Ironman 70.3 World Champs to a 2:45 at the 125th Boston Marathon (fall edition)

Triathlete takes on marathon or marathoner takes on triathlon?

When I signed up for the 125th Boston Marathon, I had no idea that I would have just come off of the Ironman 70.3 World Championships 3 weeks earlier. I had no idea that I would have gotten into a bike crash 4 weeks before that. I had no idea I would only do 1 run over 20 miles in the months leading up to the race. I also did not know I would feel stronger than ever.

I have considered myself a runner for more than a decade. I absolutely love it. I love being able to see the results of what I put into training. I started off in the sport the same way many of us do -- I wanted to lose some weight & make some friends. I did cross country my junior and senior years of high school. My times were nothing special. I probably should have fallen into the camp of never running another step after that but for some reason wanted to tackle long distances in college. I ran a half marathon. Then I ran another one. Then I tried a marathon. Eventually, I was able to qualify for Boston. I got my half marathon down to 1:15 and my marathon best down to 2:42. I have tried 100 mile weeks with big marathon workouts. I feel like I still have a lot more to give at those distances but running got frustrating at the end of 2019.

That's when I got a stress reaction in my left foot. I ran my 2:42 personal best at the Berlin Marathon two weeks after that diagnosis. I didn't run a step from then until the few days before the race. I missed training and was fighting through a lot of pain. Without some fueling mistakes, I could have run under 2:40 even with the missed training. I was on 2:39 pace through 35km. I recovered from the injury but, when I came back to running, my left achilles was still painful. I didn't realize the achilles was as bad as the foot. It did not heal in the ~8 weeks I took off after Berlin. I was able to run through the achilles pain and ran a 1:15 half marathon in January 2020. We all know what happened next. The world stopped. Races couldn't happen but weren't important anymore. I kept training and kept training hard. I ran myself into the ground. My workouts got worse and worse. My pain increased to a point where I could barely walk. I had to stop running. It wasn't working for the first time in my life. I needed something to fill the void so I bought a bike.

In the summer of 2020, I bought a 2012 used Cervelo P2. I started riding it every day. I used flat pedals and did not know clip pedals were a thing. I rode hard and started to ride longer and longer. That's where the idea of doing triathlons started. I joined a pool and started swimming. I didn't know how to breathe properly but I was having fun and the body was feeling good. I signed up for an Olympic Triathlon and won my age group after less than 2 months of swimming/biking training. I only did some light running in the last 3 weeks before the race and still had the 2nd fastest run split.

While I had fun at that race, I wasn't a triathlete. I was still a runner. I wanted to try a 70.3 so I signed up for one in the summer of 2021. I would train similarly to the Olympic one and ramp up the swimming/biking as I got closer. I was still a runner and had some running goals left to accomplish. I signed up for a spring marathon but got injured in the couple of weeks before the race. The achilles was, yet again, the culprit. I ran the race and it went horribly. I was devastated. I didn't feel like a runner. So I went all in on triathlon. I hammered out big training weeks. The nice thing was that the achilles pain was manageable because I had to balance all 3 disciplines. 70-80+ miles/week was too much for the achilles but 40 miles a week, with a ton of swimming/biking, felt great. I nailed my debut. I finished 15th at Musselman 70.3 in 4:25. I turned in a 1:19-flat half marathon run split, which was the 2nd fastest out of the entire field. I had never felt stronger running. 

I quickly shifted focus to the 70.3 World Champs. I had qualified and I simply had to go. Boston became an afterthought. I signed up for Timberman in between to give myself another shot at the 70.3 distance. In the back of my mind, I wanted to see how close I could get to an elite qualifying time for triathlon. After a strong swim (for me), I had bike trouble and ended up crashing. The pain was awful. It hurt to breathe. I had X-rays done and, luckily, my ribs were just bruised. I couldn't swim or run. The pain was too much so I hammered the bike but missed some valuable training time before Worlds. After that experience, I went into Worlds a lot less confident. My racing showed. I had a sub-par swim. My bike started strong but then it started to rain and hail. The wind picked up and we saw 50mph gusts. I was terrified, after falling just 4 weeks prior. I was still having rib pain. I slowed down to a crawl on the bike. My anxiety was heightened. I wanted nothing more than to get off the bike. I had an average run and finished a lot higher up than I had thought I could. Some people didn't back off during the bad weather. I was on the extreme end of the spectrum and did what I thought I needed to do. After that adventure, I still had the Boston Marathon on the calendar in 3 weeks...

