad of Set-Up events:
I'll fill this in later...