re: Triathlon/Ironman/Half Iron Man Thread

IM Texas 2016 stung me good, thought I was ready for the heat
but I was wrong. The only thing that saved me that day was about M4 of the
run, bad arse storm came in, pounded with heavy rain and wind, sirens going
off.....crazy scene. That dropped temps about 20deg, by then it was too
late. Finished though, got my arse kicked.

Worst swim for me was IM MOO 2019, roughest water I ever swam
in and was all over that swim course.

11 Days until Ironman Texas

This past weekend was my big weekend.

Saturday I did a 6 hour bike ride, with 6x10 minutes at Ironman Goal Power and 6x5 minutes at 70.3 Power - ended up logging 122 miles in those 6 hours. While I hit all my goal power targets I pulled my hip flexor around Mile 90 and was right leg dominant the rest of the way. Fortunately that pull didnt bother me with my run off the bike, 11 miles at goal Ironman Pace of 7:35 without much trouble(also wearing dead shoes, not my race day shoes).

Sunday I did a 4000m continuous swim in a 50 meter pool. Wanted to do a long course swim to better simulate lake conditions if its not wetsuit legal (not doing an open water swim around here becaause saltwater doesn't simulate lake conditions). Long course swimming is a bit humbling but I swam the 4000m in 1:15, which would translate to an Ironman swim of around 1:10 - I would take that any day of the week if the swim ends up being a non wetsuit swim. I do think I could swim ~1:05 if the race is wetsuit legal.

After that I did 16 really easy miles running.

Last 3 weeks - 67 total hours of training - 38 hours on the bike, 131 miles of running and 48,000 yards of swimming

Took yesterday off and will take today off to give that hip flexor time to heal, but its tapering week anyway so even when I jump back in tomorrow the volume is going down.

Ramped up the volume me the last week or so.

Monday: 2500m swim. I didn’t have to backstroke at all. All freestyle without stopping which is a win for me. Took me right at 51 minutes, 2:02/100meters

Tuesday: 10 mile run. Held an 8:45 mile at an average heart rate of 157, which was perfect. That’s right in the aerobic zone for me

Today: wanted to bike about 30, but ended up doing only 23 because the wind is sustained 18mph with gusts up to 30mph, said frick that got tired of fighting the wind.

Texas week. I hope to watch the livestream and say a prayer for goldennugget. Anybody else going to be racing? Positive thoughts for all. Hope the race day is awesome. Always proud of anyone who does the training and has the courage to put themselves out there.

quote:

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Those are the days you need to gut it out and fight the wind. Race day, you never know what will be thrown at you. Buy now so you don't have to pay later.

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Did 45 Saturday and going to do 25 today. It’s just not worth fighting the wind when I can come back and do it in better conditions tomorrow.

If I have to fight the wind on race day, I will, but that shite is miserable. Live to fight another day

Forecast for Saturday is up to 89 degrees now

For crying out loud I can't catch a break when it comes to weather on race day

How did the race go? I’ve worked my way up to 600 yds in the pool nonstop. Hoping to be at 800 yds by the end of May.

Ironman Texas 2025 Race Summary

Swim - 1:13
Bike - 5:01
Run - 3:26
Overall - 9:50

5th AG, 34th Overall

Swim

Was surprisingly non wetsuit. It was 74 degrees a couple days before and it rained hard Thursday and Friday. But somehow warmed to 76.6 for race morning and it was going to be my first ever non wetsuit swim. My goal was to wear my swimskin and find feet, and that's what I did for the first 1/3 of the swim, I drafted off a girl who was doing a good job swimming straight. I probably could have dropped her and found someone faster, but I didn't want to risk it. According to my splits we were swimming about a 1:38 pace which would have put us around 1:09 if we held that the whole way.

Unfortunately at the first turn buoy it was mayhem and I lost her and then it was every man for himself and I couldn't find another swimmer to draft off of. It became a lot harder and there was some fat cheating jackass wearing neoprene shorts who kept being aggressive with me and at one point I slugged him pretty good on purpose to send a message to cut it out.

