got into florida early thursday morning to make an attempt at acclimating to the heat and humidity. I was pleasanty suprised by moderate heat and only moderate humidity.
Picked up my race packet and checked my bike in saturday afternoon, and gorged myself for dinner (not the brightest idea, but this did not adversely affect my race.
up early saturday, water is 80 degrees, no wetsuit today. I'm in the 2nd to last wave, starting 1 hour after the 1st wave. no boost this morning before the swim start (going forward there will be nutrition 30 - 60 minutes before the swim)
I lined up near the front outside of the swim start (acceptable with the wetsuit to aid in body positioning, but a poor choice without my crutch). i wound up stuck in the pack for close to 700m. love the feeling of swimming upstream. i had to constantly remind myself to attempt good body position head down, legs up. the swim took a bit longer than i was hoping (0:38:37), but the bike is flat and fast, so i can make up some time there.
T1 has a long run from the beach to the bike, but this went pretty smoothly, ran out dropped my swim gear, adorned my helmet and locs, grabbed my bike on my way.
despite the course being pretty damn flat, i came out conservative on the bike. and kept hung with 3 riders from pretty early on. between mile 15 and 20, my legs started to come around, and i began putting time into people. around mile 25, we came into some moderate rollers (not much in the line of climbing in florida), and i couldn't help but smile a bit. though the hills proved to be insufficient to allow me to explore my strengths.
i made up some time on the minor climbs, but not enough to make a lasting impression. between miles 35 and 45, i was able to keep things around 25mph. then i was feeling a bit hungry so took an accelgel. that twisted up my innards for a bit, and i chose to pull back on the effort and let my guts sort through things before i started running.
around mile 52 my stomach settled down, and i ramped things back up to 25mph into T2. came off the bike at 2:30:48 (22.3mph), 0.3 mph faster than oceanside, on a much easier course. hmmm. can you say my legs are tired??
i blew through T2 pretty well (some minor issues tying my shoes, but it's all good)
the run started out fine, first 4.3 miles clocked in at 32 minutes (around 7:30 min/mile) second loop saw things starting to unravel. the heat started to get to me around mile 5. i stopped for a bathroom break at mile 6.5 and dumped a cup of ice down my shirt. that cooled things down for a bit. loop 2 clocked in around 37 minutes (around 8:30 min/mile). finished off with a 1:49:36 run (8:22 min/mile), slower than hoped for.
the last lap was a bit of an experiment. up to this point i was taking in a cup of water at even miles and gatorade at odd miles, that worked pretty well. now it was time for a little experiment: i drank a cup of coke at mile 10, hoping the sugar would kick in and give me a boost into the finish. didn't quite work, but i got to burp a lot and once again, the heat began wearing on me, so mile 10.5 was celebrated with more ice down my shirt. and some water. that was the last of anything from the aid stations. i kept turning my legs over planning to pick it up starting at mile 12, and about 0.3 miles from the finish to lay it all out and see what was left. there wasn't much left until the last 0.1 miles, at which point i was able to muster a modest sprint to the finish.
shortly after crossing the line, my legs began to cramp like never before. guess i should take in more salt (i had 4 thermolytes on the bike, 0 on the run). lessons learned:
- more electolytes on hot days,
- more nutrition on the run (try 2 or 3 gels)
- accel gel is retired from my racing nutrition plan
- remember the boost before the swim next time
i showed up, i put out almost all i could on the day, but the numbers weren't there. sometimes it happens that way. i've taken away some important lessons to be applied going forward. i think my legs are a bit tired from all the hard efforts i've been putting in. all in all, it was just a slow day for me. likely overtraining, but as long as i don't get injured or burned out, i will reap benefits. had a good mental race, and figured out good stuff about nutrition. i pushed through some stuff that in the past would have crippled my pace.
i was able to dig a little deeper and find something that hasn't been as strong these days. my heart is coming back. making these efforts now will pay dividends come july.
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