Eric's Half-Ironman Training

I am now training for my second half-ironman race. The race is in Boulder this time in August, 2007. I finished the Florida Half-Ironman in May, 2007. Wish me luck!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Race Report
Austin, Texas
Pre-Race
I had troubles getting to sleep the night before. I finally got to sleep about midnight. Race jitters? I woke too early (3am) because some crazy guy was out in the hotel hallway talking extremely loud on his cell phone.

Nicole and I left the hotel about 5:15am and headed towards the park. We got there about 6am so we had plenty of time. I thought Texas was supposed to be hot, but it was a chilly 40 degrees in the morning. We got a great parking spot and I had plenty of time to get everything together. I even had time to go back in the car and warm up.

Swim
The swim came up faster than I anticipated. I took one last pit stop at the restroom. I missed a little bit of the pre-race meeting. It was only 15 more minutes and the race began. I watched the elite swimmers go and 3 minutes later my group started. I was a little nervous going into the water, but my wetsuit was very helpful. I started towards the front of the pack. I got kicked a few times, re-adjusted my goggles, kicked a few people, and got kicked a few more times. I didn’t get hurt of even phased. It seemed that way for much of the swim. I kept a pretty even pace for most of the swim.

I started getting off track a little, but re-adjusted and continued swimming. I passed the turn-around buoy around 15 minutes. Towards the end of the swim, I picked up the pace and finished with another person in my age group. My swim time was 31:09 and my rank was 82 of 129

T1
I had no problems stripping off my wetsuit. I put on my sunglasses, helmet, socks, bike shoes and off I went. My transition time was 2:49.

Bike
I got off to a good start, but I had to stop at the first corner. My race belt and bib were dangling along my seat post. I forgot to put it on. I had a few people pass me and never saw them again. I really thought it was going to fall off at some point, but it stayed on.

The bike portion was 4 laps and marked well. The first lap was good. I kept an even pace and tried to catch a few people. I didn’t catch many people. There was a big pack in front of me that I was striving to catch. It never happened. The second lap was much more interesting. The sprint triathletes entered the course and it was getting much harder to pass people. I felt much stronger and felt like I was riding with ease. I had to slow down a few times because there were so many people.

The third lap was about the same. I passed a few people in my age group and a few passed me. I tried my hardest to let few people pass me. The fourth lap was to maintain. A big majority of the sprint triathletes finished the bike portion so the road was clear. I grunted at a few of the hills and really got my adrenaline flowing. I may have scared a few people along the way? I came around the last corer and headed towards the transition. My official bike time was 1:19:38 at 19.6mph. My bike rank was 68 of 129.

Here listed are my computrainer results:
Time: 1:19:08 Odo: 771.40 miles Max: 32.9 mph Avg: 20.0 mph Distance: 26.38 miles

T2
I came in to the transition with no problems. I mounted my bike, put on my shoes and hat and off I went. This transition was fast with a time of 1:10.

Run
The run is my strength. I felt strong and was ready to start catching people. One at a time I reeled them in. All the Olympic distance triathletes were marked with an “O” on their right leg, so I knew when I was passing them. I was energized and was greeting everyone as I passed. As the run continued after a few miles, I only greeted the Olympic distance triathletes. I would tell them “good job”, “way to go”, “killer swimmer you are”, etc. I wanted to start conserving some of my energy.


I came around the big hill just before the first lap. It was tough, but I got through it. I passed Nicole as she took a photo of me. It was so great to see her! She cheered me on and off again I went. The second lap seemed to go by much faster. I recorded my miles on my watch, but I kept hitting my watch well after the mile marker. There was only one runner who passed me towards the end of the run, just before the big hill. I was upset that I couldn’t keep up with him, but this was my race.

The finish line was just ahead. I didn’t have any one to catch at the last minute so I ran with ease. As I came through the finish line, I received a finishers’ medal and a cold towel. The towel was nice and cold. My run time was 43:53 at a pace of 7:04/mile. My rank run was 19 of 129.

Finish
My total finish time was 2:38:38. My overall sex rank was 34 of 129 and I finished 6 of 18 in my age division. I finished a little slower than my goal, but it was a great time and I was happy. Nicole and I stayed for the drawings and left as they were announcing the winners. We went to a few stores before going back to the hotel. We ate lunch and took a long 4-hour nap.

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3 Comments:

Blogger ShirleyPerly said...

Great job, Eric!!!

Man, I think it'd take me at least 3-4 minutes to get out of my wetsuit by myself.

Look forward to meeting up probably the day before Florida 70.3. I doubt I'll see you during the race itself given that you are so speedy :-)

10:37 AM  
Blogger Andy said...

Well,

based off of that performance, you are definately going to kick my butt in the 70.3 in a few weeks, but that is not the real reason why we race, now is it? Also my training this year sucked big time as you can tell from my blog!

Send me an email of all who is going to be there from blogland, my fiance and I should get in to town around or before 2pm that afternoon. We are staying at the riverside resort.

Murtha...

6:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are da man Eric. You have the most dedication of any person I know. Keep up the great work! I am proud of you. Great blogs you have here. You do have many talents.

3:39 PM  

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