Bitterwhiteguy

I just had my first Longhorn half-ironman nightmare this morning. I had a dream where I was out riding my bike around my hometown for a last minute workout and completely forgot to check in for the race. The event has the bike check-in/packet pick-up the day before the race, and if you don't pick those up the day before then you don't get to race. You can imagine why missing this would be a bad thing.

I'm sure I'm going to have more of these in the upcoming weeks.

My girlfriend completed her Ironman in Louisville this weekend, finishing in 15:45.  I'm so proud of her and what she achieved, it's an impressive feat to finish an Ironman.  She worked her ass off to achieve that goal and she deserves the kudos for what she accomplished.  She's an inspiration to me.

It's less than a month until the Longhorn Half-Ironman, so I'm hitting the last ~2 weeks of heavy training before the tapering starts.  I'm already starting to get nervous about the event; I mean I've been training and the plan I'm using has been pretty successful for many people so I should do alright.  It's just that I haven't actually done this race distance before so I don't know that I can finish and finish well.  It's mildly terrifying thinking about it.  I'm probably just having a bad day, other days I feel good about my chances.  I'm going to be a ball of nerves the days leading up to the event.

August totals:
Swim: 10060.00 Yd - 3h 09m 02s
Bike: 217.11 Mi - 12h 37m 31s (new PR!)
Run: 40.2 Mi - 6h 50m 06s

2008 totals:
Swim: 76055.4 Yd - 26h 30m 55s
Bike: 1026.70 Mi - 62h 26m 18s
Run: 264.52 Mi - 47h 07m 03s

September events:
TX Tough Bike Rally - 56 Miles: September 14th

Tri the Rock
2008-08-24
Rockwall, Texas
United States
Ironhead Race Productions
80F / 27C
Sunny

Triathlon - Sprint
Total Time = 1h 18m
Overall Rank = 129/357
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 20/34

Goals: To push as hard as I could for the whole race.

Pre-race routine:
The usual: get up, eat some ramen & a Red Bull, and head out the door.

Event warmup:
I did the usual bike racking & transition setup, nothing special.

Swim
00:05:05 | 300 yards | 01m 41s / 100yards

Comments:
I put down a time of 4:40 and was in 46th place in line. That means 45 people ahead of me thought they could break 4:40, or 45 people were lying. Either way I didn't care, I had my race to run and wasn't going to worry about anybody else. I started off with the traditional Rockwall Cannonball, then got to swimming. The whole race was supposed to be at top effort, and I definitely started out that way on the swim. I bet my first 50 was in under 40 seconds, I was hauling *ss. I slowed down as things went on, but a 5:05 which includes getting out of the pool and running across the mat means I was hitting my max effort(or very close). I was passed by 1 guy, but that's the only contact I had with anyone throughout the swim.

What would you do differently?:
Nothing.

T1

Comments:
Strap, shirt, sunglasses, garmin, helmet, shoes, gone.

What would you do differently?: Nothing.

Bike
00:45:02 | 13.75 miles | 18.32 mile/hr

Comments:
The blowout continued on the ride where my HR was sitting in the 160s & 170s pretty much the whole time. I had to pull back just a little on the bike because I could tell I'd be toast on the run; I miscalculated how many hills there were on this ride. It was definitely hillier than I recalled, so I had to dial it down a bit for a few minutes on the back stretch. Craig passed me about halfway through the bike; I was hoping I could hold him off until the run, but no dice. That bastard is fast these days.

18.3 is solid, no real complaints.

What would you do differently?:
Not sure, maybe lay off a little on the uphills so I could keep pushing on the flats.


T2

Comments:
I put down the best flying dismount yet. I didn't even break stride running into T2, and I passed a guy at the red line in the process(later b*tch!). I was very happy about that dismount.

The peanut gallery - and by gallery, I mean Jen, Gary, & a couple other BTers - had a field day with me putting on socks for a run shorter than a 5k. These feet are prima-donnas, they need things a certain way or they protest with a vengeance. Regardless, a 1 minute T2 is blazing for me so I'm happy.

