My training had been pretty solid with a focus on long-distance rides and lots of volume for running and swimming. Century rides and 15+ hour training weeks with no rest days were fairly common. As the race approached, I took a bit of a break and decided either I was ready or I wasn’t but the race was going to happen one way or the other.
Lone Star 70.3 weekend started for me on Thursday. My wife drove down to Galveston on Thursday afternoon to get to the expo right when it opened at 5PM. Last year I wanted to get the official event tri top, but they sold out very quickly. There would be no mistake this year and the race kits looked great! Big thanks to her for driving all the way down there just to get me an event uniform. I plan to do a lot of training rides in it this summer and beyond.
On Saturday, we packed up all the gear and drove down to Galveston to get my race packet and check my bike into transition. I wandered the expo a little bit and hung out with friends at the Houston Racing Triathlon Club tent area. After that, we drove back up to Friendswood to my father’s place for dinner and an early evening.
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| Ready to face the day! |
Sunday—race day! I woke up 10 minutes before the 4:00AM alarm went off. I grabbed breakfast, double-checked my gear, and then I was off with my father to the race site. I decided to let my wife sleep in a bit. She’d arrive later to watch me come in on the bike and then during the run.
Walking into transition, I went right by Chris Lieto. I wished him good luck and went over to my spot. I set up my transition nice and early and then went over to the HRTC tent to grab a chair and BS with the other club racers and support staff. It was very windy and we were all thinking about the bike ride. The women were irritated because for a second straight year, all of the women’s waves started after all of the men’s waves, so they had nothing to do but sit around for a few hours and think about the race ahead of them—not much fun!
With about twenty minutes to spare, I wandered over to the swim start and gathered up with my group. I’m in the Men’s 35-39 age group which happens to be the biggest and most competitive of all the age groups. I guess triathlon really appeals to guys between 35 and 29. At any rate, there were so many of us that they had to break us into waves alphabetically. I was in the first wave and they walked us to the dock and then a short jump down into the water. The first thing I noticed was that the water was cool but not cold. In fact, it felt just right. The second thing I noticed was that I had forgotten just how buoyant this wetsuit was in salt water. My legs came up quick and I noticed just paddling around it was easy to keep my hips and legs on top of the water. People jockeyed for position and I settled towards the back of the pack. The announcer counted us down, people started yelling ‘Good Luck!’ to each other, and just like that, the race was on!
1.2 miles works out to just under 2000 meters, which is a useful translation to my pool swims. My normal workouts are 3000m at a time, but I always take breaks every 500. This would be my longest unbroken swim since… well, since my last half Ironman race. I knew I could go the distance, but I didn’t know how much it would take out of me. I let the leaders go and swam the first dozen strokes with my head up. Terrible form, but it let me get my bearings at the beginning of the race. When I finally put my head down and started swimming for real, I was ready to go. I knew that it took a while for me to really hit my rhythm and I knew that around five minutes in, I’d start feeling fatigue and that I should just ignore it and relax and let my arms and shoulders adjust to doing work.
Walking into transition, I went right by Chris Lieto. I wished him good luck and went over to my spot. I set up my transition nice and early and then went over to the HRTC tent to grab a chair and BS with the other club racers and support staff. It was very windy and we were all thinking about the bike ride. The women were irritated because for a second straight year, all of the women’s waves started after all of the men’s waves, so they had nothing to do but sit around for a few hours and think about the race ahead of them—not much fun!
With about twenty minutes to spare, I wandered over to the swim start and gathered up with my group. I’m in the Men’s 35-39 age group which happens to be the biggest and most competitive of all the age groups. I guess triathlon really appeals to guys between 35 and 29. At any rate, there were so many of us that they had to break us into waves alphabetically. I was in the first wave and they walked us to the dock and then a short jump down into the water. The first thing I noticed was that the water was cool but not cold. In fact, it felt just right. The second thing I noticed was that I had forgotten just how buoyant this wetsuit was in salt water. My legs came up quick and I noticed just paddling around it was easy to keep my hips and legs on top of the water. People jockeyed for position and I settled towards the back of the pack. The announcer counted us down, people started yelling ‘Good Luck!’ to each other, and just like that, the race was on!
1.2 miles works out to just under 2000 meters, which is a useful translation to my pool swims. My normal workouts are 3000m at a time, but I always take breaks every 500. This would be my longest unbroken swim since… well, since my last half Ironman race. I knew I could go the distance, but I didn’t know how much it would take out of me. I let the leaders go and swam the first dozen strokes with my head up. Terrible form, but it let me get my bearings at the beginning of the race. When I finally put my head down and started swimming for real, I was ready to go. I knew that it took a while for me to really hit my rhythm and I knew that around five minutes in, I’d start feeling fatigue and that I should just ignore it and relax and let my arms and shoulders adjust to doing work.
