I took most of the week off leading up to the race. On Tuesday I had done a short swim and felt tired. Then when I headed out to do a run I could see that it wasn't happening. Even as of Friday I still felt tired and sore. So, I expected it was going to be a long day.

In the morning I felt okay. I still expected that I would finish in around the same time as last year and I wasn't at all excited about participating in the race. During the drive up I was pretty much thinking that it would have been great if this were my finishing race for the season just like it was last year.

The day started out warmer this year than last year. But, the water was still pretty cool and refreshing. I enjoyed the swim and got out of the water in somewhat better spirits than I had entered it. I had a smooth T1. Once I was out on the bike, I did feel somewhat happy to be out riding on a nice sunny day.

The first part of the ride is a steady climb. But once I finished that climb I unsurprisingly picked up my pace. I reach mile 15 in under an hour. The next five mile section I averaged almost 20 mph. I was feeling hopeful that I would be able to average 15 for the day, whereas when I started I didn't think I stood a chance. I hadn't looked at my results from last year and didn't have any idea what I averaged. Comparing my splits to last year, I was actually a bit faster last year on the first 29 miles at an average pace of 16.41 versus 16.26 this year. But, last year I averaged 14.1 in the second half compared to 15.07 this year. So, I stayed stronger this year, although I still faded.

Coming out of T2, I was about 10:29 ahead of (faster than) last year. Unfortunately, I totally blew up on the run. My arches were killing me as I started the run. And while they did loosen up eventually, things still pretty much were on a steady downhill the whole run. Even within the first 1.6 miles I was averaging a slower pace than I averaged for the first 4.5 last year. I think that I hadn't drunk enough when I was on the bike and I was completely dehydrated. I ended up having to shuffle like a zombie to even finish the race, even though I had stopped three times on the second loop to sit (or lay down) and rest. I finally finished the race in 8:21:50, which was 1:08:06 longer than last year.

I think that I got exactly what I needed to get out of this test run, though. Although last night I was totally demoralized and convinced that there is no way I'll be able to finish the Full IM in August, today I woke up feeling pretty good. The sorest part of my body are my arches. I have just a tiny bit of soreness in my calfs and hamstrings.

I'll be heading over to the bike shop to get a new pair of shoes and a fitting on the bike. I was pretty uncomfortable on the bike overall. I think that getting myself more comfortable on the bike will make an appreciable improvement. I'll need it though. The total elevation gain yesterday was only 1234 feet. In August, it's over 5000. I'm quite certain I'll average closer to 13 mph than 15 mph. I am figuring I'll end up around 8:45 on the bike. That's going to make it really tight for me to make the cutoff to start the run.

Another thing that I will address is my hydration and overall fueling while on the bike. I think that I did fine eating just the one Clif bar while I was riding yesterday. But, I'd probably still be better off to get more calories and carbs into me. As I said earlier, I think I ended up being totally dehydrated at the start of the run. So, I will be working on incorporating better hydration on my rides. If I can make the cutoff for T2, I want to make sure that I have some chance to be strong enough (that being a relative term) on the run to finish within qualifying time.

I'm figuring that the swim will come in somewhere around 90 - 95 minutes. I've got to make T2 by 10:30 if I want to be allowed out on the run. Let's just assume that I head out of T1 at 1:45 and that I take 8:45 on the bike. That puts me right at 10:30. I think I actually stand a good chance of coming in at under 90 minutes on the swim, though. And, I probably won't need to take 10 minutes on T1. So, I could buy myself a bit of time there. Looks like the swim and the bike will be my focus for the next 7 or so weeks, along with straightening out the hydration / fueling on the bike.