Desert Half Ironman

The Desert Half Ironman took place July 8th in Osoyoo’s, BC.  It was the Canadian Long Course National Championship.  That basically brings out all the best athlete’s in BC, some from Alberta and even a couple of strong guys from WA.  It is a nice tune up for Ironman Canada which arrives August 26th.

The swim is in a nice/small lake right in the town of Osoyoo’s.  The bike is tough!  It immediately goes up Ricter Pass (30ish min climb), down a bit, then through a set of 7 good sized hills (I think 7).  There is a brief section of flatter and downhill riding near the turnaround but then it is back into the hills and over Ricter one more time.  The run is fairly flat with only a few short hills.  It can get hot in Osoyoos too, temperatures have been 95-105 (35-40C) most days for the past week.

My Plan –

I signed up for this race on Tuesday.  I did not alter my training plan for it because I want to stay on track for IM Canada.  I did substitute my hard bike/swim with the race.  I did it because I wanted to test two things before Canada.  1: Where is my biking at right now, how well am I climbing, can I go hard for 30minutes and still hold a steady pace? AND 2.  See if I can handle more calories on the run because I got so weak at the Victoria Intl. Half IM.

I was hoping to run at IM pace or slightly faster and then run the last 5 miles hard.

It was a tough choice to do this in such a high calibre race because I knew this was not how to achieve the fastest time for me on this day.  But sometimes you have to let go of the ego.

The Day –

Swim went well, I did not take any risks.  Probably should have started faster.  It was really physical the first 300m since I was in a group of 8-10 people.  After that, many faded and we were down to a goup of 4 which was much more cooperative.

Headed up Richter and I pushed the pace.  I was pushing 300-320 Watts.  My legs got pretty tight and I did not feel all that good.  I passed 4-5 guys but a couple of them passed my back at the top and a couple of the other strong guys caught up. 

I tried to hang with 3-4 guys but I was getting more and more tight and tired.  I had to back off.  I ended up in no man’s land with no one really ahead or behind me for the rest of the ride.

I was able to ride a fairly solid steady pace though (at or just above IM pace) and my HR was really low (in IM zones).  So that was really encouraging.  I was not happy about my weakness climbing.  So I have some more strength and hill work to do.  Based on the race, my lungs and heart and are in great shape but my leg muscles are not ready to keep up yet.  So, I am focusing more on wts and on some harder rides.

My run was solid.  I was running to plan the first half, I tried to pick it up but every time I went over a HR of 160, my left hamstring would start to cramp up.  So, I ended up “cruising” the run.  I wanted to finish hard but it was not to happen on this day.

Synopsis

Great training day.  I recovered really quick and had no delayed onset muscle soreness.  My energy is good.  I did a spd swim and track workout on Wednesday and they did not feel any harder than usual.

Time for the hard weeks, so far so good for IM Canada….

SkM

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