Man, I thought I was going to die on the run…

Well, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I did feel really tired, got the chills (again), and was having a hard time keeping my legs moving.  Time slowed and I felt like each mile took an age. But in actual fact they were only taking about 7 minutes 12 seconds (average… which is a pretty fast time for me).  The bike went as hoped, where I averaged 20.25 mph.  For the swim, I was just hoping to match my Wildflower time, but managed to knock off 4-minutes.

Swim – 0.93 miles in 26:40
T1 – 2:01
Bike – 24.9 miles in 1:13:46
T2 – 1:09
Run – 6.2 miles in 44:34
Which gives me a finishing time of 2:28:11.   Over 10 minutes faster than my time on the–admittedly much hillier–Wildflower course.

The only slight hiccups were the elbow I took to the jaw during the swim and the subsequent mouthful of lake water I swallowed, and then on the bike the aid station was unmanned so I ran out of water at about the 20-mile marker.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result.   I don’t think I could have done much better.  Position wise, I came 15th in my age-group of 64, and 106th of the 429 finishing men.  But as I said in my other post, at my level that’s not a very meaningful metric.

So now the question for next year is: do I try for a half-Ironman or do I stick at the Olympic distance and try to improve my times?  Or maybe both…

I’ve been reading Joe Friel’s book The Triathlete’s Training Bible recently.  It has a ton of useful information about when to train, how to train, when to rest, what to eat, and how to maximize efficient swimming, biking, and running techniques.  One of the things it suggests to do is write up a race day plan; as a way to help you prepare, but also so you can check back and compare expectations with reality.  So, since I’m doing another race this coming Sunday, I thought I’d write up my plan…

Prep
At 4am the alarm will go off; It’s Your World will be playing on NPR.  Get up.  Have a cold shower.  Get dressed (race shorts under civvies).  Head down to breakfast: blue-bottle coffee, 2-pints of water with electrolyte mix, toast and honey.

I’ll have packed my bag the night before, but just do a last check through.  Pump tires on bike to 120psi.  Get Tessa and Ada ready, head to car by 4:45am.

The drive to Almaden Lake is 55-miles and should take less than an hour.  Tessa will drop me off and go find parking.  I’ll have registered the day before, so head straight to the transition area and set up my spot.  I should have an hour before the race starts, so I’ll familiarize myself with the transition area, the entrances and exists, and the swim course.  If allowed, I’ll do a warm-up swim, nothing hard, just enough to get the blood flowing.  Stretches.  And the requisite trips to the porta-potties.

Swim
I’m in the third wave, starting at 7:08.  I’ll stand one row back from the front, on the inside.  I’ll take the first 100m easy, trying to avoid feet, and picking a path through the carnage.  After that I’ll settle into a comfortable rhythm, avoiding the temptation to race.  A mistake I made last time was going too wide, so try to keep an optimal course.

Transition to bike
My wet suit’s a two piece, so I’ll have the top off by the time I get to my spot.  Take off the bottoms.  Socks on.  Shoes on.  T-shirt on.  Helmet on.  Put 3 gel packs in back pocket.  Grab bike.  Run for the exit.

Bike
The bike course is wide, smooth, and relatively flat.  I’ll be pushing hard.  I’ll have a gel pack at the start, one half way, and one at the end.  I’ll alternate between water and energy drink, sipping regularly.

There’s a 7% climb for 200-vertical-feet between miles 15 and 16.  After riding in Marin, this should be easy.

I want to average above 20 mph.

Transition to run
Simply drop bike off, take off helmet, switch shoes, and grab race belt with my number.

Run
Like the bike it’s a flattish course.  I’ll take the first mile to ease my legs in, then settle into a race pace.  I want to push close to my limit.  I won’t have my heart rate monitor so I’ll pay attention to my breathing and if it gets laboured will ease off.  I’ll take water every mile at each aid station.

Finish
At the end of the day I know I’m not going to place very highly.  I could say I’d like to finish in the top 10%, which would be very cool, but is meaningless; it is a measure of other entrants not myself.  My goal is for everything to go smoothly and to feel like I couldn’t have finished in a quicker time.  But, shit happens and if something does go wrong I’ll just do my best to get to the end.