Triathlon
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I've been doing them for about 3 years now. I've done a handful of sprints, probably 5-6 olympic distance, 2 maybe 3 half iron distance race (I can't remember if I did Ironman 70.3 Boulder once or twice, there's a bunch or tris that use that same location so I loose track) and 2 full Ironmans, Louisville and Boulder.
This is my 3rd spring/summer living in Colorado and I spent all of the first 2 training for fulls. This year it's all about mountain biking. I'll probably do a couple sprints and Xterras though.
This is my 3rd spring/summer living in Colorado and I spent all of the first 2 training for fulls. This year it's all about mountain biking. I'll probably do a couple sprints and Xterras though.
Awesome, i just did boulder 70.3 (first half) and currently training for louisville 140.6. Im counting down the days untill the race also when i can stop training and do nothing for a couple weeks.
How did you like louisville, the race this year is in october so it will be cooler than previous years.
How did you like louisville, the race this year is in october so it will be cooler than previous years.
Nice, how'd you do? This year my wife and I volunteered at the Boulder 70.3, I probably handed you water on the run. I was handing out water at the run aid station at mile 2 (http://www.ironman.com/~/media/4c4668323c75429a994962cea4a4a32c/boulder70 3 run 2015 tbt 1.pdf)
I like Louisville overall, later in the year would be perfect. It has it's quirks though. The swim start is different, it's a not a wave start or a mass start. It's basically first come first served single file line. When the race starts the line starts moving and people jump off 2 piers single file. It's nice because it's not crazy crowded and hectic int he water, it's bad because of the line. We went to transition for body marking, set tire pressures, put nutrition on the bikes and walked down to the swim start and then just kept walking and walking and walking and walking to get to the end of the seemingly endless line. We walked a couple miles to get inline. Then walked all the way back to the start while in the line. I wasn't a fan of all the extra work just to start the race.
The water was warm, no wetsuits that day. It's a very fast swim, you start by going upstream but your in a protected channel, you round the land separating the channel from the river and you turn and go downstream. It's fast and open and your not sighting into the sun which is awesome. It's stairs out of the water, which I line because you don't get covered in sand. Transitions are short and well laid out.
The bike was harder than I expected, the first and last 10 miles are flat, the rest is rolling hills all day long over the entire course, there's a few pretty steep but really short hills that are kinda nice because it gets you out of the saddle and moving a bit which I find helps. There's very little shade on the bike. Best piece of advise for the bike I can think of is relax on the first little out and back, it's going to go down an old quarry and up the other side, then you'll turn around and ride back into it and out the other side. You'll see a lot of people who way to hard up those climbs and screw themselves for later on. It'll be early in the ride, just sit down relax and spin it. The elevation corrected GPS numbers showed about 5'000 ft of elevation gain over the bike.
The run is nice, it's flat and fast... well it would be fast if it wasn't late August in Kentucky with very high temps lots of humidity after baking in the sun all day. It was hot, like brutally ****in' hot. At the pre race briefing the race director said "Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth. The weather Sunday WILL punch you in the mouth, it's going to be well into the 90's, sunny, and humid... history has shown that 1 out of every 5 people on Sunday will end up in a medical tent." By the afternoon heat it started to get ugly. I saw someone walking their bike up a short but steep hill leaning on it trying to keep themselves up right. My in laws said they watched numerous people finish the bike leg and quit. The marathon course was even worse, people on stretchers being loaded into ambulances, there were athletes whose legs would just quit on them as they stumbled to their knees. I saw a lady laying the street with a smashed face bleeding all over while a spectator told the paramedics who were checking her for a pulse that they saw her go limp while running and hit the concrete face first. There were people on the sides of the course in the fetal position, people throwing up, limping, bleeding, people who looked mentally and physically destroyed, and people crying from pain. My wife witnessed a lady who was clearly hurting as she finished her first loop of the marathon course. The race had beaten her, she just started crying when she saw there was another 13 miles to go and she wasn’t going to make it. In the end about 1 in 10 that started the race that morning never got to see the finish line. I fared alright but it was just to hot and hummid, I couldn't keep up with hydration and started cramping on the run. My calf locked up for almost a full half a mile and I was so drenched in sweat my socks were soaked which caused some pretty granly blisters.
