Not my greatest race, but certainly a solid result and a confidence booster heading into this season! This Sunday I raced the HITS Half Ironman in Ocala, about 2 hours from my house in Tampa. While the race wasn’t huge, it still had a solid turnout and was very well run. They actually had every distance possible—sprint and Olympic Saturday and a half and full Ironman on Sunday.
Leading up to the race, I was a little bit anxious—I’ve been training well, but no huge bike-run bricks to this point. This was a great way to open the season, see how my body reacted, test my fitness and skills, and race my first triathlon as a member of the Wattie Ink Elite Team and an XPMultisport coached Athlete.
Rock the Wattie Ink W
The week prior to the race, volume was still the same until 3-days before, where I began the “Felipe no-taper taper” which isn’t really that “taper-ific” ha. Saturday I did the AM workout, then ate, and headed up to Ocala where I got my packet, checked out the scene then headed to the hotel when I kicked it and tried to relax. The damn people in the room next door were so loud—I have no idea what they were doing, but it was alternating between loud TV and loud music… or yelling at the kids. Luckily, they went to bed early I guess. It also rained pretty hard Saturday night, thus I was very glad I opted not to rack my bike the day before.
Sunday morning came fast and early. I packed up everything and headed out the site which was about 30 minutes away and ate in the car. I’ve been trying new pre-race meals, since a bagel is now out as carb source being that it’s not paleo by any means. What I’ve been doing and really liking is white rice mixed with full fat coconut milk and some protein powder. I guess that’s basically rice pudding, but seems to sit well in my stomach thus far. Once at the race, I racked my bike and met up with 3 other Wattie Ink Athletes who were racing as well. These guys are beasts—I think they finished overall 1st, 4th, and 7th. Not to mention Felipe, my coach, was racing too. Honestly a pretty stacked field!
The swim venue
The water was wetsuit legal and gorgeous. It was a straight out and back swim. I’m pretty sure looking through the finishing times that it was longer than 1900m (1.2 miles). It’s all relative though, and to not go into too much detail, let’s just say my swim sucked. Lots of work to still do here. When I finally exited the water, I grabbed all my stuff and headed out on the bike.
Out of T1... with a lot of ground to make up
The bike was a big loop, mostly, so it was different the entire time. If you remember, this is where I got lost about a month ago, so it was nice to see where I should have been riding lol. I passed a fair number of people and finished the bike in 2:43:00, which came out to a little better than 20.5 miles per hour. The course was mildly hilly and had some wind here and there so I was pretty happy with that split. I also focused on eating more that I previously had in my races and focused more on the timing of the nutrition. Or one split I used some Chomps, which I like to break up the monotony of gels, but this cost me a little time trying to open those little packs and squeeze each one out. The little Larabar that I had was crucial though—definitely a good call. I also had UR in the water bottles which was a good calorie source and has some protein in it as well, which is really important as you get into longer distance races.
Felipe, not me, coming in on the bike
I rode back into transition, threw on my shoes and headed out of the run. Felipe had given me very specific instructions- first 6 miles at 7:00 min/mile pace and then I was allowed to race. I pretty much nailed this, but it felt so weird! It was so hard to hold back in the beginning. The first 3.1 miles were on trails, in the woods, basically running on sand which was not easy and not fast. The rest of the run was on hot roads in the Florida sun and was basically rolling hills the entire time with heavy winds.
At mile 6 I was able to let go and began to average around 6:40s for the rest. The fatigue of the sand and heat had me hurting but I kept repeating my mantras to myself and basically said “don’t be a bitch, run harder”. I was able to pass a lot of people on the run…which is no surprise considering where I came out of the water haha. I cranked out the last .8 miles at around 5:40 pace and flew across the finish line- pain looked as always. Surprisingly, I finished a lot better than I was expecting relatively. I didn’t realize how many people I had passed. My final run time was a 1:28:00 flat—not bad for being forced to run 7:00’s for the first 6 miles. Only about 1:20 slower than my half marathon 3 weeks ago. Solid, solid.
Finish line hurt
I ended up finishing 16th overall and first in my age group. But my stress wasn’t over. Not only was I to eat more during this race, Felipe made it very clear that when I crossed the finish line, I would have a Coke. No questions asked. Intuitively, this makes sense. Your body is so F-ing trashed after an intense race like this, that those incredibly concentrated sugar sources are actually a GOOD thing to have. Tell that to someone who hasn’t had a real soda in like 3 years. Luckily, he gave me a couple days heads up to prepare mentally, and ya know what? We sat in chairs at the finish line, smashed, and enjoyed a cold, glass bottle, of Coke (well, it was like Feipe’s 8th.) It was good—although I feel good in saying it didn’t make me at all want to sit and drink an entire 2-liter. One was fine and then I moved on to real food.
Age division winner
Overall it was a good race. I finished in 5:04:00 overall—I wanted to go sub 5 , but with that swim, that was going to be impossible. Plus this race was a “feeler-outer” to see where I stood to start the season. Congrats to the Wattie guys and Felipe who all freaking beasted this race. I’m pretty happy with 16th and can’t wait for Ironman 70.3 Florida in a couple months!
But I need to get through the Boston Marathon next month first…
ALSO- The newest Episode of Fearless Nutrition Radio is out! Listen to it here on Itunes. This week we had a listener Q&A and an interview with pro triathlete James Cotter! Please check it out and let us know what you think and leave your questions for the show! http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fearless-nutrition-episode-3/id497895841?i=112194060
Thanks for reading guys! Let me know if you have any questions about the race!
- What’s your next race?
- Ever enjoyed a coke after a race? Or what is your immediate psot-race go-to choice?
