Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells 2024 Recap

I'm posting this way later than I normally would but most of it was written within a day of the race itself. With dental surgery and the holidays I'm a bit behind.

Overall, I’m very happy with the race performance and time. Considering the broken rib in July and the bought with Covid in September I am really happy with the final result. Let's dive into some of the specifics.

Swim - [Grade: C]

While I’m happy with the overall final time of the race, I’m frustrated with my swim performance. The temp was great. I honestly didn’t even feel cold. I do have some thoughts on why it wasn’t great. These aren’t in any particular order. 

• I might have been a bit tentative on pace

• I played tennis with my wife a few weeks ago and my rotator cuff has been sore ever since. Swimming in a pool it’s been fine but in the open water with a full sleeve wetsuit, it felt restrictive on the recovery phase of the stroke. I felt like I was fighting the suit a bit. I will need to get more open water workouts in if I'm using the full sleeve.  

• No real warm up. In hindsight I should’ve brought some stretch cords to warm up with. The venue didn't allow us to warm up so it was the same for everyone.

• I should’ve made my way to the start sooner to get a better position. I was in the 30-33 min group and there were definitely a lot of people ahead of me that did not swim that fast. Navigating all the people popping up and stopping was a bit much. Additionally, the course had a lot of turns so you need to sight more often

Learning

• Start in a fast group to get a little more clear water

• Do more open water training if the weather/water will be colder

• Bring stretch cords

• Don’t play tennis anymore

T1 - [Grade: C]

Way too slow. I had to pee the entire swim and it took me a min to get sorted. I just didn’t want to deal with that on the bike. After stripping the wetsuit, I put on my socks (glad I had those on) I carried my shoes and helmet to my bike. I put on my shoes, then my helmet, grabbed my bike and was off. Could shave a couple of minutes off this transition easily. Another thing I’d like to work on is mounting my bike with the shoes in the pedals. I don't think it will save ton of time but it will help.

Bike - [Grade: B+]

The bike as a whole was really good. It was nice starting out with some long downhill stretches. Everything felt smooth and fast. I faded near the end a bit but that was just a long slight uphill climb. 

The road was quite rough. So much so that my rear bottle launched out. At the last aid station I grabbed a bottle of mortal to replace it and went to put it in the cage and learned that the cage had actually broken!! I was well beyond the litter zone and ended up carrying a bottle in my hands the final ten miles. I would have certainly been under 2:30 had that not happened. In my data you can see where my power drops around mile 46 as I’m trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Second, I was constantly moving the bottle around to find a good place for it. I had been riding with a group up until that point and lost touch fussing with the bottle. 

Aside from the bottle incident, nutrition was great. I consumed the following:

• Hour 1 - 105g carbs, 950mg sodium (1x 900ml bottle of tailwind + 1x precision gel)

• Hour 2 - 105g carbs, 950mg sodium (1x 700ml bottle of tailwind + 1x precision gel)

• 30 mins - not sure but I had the mortal bottle and a caffeinated Maurten (both of which were nasty ugh) plus 1 precision gel

Learning

• A hotter race might require more fluid/sodium and also I need to pee less.

• Figure out issue with cage screws

T2 - [Grade: B-]

I was nervous for the run considering my last experience. I got off the bike and felt great. Not a hint of a cramp. I was planning to take my feet out of my shoes before dismounting but since I had the bottle in my hand and it was grass, I decided to keep them on. I kind of had to pee. Made the decision to just go in transition. I saw the female pro who took a second jump into a bathroom on the course so I know it’s not uncommon. Just annoying I had to but I felt like it would be better to be comfortable on the run. Maybe I could wait a little longer until I really had to go and maybe that would be faster?

Last thing I’ll say is I had nutrition on my race belt plus I had a 24 oz bottle of Precision 1000. I used two tablets so it was definitely 1000. The only thing was I didn’t like the gels on the belt. It was heavy and dropped one of them while trying to get the belt on. My tri suit for this race is more for an Olympic race and the pockets aren’t easy to access.

Run - [Grade: A]

I have to give myself an A because I stuck my pacing and didn’t blow up. I brought 3 gels plus the 24 oz of precision. The first lap I didn’t stop at any aid station. On the second lap (about an hour in) I finished off the precision and only took a couple of mortal drinks the rest of the way and mostly had water to get the taste out of my mouth and to splash a little on me. 

Learning

• Instead of 24oz with 2 tabs just do 12oz with a single tablet. Less to carry

• Need to rethink nutrition. Maybe rely more on aid stations for gels with less to carry

Wait to pee until I really have to go instead of wasting time in transition. Might not happen on a hotter day but losing free time by stopping.

Summary

While I did hit my numbers on the bike and run I have a lot of room to grow. I also understand it will take time. I’m competitive and hate how people simply fly by me–especially on the run. I know I can get there and will. I improved a lot this year and really is a great foundation for better things next year. Or at least I’ll convince myself of that for now…