Just like that old add for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, two things I absolutely love have gotten together. My racing team, Big Sexy Racing, has recently gotten together with Infinit Nutrition, which I’ve been using since my first Ironman in 2015. You can see the press release about it here.  Infinit has helped me through 2 full ironman races and a dozen half iron races including the Augusta 70.3 this past weekend where my custom formula with 600mg sodium/hour helped me finish the race without being completely wiped out at the finish. 

If you would like to try out Infinit yourself, feel free to go to their website and use the code BSRFRIEND for 15% off your order.  You can either order one of their premade formulas or consult with one of their nutritionists and put together a custom formula just for you.  I think you’ll find it worth your while. 

When I picked up my packet on Friday, they had me look up my race bib # first.  When I saw what number I had been assigned my mouth literally dropped.  I had bib #2! This is a number that I normally associate with professional triathletes but there weren’t any professionals at this race so they used the lower bib numbers for those of us doing the challenge of two races in two days.  Those of us doing the half and sprint combination had single digit numbers while those doing the Olympic and sprint combination had double digit numbers below 50.  Regardless, it’s an awesome number to have.

One of the nice things about having such a low number was that my bike position was right next to the swim entrance and run exit. I set up my transition on race morning, said hi to my friend Sarah, and then went down to get in a warmup swim before we started.  The swim is in the Croatan Sound from the island of Roanoke in the Outer Banks. The water is brackish and race morning it was not calm at all.  I got a bit of a swim in and then waited for the race to start.  Once the race started, I could definitely tell that I had progressed a lot since my last time here.  When I did the 1500m Olympic swim in 2013 I think I visited every single SUP.  This time, I did the entire 1.2 mile swim without stopping. The water was extremely choppy and I did end up swimming through a section of boat gas (although, not as bad as back in 2013) but I kept going.  My swim time ended up being 15 minutes longer than my swim at the Mont-Tremblant 70.3 back in June.  A significant portion of that can be attributed to the fact that I didn’t wear a wetsuit for this race and I did in Mont-Tremblant, but I don’t think that can explain the difference entirely. Instead, I think it’s a combination of being less prepared for this race (since I took a long time off after I broke my jaw in late June) and the choppy water.  Either way, though, I finished the swim in 55:04 and headed up to transition.

Transition 1 took perhaps a bit longer than I had hoped, but I made sure to dry off a bit and put on socks before putting on my bikes shoes, glasses, gloves, helmet and sweat band for under the helmet (because with the visor on my Giro Aerohead I can’t actually wipe any sweat off if it starts dripping into my eyes).  I managed all that and grabbed my bike and headed out to bike 56 miles.

Once out on the bike, I finally thought through the entire implications about a big reason why the water was so choppy.  Part of it was the jet skis moving around too much, but a bigger part of it was the wind. Now when on a bike, the wind can either be your biggest friend or worst enemy.  On this course, it would end up being both twice since it was a two loop course.  The bike course heads out from the airport on Roanoke Island and heads to the Manns Harbor Bridge, a 2.7 mile long bridge over the Croatan Sound. Going out on this bridge I was easily hitting 22-24 mph and I realized coming back would be a struggle because I was obviously getting helped by the wind.  At the halfway point of the bridge, there was a volunteer with a USA flag on his truck and the flag was out fully straight from the wind. I crossed over the bridge and then headed to the right for the first part of the mainland portion of the bike. Part of that section had some wind problems but not nearly as much as the bridge since it was partially shielded by the trees.  Coming back on that section at one point I was in some sort of zone where I wasn’t paying attention to anything else except the bike and what was in front of me.  It was at that point that my friend Sarah passed me going the other way and yelled out my name. That was enough to STARTLE me out of my zone and raise my heart rate for a bit! But, it quickly settled down and I finished up that first section and turned right with the rest of the half iron participants (the Olympic participants at that point headed back to transition) for the rest of the half iron course. Thankfully that section was short and I was soon headed back to the bridge to go back in and get ready to start the 2nd loop.  Coming up to the bridge I could tell the wind was going to be a huge problem going back over.  As I got onto the bridge my speed dropped dramatically.  While I had managed 22-24 coming out on the bridge, going back it was all I could do to maintain 13-14 mph!  So, I hunkered down in the aero position and just ground out the miles. Once I got off the bridge the trees gave us some cover and my speed went back up to around 20 mph.  At this point the Olympic participants turn right onto Airport Rd and head back to transition while the half iron participants go past the turn and down for a bit until we turn into a school parking lot and turn around for the 2nd lap.  Because it’s a nice sheltered location, there is an aid station here.  I was using Infinit Nutrition’s Go Far mix on the bike, so I didn’t need anything for nutrition but I wanted to grab a water bottle to squirt on me to help lower my temperature.  So, as I rounded the circle for the turn around I grabbed a water bottle and tried to squirt it on me but it didn’t work. Unbelievably, they had apparently neglected to tell the volunteers to remove the extra cap from the top of the water bottle and open them for us! I was a little ticked off but I ended up opening it with my teeth and then pouring about half of it over me. Not ideal but better than nothing. The second lap of the bike was about the same as the first — fast on the way out, long while on the mainland, and then slow as could be coming back across the bridge.  But, I finally finished and headed back on Airport Rd towards transition.  As I got close to the bike dismount I slipped my feet out of the bike shoes and prepared to get off the bike.  I still need to learn how to do a flying dismount, so I simply stopped at the bike dismount and got off the bike and ran it into transition.  Total bike time was 3:06:05 for an average speed of 17.6 mph.

