Half Iron Triathlon, Done!

Last year, I had posted about my first triathlon, an Olympic distance.

This Year, I TRI’d the next level, the Half Iron Distance Triathlon at the Deccan Triathlon in Kolhapur.

Swim in a lake – 1900m, Cycling on the highway – 90km, Running – 21.1km.

The time taken was not so great, but as a first attempt, and not being in the prime of my health, I’ll be happy with it. The blog is written mainly with the intention of helping those who wish to start triathlon training, and hence the technical jargons will be kept on the lower side.

Starting the Journey

Having done about 20 half marathons, it was getting a little boring to just run, that’s when the triathlon bug hit me. I learnt swimming, did a full marathon to test my endurance, and also did a 200km cycle ride. All this was to see if I can push myself for such long distance events that usually lasts 6-10 hours.

The distances in a triathlon:

My swim training, cycling rides as well as triathlon camps are all shared as other blogs here: https://tottologyadventures.blogspot.com/ 

I joined an interesting group of triathletes in India – Recreational Triathletes. Created by triathletes, for the triathletes and absolutely No spam, this group has been instrumental in helping me train for triathlons. From beginners to Ironman legends to podium winners in swimming, cycling, running as well as ultra athletes - you will get everyone here. 

From the group came to know about the Deccan Triathlon, organised by Kolhapur Sports Club , and the organizing team has 10+ Ironman finishers. Hence it was a great starting point for me to aim for this event. The organizers were kind enough to give us all a good discount on top of the early bird prices.

Training Plans, Guidelines

I am not that great at following training plans. Though I follow basic guidelines, the day to day plans are never followed, and hence I don’t work with any coach as there wont be any synergy. Plus I have stopped using Garmin / GPS smartwatches, Heart Rate Monitors, etc so it is difficult for any coach to understand my training patterns and progress. I just created weekly major workouts to be done any time of the week when I feel good. E.g a 50k ride at 27km/hr or a 10k run under 60 mins or a 1km swim in 50 mins as weekly targets. Each week had a target workout and hence 3 workouts a week were fixed, rest was just impulse based.

The broad guidelines were taken from the below links – one is a book that I follow and the other is a training plan which is very generic and needs to be adapted as per your speed and capacity: http://www.220triathlon.com/downloads/MiddleDistanceTriathlonTrainingPlan.pdf

https://www.amazon.in/Triathlon-Training-Book-James-Beckinsale/dp/0241229774

Coaching Camps, Swim Clinics

The most important additions to my training was the Triathlon camp by Nagaraj Harsha and Kaustubh Radkar. It opened up a lot of ideas and helped in the basics of the sport and how to up the ante. You can read about it here: https://tottologyadventures.blogspot.com/2018/04/triathlon-camp-in-bangalore-by-ironmen.html

Additionally, Anirban Mukherji, the creator of Recreational Triathletes, an amazing guy, a passionate triathlete and someone who unconditionally helps us all, flew down to Bangalore and conducted a swim clinic to help about 15 of us on the skills needed in open water and the training drills.

Social and Social Media

One good push I got was from the local whatsapp group - TRIBLR - where 30+ athletes cheer, motivate and push each other, in Bangalore. We even got a customized jersey so that across all events, we can wear our swag!

To get my training going and get inspired, i even created a secondary profile on Instagram, following about 1300 triathletes globally, sharing knowledge and getting tips on various topics.

You can follow my journey there: https://www.instagram.com/tritototri/ 

Actual Training

The training started from June 1^st and I gave myself 5.5 months to be ready for the big day. Intermediate events like a few 10K runs, an Olympic Distance triathlon at Thonnur (in the lake), a few training swims at Thonnur lake helped shape up for the big day. Weekend rides were done religiously. I entered a 10k x 10 days challenge too (but managed 6 x 10k runs). Swimming was the weakest sport and the effort I have put in has made me confident to atleast manage 1.5km swim now. The platform Altsoul has been great for me. I can book pools across Bangalore and they have different slots, so right from a Nisha Millet Swimming Academy pool to a ST. Joseph school’s heated pool, I got access to all and could go as per my time and convenience.
The big mistake i did in my training is the lack of enough Brick Trainings - days when you do 2 sports together back to back. Like a Swim + Bike or a Bike + Run or a Swim + Run, which helps your muscles get used to the multisport load. Though my commute to the pools were some times on a hybrid cycle, the long distance rides after swim were limited. 