After not running more than 40-50 miles/week in months, I crammed hard for the race. I ran as many miles as I could fit in. I ran a 22 mile long run. I did an 8 mile tempo in the 5:50s. I was as ready as I was going to be. We were greeted on race day with temperatures in the 60s, a dew point close to 60, and a slight headwind. It wasn't horrible but those also aren't PR conditions. I just want one marathon where I stay healthy, get in the training, and catch a 40 degree day on race day. Boston 2021 had other plans. Triathlon has taught me how to pace and how to fuel. I wanted to run 6:00/mile but adjusted to 6:15 based on the forecast. I took an extra gel with me and planned to drink more than I normally would.

When the gun went off, a lot of people naturally hit it hard. Good marathons don't happen with fast opening miles. Good marathons happen with even pacing or negative splits. I started off at 6:20 pace and ran that pace through 10k. After that, I started running 6:10-6:15. I maintained that pace through 16 miles, when the hills started. Although I didn't have the traditional long runs in my legs and tempo runs, my body felt strong. I did have a lot of long rides in my legs and threshold work. I felt in control. I attacked the hills. I ran slightly stronger there than in 2018. I split a 6-flat mile 22 and held it together the best I could. I went from running 6:10s to 6:20s for mile 24 & 25, before getting it back in the last mile. Given my lack of specific marathon training, I would say the marathon went as good as it could have. I positive split by less than 1:00. The Boston course is a bit tougher in the back half imo. I ran 2:45 on a day that wasn't meant for peak marathon running. That is a testament to all of the training I have put in over the last year. I was as strong as ever and had a PR in me on a better weather day. I think my history of running marathons & having several big marathon training blocks helped me run well on Marathon Monday. I also think triathlon training made me strong and taught me a lot about managing fatigue.

I do not think triathlon training has gotten me faster for anything under 10k. I am naturally losing any speed I might have had but triathlon training is getting me really strong from threshold to marathon pace. Now all I want to do is run a marathon on a cool day. I, however, do not know when that will happen. The shift has already begun. I am passing on Boston in 2022 to focus on triathlon. I flirted with the idea of a late season or winter marathon but that is counter-productive to improving at triathlon. It is hard to keep up with swimming/biking when you are trying to run your best. Not being able to do it all is something I am grappling with. Triathlon has had its challenges but it is still new and exciting. I dropped a quality 70.3 debut with less than a year of swimming/biking under my belt. I do not think it is outrageous to go after my elite triathlon card. I have already qualified as an elite duathlete (running/biking) but that doesn't open as many doors. There aren't a ton of pro races available and there aren't great sponsorship dollars available. I don't think I would ever get to the point of being able to quit my day job but racing as an elite for Ironman races is a dream that doesn't seem so far away. I'm a lot closer than I ever was when my only focus was running. I need to swim and bike as much as I can. I run as well as a mid-level professional. If I can close the gap in the other two areas, I think I have what it takes to join the elite ranks. As I write this, it is becoming more clear. I need to go all in on triathlon and give this a shot. If I miss, I'll be content in knowing that I tried. It stings that my running PBs are soft in my eyes when I committed so much time to the sport. I feel like I overtrained a lot and never raced as well as I did in practice. This new chapter is about flipping that script. I'm going to train as hard as ever. Triathlon requires more hours than running. I'm also going to race as hard as ever. I'll still hit some big workouts along the way but I want my racing to do the talking. I believe I can get to the elite side of the sport. That's pretty cool for someone who couldn't fathom breaking 20:00 for 5k a decade ago.

