Tag: half ironman

Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Ohio [July 29, 2018]

Posted on by Anthony

Ever wonder how it feels to race a half ironman a week after racing a full distance IRONMAN?

I thought it would be a lot uglier – mainly because I could barely walk for 72 hours after finishing IRONMAN Lake Placid. But fortunately, my friends over at Theragun and Normatec helped expedite my recovery process.

I arrived in Ohio on Thursday afternoon to setup. It was hot and humid – just as I expected for a race in the Midwest. There were no good outlets for swim practice, so I didn’t bother with swimming prior to the race. On Friday morning, Jacki and I did a morning ride along the Scioto River, just west of where we were staying in Delaware. As much as I want to say that I missed the cornfields and country roads, I still consider it to be the most boring terrain to ride a bike. Thankfully, I had good company!

On Saturday, our ride group doubled in size as my good friend Katie, and Eric from AltRed, also joined us for a morning bike ride! We did nearly the same ride as Friday morning and then spent the rest of the day at the expo at Selby Stadium. After a long Saturday before the race, we ventured to Olive Garden for dinner – it was my first time!

Race Day

1.2-mile Swim in warm bathwater

The swim took place in Delaware State Parks Beach.

Due to the increased water temps, wetsuits were not legal for awards. Thanks to the AltRed team (Jacki & Eric), Katie and I were able to hitch a ride to the swim start, and with plenty of time to setup our bikes and transition area. At the start, I lined up between the 35-40 minute group where I bumped into fellow Gatorade Endurance Ambassador, Riley! The course was one loop, clockwise, and mostly rectangular.

The best part of the swim was coming out of the water at the same time as Katie- what are the odds?! I later found out that I had swam over Katie right before we got out – sorry ’bout that!

Head Down – Watts Up!

Photo Cred: Eric, AltRed (from our pre-race ride)

Knowing that the residual fatigue from Ironman Lake Placid would be exposed on the run, I decided to execute the 56.5-mile bike course as hard as possible, without burning out. The 38-minute swim set me up for a lot of passing in the earlier miles and then lots of lonely solo miles. The course is mostly flat and my Garmin recorded about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Happy to roll into Selby Stadium with a 2:11:38 split (~25.6mph) and 3rd fastest bike split on the day – being bested by Mike Vanacora [2:10:58] and fellow CEEPO athlete, Matt Straatman [2:10:59].

Run Until You Can’t

It’s always a pleasure to have a strong showing off the bike but today was not one of those days; I can’t ask my body to dig deep a week after running a personal best 3:15 IRONMAN marathon. With that in mind, my tactic for the half marathon run was to run until I could no longer run. I made it through 9 miles, or about 15 kilometers before my quads and hip flexors became so tight that I had to stretch at the aid station. Trying to limit the lost time, I allocated only 10-15 seconds to walking before resuming what felt like a slow-motion jog. Given the amount of accumulated fatigue and the law of diminishing returns, I successfully trotted my way back towards Selby Stadium and managed a 1:34:44 run split.

Result:

14th Overall

3rd M25-29

M25-29 podium (from right to left)

Special shoutout to Jacki for being such a supportive race ‘sherpa’ even when you were feeling under the weather.

Thank you to all my sponsors for supporting the journey. It’s always a treat to race in the super comfy Zoot team kit, ride fast aboard the CEEPO Viper, and do all that while fueling with Gatorade Endurance.

See you at the next race!

We haven’t done a race together in years! Stoked to be reunited!

IRONMAN 70.3 Syracuse Recap

Posted on by Anthony

Race reports should be written and posted in a timely manner, but sometimes it gets pushed back 2 months. Better late than never, right? In lieu of my normal race recaps, I wanted to share a quick recap of the 2017 Ironman 70.3 Syracuse triathlon race. After a dismal result at the Boston Marathon in April, I quickly shifted gears and started building cycling fitness. With less than 2 months to build towards Ironman 70.3 Syracuse, the race was purposely placed on the calendar as a motivator/icebreaker in order to jump-start the build towards Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, TN. So how did I perform?

The swim in Jamesville Reservoir is pleasant. Having done a handful of swims since last November’s IRONMAN Cozumel race, there was no expectation to swim ‘fast’. The result? A mid-pack swim finish in 38 minutes and 22 seconds.