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| One down. Two to go. |
The swim went well. My goggles never fogged, the waves were mostly minor, I never got a mouthful of sea water. No complaints, really. Because I could see clearly, I stayed on course and didn’t do a lot of extra swimming. My goal going in was to try to come close to 40 minutes. Last year in the choppy water, my hard work was “rewarded” with a 43 minute swim time—not very impressive. Imagine my surprise when I rounded the last corner and swam up to the ramp, stood up, and looked at my watch to see 36 minutes on the clock. WOW! There’s a huge new personal record for the swim.
I stripped my wetsuit off to the waist and then dove onto the carpet where the strippers (not the fun kind!) were waiting to strip it off of my lower body in a single pull. Back on my feet and into T1 to get ready for the bike. I was feeling good and excited that the swim went so well. I didn’t waste much time in transition, but I didn’t rush myself either. Just get it right and move on to the bike.
And so it went. Once I got on the bike and got situated, I stayed in a low gear and just spun my legs for a few moments trying to get the circulation and muscles awake and ready to work. I knew the first hour and a half would be into a pretty serious wind. I also knew I wanted to try to hold at least 19mph overall if I could. My goal was to try to hold 18mph on the average going out and then pick up the rest on the way back in with the wind at my back. This was also my first race with my new hydration setup. I have a 40oz water bottle mounted low on my bike frame with a long flexible tube running up to my handlebars so it would be easy to sip while riding. I also had a smaller 32oz bottle mounted between my handlebars that was filled with carb drink. I wanted to get about 250 calories per hour in addition to my water intake so I had pre-measured the amount of powder to mix in. I felt pretty good about my nutrition, which was the bane of my race last year.
I stripped my wetsuit off to the waist and then dove onto the carpet where the strippers (not the fun kind!) were waiting to strip it off of my lower body in a single pull. Back on my feet and into T1 to get ready for the bike. I was feeling good and excited that the swim went so well. I didn’t waste much time in transition, but I didn’t rush myself either. Just get it right and move on to the bike.
And so it went. Once I got on the bike and got situated, I stayed in a low gear and just spun my legs for a few moments trying to get the circulation and muscles awake and ready to work. I knew the first hour and a half would be into a pretty serious wind. I also knew I wanted to try to hold at least 19mph overall if I could. My goal was to try to hold 18mph on the average going out and then pick up the rest on the way back in with the wind at my back. This was also my first race with my new hydration setup. I have a 40oz water bottle mounted low on my bike frame with a long flexible tube running up to my handlebars so it would be easy to sip while riding. I also had a smaller 32oz bottle mounted between my handlebars that was filled with carb drink. I wanted to get about 250 calories per hour in addition to my water intake so I had pre-measured the amount of powder to mix in. I felt pretty good about my nutrition, which was the bane of my race last year.
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| Off to challenge the wind. |
Once we hit the seawall and turned southwest, the wind let us all know who was in charge. There was nothing to do but put my head down and ride into the wind trying to keep my body as aerodynamic as possible and not crank away too hard on the pedals. Let me tell you that was a very long 90 minutes into the wind. I knew the course very well and I had ridden it many times last year. The road surface was very good for the most part and we had an entire lane of traffic blocked off for our use. I found myself passing more people than getting passed by people. After a while, I saw an incoming police motorcycle, which meant the race leader was on his way back and was about to pass by me going the other direction. I looked to see who it was, fully expecting Chris Lieto. It was indeed Chris and then… nobody! In fact, there was nobody else for nearly a minute behind him. He was absolutely flying with the wind at his back. He must have been holding 30mph on the flat road. It was a really impressive sight to see. I hoped he could carry that lead to the finish line and get the big win that eluded him last year.
Finally after 20 miles, the San Luis bridge was coming into sight. I knew the bridge would have the worst cross-wind and it definitely did. After I got off the bridge I knew it was just another five miles to the turnaround and not a minute too soon! I slowed down, made the U-turn and then I felt the relief of a wind at my back. Technically it was a cross tailwind and there was still a good bit of wind blowing across my side, but it was enough behind me to make a huge difference. Every mile ticked by in under three minutes (meaning I was going 20mph or faster) and even as I worked less, my speed stayed strong. When I finally got back to the seawall I knew I only had a couple of miles to go and my average speed had climbed to 19.5mph, putting me yet again ahead of pace to break the 5.5 hour goal I had set for myself. As I rode into Moody Gardens, I passed a pair of college guys holding up a homemade poster that said “Honey Badger Don’t Care!”, a reference to this YouTube video. I got a good laugh out of that and rode the last mile into transition.