Ended up swimming a 1:13 which is my slowest swim at this race by far, having previously done a 1:07 and 1:09 but those were wetsuit swims.

Transition went well. I decided against clipping my shoes on the bike, which I practiced in training but since my rack position was so close to the bike start I didn't decide to do that and just put my shoes on at the rack.

Bike

I put in a custom workout on my Garmin to where the plan was to average 197 watts for the course and that's exactly what I hit for a normalized power of 204. I do think I could have gotten to 210 NP if I wanted but played it safe.

Of the 3 times I've done this course that was the least windy its been. I think the reason the pros had such ridiculous times is that the wind didn't really pick up until they started their 2nd northbound loop so they never really had to deal with any headwind but got a tailwind benefit.

Meanwhile us age groupers did have to face somewhat of a headwind the 2nd time down which wasn't as bad the first time. If the wind was the same as it was the first loop I think I could have rode a 4:55 or so but ended up at 5:01. I tried to go under 5 but the last 5 miles or so have too many turns. Not a big deal as 5:01 was still my new bike PR by 3 minutes.

The bike course was a lot less crowded than it was for me in 2023 and 2024 - I rode alone a lot, and didn't really get any "drafting" benefits especially the 2nd loop.

Run

I trained to run a 3:19 but it hot and humid. The sun was blasting and the pros didn't have to deal with the hottest part of the day like I did. My watch got up to 99 degrees and the heat index was 98.

My first loop I ran at a 7:32 pace which was ahead of the 7:37 I needed to hold to run a 3:19 and it felt pretty effortless. But like with my previous 3 Ironmans at around the 10 mile mark its like a switch flipped and the effort required to continue running 7:35 miles became a lot harder. It's crazy how the graphs on my Garmin run data for this race you can see a clear drop off.

The heat and humidity became too much, and dumping water/ice on myself constantly caused my shoes to become wet and heavier, and I developed a massive blister the size of a walnut shell on my right foot big toe.

I feel I executed my nutrition/sodium strategy well as I never felt dehydrated or low on carbs, I think it was just the heat. The upside is that my decline wasn't as drastic as it was last year or at Ironman Florida, and I still was able to hold 7:45-8:00 miles.

The last loop was tough and I had to gut it out, now with some kind of tendon issue/bruise on my left foot to go with the blister on my right foot. I was in a dark place from miles 20-23 but I partnered up with a female pro who was struggling and we ran together the last 3 miles at around a 7:45 pace. Had the 5th best run in my age group.

Finish

Finished at 9:50:03. Went to the medical tent to get that blaster wrapped up and my left foot checked out, turns out the bruise was due to a slight rupture in my extensor tendon. So I had to gut out that run with issues on both feet. The blister on my toe looked like a tumor growing out the size of a thumb.

I learned in the tent I got 6th which shocked me, I got 43rd last year and with such a strong field I thought even going Top 20 would be tough. But the heat wore down a lot of people and having trained in it constantly the past year I was more prepared than others.

I wasn't going to go to the awards ceremony but I got contacted by Ironman yesterday morning with them saying I actually got 5th because one of the Top 5 in our age group wore a wetsuit which DQ'ed him from awards, so I showed up to claim this nice trophy:



Not a lot of time to rest as I have Chattanooga 70.3 in 3 weeks - makeup race from Augusta being cancelled last September. The 70.3 distance isn't my strong distance, as I don't have the top end 2 hour bike power to truly compete, even though I can run a 70.3 run leg pretty well (5th best AG run at my last 70.3). Need both feet to get better before I can resume anything.

In that heat that is impressive. Nice job man.

I know it's a fast course. But to me, sub 10 is just an unbelievable accomplishment.

It's funny to hear your recount. When I did do the race, I was behind your numbers for sure, but not that far for the swim and bike (1:15, 5:40). And your description of the run is right in line with how I felt. Top of the world through the first lap and boom, the wall. Except my top of the world was a 9:45 pace and the wall was walking a lot......like a whole lot .

To power through that and still keep a sub 8 pace is bonkers to me. Congrats