I have to say I absolutely love this race, I've done it the last three years and grown to love it more and more each year. Made the quick drive down on Fri night which seemed like a breeze compared to the 12 hour drive to the Triple-T two weeks ago, come to think of it this whole weekend was going to seem a lot easier, but I still had yet to see if racing two weeks ago was going to hurt me.
Coming off the TTT I was sick, sore and lethargic. I couldn't stop coughing and blowing my nose for a good 10 days. I finally felt like I bounced back on the Thursday before the weekend but I wasn't sure if I would be recovered enough to push myself on Sunday. Sat we went for a quick swim to check out the choptank and see how the current was and if there were any nettles this year. Water was a little rougher than it would be on Sunday but no nettles so that was a good sign, after getting stung 6 times last year I was happy that I wouldn't have to deal with that this year. After the swim we went to grab some lunch and to Wal-mart to see if I could find a magnet for my disc, someone else(another competitor that happened to know where they were)actually found one for me, but unfortunately it wasn't strong enough. It was quite comical trying to figure out how to put it on. After about 20 mins I gave up and decided I was just going to ride on power and didn't care how fast or where I was. The course is marked well enough that I figured I could guesstimate my speed or just ask anyone near me at any point in time. On a side note, anyone have any suggestions?
On to the race: After a quick warm up run I started to watch the pros and see how the current was effecting them and noticed that the current was pushing them in and I thought wow this is going to be a fast swim for everyone. One thing I didn’t do was use my scouting information to help myself out…
Swim: I started up in the front since I was pretty confident about my abilities I figured at the very least I would be able to hold a draft off the fastest guys for a good portion of the swim, one thing I forgot is how fast the fast guys really are! I have a bit of work to do before I can swim with the big dogs. I probably stayed with the main pack for the first 400-500 yards and then they started gapping and I was in no mans land. Stuck in between the faster guys and those slower than me but really with noone to draft off of. Once I hit the turn buoy I started hitting the earlier waves so I thought I was having a good swim, however the current was really pushing me in and it was hard to stay on the outside of the buoys. If I would have paid a bit more attention to my race scouting I would have swam out a bit more instead of turning directly at the buoy and then swam with the current on he way in, instead I was stuck fighting the current for the whole stretch back to stay on the outside of the buoys. I came out of the water and looked at my watch a bit disappointed but still good enough for a swim PR.
2005 45:51
2006 36:52
2007: 31:55 (PR)
Bike: T1 took me a little longer this year since they changed the setup of the t-area but it wasn’t that significant. Coming out of the water I was having a bit of a hard time getting my HR to come down but I just listened to my SRM and ignored the fact that my HR was 180+ for the first 30 mins of the bike. I knew what my wattage goal was and I planned on sticking to it as my legs weren’t feeling what my HR was indicating. For the most part everyone I saw was riding clean but I never got into the earlier AG’s where everyone was complaining about the drafting. I just paced with my SRM which I might have done a little conservatively but I think next year I will have the confidence to go on the higher end of my range. I passed quite a few people on the bike and I didn’t pay the price I did the last two years even though I was riding faster this year. I have paid a bit more attention to my running and swimming this year so biking has taken a back seat. Riding without speed was kind of nice, and it was a pleasant surprise to come in to t2 with just over 3 hrs on my watch and a new 1/2 IM bike PR. For the power guys AP was 239 and NP 243, avg cadence 103.
2005: 2:38:31 21.2 Mph
2006: 2:33:30 21.9 Mph
2007: 2:27:42 22.9 Mph (PR)
Run: Did my normal standing shoes on pedals dismount but I lost my shoe coming into t2, so I had to go back and get it maybe cost me 15 secs. This is the first time I ever came into t2 feeling like I did nothing and not worrying about having to run. I worked hard all winter on bringing my run times down so it was time to see if it was going to pay off. I ran out of t2 feeling strong and passed about 20 people before I hit the first aid station, not something I’m used to. I started getting a twinge in my left quad so I stopped at the aid stations to chase it with ice. This is the first time in my two years of using infinit that I ever had any indication of even getting a cramp. Maybe I need to up my electrolytes? Mike if your out there what do you think? It went away so I continued to run on just walking at the aid stations for a quick minute to continue to ice the quad as it would keep creeping back and to dump some ice in my hat. I probably gave up about 7 mins by stopping but who knows how much I would have given up if I had to deal with serious cramp. I was surprised at how fast the miles seemed to be ticking away. At about mile 7 someone in my AG caught me and ran with me for a bit. He saw that I was wearing the team Blazeman jersey and asked what I thought we were on pace for I said about 4:45, he then told me if I break 4:40 he would donate $250 to the foundation. I tried to pick it up a bit but I was afraid of blowing up. He took off and I didn’t see him again, but it was a nice gesture! Unfortunately I didn’t have the confidence to go out and hammer even the second half of the run. I think it has to do with the fact that I used to be such and abysmal runner that mentality is still stuck in my head, gotta get rid of that before LP. I did decide to hammer the last mile and probably could have done more but I need to learn to have that confidence.
2005: 2:30:17 11:29 m/m
2006: 2:07:45 9:46 m/m
2007: 1:44:58 8 m/m (PR)
Final Times:
2005: 5:58:51
2006: 5:22:16
2007: 4:49:31 (PR)
While I didn’t break 4:40 I did break 5, and that meant two things. One I had my lodging for Friday and Sat night paid thanks to a bet with another St’r. Secondly another doner had pledged $10 for every minute that I had gone under 5:00. So I did manage to raise some money for the foundation while getting a nice 1/2 IM PR. A much better result than my dismal 6:17 1/2 Iron race at the TTT two weeks ago. If anyone else would like to donate: http://www.active.com/...teamblazeman/NLogan7
