Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim start was pretty normal. I did not get kicked. Amazingly I stayed pretty calm during the swim. I did a good job sighting on the banks. I did think to myself why won't this swim end! I did focus on front quad swimming and form more so than any swim that I have done in the past.

At the turn-around point the water was pretty low. It was easier to get up and walk through this area.

After the turn, I headed back over the bridges. I did head towards the shoreline before correcting and passing under the bridge.

My swim volume is probably half of last year--part of the plan. I did swim roughly the same speed--which is good.

I would leave my fricken glasses at T1. Duh

I ended running toward the bike before realizing that I needed to pickup my glasses. I ran back (about 15 steps) and ran to the bike.

I got lube and sunscreen lotion. I need to get more sunscreen on my shoulders next time. I have a slight burn area.

I was not fast, but measured.

No left glasses

After T1 I get into my clips and head up the the hill in my granny. I passed probably 5 people who were having problems clipping in or were struggling in big gear on the hill out of the beach.

I headed out of town and took a look at my power tap and it was showing 250+ watts. I immediately dropped it back down to my targeted watts. My game plan for the bike was not to blow up my run by holding to four gears throughout the day.
--Gear one stay below 185 watts for the first 30 minutes
--Gear two keep watts below 200 watts for the remainder of the race.
--Gear three keep watts below 205 for long hills
--Gear four was to keep watts below 220 for short hills (under three minutes).

Last year I pushed the bike, blew up on the heat and suffered on the run.

About three miles into the ride the Garmin started to give me problems. I stopped the bike rather than risk doing something stoopid.

My game plan was to keep the watts down below 185 for the first 30 minutes. I ended up with normalized watts of 196. I had one spike were the watts jumped up to 335 for 45 seconds. It was when I tried to chase a rider up a hill. When I did that I immediately thought to myself that I wasn't riding my ride. My mantra was "to stay in the box."

After about 20 minutes I started the nutrition. I did a great job getting enough cytomax and thermolights. However, I think I could have consumed more water.

On the hills it was tough not to let the watts go up. A couple of times I let the watts go up to 220 or so.

Then it happened. A first for me. After climbing a hill I look up and there it was.... A giant oak tree has collapsed. It was covering the entire road. There is a stream of riders who are dismounting and walking under a gap in the tree. The gap is created by a power line that is about 5 1/2 feet off the ground.

My first instinct was to think what the heck are we doing? So I started to see if there was another path around the other side of the tree. At that point I see a cervelo with two broken forks. I look up and there is a cyclist under that tree. I could not believe it. The good news in doing this mid life crisis event is that all of the type A personalities are there. There was a Doctor and a Physician's Assistent helping out the rider under the tree and two other people who turned out to have broken collar bones.

I headed back under the tree with the rest of the lemmings under the power line. Doing the lindo dance under a powerline while I'm ampped up is not the smartest thing that I have ever done.

In the backgound there were sirens coming towards us. As I was leaving I looked back and I saw a rider walking around with a forward motion jersey on. Turn out he had broken his collor bone too.

Frankly, I had a tear in my eye as I passed through the area. It turned a great day into a somber reminder.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090720/ARTICLES/907209918?Ti...

After about 40 minutes I decided move it to gear two. I continued to grind away on the course. I was pass by a ton of people who were anaerobic. I saw Atakat and we tried to talk over the wind for a while as we passed each other a couple of times. In general I was staying in my aerobar more than I had in training--which was good.

I continued to grind the rolling hills toward the first hill of the day before Healdsburg. I love attacking hills and I have gotten much better at this over the years. However, not today. I kept my watts down at the low levels of the plan and just inched up the hills the best I could without spikes. I got to the top and did a pretty good job heading down the hill into Healdsburg. After a couple of corner it was throught the rolling hills for the next 20 or so miles. At this point I realized that I was in much better shape than last year. I was still taking in liquids, I was not baked and my legs felt great.

Every time I felt myself starting to push myself too much, I yelled out to myself (sometime out loud) "IN THE BOX." Which means--stay with the race plan.

