The Tune Up Race - Patriot Half Ironman

My first race of the year was this weekend, the Patriot "Half Ironman". I put that in quotes because the bike is two miles longer than a typical 1/2 Ironman distance, and, the swim was shorter than the 1.2 miles it was supposed to be. Either that or I should be swimming in the 2012 Olympics. I normally swim at about a 1:30 pace for 100 yards and my pace was just over a minute at the Patriot...the course was definitely short.

Overall I was happy with my race. The swim gave me an artificial boost of confidence when I clocked a time of 22 minutes instead of the 32 minutes it took me last year. Even thought my time was artificially short, I know I was having a strong swim when I passed some of the racers from the wave that started 10 minutes ahead of me.

My bike computer died at mile one of the 59 mile ride so I just rode on "feel" and by heart rate. I ended up going a full 1 MPH faster this year and never felt like I was really out of my comfort zone.

The run was also good overall. My goal was to finish the 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours which I did by about 1 minute. This was after feeling pretty crappy for the first couple of miles. However, my trainings have been paying off. I recently had a long run in which over a 15 mile run my coach had me go at about 85% for the last 30 minutes. When I first read it I thought she was crazy, but I did it, and suffered. But it paid off as my last 3 miles was my fastest of the day!

Now for the results. Overall I came in 20th out of 40 for my age group, 92nd out of 318 overall. My highlight of the race for times was my 35th fastest swim out of 318. It's the one triathlon leg where my larger than average frame isn't a disadvantage.

Now comes a relatively easy week before a "monster" week of training that includes a 120 mile ride in the mountains.

P.S. - I've been woefully neglecting this blog as I try to balance training, work, family, etc. But as we come into crunch time I hope to update all of my readers (which really just includes my parents and my wife) with more frequent posts.