Florida Ironman 70.3 - 2014

Another 'semi-satisfying' race.  It was not what I expected, but I beat my last course time by 11 minutes (including a worse run), so I should be pretty happy.  It was hot and it was hilly.  They changed the run course so there was an unexpected hill at the beginning.  The three loop run course is nice though so you get a lot of spectator interaction.  I am putting in my nutrition and how I felt at the bottom so I can refer to it for future races.

The swim was a wetsuit swim and it was not as bad as it was two years ago.  There were not as many weeds in the water and the course seemed less crowded, but maybe this was because I went off course a lot.  Both of my transitions were super fast and I was happy with them.  Most people were just hanging around in the way of others trying to speed through.  I didn't do the rubber band trick and I don't think I will even try in the future since I am not losing time in transition from it.

The bike was super windy.  What was even more frustrating was all the people drafting.  I have 4 big groups of people pass me in pace lines.  I guess the officials can't be everywhere, but it sure was hard to watch when I'm working my butt off.

The three loop run course was good, but I was having upper abdominal pain and my pace slowly deteriorated.  I need to figure this out since this is what really messed up my time in the end.  I think for the next race, I will follow the plan below again, but I'll only do one salt tab in each water bottle.  I'll also try to intake more nutrition on the run...still trying to figure out what works best.

Time: 4:49:18

Nutrition:
Saturday night I had white pasta with olive oil, garlic and grilled chicken along with some garlic bread.  I also had 2 salt tabs.  For breakfast on Sunday I had one bagel with peanut butter and honey. I also had 2 salt tabs. I had one cup of coffee and some water.  While setting up transition, I had 28oz of water with 1.5 scoops of scratch in it.  One hour out, I had half a PR bar.  20 minutes out I had a gel with no caffeine.

On the bike I broke up the PR Bar over the first 75 minutes.  I ate two more gels over the rest of the ride.  I had three bottles.  Each had 1.5 scoops of scratch and 2 salt tabs.  I drank one the first hour, another the next 45 minutes and 80% of the last one over the rest of the bike.

On the run, I started with a few sips from the flask (in it I had 3 gels, one of them had caffeine and water), but I didn't like the way I was feeling so I stopped and lived off cola from the aid stations.  I had 1 shot blok about half way into it.

Now, how I felt:
I felt pretty good on the swim.  I think the reason my time was so slow is I went off course a lot.  I didn't stay anywhere near the buoys on the second half.  I took your advice and pushed it through transition so I could recover on the bike. I think my transition times were pretty good.  I don't do the rubber band trick and I think I don't pay for it, but you can tell me otherwise.

The first 50 minutes of the bike I felt shitty.  I felt bloated and lots of pressure high in my abdomen.  About 50 minutes in, I felt good for a few minutes, then the rest of the ride was a roller coaster of feeling good and bad.  I never felt like I could push hard on the bike. I usually know I am pushing hard because I get emotional, but I never got to that point in this race....I never felt good enough to be able to push like that.  I also mentioned that muscle pain in my outer/upper butt area.  I'm pretty sure I know what that has to do with.  I got new shoes a while back and I think I put the cleats on wrong (since I never had this pain before I got these new shoes).  I will probably talk to Jim about getting this stuff sorted out this week.  I felt good coming through T2.

The start of the run I felt ok, but the pressure in my upper abdomen built fast.  I don't feel like the heat held me back as much as the way I felt. But maybe they are related...I have no idea.

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