Ironman 70.3 Ecuador Race Report

The Ironman 70.3 Ecuador took place in Manta on July 7, 2019. I travelled with my parents, who flew down from the US, to Manta, Ecuador for the race. After getting pretty sick a month before last year’s race, which threw off my race preparations, I was ready to go full speed this year.

At the Race Expo

I woke up race morning and actually slept pretty well, better than most races it seemed. After eating breakfast (2 muffins, 2 bananas and a cup of coffee), I headed down to transition early to get my stuff ready. I was pretty early, which was fine, and had everything set up at my bike without a need to rush. My bike rack position was next to the same Colombian guy from the previous year so we joked around a little bit in transition. As I was leaving transition, I did notice that one of the spaces for a Chilean guy did not have a bike. Things were looking up as I knew he was a good racer in my age group but he wasn't there. I stopped back at our AirBnb condo for a final pit stop before walking up to the Swim start.

SWIM: My age group swim wave started at 6:56 AM. It actually worked out really well as there were less waves ahead of me, only the women's groups and the older men. Off I went into the water and got a pretty clean start, no bumping or kicking with other swimmers. I noticed a group of five or so guys headed out quickly and as I looked behind, the rest of my wave was behind me and the gaps were getting bigger. Kind of in a no man's land but I was fine with not having other swimmers around me. I felt like I had a pretty good swim and passed many swimmers from the earlier waves. The swim did seem to take longer than I had anticipated although I thought that I had a current pushing me along. When I finally reached the Swim Exit,  I saw my time was 40:10 and I thought something was off as my goal was to swim under 35 minutes, which I had done the previous year. Fortunately, there must have been something with the tide that morning as most other athlete swim times were slower and I was the fifth fastest swimmer in my age group.

Exiting the Swim in the Pacific Ocean

T1: I got through the transition quickly (3:10) as my bike was in the last row so it was easy to find and near the Bike Exit. Definitely a nice perk of being an Ironman All-World Athlete is having a better bike rack position.

BIKE: I wanted to get off to a good start on the bike as I remembered there was a fast downhill at Mile 18. As I started riding, I saw my friend Monsalve from Cuenca. He's a great swimmer and started in a later swim wave than I did and must have passed at some point in the ocean. I know he's a pretty good biker too so we stuck together for almost the entire ride, which I thought was good for me to pace off him. I was able to reach the downhill portion in well below an hour and was speeding down towards the turnaround in Crucita. My first hour, I rode 21.4 mph. I did pass one guy in my age group on the road into Crucita so that was a good feeling. As we headed back, I was concerned about going back up the hill again. I did feel like I got over it pretty good this time and took on some rolling hills. I was still riding over 20 mph after two hours so I was near where I wanted to be and I knew the course would flatten out heading into Manta. Unfortunately, around Mile 50, a guy in my age group blew by me like I was standing still. I didn't try to chase him, I just stuck to my race plan. He ended up being the fastest biker in our age group by a wide margin. Another guy in my age group passed me around Mile 54, but looking at his bigger body type, I didn't feel he was a threat in the run. I was able to complete the bike portion in 2:43:09, ahead of my goal of 2:45:00 and was the sixth fastest in my age group. As I was finishing my bike ride, the sun broke through the clouds and the temperature and humidity began to rise quickly.

Do you see the size of the fish that jumped out of the water behind me?

My buddy Monsalve from Cuenca and I near the turnaround in Crucita.

All serious on the bike as the sun started to come out.

Heading into T2

T2: I dismounted my bike perfectly and got through T2 very quickly (1:40). I was hoping to be under 5 minutes for both transitions and I was able to achieve that goal.