At about mile 32, I spit off my bike (after looking) and a lady yells you almost got me. I appologized profusly.

At about mile 36, some guy passes me and then slows down. To his left he blows a snot rocket. I see the spray coming toward me and before know it it lands in my mouth. BLECK BLECK BLECK. After gargling with water from the aero bottle I yelled at the guy to watch out. I didn't overreact or get too worked up. THAT was keeping in the box.

At mile for 42/43 the second major hill occurred, known as Chalk Hill. It isn't a bad hill, but just that it is on mile 42. I slowly ground up that hill generally staying in my game plan. On the way down the hill another rider was going slower but holding to the center line. I couldn't pass and decided not be be a crazy person...

At the bottom of Chalk Hill is Fraught which starts an ascent. I knew before the stop sign to drop my gear down and I shot up that hill avoiding a major area where people drop their chains or needless grind up the hill. I did see Julie again on the ride and she cheered.

The rest of the ride was uneventful to the transition area. Except I did recommend to one rider that he put on sun screen as he was already red. He said he was from Seattle and did not get any sun.

Biking the course a couple of times and the computrainer version of the course really helped. My ride was 98% in the box and faster than last year.

Entire workout (181 watts):
Duration: 3:09:08 (3:12:50)
Work: 2022 kJ
TSS: 237.6 (intensity factor 0.875)
Norm Power: 194
VI: 1.07
Pw:HR: 29.19%
Pa:HR: 26.59%
Distance: 55.406 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 566 181 watts
Heart Rate: 30 150 74 bpm
Cadence: 30 244 94 rpm
Speed: 0 38.2 17.6 mph
Pace 1:34 0:00 3:25 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 456 76 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 840 168 lb-in


1. Not walk under a live powerline. I'm just thankful that I was slower on the bike today.
2. Keep my mouth shut while bikers are blowing snot rockets.

I ran down to the right rack and ran to toward the bike. At first I did not see the bike. I reapplied sun tan lotion and got my gear on. I did run by a race voluneteer and had her put water in my bottles. Last year the cytomax was practically boiling. Bleck.

Nothing. One of these days I'll learn how to release the shoes on the bike. However, not worth the investment now.

My game plan was to start the first three miles at 8:45 and then move to 8:00 miles until 10 where I would open it up to 5K pace or 7:30.

My three mile average was 8:39 which was just a little fast. I felt solid and if anything was fighting to go slower. I knew I blew up on mile 10 last year--so I wanted to avoid this.

On mile 4 to 10 I was off my 8:00 miles averaging 8:48. In general this was a very hill course and I felt strong during the first 8 or so miles. The heat was heavy--probably in the 90s at this point. I did a great job staying hydrated at the water stations (I walked about 30 seconds during 5 of them).

About mile 5 I passed Snot Rocket Dude. Did not say a thing. Stayed in the box!

Miles 11 to 13 was the part of the plan to fly. There was one hill and quite of flat and downhill. With the heat, I just did not have the energy to speed up. However, I never stopped running (ok three steps on one hill).

As I was finishing Dana and others from FOMO were cheering me on. I heard Anthea cheering too.

This was my first 13.1 race without walking--even during the half marys.

Entire workout (112 bpm):
Duration: 1:55:38 (1:55:38)
Work: n/a
rTSS: 141.5 (0.808)
NGP: 8:45 (183.9 m/min)
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: -8.26%
Distance: 12.941 mi
Elevation Gain: 1573 ft
Elevation Loss: 1570 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (3 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 65 149 112 bpm
Speed: 6:19 0:00 8:56 min/mi
Altitude: 37 144 93 ft



Most recent traing was building base with 10 miles. In an "A" race I would have had more run volume and taper. In general I'm very happy with the race and my decision making.

My wife Danette was not going to see this race. She was at the finish line which was a nice surprise. I stayed in the finish area trying to hydrate and talking to her.

I got something to ate and met up with Aaron and Jason. Recovery meal at in and out burger.


No taper and less heat. It was my best race at this distance by a long shot. I was really happy that I had a solid plan and


Vineman is an excellent race--well supported by all. This race should be on everyone's list.