Ford Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Horrible swim. Felt like I got left in the dust and every set of feet I got on was even worse than me. Ended up loosing the faster bunch from my wave, and then slammed into all the super slow swimmers from the previous waves. Sighting was horrible.

At the turn around buoy, I felt my left hamstring twitching in that not-so-good way. At the 3/4 mark, my hamstring cramped up bad. Nothing I could do about it really, other than cringe and keep going.

Just was not a good swim.



No excuses. Just didn't get enough time in the pool thus far.

Left leg was cramping bad. The volunteers were pushing me out of the water, and I don't think they knew I was trying to stretch. Long run into transition, and had to stop and stretch at least 6 times.

Ended up hobbling to my bike, figuring this was going to be bad day.

Futz'd around putting on pointless arm warmers. Just wasn't feeling it, and my time showed it.

Hurry up. Not mess around with the arm warmers.

Started slamming the salt, and took it easy. Being in wave 20 of 20, plus getting on the bike 5-10+ minutes back from the faster guys in my wave, meant it was actually hard to gauge how I was doing on the bike.

Was passing a non-stop stream of people, but the speed difference was huge, which kinda plays with your head. I started passing a lot of guys from my AG, but it kind of made me wonder if I was pushing too hard.

Did my best to push, but not fry my legs. In hindsight, I should of pushed a bit harder. But again, I was caught off guard by not really having people around me to gauge my speed off of like I normally do.

I definitely see the benefit that the pros talk about being able to ride with a pack, even though no one is drafting.

Nailed my nutrition. 1 bottle w/ 5 scoops of Carbopro, 2.5 scoops of Cytomax, and a flask w/ 5 Expresso Hammer Gels. I brought a cliff bar again, but didn't touch it. Will leave that out next time.



Fortunately, after going pretty heavy with the salt and water, no issue with cramps again.








http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7932448

Swim faster. Even though in the big picture the swim's not worth huge amounts of time, it definitely can screw you over the rest of the race.

Stretched a little. Left hamstring was tight for sure, but otherwise felt fine.

Move faster. I just wasn't moving with much of a sense of urgency.

Great run! WTF happened... who knows. But I started off on the run, and just focused on getting into a nice easy rhythm I felt I could hold, and hopefully negative split with. Ended up having my best run off the bike ever.

I typically hammer the bike, and then try to hang on for dear life during the run. This time, I was passing people like crazy. Must of passed 20-30 people in my AG, which felt absolutely awesome. In fact, not one person passed me the entire run (happens when you start wave 20/20).

As much fun as it is to blow by people on the bike, it doesn't come close in comparing with dusting people on the run. Maybe its because this was a first for me, but damn, I was in heaven.

Mile splits:

1 - 7:37
2 - 8:12
3 - 8:25
4 - 8:22
5 - 8:07
6 - 7:56
7 - 7:55
8 - 7:48
9 - 7:50
10 - 8:00
11 - 7:53
12 - 7:42
13 - 7:51





http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7932449

Nothing. It worked great.

Mental state. Came into this race a little down on my training due to work, traveling, family in town, etc. Let a crappy swim set the early tone and get me down.

Got to work on my swim.
I think getting some longer rides in after a longer swim would go far. Need some lower back strengthening.


Awesome event. Great weather. Water wasn't really that cold at all. Definitely plan to do this one again next year.