Heated Pool - St Joseph School

Ulsoor pool - The best pool in Bangalore, by Nisha Millet Swimming Academy

Challenges

There were many challenges in the 5 months. Knee pain (meniscus compression), Lower Back Pain – lats / latissimus dorsi, thumb numbness, thing stiffness, etc. Work has been hectic too, hence taking out time for triathlon training was a challenge. Heat training was another challenge. Kolhapur was to have 32-35 degrees but Bangalore being a cold weather city, had to train in the daytime or lunch time on weekends, in a bit of traffic – to get used to the heat and not get sick. Managed to do my 50-75km rides in the sun – and got 29-30 degrees weather on some days – to help me cope up with the weather and plan my hydration.

Heat Training 

Lake Swim / Open Water Swimming - Bangalore doesn't have a lake or a river where one can swim, and the nearest one is 130kms from home, so it is a challenge to learn and be good at a lake swim.

Biggest challenge was that 3 weeks before the event, I got throat infection, the worst in my life that lasted for 7 days, plus a couple of days was down with high fever (had to use iced water on the forehead like childhood) to cool down. My main plan was to increase Brick training in the last 4 weeks before the event and this actually changed the plan and in the build up to the event, my training load went down drastically.

10 days before the event, I sent a mail to the organizers that I will back off from this year’s event and train and attend next year. Also spoke to a few knowledgeable athletes on what to do and most of them said to give it a shot.

I did a 30k ride, 5k run and 1.5k swim and found that I am not sore. Hence decided to attend and called up the organizers that I will attend and give my best!

The Event

My wife, who has been the pillar of strength, my crew, nutritionist, alarm clock, training partner, critic and my crew, said she will drive us down to Kolhapur (620km from Bangalore, about 10 hours).

We drove and got to the Race expo, checked in the bike and got the bib, etc. The organizers have been generous to give us a good bag, gels, jersey, stickers, etc. Not to forget - high quality bib number tattoo, timing chip, and a lot of other items. 

Having done so many events in the last 4 years across running, cycle races, obstacle races, triathlons, 200km brevets, duathlons, etc I have never been so nervous and anxious in my life. The butterflies in the tummy were killing me. What we did a day before the race was something ill not recommend anyone.   I had 3 Vada Pav  (my favourite – but considered junk because it is deep fried potato, bread and spicy chutney) –  to be happy and change my mood!

Next up, came to the hotel room and arranged everything – for Pre-race, Swim, Bike and Run Gear as well as other items to be used in transitions.

Pre-Race Prep

Race Expo

The Big Day – 18^th November, 2018 – RACE DAY

Got up after 5 hours of sleep, ate bread jam, 200ml of electrolytes and dressed up for the race.

5.15 am – reached the venue. Arranged the bike and transition bags, did a little warm up, met the fellow triathletes from recreational triathletes group and chatted a bit to calm my nerves.

6.00am – drank a mix of Carborance and BCAA (about 300ml)

6.10am – lineup for the swim

6.30am – the race started.

Warm up with Recreational Triathletes

Start Line

SWIM – 1900m, 82 mins

6.35am
1900m of swim in a lake. I was amongst the last ones to enter as I was in no hurry. The guy before me had a cut in his foot and hence we waited about 3 mins after the time started (crossed the mat), as he was getting out and cleaned up. Took a deep breath, remembered god and Mom, and dived into the water. In 200m, I accidentally gulped the water and it went into my sinus, and it made me a little disoriented. Took a few breaths, chatted with the guards to divert my mind and started my swim. After about 400m from the start line, I got my rhythm and started swimming effortlessly at my easy and safe pace. I witnessed a lot of people struggling and getting help from the safety team and was hoping I don’t have to use their support. Slowly and steadily I managed to swim and finally see the last 100m for the swim finish. I almost sprinted and got to the end and the happiest face is after the swim as I survived the toughest swim (I had never done 1900m in a lake or a pool before in my life). The watch showed 1 hour 22 mins, and I was happy to have finished within 1.5hours.

I saw Kaustubh Radkar cheering all the athletes coming out of the lake, and he cheered me too by calling out my name – was super happy with the gesture.

Happiest Face, Survived the Swim

7.57am

T1 – transition – I took about 8 minutes, to clean myself, wear the cycling gear (jersey, gloves, helmet, goggles, shoes, etc), have the BCAA + carborance drink, and go to the bike.

I had to use my mobile - with Strava to track the bike and run, so thought of clicking a selfie too!

Selfie before Cycling

8.05am

BIKE – 92km, 4:00 hours

The cycling leg was interesting. It was a rolling terrain (the route was full of ups and down – terrain wise and experience wise). My aim was to finish it in 3 hours 40 mins, but then not everything goes as planned. I was strong till 45^th km. I managed to ride as planned – at 26km/hour. Ate bananas, energy gels, dry fruit bars, etc regularly. Till the 70^th KM, I was on track to finish the ride faster than planned. At the 70^th km, I had a mild cramp on my left thigh, and I was like “ I am doomed”, because I had 20+kms to ride and then do a half marathon now!