What would you do differently?:
Suplex a few spectators off the top of the porta-potty.

Run
00:24:55 | 02.78 miles | 08m 58s  min/mile

Comments:
I decided to keep pouring it on as I felt pretty good going out. I walked at the aid station to get a little gatorade, but other than that I was pushing hard. I was hoping to keep my run at or under a 9:20 pace, and early on I could tell that was going to be achievable. I felt strong coming out on the run, it was a good feeling. I saw Karen about 1.3 miles in as she was doing her workout out there. She asked if I'd take longer than her 20 minutes she had left to run, to which I emphatically replied 'NO'. I was 15 minutes from the end, tops, and I felt like I had more in me. She went running off to make it to the finish line before I did(I was maybe 3 minutes out from the turnaround) and I picked up the pace even more. The last mile, I was averaging about an 8:30 pace. It was a good run.

What would you do differently?:
I would have slapped Karen on the butt and seen if she could catch me.

Post race

Event comments:
The swim is fine(it's about what you'd expect from a pool start), the bike was fine, but the run had issues. For starters, it wasn't marked well. Several of the top guys lost some time because they couldn't tell which way to go on the run back into the finish(this was fixed prior to me getting back there) due to a lack of signage. That, and there was a 90 degree turn right before the finish from pavement to grass that quite a few people ate it on. Those are the only things that kept this race from being great; otherwise it was your standard well-stocked, well-assisted Ironhead race. Jack delivers a consistent product, and that consistency is appreciated.

I didn't hit any new records on training volume for each discipline this month, but I had easily the most well-balanced month thus far. I was just under my personal best on the bike & swim, and I was about 13 miles off my PR for the run. I can tell the training plan is getting near its peak of the training schedule as the lengths of individual training sessions are growing. Nonetheless, I felt like I wasn't getting long enough bike rides in so I'm going to try to do 1-2 "overdistance" rides a month. In other words, I'm going to do 1-2 rides that are 56+ miles so that I know how I feel when I'm getting off the bike at the race. I did the first of these Saturday(it was the 1st so I didn't include it in the totals here) and it opened my eyes to a couple of things. The biggest is that my nutrition needs work. I need to put something in the bike that's a little more 'solid' than Gu or Clif Shot Bloks. After 3+ hours on the bike, my stomach isn't happy with them anymore. I'm definitely hungry near the end of the ride and the Gu doesn't cut it. It may be something as simple as bringing a Clif Bar or similar on the bike, I'll have to try it out in the coming weeks. But this is one of the things I wouldn't know from a 2-2.5 hour ride; as odd as it sounds, the extra 30-60 minutes makes a difference.


July totals:
Swim: 11300.00 Yd - 3h 31m 05s
Bike: 188.09 Mi - 11h 28m 18s
Run: 45.08 Mi - 8h 36m 36s

2008 totals:
Swim: 65995.4 Yd - 23h 21m 53s
Bike: 873.09 Mi - 53h 32m 47s
Run: 224.32 Mi - 40h 16m 57s

August events:
Rockwall triathlon(sprint distance): August 24th

Pre-race routine:
Karen & I packed up and drove out to Ft. Worth. The drive was pretty easy, just long.

Event warmup:
The usual stretching, etc.

Run
03:19:45 | 15.53 miles | 12m 52s min/mile

Comments:

I started off solid, running a reasonable pace and trying to keep myself at a solid but sustainable HR. I wanted to finish in under 12 min/mile, which would be 3:06. The first lap went well, I felt strong. In fact, both of the first two laps felt really good. I was chugging along, listening to my iPod and keeping a decent pace. Every mile that ticked by, I was gaining time on my 12:00/mile goal. My HR was a little higher than I had planned, but I was feeling good and seemed under control. The 3rd lap was more of the same; I even had a good 2nd wind and was able to push down my time on a couple laps in that 3rd lap. Through 3 laps I was on pace for about a 3 hour run. Then things changed.

