All Systems Go! - Hawaii Training Update and Half Ironman Race Report

All Systems Go

This past Sunday I raced the Vermont Sun half ironman. This race fell at the end of a rest week (modified B taper for Kona) and was a perfect test to see how my Hawaii training has served me. I just finished up an extended base phase where all workouts were kept in zone 1. I am pretty aggressive with zone 1 training on the bike and run and tend to push as hard and as fast as possible without going that Z1 heart rate. This lends itself to continued adaptation at my body’s own rate as well as frequent feedback on my aerobic outputs (pace or wattage) which tell how I am progressing or not progressing. The last 8 weeks of training have been some of the best and most consistent I’ve done. I had many confidence boosting workouts and felt great in general. Some of the highlights over those 8 weeks were- 100 mile time trial at Ironman heart rate (zone 1 top on flats +5 beats on the hills) in 4:29 / 22.3 mph avg speed. This was a breakthrough ride. You ever feel like superman in a workout? Well this was my superman day. I felt unbelievable all day. I ran off the bike and by mile 2 was holding 6:30 pace in zone 1. Very good day!! The other great check I had was at our open water swim course (560yds) in Waterbury where I set a new personal best there in 7:09 (1:16 ish pace per 100yds) albeit my swim buddy John Wullf helped pace me (we pacelined!!). Anyhow I was feeling great coming into this half iron. Hoping to break 7 there next week!

Race day-

Swim- Got out fast and was in the front pack around first buoy. Felt great immediately! Had some issues with my goggles- may need a new pair. I love Aquaspere but the nose piece stretches out over time. Held steady in clean water until someone went by and I jumped on their feet. Had a nice set of feet for most of the swim even leap frogged a few times and bridged up to another swimmer. Very happy with how my swim is progressing as this is usually a liability for me and I have lacked consistently good swims in races. I was 4th out of the water in our wave.

Swam 26:32 for 1.13 miles. Yup the swim course was short. This equates to a 28:18 swim on an accurate course which is a PR.

Bike- Within the first 5 minutes former pro cyclist and National team member Kevin Bouchard Hall (KBH) goes by me at 28 mph. Unreal. I decided to keep him in range for about 10 minutes. I could not believe how fast he was riding and backed off to stick to my pacing plan. I just hoped I wouldn’t lose too much time to him by the end of the bike. Another guy Mike Wynn and also Dave Connery went by. It’s really pretty amazing the quality of cyclists we have in this area. As an example when I do a big 70.3 like Florida or Rev3 I almost never get passed on the bike. These guys up here can ride. However a good bike is nothing without a good run to back it up so I just stuck to my plan. The bike is the one area on the day that I don’t feel I executed as best as possible. I just actually rode too easy in the second half. HR was sometimes at IM pace which is too slow for a half. I ended up riding a 2:24 high and had the potential to ride 2:21-2:22 on the day based on my data which at this point is rock solid.

Bike 2:24 (56.32 miles)

The run- I started the run 10 minutes down to KBH. I just said to myself think of all the QT2ers who have been in this scenario and then ran everyone down. Wow this is a tough run course! I can’t believe my buddy Chris Casey ran a sub 1:22 on this last year. That is off the charts! Anyhow I felt good immediately on the run- on the flats I would look down at my Garmin and I was holding 6:00 min pace!! Felt great! The hills were really pretty tough- I would say this is the hilliest half iron run I have done. I was on a hunting safari triathlon style. I hunted down studly biker Dave Connery and went by him around mile 5.5 or so he looked pretty good and was having a great race. As I neared the turnaround I could see someone ahead and thought it was Mike Wynn- what! It’s KBH??!! I was pretty surprised I didn’t think I would catch him this soon. He looked like he was really struggling. I went by and said to hang in there and eat/drink as much as you could. At this point it was 85+ degrees. Mike Wynn went by going the other direction and it looked like had 2-3 minutes on me at that point. I had meant to start my timer when he went by so I could see how far back I was. I went as hard as I could in the second half and continued pulling Mike back but it was not enough. The dude is legit! At mile 11 I was down 2:30. At that point I knew I was going to have to settle for second- not enough real estate to hunt him down. I then decided I would focus on trying to break 4:20. I knew it was going to be very hard. I crossed the line in 4:20:02 !!!! So close !. A hair under 2 minutes back of Mike and good for second overall.

Run 1:27:18 (13.15 miles)

All in all – this was a great day for me. I ended up the day with the fastest run split (go QT2!!) and also had my best swim all season. I had no pain from some of the slight nagging things I’ve had over the last few weeks- this was a victory in and of itself. My durability has really improved! Also since it was hot- it was a great test for Hawaii.

I do need to point out how lucky I am that I have a patient family who supports these crazy dreams of mine. They put up with more than they should (especially with me having to train all the time).