I just finished a nice 3-week racing & training block, which featured Ironman 70.3 Syracuse on June 23, and the Musselman Half Iron on July 14.  Worth noting:  I did both of these races with absolutely NO data.  Not even a watch.  Now, onto the race reports, and I’m going to keep them BRIEF…

Syracuse

6th pro, 4:25:33

Went out on the swim, and much to my delight, I was in a swim pack with 5 other athletes.  This was actually the first time I ever made a legit pro swim pack. Exciting! (thanks blueseventy!)  It was great, as I actually felt like I was “in the race” coming out of T1, instead of having to play “catch up”.

I attacked hard on the climbs early in the bike, and worked my way up to 7th by the time we hit T2.   The run was a bit of a suffer fest, as the temps were in the low-90’s, and there is a huge hill that we had to go up twice. I worked my way into 6th, and was pleased with the effort when I crossed the finish line.

In this race, I was most happy with my biking.  I feel like I finally had my bike 100% dialed in, and it’s the best I’ve ever felt on the bike during a race.   The Quintana Roo CD 0.1 frame, Reynolds 72/90 aero wheel set, and Schwalbe Ultremo ZLX tires are a VERY fast combo.

Musselman

1st place, 4:20:51

Musselman is one of the “gems” of triathlon, and is a race that everyone should do at least once.  I LOVE upstate NY, and the Finger Lakes, and I’m very proud that this race showcases our region so well.

I was in a “negative headspace” leading in to the race, because of some things unrelated to my own racing, but… it was race day, so it was “go time”, regardless of what was going on in my noggin!

The swim started out well, as I was in the lead pack for about 900 meters.  But then I started overheating (the water was just barely below the wetsuit cutoff temperature), and so I fell off the pack, and took it in solo for the last 1000 meters.  I was about 2-3 minutes behind the leaders coming out of T1

For the first 10 miles of the bike, my legs felt like garbage.  But, I was passing people, so I figured that maybe things weren’t going too poorly.  By around mile 25, I was in 3rd, and feeling pretty good about things (I’m sure the natural caffeinated gels from Clif Bar helped with that, haha!). The 2nd place rider and I stayed relatively close to each other from there until we got into T2, about 2 minutes behind the leader.

One of the main contenders had to drop out 2 miles into the run, because of a lower leg issue, and by mile 3, I had taken over the lead in the race.  I pushed hard until about mile 4, and then settled down.  I had a lead of about a minute, and was in control of the race, so I figured there was no need to take any risks by pushing things too hard in that brutal 90-degree heat.  Unfortunately, I got a little bit too complacent. Mary Eggers quickly got my attention at mile 8 when she said someone had gotten within 45 seconds of me.  I had no idea who it was, but I figured I had to do something about it.  So, I hit the “turbo button”, and hammered it home for the last 5 miles.  My final margin of victory was about 5:30, so it ended up being a comfortable margin.  But I had no idea what was going on behind me, so I didn’t relax until after I crossed the finish line.

Moving on…

My next race will be Ironman Lake Placid, on July 28.  That’s very close, so I need to focus heavily on recovery between now and then.  Which means I’m going to be consuming a lot of fish oil from The Zone Diet, drinking plenty of Biotta beet juice, and spending a TON of time doing compression therapy in my Normatec MVP’s.

There’s going to be a strong field at Lake Placid, and I look forward to the challenge.  I feel strong, lean, and I’m going to show up ready to attack that course with everything that I have. Giddy up!

Until next time… keep training hard, and resting harder,

Doug MacLean