The 4th lap was going OK; I was slower but still feeling decent. At 10 miles in, I was nearly 4 minutes under my goal pace and still making headway. 11 miles in, I started getting really fatigued. Up to this point I had made a habit of walking the aid stations(there were 2 per lap) to help keep me going. I hit the aid station on the backside of the lap, walked it, had a quick drink, then kept going. But about half a mile later(11.6 miles in), I cracked. HARD. My legs were toast. It wasn't cramping, it was just being out of gas. I hit a low that I haven't felt in a long time. Actually, I don't recall ever being this out of gas. I ended up walking most of the rest of this lap, which was about 3/4 of a mile. I seriously considered dropping out after this lap. Karen - who at the first turnaround in lap 4 was about 4 minutes behind me - passed me with probably 4/10ths of a mile left in the lap and kept on chugging. (Anyone that's seen her speed-walking knows what I'm talking about, the girl's a machine.) The reason I kept going was because I know I'll be suffering at Longhorn and I can't quit then, so I might as well stick it out here too. I decided to drop everything I didn't need at my bag and try to run/walk the rest of it. I dropped off my Camelbak, iPod, and a couple other things at the bag, then kept going. I would walk 1/10th of a mile then jog 1/10th of a mile. I ended up doing this for the entire last lap. The last lap was entirely mental. My legs weren't taking me further unless I willed my way through it. It took forever, but I finally finished and collapsed on the grass where they were taking the chips back. Karen was there and she got me some Nuun & some water, some of which I drank. After a bit, we drove home and went to bed.

Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR
1 11m 18s 1.00 miles 11m 18s /mile 161 175
2 11m 16s 1.00 miles 11m 16s /mile 170 177
3 11m 39s 1.00 miles 11m 39s /mile 172 175
4 11m 38s 1.00 miles 11m 38s /mile 172 178
5 11m 47s 1.00 miles 11m 47s /mile 174 182
6 11m 51s 1.00 miles 11m 51s /mile 174 177
7 11m 44s 1.00 miles 11m 44s /mile 177 181
8 11m 27s 1.00 miles 11m 27s /mile 181 191
9 11m 54s 1.00 miles 11m 54s /mile 178 183
10 12m 02s 1.00 miles 12m 02s /mile 182 188
11 12m 27s 1.00 miles 12m 27s /mile 182 188
12 14m 32s 1.00 miles 14m 32s /mile 174 185
13 18m 10s 1.00 miles 18m 10s /mile 155 174
14 15m 50s 1.00 miles 15m 50s /mile 161 175
15 16m 54s 1.00 miles 16m 54s /mile 158 177
16 05m 16s 0.38 miles 13m 51s /mile 169 185

What would you do differently?:

I'm not sure what went wrong exactly. I've hit the wall before and I've gone and done an event I'm not trained for before; this didn't feel like either. When I hit the wall in the past, the descent into pain wasn't nearly this fast. When I wasn't trained for the event, cramping was a major issue. I didn't cramp at all. I think there were a couple factors at play.

1) I was over-caffeinated. I drank a Monster on the way to the event, plus about half the Gus I used had caffeine in them. I'm sure I went over my limit.
2) I didn't get a nap during the day. Karen had a 3 hour nap, which helped her I'm sure. I tried to get some sleep, but to no avail.

Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster:

My nutrition was good(between the Endurolytes, Gu, & water/nuun I wasn't even near cramping) and though I'm sure I could have trained more for the event I don't think I was out of shape. It just wasn't my day.

Event comments:

The event was well-organized and they had a good idea of how to cater to the running crowd. The volunteers were friendly and helpful. My only suggestion would be that they add an aid station on the course. 2 wasn't that bad, but 3 would be ideal. Oh, and closer parking would be nice. Having the parking lot half a mile from the race sucked.

Goals:
1500m Swim: 35:00 (~2:20/100m)
24 MileBike: 87:00 (~17.0 mph)
6.2 Mile Run: 71:00 (~11:30 min/mile)
Transitions: 8:00

Goal Time: 03:21:00

Results:
1500 yd swim: 00:28:55 (01:56/100yd)
23.3 Mile Bike: 01:16:50 (18.22 mph)
6 Mile Run: 01:02:54 (10:29 min/mile)
Transitions: 6:11

Actual Time: 02:54:57

Pre-race routine:
Same as always: wake up, eat some ramen, pack up and head out the door.