RUN: As I started out on my run, my legs were pretty tight from the long bike ride and my thighs began to cramp from the heat in the second mile. I had already passed the guy who passed me late in the bike ride but he passed me again. After stopping to massage out the cramp, I was able to push through and the cramps eased a little bit for the next few miles. I passed that guy again right after the first turnaround. I was actually in third place at that moment and the other guy who passed me on the bike wasn't too far ahead of me either. However, with the cramping, heat, and humidity, I adapted my strategy to walk through the aid stations, drink lots of Gatorade, put water over my head and then put ice in my cap on my head. The cramping would continue at various points on the course but I only had to stop again once when my hamstring cramped at Mile 11. As I made the final turnaround, I would be passed by another athlete in my age group. He was running really well and I didn't want to chance any bad cramps so I continued to stick to my race plan and listen to my body. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch the two guys who passed me and the guy who won the age group was always in front of me, which I kind of figured. I completed the half-marathon in 1:48:53 and headed straight to the massage tent after the race.

 

Starting out the run in a good mood. (Not for long)

Trying to chase down my friend Eli Bravo (not really). Ecuador's female triathlete participant in the Rio Olympics and probably in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. I was starting my first lap, she was on her second lap. 

Hoping to finish the run soon. 

Done at last. Not as fun as last year but a pretty good race overall. 

My total time of 5:16:59 was good enough for a fourth place finish within the 50-54 year old age group and in the top 10% of all finishers of the race so I was pleased with my result. I went to the awards ceremony and received a trophy for fourth place. I'm not really a fan of five podium slots but since I was fourth, it now seems like a good deal for me. I nervously waited for the World Championship slot allocation. My age group got two slots so maybe there was a chance from the roll down that I could get a slot to the World Championship. Unfortunately, my dream of going to the 2020 Ironman World Championship in New Zealand was not meant to be as the top two finishers claimed the slots. The second place guy beat me by 1:50 so that's how short I came up. I will give it another try at the Ironman 70.3 Cartagena in early December against probably a tougher field of athletes. I guess with Ironman, "Anything is Possible"

 

Posing at the Finish.

50-54 year old Age Group award ceremony. 

My wooden trophy for my fourth place finish in my Age Group.

Ironman South America Championship Race Report

I arrived in Florianapolis the Wednesday before the race. It took me almost a full 24 hours to get there from New York because I missed a connection in Sao Paulo and was rebooked on a later flight. The weather in Florianapolis was perfect when I arrived but the weather reports were pointing toward a rainy race day. I got to check out the swim course and parts of the run and bike courses after getting to Florianapolis. The day before the race, it had rained most of the day. When I checked the weather report on race morning, the rain percentage was low to start the day but was forecast to increase as the day went on. I was hoping for the best and that I would still be able to actually race instead of having to be cautious, especially on the bike.

Swim
The swim was an Age Group start and my age group was the second to last wave to go off. The course is an M-shape in the Atlantic Ocean, although we were in a cove and swam to the north. This was my first triathlon swim in the ocean so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did a practice swim a few days before and it seemed like I was swimming a little slower with the waves and currents.

 

I got off to a pretty good start considering there were 335 athletes in my age group. I jumped through a few waves before I got out to calmer water. I started catching up to slower swimmers from the previous wave before I got to the first  marker buoy and faster swimmers from the wave after mine started catching up to me by the second marker buoy. The first turn buoy is almost 1 Km from the beach and it seemed like it took forever to get there. Once I finally got there, it was very congested with swimmers. As I went around the next turn buoy and started heading back to the beach, I was able to get to the outside and swim without running into other swimmers. Once I reached the beach, it was a short run along the beach and then headed back out to start the second part of the swim course. I was actually feeling pretty good as I went out and started to pick up my pace. Again, it got crowded around the turn buoys and into the final stretch. The kayaks started pushing the swimmers back to the middle as we got closer to the Swim Exit. That bunched things up again and I was at a standstill in the water with 20 other swimmers at one point. I was able to work my way around it and finally reached the Swim Exit. I glanced at my watch and saw it was 1:04-ish and was pleasantly surprised at how fast the swim went for me. My official time when I hit the mat was 1:05:14. That was a nice improvement from my Lake Placid swim time of 1:11:15. Things were off to a good start.

