Muskoka 70.3

[Mark.AU]

I registered for Muskoka 70.3 on August 17 and began training for it right away. Luckily I had two weeks of solid base building behind me on which to layer my race-specific training program. I managed to amass at pretty impressive 40,000m in the water, about 1,000km on my bike and quite close to 100km on my feet. By September 7, I felt ready to take on one of the tougher half iron distance races in N. America.

The plan was simple; hammer the swim (but not too much as I didn’t want to fatigue my shoulder too much, I haven’t ridden aero nearly enough to be totally comfortable on my TT bike), ride sensibly (no redlining, no hammering, spin the hills, use the downs to recover, don’t get into any pissing matches with other racers, don’t care about my bike time, only care about bike effort), and then run as fast and and long as I can (and don’t go out too fast, there’s nothing wrong with +6min km’s).

Here’s how it played in my head, at least, as best I can recall...

Go to the front in the swim. Swim bloody hard off the horn and get some space. Find some feet to latch onto, but if there aren’t it’s not a problem.

GO!

Can’t believe it, I’m in the lead. Okay, now I’m not, but I can’t believe I have this much space. Keep a nice rhythm. Sighting is going well. Caught the next wave already, stay relaxed. Sight. Swim around the slower swimmers. Okay, back off the effort a bit and keep this nice pace and effort going.

Done – 32:00

Don’t spike HR running up this f’ing hill to transition. Leave the wetsuit on, it’ll keep the warmth in. Wetsuit off. Don’t rush transition – helmet on, shoes on, glasses on, arm warmers on, nutrition in pockets, start the garmin.

GO!

Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs.

It’s not as hilly in this section as I remembered. Road surface is pretty good. Okay, this bit is sh!tty.

Man! I’m flying past everyone down the hills, my position is really good and my aero toys are doing their job. Spin up the hills, it doesn’t matter how many pass me, I’ll get them on the descents. Or I won’t.

Spin.

Descend.

Spin.

Descend.

Every 40 minutes take a gel. Keep drinking. Remember the plan, five gels and three bottles.

Christ! Powerbar Perform energy drink tastes like disinfectant.

Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs. Don’t hurt the legs.

Spin.

Gel.

Descend.

Spin.

Descend.

Gel.

Spin.

Done – 3 hours

Need to take a pee in T2. Good sign. Rack the bike, helmet off, change shoes. Breath.

GO!

Can’t believe how good my legs feel. I don’t feel like I’ve ridden at all, let alone 94km with 1000m of climbing. Wow! The plan worked. Now all I have to do is jog easy at 6min/k and I’ll end up with my 2h and change run.

Slow down – first two km’s at 5:40 wasn’t the plan.

Sun’s hot.

Drink.

Seven km – legs are feeling a bit fatigued now. I am a master of understatement. Time to make some deals with myself. Let’s do 10 and 1’s. Let’s not run these particularly nasty, steep, 100m long, 10% grade hills on this course. I preferred the old run course.

This is beginning to hurt.

Turn around, every step is taking me closer to the finish. Did the out in 1h04, more or less on time.

That was a good 10 minute run, felt pretty good. Should I still stop and walk for a minute? Naw, I’ll run to the aid station, take a drink, and then walk the hill, that’ll count.

Uhg. Don’t want to start running. Better start running.

I’m very tired now.

Drink.

Run.

Walk this hill.

Run.

Walk.

Walk.

Run.

Two more kilometers. This guy seems to be walk/running at about the same pace as me. Let’s enlist some help. Will from Nova Scotia, let’s run together for the last 2k. No stopping, we can DO IT!

We do.

Finished. 2h17 for the run, bit of a positive split.

Race time 6 hours and some seconds. Shouldn’t have farted around so much in transition.

I’m very tired and my legs hurt. I want to rest now. I’m going to train for the next one.

Where’s Hayley?

[runfbrun]

Great race report!

Good work! I'm assuming you hadn't used that energy drink before? Haha

[trixiee]

LOL! That was a trip down memory lane, sans the swim, of course!

Loved your report - excellent time in my estimation!

[orleansrunner1962]

Great report -- I can totally see you performing it exactly as you wrote it!!!!

Sounds like a tough course!!

[Jo-Jo]

Love the report...can totally hear your voice.

I suspect that while you were wondering "where's Hayley" she was muttering "where the F#$% is Mark"

As I said before...I admire your Moxie!

[Ken B]

Absolutely great report. Congratulations on an excellent effort!!

[Habs4ever]

I was laughing reading your report. I loved it.
Great job, Mark.

[La]

Great report. Do the legs hurt?

[Mark.AU]

Thanks all!

I suspect that while you were wondering "where's Hayley" she was muttering "where the F#$% is Mark"

Yep.

Great report. Do the legs hurt?

Yep. Sitting in steerage on a eight hour flight last night didn't help.

[Robinandamelia]

Great race report! Congrats to you on a great race!

[HCcD]

Gl@d that you did not s*ck and met your goals, Mark ....

[erinmcd]

That was a great report!

[jamix]

That was some hilly terrain; Sometimes I wonder if the race organizers intentionally try to make the course as difficult as possible just to please the "die hards" out there

Glad your happy with your result; I hope you can recover sufficiently enough so that you'll continue to be motivated to train.

Sitting in steerage on a eight hour flight last night didn't help.

Wear compression garments.

[purdy65]

Great report!

Great commentary.

[barebuns1]

Great report, congrats on your time.

[grimskot]

Great report. Love the stream-of-consciousness style. Gives me real sense of what it feels like to do triathlon. Oh, and good job!

[AjaxRunner]

Great report! Congrats

[Marg]

Great job getting it done Mark

[JSmitty]

Very interesting read and congrats on a job well done!

[chunkymonkeymelonhed]

I'm giving you an A+ on that report.

The bike portion had me chuckling.

Good job out there Mark.