Hello, I’m Garrett and I’m an addict.
8 months ago I finally took the deep dive into endurance sports and told myself it was time I started training for my first triathlon. I’ve been an athlete my entire life but never truly focused on endurance sports. I grew up playing everything under the sun but slowly over the years focused solely on baseball, where up until a career ending labrum tear in my shoulder, I was on track to play professionally. In April, on my 32nd birthday, I told myself why wait and why not now, so I finally took the dive and started my training. I had no structured plan, I simply got on the bike and rode or got on the treadmill and ran. I would occasionally swim here and there but never with any structure. I started reading up on training plans and philosophies and slowly got more structured as the months went on. It was awesome to see the progression in my fitness each and every week. June came around and I knew I was leaving things on the table so I joined Endure IQ and started one of their training plans. Training volume from then to now has been about 15 hours a week.
Fast forward to this last Sunday where I started and finished my first triathlon at Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells in the male 30-34 division. The day started out with high expectations and a goal to go sub 4:30. I went out toward the front of the race as my pool times per 100 yds is in the 1:23-1:25 range over a 2k continuous swim. As I jumped in and my face hit the freezing 57 degree water, I was hit with a rude awakening. My heart rate spiked and instantly the feeling of not being able to breathe came over me. The feeling of a panic attack started to set in, so I calmly rolled onto my back and started to slowly back stroke focusing on my breathing. Once the breathing got under control, I’d turn over and start to swim normally again. Unfortunately for me, every time I rolled back to get going again, the feeling of panic would come flooding back, so I spent much more time on my back than I wanted. I had a goal to swim roughly 30 minutes, but in the end disappointedly came out in 39.
In T1 I knew my chances for a sub 4:30 were likely out as I looked at my watch and my heart rate was north of 178 beats. I knew I had spent the last 39 minutes in the water at the absolute redline and wasn’t sure what the rest of the day would look like. I immediately told myself to keep digging and try to go under 4:45.
Once on the bike, I started to get comfortable as it’s been the disciple I’ve trained the most and had the most confidence in. I had a set target to ride between 260-270 watts for the day. About 30 minutes in I looked down to see my heart rate was still above 170 but the power felt great. I told myself to continue to push the power and my heart rate would eventually come down into the 150-155 range I was trying to sit. Finally at the 55 minute mark, the heart rate was in the zone I was looking for. At this point I knew I was in for a good ride and focused on my numbers, my nutrition and keeping the heart rate as stable as I could for the remainder of the ride. Having had the poor swim, I had to pass a lot of people that passed me during the swim which made for a sole TT effort. This made for a fun and exciting ride as I kept looking ahead and counting down the time it took to catch people. Over the 56 miles I only had 1 rider pass me and pull away. I rode with him for about a mile but when I looked down and saw we were averaging 305 watts I knew it would be too much. I told myself to pull back and focus on my race, which was the smart thing looking back. I got into T2 after completing the bike in 2:13:50 where I averaged 25.16mph off of 265NP. This was the fastest bike of the day in my age group.
As I got into T2 and got off the bike, both quads and my right hamstring cramped a bit, so I knew it might be a bit of a struggle on the run. Coming into the race, I planned to push the run with a heart rate between 156-160 for the half. After the swim and first 55 minutes of the bike, I felt I had to pull the heart rate back because my body had been at the high limit for far to long of the day and if I pushed it on the run, I ran the chance of walking. I worked to keep the heart rate between 148-150 and focused on fluids and nutrition. I finished the run in 1:42:31 averaging 7:49 pace.
The whole days work ended in 4:43:31 putting me 17th out of 290 in the M30-34 division. Being my first triathlon, I was and am extremely proud of myself and am so motivated to continue to grow as an athlete and get better in each discipline. I felt the swim was a true test of my mental strength and to be able to overcome that and put in the fast bike meant a lot. I have already decided to buy a cold plunge to work on getting myself acclimated to cold water in the hope to better control my system. I will also spend more time in open water to work on my comfort level.
My next race will be Oceanside in 2025. I hope to be able to increase my fitness in all 3 disciplines and hopefully see myself pushing 275-285w on the bike and run at or below a 7:30 pace.
I just wanted to share my story and let the community know they have another new addict. I love this sport and think I’m in for life. If anyone is in the North County San Diego area and every wants someone to train with, let me know.
Here’s a pic of me in aero for more attention:
