2nd Ironman: The Fixes That Worked

Though my 2nd Ironman at Louisville this year wasn't much of a success due to the bike mechanical that left me by the side of the road for an hour and 20' waiting for the entire race to pass me, I was still able to finish and test my theoretical fixes I had in place for the problems I encountered at the first. (See May 2013 post "First Ironman: Mistakes and Lessons ")

1. Swimming easier. My form never broke down and I actually swam faster for a much, much easier effort with little to no swimming going into the race. Though the course was likely 6' faster from current, I was still 3' faster which suggests that very little time was lost from this strategy and that next time a balance between the two will yield not only the best time but the best result.

2. Waiting to pee on the bike. I skipped the port-a-potty in T1 in favor of a nice downhill stretch on the bike. When shooting for Kona, minutes and seconds count.

3. Leaving a bottle cage empty to place extra bottles from aid stations. This was a big one. It allowed me to keep much cooler by grabbing not only the Gatorade bottle I would need for nutrition but also a water bottle to use only to periodically douse my head and body with water. I had planned on finding a different flat tire setup to add a cage to the rear of my bike, but ended up just racing with no regular bottles and only some initial water in my front aero bottle. This worked perfectly. It allowed me to stash a regular bottle for cooling in my single frame cage and then grab a Gatorade bottle at the end of the aid station to refill the aero bottle (while still allowing some tweaking of the Gatorade concentration later on in the race with the bottle of water on the frame). I found no need for anything more.

4. Wearing a hat on the run. The hat I got from Vegas 70.3 last year was white and made of coolmax material so I decided to try that. The difference was big. While the heat was much less than Texas (about 5° lower, but the big difference was the amount of shade and an extra close aid station instead of one extra far apart), instead of feeling like I was melting for the entire run, I actually felt COLD. Being able to stuff ice inside the hat to keep the head cold was a major benefit in the heat.

5. Bending the head when pouring water over it on the run. This simple trick worked perfectly for keeping water out of the shoes. My feet stayed dry for about 18 miles, and by that time, I don't care if things are getting a bit wet and squishy. The Hoka Bondi S2's worked great.

Overall, it was a positive and very enjoyable experience. Can't wait for Ironman Boulder in 2014!