Ironman Hawaii 70.3 Chronology

Tuesday, May 29:  Flew into Kona late evening. 

Fuel:  Hydrated well on the plane.  Ate mostly sandwiches and pretzels all day.

Wednesday, May 30: 

Fuel:  Standard oatmeal, fruit, yogurt concoction.  Bars, Gatorade, water, during day and Pasta dinner. 

Technical:  After breakfast, I built the bike.  Noticed a cut in the rear tire and decided to replace it.  Drove to Kona to buy a new tire, gel bottle, gel flask, CO2 and some additional tubes – they didn’t carry any 80 mm valve stems so I’m stuck with the dumb valve extenders that leak air like crazy and make it impossible to know how much air is in the tires. 

The fueling plan is to have 1000 calories of Vanilla Hammer Gel with 6 Enduralites mixed in on the bike.  Also to drink 6 bottles of water on the bike.

The new tire was so tight I wound up pinch flatting a couple times on what turned out to be a 30 minute ride, before I got it right.  The valve extenders were indeed a pain the butt.  Note to self -- order a bunch of 80 mm tubes and learn to stretch the Vittorias before installing them.

Training:  Short swim, bike and run with a couple intervals during the bike and run.  Legs felt pretty good.  Still struggling with my swim technique.  There’s a high cost to good form, so I’ll probably be focusing on form more after this race.

Thursday, May 31: 

Fuel:  Ate a banana and a couple power bars for breakfast.  Bars and Gatorade during the day and ate Pasta with Shrimp and a salad for dinner.  Hydrated well. 

Technical:  Went to the Mauna Lani for extra bike tubes and for the Endurance swim. 

Training:  Ran into Danny, who, like me failed to realize that the swim start is at Hapuna.  We raced up to Hapuna a little late to join the Endurance group, but swam for 30 minutes on our own.  Really enjoyed the open water session – clear, warm, high floatation – what more could you ask for? 

Other:  Registered early.  Floated in pool, snorkeled some.  Put together transition gear. 

Swim Bag:  Two pairs of goggles stuck in race swim cap.  Heart rate monitor strap (which I wore during the swim). 

T1 bag:  Cycling shoes – no socks.  Singlet with race number wrapped around it, helmet with race number and sunglasses stuck in the holes.  Powertap head unit in shoe.  Gloves.   

Put 10 emergency Enduralites, 2 Aleve, 1 Aleve sinus and 1 Imitrex in a small ziplock in my singlet.  Also put a tube of sun block in there.

Put 4 ounces of Hamnmer gel and 4 Enduralites in a squeeze bottle in my Bike to Run bag, along with a white running cap and some socks.  I decided to leave open the option of running without socks (I hate wet socks and that I knew that in the heat I’d be dumping water all over myself).

Friday, June 1: 

Fuel:  Ate oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, bagel with cream cheese and a little coffee for breakfast.  Gatorade and water during the day with a couple power bars thrown in.  Ate teriyaki chicken, white rice and Japanese noodles for dinner. 

Technical:  Did some last minute monkeying around with my bike tires – they seem to be holding air. 

Training:  Met the gang for a quick swim, bike and run before bike check-in.  Everything seems to be working smoothly.  Checked in the bike and took the run-bag to the T2 check-in.  Need to buy one of those neoprene timing chip bands.

Other:  Slept really well.  Felt a little heavy in the legs in the a.m., but started feeling pretty light in the afternoon. 

Saturday, June 2 (Race):

Drank a bottle of water right before bed.  Hardly slept thinking about all the transition gear, race strategies, logistics etc.  Woke up at 4:30 and ate two granola bars, a bottle of Gatorade and a half-cup of coffee.

Caught 5 a.m. shuttle.  What a nightmare.  The Fairmont shuttle took us to the Event Parking where a Mauna Lani shuttle picked us up and took us to the Mauna Lani.  From there we caught a bus to the swim start – 55 minutes in all. 

Arranged T1 pretty quickly – Helmet hanging on bars with singlet wrapped in race number in the helmet.  Shoes were in a bag, hanging on the aero bar.  Gloves were looped around the aero bars.  Got numbered, used the restroom, took a quick 10 minute warmup swim. 

At the swim start, I lined up in the water, near the far buoy, a couple rows back.  It seemed less crowded there, but things got crowded fast once the gun went off.  I found myself caught in a thick pack of swimmers, going about as fast or maybe a little slower than the pace I would have like to go.  But once I was in that pack, it was impossible to go any faster without crawling up someone’s back.

I got out of the water feeling pretty good and ran to the bike without difficulty.  My transition was slow because I had a hard time pulling on my singlet.  I’ll have to work on that.

Once on the bike, I settled into a pretty easy pace.  I held between 170 – 230 watts for about 90 percent of the ride, going below only when I spun out going fast downhill or when I stood up to crest the last piece of a steep hill.  I passed more people going downhill and on the flats than on the uphills where I held back in order to avoid over-expending my reserves.  The power meter made it much easier to gauge my effort on the bike and I finished at 173 average watts (probably higher without the nulls) and at 168 Ave. HR.

Off the bike, I felt good through transition and hit the run at about a 7:30 pace (170 HR) for the first mile.  This pace felt good, but I realized that it was going to be really hot, so I slowed the pace to 8:00s and took my time through the water stops, drinking about 12 ounces per stop, alternating my intake at each aid station between two cups of water with a shot of my Hammer Gel/electrolyte mixture and a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade.  I put ice in my shirt and hat and stuck a sponge or two in my shirt at every aid station.

Bad idea to run without socks.  It works fine when it’s dry, but the shoes got wet and made my feet wet, which made them susceptible to every little abrasive move inside the shoes.  I’m guessing that even wet socks would have protected my feet more than no socks.  I started to get a small scrape on my left small toe because the crown of the road was forcing my foot sideways for the first few miles.  No big deal, though.  It was more annoying than painful and didn’t slow me down in the least.  

As the heat grew (and my legs started to get a little tighter in the hip flexors (not to self – keep doing yoga during the taper week), my stride shortened and my pace slowed to 8:30s at about mile 6 (not including the time spend on the lengthy aid station stops).  On the bright side, I never felt a twinge of cramping, never had a hard time holding down food or water and never felt like I needed to walk.  By mile 11, when I knew I would make it to the finish with something in the tank, I started to pick up the pace again and came into the finish running what felt like 7:30 for the last half mile (although that feeling, I know, can be deceiving).  

Average HR for the run was about 163, including the aid stations.  But when I was running it seemed closer to 168.

I felt good after the race and only a little sore the next day.  I weighed myself when I got back to the room after drinking about one bottle of water.  I was down to 140 from 142 lbs before the race.

I really feel like I have a few more minutes in me – at least one in T1, a couple on the swim (better self-seeding?) and a bunch on the run, if I can just run through the aid stations.