I didn’t come close to achieving my goal time of 4:59:xx on Sunday. I have plenty of external excuses including a non-wetsuit swim that was definitely longer than 1.2 miles (the scuttle butt is that it was close to 1.5), a head cold, and the incredible heat. The latter two contributed to a significant asthma problem that reduced me to a fair bit of walking in the final three miles.
That said I exhibited a lack of mastery over a few things that were within my control, which also contributed to falling short of expectations. Things like…
• Applied sun block in transition before the race. No mirror. No assistance from friends. I missed some spots. My giant red blotches aren’t feeling so great today. I’m too experienced to do that. Really stupid.
• While I dialed my cycling effort back quite a bit, it obviously wasn’t enough. I rode at 200 (IF = .75) normalized watts instead of my target of 220. It felt right at the time, but I could’ve / should’ve recognized the heat was taking a big toll. My great bike split was overshadowed by some late walking on the run. The EN philosophy is true: There’s no such thing as a good bike followed by a bad run. The bad run is usually caused by a stupid ride.
• No clear purpose for racing. Yes I had an asthma attack. But clarity of purpose would have made a difference. It was too easy to shut it down when the self-negotiating started on the back half of the run.
So there’s plenty for me to work on as I head into training for another long, hot day at Ironman Louisville.
Overall I’m really pleased today. I finished. I had fun with friends. I pushed a little beyond my limits. Overall a cathartic experience.
After a short recovery it’ll be time to pump up the training volume for Ironman. More news to follow! It’s all good.
For power junkies, here are my numbers:
Duration: 2:31:50
Work: 1798 kJ
TSS: 142.8 (intensity factor 0.748)
Norm Power: 200
VI: 1.02
No comments:
Post a Comment