Ironman 70.3 Austin - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was thrilled with this swim today. Leading up to this race I've done very little swim training (only about 2,000 yards per week) due to very limited hours to train. My goal today was 47 minutes and I certainly beat that. I felt great the entire swim and stayed mostly with the pack.

This is a difficult transition since you exit the lake and have a 1/4 mile hill to climb to get to T1. I walked 1/2 up the hill then sat down to have the strippers pull my wetsuit off. This allowed my HR to come down some. Then I easy jogged the remainder hill to my bike. This was a very muddy and thorny transition area. Volunteers were screaming to carry your bike so I quickly got my gear and walked/carried by bike to the road then clipped in and headed out on the bike course. Apparently many people had problems with the mud because they had a station 1/2 mile down the road with water hoses and screwdrivers to get the mud out of your cleats. I had no problem and had no need to stop.

This is where my strategy began to take shape. I wanted so badly to have a good run today so I decided to take the bike at a very easy effort. My goal was to ride at a 140 heart rate the first 1/2 of the bike then slowly build to a 150 heart rate the last 1/2. I was hoping this would put me at a 17 avg pace for the course. At mile 30 I was cruising along at a 140 heart rate and a 17.2 avg so I made the decision to hold that effort and pace and not increase. The last 10 miles of the bike course I began to pass many of the people that had passed me on the beginning. I'm very pleased with my bike performance today.

Nothing much to say here. I walked transition to give my legs a chance to get used to being on my feet again.

Wow! Can't say enough about my strategy today. As soon as I started running my legs were very tight for the first mile and then loosened up and I felt great. I ran very strong all 13 miles. I passed so many people walking the hills but I felt great and continued to run them. My last 1/2 marathon 6 months ago on a very flat course was 2:43 so my 2:08 today on a hilly course was just cloud 9 for me. What a great finish!

Post race pizza with my training partner and our friends. Apparently I didn't get the memo to wear our white shirt and medal :)