Ironman Steelhead 2011 - Race Report

Just home from Steelhead. Here is my race report if you are interested:

The biggest change for me in this event was my nutritional strategy. In a nutshell, lots more calories than at Muncie (when I bonked hard) and starting taking them in much earlier on the bike. I used
Perpetuem throughout this event and ingested about 700 calories of the stuff along with 1.5 Clif bars and one Roctane on the bike. On the run I took in about 270 calories of Perpetuem and drank cola at almost every aide station. I also used Salt Tabs throughout the bike and the run. Nutritionally, this is the best plan I've had with a 70.3 race.  Happy to share more if anyone is interested.

Swim
The surf in Lake Michigan was OUT OF CONTROL this morning, so the swim was cancelled. The event was made into just a 56 mile ride and a half-marathon run. A little disappointing since this was my A race for the year, but I decided to make the best of it.

Bike
The race started time trial style with two riders going off approximately every 10 seconds. The course was very congested because of this. Frankly there was quite a bit of drafting. In fact, it was so obvious at times that I saw double pace lines going down the road with packs of as many as 10 riders! I can't understand it....a person's race time is meaningless without playing by the rules.  Performance wise, the bike was the strongest effort I've had. Overall I rode at 22.7 mph with a very reasonable average HR of 145. I wanted to ride at that HR hoping to set myself up for a strong run.  Steelhead is a great bike course. I loved it even more this year than last year. The roads on the last sixteen miles are so smooth and fast you can't help but laugh out of sheer enjoyment as you power along at 24 - 33 mph. Fun, Fun, Fun!

Run
My goal for the run portion of the race was to run nine minute miles without walking. While I have been thinking this was an easily achievable goal, my experience at Muncie (lots of walking and 9:47
pace) told me differently. I started off with the first two miles at 9 minute pace which included ducking behind a tree due to the call of nature :-) . . . From there, I ran mostly in the 8:20 - 8:30 range but ended the race with a couple sub-8 miles which was great for me at this stage. Average HR for the run portion was a reasonable and comfortable 148. In fact, I probably had some room to push a bit
more. I was happy with this since I achieved my 70.3 running goal for the year and feel like I set myself up for higher expectations down the road.

Total time was 4:21:53. Had there been a swim, this definitely would have been a PR race for me. Overall, I think the race shows some nice gains in fitness for me.  On to greater things with Ironman Mont Tremblant in the summer of 2012!