Toughman Race Report

This was my second year in the elite field at the Toughman Half Ironman, in Croton-on-Hudson. I was looking forward to this race as a good indicator of my fitness and as an opportunity to get out and race against a quality field. I had been getting back into race form for a month, since taking the better part of the summer as bike base block.

Swim: 16:40
This race has a notoriously short swim, as you can tell by my time, and there is a slight current that you swim Iwith during the back half. I had a poor start to the race. The water was very shallow for about 2-300 yds and I chose to start swimming very early. My HR tends to spike when I dolphin dive and I wanted to settle in early. Well, I found myself way down on a number of people and overcompensated. I had pulled into second well before the turn buoy, but was rattled and swimming hard. I turned wide as well and was motioned in by several kayaks along the way. But I exited the water only 1:22 down on John Kenny, who is one of the best swimmers in the sport, so I was happy with the effort. The previous year I had been first out of the water against the same people who were behind me, but was passed in transition. While I was still somewhat slow in T1, I held my position heading out onto the bike.

Bike: 2:56:15
I had a hard time getting my HR to settle early in the bike, and about 1.5 miles in you start to climb. I was getting to the top of the climb, just before the 4 mile mark, shifting between chain rings when I dropped my chain. I thought this would be an easy fix, but it was jammed between the crank and the frame pretty good. Thanks to all the police officers/officials who stopped and tried to help! Finally after 20 minutes, the third officer was able to kick it free. At this point, I had been passed by about 150 people and was totally out of the race. I knew I wanted to finish, as my parents had trekked out to watch me, so I reset my bike computer and treated it as a tough training ride from there on out. When you race enough, these types of things will happen. I was pleased with my effort from that point forward. I settled into a good rhythm on the long out and back stretch, to end the first loop, and was passing people frequently. This helped keep my motivation up as I was continually bridging up to the next group. As the second loop started I knew that I wasn't going to be able to shift down to the small chain ring. Normally I don't spend too much time there, while I'm racing, but it would have been nice to spin a little bit more going up the climbs just past the halfway point. I could tell I was exerting myself for no gain, but told myself it was good training for my next two races, which were going to be IM length or greater, on the bike. I had timed my split for the 10 miles in and out of the far turnaround so that I could compare loops. I wanted to maintain the same effort for both loops, and was pleased that my output was the same 75 min apart (with the hills in between).

Run: 1:30:29
Coming off the bike, I decided I didn't want to push as hard as I could on the run. I started off at IM effort and allowed myself to push a little bit more on the hills. My last race of the year will be Beach to Battleship, which is a flat IM distance race in Wilmington, NC. I would like to run approximately 3 hrs there, so I figured this would be a good test to maintain pace. The Toughman run course is very hilly with a net gain on the way out and descent on the way back. It is a beautiful run that ascends, on trails, to an aqueduct that we ran over between 7-8 miles. I averaged 7:05's for the first half, then cruised home at 6:48 pace, and averaged just over IM effort for the entire run.

Total Time: 4:46:30
With a race day like that, it is easy to find what went wrong. Some days it is easy to see what went right. No matter what, there will always be things that can be improved upon and positives to take away. The obvious takeaway here is to make sure my bike is properly tuned and adjusted every race. This was a B race for me, and my bike shop was backlogged with extra work, so I just dismissed what I thought was minor rubbing. But, much of what happened as a result of that mistake was positive. I had time to reflect on my swim effort and as I thought back to most of my races, my HR is exceptionally high coming onto the bike. I think going into my longer races I definitely need to settle down and not push the early leg as hard. I have put in a lot of time on the bike this year, and I noticed the effects while I was out on the course. My leg strength held up for the entire ride, even with the big chain ring push up the hills. That's a positive to take into my longer races. And my run felt good. While I certainly couldn't hold that effort for an IM marathon, on that type of course, I am more confident that I can settle in and hold pace on a flat course.