Well, another sub 5:30 half ironman and I basically just trained through this one as it was not treated as an “A” race for me. I’ll try to keep this short and focus only on the funny, terrible, and important things.
Friday Morning, EARLY: 2AM, I get an “urgent” work email for something Board of Trust related. It never fails that if I take ANY time off, something urgent comes up that causes me to stress about getting out of work on time. Anyway, came in early, knocked out the request, and was OUT by noon.
Road trip down: Patrick picked me up at work, so that was convenient. We got some Chipotle and hit the road. About half the way down, Patrick realized the Race was on Saturday instead of Sunday.
Course review: We got off the interstate and drove about 10 miles on a nice, flat, smooth road. I made the comment that once we hit the race course, it will start some massive rollers…. and it did. We drove about 15 miles of the course to get to the Swim and Transition areas. The course was visually brutal and I know Patrick’s hybrid car was NOT in hybrid mode. HAHA. We took our bikes out on the run course (which was THREE out and backs of the first couple miles of the Bike course). Terrible climb out of transition. We then ran about 14 mins and swam about 10 mins. We noted a few things: the lake was flooded, the bike (that we’d seen thus far) was gonna suck, and the run was gonna suck. Anyway, we packed up, drove the remainder of the bike course and noted the entire thing was “rolling” hills (i.e. hard climbs).
Dinner: Since Taylorsville and Shelbyville didn’t have much of a restaurant choice, we just randomly picked a place in the Garmin. “Claudia Sanders’ Dinner House”. This ended up being in an elaborate white house in the middle of nowhere with HUGE columns and rather fancy. Claudia turned out to be the wife of Colonel Sanders and she still had the 8 piece bucket of fried chicken on the menu. We didn’t try it; not the best prerace meal.
Race Day: (I’ll keep this on central time since that’s what we’re used to) Patrick woke up at 3:30AM, had breakfast, and stayed awake. Not sure how the man can do that. I got up at 5AM. Packed car, lost cell phone, searched for phone, gave up, left hotel with ONE hour before the 7AM race start. Patrick hauled ass to the race (about 12-15 miles away). We arrived with about 35 mins to check in and setup. I sat up my transition, went to the bathroom, put on my wesuit, and got to the swim start about 3 mins before 7AM. Race started about 15 mins late.
Swim: mass start (but no bigger than a typical wave in a larger race). Tried to draft, most people that were my speed couldn’t swim straight. Two loops. My wetsuit started rubbing my neck raw on the first out (it now looks like a nasty hickey on my neck). I’ve never experienced that before. Oh well, keep swimming. Nothing exciting here. Typical Jonathan Minton swim… just get through it. Turns out, based on calculating an expected pace for me and a few other racers, the swim was about 500-600 meters long. Swim Time: 51:20 (was hoping for 40:00, but OK since the swim was long).
T1: flew through in 1:00. Felt good and warmed up from the swim. Tried to mount my bike with the tri shoes attached (which I hadn’t done since Augusta nearly 8 months ago) and literally fell to the ground. Imagine this… the sweet ass bike you see photos of in previous post, coming out of T1 pretty late since I’m a terrible swimmer, and then the racer can’t even get on it.. he falls to the ground. That was me. Anyone knowing me pretty well knows that falling like that is a HUGE blow to me mentally. Anyway, got up and took off.
Bike: CLIMBED out of T1. Could not get my average over 18 the first 10 miles. Based on the terrible swim time (that I didn’t know was long until later in the day), crashing my bike out of T1, and knowing this was just training for me, I was already done mentally. I saw Patrick at about that point (10-12 miles in), discussed the day’s events thus far, found out the swim was long, and got the drive back that I needed. I dug deep and got into the best rhythm anyone could on a course like this. I was riding at 24+mph over the next 14 miles. Then, on an out and back, I managed 26mph out and about 21mph back (out was down, back was up). This put me at about mile 30 and a 22mph average. The course got even harder at this point. After getting my “drive” back on the bike, I knew I had to get that 22mph average before this point if I was going to get and overall good bike split. UP and down, UP UP UP, and down. That’s all the last 26 miles were… well, except for the 1.5 mile climb that caused me to find the easiest gear on my bike and set up and climb (I never stood). Got over that long climb, back into a decent rhythm, and turned onto the last few miles “the run course”. I counted the runners on my way to T2… only 23 runners. I knew I could get at least 24th place at this point. It sucks to come out of the water and see only about 20 bikes left in T1 (since everyone else is already on the bike), but it does feel nice to pass 80% of the field on the bike course, and get back to T2 with only about 20 bikes back. It makes me feel good to pass all those people who can swim better than me. HAHAHA. Bike time 2:39:57, 21mph, SUB 2:40!!! P.S. I love my new Real Design Disc... looked like a tool crashing out of T1, but road like a machine.
