Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My goal time was 30mins

I was in the 8th wave which was the first of the two waves of Men 35-39 there was about 120 in my wave and I lined up in the middle second line. For the first 50 meters there was about 3 foot breakers and the swim looked long to me. I was happy to see it was quiet rough as I swim well in the rough. Cannon went off and we charged in I hurdled the first wave and duck dived and ended up the last person in a breakaway group of 5. Got a good draft until we hit the wave in front of us and I lost my ride. I took no contact apart from getting slapped around from behind a bit. The rest of the swim was a pain in the Ar*e I went through 4 waves of different colored caps which kept on interrupting my rythm the only good thing was it appeared none of them were swimming in a straight line so I just swum the buoy line. My sighting was good, pacing was good Unfortunately I swum 70% of the swim by my self so lost out on drafting. I did bridge on to two guy's in my wave for the last 300 yds in. Got out of the water feeling good and my wife said I was the 15th out of the water for my wave.

My time was a couple of minutes over goal time but it was pretty rough and I did end up getting held up by a few people. Also at about the 300 yd point I had a guy in my wave try to force me off the buoy line he kept swimming into me as he was on the inside of the buoy line and wanted to get in and around so I hammered him with my elbow and he ended up swimming on the inside of the buoy. I lost my draft here on the guy's in front of me. Would have been better to just concentrate on holding my draft.

Terrible transition only good bit was Aaron wetsuit stripping me. As My wife said to me earlier did I really need to wipe every bit of sand off from beneath my toes. I should have done a warm up Sprint triathon just to practice transitions.

Have some urgency and practice.

Time goal 2.45ish.
My Power Plan was as follows based off a conservative Power FTP of 260.
First 10 miles - 190
Flats after Mile 10 - 200
Short Hills - 230
Long Hills - 225
Heart Rate Caps 160 high with a 155 average.

Well forget those plans as I left at the hotel my Powertap CPU and my HR monitor.

So essentially I was riding naked. No computer at all. All I had was my polar with stop watch function on. I panicked I had not ridden without my power meter since Sep 07. From the very start I wasn't comfortable on the bike I had a little stiffness in the hip and butt. By mile 5 it was really starting to develop and cramp. I was through 10 miles in about 25 mins so averaging 24 mph and people in my AG were flying past me. I couldn't believe it I didn't have my Power Meter to confirm my watts were right so assumed they were either faster than me or they would come back to me later in the day. I backed off the pace a little and took 4 of my 6 electrolyte tablets which seemed to help.

My nutrition Strategy was 200 cals per hour of infinit and water in my profile aero bottle with 2 electrolytes per hour. At about the hour point my right quad started to cramp so I took the last 2 electrolytes. Really focused my ride on riding smooth and concentrated on feeling the road through my feet and keeping even pressure on my feet through the whole length of the climbs. The course was a pain I must have past 500 people from proceeding waves and the little back to back climbs made it difficult to hold rhythm and the headwinds and crosswinds were making life difficult. But I was riding well and steady. Cramps came back at about mile 35 and I had to make a decision I had no electrolytes left so I made a call to skull back all of my infinit to get the electrolytes in from that. Which meant I would switch to course Gatorade Endurance from mile 45. I normally can't stomach gatorade but I had to fix the cramps so decided to address the most pressing issue first I sucked down a whole bottle of Gatorade in the last 12 miles. The last 6 miles into town were really dangerous it was like a slalom course I was just hammering it in my aero bars trying to avoid pot-holes and cars on one really steep decent I got hit by a big gust of wind and was blown into the car lane my Cervolo P2C and Disk cover with 404 were acting like a Sail.

All in all good ride spent all but the climbs in the aero bars and rode the ride my RPE and feel. I think after riding 3000 miles with a power meter your body & mind tune into what is right.

Reading other BTer's reports looks like the ride was 57.5 miles. If so averaged 21.05 miles per hour.


Ah - Not forget My most important race item after my bike. Not sure why I got the leg cramps but I suspect it was from the driving the previous day and then being on my feet all day with inadequate nutirtion. Overall I was happy with my decision making process through all the numerous issues I had.

When I got off my bike my hamstrings were really tight and I could barely run with the bike and hence very slow T2 time. Racked my bike set my garmin and left.

See Bike comments

Came out of transition thinking I was in big trouble. My stomach was good my energy levels were good but my hammy's were super tight. Started off at 8.30 pace per my Garmin 305 and people were charging past me. I couldn't believe it in the first .5 of a mile I must of had 20 people pass me. Hit the First climb which was enormous I only run hills in training but this was a monster. I averaged 11.30min miles up it. Running down the back of the hills my hammy's freed up and I bumped up my pace to 8 - 8.15min miles. Stayed there until mile 3 when my left calf where I have had issues for the last 4-6 weeks had a sharp pain. My pace dropped to 10 min miles and I took 2 tylonol. At mile 4 the pain killers kicked in and I bumped back up the pace. It was bloo*y hot but I knew my conditioning was good so it didn't really bother me too much. I was carrying 2 x 150cal bottles of Inifinit for each hour which I washed down with water at the aid station. I felt really good from mile 5 and just held my pace around that 8.15 pace just ticking of the miles. I felt great at mile 7 the big hill I was the only one running granted I was running 11.45imn miles but there was about 50 people walking. I started to think I could go under 5.15 so really started pushing. I was feeling great from mile 10 there were a lot of people walking it was baking hot But I felt good I started the Cola and just ran hard past maybe 5 people in my AG in the last 3 miles. The last 3 quarters of a mile were a nightmare it was all uphill to the finish at the capital building where I collapsed over the line got back up and collected my finishers medal.




I ran sensibly and well this was such a hard run course. A little disapointed my calf went as my strategy was to run 8.15's for the first 3 miles then bump up to 8min miles for the last 10miles. I think I could have done this today my stomach was good my energy was good and my muscle fatigue was non-exitent until mile 11. I think a 1.45 was achievable today.

Collected my family whom were great. Had some gatorade lots of food there but I could only stomach a bagel.

Admired my sunburn...ouch!!!


Poor planning.
Leaving my Power Meter behind
Calf blowing up.
This being a B race and preparing for it as such.
Whilst I am happy with my performance today I think a 5.05 would have been an achievable goal today if all had gone to plan. It is only my second year in the sport so I am happy with the time. Good practice run for IM Wisconsin in Sep.

As a side note the quality of the people in my AG was amazing to finsh 53rd with a time of 5.13 shows how good they are. That kind of time in CT local races would have probably had me in the top 5.






Volunteers were awesome. The race organisation was great except for the whole seperate transitions that made life very difficult for the athlete's.