Alex McDonald Pro Triathlete

Let me start by saying that New Orleans is a very cool city… neither my wife nor I had ever been here and since her birthday was the monday following the race she decided to take some well deserved vacation time and we as well as her parents came down for the race and to spend a few days enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and (most importantly) tastes of The Big Easy…I’m still not sure why they call it that.  The high points, Beignets from Café Du Monde, Gumbo, boiled seafood platters, jazz at Preservation Hall, the spectacle of Bourbon street, walking around the garden district and stumbling across a guy riding a bicycle with a parrot! J  There are certainly a lot of areas of the city still devastated after hurricane Katrina, but now I have a glimpse of what people are referring to when they speak of the spirit, history and energy of this city, it is truly a unique and special place.  Anyone who said this city should not have been rebuilt after the devastating floods clearly had no appreciation for the beauty, culture and historical significance of this great city…and the most recent super bowl champions…but I digress…you want to hear about the race!!

Let me start by saying that NOLA was a “training race” for me.  It was the final icing on the cake of my training for Ironman St George, just 2 weeks later.  As many of you know my bread and butter is Ironman racing and this was the culmination of several months of hard work.  In the past I have raced a half iron distance race 2 weeks out from a major Ironman and it seems to work very well for me.  It gives me one last fitness boost as well as the mental confidence knowing that I can race well despite being fatigued.  That being said I only took a few days of light training leading into this race, a 105 mile ride on Tuesday and a hard hour tempo run on wed had certainly made me a little unsure of what to expect on race day, but three days of relatively light training and traveling seemed to do the trick.  Overall my day had some hiccups (mainly the swim), but it was a great race and a great confidence boost!  The main focus of this race was to run well.  I know my swimming is making huge strides with my new masters group and my cycling fitness is coming a long nicely, both evident by my race at California 70.3 a few weeks prior.  However, I wanted/needed to prove to myself, and my coach, that I could run again after coming back from my season ending stress fracture last year.

Pre-race

I got up at 3:30 to have my usual breakfast, Ultragen, banana, applesauce, vitamins (Optygen, Multi V, Pure One Omega 3, ARX) and some electrolyte tabs.  I tried not to wake up my wife (it didn’t work.)  We went back to bed for a few hours and rolled into transition around 5:30, perfect.  I have to say how much nicer it is to go to a race with Ashley.  She has a tough day while I am racing (she’s a professional spectator you know), but this time she was 6 months pregnant and had an even more difficult day than usual, I am continually impressed by her endurance.  I got all my gear set up, ate half a Powerbar 30min before the race start, went for a short jog and swim and then drank 12oz of EFS with a scoop of pre-race 15min before the start I was ready to go!! J

Swim:  30:35 - Badness

The water temperature was 73.5, so no wetsuits for the pros, and the swim being my weakest legs of the race, I knew this put me at a disadvantage.  The pro wave splashed, bounded and dolphin dived into lake Ponchatrain just as the sun was rising and the wind was beginning to pick up at 7am.  Between the sun, 1-1.5 feet of chop on the water, wind and current, as well as the general chaos of a triathlon start I had no idea where I was going at several point of the swim.  I found some feet for the first ¼ of the swim, but he kept veering of course, or so I thought.  I decided to not waste energy, do my own thing and swim as best and as straight as I could while use as little energy as I could fighting the choppy water.  I exited the water a little frustrated, but knowing it is a long day I remained focused, put it behind me and moved through T1 as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Bike: 2:11 – Pretty good

