Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Today is all about IM prep, so I swam this comfortably, a warm up pace, like I intend to do at then. The water was very wavy/choppy, but I felt really good. My biggest problem was veering off course. I'd been doing quite well and didn't sight for longer than I should have and was far inside the triangle when I looked again. Some of that was wave action, mostly it was me. I'm happy with my time although I dislike Seneca Lake's shallowness-you walk a long way in the water and its too shallow to swim but too long to consider running it (I'd get tired!)

sight

Didn't rush, just went, I'm sure its painful to watch me get on my bike, I'm not at all graceful or quick.

Ugh. I did mini-mussel yesterday, pretty hard too, so I wonder if that had an impact. The headwind was hard for me, I'm already a weak biker and any impediments to biking are exponentially worse for my pace. About 7 miles in I came accross Jake, swearing and tossing his bike. Evidently, his bike had fallen over in transition (or was knocked over) and the chain had come off. He ran out of T1 before noticing and stomped on the pedals to go. Obviously it didnt' move. He saw the chain, put it back on, but the damage was done (either by the fall or his stomping). The chain was bent and would ghost shift every third stroke. He stopped several times in the first few miles to adjust it but nothing worked. I stopped with him for at least three minutes (that was when I looked at my watch) but he urged me to go. It was his first aquabike and I was hoping he'd a positive day. I left, into the headwind and granny geared it till we headed north again. The rain started at about 32 miles for me. The headwind and rain just wiped me out. Mentally I wasn't in it. Once we got on some fast road it was better, but I was deflated.

My average would have been over 17 if I hadn't stopped, but I would have felt really bad if I didn't. Even so, my pace was terrible.

I don't know, I feel like I'm doing the right stuff and my biking isn't getting any better.

Talk about not in it!! I strolled into T2! The rain wiped me out, I took a training day attitude, yelled to my parents and to Jake, joked with my massage therapist who had just finished the aquabike, contemplated going to the bathroom.

I know I can do this in a minute, I did it yesterday! Its a race stupid!

This was actually pretty good. I ran out of T2 with the thought that today was for training, I'd run comfortably and not get concerned, especially since I'd already blown it on the bike. But I felt pretty good. Very good even. I stayed comfortable and easy for four miles, eating some pretzels (gel just seemed awful at that point). At four miles I started to chase people, a slight increase in pace to catch who ever I could see. I had to pee pretty badly, but thougth I might make it. I just didn't want to wrestle with the soaking wet shorts. My socks were wet too, and the blister on my arch was coming. Its the same one every time and dry socks wouldn't have mattered-they would have been wet very very soon. I decided I would pee when there was a portopottie close by, I didn't want to lose a ton of time. At mile 7 there she was, lonely and empty. I had passed a large clump of runners and was about a minute in front of them, and only a few seconds behind another clump so it seemed opportune. 45 seconds later and a lot more comfortable I was on my way, still in front of the group and able to catch the next one. At mile 9 I strated to run harder and at 11 I really tried to pick it up. The last mile wasn't so good, but I was pleased with the knowledge that despite a race yesterday and a poor bike ride today that I could have run my training pace all day. I rarely negative split these things, but today I did, running 9 minute miles for the first 7 and 8:40 average for the next 6 (although those were progressively faster).

take splits

try to find dry clothes!! Jake didn't finish, he waited a bit for support but then decided to ride back to the start. The organizers were helpful and good to him, but by the time the problem was fixed he had decided that he wasn't going to do it. I think this was about competition and not just finishign for him, he knows he can finish this, we've ridden this far many times, he wanted to see how fast he could do it and really, I guess, beat people. Maybe his anger will go away in a day or two and he'll consider doing another one. His swim was good, 35/549 and 4 in 30-34AG, so he was doing well.

I was also a let down for me at the end, because I'd made up some time on my good run and finished feeling not too bad about the whole thing, however, it wasn't the right time to enjoy that.


my biking is just not that great, I've been doing five days a week, long rides every weekend, and some hard work too, but nothing changes


Jeff does a great job and I encourage people to sign up for this, even in the rain the aid stations and volunteers were awesome. Spectators were understandably few but more than I expected. The food and trinkets for racers are appreciated, the top notch organization, the number of potties, the directive to pee in my wetsuit are all appreciated!