Friar 5k -- 1st win since 2019

Came into today with 4th, 3rd, & 2nd place performances at triathlons through the spring & summer. Just finished the 70.3 World Champs two weeks ago. Focused my training on that event & now the goals have changed. I'm running the Boston Marathon on October 11th. I signed up before I even considered myself a triathlete. Oh how things have changed. There are just three weeks between St. George & Boston. As I write this, we're just nine days out. I haven't done your classic marathon workouts or long runs. I have been training a ton, and hitting a variety of swim/bike/run workouts. I knew my timeline was tight between races. Part of me believes running a good marathon is doable. I made the switch from triathlete to runner and gave a short race a go this morning.

I recovered as well as I could after the World Champs. I took some down time, did some hiking, and got back to the east coast. I ran 22 miles 8 days after crossing the finish line in downtown St. George. I averaged 6:50s and felt exhausted by the time I finished. How would I feel 16 days later?

I then attacked the next week of training. I ran 13+ miles on Tuesday of this past week with a 12k progression at 5:58 pace. I followed that up with a 15 mile medium long run on Wednesday, averaging in the 6:40s. I ran a super easy 10 miles on Thursday and then 7 on Friday with a small amount of fast stuff thrown in. My wife signed us up for the Friar 5k so how could I say no?

I was able to warm up over to campus from my doorstep. I got to the start line a couple minutes before the gun went off & everyone around me was astonished that I thought sub-17 would be good on the day. The race started & I quickly found myself in 20th place (lol). So many people sprinted out. We got about a half mile in, passed Big Tony's, and I had worked my way back up into a share of 1st/2nd. I started run stride for stride with maybe a PC student?

I hope they're not mad at me. My triathlon & marathon legs didn't have another gear. I locked into 5:20s and they seemed content to half step me instead of work with me & run side by side. I did my best to run to the side of them & not be in their slip stream. The course was super hilly but my effort was even. Every time I would pull even with them, they seemed to put in a surge. I thought I was done around mile 2 when they gapped me by a couple seconds but I closed the gap and then moved to the front. I put in a hard effort at 2.5 miles and went for it. I think a lot about want and need. I didn't just want to get a Dub but Needed to. I was hurting but made the choice to hurt even more. My 5th kilometer was 3:04 (sub-5:00 mile pace). I hammered the uphill, got onto the track, and won the dang thing. I put some considerable time on second in the last half mile. My guy deserves a ton of credit. If I had done this race solo, I probably would have run a lot slower. I ran 16:55, which seems pretty good 2 weeks after 70.3 Worlds & 9 days out from Boston. I'm far from peak 5k shape but I've only ever run 16:20 in a race (flat 5k in Chicago in 2019). Today's race climbed 200 feet -- pretty hilly for a 5k. I think the effort isn't too far off of my PB. I closed faster than 3k pace on an uphill stretch of road. I want to run a flat 5k post-Boston & see if we can scare 16:00.

Immediately following the race, I did a 5k tempo in 18:35. I don't know what any of this means but I feel strong rn. I think I can run well in Boston. Depending on the weather, I want to give 2:40 a go. I feel like a broken record. That time feels so important to me. I want, no I need, to break that time barrier. I feel ready even though I've been training like a triathlete. I'm going to enjoy this win and then back off of training and freshen up for Boston. Fingers crossed for a good day. I have some fitness somewhere in these triathlon legs. It's time to see what we're made of over 26.2. 

Triathlon SZN

I don't think anyone reads this (7,715 views all-time but are blogs still a thing?) anymore but it's still helpful for me to jot down some thoughts as I continue to explore the world of endurance sports. If you're somehow still here I hope you're healthy, training hard, and that some of these thoughts/ramblings help you along your way.