Event warmup:
The usual: setup transition area, stretch, and make fun of Gary. Mostly make fun of Gary.

Swim
00:28:55 | 1500 yards | 01m 56s / 100yards

Comments:
This was my first beach start ever, so I figured I'd avoid the washing machine and hang back at the back of the group. I let them throw elbows and beat each other up, I'll just swim on the outside. It worked pretty well, buoys notwithstanding. I tried to draft but neither I nor the people I was behind could swim a straight line to save ourselves so success was limited at best. Those were also the largest waves I've had to deal with on a swim, though I think I did alright against them, all things considered. I came out of the water and not 5 seconds behind me was my girlfriend Karen(who started 3 minutes behind me). That was the last time I was in front of her all day.

There's no way this was 1500 yards. I'm not cracking the 30 minute mark on 1500 yards when dealing with the waves & current like we were. Plus, the other two disciplines were short so I'd believe this one was short as well.

What would you do differently?:
Nothing.

T1
Comments:
Strap, shirt, Garmin, Glide, shoes, helmet, glasses, & gone.

What would you do differently?:
Nothing, it went well given the distance from the swim to the transition area.

Bike
01:16:50 | 23.33 miles | 18.22 mile/hr

Comments:
I went out on the ride with the goal of pushing, but only after I got my HR down some. I know with CapTex I pushed too hard and paid for it on the run, so I was trying to keep myself at ~75% instead of hammering. I didn't do that good of a job at that the first few miles, I found myself pushing more often than not. Finally I got myself at a HR that was reasonable(considering I was in a race) and stayed in that groove most of the rest of the way. I got passed by a few BTers - including one with a bell that would ring as he passed us...I made sure to give him a friendly one-finger salute when he came by after the turnaround :) - but focused on my race more than what anyone else was doing. I could tell I was sitting around 18-19mph most of the way, which was good given my HR and the intermittent sprinkles/rain. I think it being overcast and 85 instead of sunny & in the 90s did worlds for how I was able to push that speed.

I had the usual cat & mouse games on the ride, though this time it was with a girl around my age. She would pass me on the flats, but I'd catch her and pass her on the hills. That girl needs to work on hills; those hills really weren't that bad and she was struggling. Eventually I passed her on one hill and never saw her again. I guess she got tired of the back & forth, or maybe she never got her mojo back. Either way, screw her. I pwnd that girl! (Let me have this victory. When you're as slow as me, you don't get many.)

I spent the last ~8 minutes dropping down gears and trying to reduce my HR for the run and it helped some, though not a lot. Still, the fact that I didn't spend the last 10 minutes hammering is a victory for patience in and of itself.

Lap 1: 5.0 Miles Ave. : 18.0mph AHR: 166bpm
Lap 2: 5.0 Miles Ave. : 19.4mph AHR: 164bpm
Lap 3: 5.0 Miles Ave. : 18.2mph AHR: 163bpm
Lap 4: 5.0 Miles Ave. : 17.7mph AHR: 163bpm
Lap 5: 3.3 Miles Ave. : 17.8mph AHR: 161bpm

What would you do differently?:
Nothing. Oh, steal Gary's wheels. I wouldn't put them on my bike, I just need to finish ahead of one person I know and I think I could take him if he had no wheels. Probably.

T2
Comments:
I came into T2 with my feet already out of my shoes & jumped off the bike. Unfortunately, my right shoe came flying off when I got off the bike so I had to back up and pick it up. So much for the flying dismount. Other than that, the transition was solid if unspectacular.

What would you do differently?:
Shouldn't have sat down, but otherwise it was fine.