In transition 2 I parked my bike, pulled off my helmet, sweat band, and gloves and then put on some more sunscreen before putting on my running shoes, visor, race belt with number bib and Camelbak loaded with 3 hours worth of Infinit Nutrition’s Jet Fuel before heading out on the run. Total time in transition 2 was 2:46.

The run is an out and back through Manteo. The first mile winds it’s way through the airport on a pretty horrible broken pavement with grass surface. The next couple of miles wind through the town before finally getting onto a greenway for the remaining 3 miles of the out and back course. That means that the first 3 miles and the last 3 miles of the run have basically no shade at all.  And, since at this point it was around 11:30am it was starting to get hot.  I started out at around 11 min/mi which is about the pace I was aiming for on the run.  But, the heat started taking it’s tole and my pace started slowing down at some point.  I managed to run for the first 6 miles and then started walking the aid stations.  Every single aid station I would grab 2 cups of cold water and pour them over my head. This really helped to keep my body temperature from rising precipitously.  And, since I learned my lesson last fall at Ironman Chattanooga about stopping something I made it a point to make sure I did that at every single aid station.  It really worked and although my run wasn’t as fast as I wanted it to be, I never felt really horrible or cramped up.  Final run time was 2:37:55.

Total time for the entire half iron ended up being 6:45:28 which is not really one of my better efforts but considering the conditions I’ll take it.  I spent about 30 minutes or more laying down at the finish and then as I was about to go look for pizza I saw the race results terminals and so on a lark decided to check my official results. When I saw my division ranking, I almost fell over. Apparently I managed to get 2nd in my age group! This is only the 3rd time ever I’ve made it on the podium and needless to say it was quite unexpected. But, I went over and collected my age group prize which was a nice silver pin that said “Age Group” to go onto the ribbon of my finisher medal. (1st AG was a gold pin and 3rd AG was a bronze pin.) I then got pizza and was disappointed there were no soft drinks at all unless I wanted to buy one. Since my wallet was at least a half mile away in my car, that didn’t happen.

After the race I packed up all my stuff and headed back to the hotel. I had thought about going out and getting lunch but instead I ended up dozing a bit before Sarah called about dinner plans. I grabbed a much needed shower and headed out to meet Sarah, Allison and Marianne for dinner at Trios in Nags Head. I had some fabulous manicotti and an interesting mango and habeñero hard cider for dinner. I had a great time talking with my friends and finally headed back to get to sleep so I could get up early for the race the next day. On the way back to the hotel, I stopped by Kill Devil Custard and Beach Fries and got a coconut cream malted shake.  Once back at the hotel, I worked on cleaning my bottles, laying out my clothes for the next day and drying out my running and biking shoes which were completely soaked even though they had been sitting on the AC vent for about 8 hours after the race! I do feel a little pain so I think ill take advantage of the  Home Care Assistance in Bergen County assistance they give my father back home, I do need to rest so they can help me with my father full time at the house

Thanks to a suggestion from my wife, I ended up using the hotel room’s hair dryer to dry my shoes and that worked well enough for me to pack them up for the race the next day.

