White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Felt pretty strong on the swim. Shoulders were not fatuiged like I have felt in the past. Sighting was better than any open water swim I have ever done. I was able to do bi-lateral breathing where I usually breathe every stroke because I have to sight so much. I past many people in waves ahead of me. Got kind of crowded at the turn around bouys. I was suprised at my time. I thought I was much faster. I don't know what I expected from my 1 to maybe 2 days a week swimming less than 1800 yards at a time. Must get more time in the water!

Need to get more time swimming. I told my wife today that I will pick the kid up on Mondays and Wednesdays and take him to the gym and put him in the play area and she can ride her horse those days. That will also give me Tuesdays and Thursdays to get some biking and running in without backlash. Need to start getting 3000 yards in a workout and also try to fit in a swim on the weekends after my long bike or run.

Transition went as planned. I was able to get my sprint transitions down to less than a minuite last year but for HIM races I'm fine with a little longer time. Did not jump on bike because I didn't want to kick my water bottles off the back (I've done that before). I don't use my rear water bottles for sprint races so I do jump on for those.

Nothing

Within the first 5 miles of the bike I lost my multi tool, tubes and levers that I had in a sock strapped to the back of my water bottle rack in the back. I thought I had it secured well enough with the X-Lab straps. Since I was still in town I was a little nervous that an official saw me and may penalize me for equipment abandonment. I was also a little more nervous about not having any tubes or tools for 50 miles. I decided not to stop and retrieve the items. The bike went very well over all. I had a 22+ average untill the wind started to take it's toll. I still managed to keep it above 20. I backed off the last couple of miles to get ready for the run.

Changed shirt from tri top to loose running shirt (I hate running in a tight shirt). Again this in not something I'd do in a sprint. Went down wrong isle to rack bike and had to turn back around. May have wasted 5-10 seconds.

Make sure to go down the right isle. Pay more attention?

This is where my race took a wrong turn. Ankle and knee felt ok so I can't blame it on that so conditioning is to blame. I am probably well trained for an olympic distance event but I have just not put in the miles for a half marathon run. My ankle has been giving me problems; I didn't want to ruin my whole season by forcing the mileage in a panic for this race. I managed to HTFU and continue running from aid station to aid station. I only had to walk for very short times other than the aid stations. Considering my lack of run prep I guess I did fairly well. It's still early in the season so I will improve my running performance. I did manage to pass back the 67 year old man who passed me close to the finish line. Not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of that, LOL. But I was able to put in a good kick at the end.

I probably should have run more but considering the circumstances maybe I did the right thing for the time being.

Plopped in the lake. I could barely move my legs. I was quite exuasted and already sore.


Run and swim training.


When I checked the preliminary results I looked at the sheets wrong and thought I was 9th out of 24 in the MC group. I was disipointed but decided to stick around for the awards. Well I'm glad I did because when they finally called the Master Clyds class for third place they gave the time first and I said to myself "hey that's my time", than said my name "hey that's my name!" It was a complete surprise.