Orlando Florida 70.3

It feels so good to be back racing. I haven't posted anything in a while but rest assured I have been hard at work training and putting together the logistics for my 2012 World Record breaking journey of 30 full ironman races on 6 continents and through 15 countries. QuietWay has also been hard at work fine tuning everything they are doing and really getting a pulse of what is going to be the best and most effective approach going forward. I am excited to see things unfold for 2012 both with racing and helping people in all parts of the world.

After I finished my journey in 2010 I was tired but extremely satisfied. I learned so much about myself, others and racing. I love triathlon so much! I just want to share everything I know with as many people as possible. We are in the process of putting together our new platform for 2012 and it will be www.TriDiaries.com. I chose this name because regardless of where you are on your triathlon journey we all have our different reason, motivations and experiences.

One thing that shocked me after I finished last year was a few peoples' comments when I would explain to them what I had just done. A few of them looked at my times and said "oh I could have done that." ..... but you didn't!

Yes, my times were not the fastest, but I was doing a half ironman on average every nine days... one guy said to me just last weekend that it would be easy to recover weekly from an Ironman and that 30 events in 2012 should be easy....he is wrong and I am terrified!!!

Anyway, I'll stop ranting and give you my Orlando 70.3 race review. I feel that my journey in 2010 created a base that is sufficient and that this year I will really focus on speed and try to qualify for Kona! I will do this late this year in Cozumel. In doing this, I can include the world championship in my schedule for 2012. I would take the charity spot if they offered it to me, but I really want to earn it. I got really frustrated this year when I heard that Tara from the Biggest Loser will be doing this race in 2011.. What?! Really?! She has no place at the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.... let her into a different ironman... so frustrating.. I'm ranting again sorry.

I could have chosen any 70.3 race as preparation but really enjoyed the Orlando race from last year... let's not get this race confused with Miami which was a disaster. I thought that course suited my strength (which is the bike) and also I worked really hard in my run over the winter to become more competitive.

Kyle Woodruff (one of my athletes and a stud) and I left Friday morning and had no issues with travel. We packed up our bikes a week early and sent them to our gracious home stay in Orlando via FedEx. One of the reasons I picked Orlando is due to the nice weather this time of year (I don't like to bike in the wind).

THE DAY BEFORE THE RACE-

We woke up whenever our bodies woke up and did our final workouts. This consisted of a 20 min ride and a 10 min run with a few accelerations. I am SO GLAD I did this short ride..... why you ask? Well, when I put my bike together from shipping it I FORGOT to tighten one bolt on the headset! On this ride, I nearly took myself out for the weekend! On one of the corners my bars went sideways; luckily I stayed upright and fixed the issue - whew!

Check in was smooth and the afternoon was spent off our feet in an air conditioned movie theater in Disney World. I felt really recovered and ready to go! Last year I didn't get to recover much and it was interesting for me to go through a full 2 week taper for this race. Early to bed!

RACE DAY!

Standing under the shelter trying to stay warm dry and not be electrocuted.

Men's pro start.

 It had been raining for 2 days but the trend has been clear in the mornings and then late morning showers. This would be perfect conditions for the race I thought. When we woke up I could HEAR the wind and about every 5 minutes the house would light up from the sheets of lightning. The boom of the thunder was border line scary... There is no way they are letting us in the water this morning.... or so I thought.

We arrived at Disney World and headed to the shuttles in the rain. All of a sudden BOOM! The parking lot was struck with a nice bolt and all the lights in the Disney parking lot went down, NO WAY we are swimming this morning.... or so I thought. As we were getting our gear ready in T1 the race announcer kept saying "we are still good for an on time swim start" I thought he must be blind and deaf.... the lightning was bright and the thunder and loud.

Kyle getting body marked in the rain.

They ended up delaying the start by half an hour as the WINDS pushed the storm system through the area. Sure enough we were going to swim! The water was 82 degrees so no wetsuits ;) I had been working on my swim and felt really good throughout. I KNEW when I stood up at the swim exit I was going to see 31 minutes.... alas my watch said 36... ah crap! My favorite thing to hear everyone say when looking at open water swim times... "it must have been long;)"

This right here is why we race.... lol!!