T2: Flew through in 53 seconds.
Run: another big climb out of transition. A very BORING out and back three times. First one was getting used to running, the second one was hot, and the third one was just so mentally boring that I was ready to just stop. I didn’t want to stop because I was sore or tired (neither of which I was). I actually felt great; I was just incredible bored. Ended up with a 1:54:22 half marathon (8:44 pace I think). Not really a good time for someone who PRed with two sub 1:30s early this year, but given the hills, the fact that this wasn’t an “A” race, and that I was just ready to be DONE, I’ll take it.
Total time: 5:27, 6th in age group, 18th overall. Not bad for a training race that I tapered two days for. Plus, this makes the 10th race/event this year… with only one weekend off, not a very tri friendly course (the t-shirt reads “at least the swim is flat”) and my first Triathlon of the season. I’m happy with a 5:27. This gives me two sub 5:30 ½ Ironman races in the 11 months leading up to IML.
Lessons: Since this was mainly about learning where I was for IML, I learned that I need to do LONGER/HARDER bricks. I need to swim intervals in the pool. I need to practice mounting my new bike and tri shoes. Nutrition was fine, endurance was excellent, everything else clicked just right.
Friday Morning, EARLY: 2AM, I get an “urgent” work email for something Board of Trust related. It never fails that if I take ANY time off, something urgent comes up that causes me to stress about getting out of work on time. Anyway, came in early, knocked out the request, and was OUT by noon.
Road trip down: Patrick picked me up at work, so that was convenient. We got some Chipotle and hit the road. About half the way down, Patrick realized the Race was on Saturday instead of Sunday.
Course review: We got off the interstate and drove about 10 miles on a nice, flat, smooth road. I made the comment that once we hit the race course, it will start some massive rollers…. and it did. We drove about 15 miles of the course to get to the Swim and Transition areas. The course was visually brutal and I know Patrick’s hybrid car was NOT in hybrid mode. HAHA. We took our bikes out on the run course (which was THREE out and backs of the first couple miles of the Bike course). Terrible climb out of transition. We then ran about 14 mins and swam about 10 mins. We noted a few things: the lake was flooded, the bike (that we’d seen thus far) was gonna suck, and the run was gonna suck. Anyway, we packed up, drove the remainder of the bike course and noted the entire thing was “rolling” hills (i.e. hard climbs).
Dinner: Since Taylorsville and Shelbyville didn’t have much of a restaurant choice, we just randomly picked a place in the Garmin. “Claudia Sanders’ Dinner House”. This ended up being in an elaborate white house in the middle of nowhere with HUGE columns and rather fancy. Claudia turned out to be the wife of Colonel Sanders and she still had the 8 piece bucket of fried chicken on the menu. We didn’t try it; not the best prerace meal.
Race Day: (I’ll keep this on central time since that’s what we’re used to) Patrick woke up at 3:30AM, had breakfast, and stayed awake. Not sure how the man can do that. I got up at 5AM. Packed car, lost cell phone, searched for phone, gave up, left hotel with ONE hour before the 7AM race start. Patrick hauled ass to the race (about 12-15 miles away). We arrived with about 35 mins to check in and setup. I sat up my transition, went to the bathroom, put on my wesuit, and got to the swim start about 3 mins before 7AM. Race started about 15 mins late.
Swim: mass start (but no bigger than a typical wave in a larger race). Tried to draft, most people that were my speed couldn’t swim straight. Two loops. My wetsuit started rubbing my neck raw on the first out (it now looks like a nasty hickey on my neck). I’ve never experienced that before. Oh well, keep swimming. Nothing exciting here. Typical Jonathan Minton swim… just get through it. Turns out, based on calculating an expected pace for me and a few other racers, the swim was about 500-600 meters long. Swim Time: 51:20 (was hoping for 40:00, but OK since the swim was long).