The next morning again came very early. But, the weather looked like it would be much better for a race as long as the rain would hold off. I packed everything up in the car since I didn’t plan to come back to the hotel and headed off to the race.

I set my bike up again and decided not to worry about a warm up swim this time. The swim would be short enough that it wouldn’t really matter. The swim on Sunday turned out to be better than the swim on Saturday. Comparing my times, I was 15+ seconds/100 yards faster on Sunday and I’m sure most of that can be attributed to calmer water. I came out of the water feeling pretty good. Total swim time was 20:07.

Transition 1 for the sprint went faster but not as fast as I thought it could be. The one thing that was different from the day before was that I didn’t bother with wearing gloves for the sprint. Total T1 time was 3:05.

The sprint bike went out on the bridge just like the day before but then turned right around at about a half mile past the end of the bridge and came right back.  I was pushing more for the sprint (going for 100% effort for the sprint while for the half the day before I was aiming more towards 80%) so even though the wind was about the same as the day before I was faster on both the out and the back.  Going out I was averaging about 25 mph and that was a really awesome feeling.  Coming back, because I was pushing harder than the previous day, I managed about 15-16mph.  The thing I noticed the most about the bike was that it was over so soon compared to the previous day! Total bike time was 39:16 for a 19.6 mph bike average speed.

I pulled my feet out of the shoes again before dismounting the bike and this time around I ran the bike into transition as fast as I could. I wasn’t carrying my own water for the sprint so I just put on my running shoes and race bib belt and grabbed my hat before heading out for the run. Total time in transition 2 was 1:09.

The advice I’ve been given on race pacing for a sprint triathlon is to go out at 80% effort on the swim, hammer the bike as hard as you possibly can and then hold on on the run until you hear the crowd at the finish line and use that to propel you to the end.  So, I headed out on the run going as fast as I could.  Unlike the previous week at the White Lake Fall Sprint where I managed sub-9 minute miles for the run, today I could only manage 9-10 minute miles. But, thankfully the run was short and I was soon headed back.  Bib #1 was also in my age group and although I had managed to pass him on the bike he passed me at about 1.25 miles into the run.  I was determined, however, to try to not let anyone else in my age group pass me.  So, at the final aid station at 3 miles, 0.1 miles from the finish when I saw someone with a 46 for their age on their leg go past me I decided I wasn’t going to let that happen. So, I ended up taking off, passing him back and sprinting as fast as I possibly could to the finish line! I’m pretty sure I found my lactate threshold at that point since I was having trouble getting enough air.  But, once I crossed the finish line, I was able to just lay down for a couple of minutes on the grass and then I was ok.  Total time for the 5K run was 28:56 for a total race time of 1:32:36.

I grabbed my sprint triathlon medal and then the medal for doing the challenge and headed off to see what food there was. Instead of pizza, they had breakfast burritos of either ham, egg, and cheese or just egg and cheese. Since I don’t eat ham, I grabbed an egg and cheese and then went to transition, grabbed my wallet and came back to buy a coke.  I had the burrito and it was so good I went back for a second.  I checked my placing for the sprint race and it said I was 8th.  Looking later online it said I ended up 9th so not sure what was up there.  But, either way I hadn’t expected much so I wasn’t disappointed.  I ended up changing clothes in the parking lot using some beach towels to provide a private changing area and then headed out for lunch before heading home.  I stopped by Big Al’s Soda Fountain & Grill for dinner where they made the best BBQ burgers, with a grill from the Traeger Grill Reviews online.  After lunch, I was going to head home but because I was feeling a bit sleepy, not surprising after getting up at around 5am for the past two days, I stopped by the rest area just before leaving Manteo and dozed for a half hour or so before heading home.

All in all it was a good weekend.  I’m not sure I would do the half/sprint challenge combination again, but I might try the olympic/sprint challenge.  It would have to wait until at least 2019, though, because for 2018 the plan is to do the Augusta 70.3 which will likely be the very next weekend. But, if you’re looking for a good, independent triathlon race you could do a lot worse than the Outer Banks Half, Olympic or Sprint triathlons.

I’ve got the YMCA Wrightsville Beach Sprint triathlon coming up next weekend and am using that as a preview of the 2nd half of the swim for the NC 70.3 coming up in 5 weeks. The NC 70.3 will be my last triathlon for the season and my 10th career triathlon overall. It will be nice to have it as the 10th as it was my first 70.3 back when it was Beach2Battleship. Here’s hoping I can better my time from that very first race.

