Mooseman Triathlon Festival - Half Iron Distance - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Waded in for the start and found my typical start position, behind the obvious eager beavers, with enough room for another one to take a spot in front of me. This position tends to minimize people crawling over me but with enough slightly faster people to pass me so I can jump on their feet. Because of a pain in my neck/should I knew I'd have trouble sighting often so I hoped to use the others in my wave to guide me. This worked great. I started slightly outside and angled in and merged with a group being pulled by a couple of slightly faster swimmers. There was some bumping as we rounded the course, but no much, and really nothing I thought was intentional. This little pack stayed together quite well till the first of the next wave swimmers past by. Then the lead swimmers grabbed those feet and we of the trailing pack couldn't quit keep up. But this didn’t happen till about three quarters of the way through and I was still able to find random people of my wave or the passing wave to pull me through. Overall I'm quite happy with the swim, especially considering how worried I was that my shoulder would fail me. My time really wasn't any better than last year but am coming out of the water feeling fresher, more in control, and ready to rapidly move through transition.

Wetsuit strippers really save lots o time. Everything went smoothly, but still probably slower than most.

For the bike portion, I had a plan, stay disciplined.

For the first loop: On the flatter sections, no pain cycling, HR cap 142 (Z2ish), for the longer shallow hills and rolling sections, allow a little more effort, HR cap 148 (Z3ish). For the few steeper short hills, keep a steady cadence with a HR cap 153 (low Z4) if possible, with a hard cap at 160 (LTish). Breathe easy, stay aero, keep on the shifters to maintain cadence and smooth pedaling.

For the second loop, after devil's hill, if all is going well, take all the sections up a notch.

This is the plan I practiced the weekend before on my Black Bear preview ride.

How'd it go? On the first looped followed the plan fairly closely, only a few times went back to the old habit of not downshifting on an uphill and trying to power over it, but always caught myself with the first burning of the quads.
I knew with my earlier than usual starting wave (Clydes went with the second wave instead of the more typical last wave) I'd have many more cyclist pass me than usual. So I was mentally prepared to let them go instead of chase after them. When someone passed me and then slowed down right in front of me (as happens often to me) instead of burning extra to repass I would stay 3+ bike lengths behind, conserving energy till I could pass without an unacceptable increase in power (a downhill or flat) or I couldn’t keep pace at all without violating my plan.
As I passed the half way mat I checked my time and thought that my overall pace was acceptable and decided not to dial it up at all for the second loop, saving as much as possible for the run.
So the second loop went pretty much like the first. After the last set of hills I did turn it up a bit on the finishing miles, especially once I started passing a few riders who seemed to be done racing (not holding their line, staying left, etc.). One swerved into me as I was passing on his left, his handlebars hitting my saddle mount bottle carrier.

Came in under last year's time, feeling good.

The mundane: Started with the speedfil and one water bottle filled with just water. Had three gel flasks with my special mix of 3 banana, 1 chocolate, 1 vanilla hammer gels, one in the top tube holder, two put in my back pocket in transition. Plan on finishing only two flasks, but take three in case I lose one out of the holder. It has happened before, and as it happens, it happened this time again. Time to start researching other flask holding options. But got plenty of calories, about 1000, with the two flasks I kept plus the hit I took off the other before I lost it. At the first bottle handoff I transferred the water from the bottle to the speedfil, tossed it, and got a new bottle for the ear bottle holder. By the next handoff I tossed that bottle, grabbed another, used it to fill the speedfil and tossed the empty. Due to the nice air temps, the speedfil and the water handoffs I was able to stay well hydrated. In fact I had to dehydrate on the bike twice, but still had enough watger to drink as well as rinse.

Rack bike, Helmet and glasses off, Bike shoes off, Socks on, Running shoes on, grab hat, race belt, garmin. GO.
Went smoothly, but probably slower than most.

Hopefully here's where the bike discipline pays off.

Coming out of transition I’m moving my legs as fast as they will go. This isn’t incredible fast but a good pace to start off. I quickly snap on my race belt, put on my cap, and mount the garmin on my wrist. Soon one of my quad muscles start pulsing, the little teardrop one near the knee. This is no uncommon for me in a race. I back off the pace till it subsides. I hold that pace for a while and repeatedly test a faster pace to stay just below where this muscle causes problems. I a mile or a little more the pulsating stops and I can assume the pace that I think will get me to the finish line quickest.

Basically I felt great. My pace was good. Of course it hurt, but this pain is a lot different than the survival march of some past races. I was paying very little attention to my HR, pace, or time, just my effort. Don’t blow up on the uphills, never slack off. One of the best things about a double out and back course is looking for teammates running the other way to cheer on or high five as you pass. I know this is the cheeriest I’ve ever been on a run, tri or open. Outside the park the team had set up a cheer station, a great initial boost on the run, and coming back I swear you can hear them from a mile away. On one of the uphills there was Amanda and her mom pushing me, and everyone else on. On the first lap I got a heartfelt but untruthful “looking good”, but on the second even she couldn't bring herself to that level of lying as I struggle up the hill for the last time.

At the turnaround I checked my watch for the first time and couldn't really believe it. If the watch hadn’t randomly paused I was on pace to smash even my best hoped for goal. Didn't look at my overall time again unit I got to the ten mile mark. I realized I could hit my goal with just a thirty minute finishing 5K. I could do that, my 5K PR is just over 23 minutes. Time to let it all go. The last steep downhill, I knew this was the last of the downhills, time to suck it up and destroy the quads, I won’t be needing them again. This hurt a lot. Allow the pain to find and audible outlet. Of course this would be when Lindsay would pass me going the other way. I knew I'd hear about my spontaneous screams and facial expressions later. Then the finish line, that beautiful, beautiful finish line.

The mundane: Took water at every aid station. Had two gels on the run, one at each of the far turnarounds. Took half of a packet at one aid station just before taking water. Then finished off the packet as I approached the next aid station and took water to wash it down. This pattern seems to work well for me as a whole packet at once sits heavy in my stomach.

As always I went into this race with many goals, first to beat last year’s time. Beyond that I set a goal of 5:48. I thought this was reasonable and possible. Next step up I thought 5:40 was attainable if I had a really good day. Anything under 5:40 would be gravy. I really had no idea what I was capable of. I felt in training I was faster than last season. But I haven’t been able to put a good/healthy race together to prove it.

5:35, that's a lot of gravy.