 

T1

I knew that I had an opportunity to improve my transition times here against my Lake Placid T1 time of 10:15. It seemed like a shorter run to the transition tent (and no pouring rain like Lake Placid) and I found my stuff quickly and got to the changing tent. I got my clothes on quickly but as I put my tri top on, I dropped a sandwich out of the shirt pocket that I wanted to eat on the bike. I did not realize this until I was just about out of transition and did not want to go back for it. I got out of the tent and grabbed my bike quickly and started out on the bike course. I kept my transition under six minutes with a time of 5:56.

 

Bike

I knew the rain was going to start later in the morning so I wanted to get done the bike course as quickly as possible. We were fortunate that the winds were very light as we traversed the course which runs mostly north-south on the west side of the island. The roads were still wet from all of the rain on Saturday and Sunday morning so I had to be cautious and pay attention while I was riding.

 

I also got off to a good start on the bike. I was hoping to average 20 mph on the bike and the course sets up well for it as it is mostly flat with three hills that need to be climbed twice on each lap so a total of 12 climbs. Riding through the downtown area of Florianapolis along the shoreline was really a nice sight. The rain did start before I finished my first lap, but I was already soaked from the spray off other riders tires. Fortunately, it was a little humid to make it comfortable with temps in the high 60's rather than cold so I didn’t mind riding wet.

 

I was hoping to find the Special Needs area to retrieve food that I had packed in my bag since I lost my sandwich in T1. The Special Needs area was around Km 45 on the first loop and Km 135 on the second lap. The course wasn’t marked with distance signs and I missed the Special Needs area on my first lap. I was feasting on Gu gels on the first lap but was starting to get hungry on the second lap so I paid close attention to the location of Special Needs and was able to stop and retrieve my food and a much needed bathroom break.

 

My goal for the bike was not to have any incidents like a crash or flat and I was able to ride without any issues. The conditions, although not ideal, were fine enough where I could push myself on the bike. I was able to complete the bike course in 5:29:37 which averaged 20.4 mph. I was pleased with my bike time and started running various run times in my head to try to project my final time. My total race time off the bike was approximately 6:45:00, so I figured I had a good shot to be under 11 hours and possibly closer to 10:30 depending on how the run went. Things were going well and I was ahead of where I expected.

 

T2

I had a pretty smooth transition in T2 and was out on the run quickly. I improved on my Lake Placid T2 time of 8:15 down to 4:56 in Florianapolis. The momentum was on my side and I was excited to get going on the marathon to get the Ironman finished.

Run
The run course starts out with an out and back along the coastline and then finishes with three loops. There are two hills on the out and back portion and the one hill was a pretty steep grade. After that the course is pretty flat and actually kind of boring.



I made sure to start out the run at an easy pace that I was hoping to hold for the entire marathon. I certainly didn’t think I came out too hard or fast. I was hoping to average 7 mph for the first two hours and then slightly less for the remainder of the race. Although I wasn’t quite sure what my pace was, I don’t think I was quite at 7 mph for the first hour because I was a little slower than expected with the hills on the out and back. I thought that I could make it up in the second hour. I wasn’t not quite sure where I was, but as the second hour completed, I think I was just over halfway through the marathon so I was behind the pace that I wanted. As I was going along, I finally started to see the distance markers, in kilometers, were painted on the streets.

 

Then things started to go south quickly after the second hour. I noticed the outside of me left knee was starting to hurt and the top of my left foot. I knew at some point, I would need to do a run/walk strategy and I was going to try to run for 8-10 minutes and then walk for a minute. Even when I was running, it was an incredibly slow pace. The monotony of the three loops was really setting in along with the rain that had started again while the course fell into darkness after sunset. As I started out on my third loop, I knew a sub-11 was slipping out of reach. My knee was throbbing and my energy was low. I tried to minimize my run/walks as much as possible to keep going but there was not much left in the tank. As reached the final stretch, I didn’t know how long the final straight away was. I pushed what I had left and thought the finish line was closer than it really was. I watched the seconds tick towards 11 hours and knew that it wasn’t going to be possible with over 100 meters left. In Lake Placid, I really tried to soak up the moment as I went down the shoot to the finish line. This time was much different and I really just wanted to finish so I didn’t notice the crowds as I was coming down the shoot.