T1: flew through in 1:00. Felt good and warmed up from the swim. Tried to mount my bike with the tri shoes attached (which I hadn’t done since Augusta nearly 8 months ago) and literally fell to the ground. Imagine this… the sweet ass bike you see photos of in previous post, coming out of T1 pretty late since I’m a terrible swimmer, and then the racer can’t even get on it.. he falls to the ground. That was me. Anyone knowing me pretty well knows that falling like that is a HUGE blow to me mentally. Anyway, got up and took off.
Bike: CLIMBED out of T1. Could not get my average over 18 the first 10 miles. Based on the terrible swim time (that I didn’t know was long until later in the day), crashing my bike out of T1, and knowing this was just training for me, I was already done mentally. I saw Patrick at about that point (10-12 miles in), discussed the day’s events thus far, found out the swim was long, and got the drive back that I needed. I dug deep and got into the best rhythm anyone could on a course like this. I was riding at 24+mph over the next 14 miles. Then, on an out and back, I managed 26mph out and about 21mph back (out was down, back was up). This put me at about mile 30 and a 22mph average. The course got even harder at this point. After getting my “drive” back on the bike, I knew I had to get that 22mph average before this point if I was going to get and overall good bike split. UP and down, UP UP UP, and down. That’s all the last 26 miles were… well, except for the 1.5 mile climb that caused me to find the easiest gear on my bike and set up and climb (I never stood). Got over that long climb, back into a decent rhythm, and turned onto the last few miles “the run course”. I counted the runners on my way to T2… only 23 runners. I knew I could get at least 24th place at this point. It sucks to come out of the water and see only about 20 bikes left in T1 (since everyone else is already on the bike), but it does feel nice to pass 80% of the field on the bike course, and get back to T2 with only about 20 bikes back. It makes me feel good to pass all those people who can swim better than me. HAHAHA. Bike time 2:39:57, 21mph, SUB 2:40!!! P.S. I love my new Real Design Disc... looked like a tool crashing out of T1, but road like a machine.
T2: Flew through in 53 seconds.
Run: another big climb out of transition. A very BORING out and back three times. First one was getting used to running, the second one was hot, and the third one was just so mentally boring that I was ready to just stop. I didn’t want to stop because I was sore or tired (neither of which I was). I actually felt great; I was just incredible bored. Ended up with a 1:54:22 half marathon (8:44 pace I think). Not really a good time for someone who PRed with two sub 1:30s early this year, but given the hills, the fact that this wasn’t an “A” race, and that I was just ready to be DONE, I’ll take it.
Total time: 5:27, 6th in age group, 18th overall. Not bad for a training race that I tapered two days for. Plus, this makes the 10th race/event this year… with only one weekend off, not a very tri friendly course (the t-shirt reads “at least the swim is flat”) and my first Triathlon of the season. I’m happy with a 5:27. This gives me two sub 5:30 ½ Ironman races in the 11 months leading up to IML.
Lessons: Since this was mainly about learning where I was for IML, I learned that I need to do LONGER/HARDER bricks. I need to swim intervals in the pool. I need to practice mounting my new bike and tri shoes. Nutrition was fine, endurance was excellent, everything else clicked just right.
Hmm, first tri of the year… in two days. I am a little nervous, only because I haven’t really trained for the half ironman distance. I’ve been completely focused on ironman, so I’m not really sure how hard to go (or if I can even go at a faster than my planned IML race pace). I know some would say that a half should be easy if your training for a full, but I get all caught up in my splits. See, I should just have fun with it right? I’m not sure why I always get caught up in time and placing. Part of me wants to go “ALL OUT” and see what happens (obviously after I get out of the water) and the other part just wants to treat it like a hard brick workout so that I don’t need recovery time. I should keep IML as my focus and just enjoy this, but I know once I get out of that water and onto that bike, I’ll want to “make up time”. I honestly won’t know if I’m going to “race” this thing until I get warmed up on that bike and see how I feel. I went into the second half marathon of the year with that same mentality and ended up racing and incredible race (age group winner and 13th overall). So, I’ll post next week whether or not I decided to “race”.
