The goal for this leg was just to swim smoothly and not let my heart rate get too high. Today was all a dry-run for Madison, so I had to exercise some restraint.
I lined up on the outside of the start line and when the race started I aimed for the 2nd buoy. It was a smaller wave, so there wasn't too much violence at the beginning.
One the way out I started catching up to a few guys that must have taken off too quickly and then fizzled. But, by the time we hit the turn around, the crowd had thinned and collisions with other swimmers were few and far between. On the return trip, I caught up to a few swimmers in the wave ahead of me, but it still wasn't crowded. My only real problem is that I tended to stray to the right and probably added 100-200 yards of extra distance with all the course corrections.
In my only other 1/2-Iron distance race, my swim split was 36:05. Today was just 3 seconds slower, but the effort level was mush lower. I was hoping for somewhere in the 35-minute range, so I guess I can be happy with 36.

I need to work on navigation and sticking closer to the buoys. Cutting down on the distance traveled would be the easiest way to bring my time down. This means more open-water training for the next few months. In a non-Ironman year, this would be an 'A' race and probably could have afforded to push myself just a bit harder.

My wetsuit got hung up on each ankle. I'm tempted to trim an inch or two off the legs to make it easier to remove. I opted to put my shoes on in transition and clip-clop-clip-clop to the mount line. I just didn't want to attempt the 'flying-squirrel' with 56 miles ahead of me.

Spend less time fidgiting with my sunglasses and helmet to get them on 'just right'. That kind of stuff can wait until I'm on the road.

In my last 1/2 Iron, I pushed too hard on the bike, didn't get enough nutrition or water and ended up with no gas in the tank and crampy legs for the entire run. Not good. Today, I really wanted to do better on the run, which meant going conservative on the bike. My secondary goal was to test my nutrition and hydration.
Since (all things considered) I actually had a pretty good swim, that meant that the first 25 miles of the bike I was passed by a constant parade of carbon fiber and aero-helmets. Man, those dudes were fast.
I set my Garmin to go off every 20 minutes so I would be reminded to take in water, Perpetuem and 3 Shot Bloks. Add to that 3 endurolytes every hour.
I tried to keep my heart rate under 150 and would back off or shift down if I started to 'feel the burn'. I knew I was fully hydrated because of my urge to *ahem* 'go' at about mile 40. At this point I got to experience another triathlon milestone by 'dropping ballast' at mile 44. Whew. That felt good.
Soon after, I hit the out-and-back portion and got to see all those who had passed me along with everyone that was hot on my tail. For the last 1-2 miles, I kicked it into a lower gear and jumped the RPMs up to about 100 before cruising into transition.
In the end, my bike leg was 4:55 slower than my first 1/2 Iron, but my legs felt fresh coming out of transition, which meant I was ready for the run.

I suppose I could have pushed harder on the bike, but I don't know what impact that would have had on my run.
The Shot Bloks worked well for today, but nearing the end of the bike my body was reaching it's limit of those chewy red buggers. I'll definitely need to have some more variety for the Madison race. I'm thinking PB&J will be on the menu.

I must have lost focus, because I didn't leave myself enough time to slip out of my shoes before the dismount line. I also found that with the aerobar water bottle my bike wouldn't rack from the front so I had to spin it back around and hang it from the saddle. My socks didn't want to go on straight, so I had to goober with those before putting on my shoes.

Making sure I could rack my bike from both directions would have saved me 5-10 seconds. I suppose I could have biked with my socks on, but that would just mean dealing with my socks in T1 rather than T2.

I really wanted to improve my run over my last 1/2 Iron. Last time around, I had a bunch of problems with cramping and ended up running it in 2:53.
I took off out of transition and hit that b*tch of a wood-chip trail. Blech. My calves were a little tight, but nothing was locking up. For the first few miles I was able to get my cycling legs converted over to my running legs. They didn't always want to cooperate, but at least I kept my splits at around 10:00/mile.
I grabbed a gel at mile 2, but had trouble getting it ripped open so I stowed it for later. At about mile 4 or 5 I grabbed a Marathon bar, but after considering it for a mile, I decided that solid food didn't sound that good and that I would stick to water and Heed from here on out. I handed the bar to a volunteer at the next mile marker.
During the middle of the run I felt GREAT. Like Tony the Tiger GRRReat. I got some good songs in my head and kept a good rhythm going. I managed to pull off splits of around 9:00 between miles 5 and 10. During this time it also started to sprinkle, which then proceeded to build to a full downpour. I didn't mind the rain at all. It kept things cool and concealed another *cough* 'release of ballast'.
At around mile 10, I could feel that I was running out of gas, but with only a few miles to go there wasn't a point in consuming more calories. I just had to gut it out. I knew I wasn't going to break 2 hours on the run, but didn't care too much. It as good just to feel like a real traithlete. Plus I knew at this point I was going to meet another mini-goal: run the whole 1/2 marathon. That's right - no walking, no nothin'. Yay!
That wood chip mofo was better on the way back down, but this time it was saturated and spongy. I stuck to the side of the trail where the ground was firmer.
After that it was only a couple hundred more yards to the finish line. I must have been in a good mood because the announcer said 'Here comes Eric Bergstrom...with a big grin on his face'.
I crossed with a run split of 2:04:11. That's a 49 minute PR for me. SWEET! My last (and only other) 1/2 Iron time was 6:34. Today I managed a 5:49. I'll take it.

The pacing all went according to plan. At this point, the only thing that will make my times faster is better conditioning. So, I guess I'll rest up for a few days and then start pounding pavement.
I'd like to do the Madison run leg in under 5 hours. So, hopefully a 2:04 today is a good sign.

Took in some fluids and got my things together. Then I hit the barbecue for a steak sandwich and some fruit.


This was essentially a practice run for Madison. I suppose I could have tweaked a few things and picked up another 10 or 15 minutes, but I really wanted to get a feel for what kind of pacing works for me and what kind of nutrition my stomach can handle.


A nicely run race - tons better than Square Lake. There were plentiful pit-stops and lots of volunteers. Well done.