2010 Frank Dunn - The best race I have ever had

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Subtitled -- I'm just never going to be all that fast.


I am very happy and proud of my race today. Swam hard, biked hard, and ran at an average heart rate of 161 beats/minute which was faster than I intended but it was just fine. My perceived effort was low and I was happy to soldier on, no problem.

SWIM – It’s really fun to finally be fast enough that I found myself among other swimmers the whole way. Every other triathlon I have done I have been so far in the back that I have to sight A LOT. When you are in the crown it's much more relaxing. I feel certain that the swim course was long this year by 100 to 200 meters. It was ideal conditions and when I compare other swimmer year over year the times were slow. The consensus last year was that the distance was right. So, I am going to assume it was 1650 meters. This gives me a pace of 2:13/100 meters which feels about right and is a little faster than I hope to swim at Ironman. It was certainly the longest in the three years that I have done it. Swam the whole way – no pausing. Felt great. I even beat Raj out of the water which I have never come close to before. He crushed me on the bike, though, before handing off to Bret who annihilated me on the run.

BIKE – My heart rate started high (162) and it stayed high for the first 50 minutes. About the start of the second lap I started to notice some serious soreness creeping into my quads. I made a concerted effort to bring my heart rate down to about 150 beats/minute and this helped. My second lap was 1 km/hour slower than my first lap. I still went pretty hard but I think I needed to knock it back a little bit. Nutrition plan was awesome. I ate about 460 calories of Genki Bars, Gu Chomps, and dried fruit in two hours. I felt well hydrated at the start of the run. On each lap I used the water from the aid station to soak myself down. This helped too, I think.

RUN – The heart rate graph shows some serious heart rate creep. I note that my first half was at a pace of 5:39/km with an average heart rate of 158/min. The second half was 5:37/km with an average heart rate of 164/km. I soaked myself down every chance I got. Will heart rate creep be less pronounced at the slower pace of the Ironman Marathon?



LESSONS LEARNED –

(1)    It’s HARD to go slow. I need to REALLY focus on this at Ironman. I really think I need to keep my heart rate around 140/minute for the bike portion and then sub 150 for the first 30 km of the run or risk blowing up.
(2)    Do NOT forget Nip Guards for the run or the bike at Ironman. As soon as I started to run I thought “oh oh” and well, it’s not pretty.
(3)    Drafting in the lake is hard. I tried it a little bit but I found it to be mentally taxing. I think I am better off to just swim in the crowd. If I happen to draft, excellent, but I think that seeking opportunities to do so is a poor idea. I am also grateful for a blog I read recently – if the feet in front of you disappear it may be because they have switched to breast stroke – be prepared to get kicked. Saved my bacon on one occasion.
(4)    Remember to take the video camera on the run. Not sure how to ensure this but it will make for a better video.

Results: 3:57:51

Overall 90/179

Age group results 20/33

Swim 35:35 27/33
Bike 2:10:55 24/33 (actual time was 2:05:09 so I was 5:46 in transition)
Run 1:11:22 19/33


This is about what I expect as it mimics my worst to best events.

I am sort of surprised by these numbers. That is about as fast as I can go. I feel as fit and fast as I have ever felt. I am elated with my race. I felt strong and capable all day. And… I am slightly in the bottom half for my age group. Oh well, top half of my age group at Ironman!


And, once again, I remind myself -- I am a participant (with two badly arthritic hips) not a competitor.


As a matter of fact, I just met with an Orthopedic Surgeon who informed me that I will need to have both hips replaced, not just the left. Sigh. That's another post, though.