But then the mind started being positive, I did a lot of stretches, took breaks every 5km and got very slow to make sure there isn’t a relapse. And finally managed to finish my ride in exactly 4 hours.

The Bike Leg was HOT

12:05pm

T2 – I saw Nihal (the winner) and I had a quick chat with him, he told me about his timing and gave a few tips to relieve the cramp – which worked wonders. I took some time to get normal, did a few stretches, had ample amounts of water and electrolytes and energy gel and a banana. 9 mins for the T2, which was not what I had planned.

12:14pm

RUNNING - 21km 3 hours

NOON… 5 hours 40 mins into the event and I was off to start my run – and I saw Anirban finishing his event (5^th fastest and 1^st in the age group). I had planned to finish in 8.5 hours so I wasn’t under any pressure. I still had 2 hours 50 mins to finish the run.

With cramps coming up every few steps, I was worried. But then I screamed at my legs “bhaag *******” and it worked!!!!!

Cramped Run

Run in the sun

Initial 5kms were slow, around 50 mins, and then I picked up my pace a little and was faster in the next 5kms. I had the energy gel, oranges, watermelon, dates, on the run, fast and up, etc at the end of 10^th km and took about 4 mins break. It was HOT at 1.45pm, the organizers gave me a bottle and I used it and kept sipping water every 500m. By then I changed my target to 9 hours instead of 8.5. They also had iced water with sponge to be put on legs, shoulders and neck to cool us down – amazing arrangements. The energy of volunteers was outstanding. I then kept running and chatted with fellow athletes to keep things going. To our surprise, there were a few clouds and shade for about 20 mins, which helped and my speed kept on improving. Finally the last 3kms left and already felt like a winner. I was getting into the rhythm and pushed myself, and was getting cheered by a lot of people for running in the 3pm heat. To my surprise, of the 20kms the fastest were the final 3 kms.

The run towards the finish line was something else, as I couldn’t feel any pain, emotions or anything, I was just seeing the finish line and sprinted like a bull. Finally I crossed the finish line to earn the finishers medal of a Half Iron Distance Triathlon! To my surprise I was 20 mins faster than the revised target, and 9 mins slower than my original target, but that won’t make me unhappy. I finished the race with all the challenges, and that made me super happy.

THE FINISH LINE BLISS

3:16pm - FINISH LINE

Post event

The pillar of strength was there to cheer and support post event. The organizers gave me a Redbull and it really gave me wings! We spent about half an hour to get back to normal and clicked a lot of pictures, some of them are displayed below.

The journey has been tough, but the mind was able to overcome the challenges. The list of people to thank, is a long one. Family members, Friends, Bike store, Fellow triathletes, Well-wishers, Mentors, etc

149 of 170 Finishers - I am happy to have finished it!

Crew

Mithila (wife and a triathlete) has been the most amazing support crew. In the build up to the event, the amount of effort she has put in, the finishers medal needs to be shared with her for sure. When the crew says - you just do your training, I'll manage the food, nutrition, sleep cycle, daily chores and recovery - you just feel blessed and lucky. The most important aspect is that she is also a triathlete, and hence knows what is needed for training - not just swim, bike, run - but mechanical knowledge, core, strength, nutrition, balance, recovery and rest.

Next?

The Half Iron Journey has been a big learning and has had a great impact on my professional and social life. Plus, the timing in which i finished the event has not been so impressive, so time now to get into base training for a few months, improve speed and endurance, better flexibility, strength and conditioning. The swim need a lot of focus too, and hence for the next 4-6 months, it will be just better training. Ideally, the next target will be to do some of the Indian triathlons - at Thonnur, Goa, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, etc  and living a tri- lifestyle than just focus on racing.

Equipment and Nutrition:

Timex Ironman Collection - Digital stopwatch (no GPS / HRM/Smart features)

Skin Elements Anti Chaffing Cream

Swim - 

Apace Tri Shorts - Slingshot

Speedo Futura Biofuse Flexiseal Triathlon Goggles

Bike -

Scott Speedster 20

Btwin Helmet

Asics GT 2000-4 Shoes

Starkenn Gloves

Apace - Tri-BLR jersey (custom)

Titan Goggles - numbered glasses

Run -

Performax Visor Cap

Nutrition -

Fast and Up Gel x 5

GU Caffine Gel x 1

RRun Electrolyte x 1

Steadfast Carborance Drink x 1

Fast and up BCAA

Pictures - https://new.splitsecondpix.com/
Race Timing - Timing India

Lets Keep Trying the TRI!