Chinook Half Iron distance post-race thoughts

First I will offer general comments, then specific thoughts on each portion of the race, and then comment on my nutrition throughout the day. If you just want to skip to the video, it's at the very bottom.

My overall finish: 93/106.

Official Times

SWIM: 1:00:40   22/22 age group (I was the second to last swimmer out of the water – Mayor Pat Fiacco of Regina beat me out of the water by 2 seconds)
BIKE:  3:46:43   18/22 Age Group (chip time was 3:57:19 which means I was 10:36 in total transition time)
RUN: 2:19:13     13/22 Age Group

This is a small race with a field that is, I think, tougher than the races with larger fields. There are less casual athletes racing this distance at Chinook than larger racers. The race is EXTREMELY WELL organized. I was very, very impressed. In fact, in the lead up to the race I think that Race Director Mike Bock never took longer than 30 minutes to reply to any email I sent. Thanks Mike! You're awesome. My only niggling complaint is that the explanation of the race the night before was too long and included too much detail (particularly from the Run Coordinator). For experience triathletes it was old hat and for newbies it would have been WAY too much. A simple explanation that includes "The course is well marked" would have been adequate.

If my swim time had been 50 minutes (which should be well within my ability) then my overall finish would have been 86/106 which is more in keeping with where I think I am at compared to typical Iron distance endurance athletes.

SWIM

I was very disappointed in my swim. I am to a point where my swim mechanics are good (at least relative to where I was). But I refused to swim continuously for more than 200 meters at a time. When I ask myself, “why?” I don’t really have an answer. I guess I find open water swimming to be problematic. I tried a couple of times to kick onto my back and do a little backstroke. This was impossible as it immediately resulted in a feeling of motion sickness. I never felt worried about safety or anything like that. I just felt modest disorientation. I will consult with coach Paul but I think I better ad a longish open water swim every weekend for the next several weeks. I need to be more capable of open water swimming. I am thinking that a short break of 20 second will be fine every 500 meters or so. This will mean 7 breaks over 4 km as opposed to 20 breaks over 2 km which is probably what I did in this race. Oof.

BIKE

I felt really good about my bike. I rode the 93 km with an average heart rate of close to 150 beats/minute at 80 to 90 rpm. This was my goal. It is a very hilly course. I wound up with a 6 minute break at the turnaround. I did not want to break this long. I was just stopping to use the port-a-potty but Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco beat me too it and he, well, he took a long time. My average moving speed was 25.8 km/h which was slower than I expected and slower than I would like to ride at Ironman.

I note that at the beginning of the ride I was getting a fairly sharp pain on the outside of my left quad. I wrote it off to the affects of the cold water and carried on and it passed. I stretched my calves frequently throughout (on just about ever downhill) – I think this had benefits later in the day. And, near the end of the bike my right hamstring was complaining but I never noticed this on the run.

 I am guessing but I think two laps of this course would, in fact, be tougher than Ironman’s bike course. Here are the elevation comparisons.

Chinook and Ironman Canada elevations.

By way of comparison, the total climb at Chinook is 327 meters or 1073 feet. Don’t be deceived by the different scales represented. The total vertical at Ironman looks to be about 1500 feet. More but not THAT much more. The struggle I had at Chinook is that there is very little in the way of extended flat portions. It’s pretty well rollers the whole way with a couple of a particularly arduous climbs. I have never ridden Ironman before so this is speculation on my part. Basically it comes down to talking to people who have done Ironman. They seem able to get a pretty reasonable guess as to their overall speed compared to the usual speed riding on the flat. I came up 3 km/h slower than I expected to. This surprised me.

RUN

I was happy with my run. I ran the first lap stopping only at water stations. Just a nice easy pace. On a positive note, at the beginning of the run both of my calves were a little painful. I soldiered on and this feeling passed. In fact, I was kind of happy to realize at some point that I was feeling completely healthy – nothing hurt, it was easy to run at about 6:15/kilometer.

In the second lap I did drop into my old habit of taking 40 pace walking breaks. Did I have to? No. Did I? Yes. Am I weak? Yes. I am wondering if I should not plan, in advance, for Ironman as a walk run – run 4 minutes, walk 1? This might break it up for me keep my pace high instead of starting out with a straight run and then feeling, later, like I was failing myself?

Nutrition

Breakfast – 6:15 AM
Peanut butter and jam on Wonderbread.
One cup of Starbuck with cream and sugar.

Pre-race – 7:30 AM
300 ml Gatorade
1 gel.

Swim to bike transition – 9:00 AM
300 ml Gatorade
1 gel.

Bike (from 9 AM to 1 PM)
I drank 2.4 liters of Gatorde evenly throughout.
I had 5 energy gels spaced out 40 minutes apart.
Very near  the end of the bike I noticed that I was hungry. I had a Hammer energy bar that the turnaround staff had slipped into my bike bag.

Bike to run transition (1 PM)
300 ml Gatorade
1 energy gel
Applied Nip Guards (not nutrition per say, but necessary or feeling good).

Run (1 PM to 3 PM)
At he 2.2 km mark – 100 ml Gatorade
(at every aide station I doused myself with cold water – NICE)
At the 5.5 km mark – 100 ml Gatorade
At the 7.5 km mark – 100 ml Gaorade and 1 energy gel.
At the 10.5 km mark – My stomach was not too happy. I felt bloated and a little tiny bit like I might throw up. I felt fine nutritionally so I switched to straight water.
At the 12.7 km mark – 150 ml water
At the 16 km mark – 150 ml water
At the 18 km mark – 150 ml water

OK… now I have to go for  a bike ride and a run (I think I will try run 4 + walk 1 to see what sort of pace that creates).