Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

A bit of chop out there, made sighting and breathing slightly more challenging, but not bad. Really helped on the way in to the canal - could feel the waves/chop pushing me in. Hit the stinky part of the canal and really though I was going to start heaving. Ugh!! Kicked it into high gear to get the eff out of the water.

Was having trouble getting the wetsuit off, but still managed a fast T1 (w/ wetsuit) for me. Usually it's a good 3 mins of me struggling to get it off.

Cut even bigger leg openings in the wetsuit.

Not sure what went wrong. I was pushing what felt like a good pace early on - not too hard, but more than what I would do on a training ride. Terrain was pretty flat so I figured I could crank out a good bike split, given that I've had some rides of 40-60 miles where I averaged 18.8-19.0 mph. But early on I was suffering. Starting at ~3miles in, I was having some serious pain at the inside/front junction of my thighs/groin. Ow ow ow!! Not sure what it was felt like sore/tight muscles or tendons. Maybe the hard pace, maybe the saddle, maybe a combination. At times it felt like the muscles there were trying to cramp up. Not good! I did notice that I was holding a lower cadence than usual. Normally I'm ~90rpms, but I noticed I spent a lot of time in the low to mid 80s. Maybe that contributed to the slow pace and pain? And my shoulders were really hurting too - not the muscles, but the joints. Made it hard to push during miles 5-25 until things got better. Second half of the bike was good. Played leap frog with a few people, legs still felt good. Overall I felt like I'd put out a good effort, but was disappointed with what my pace turned out to be, as I have done better on training rides of similar distance. Need to figure this out, as I should have been under 3 hours.

Higher cadence maybe? Eat more.

What was I doing?!? (Oh yeah, having issues getting the shoes off... WTF? One velcro strap, how hard could it be?) Had trouble running in with the pain at the thigh/groin junction flaring up again (made it hard to stand and run).

Not be retarded!

Got my running legs under me pretty and decided to push the pace. I had about 3:40 on the clock when I started the run, so I knew I needed to run ~1:50 to have a crack at 5:30. This shouldn't be a problem, but I ran a (disappointing) 1:53 at my previous HIM 4 weeks earlier. So I pushed the pace early, as I was feeling good, and hoped the wheels wouldn't come off. Gradually began picking off people ahead of me. Could tell I was pushing hard and hoped I was going fast enough - definitely felt faster than in my last race. Hit some of the uphills and slowed waaaay down, but ran most of them (a couple were just too steep). Let gravity do the work on the downhills and flew past other racers. Last 4 miles kept pushing the pace up to come in under 5:30 and pass as many women as possible. Knew I had it in the bag when I had <1 mile to go.

Nothing.

Hopped in the cold water "pool" by the finish for a bit, then got pizza and ice cream. What more could you want? (ok, beer would be nice too!)


Improper pacing on bike / not holding a good cadence / pain.


Hung around for a bit to see the awards ceremony. Missed the podium for the Double Mussel by 1:34. D'oh! Guess that means I'll have to go back next year with a stronger bike leg.