Race Reports: St. George and Boise 70.3 Ironman

By Dr. Michael Cerami

Thanks for being patient with my postings. I feel like there are finally a few minutes to relax and catch up. I had 2 70.3 Ironman races in the last 6 weeks which had very different outcomes.

My St. George race did not go as planned. I had a mechanical issue with a rear tire on my bike that cost me a lot of time. I was finally able to salvage the race because of the generosity of a guy named Ryan who owns Kompetitive Edge http://www.kompetitiveedge.com/ (an online triathlon website) who lend me his brand new wheel to finish my race with.

My time was way off what I expected but I was happy to be able to complete the race considering the other option was to sit around for 6 hours and watch the race pass me by.

BTW: This race should be called “The Map is Not the Territory”. I looked at the race guide many times and thought that the hills didn’t look too bad. As I usually ride the run course a day or two prior to the race, I decided to verify my information. Whoa, was I ever wrong! There were 4 big hills with a max 8% grade. 

The Boise race was a totally different animal. The weather was awesome and quite a bit different than last year’s disastrous conditions (see screenshot). It’s kind of a weird race because they start the race at 12 noon every year to accommodate to the early season temps. Ah well, you get what you get.

I think our age group started in the 4^th wave so we were pretty close to the front. I didn’t set any records but was very happy with my exit time considering we had some decent chop after the 1^st and 2^nd buoy from a headwind.  I have been working on my technique all winter and it resulted cutting 5 minutes off my average swim split in the last two races.  I felt great exiting the water and lost a little time in T1 with getting my bike shoes on but was on my way pretty quickly. My bike computer died the night before in the hotel room which was probably a good thing in that I rode completely by feel which was quite fun J. I held a very consistently pace through the entire ride and was hoping to pick it up a little for the last 10 miles of the ride because it was a gentle downhill ride into T2. The headwind nixed that idea almost immediately. It wasn’t tough but consistent and mentally a bit challenging at that point in the race. I rolled into transition #2 (they moved T2 to the park and now it’s a nice grassy area which I love) at a bike time just a little over 3 hours and feeling pretty good.

The run: My opinion = OK result. I talked to my coach Cari about this and we think I may have focused too much on my heart rate as I was thinking it was running too high and she reminded me that during a race there’s always going to be a certain amount of HR “drift” from the excitement of the competition. I neglected to add in those extra beats during the run and consequently was slowing down to lower my heart rate which I probably didn’t need to do. Another lesson learned. Final race time: 6:00:05; 6^th in my age group.

Overall, the race went well for me although I still need to figure out how to get more speed and endurance out of my legs on the run. I should be easily capable of running a sub 2 hour ½ marathon. I’ll keep working on it.

After the finish I was tired and sore and wondered while I was sitting on the back bumper of a rental U-Haul truck why I keep doing these things to myself. Then I remembered that I NEVER make any decisions about a race until at least 48 hours after the finish. Within a week I was ready to get back at it.

Next up: My return engagement with Boulder 70.3 in early August followed THE BIG ONE; Tahoe Ironman in September.

Thanks again for all of your interest and support.

Dr. Mike  

Dr. Michael Cerami owns Utah Sports and Wellness and has been a competitive triathlete for over 18 years. He is available for a no charge consultation one Saturday per month at The Salt Lake Running Company (700 East store) by appointment. He can be reached at 801-486-1818 or online at www.utahsportsandwellness.com