Run
01:02:54 | 06 miles | 10m 29s min/mile

Comments:
I got out on the run with the goal of not cramping up. Actually, I focused my bike nutrition with that goal in mind, and I overdid it so by the time I was 5 minutes into the run I felt water-logged. If it had been as hot as I was predicting I would have been right on target, I think. Or maybe not. Hell this whole nutrition thing is me just making guesses. I might even have a pizza delivered at an aid station during a race just to give it a shot. Anyway, I brought a Gu and an Endurolyte with me on the run and was going to pop the pill at 15 minutes and the Gu at around 30 minutes in. I get to the 15 minute mark, reach back for the pill, and I learned a handy lesson. Did you know Endurolytes dissolve in water? And by water, I mean any liquid...like, say, tri shorts that are soaked in water & sweat. I came out with a pill that looked like jello, so I did what any reasonable person does when confronted with an unfamiliar substance. I ate it, and not only did I eat it but also supplied an aid station worker with an amusing piece of advice about salt pills. What can I say, I'm a multi-tasker.

It was about this point where I saw my girlfriend Karen for the first time in awhile. She was 90 seconds ahead of me and told me I'd be catching her because she'd "slow down soon enough", as if I needed any more motivation to keep running. About half a mile further Aaron told me that she was "SO. CLOSE." and if I hauled ass down the next hill I'd catch her. Good idea, love the concept, but this body isn't going to blow it out with 5 miles left to go. I figured if I kept up my pace and she did her normal pace, I'd make up the 90 seconds eventually. Plus, if I hauled ass down the hill I'd have nothing left in the tank for the rest of the race. So I kept to my pace of sub-11, which was better than I expected. I did this for the first 3 miles and I could see Karen in the distance once we were on open road, but I couldn't tell if I was making much ground on her. We get to the turnaround and the time difference was....100 seconds. She had gained 10 seconds on me. *insert swearing here*

OK let's be fair here. I wasn't mad at her _at all_, it was more surprise than anything. She's always slower than me on the run and I was doing better than expected, so it would make sense that I'd be gaining on her. As soon as I saw she had gained time, I knew it was over. If I was going to make up ground it would have been early. She obviously wasn't slowing down and I sure as hell wasn't speeding up. So congrats to her, she was tearing it up. If anyone deserves it, it's her. She trains a lot harder than I ever could. I'm proud of her.

It's also worth mentioning that moving the aid station from the turnaround to the park entrance was a major improvement. DSU deserves recognition for making that adjustment, because last year's aid station locations(or lack thereof) were brutal.

Anyway, I got about 4.5 miles in before the first time I walked. Well, I walked at the park entrance aid station while I was drinking, but this is the first non-aid-station walk. I let myself walk for about a minute, and still tried to keep my pace above "ohgodthisistoohardigiveup" pace. In other words, I think I was doing about a 14 min pace on the walk. Besides that one spot, I ran the whole way and I got my second wind with about a mile left. I knocked out the last mile at a sub-9 pace if memory serves, and I looked strong at the finish line. Of course looking strong at the finish line isn't really my problem. I'm great at the start and the end of a run, it's the vast middle portion where I'm not so hot.

Mile 1: 10:18 AHR: 171
Mile 2: 10:24 AHR: 176
Mile 3: 10:19 AHR: 178
Mile 4: 11:13 AHR: 179
Mile 5: 11:46 AHR: 181
Mile 6: 08:54 AHR: 188

What would you do differently?:
Train more I guess, but I kept a good pace considering the distance.

Post race

Warm down:
I drank a lot of fluids. Since I changed up my nutrition plan I noticed I never want to eat at the end of a race, I just want to drink fluids. I don't know if that's a good or bad sign, but the last thing I want to see is food. I eventually ate a couple watermelon pieces, but other than that it was all water/gatorade.

What limited your ability to perform faster:
I don't have bionic legs.

Event comments:
I'm happy with my race time, but it sticks in my craw that all the distances were short. I was trying to make a good comparison to CapTex to see how I've progressed, but I can't if all the distances are off. It's a little OCD of me I know, but I'd like as close to the exact race specs as I can. I changed the distances on the RR to reflect what I actually got on my Garmin.

The race is decent and the aid stations were more well-placed than last year(trust me, I appreciate this improvement), but this is a long drive for an event. I'm not so sure I'm willing to make this trek again next year. Getting up at 3:45am sucks balls.

