Overall Thoughts on the Race:
I was really happy with my race on Sunday. I think I spent a lot of time working on my swim and run and it really showed during the race. I had by far my fastest half ironman swim and run times! I worked on eating more this year which I accomplished but I did a horrible job at drinking enough water. I am ready to get stronger on the bike over the next 10 weeks so i can take on Buffalo Springs 70.3 in June! Saturday:
homemade waffle (2/3 a recipe) + ¼ cup maple syrup 3 nuun tabs with 4-5 bottles of water pita chips + hummus banana banana nut cliff bar sweet potato + gluten free pasta, some marina sauce 8 oz red wine this may have been all I ate :/ Sunday:
Pre Race Nutrition: 360 calories 380 mg of sodium 54 g of carbs 20 ounces water Swim: 36:37 1:53/100m (last year: 40:13 2:04/100m) First time I have ever started in the front of a wave. It was much better than working my way around other people’s feet! It still felt pretty crowded until the second turn buoy. Only got hit by one elbow and someone grabbed my timing chip and tried to yank me backwards. That person got kicked..oops. Worst part was probably when I started running into the men from slower age groups. One of them swam horizontally in front of me. And so many of them kept stopping and starting. Overall I felt great the entire swim. I never felt claustrophobic or freaked out. It was by far my fastest half ironman swim to date! T1: 2:05 (last year: 2:26) Had to run around many walkers on the ramp while I pulled my wetsuit down, got it stripped off very easily and continued running up to the racks. Quickly put on my sunglasses, helmet and shoes and I was out of there. I think this is also my fastest T1 time ever and I definitely felt efficient. Those T3 Practiceman races helped a lot! Bike: 2:52:25 19.49 mph (last year: 2:50:47 19.67 mph) Nutrition: 3 bags of Honey Stinger Chews minus 2 chews throughout the course + 2.5 servings of Infinit 1000 Calories (about 347cal/hour) 1060 mg of sodium (about 368mg/hour) 247 grams of carbs (about 86g/hour) About 60-75 ounces of water The course felt pretty crowded already and I spent the first 5 or 10 miles just passing people and trying not to get hit by the guys going crazy and passing 3 or 4 wide. Concentrated on keeping a higher heart rate for 5 miles followed by a lower heart rate for 5 miles but at about 30 miles in I hit a wall. I think I should have had more water, and I just wasn’t feeling that crosswind. My hamstrings felt weak and my lower back was hurting. Although compared to last year I did spend much more time in aero this year! I only got out of aero for about a minute total this year compared to a few miles from last year. I really struggled in the last 15 miles and felt like I couldn’t get anything up, my heart rate, cadence or power. My main goal for the bike this year was to set up for a great run, so I ended up happy with this effort. T2: 2:41 (last year: 1:59) Ugh. The 2 girls on each side of me racked their bikes in the opposite direction and one of them was racked in my spot, which was annoying. A guy going way too fast and turning into the same rack as me also hit me. It was a mess. Once I was able to get my bike racked (after wasting about 20 seconds dealing with other things) I put on my hat, shoes and belt and grabbed my chews and ran out. A few volunteers walked right in front of me and another guy when we were running out, and they got run over by the guy in front of me. It was kind of funny at the time, but another waste of time. Overall a pretty slow T2 time. Run: 1:54:30 8:44 min/mi (last year: 2:02:06 9:19 min/mi) Nutrition: 2 bags of honey stinger chews minus 1 chew, water at every aid station and 3 gulps of red bull on last loop. 1 lick of base salt 320 calories 160 mg of sodium + about 50 mg from Base 78 grams carbs (not including red bull) Finally! I was so happy to be running lol I was easily running an 8-minute mile for the first half-mile and then consciously tried to slow it down to 8:30 so that I wouldn’t blow up later on. I think this really helped in the final half of the run. I ran pretty consistent 8:45 min/mi laps for the first 6 miles and then I jumped up to 9 min/mi and just held on for dear life trying to keep my pace under 9. This clearly didn’t happen in the last few miles. I did walk through about 3 aid stations on the last lap but other than that I ran the entire 12.7 miles (according to my garmin). Starting from the very first aid station I grabbed ice and water every single time I could. I grabbed sponges until they started running out and on lap 3 I took a few solid gulps of red bull, which I think made a big difference. I was so thirsty the entire run; this is where I realized I did not drink enough water on the bike. I really made an effort to eat all of my honey stinger chews on the run, typically I only eat 100-150 calories on the run portion and this time concentrating on eating every 3 miles helped me maintain my pace (I think). I really never felt awful on the run, it sucked but I never doubted I’d be able to go sub 2 hours. Post Race: Loopy and exhausted. That is all I remember. I tried to get an IV, I knew I was very dehydrated (didn’t go to the bathroom between 5:30 AM and 7 PM on Sunday) but I was told that if I could form sentences I couldn’t have an IV so I got some ice to cool down instead.
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LPCoach & Team - Austin T3 (Whitley Atkins) & Team Nuun |