 



My run time was a big disappointment of 4:15:53 and was only a few seconds slower than my Lake Placid run time. I feel like I wasted a great swim and bike only to be let down by my run, which is usually my best sport, but turned out to be the worst of the three in Florianapolis. My final time was still pretty solid and close to what I expected, but the run really left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

 

My final time was 11:01:36 so I just missed my goal by just over a minute. The course is fast, which was one of the reasons that I chose this Ironman. I could say the weather conditions may have affected my time, but the guy who won the race set an Ironman world record that day. I could also point to my injuries after the Florida Ironman 70.3 where I strained my calf and couldn’t run for almost three weeks and I also threw out my back at one point as well. Either way, I got my Ironman fix for the time being and have no plans to do another full Ironman in the near future. My next Ironman event will most likely be Ironman Ecuador 70.3 in Manta during the summer of 2018 and I’m hoping to find some shorter triathlons in Ecuador to stay active. A big thank you again goes out to my friend Chris Vitalos, who accompanied me on the trip and was a great Sherpa. We did have a lot of fun in Brazil and celebrated with some beers on the beach the following day and a Brazilian churrasco dinner feast before we headed home.

 

 

 

 

Ironman Florida 70.3 Race Report

 

I wanted to use the Ironman Florida 70.3 in Haines City as a tune up race for my next full Ironman in Florianapolis, Brazil on May 28, 2017. It fit perfectly in my training schedule at the 18th week. Plus I haven't raced a triathlon in over a year and a half so I certainly needed the practice. When I first arrived in FL, the weather was hot and muggy, in the low 90's the first few days. Fortunately, the Thursday before the race, a strong cold front came through the state and lowered the temperatures to the low 70's with no humidity and plenty of sunshine, which was ideal for the race. 

Pre Race

I didn't sleep very well, if at all, the night before the race. I wasn't nervous, I just wasn't comfortable in my hotel room. I ended up leaving the hotel at 4 AM  and arrived at Haines City as transition was opening at 4:30. It was quick and easy to get setup so I just sat near my bike until about 6 AM. It was a cool morning and I wore my wetsuit just to stay warm. I worked my way over to the pool for a warm-up, but quickly saw people pretty cold after swimming. An old man told me the warm-up was worthless since he was now wet and cold. I figured it would be best to skip it than to be wet and cold before the race. I made my way over to the beach, where my sister spotted me and hung out with my family on the beach until my swim wave assembled. 

Swim
The swim start was very clean. I think everyone sort of knew where they needed to be within the wave as we waited in the water for the wave to start. Within 100 meters, the wave had thinned out and everyone was on their own. I had plenty of room to get into a good rhythm, except my right goggle kept taking on water. I rolled over onto my back three times before I finally got it cleared out and stuck to my face so I would not take in any more water. 

The swim course in Lake Eva is an "M" shape which was a little confusing in the center portion. It seemed like people weren't sure to swim with the buoys on the right or left. I wasn't sure either but tried to follow the instructions that were given at the Athlete's briefing. After getting out of that area, I made the final turn to finish the swim. This was probably the most congested area for me as I caught up to a lot of slower swimmers from earlier waves.

As I reached shallow water, I went to get up and tried walking out of the water. As I took a step, I must have stepped in a hole or something and my right hamstring knotted up. It was a bit of a struggle to work that out while exiting the lake and heading to T1. Fortunately, it finally let up and I was able to slowly jog through T1 without it acting up again. I was able to complete the swim in 36:11, which was a little slower than the 35 minutes that I had expected.

 

 

T1 
Transitions should be pretty automatic. Unfortunately for me, I got to my bike and couldn't get the wetsuit off my one leg. I had to sit on a curb and yank it as hard as I could to get it off. The cramp plus the wetsuit issue cost me a little more T1 time than I hoped for. 

Bike

The bike course starts out pretty flat in the first half and then some long rolling hills in the second half. I wanted to hit the flat part hard to get my mph up since I knew the back half would certainly be slower. I felt that I succeeded there and felt good when I did hit the hills. The hills weren't too bad (certainly not the Andes Mountains where I train) but there was also a headwind to fight as well, that made them a little more challenging.