I hopped off of my bike and parked it. I swapped out my helmet for a running hat. I swapped my cycling shoes for running shoes and socks and I grabbed my three gels for the run. Off I went and I was out onto the run course. My plan was to take a gel right away and then another at 45 minutes and a third one at 90 minutes. Poor nutritional planning was what killed me at mile 10 last year when I ran out of energy and “bonked” as they say. In a marathon, they call it “hitting the wall” and it’s not a pleasant experience. I was determined that it would not happen to me this year.
The run course is a quadruple loop course through the Moody Gardens resort. It’s very curvy and doubles over itself a number of times, but I like it just fine. Each loop has four aid stations, meaning I would get a total of 16 aid stations on the entire course. That is great in my opinion. I looked at my pace and tried to keep myself under control. Running anywhere below 8:45 minutes per mile would be fine to get me to my goal. That should be doable. My easy runs sometimes go 8:30 per mile or faster, but the day was getting hot and I knew I had pushed the bike hard.
After the first mile, I looked down and saw it had passed in 8:15. That’s a little quick, but not too bad. I averaged 8:15 or better for most of the race last year. After the second mile, I had allowed myself to slow down a little bit and my pace settled in at 8:30, which is just where I wanted it. The problem is that it wasn’t getting any easier. The first couple of miles after getting off the bike always feel like my legs are very heavy, but I also know that feeling passes within the first mile or two as my muscles figure out what they need to be doing. I felt like I was working really hard for 8:30 and I didn’t like that.
I switched my watch over to monitor my heart rate and I saw my HR was over 150 beats per minute. That’s fine for a sprint, but it was a problem for a long-distance run. I needed to get it down below 140 and into the low 130s. I tried breathing deeply, which works sometimes. I tried slowing the pace a little more (but not too much!) but nothing I tried got my heart rate down. I knew that this was a recipe for disaster and I had to figure out a way to get my body under control. Every aid station I passed I poured ice water over my head and squeezed a cold sponge onto my head and neck. It seemed like every mile got harder and harder, yet I watched my average pace slip by a second or two each mile.
I switched my watch over to monitor my heart rate and I saw my HR was over 150 beats per minute. That’s fine for a sprint, but it was a problem for a long-distance run. I needed to get it down below 140 and into the low 130s. I tried breathing deeply, which works sometimes. I tried slowing the pace a little more (but not too much!) but nothing I tried got my heart rate down. I knew that this was a recipe for disaster and I had to figure out a way to get my body under control. Every aid station I passed I poured ice water over my head and squeezed a cold sponge onto my head and neck. It seemed like every mile got harder and harder, yet I watched my average pace slip by a second or two each mile.
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| Feeling strong... that will soon change. |
The first lap went and I didn’t really feel any better or worse. I was still moving at 8:35 or so and I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. As I ran, I started seeing a few people I knew and we yelled out to each other to give encouragement. People on the sidelines recognized me or my uniform and yelled out to me to keep me going as well. I made it through the second lap and onto the third, but it was getting harder with every step. I don’t really remember much about the third lap except that by the end, my pace was over 8:45 minutes per mile and I knew that the 5.5 hour race was slipping away from me.
The fourth and final lap was once again where things got really rough, although this year it was for a different reason. Right around mile 10, I couldn’t hold the pace so I had to let it go and take a walk break. No way was I quitting, but it still hurt to have such an excellent race only to lose my goal within the last half hour of the race. I had just pounded too hard on the bike and the fatigue caught up with me as the temperature climbed into the 80’s. I would discover later that my friend and fellow competitor Jeremy was feeling the same thing I was. His wave started 20 minutes ahead of mine and he was always a lap ahead on the run, but his overall time was nearly exactly the same as mine.
5:30:00 came and went and I watched it on my watch with a scowl. Maybe if I could find some energy I could still come in ahead of 5:37:00 which would be a new personal record for the race. As I entered the last mile, I realized that also was not going to happen. I made the last corner and crossed the line in 5:39:35, ranked 94th in my age group. It wasn’t a personal best, but I was satisfied. The conditions were tough and I set a new speed record for the swim and the ride. I validated my new theory for improved race nutrition and I got an important preview of what would be to come in 6 weeks at Ironman Texas.