I don't know how fast you plan on it doing but if you finish in the dark (with the way the start was it's not a 7 am start midnight cutoff, your time starts when you cross the timing mat jumping off the pier. We didn't hit the water until about 7:45, so my official time was 45 minutes less than the finish line clock. But anyways, point being your finish will be pushed back to later in the day if you're not camping at the start to get in line early). I finished just after dark and it was awesome. Your running through neighborhood and you can hear the noise and see the glow of the lights in the distance. It gets closer and louder and you go and as cheesey as it sounds it gets emotional as your coming up to it. The finish line is a freaking madhouse. It's at 4th Street Live, it's closed to cars at night and it's basically a 2 story tall hallway of bars with live music and bands that partially covered, it's bright, it's loud, and it's something you will remember for the rest of your life. It's insane.
This was the 3 of us at the practice swim
Here's the finish before dark
My finish line pic
I like Louisville overall, later in the year would be perfect. It has it's quirks though. The swim start is different, it's a not a wave start or a mass start. It's basically first come first served single file line. When the race starts the line starts moving and people jump off 2 piers single file. It's nice because it's not crazy crowded and hectic int he water, it's bad because of the line. We went to transition for body marking, set tire pressures, put nutrition on the bikes and walked down to the swim start and then just kept walking and walking and walking and walking to get to the end of the seemingly endless line. We walked a couple miles to get inline. Then walked all the way back to the start while in the line. I wasn't a fan of all the extra work just to start the race.
The water was warm, no wetsuits that day. It's a very fast swim, you start by going upstream but your in a protected channel, you round the land separating the channel from the river and you turn and go downstream. It's fast and open and your not sighting into the sun which is awesome. It's stairs out of the water, which I line because you don't get covered in sand. Transitions are short and well laid out.
The bike was harder than I expected, the first and last 10 miles are flat, the rest is rolling hills all day long over the entire course, there's a few pretty steep but really short hills that are kinda nice because it gets you out of the saddle and moving a bit which I find helps. There's very little shade on the bike. Best piece of advise for the bike I can think of is relax on the first little out and back, it's going to go down an old quarry and up the other side, then you'll turn around and ride back into it and out the other side. You'll see a lot of people who way to hard up those climbs and screw themselves for later on. It'll be early in the ride, just sit down relax and spin it. The elevation corrected GPS numbers showed about 5'000 ft of elevation gain over the bike.
The run is nice, it's flat and fast... well it would be fast if it wasn't late August in Kentucky with very high temps lots of humidity after baking in the sun all day. It was hot, like brutally ****in' hot. At the pre race briefing the race director said "Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth. The weather Sunday WILL punch you in the mouth, it's going to be well into the 90's, sunny, and humid... history has shown that 1 out of every 5 people on Sunday will end up in a medical tent." By the afternoon heat it started to get ugly. I saw someone walking their bike up a short but steep hill leaning on it trying to keep themselves up right. My in laws said they watched numerous people finish the bike leg and quit. The marathon course was even worse, people on stretchers being loaded into ambulances, there were athletes whose legs would just quit on them as they stumbled to their knees. I saw a lady laying the street with a smashed face bleeding all over while a spectator told the paramedics who were checking her for a pulse that they saw her go limp while running and hit the concrete face first. There were people on the sides of the course in the fetal position, people throwing up, limping, bleeding, people who looked mentally and physically destroyed, and people crying from pain. My wife witnessed a lady who was clearly hurting as she finished her first loop of the marathon course. The race had beaten her, she just started crying when she saw there was another 13 miles to go and she wasn’t going to make it. In the end about 1 in 10 that started the race that morning never got to see the finish line. I fared alright but it was just to hot and hummid, I couldn't keep up with hydration and started cramping on the run. My calf locked up for almost a full half a mile and I was so drenched in sweat my socks were soaked which caused some pretty granly blisters.
I don't know how fast you plan on it doing but if you finish in the dark (with the way the start was it's not a 7 am start midnight cutoff, your time starts when you cross the timing mat jumping off the pier. We didn't hit the water until about 7:45, so my official time was 45 minutes less than the finish line clock. But anyways, point being your finish will be pushed back to later in the day if you're not camping at the start to get in line early). I finished just after dark and it was awesome. Your running through neighborhood and you can hear the noise and see the glow of the lights in the distance. It gets closer and louder and you go and as cheesey as it sounds it gets emotional as your coming up to it. The finish line is a freaking madhouse. It's at 4th Street Live, it's closed to cars at night and it's basically a 2 story tall hallway of bars with live music and bands that partially covered, it's bright, it's loud, and it's something you will remember for the rest of your life. It's insane.
