Ironman 70.3 Florida Race Report

With every race comes more experience we can use to make ourselves better, smarter, and faster athletes. This race was truly a learning experience. Lets start with my pre-race prep. The week before the race my taper kind of went out the window. With packing all of my belongings to ship back to San Diego, shipping my car x-country, making time to see all of my classmates one last time, and studying for exams I had little time to do any training. I managed to work in 2 swim sessions and a short run (where I slipped off the curb and really tweaked my ankle). I also went on little sleep all week so I hoped to make the best of things.

I flew into Orlando on Friday evening and discovered that they had lost my bag, which contained my running shoes, cycling shoes, and my race kit. My dad’s flights were extremely delayed so we booked a room in the airport hotel. They told me that my bag would be delivered at midnight but no dice. So the next day I went back down to the counter and inquired about my bag. The woman looked around and told me that they had already given me my bag!!! I had a few moments of total panic thinking of where I could find replacement gear. Fortunately, my bag was delivered to my hotel with out their knowledge. Then it was off to our friends Bob’s house where we rebuilt our bikes and went for a quick test ride before heading to Disney World for athlete/bike check in. We got to check in and went through the usual procedures. Had a quick chat with my UVA Triathlon buddies and the guys at Trigger Point Therapy. Then it was off to dinner with Bob and his family. We had a great time catching up and chowed down on some tasty Thai food. Then it was off to bed.

Our alarms went off at 4:45 and we were quickly out the door and ate in the car. I had my usual PB&J and a bottle of NUUN. The road we took into Disney was closed for the race so we had to go way around and showed up to transition with only 30 min before my wave went off. I basically had just enough time to set up my transition area and head over to body marking. I then went down to the beach to link up with my friends on the triathlon team. I slipped on my Blue Seventy PZ3 and toed the line at the edge of the lake. WE WERE OFF! I learned yesterday that I am really good at entering the water, running along and then diving repeatedly to get to deeper waters. I soon was at the front, I looked back and was like WOW I need to chill out. The faster swimmers quickly caught me and I tried to settle into my own rhythm and find some feet I could stick with. At the first turn I could tell something was off. I just was not gliding through the water at my usual clip. I was able to get into a bit better of a rhythm in the last 600 or so meters. I came out of the water and looked down at my watch 38:08. UGH! I was pretty pissed my swim was super slow! I tried to clear the bad thoughts out of my head and ran to my bike to get onto the bike course.

I made my transition as fast as I could coming out the other side in 3:24. Out the other side I ran to the mount line and hopped on my ride. I started cranking and tried to find my legs. I looked down at my speedometer a few miles in and was only going 17mph, but felt like I was pushing it hard. I cranked hard and tried to get up to speed ( I was shooting for an average of 23-25). Last year I averaged 22 and I have been doing a lot more quality riding this year. At mile 30 I puked and then just saw my average speed go lower and lower. I accepted my situation and figured that I was just having a bad day so I tried to keep fueling and get to the run.

I came off the bike in 2:41:13 averaging 20.8 almost 10 min slower than last year! Clearly something was up. I made my way through transition and learning form my mistakes from last year this time I wore a hat instead of a visor so that I could fill it with ice to cool myself off in the 90deg heat. Out onto the run course I settled into a moderate pace trying to hold 8:30-9min paces. At mile 1 I was doing 8:45 and basically held that pace the whole time, some miles were a little slower as there were some lines for ice and sponges, which were must haves during this 13.1 mile death run. I finished the run in 1:57:40 (8:59 pace).

I woke up today feeling a bit sick and my lymph nodes are huge so maybe this poor performance was due to the cold, or the lack of rest I had last week. But I’m glad that I was able to keep it together and have a decent run after the bike catastrophe. My legs are feeling really good today and I’m going to jump right back into things when I get back to San Diego. With 40 days to Ironman Coeur D Alene there is plenty of time to get in some really good training then have a RESTFULL taper and rock out for 140.6 miles. On another note the UVA Triathlon Team DOMINATED!!! Rudy was the fastest Age Grouper overall and finished 11^th overall. The rest of the team did really well and had some fast times.

2009-2010 Comparisons:

2009

S: 38:13 T1 3:17 B: 2:32:43 T2: 2:00 R: 1:57:27 (5:13:39)

2010

S:38:08 T1: 3:24 B: 2:41:13 T2: 2:14 R:1:57:40 (5:22:37)