Where to begin….. AMAZING feedback from everyone. Congratulations on completing your first HALF – not going to lie, I cried a little reading these feedback and imagining all of you crossing that finish line with a huge smile on your faces for completing such a challenging race.
Here goes my long feedback 🙂
I am getting ready myself to tackle Ohio 70.3 and let me tell you, it is not looking pretty. There was a major rain storm that hit Delaware, Ohio and it flooded the park where the race is to be held and its been closed for some weeks now – not sure when the will reopen, if they are moving the race elsewhere, or if it will get cancelled altogether. So… lucky that the swimming portion of your race was the only leg cancelled.
I also can completely understand feeling… defeated? I don’t know, I think I would feel that way if one of the legs of my race got cancelled. However, you all trained so incredibly hard for it that even if the swim got cancelled, you still finished strong. You didn’t let that defeat you and you DID IT – you completed your first 70.3 race and you can now proudly call yourselves an Ironman.
During this training, you learnt things that perhaps you didn’t know before. You learnt how to control your heart rate, nutrition while biking, diet and protein, drills, amongst so many other things. How did it pay off?
- Bill stayed within his racing heart rate while on the bike despite people passing
- Not going to lie, I would’ve started to feel competitive if that happened to me and my HR would’ve gone crazy and I probably would’ve crashed sooner.
- Amazing that you were able to stay calm and keeping in mind your HR and energy to then tackle your run
- Liz – that nutrition strategy made me feel like I need to rethink mine. AMAZING that you had it all figured out that way (when to drink water/gatorade, honey stinger, pretzels – I mean… I need to write this down myself!!)
- You completed your first half after only had ran your first 5k in less than 4 years??
I can go on and on (I read all feedback very carefully and took notes), but this is to say that even if you didn’t get to swim, you all learnt some of the most challenging aspects of racing 70.3 – staying within your HR zones, pacing yourself, nutrition, and how to finish strong.
- HR Zone training – my feedback
- At first, I was very confused about this training as I had never trained this way. However, after getting into it and learning more, I can absolutely see the benefits of it.
- I ran 14 miles (as part of my training) and for the first time in a while (I used to be a long-distance runner) I did not feel tired and I was able to walk normally the next day. I was able to keep a pace of 7:30 and yet, I was in Zone 2. I was shocked that it felt so easy as I am used to training to get faster
- I also cheated a little.. If you have a Garmin, you can turn on the metronome option while running so that you stay within 90 steps per minute – HA
- Biking – same thing, after working hard on my drills and training, I went on my longest bike ride yesterday (Sunday) and I averaged 23mph in Zone 2. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t feeling tired at all at the end and was able to run 4 miles.
Again, amazing feedback thus far. Dry shoes? Yeah.. this happened to me recently racing Monticello. I didn’t check the weather and when I got to the race the night before, it poured all night into the morning of the race. So, I had to go to the local grocery store the night before to get trash bags as I didn’t want to run my heavy wet shoes.
I wonder how it went for everyone else. Keep these coming!
You are all amazing – cannot mention that enough!