We did the kilt run first and unfortunately didn’t have enough people to break the Guinness World Record. Oh well, it was a nice little warmup.

We then lined up for the 8K and I really tried to keep it slow. I’ve been doing most of my runs this year between 9 and 10 min/mi. For this one I ended up at 11:17 min/mi so I think I did fairly well. Raleigh is very hilly so that was a factor too. But I finished in 56:09, spent some time at the expo afterward, signed up for the Octoberfest 8K (the virtual version since I’m busy the day of the actual race) and then headed on to Wilmington to get ready for my half marathon the very next day.

Full race results can be seen at Athlinks: https://www.athlinks.com/event/8829/results/Event/527213/Course/785177/Bib/799

Having never done this race, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But, it turned out to be a nice little race. It seemed like it too forever for my number to come up for the swim start but it finally did. The swim went well and then there was a decently long run to the transition area. The bike went well. This was my very first race on my new Quintana Roo PR5. Since it was early in the season, I didn’t feel like I had as much power on the bike as I wanted, but examining it afterward my coach adjusted my FTP up very slightly (ok by 1 watt). I passed a lot of people and was only passed by one or two people that I remember. The run was very flat and I was amazed afterward to see that I had logged some sub-9 minute miles on the run! My run time was within 2 minutes of my stand-alone 5K PR so that was pretty good. Final time was just over one hour: 1:01:36. Now I need to do this race next year to try to break 1 hour!

Swim: 6:24 (including the long run to transition)
T1: 2:33 (this could be much faster)
Bike: 24:25 (22.1 mph!)
T2: 1:12 (again, could be faster)
Run: 27:05 (stand-alone PR is 25:21 so to get this close in a triathlon was amazing)

Full results can be seen over at Athlinks: https://www.athlinks.com/event/31515/results/Event/524985/Course/780665/Bib/297

October 2012 I did my first triathlon, the Rex Wellness Knightdale super sprint. September 2013 I did my first Olympic triathlon, the Outer Banks Triathlon. October 2014 I did my first half iron triathlon, Beach2Battleship. I must have liked B2B so much that I signed up for it again for 2015, this time for the full.

On the advice of my physical therapist, a triathlete herself, I signed up with a coach, Marty Gaal of One Step Beyond. This turned out to be a great idea. While I could have found a canned training plan and tried to fit it to my life, more likely I would have screwed something up or possibly skipped workouts at times. But with a coach, I could confer with him and work things around my schedule. Also, unlike in previous training cycles where I’ve had a few days where I skipped workouts, knowing that a coach was waiting to see that I’d done my workouts turned out to be a surprisingly good motivator.

So, after training all summer, I headed down to Wilmington the Thursday before the race. I made it there in time to pick up my packet before the expo closed that day and then headed over to my hotel, checked in then joined a group from one of my tri clubs, the Inside Out Sports Tri Club, for dinner that evening.

Friday morning I headed down to Wrightsville Beach to do an easy practice swim with the tri club. The race swim starts at the southern tip of Wrightsville Beach and continues up Banks Channel before turning left near a water tower and heading to some docks. It’s done with the tide so the portion before the turn you can mostly just let the current push you along but once you turn the current doesn’t work for you as much. For the Friday morning swim we essentially simply swam from the swim turn to the swim exit pausing every now and then to check where the current was. This gave us a good idea of what line to take for the race.

The rest of Friday was spent getting my various bags together to turn in for transition 2, post race clothes, and bike and run special needs. I went to the athletes dinner Friday evening and then arranged to meet my friends for the 5:15 AM bus to transition 1. I set my alarm for 3:45 AM and attempted to get some sleep.

 Saturday morning came bright and early. I woke up before my alarm went off and got ready then headed down to the bus to meet my friends. At transition one I set up my bike transition bag then headed over to drop shoes off at the swim exit. I had not brought shoes last year when I did this race and really wanted them when running across the road. After doing all that I got on the shuttle to the swim start. At the swim start I walked around a bit trying to see who was around and to keep warm. I ran into several friends and spent a while hunkered down between two cars trying to avoid the wind. A little after 7 AM my wife and son showed up on bikes and we headed down to the beach to the actual swim start.