I finished my bike ride in 2:39:19 which was five minutes faster than my goal. My new bike, a Quintana Roo PR5, exceeded my expectations and I felt good coming off the bike. 

T2
Again, I hate writing about transition mistakes but I screwed this one up too. The transition area was an oval parking lot. When I came out of the swim, I ran along the lower portion and then turned around and ran the upper potion to get to my bike rack. I thought we were going to have to run the oval again, which wasn't the case. So I ran right past my bike rack and to the end of the parking lot before I realized this. I had to run my bike back to my rack to drop it off and get ready for my run costing myself additional transition time. I guess I should have paid more attention to the Transition map.

Run

The run course was three 4+ mile loops around Lake Eva. Each loop starts off with three decently challenging hills. After the hills, the course levels off and is a slight downhill and a light uphill or two. I felt this made the course fast after the initial hills.

My first lap went pretty fast and my splits on each successive lap were slightly slower. My hamstrings were a little achy so I was careful not to go too hard since I had already cramped in the swim. I passed a lot of people on the course which is always fun. The course does have a slight downhill finish to the finisher's chute so I hit the last half mile hard and practically ran over another guy at the Finish line. I felt strong throughout and ran the entire course without walking or stopping. I was never winded during the run, probably from the high altitude training where I live.  I finished the run in 1:39:37 which was over 5 minutes faster than I expected. 

Final Thoughts

I think this was a near perfect race for me, despite the hamstring knot and transition mistakes. The weather was perfect for a 70.3 race and even with full sun during the run, it felt comfortable. I hoped to go under 5 hours and maybe I could have without the small mistakes, but I'm not disappointed with a final time of 5:02:59. I knew when I started the run that it would take a really great run to go under 5 hours, but I still had a better run than I expected. 

This race was a tune-up for my full Ironman and to get back into race mode again. The swim went well and the bike and run were better than expected. My new bike worked great and the Retul bike fitting kept me comfortable in aero during the bike portion and ready for the run. That was a great takeaway for me, especially running a half marathon faster than expected.

Thanks to my family who came out and cheered me on during the race and my friend Robin who also trekked over to Haines City. Now, on to Florianapolis, Brazil for the Ironman South America Championship on May 28, 2017......

 

 

 

Tricks I learned

I was fortunate to meet a lot of athletes during my training and often learned little tricks that I tried and found very useful during my training and during the Ironman Race.Here are the tricks that I found useful.

Swim Tips
1.) Get as much Open Water swimming practice as you can. I recommend the ETA Coach Open water swims in Medford Lakes, NJ. He holds them from 6 AM - 10 AM on Saturdays and Sundays and some Thursday nights and it costs $10/session. The lake has a rusty feel to it, but when you swim in Mirror Lake, you'll think you're swimming in a dream. I swam at least 10 open water swims in Medford Lakes before the Ironman.
2.) Rub dishwash soap on the inside lenses of your goggles and then wash the soap out with water. The film the soap leaves behind will keep your goggles from fogging up.
3.) Start stripping your wetsuit off in the water by unzipping and just getting water in the wetsuit to act as a lubricant. It will just strip right off down to the waist. I had the strippers remove the rest of it off my legs.
4.) After the remainder of you wetsuit is off, wrap it around your neck and over your shoulder (See below) as you run to transition. The wetsuit is wet and can get heavy if you simply carry it in your arms. With a long run from the beach to T1 at Lake Placid, this made the run a lot easier.

Bike Tips
1.) Learn to love hills. Lake Placid is nice that it doesn't have rolling hills but you need to be prepared to ride the hill on the climb from Jay back into town. Since Philly and the Schuylkill River Trail are pretty flat, I would ride to Valley Forge on the SRT and do a few loops around the park where there are some short steep hills. A supported bike ride that I signed up for in April was called the Fleche Buffoon in the New Hope area. The elevation on the climbs in this race makes the Lake Placid bears seem flat. It's an early Spring ride so the weather can be cool but is great ride for training. I also did a training camp in the Poconos with the Philly Tri Club to practice hills and to get a preview of the Black Bear triathlon bike course.

