Off Season Goals

Since I've been in my off-season for a while, my training as been inconsistent and nutrition has been off track. In order for me to get back on track I need goals. For the next few months this is what I've got laid out:

Off-season goals
Weekly:
4 - 30 minute weight training sessions a week
2 swim workouts a week - one long, one technique focused
2 run workouts a week - one long run and one moderate long run with hills, progression, or intervals at no more than 10K pace
2 bike workouts a week - one long and one moderately long w/ intervals/progressions

Sept - December
Focus on building up base to half-ironman conditioning
lose another 5-7 pounds
improving strength, technique in all 3 disciplines (notice I didn't say speed, just strength, technique and endurance)

Pigman Half-Ironman Report

Pre-Race

It's taken me a while to post this race report because it required me to do some introspection and self-reflection to come to terms with this race, as well as the future of this season.

The weekend started off with a wedding up in Minneapolis on Friday night. Grace, our 17 month old came down w/ something so that made Friday night a restless night for us all. Saturday morning we woke up, I went for a quick 3 mile run to get the blood flowing, and then we met some family for lunch and then headed for Cedar Rapids. I was hoping to get their in plenty of time for registration and then to try out my race wheels for the first time.

We arrived in Cedar Rapids about 6 PM, 2 hours later than I expected and rushed to get to packet pick-up before it closed. Once I had everything picked up we went to Olive Garden for a pre-race meal and then checked into our hotel at about 8:00PM.

Throughout the night Grace was restless and didn't feel good so we got about 3-4 hours of sleep.

Race Morning

When we arrived at the race site it was cold, windy, and rainy - not ideal race conditions. I got my transition set up and headed down to the beach. it was a wave start so I had about a 45 minute wait before I went off.

Swim:

The swim was a wet suit legal triangle swim. I opted not to wear a wet suit and headed out. I generally felt pretty good on the swim, but it did feel longer than 1.2 miles. Not much to say about the swim, but it was the first time swimming in the rain - not a big deal though. I was extremely disappointed in my swim time - 44 minutes.

Bike:

I was expecting nothing but good things on the bike - boy, was I in for a surprise. Keep in mind that I didn't have a chance to try out the wheels (808 front, 1080 rear Zipps) before race day. As I headed out on the course the wind was whipping me all around the road and I was forced to slow down to 12 miles an hour in fear that I would end up in the ditch. For the first 20-25 miles I was struggling to get in control of the wheels and going into a straight head wind. I was extremely frustrated and about through in the towel more than once. I held on and reached the turnaround. At this point I had figure out how to handle the wheels and headed straight back with a solid tail wind or cross wind - I had about a 20 minute negative split on the way back, but the damage was already done.

Run:

I started off on the run a bit too hard (7:45 pace), but felt OK for the first 2 miles, I knew I had to back it down so I slowed the pace to 8:45 for the next 2 miles and then, WHAM! I felt like I hit a wall. I took two electrolytes and water, but it just wasn't enough. I attribute it to lack of sleep, and a lack of fitness. I ended up finishing the race using a walk/run at 6:41 - PR'd by 5 minutes, but extremely disappointed in the race.

Finish:

Important lessons learned:

- never try anything new in a race (I preach this to my athletes - I should take my own advice)

- follow your race plan (I deviated from my plan to focus more on Oly races and was not getting in the mileage and time for the half)

- Get sleep - I think my combined 8 hours of sleep over 2 days definitely attributed to my race performance.

Based on this performance, I decided I was not ready for IM WI, so I backed out of the race. I'm dissapointed I won't be doing the race, but I think it's the right decision.