 The swim itself went well. I went through the start gate and headed towards the center of the channel to try and get to the current and also to stay out of the way of other swimmers.

 As expected the swim was congested but I managed to stay out of the worst of the scrum and avoid getting hit or kicked. Several times, though, I did have to pause and let swimmers by when two swimmers converged on me. About halfway through the swim the chop became more noticeable. It wasn’t too bad but it was enough to bounce you around a little bit. But I was able to make the turn and then cut the corners heading towards the swim exit. I finished the swim in about the time I expected to and headed up the ramp to the wetsuit strippers. After getting my wetsuit stripped off I grabbed my shoes and headed towards the warm showers passing over the timing mat. Total swim time was one hour five minutes exactly.

 As I was washing off the salt in the showers I ran into my friend Kim who is also coached by Marty Gaal. We ended up running across the street at the same time.

  I then ran across the street, waved to my wife and son, picked up my transition bag and headed into the changing tent. In the changing tent I quickly stripped down and dried off and started putting on dry clothes. I put on tri shorts, my optical heart rate monitor, arm warmers, bike jersey, shoes and gloves. I also applied sunscreen to the places I thought would be uncovered. I tried to go quickly but slow enough to make sure I did everything correctly. It ended up taking longer than I wanted, however, and I finished transition 1 in just under 15 minutes. I then dropped off my T1 bag, grabbed my bike and headed out on the bike course.
 The bike started out good. I was aiming for 65 to 70% of my FTP so I kept watch on my power meter values. The first 20 miles while we were on the freeway went quickly and then we turned on to 421 N. and the headwinds hit. The headwinds were strong enough that all I wanted to do was crouch as low as possible to try and slip through the wind as easily as I could. From mile marker 20 to mile marker 51 though it was a struggle. Finally however we turned off 421 and headed west. At this point the wind became less of a factor although with anything north or east we still had to deal with wind. I stopped briefly at most aid stations refilling my water in the front container on my bike. I made a mistake at one aid station however and accidentally put Heed into my hydration container instead of water. I ended up having to pull my hydration container off, dump it out completely and refill it with water and that cost me a short amount of time but it was worth it. Every 20 minutes I would take two sips of Infinit from the bottles behind my seat and two sips of water from the hydration bottle in front of my handlebars. At bike special needs I swapped out the two bottles of Infinit behind my seat with two new bottles and fill them up with water. It would have been quicker to have the bottles already filled with liquid rather than powder but I was worried that they would spill and leak so I waited to fill them in till I got to the bike special needs aid station. Somewhere just after mile marker 70 I had an ambulance with lights flashing speed past me. A few minutes later I went past the ambulance that had now stopped and noticed them loading a cyclist onto a backboard. I found out later he had a concussion and facial fractures but it look like he would be OK. I heard later that he ended up in the ditch by trying to avoid a water bottle on the road but he doesn’t remember and no one knows for sure. I had two incidents during my ride where I almost ended up hitting traffic cones and could have easily crashed but thankfully I was able to avoid them. Around mile marker 100 we turned back onto 421, this time heading south, and picked up a very nice tailwind. With the tailwind I was able to average well over 20 mph at only 60% of FTP 10 of the last 12 miles. This was a welcome respite heading into transition 2. Finally, though, I reached the convention center and gave my bike to a volunteer. Total time on the bike was six hours 17 minutes and 11 seconds.

At transition 2 I changed out of my bike jersey and arm warmers and into a tri top. I was very glad I had the arm warmers on the bike but didn’t want to wear it for the entire run. I also switched my heart rate monitor since the optical heart rate monitor I use is only good for eight hours. I quickly applied sunscreen, used the bathroom and headed out towards the run. Transition time was again too long at 12 minutes 6 seconds.