I had a bet with my friend Kyle that I would beat him in both transitions to help him get on his horse in T1 and T2... this also motivated me to bust it through... so when I got out of the water it was a dead sprint all the way up and through the massive transition area. There were over 2300 athletes, making this is a big area to corral all the bikes. When I was grabbed my bike off of the rack I snagged my transition bag and dragged it 10 or so feet. To make this as quick as possible, to beat Kyle remember, I ended up dropping my bike, grabbing my bag and throwing it back to my transition spot (this is important to remember for later on in this post).

I headed out onto the bike and felt great (mostly because I didn't swim hard). Remember the winds that blew the weather system through... well, they were still hanging around outside on the bike course. The winds for the duration of the bike were 17 miles an hour... grrr. The good news is that we all had to deal with it. Being a smart athlete, (pat myself on the back) I quickly re-adjusted my bike goal time based on current weather conditions. Trying to reach my original goal would have fried my legs and ultimately really cost me on the run.

I do love the bike part of this race... I should smile more.

One of the biggest mistakes athletes make is the inability to stick to a game plan. I guess the first mistake is that most don't create and write out a game plan. One of my biggest goals for this race was to stick to my game plan and stay within my abilities. I wanted to race myself and not the others around me.

Sure felt like I was running fast....

I broke the bike ride into sections depending on the wind and adjusted my goals throughout the ride. I stayed within my abilities and had a great ride. I have been practicing with a few different nutrition products. I really liked what my nutrition plan was for this race. I will do a follow up blog going over race day nutrition. The temperature on the bike was perfect and stayed overcast keeping the heat down. I came into transition over my original goal, but was very happy with the effort. I am thrilled to say that my bike is much stronger due to the power training I designed for myself over the winter.

I rushed through T2, keeping in mind the bet I had with Kyle... this post race meal was gonna be good and free! I arrived at my transition spot and my stuff was scattered all over due to the bag toss I did earlier in the day. I was smart and put my socks in a zip lock bag so I would have nice dry socks for the run.... the bad part is that when I threw my bad back to it's spot it tossed my socks who knows where.... with the dinner bet still on the brain I threw caution to the wind and put on my run shoes...without socks.... a decision that I regret still to this day!

I took off running and felt great. My winter prep seems to be paying off. Orlando is a three lap race (which I also really like). It allows me to break the run portion of the race into three distinct sections and also is great to see friendly smiling faces after each lap. My good friend Tyrell had made the trip to support Kyle and me, in addition was able to take some photos. I went out at a 7 min mile pace and just wanted to maintain this pace. For the first time in a race I took a race fuel belt and raced the run portion of the race with my nutrition not relying on the aid stations to dictate when I was ready to take in fuel. I really liked this and felt it helped me have a consistent run. The sun was now out and heating up.

Ride done - off to the run!

One of the many lessons I learned from last year was how to race in the heat. Salt pills are an absolute must and you need to be taking them consistently throughout the race. In most cases, people try to fix this issue when it is simply too late in the race. Many people around me were cramping up and ultimately had resorted to walking. I found out after the race that Kyle had fallen over on the race course at mile 2 due to his quads completely tightening up and cramping. He spent 20 minutes on the ground getting his legs worked on and taking in sodium and potassium. The stud manned up and finished the last 11 miles of the run, but it ultimately cost him his race! A hard but very valuable lesson for Kyle to learn.

Lap three - holding strong.

I started to feel the effects of the race starting the third lap of the run but stayed mentally tough pulling from my past experiences and tough training days. I managed to negative split the race finishing with a personal best time on the run and overall for the race.

Is anyone else hot.....?

I was most proud of the fact that I STUCK to my game plan and despite a hard bike ride was strong enough to execute a great run. Despite my best efforts I missed qualifying for the 70.3 world championships. The competition is fierce and I will just have to work hard. I managed a top 3% finish overall! I am very happy with that! Ultimately my A race is later this year in Cozumel and all the races leading up to that one are to gain experience, practice in race conditions and prepare myself to qualify for Kona. I am very pleased with this race and will use it as a stepping stone. I will be racing in Boise in 2 weeks to give 70.3 worlds another shot.

One of the worst post race massages ever.

Finishing standing upright is always a great day!

James Lawrence