2020 was obviously a strange year for a lot of reasons. The effects of a global pandemic seeped into all facets of life, including athletics. I ran a 1:15 half marathon in January of 2020. That came a few months after a 2:42 marathon on a stress reaction in my left foot. My mileage wasn't that high for the 1:15. The workouts didn't have me convinced I would run the way I did. The result was surprising to say the least. I lined up road races throughout the spring/summer and figured I would be setting PRs at every distance. Then the pandemic came, and I didn't get to race. On top of that, my achilles was a mess. It still isn't 100% if we're being honest. I decided to take some down time from running. I couldn't run on it, saw doctors, and started physical therapy. I was given the green light to cross train so I bought a bike -- not just any bike but a used Cervelo P2 that I knew would work for a triathlon if I ever did one. I began to bike every day. I started swimming too. I signed up for an Olympic Triathlon in September, 2020. It went great -- I won my age group! I ran just in the 3 weeks before the event and still had the 2nd fastest run split in the whole field. I signed up for a 70.3 in July but thought that would be something to do in between a spring and fall marathon. I still thought I was a runner.

I spent the rest of 2020 ramping up the running mileage and cutting back on the swimming/biking. I ran a 16:23 5k time trial at Thanksgiving. Then I ran 26:55 for 8k. I ran 16:02 for a Garmin-measured road 5k in February. My mileage was up. I was feeling healthy. The marathon workouts looked great. Then I had some ankle problems, missed a little bit of time, went for the marathon & missed. I ran a horrible marathon. There's no other way to put it. I had some of my best long runs ever in the build up. I did 23 miles @ 6:20 pace, bouncing miles @ 5:48 & miles @ 6:46, ten times through. I pivoted quickly to triathlon training, which I had neglected while trying to be a runner.

I ran a duathlon 1 week after the marathon. With very little bike training in recent months and with the marathon still on my legs, I finished 3rd overall. I had the best run splits and knew I could have contended for the win if I had done any real bike training over the winter and spring. The race gave me confidence to go after triathlon training and see how far we could get by July.

I did an Olympic Triathlon in June and finished 4th. My swim had improved from my 1st triathlon and my bike got a lot better. I had the 2nd fastest run to a former D1 runner. Not too shabby. I kept training, logged some huge weeks, and was ready to give Ironman 70.3 Musselman my best.

I had myself a day in my 1st 70.3. This was the first big 70.3 in the northeast since before the pandemic started. The field was pretty loaded and I ended up 15th overall, 4th in my age group, and qualified for the World Championships. I swam hard but within myself. 33:26 for 1.2 miles. That's 1:34/100 yards. For reference, I did somewhere in the mid-1:40s at my 1st triathlon 10 months earlier for a shorter distance. I broke 2:30 on the bike, with a 2:29:20 split for 56 miles. It was good enough for the 48th fastest time. I honestly never felt great on the bike. I would catch and pass people on the uphills but would get crushed going downhill. I was unsure how my body would respond over 13.1 miles but I had the run of my life. I ran 1:19-flat at the end of a 70.3. It was the 2nd fastest of the day & moved me up to 15th. To be more competitive, I knew I just needed to keep plugging away at the swim and the bike. It didn't help that I only started back up with those two disciplines, in earnest, in mid-April. I now had another triathlon to add to the calendar -- the 70.3 World Championships in September.

I thought that Musselman might be good enough to earn an elite rating. Get two scores from two separate triathlons over the elite mark and you can turn professional. I ended up with a 98, almost a 99, and you need a 104. Musselman didn't have an elite field which sometimes drags scores down. I figured I was very close to the mark and added another race to the calendar -- Timberman 70.3.