My goal for the run was to stay in zone 2 for as long as I could. I probably should have started out a bit slower, however. The 1st mile I ended up being under 10 minutes which was way too fast for me for this race. My next 2 miles were closer to 11 minutes/mile and then I dropped down closer than 12 minutes/mile which would have been a more sustainable pace. Every 20 minutes I filled up one of my bottles with more Infinit and refilled my water bottle and continued on. I was trying to run the entire first lap of the race, 13 miles, but somewhere along mile nine my muscles got sore enough that I had to walk some. For the next 5 miles I averaged between 13 and 14 minutes/mile with a mix of running and walking. I stopped briefly at the run special needs aid station to swap out nutrition. In hindsight I should have also put a jacket or some extra arm warmers in my run special needs bag because I got cold when the sun set. But, I didn’t so I just continued on. At this point I was walking more than I was running and my split times showed it. For 4 miles I averaged closer to 15 minutes/mile at which point walking started to hurt just as much as running did so I switched back to running all the time except when going through aid stations. Finally, with 3 miles to go my Garmin popped up a low battery notice. At that point I decided I needed to get to the finish line quickly before my GPS died so I picked up the pace. My last 3 miles were all closer to 12 minutes/mile. I finally crossed the finish line with a run time of five hours 44 minutes and 35 seconds. My total race time was 13 hours 33 minutes and 29 seconds.

In general I have to say I was pleased with my swim, pleased with my bike, and somewhat disappointed with my transitions and run. On transitions I need to work on being faster and perhaps not switching out as much things. For running I think I need to concentrate on getting down to my ideal race weight as well as more practice running off the bike or in a tired state. Overall though I had a good race and I was very glad I did it, especially now that Ironman has bought B2B and changed the name to Ironman North Carolina.  I’m looking forward to doing Ironman Chattanooga next year and now I have things to work on for it. For Chattanooga I also think I will need more hill training and getting down to an ideal race weight will also help with that. All in all, though, it was a good race.

So, what’s happened since my last blog post? First, I trained for and ran my first marathon: the Raleigh Rock-n-Roll Marathon. If you are thinking of doing a marathon for the first time, let me give you a bit of advice. Pick a different race. While I did the half last year and had lots of fun, and I had lots of fun this year too, I think the Raleigh course is just too hilly for a first marathon. I had hoped to finish in under 4:45 but with the hills I was lucky to come in under five hours. I just barely made it, crossing the finish line in 4:59:38. While I don’t plan on doing another marathon this year, except for my iron distance triathlon, I may look into doing another one next year and if I do I’m going to pick something flat. Either the Tobacco Road (although, maybe not since spectator support there is apparently very weak) or the Wrightsville Beach marathon. My Garmin 920XT seems to think I could to a marathon in under 4 hours but I think that would have to be on flat and perhaps 20 pounds lighter.

Anyway, at the moment, my next big race is the Raleigh 70.3. Unfortunately, I’ve had a few bumps in the road getting there. Just over two weeks ago, while heading out for a bike ride, I slipped and fell on the stairs in my garage and hit my arm. While I didn’t break it, I managed to end up with a hematoma the size of a chicken’s egg! This was possibly caused by the fact that I went out and did my hour long bike ride after the fall! In any case, I ended up in a sling for a week and then took it easy for another week and therefore lost two weeks of training! It’s just this week that I’m back to my training schedule.

This evening, I managed to get my first open water swim of the year in with a group that swims on Wednesdays and Fridays out at Falls Lake. I’m very glad I got out, even if I didn’t do that much because this Sunday I am signed up for the Jordan Lake Open Water Swim. I’m doing that in conjunction with the Inside-Out Sports Triathlon Club’s Raleigh 70.3 Preview ride so I will, in effect, get both a preview swim and ride for my upcoming half iron race at the end of the month. Never mind that I had two weeks off. I’m pretty sure I can do them both, I just won’t break any time records doing so.

After that, the next weekend I will be racing the Cary Long Course Duathlon. This will be my first ever duathlon and it will be interesting to see how it goes. I actually won an entry into this race at my triathlon club’s annual kickoff party back in Feb/Mar (so long ago I don’t remember exactly when it was!).  Again, I’m not expecting to break any speed records, but it will help me remember how to handle transitions.

The other big news since December is that my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer back in February/March. Now, any cancer is bad news, but since the diagnosis we’ve probably gotten the best news we could have possibly gotten. The cancer came back as only stage 1. It had not migrated to the lymph nodes yet. It was removed successfully via a lumpectomy. And, while she is currently undergoing radiation treatment and will then do hormone therapy afterward, she will not need to have chemotherapy. So, while we would rather she just not have gotten the cancer in the first place, we feel fairly blessed with how things have gone since then. That, obviously, puts a bit of strain on my training plans, but by and large I’ve been able to work around that.