After picking up my medal and finisher’s hat and meeting up with my wife and father, both of whom volunteered the event, we made our way over to the Houston Racing Triathlon Club aid station and I plopped down in a chair while my wife generously got me some food. Jeremy was there with his wife and he was in as much pain as I was. As fate would have it, he crashed in nearly the exact same way I did and his finishing time was about one minute faster than mine. We train together, so I guess it’s no surprise we should race the same. I was tired, I was sunburned, I was covered in salt, and all I wanted to do was take it easy. Even so, I congratulated all the other finishers who came by.
The fourth and final lap was once again where things got really rough, although this year it was for a different reason. Right around mile 10, I couldn’t hold the pace so I had to let it go and take a walk break. No way was I quitting, but it still hurt to have such an excellent race only to lose my goal within the last half hour of the race. I had just pounded too hard on the bike and the fatigue caught up with me as the temperature climbed into the 80’s. I would discover later that my friend and fellow competitor Jeremy was feeling the same thing I was. His wave started 20 minutes ahead of mine and he was always a lap ahead on the run, but his overall time was nearly exactly the same as mine.
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| And just like that, it was all over. |
5:30:00 came and went and I watched it on my watch with a scowl. Maybe if I could find some energy I could still come in ahead of 5:37:00 which would be a new personal record for the race. As I entered the last mile, I realized that also was not going to happen. I made the last corner and crossed the line in 5:39:35, ranked 94th in my age group. It wasn’t a personal best, but I was satisfied. The conditions were tough and I set a new speed record for the swim and the ride. I validated my new theory for improved race nutrition and I got an important preview of what would be to come in 6 weeks at Ironman Texas.
After picking up my medal and finisher’s hat and meeting up with my wife and father, both of whom volunteered the event, we made our way over to the Houston Racing Triathlon Club aid station and I plopped down in a chair while my wife generously got me some food. Jeremy was there with his wife and he was in as much pain as I was. As fate would have it, he crashed in nearly the exact same way I did and his finishing time was about one minute faster than mine. We train together, so I guess it’s no surprise we should race the same. I was tired, I was sunburned, I was covered in salt, and all I wanted to do was take it easy. Even so, I congratulated all the other finishers who came by.
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| T2 is a pretty quiet place when Chris Lieto gets there. |
I found out that the Chris Lieto, the pro I saw screaming by on the bike, held onto his lead and won the race, casting off the demons of the year before. My father worked the whole day in the transition area and my wife who just planned to hand out water ended up getting recruited to work doping control escorting finishing professionals to the drug testing tent. Both of them had a good time with their duties.
The takeaway from this race for me is a few things: First of all, I have no idea how I managed a 36 minute swim. I need to figure out what went right and replicate that in my training and in my races. Secondly, I need to spend some time studying the heart rate log of my bike ride. I need to figure out at what point I was pushing too hard and when to scale it back. Third, I validated the lessons learned from last year’s nutrition fiasco. I think my plan went off well and I never ran out of energy. Fourth, any secret designs I had for a time goal at Ironman Texas in six weeks have gone out the window. My only goal now is to finish the race and then I can start chipping away at the time in the future. Ultimately, I think a sub-12 hour Ironman is in me, but it’s more of a long-term goal than a short-term goal.
Last but not least, I need to keep Jeremy’s ego in check. I can’t believe he beat me by like one minute! If I had known, I would have dug a little deeper to slap down that young buck. :) Thanks to everyone who supported me along the way and wished me well. It’s been a fun ride and I can’t wait for the next adventure.
The takeaway from this race for me is a few things: First of all, I have no idea how I managed a 36 minute swim. I need to figure out what went right and replicate that in my training and in my races. Secondly, I need to spend some time studying the heart rate log of my bike ride. I need to figure out at what point I was pushing too hard and when to scale it back. Third, I validated the lessons learned from last year’s nutrition fiasco. I think my plan went off well and I never ran out of energy. Fourth, any secret designs I had for a time goal at Ironman Texas in six weeks have gone out the window. My only goal now is to finish the race and then I can start chipping away at the time in the future. Ultimately, I think a sub-12 hour Ironman is in me, but it’s more of a long-term goal than a short-term goal.
Last but not least, I need to keep Jeremy’s ego in check. I can’t believe he beat me by like one minute! If I had known, I would have dug a little deeper to slap down that young buck. :) Thanks to everyone who supported me along the way and wished me well. It’s been a fun ride and I can’t wait for the next adventure.
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| Michael Barney: Keeping it classy since 2011. |
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| Hanging out pre-race with the big cheese: Ron Stitt. |
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| The Disco Stick |