I trained hard in the pool and on the bike to make the gains I needed to make for Timberman. I also upgraded my bike and went into the race with more fitness and a faster setup. I forgot my wetsuit and the race was barely wetsuit legal. Despite that, I swam nearly the exact same time that I did at Musselman. I would have been faster in a wetsuit and knew that my swim had improved. I grabbed my bike and set out to tackle the next 56 miles. The only problem? I couldn't clip my feet in. I'm nowhere near a bike expert. Clipping in is not seamless for me but I've always been able to do it. I had changed my cleats the night before the race and the pedal tension (new pedals on the new bike) was too tight for me to clip in. I pulled off to the side and couldn't even get the shoes in with my hands. I was frustrated. I had had a good swim. The body felt great and something I didn't really understand was preventing me from competing. I made a dangerous choice to ride without being clipped in. I ended up getting into a decent groove and thought, if I can just get to the run, I can still have a good day. I, however, didn't make it to the run. I lost control of the bike on a U-turn and went down hard. My body was in so much pain. I landed on the left side of my body on my ribs. My chain came off. I was bleeding and had road rash. I was crushed after being in such a great place physically and mentally coming off of Musselman. I rode another 15 or so miles before calling it. The pain was too much and I was scared I was going to fall off again, without having good control on some pretty steep downhills. I got some tests done at the race and things seemed fine minus the pain. I had some X-Rays done that night & the verdict was bruised ribs. It luckily wasn't anything worse but I'm still in pain today as I write this almost 5 weeks later.

I still had the World Championships on the calendar. I had booked a 10 day trip to Utah to train there before the race. I wasn't able to swim for 1.5 weeks or run for 2 weeks. I biked every day, and biked hard. When I was finally able to swim and run, I realized I hadn't completely lost all of my fitness but I was still in a lot of pain. I went to Utah the week before the race and uncertain is the best word I can use to describe how I was feeling. I had ramped up from 2 weeks to 1 week out to more/less try to make up for lost training. My taper week still had decent volume and workouts. It was great living the full-time triathlete life but my body didn't freshen up in the way I had hoped it would before the race. The mileage and climate (heat, elevation, altitude, etc) didn't leave me in the best physical conditions. I hadn't been sleeping great with the time change and went into the race tired. I still wanted to try to get an elite result and was ready to put whatever my body had left out there.

I had a pretty mediocre swim. I swam slower than Timberman in another non-wetsuit legal race even though I should have been more fit. I had been apprehensive in training on the bike all week which was understandable after the crash but I finally took the training wheels off and let it rip once I got on the bike. I was having a strong ride and then the weather came. It started to rain. Then hail. Then lightning. Then wind gusts of up to 40mph. I thought I was going to be thrown right off. I put the bike in its hardest gear, slowed down, and went into survival mode. It was an ~15km stretch where I was affected by those conditions. I had an 11:00 5k & 13:00 5k that should have both been in the 8:00 range. I probably lost 10 minutes or so. I got passed a lot, as some but kept riding hard through those conditions. I didn't feel comfortable doing that, took the time loss, but stayed in one piece. By the time I was able to ride normal again, I reached the toughest point on the course -- Snow Canyon. I'm a strong climber so I was actually able to make up some time on the field. I passed people the entire climb and didn't get passed back a ton on the descent (read: rode with confidence). Despite a slow 2:50 bike split, the legs didn't feel fresh going into the run.

While the bike gained 3,600 feet in 56 miles, the run was equally as cruel, climbing 1200 feet in 13.1 miles. I put my head down, got to work, and picked people off. With the age group start, the run course was lined with people the entire way. It was nice to pass people the entire time but I had no idea who I was even competing with. I finished off the race with a 1:27 half marathon. That doesn't look strong on paper but the effort was similar enough to my 1:19 at Musselman. The course was slow and the downhills came in small, steep, sections that weren't altogether runnable.

I ended up finishing in 5:00:17. The course was hard. The weather was horrible. The transitions were long. I want to be closer to the 4:00:00 mark but I had to fight and scrape to a 5-flat finish on that course on the day. I'm in desperate need of a break. I have the Boston Marathon coming up in a little more than 2 weeks. I'm not expecting anything from the race and will just try to run within myself. Then I'll have some time to get ready for 70.3 Florida in mid-December. I'm still chasing the elite qualifying standard and believe that I can get really close to it at that race. Then I'll actually hit the reset button, get into some base training, and begin to target spring and summer races. The plan is set. It's a good one. I'm a little tired as I write this but I'm as motivated as ever. I believe I have a bright future in triathlon. I need to keep that belief, learn some more about this sport, and practice some self care.

