Buffalo Springs 70.3

Decent day. The goal for this race was good execution (primarily nutrition and pacing) and to prove I can be tough on the run. We got really lucky with the weather and had rain throughout the morning and it stayed overcast most of the race.

Did well on the bike. Held back the first 30 miles, then let it go a little bit more to the end. Over the last 16 miles I was definitely fighting to keep the power under 190. That is a good problem to have. Average 156Watts for the first half and 165 over the last 28 miles. It was quite fun to ride the last 20 miles in the rain, passing people, I must have said "on your left, good job" about 50 times in the last hour.

number 1 mascot Stoli! -------->

Got off and ran a 1:39!(7:34/mile) That's flying for me. First 3 miles in 23 min while holding back. I ran the first mile in 7:56, but then had a hard time keeping 8s. Came through 8 miles in 62 min (7:45 average) and then went for it on the way home. I ran the last 5.1 in 37 min (7:15) and my time for the last 5k was 23min (7:25). So I was a little slower over the last 5k than my average for the last 5, but that was due in part to the course. Once I started at 8 miles, I was able to keep up the effort and keep pushing all the way to the end. The last two miles were pretty tough, but I knew I was close to breaking 1:40 and this is were my "one thing" came in. My "one thing" was to prove I was tough enough to give ironman a real go. What that means to me is "never give up" and "don't quit pushing". The pic below is me busting a gut during the last mile, trying to get under 1:40, not very pretty.

I can tell you that running sub 8s is a whole different experience than running slower. One thing I noticed was the aide stations came up a lot faster. It seemed like all I did was focus on my form, go after the person in front of me and all of a sudden I got to grab another drink. Repeat. Then other fun thing about running well, was passing people!!! I've never passed so many people. There were two runners that passed me on the first mile and I made mental notes on them so I could id them later. Sure enough, got the first guy at 8 miles and next guy at 10. Fun stuff.

Now a few days easy and back on it. Next up Boulder Peak (oly) and then 5430 half in Aug.


Other notes:
bike nutrition: ~800 cals total, with 350 the first hour. 1 powerbar and 500cals of perpetum and 1 bottle of Gatorade. emptied the aero-bottle for every aide station.

Run: 2 gels the first hour, then one at about 10miles. Lots of water and 3 salt tabs

Numbers:
Finish time: 05:06:11
Open 70.3 M 40-44
Age Group Place: 24 (out of 108)
Overall Place: 148 (out of 901)
swim time: 35:55 (1:52/M)swim rank: 227
T1: 02:29
bike time: 2:45:40 (20.3mph)bike rank: 201
T2: 03:04
run time: 1:39:02(7:34/M)run rank: 115

powertap numbers:
duration : 2:45
TSS : 166.8 (IF=.781)
Pnorm = 174 watts
VI = 1.08
Distance = 56.1
Pavg = 161 watts (max = 407)
HRavg = 156 bpm
Cavg = 88 rpm
Speedavg = 20.4 mph (max = 47.5)