iron eyes for the normal guy

dL Florida Half-Ironman

There were challenges preceding this race that made it difficult to have the best of days. Approximately 1 month before the race, I started to have issues with my left knee. After having to stop mid run a few times I decided that maybe I needed some PT to see if they could help me solve the issues. I tried to see the great PT I had in the past, but he was all booked up. So, I just looked through the phone book and found one about a half mile from where I worked. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem very knowledgeable and after going there a few times, it seemed like they were really not doing anything to help me. So, I decided that I would just take it easy for run, stretch a fair amount and work on my balance, which was one of the issues that caused me problems in the past.

Another challenge was getting my new TT bike. I had planned on having it a month before the event so I could tweak and make any adjustments necessary. Then there were a series of issues; bike shipped later than expected, parts went missing in shipment at the UPS facilities, needed new parts shipped, delivered to bike shop, and then the zipp rear wheel had a shimano freehub body which needed to be replaced by a campy one that they had to order. So I didn’t pick my bike up until the day before we departed and I just prayed everything would work properly once I arrived in Florida.

The final challenge was work, I was working on a 100 page workbook that was taking long hours to complete. For nearly 2 weeks before the event, I was working 10-12 hour days and I had to work one entire weekend day before the event. Training was dramatically affected, but the training before this challenge had been good, so I was hoping that would be enough to propel me to have a good time.

Regardless of the event I always have my goals that I want to shoot for. For this event I was hoping to be around 2:15 for the bike, and 4:45 for the race. Perhaps they were a little too lofty of a goal, but I thought I might be possible.

We departed to Florida on Friday at the ass-crack of dawn. 6:30am flights are not fun. Arrived and put the bikes together to go out and see how the new ride feels. I must say I didn’t like the way it felt to begin with. The shifting wasn’t working well and my neck was already hurting after about 15 minutes, how was it going to feel after 2+ hours? I made a few tweaks, moved the seat a little more forward and rotated the bars a bit in the hopes it would feel a little more comfortable.

Pre race: Triathlons start way, way too early. After getting up at 4am, 2 days before, we had to wake up a 4am again, ouch… So, with everything leading up to the race, I was just going to give my best effort and see what happens.

Swim: Other than almost losing my timing chip as soon as I started swimming things went okay. I felt I was going pretty well. My sighting wasn’t as great as it could be. As I departed the water I saw I was at 44 minutes. It was what it was. Later on spoke with a few others and saw the time, and they all seemed slower than normal so maybe the course was a bit longer.

Bike: Now it was time to get down to business. Let’s see how fast this bike is going to be. The plan was to keep the HR at around 155 and I did that for the most part the entire ride. There were a few rollers where it would rise to over 160, but then I would settle it back down to my zone. So, in that zone, I was cruising 25-26 mph so I thought I could sustain that and have a good ride. Since I initially started in the 13th wave for the swim, there were plenty of people to pass. I always like passing people and I passed hundreds and hundreds of people. Of course, I liked that. Anyway, bike time ended up being 2:17. Pretty pleased with that.

Run: The course was 3 laps with a few miles on a grass and sandy path. As I first started the run, it was feeling extremely hot. Perhaps this was due to having plenty of breeze on the bike. I was thinking survival mode, just try to get into a rhythm and the finish will arrive. The first few miles were really tough. I wasn’t really keeping track of my pace, but it felt slooooooooooooow. There were lots of people passing me. Eventually after a few of the aid stations and getting enough ice on my head I started to feel I was going a bit better and started to pass people. Then the first lap was over. Yeah. Only 2 more to go. The following laps went okay, should have been faster, but with the heat, the slowness of the sandy/grassy, and the time at the aid stations to refill and cool down, the time ended up being a little less than 2 hours. Not great, but with the heat and the fact that I hadn’t been able to run much at all preceding the event, I was okay with it.

Overall: My time was 5:08, a few minutes slower than when I did Mooseman last year, but perhaps next time will be better. I was happy that my knee was feeling good. Hopefully, it will stay healthy and strong. So, for now, looking forward to Roth, a little apprehensive about doing the marathon, but I hope to get a few long runs in so I will have confidence in my run.

posted by dadalu @ 6:09 PM