My first Ironman attempt at St. George did not go well as it ended after only 13.1 miles. It was probably a result of multiple things including not enough long rides, not enough rest during the last 2 weeks and a poor job of managing my nutrition on race day. I'm somewhat interested in giving ironman another go but I probably won't decide until later this summer.
After a couple of weeks of rest, followed by a couple weeks of training I was back racing at the Lake Mills Sprint Triathlon. The field was pretty stacked with most of Wisconsin's top triathletes sans a few names. The race went pretty well, I exited the swim near the front. After 5 miles I moved into 2nd place behind Will Smith who was flying as I could never really see him up the road. Blake Becker and I exited T2 together. We had about a 1min on the chasing group but Will was quite a ways up the road. My legs didn't feel great during the run but I ended up with a pretty decent 5km and finished in 2nd overall, 2 minutes faster than last year.
The weekend after I headed down to the Kansas 70.3 race. I was hoping that the field would be a little weaker than St. George or Nola 70.3 as there were 2 other domestic 70.3 races that weekend. Despite the other races, there was a pretty strong field.
Onto the race, I had a rough swim but most people did as the waves were quite large for a lake. Looking at the swim times my time wasn't too bad (just over 30 min) but there is still a lot of room for improvement here. Onto the bike I was moving pretty well. The course had some rolling hills that, coupled with a head wind on the way back, made for a decently tough bike ride. I came in at 2:16, not a bad time but 6 minutes off the eventual winner's time. This was one of my longer rides since St. George so I think there is still room to improve on the bike, particularly at the longer races. After looking at some pictures from Kansas I also lowered my front end about a 0.5 inch or so as I was riding quite high. I started the run moving pretty well. I felt strong through about 8 or 9 miles. The last 4 miles were rough and I was passed by 3 other guys. My time for the run was 1:20. I was a little dissappointed but the run, like the bike, was my longest since St. George. Here too I think there is room for improvement.
Overall, I feel like I'm in a pretty good place fitness wise. My top end is good (but not great) in each sport. Where I'm lacking is steady state efforts that more closely replicate the demands of 1/2 ironman racing. I plan to include these efforts during my long ride and long run while continuing to include 1 fast/hard bike and run interval workout per week. On the bike I'll gradually shift from shorter intervals (2-5 min with similar rest ratios) to longer (10-20 with less rest). I feel this difference in intensity (with the inclusion of longer steady state intervals during my long bike) will be sufficient enough to continue to stimulate physiological changes and improve the right end of my power curve. I took a similar approach in the winter and it seemed to work. On the run I'll continue to include some quality in the long run as I build it back up. I may include a true track workout 1x/week as opposed to just a hard T-run but this will vary depending on my run fitness. I seem to run better when I run more (obviously!) so i'm more inclined to build back up to running 6-7x/week and including my quality efforts in a t-run and during my long run. From an economy stand point, adding in some hard 200s and 300s (as an example) during a brick run seems to be enough for me to keep the fast twitch fibers working (at least at my current run level). In the swim, I need to keep working but I also should be trying to do 1 open water swim per week.
As far as upcoming races go, I'm planning on doing Muncie 70.3 on July 9th, Racine 70.3 on July 17th and maybe the Pewaukee Sprint on July 10th. My goal is be to be 3:59.59 or faster at Muncie and/or Racine!