Onwards & upwards.

2021 Goal Setting

Now that it's 2021, I need to publish my annual goal setting piece. I usually stick to putting up some arbitrary times at key distances, but as I started to write down some of my goals for the New Year I noticed that I was writing down goals in other areas of my life. I do not usually publish those things on here, but I also do not usually give those things too much thought. I know that I take running too seriously. I know that my self worth is tied to a lot more than whatever running time I achieve. I know that I've been writing out the same goals for years that remain just out of reach. I am going to practice and preach balance in 2021. Running went really well in the tail end of 2020. I was also running less than I usually do, but with a healthy dose of swimming and biking. I think there is something to learn in this as we plunge into the New Year. I know I need to up the mileage to reach my full potential. To get there, however, I am going to aim for finding better balance in all aspects of life -- work, relationships, and athletics.

Here's what I came up with in order:

- Spend more intentional time with my wife. Have more dinners, watch movies, go on walks, play games, whatever.

- Hang out with your family, hang out with your nephew, hang out with your wife's family.

- Find structure at work.

- Eat healthier (+ less drinking). See if that leads to a few less pounds. Do more core work.

- Learn how to flip turn in the pool.

- Learn how to ride with clip pedals. Learn the flying mount.

- Break 2:40 in the marathon.

- Run a good beer mile.

I wrote all of those out and only one time goal came in at the end. Here are times that I still want to work towards: 

mile- sub-4:40

3k- sub-9:20

5k- sub-16:20, sub-16:00

10k- sub-34:00, as close to 33:00 as you can go

half marathon- sub-1:15:00, as close to 73:xx as you can go

marathon- sub-2:40, reassess in the fall

triathlon- approach 4:00:00 at the half iron, break 2:00 at the Olympic distance

beer mile- sub-7:00, threaten 6:00

trail/ultra- look for debut races & see if anything fits

2020 was a strange year to say the least. My goal setting is usually ambitious. It's almost demoralizing to go back over the last several years and see the same, recycled, time barriers that have eluded me. A sub-16:00 5k and sub-2:40 marathon come immediately to mind. I've been putting those down as goals for years. To some extent, I don't always get the opportunities to go for fast times at each distance. For example, a fast marathon time was pointless last year because I could not run one. I ran a half marathon in January and then did not have a chance to go for another because, you know, COVID. I tried to be realistic with my 2021 time goals. Even though I came up short on time goals over the last few years, the races that I ran in 2018, 2019, and 2020 went well:

2018:

Boston Marathon- 2:44 in trash conditions, top-300 overall

2019:

4:44 road mile, 16:20 5k, 2:42 marathon on a stress reaction after being on 2:39 pace through 23 miles

2020:

January- Austin 3M Half Marathon- 1:15:03 coming off of an injury and short build

((March/April- 34:53 10k & 4:47 road mile))

September- Mt Sunapee Triathlon- 2:02:39, debut, 1st place AG

November- Lil Rhody Runaround 8 Miler- 50:16, 7th OA, 1st place AG

November- 5km TT- 16:23 (3 seconds off of my PB)

2021:

1/1- 8k time trial in 26:55

Running is not easy and it can be frustrating to work so hard at something and feel like you're not getting the results you know that you are capable of. I ran a 1:15 half marathon early in 2020. That shows sub-2:40 marathon potential. My 5k & 8k time trials at the end of 2020 and start of 2021 show this potential as well. The harsh reality in this sport is that it does not owe you a thing. You can do great training and then catch an injury like I did in 2019. You can do great training and come up flat on race day. I do reasonably well because I put in the work week after week. I put in the work because I like training and I have fun doing it. As long as those things continue to hold true, I'm going to keep at it. The times will come. I just have to keep showing up.