OK I'll admit it, I've been seriously slacking in updating this thing. My mistake, I'll try to do better.

I'm getting dialed in for this race. It's still 14 weeks away, but the mindset is really starting to focus. I've started to submit to the will of the training plan - though I'll be the first to admit I'm not hitting all my targets - and I can feel the whole thing taking over my thoughts. I was out on a run Sunday and I really started to visualize how I'm going to attack the course. I can see family & friends there at the end for me as I push through to the end, I can see the look on my face as I cross the line; I can see finishing the race now. Am I ready? Hell no. I've got to get more time on the bike and ramp up my swim totals some, but I feel like I'm well on my way. The running I've never been that concerned with. I can cruise at a 12 min/mile pace and be OK with that, given what all I'm doing that day. Maybe my time will improve over the next 3 months, but really I just want to finish. I'm not setting time goals yet, finishing the race is enough.

June totals:
Swim: 11730.00 Yd (new high mark for a month!) - 3h 37m 49s
Bike: 115.82 Mi - 7h 04m 33s
Run: 36.45 Mi - 6h 31m 23s

July events:
Disco triathlon(olympic distance): July 13th
El Scorcho(25k run): July 20th

I'm pasting this in from another site, hopefully the formatting comes out alright. One note: when I mention 'laps' in my stats, those are the laps I setup on my heart rate monitor. I have 7 laps on my run because it's set to lap every mile, but in reality it was a 2-loop course.

Goals:
1500m swim: < 36 minutes
24 mile bike: < 90 minutes(16mph or better)
6.2 mile run: < 68 minutes(11:00 min/mile)
Transitions: < 6 minutes(I'm being generous since I'm wearing a wetsuit)

Goal time: < 3hr 20min

Results:
1500m swim: 36:05
24 mile bike: 82:28(18.1mph)
6.2 mile run: 69:12(11:09 min/mile)
Transitions: 9:17(yikes)

Actual time: 3hr 17min 04sec

Swim
00:36:05 | 1640.4 yards | 02m 12s / 100yards

Comments:

I was pretty happy with this swim in that I didn't freak out in the water at all. I was comfortable pretty much the whole time. I guess that's a good part of having to wait so f*cking long, I got over my nerves. I need more practice in my wetsuit though, my form was off and I didn't compensate properly. I also can't sight for crap, I probably swam an extra couple hundred yards zig-zagging all over the course. But I was happy with the swim because I was calm the whole time. The only time I got a little freaked out is when I could actually see the bottom of the lake. My brain was thinking "OMG GO AWAY I WANT TO GO BACK TO NOTHINGNESS".

What would you do differently?:

Maybe push a little harder a little earlier, but overall it was good. I might consider a sleeveless wetsuit in the future to reduce arm fatigue.

T1
Time: 05:51

Comments:

I'm writing this before I get the results and I can tell you this transition was probably really bad. I had a hard time getting the wetsuit open and I ran off with my bike before realizing I hadn't put my chip back on. The run out to the bike mount was also way longer than I had expected. I'm not losing any sleep over it though, I expected a bad time given how little I've used my wetsuit.

What would you do differently?:

Get the wetsuit off more quickly, put the chip on the first time.

Bike
01:22:28 | 24.85 miles | 18.08 mile/hr
Lap 1: 5.0 miles - 17:13 - 17.4mph - Ave. HR 166bpm;
Lap 2: 5.0 miles - 17:35 - 17.0mph - Ave. HR 161bpm;
Lap 3: 5.0 miles - 17:24 - 17.2mph - Ave. HR 161bpm;
Lap 4: 5.0 miles - 17:25 - 17.2mph - Ave. HR 162bpm;
Lap 5: 3.85 miles - 12:40 - 18.2mph - Ave. HR 163bpm