2.) If you get a chance to go to Lake Placid before the Ironman, I highly recommend it to get a feel for the courses, especially the bike course. After I rode the course during a training camp in June, I had a much better idea of my bike race strategy. I had an Achilles injury that prevented me from running the Run course during the camp which I think would have been useful as well.
3.) Practice your nutrition strategy during your bike rides, especially the long rides!
4.) Do don't wheelies for the crowd during the race. I was excited coming into town at the end of my first loop and saw a guy with a "Pop a wheelie!" sign so I did one...and then my front tire went flat.
5.) I saw that someone had posted about how many century rides you should ride during training. I was building up the mileage (70-80 mile rides) on my long rides in April and May when it was nice enough to start biking outside. I did my first century ride on Memorial Day, 3 more in June, and 1 on my last hard week in early July so 5 total. The one week that I didn't do one in June was when I raced the Black Bear Half-Iron distance triathlon.

Run Tips
1.) I learned this one a little late in my training but train for the run doing 8 minute run/1 minute walk intervals. I did the first ten miles in Lake Placid with this strategy and was on pace for a sub-4 hour marathon. Unfortunately I couldn't keep it up with the hills back into town and leg cramps but on the way back out of town for the second loop, I switched to to 4/1 and did that as long as I could.
2.) Train on hills for running as well. Philly has some great Spring races but most of them are pretty flat. I specifically signed up  for the Bucks County Half-Marathon in April to get some hill work in during race conditions. Bonus, was that I came in second in my age group and had I not walked a little bit on the hills, I could have won my age group. The near miss taught me to not waste precious seconds and I used that to PR at Broad Street a few weeks later.

I'm sure there's more tricks and advice that I received  and if I remember them, I'll add them in at some point.

July Training Update with Final Monthly and Weekly totals

Now that the race has passed, I wanted to share the training volume that I had utilized to prepare for the Lake Placid Ironman. 

The final month of training consisted of my last hard week of training followed by three taper weeks. Each taper week was designed to reduce my volume by 25%. My training program was supposed to be a 24 week program but I built in an extra week in case of injury or a vacation got planned while I was training. Since I didn't need it, the extra week just ended up adding a little more volume to my total training. Here are my final monthly totals for my entire Ironman training and a week by week training volume:

Monthly Volume

	January	February	March	April	May	June	July
Running (Miles)
2013	115.25	103.89	100.01	99.41	89.81	112.71	122.14
2014	112.52	117.22	138.07	102.58	135.44	100.88	131.04
Biking (Miles)
2013	201.40	190.26	104.19	217.89	216.29	298.91	162.91
2014	309.80	281.37	355.29	410.49	524.37	601.93	369.52
Swimming (Km)
2013	13.20	14.20	10.00	14.90	16.10	15.50	6.00
2014	22.20	19.70	25.30	27.00	30.40	34.42	29.44

Weekly Training schedule

Triathlon Week	Time	Swim Yards	Bike Miles	Run Miles	Weights	Comment
1	10:45:11	8,421	90.3	21.9	2 x 30 min
2	9:16:19	2,734	70.4	31.3	2 x 30 min
3	10:57:28	3,500	80.7	37.1	2 x 30 min
4	12:36:52	10,389	80.0	27.9	2 x 60 min
5	11:39:41	3,500	100.0	34.9	1 x 60 min
6	11:59:08	3,500	99.7	27.0	2 x 60 min
7	10:24:09	7,000	72.8	23.2	2 x 60 min
8	9:31:41	7,437	42.8	29.8	2 x 60 min
9	13:06:06	6,890	95.1	29.3	1.5 x 60 min
10	10:25:23	7,000	67.3	19.0	2 x 60 min
11	11:50:17	7,437	97.7	11.7	2 x 60 min
12	15:28:24	7,437	128.0	36.6	-	Injured Wrist
13	12:45:08	7,000	99.2	31.1	1 x 60 min
14	16:17:43	11,389	157.0	23.9	1 x 60 min
15	13:39:53	7,437	88.5	31.4	2 x 60 min
16	11:44:47	4,374	55.7	38.9	2 x 60 min
17	18:23:29	8,564	171.0	35.8	1 x 60 min
18	10:20:04	7,000	50.2	32.1	1 x 60 min
19	17:48:58	12,686	152.0	23.6	2 x 60 min
20	14:17:22	7,983	167.0	9.1	1 x 60 min	Injured Achilles
21	16:44:56	7,874	173.0	19.2	2 x 60 min
22	18:03:47	12,686	107.0	41.0	2 x 60 min
23	10:20:38	7,000	64.9	35.0	-	Taper (75%)
24	7:02:43	6,124	28.2	28.8	-	Taper (50%)
25	16:37:07	6,411	170.0	33.3	-	Taper (25%)
Average		7,271	100	29