The bike portion of the race is normally my favorite. However, Mother Nature had different plans this year, giving the racers a steady headwind/crosswind for the majority of the bike course. There aren’t many windy race conditions where I regret using the disc wheel but this bike ride was one of them. Nevertheless, I put my head down and let the legs do their thing, producing a 2 hour 38 minute, 56.8-mile bike split – is it really that difficult to map out a true 56-mile bike course?

Does an extra eight tenths of a mile on the bike course equate to a short run course? In this case, it does! Total run distance was 12.8 miles, instead of 13.1 miles. The run was not enjoyable, but luckily, Christina was out on the course cheering and I was able to steal a kiss. The two loop format made it easy to spot some familiar faces along the course, which made the hills and heat hurt a little less. The result of this run was consistency, bringing me to the finishing line in 1 hour and 31 minutes.

Total race time – 4:52:36

 

Thank you to Christina for being my race support. 

Thank you to CEEPO Triathlon Bikes, ISM Seats, Rudy Project, Zoot Sports, Brickwell Cycling & Team Chocolate Milk for the continued support throughout the race season! 

Kinetic Half Triathlon Race Report (5.14.16)

Posted on by Anthony

After this past weekend, I can finally say that triathlon season has begun! Going into this race weekend, I had laid down a very high volume block of cycling, slightly neglecting swimming and running. Can you blame me though? I love riding my CEEPO Viper!

2016-05-13 11.07.51 HDR-2

On Friday (the 13th, AHH!), Christina and I went out for a shakeout ride

in Arlington and did a quick loop at Hains Point in Washington D.C. We tried to avoid the rain and headed out as early as possible, but still got rained on halfway into the ride. No worries – I had planned on completely cleaning and tuning up the bikes after the ride anyway. This was the first time we went out on our matching CEEP2016-05-13 18.51.07O Vipers. 
After the ride, we headed down to Spotsylvania, and after 2.5 hour of traffic on the I-95, we arrived. The house we were staying at was next to Lake Anna, so we did a swim before dinner. Good news – my wetsuit still fits!

Race Day – Saturday, May 14th, 2016

Virginia-Maryland Triathlon Series, the organizers of the Kinetic Half, offered all athletes the option of race-day packet pickup, which is an excellent selling point for their race series.

We arrived at Lake Anna State Park by 6am, grabbed our packets and set up our spot in transition. By 6:30am, everything was ready to go!

At 7am, I started with about 95 other guys in the first wave. 36 minutes later, and swimming very comfortably, I entered transition with a couple of other guys. With the swim done, I quickly mounted my CEEPO and went to work!

The bike course was rolling terrain throughout. We went out 10 miles, before doing two, twenty mile loops. Overall, I felt very comfortable on the bike. Power output was roughly 3.5 watts/kg, which was right on target. The ride was my favorite part of the day, especially since I was able to sneak under the 2 hr 20 min mark at 2:19:26, giving me the 3rd fastest bike split on the day.
A 60 second transition and I was off on the run. The course was 3 loops of rolling hills, totaling to just under 800 feet of climbing. On the first loop of the run, I was able to manage a 6:45 average mile pace. I was content was that pace2016-05-14 12.32.32 but my legs would disagree, as my second and final loops were significantly slower, as I dropped to 7:04 average mile pace for the 13.1 miles (1:32:45 run split).

 

I crossed the finishers line at 4:31:42, setting a half ironman triathlon personal best.

On the day, I finished 11th overall and 3rd in the Men’s 25-29 age group.

Post finish, I quickly headed back to transition to grab my phone (not to make a call, but to take photos!) Knowing that Christina was going to finish soon, I briefly rinsed off in the lake – the 65 degree water was super refreshing! And shortly after, Christina crossed the finishers line in

4 hrs 51 min, claiming the top women’s spot with her first win of the season (and personal best!)

2016-05-14 12.03.35-1

2016-05-14 14.19.32The Kinetic Half was an eye opening experience since it clearly showcases my strengths and weaknesses at this point in the season.

 

 

Next Up: Rev3 Quassy Olympic (June 4th)

 

 

Thank you to all my sponsors and everyone out cheering at Lake Anna State Park!

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