This was the 3 of us at the practice swim
Here's the finish before dark
My finish line pic
Wow talk about a review. I remember the guys at mile 2 aid station they where the best chearing everyone on at the base of the little hill, thanks for the support.
Im slow this is my first year in full distance so im not looking to break records just to finish. I pulled a 7:08 at boulder due to issues i was having on the run (over heating, numb foot, dehydrauted). So my training for lousiville is more run focused than before.
I would be estatic if i did it under 15hrs but i will settle for the 17hr cut off also.
Swim- I have open water swim anxiety sometimes so i have signed up with a weekly open water swim group thats not too far from where i live.
Bike- Im decent on the bike, i will be on a road bike with some aero bars for comfort but looking to avg around 18mph. I did a 17.8avg in boulder with low tire pressure 60psi rear due to snapping the valve prior to the race and not having enough time to fix it before the swim start.
Run- Biggest area i need work with, i keep running into the same "shin splints" injury that i have been battling for the past 6 months. they will go away and i can run 6 miles fine then BAM 3 mile run debalitates me.
Im slow this is my first year in full distance so im not looking to break records just to finish. I pulled a 7:08 at boulder due to issues i was having on the run (over heating, numb foot, dehydrauted). So my training for lousiville is more run focused than before.
I would be estatic if i did it under 15hrs but i will settle for the 17hr cut off also.
Swim- I have open water swim anxiety sometimes so i have signed up with a weekly open water swim group thats not too far from where i live.
Bike- Im decent on the bike, i will be on a road bike with some aero bars for comfort but looking to avg around 18mph. I did a 17.8avg in boulder with low tire pressure 60psi rear due to snapping the valve prior to the race and not having enough time to fix it before the swim start.
Run- Biggest area i need work with, i keep running into the same "shin splints" injury that i have been battling for the past 6 months. they will go away and i can run 6 miles fine then BAM 3 mile run debalitates me.
My first I had the goal of finishing, I thought I'd do about 15 hours, my stretch goal was anything under 14 hours, I came in at 13:46.
My second one I put in all the work and I was hoping for anything in the 12 hour range but 10 days before the race I ended up in Urgent care with a ballooned up knee. I tore my meniscus, but it was minor and wasn't going to need surgery. Since the joint was stable and triathlon isn't really an agility sport the doctor said as long as the swelling went down so I could get some range of motion back that I could still try to do the race but it would but it would give me a new perspective of pain. I didn't know if I was going to finish the race in that condition but not starting it wasn't an option. It was not pretty, I literally threw up from pain once it was over, but I did manage to limp to the finish line in 15:30.
My wife had a bad day too, she had GI issues half way through the bike and never recovered. We ended up seeing each other about 85-90 miles into the bike and stuck together for the rest of the race and crossed the line together.
When I started I had never had formal swim lessons. I was plenty comfortable in the water but I've never needed to go from point A to point B with any type of speed or efficiency. It was more messing around at the lake and stuff like that so we started taking lessons at the local rec center. Nowadays I love open water swimming.
I did my first year of triathlons on a cyclocross bike, it wasn't ideal but it works. My first 70.3 I got 3 separate flats with it. The big advantage to an actual tri bike is the way you seated. Even more important than the aerodynamic advantage is that your positioned to use muscles that allow you come off the bike with stronger running legs. It kinda isolates and excludes some of the running muscles while you ride so you feel better when you start the run.
Running is my weak point my only 2 marathons were Ironman events and my best half was 1:55 which is just under 9 minute mile pace (although that was at 5500' feet in the rain/sleet/hail but under 2 hours is always what I shoot for). I'm not a fast runner and hate doing it. I used to get shin splints and knee pain but a gait analysis and getting fitted for a good quality running shoe really helped me. Now it's lack of motivation more than pain that hinders my running. When I do another full I'm going to really focus on building a running base prior to starting training and really push that specific discipline. I feel swimming is one of those things that you need to spend a TON of time and effort to get faster and it's by far the shortest leg, the return on investment just isn't there. Biking is what I love so no problem there. Plus my wife is fast on a bike so training with her pushes me. It's the running that really kills my time. I need my run to be more than an hour or so faster than my bike. If I really work at it I should be able to drop at least a half hour off my full Ironman run.