Week 22 (Last hard week)

I wanted to make sure that I got as much volume in this week since it would be the last hard week of training. I squeezed in three swim workouts (2 pool, 1 open-water) and completed the final week of strength training workouts. I did my normal speed workout on Monday and Wednesday WPR run.I got really lucky with the weather on the Fourth of July as there was no humidity and it was cloudy most of the day. I was going to do a 16 mile run and work on the 8 minute run/1 minute walk intervals. As I was going along, I felt really good and decided to go a little further because the weather was awesome. Eventually when I started running low on Gatorade at mile 11, I turned around and started heading back home and picked up more Gatorade at a store along the way. I felt good for the entire run and the intervals worked really well.

My final century ride didn't go as planned as I had an issue on a hill in Valley Forge where my crank just stopped and I proceeded to fall into a ditch on the side of the road. After I got back up, the derailleur wasn't quite shifting right on the way home. I was hoping to get the bike tuned up a week later after one more long ride, but felt that it needed immediate attention from the bike shop in case anything needed to be replaced. 

Taper Week 1 (75% volume)

The taper week was probably one of the greatest feelings that I had during the course of my training. I really felt that my body responded very well to the lower volume. Rather than trying to figure out how much volume I could cram in for a week, I was trying to reduce my weekly volume within an approximate ten hour time frame. With my Achilles injury a few weeks prior, I felt it was necessary to get a good long run this week while maintaining my swimming endurance. I only did one bike ride as I felt my conditioning was great and had my tri bike in the shop for a tune up after the accident from the previous week. I made sure to get a 16 mile run in during this week and a 65 mile bike/7.5 mile run brick workout at the end of the week.

Taper Week 2 (50%)

My time goal for this week was 7 hours of training. I did one last long swim in the pool, a ten mile run and  finished the week off with a mini triathlon brick workout in Medford Lakes since it was my last open water swim before I left. The brick consisted of a 1.5 mile swim, 28 mile bike ride and a 7.25 mile run. I knew that I was taking Sunday off to start my trip and wasn't concerned about doing this last brick.

Taper Week 3 (25% before Race)

I started making my way up to Lake Placid on Sunday morning and stopped in the Catskills at my friend’s campground for the first few days of my final taper week. I wanted to keep my training volume between 4-5 hours before the race. I was able to do two 25 mile ride rides which had elevation similar to the hill in Lake Placid. The out and back course had an elevation gain of 1,900 feet during my 25 mile ride. It was a great ride to get the legs ready for the climbs in Lake Placid.

I also did two short 3-4 mile runs to keep my running legs fresh while in the Catskills. My second run was probably not advisable as we were doing a preview of the Warrior Dash NY course at the campground and it was mostly on trails. Luckily, I took it very easy and had no issues so close to the Ironman. Once I got up to Lake Placid, I did a swim loop in Mirror Lake on Friday morning and a ride down the Keane Descent on Saturday to get a feel for the new paved areas of the road surface before the race. 

With all of my training in the books, I was ready to go for the Lake Placid Ironman. The one thing I couldn't train for was the monsoon during the swim and bike portion of the Ironman. The volume and intensity during my 25 weeks of training was enough to achieve my goal time to complete the Ironman in 12 hours despite the monsoon, flat tire, and a trip to the penalty tent for a drafting penalty.