Finished...ready for Beer (and some more GU Chomps! :-) )
Total fake smile, I was HURTING!
blah
Final decent at end of a tough tough tough bike
Looking at my new PR in the swim!
I'm leading that pack....by about 10minutes (they started 10min after me)
Well it was a day of "firsts"for me.....unfortunately those firsts did not include first place overall or in my age group :-)
First off I would like to say I had an absolute blast during the four and a half day trip down to Lake San Antonio. Traveling with Don Ollila, Paul Shoen, Jeff Platt and Patrick McCann kept me laughing the whole time (my stomach is actually more sore than my legs from all the laughing I was doing). The entire Wildflower experience is definitely all its cracked up to be. I have never been to a race that took such great care of the athletes. The race expo, aid stations, finish line, awards, volunteers and staff were all first class. Camping next to thousands of other triathletes is also quite the experience! I will be back next year for the experience and for revenge on the course.
Onto the race:
Swim- 30:37 (1:28/100yd pace)- So the start was pretty cool because i got to stand behind and watch the pro men take off at 8:00am, then the Pro Women at 8:05, then it was our turn at 8:10. The swim starts on a boat ramp and is a running start into the water. I positioned myself in the second row and right in the middle with the idea of starting really hard to get out and hang on with some of the fast swimmers. Well as soon as I ran and dove in the water I got kicked in the face (first time that has happened!) and my goggles got knocked up onto my forehead. I stood up, adjusted and jumped back in. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful. i just swam hard and got onto some feet from time to time, but didnt find anyone really worth drafting off of for longer than 1minute or so. I am happy with this swim as its about a 1:30 pr for me.
t1- 2:10- this is a tough steep run up the boat ramp and through a huge transition area. Heart rate had to be at 200bpm running up that ramp.
bike- 2:39:51- After about a mile of rolling windy short hills on a bike path you get to beach hill which is a steep mile climb that hurts to hold just 8mph going up. Halfway up my GU flask (with most of my nutrition for the bike) fell off! I had to turn around and stop, pick up GU and restart on that steep ass hill! First time I have dropped my nutrition, but i wasnt going to make the mistake that others have made in the past and just leave it behind. Then the flask almost fell off the holder again! I soon realized that the velcro backing on the flask had come unglued and had to stuff it down my shirt for the rest of the bike. Oh well. Soon I got into a groove and was able to execute my race plan, sticking to the watts. I was flying out there! I was blitzing that course and most importantly having fun. I felt good. I was even passing the pro women! I was on pace for a 2:30-2:32ish bike split, which is smoking for an Age grouper on that course. Unfortunately I hit the wall at mile 38 (right before the course goes from hard to really really hard). I couldn't get my watts back up, my legs were just done. On top of that, it started getting hot out and I was not used to racing in the heat yet being its only May. I stuggled up the mighty Nasty Grade and all the hills after that for the last 18 miles. 2:39:51 is not a bad time for that course, but I wasn't racing to be "not bad" i wanted to make my mark out there and it was just not meant to be that day.
In the end, after reviewing my Powerfile, we found that I spent over 30min in threshold watts before hitting the hills late in the race. This was crucial because I only had about 30min of threshold in me based on most of my training being done in the Tempo range. I should have saved half of those 30minutes for later in the race and I would have had a much different outcome. My normalized watts were 26 less for the last 18miles vs. the first 38.
t2- 1:08- Threw socks on for the first time ever in a Half Iron. Did not more than 10 extra seconds and boy did my feet thank me for it. Its nice not having to nurse blisters for a week after a half iron race for a change! Also popped and S-Cap as I was running out of transition
Run- 1:34:change- took off on the run still feeling like crud from the bike. As soon as we hit the first hill my quads started to cramp and i was forced to walk it out. Five miles and 1500 ft of climbing later I had already put in two 10 minute miles! I was pretty much in survival mode and my competitive drive was non existent. I just kept trucking along, dumping water on my sunburnt body, gulping gatorade and sucking on my GU Flask. I passed a "walking" John Dahlz, who won Collegiate nationals not too long ago, along the way. Just being able to see a pro at that point who was clearly having a bad day but soldiering on determined to finish nonetheless, helped keep me going. At mile 7 i started getting passed by 30-34 year olds (who had started 10minutes after me), and tried matching their paces. It worked. My legs were waking up and had been refueled and I was able to pick up the pace. Last few miles were spent with a tough 31 year old, Chuck Mccarroll. he was top ten at wildflower last year and was having a slightly off day, but of course he was 10 minutes ahead of where i was at in the race. His company helped keep me at a quicker sub 7 minute pace up until the last mile (which was all downhill) where i was able to rip off a 5:35. It was interesting to experience my body "bonking" like that, and continuing to soldier on until i started to emerge from the deficit and get my energy back for the latter miles of the run. I will remember this race when i do my first Ironman.
Final times:
Nutrition-
Half bag of Gu Chomps before swim start
900 calories on bike (700 of them from GU)
75oz of water
One Nuun tab in each of the first two water bottles
One SCap @ 2:00hr mark on bike
One SCap in T2
300 calories of GU on run
Water at every aid station. Gatorade at every other aid station
Well thats that. Next race is Blue Lake Olympic on June 13th, and then Vineman 70.3 on July 19th. I will have two big training camps leading up to Vineman. So i hope to really be ready to make my mark by then. I have 11 weeks to work on it....
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