Also, I recently spent two weekends taking the Boy Scout Wood Badge advanced leadership training. As part of that, I now have 18 months in which to accomplish some goals that I defined. All of my goals have to do with adding more STEM to my son’s Boy Scout troop. The Boy Scouts have a STEM program via a set of awards called Nova and Supernova. Unfortunately, at the moment, they aren’t well known and hardly anyone even bothers to do the requirements for them. I aim to chance that, for our troop at least.

I guess that’s enough for the moment. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this up and start regularly reporting on my race training. As soon as the Raleigh 70.3 is done I hope to retain the services of a triathlon coach in my quest to finish my first iron distance race: the Beach2Battleship full in Wilmington in October. While I have now run a full marathon, I have yet to swim 2.4 miles or bike 112 miles so getting there will be quite a journey.

For 2015 I’m currently signed up to run my first marathon in April (Raleigh Rock-n-Roll), the Raleigh 70.3 half iron triathlon (May 31) and the Beach2Battleship full iron distance triathlon in October. I will probably also do several smaller races. To make sure I can make it through all these events, I went to see a physical therapist today. I already knew my core muscles were weak but I didn’t realize just how tight they all were. So, I’m going to be working through this for a while until I can get my body back into shape. We’ll see how it goes.

Swim – I normally tend to lose all my energy after a short effort, but today I managed to pace myself very well. I only stopped a couple of times and they were mainly just to try to sight where the next buoy was. We did a counter-clockwise swim and after the first turn we were facing the sun and the only thing I could see was glare. So, I followed the crowd as best I could until I could finally see the next two buoys. The water was very cold so I’m very glad I had my wetsuit. It was cold enough that I didn’t want to put my face in the water so I swam most of the time with it up (not ideal, but the wetsuit helped keep me more up than I would have been otherwise). I finished the swim feeling pretty good, although it took me a bit going up to the transition area to get my legs back.

T1 – Getting the wetsuit off wasn’t too bad, as long as I didn’t rush. I did have to take my Garmin 310XT off first, but with the quick connect that was easy. I should have put it directly on the bike then, but I put it back on my wrist and had to transfer it to the bike as I exited transition. Not a big deal. I went ahead and put socks on in T1. I thought about this beforehand. I’ve ridden my bike without socks a lot and it’s not a problem (my shoes are designed for that) but I haven’t done much biking yet this year and after getting blisters on my feet during the run of the Outer Banks Tri last year I just decided to play it safe and go with socks. Also, I figured that would make T2 quicker to do it now.

Bike – The bike felt fast. But, about a mile after exiting the park, a dump truck passed me and didn’t get over at all! It startled me so much, that it forced me off onto the gravel on the side of the road. Thankfully, there was a shoulder (I think it was a driveway) and somehow, some way I was able to get my hands off the aerobars and onto the brakes and slow down. I really thought I was going to go down, but the worst that happened was that I just had to stop for a few seconds. After that, thankfully, I had no more problems with cars. Last year I was averaging about 15 mph on the bike on long rides but now that I’m spending more time in the aerobars I managed to average 17.1 mph on this ride. It was awesome.

T2 – This went fairly quickly. Just off with the helmet and bike shoes, slip on the running shoes, buckle my race belt on, grab a water bottle and a few GUs and off I went.

Run – The run started off, of course, with the legs feeling like they had just biked 16 miles. Also, my run cadence sensor wasn’t working so I just tried to replicate what I’ve been working on for the past month or so and keep my cadence as high as I could. It worked. My first mile was just under about 11 minutes but then I cranked out a couple of 9 and a half minute miles and then sprinted the last 0.1 mile at 8 and a half minutes per mile to come in at an average of 9:57 min/mi for the 5K. A year ago I would have killed for that pace in just a 5K by itself, never mind a triathlon. So, apparently all the run training I did this winter is paying off.

Total time on my Garmin for the race was 1:56:58. Overall, I feel I had probably the best triathlon I’ve done so far. It was certainly a great way to start my season.

I’m hoping I can continue at this rate for a while since my goal is to lose around 60 pounds. I may have more of a problem right now since at the moment I’m currently under doctor’s orders to do “no exertion” until he can figure out why last Wednesday I had a thunderclap headache that sent me to the emergency room. I’ve got an MRI scheduled this coming Wednesday that will hopefully find out more about that and I’m hopeful that once that is done I will be able to get back to exercising regularly.

Anyway, I will try to post on healthmania news at least monthly updates on my dieting progress.