Heading to Las Vegas - 2013 Ironman 70.3 St George Race Report

Finally in UTAH!

So the 2013 road trip is now well underway. It was probably not the most ideal lead up to the first race of the season, but it seemed to work. I headed to Shearwater (near Halifax), N.S. on Sunday for a quick trip for work and returned on Wednesday morning. Claudia and the kids left from Cold Lake on Tuesday spent the night in Airdrie and picked me up at the airport. We set off for the States and made it to Idaho Falls on the first day. The second day we made the final drive to St George in time so that I could do package pick-up.

Friday morning I elected to delay my workouts until after lunch and spent the morning relaxing at the Green Valley Resort with the kids. In the afternoon I headed out to Sand Hollow Park for a quick swim and then a bike/run brick. It was the first swim in open water for the year and with a new wetsuit, a Nineteen Rogue. The swim felt good and the new wetsuit felt like I had way more flexibility in the shoulders, more buoyancy, and significantly warmer.  I made my maiden voyage on the E-118 on the road. It felt good though it was evident that I probably needed more practice on my descents. Unfortunately, that’s life living in Cold Lake where this weekend is probably one of the first where you could venture out on the road.

Race morning was a fairly standard routine. I had the usual breakfast: coffee, bagel, and a couple eggs. We headed out the door at 0445hrs and Claudia and the kids dropped me off at T1. It’s a bit unfortunate, but given the logistics of Sand Hollow Reservoir, Claudia and the kids elected to drop me off and stay in town to ensure they got to see me on the bike and run. I was in the 7^th wave and we started at 0718hrs. It was a clean start and there was surprisingly little contact. I went out pretty hard and tried to find a pair of feet to draft off with mixed success. The water was quite calm and thankfully we had no repeat of last year. I felt strong throughout the swim and was ecstatic to see 32:16 on my watch as I exited the swim. That’s almost a 3min improvement from last year. I’m thinking that’s a combination of better consistency in swimming this winter and a new Nineteen Rogue wetsuit.

Into and through T1 and for me this is where the race really starts to unfold. I was looking to hold ~240W for the bike and limit my exceedences into the 280+W category. The E-118 felt great and though the fit may not be exactly dialed in, it felt really good. I was careful to monitor my watts on the climbs, but for the most part I tried to go by feel and occasionally checked my Edge 500. The ride felt very good up until we started the climb up into Snow Canyon State Park. It was a pretty brutal climb from my perspective and definitely makes this race a challenge. I was content with the bike 2:28:20 (Avg 227W and 236NP); however, I know that I can definitely go harder.  This is probably the hardest part of the race for me - trying to force myself to push and hold the power I know I can sustain, though it’s uncomfortable. 

T2 was uneventful and I made a quick stop to the blue rocket. It was out to the run course, which I knew would be brutal. As I excited T2, I mentally calculated that if I ran a 1:24 I would have a sub 4:30 HIM.  I am exaggerating, but you essentially climb for the first half of the run and then turn around and run downhill for the second part. There is some variation, but that’s the run course in a nutshell . The plan was to aim for about a 3:50/km pace and push it if able after about 8kms. I knew the run would be more about pushing the hills and then hammering on the downhills to gain back lost time. That’s essentially what I did. I gazed at my Garmin 910xt once throughout the run and simply pushed as hard as I felt able. Similar to the bike, it’s always hard pushing when you don’t have someone right there pushing you on. Knowing there is probably a few people up the road is normally enough incentive to shift into a higher gear. I was happy to hammer down Diagonal Street and make the final turn down Main St to the finishing shoot. There was no one else near me so I elected to high five the crowd as I finished the race. I was satisfied with my run when I looked and saw 1:23 on my watch. My actual time was 1:23:14.

The Maley Race Team - In the words of Meredith Kessler, "I'm just the technician." This is a big part of my team!!!

 Overall Race Time 4:29:36. 4^th in M30-34 AG, 8^th Amateur, and an Ironman 70.3 World Championship slot to Las Vegas!

M30-34 Podium. Some smoking fast guys!

Pros

 -New Swim PB at the 70.3 Distance by almost 3 minutes.

 -Solid race execution for the start of the 2013 Season

Cons

 -Bike consistency (need to dig a little deeper and hold the prescribed watts)

 - Transitions (definately room to shave a minute or two)

A big thanks to all those joining me for the journey in 2013! My coach Brian Grasky, my shop Element, my ride Argon 18, my shoes Brooks, my compression apparel Compressport Canada, and my training partner X-1 Audio.

Up next a pit stop in Phoenix to visit the zoo and then Tucson for a couple days.