HITS Grand Junction Half - Mistakes = long day!

dellota

I participated in the HITS half in Grand Junction this weekend and was looking forward to a great day as my training numbers have been right on as I get ready for Ironman CDA. I ended up having a long day due to little mistakes.

 The swim was fine. 62 degree water and I came out in a little over 26 minutes. I did get too close to the lake edge/bluff and ended up trying to swim in a foot of water. Lesson - try to stay away from lake edge as you won't really know what the depth will be.

Got on the bike and noticed that my power meter had not linked up with my Garmin. Lesson - link power meter to Garmin and zero power meter before the race. Spent the next 1-2 mile trying to get it to link up and realized that the battery must be dead. Lesson - replace all batteries prior to the race even if they have been recently changed. While trying to get the power meter to link up, I blasted through a turn and don't even notice there is no one around for the next 1.5 miles. I only notice when the paved road turns to gravel and I must be off course. I turn back toward the race and when I finally get back on course, I have done an extra 3 miles (10 mins). It was tough continuing to race knowing I had just given up 10 minutes but I figured the day was now a long training day. Lesson - If the power meter is not working after your first attempt to fix things, except it and move forward. I am now racing without a power meter and it is a little strange since all my training has been done focusing on that power. I am sure my watts where way too high during the ride as a result.

The run started and legs didn't feel too bad until the hills. The problem was that my Garmin wasn't linking with the satellites and I didn't know what my pace was. Couldn't understand why because satellite tracking was working perfectly on the bike. I gave up on the Multisport function and cleared the watch so that I could use the Run function to find that I had been running WAY to hard during the first 3 miles. Slowed back down to race pace and hit the halfway point feeling OK. Picked up the pace a little so that I could negative split the run only to have the wheels fall off with 3 miles to go. Too many watts on the bike and too hard early in the run finally caught up to me. Run/walked the rest of the way to the finish. Lesson - listen to your perceived effort so that you don't have to rely on your watch.

 Long day but important lessons learned including not to forget the sunblock even when it is overcast and cool in the morning. Sunburned and humbled, but much wiser for the experience. These were dumb mistakes that I was reminded about again even after 15 years of racing. I won't repeat these before Ironman CDA!

Al Truscott

Boy, what a valuable race heading into IM CDA! Sunscreen, stupidly slow pacing in the first six miles of the run, making a list and checking it twice - you've got all that in your brain now, so it wont bite you race day, right?

tim cronk

Kriss, Lots to think about... You have already experienced and addressed most of them... Review the 4keys... Specifically the part about staying in your box and controlling only that which you can control... I have had power meter failures twice right before a race and have read numberous reports of people stopping and trying to get them working etc. They taught me not to become a slave to the devices/data and also to provide myself with back up's. Reference sunscreen .... Highly recommend SCAPE

robin sarner

Nutrition an issue too?   What did you take in?

ezellrh

Kriss, as one that just finished IMTexas with a dead Garmin 500 (battery died about 10 minutes into the race), I feel your pain. Lots of little lessons that will make you that much better prepared for CDA. Regardless, congrats on another finish!

Kathleen Spillane

It seems that you took away lots of lessons. I still find ways to either make mistakes or have crap happen in 18 yrs of racing. To me the key is to not let yourself get rattled trying to make everything go according to plan, and think about what you need to do to continue moving relentlessly forward.

dellota

I had my usual Ironman replacement drink and some chews. There were only 2 aid stations on the bike so I may have gotten behind. I honestly did feel too bad until mile 10 of the run after too much effort on the bike and first 3 miles of the run.