Ironman Maryland Recap; No on Kona?! and What’s in store for 2019…
It’s close to three weeks post Ironman Maryland and a big smile still comes across my face when I think back to the race. I certainly felt like I had the potential to pull together a good result, but to come away as the winner of an Ironman race, was something that I really didn’t think was in my cards. Looking back on the race, my data, and my training leading up to it, I really did not do anything that was overly exceptional. Instead, I did exactly what I had read about and what had been suggested to me by much more experienced coaches and athletes – I put together a solid training day up until mile 20 of the run, and then started to race for the last 6 miles. My swim time was a bit slower than I had planned but it turns out that the course was probably 200 yards or so long. So, my swim was as predicted. The bike course was lengthened 2 miles the day before the race so it was exactly 112, and like the swim, my power/pace was just as I had predicted. In fact, my average wattage of 216 was probably 5-10 watts lower than I had planned but I wanted to make sure to be a bit conservative on race day. For the run, the first 20 miles were also as I had planned – other than 2 quick stops at the porto-potty (thankfully I had changed into a run outfit – it made it so much quicker than trying to get in and out of a...
