2011 Ironman 70.3 Muncie

Swim – 35:54

I must have got lost out there.  I was expecting to go about 33-34 minutes based results over the last year and hoping for a little bit faster as I’m setting PRs in the pool right now.  In past races I always seemed to go out a little too fast and end up at a pace I know I can’t hold the entire swim only to have to slow down.  I figured this time I would just go out at a comfortable pace and try to hold that for the entire swim to see what happened.

Well it was the most comfortable swim I ever had, but based on my time it was a bit too comfortable though.  I just focused on swimming with good form and found a set of feet that seemed to be going straight.  When we hit about half way I looked at my watch and it was already 19 minutes, opps.  On the way back I went around feet I was drafting behind and swam a bit harder but thanks to the sun directly in front of us I was having trouble sighting and swimming straight into people from earlier waves.   The good news was I came out of the water well rested and ready for the bike…. but I was 26^th in my age group after the swim.

Bike – 2:09:57 – 25.86 mph

Within about a mile of transition I could tell it was going to be a good day on the bike.  My legs felt great, I was holding back and still above my target watts.  It was tough, but I managed to hold back and stay right at my target watts the entire race.   The best part was once we hit about mile 35 we had a tailwind and most people seemed to slow down, I stayed exactly at my watts and averaged 28.9 mph for 31 minutes, making up a ton of ground.  This was by far my best ride ever in a race.  I took in all of my nutrition exactly as planned, and my average power was exactly what I had in my race plan, thanks to a VI of 1.01! 

The hardest part of the ride was getting passed.  Local fast guys, Adam Zucco and Scott Iott both blew by me early in the ride.  Since my legs felt so good I really wanted to try and hang with them.  I’m glad I stuck with my plan as they both had an awesome day and I may have been in for a very tough run if I would have tried to go with them.

The great ride was able to move me up to 4^th in AG by T2.

  

Run – 1:25:16 – 6:30 min/mile

All that I read and heard about this race was fast bike but hot and hilly run.  That combined with a forecast of 88, high humidity and an 8:50 AM start time got in my head and I was worried about the run.  For those reasons I forced myself to really hold back in the first few miles and focus on getting nutrition in.  My plan was to hold 6:30 pace for the first half and then pick it up if I could.  Well, even though it didn’t feel all that hot or humid, my legs didn’t have any kick and I couldn’t speed up.  I did manage to run almost an exactly even split though and hold a 6:30 average pace.  I’m a little disappointed as I went a full 5 minutes faster in Oceanside.  I ended up passing 2 people in my AG and came in second.

Summary – 4:13:48 – 2^nd Ag – 5^th Amateur – 26^th Overall

Overall, I had a good day and am pleased with my race.  I do think I could have done a little better on the run but it was good for me to prove I can stick to my plan exactly as I will need to do that at Ironman Wisconsin.  I also now feel I really have my 70.3 distance nutrition dialed in and have a pretty good idea on how I can and should pace myself.

Thank you to everyone that is following me and of course, Theresa, Abigail, Jake from Zoot and Dr. Phil from PhysFarm.

Sorry no pictures this time as I was at the race on my own.