Comments:
I tried not to eat the paste, I really did. I dabbled in the paste a little though, the long downhill sections were too tempting. The important part is that by the end of the 1st loop I had my HR in a pretty good spot and was able to keep it there for pretty much the rest of the ride. I didn't see Aaron until the 2nd loop, so I decided to try to hold off The Inevitable Aaron Pass as long as possible. I made it to the end of the 3rd loop before he passed me, which I took as a minor victory. I know I had a massive headstart, but let me have this. Aaron was probably setting up a picnic on his aero bars while I'm pondering why my knees hurt and if this is what butt cancer feels like, but I'm laying claim to this moment. Other than that I just tried to keep a consistent HR & cadence. Oh and I was the impromptu bike shorts integrity checker. I say that because in the last lap there was a sprint guy who had an enormous run in his shorts right where his crack is. I caught him on a hill and tried to tell him as nicely as possible, but he wasn't really getting it so I was reduced to telling him that if he farted I could probably tell him what he had for dinner last night. That got the point across.

What would you do differently?:

Not much. I may need to get a refitting to see if everything's in the right spot, but the pain went away after a couple loops so I may have just been sitting in the wrong spot or something.


T2
Time: 03:26

Comments:

I thought this transition was quicker than the time says.

What would you do differently?:

Nothing, it was pretty good.


Run
01:09:12 | 06.21 miles | 11m 08s min/mile
Lap 1: 1 mile - 10:19 - Ave. HR 176bpm;
Lap 2: 1 mile - 11:11 - Ave. HR 180bpm;
Lap 3: 1 mile - 11:00 - Ave. HR 181bpm;
Lap 4: 1 mile - 11:39 - Ave. HR 182bpm;
Lap 5: 1 mile - 12:01 - Ave. HR 182bpm;
Lap 6: 1 mile - 10:34 - Ave. HR 187bpm;
Lap 7: .28 mile - 2:27 - Ave. HR 195bpm

Comments:

I came into the run being somewhat tired, but all things considered I didn't feel that bad. It quickly became apparent that my HR was way too high and wasn't dropping. It was solidly in the upper 170s, flirting with 180s. That's right in zone 5 for me. I wasn't pushing hard, it just wouldn't drop. So I decided I'd walk the aid stations, make sure I got plenty of fluids, and use ice & water to keep cool as best I could. After the first mile, I knew hitting my 11 min/mile pace was going to be tough bordering on unlikely so I focused on trying to keep cool. It was just so effing hot that I really wasn't going to be able to do that well. Of course it was a few degrees cooler about 90 minutes earlier. You know, when I would have been running if I hadn't sat around waiting for my wave for 90 minutes. I only walked once when not at an aid station, and it was only for 10-15 seconds. Otherwise I just chugged along at an 11-12 minute pace, trying to zone out and not think about how obscenely hot & muggy it was outside. That didn't work. I was near the end of the first lap when Craig yelled some words of encouragement. All I responded with was "Aaron can't lap me on the run". Aaron, I'm not stalking you I swear. OK, maybe a little. I'm harmless though; ask Karen. I may start stalking the guys with the water hoses though; running through those streams of ice cold water felt like heaven. I don't like having wet shoes, but it was so hot that I didn't really care. They could have been secretly taping some sort of H2O bukkake film and I really wouldn't mind at that point, I just wanted the hose down.

What would you do differently?:

I'm not sure what I could have done differently during the race, it's just a matter of getting in more training in the heat.


Post race
Warm down:

I drank a lot of fluids. A LOT of fluids. I was definitely hurting. I just grabbed a couple bottles of gatorade & water and looked for some shade.

But more importantly: I broke the Olympic distance curse! The third attempt is the charm apparently...or maybe I wasn't the curse after all.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of training in the heat.


Event comments:

Bad:
1) The packet pick-up was chaos.
2) The swim wave timing was a debacle.
3) The runs out of each transition area were way too long.
4) The amount of cyclists on the loops - specifically the speed differences between packs of riders - was bordering on insanity at times.

Good:
1) Plenty of aid stations with plenty of ice.
2) Volunteers were very friendly.
..and that's about it.

I don't blame these guys for last year's rain-out, they can't help that. But given that they were trying to basically make amends, the increased price, suggestion that we body mark ourselves, and the swim wave disorganization, I doubt I'll be coming back for a 3rd attempt. It just seems like a very poor way to try to improve an event.