The first 5 minutes of the bike in any race is always a little tough, but I quickly found a rhythm and started into my nutrition early to try to get it all into my system well before T2 and avoid sloshing on the run.  On the bike I carry a 24oz bottle with 4 scoops of EFS, 1.5 flasks of EFS Liquid Shot and 1200 additional milligram of sodium.  This is about 256g of carbohydrate that I nurse over the course of the bike and I also drink plenty of water from my aero bottle that I refill at aid stations.  I knew it was going to get hot on the run and I wanted to make sure I was well hydrated.  I found myself cruising eastward and allowing myself to push pretty hard until the 1hr mark of the bike, my usual race strategy.  The only problem was the wind was blowing from the northeast and made it deceptively hard at times.  My legs were moving well, but I certainly felt a little flat, they did not have the usual pop and my power numbers were a little low, but I didn’t really worry too much about it, I rode by instinct and feel the first hour and then settled into my own race after that.  Aside from a few bridges and overpasses this bike course is dead flat…the only problem is the wind!  We are not talking Kona winds, but still…I would compare it in many ways to the Eagleman 70.3 bike course, for those of you have done that race.  There were a few out and back sections of the course where I got to see where I was and I was anywhere from 11-15^th place over the course of the ride.  Also this provided some respite from the head wind as the tail/cross wind was a welcome change.  The last 8 miles of so back into T2 it seemed I was barely pedaling, yet I was moving 30mph with the tail wind! J  I rolled into T2 with a couple other guys and was ready, both mentally and physically to lay it all out on the run course.

Run: 1:18 – Solid, 6^th fastest of the day and a new PR

I was 13^th off the bike, quickly settled into an up-tempo pace and passed two guys in the first half mile…then I was alone…seriously, aside from aid station volunteers and the occasional cop at an intersection it was 11 lonely miles, followed by 2.1 miles of misery, with what I think were spectators and people cheering…I can’t remember… it was a blur.  The run course is beautiful, but desolate though some sleepy neighborhoods and New Orleans City Park, additionally, there was not a whole lot of shade in many sections and the day was beginning to heat up.  I drank my fuelbelt flask of EFS and Pre-Race within the first mile of the run and then settled into my routine of water and sports drink at the aid stations as well as 8g of carbs every 2 miles of so to try to keep my fatiguing muscles well fueled.  As I said, it was lonely, and I was running well and didn’t see any other racers, even on the long stretches of flat straight road until mile 5.  Miles 5-8 are through the park where there are a couple out and backs and I finally saw some other races, and at one point I measured almost 5 minutes between myself and 10^th place.  As I said, anything can happen down the road, keep going.  At mile 10 the course moved out of the park and began a long straight 2.9 mile stretch down to the French Quarter with a right turn then with the finish line in front of Jackson Square (a very cool finish line…more on that later).  This part of the course was well shaded, but I was certainly getting tired and the legs were beginning to tell my brain they had enough. However, I wanted to finally put down a good run split from start to finish, something I had not done in a long time.  I found myself literally yelling at myself “come on!” “don’t give up.”  Then, way, way…WAY down the painfully long and painfully straight road I began to make out a figure, which at first I thought was an aid station volunteer standing in the middle of the road. However, it was the guy in 10^th.  He was not moving very fast…see anything can happen…don’t ever give up!  However, he saw me coming, “You got him running scared” as one spectator yelled and as I gave my legs everything I had, he did too and he crossed the line just 7 seconds in front of me.  See, I told you anything can happen, so don’t ever give up!

Missing the top ten by 7, painful, seconds was certainly a tough situation, however, given the caliber of the competition, my bike and run legs and my main focus being St. George I am very satisfied with my race here in New Orleans.  All in all a very solid day and having my wife and in-laws here to share it with me made it all that much better.  The finish line was a great place, tons of people, jazz playing, restaurants and bars everywhere, all right on the banks of the Mississippi river.  After the race I had a serving and a half of Ultragen, another helping of all my vitamins, a beignet from Café Du Monde, CEP compression socks and soaked in an ice bath…in a kiddie pool…hey I need to recover fast I have an Ironman in 2 weeks! J

As always a huge thank you to everyone out there supporting me, there are FAR too many of you to list here, but you know who you are…the one exception, who I must mention here is my wife and our unborn daughter! J

This year marks the 4^th year in a row that I have started my season in Oceanside, CA, at the Ironman California 70.3.   Being one of the first major US races of the season there is always a large amount of very talented athletes who show up and this year was no different.  Because I have done this race so many times, it has become a bit of a barometer for me.  To some extent I can subjectively compare year to year as well as get the first race of the year under my belt and see where I can improve and focus my training.  However, this year not only did it serve the usual purpose, it also was my first race since my stress fracture last spring.  I had not raced for 10 months so, yes there are certainly things I need to work on, manly my running, however, given the circumstances I am pretty pleased with my race and the results.  I finished 20^th in a very strong male pro field, however, and most importantly I ran without any pain in my hip at the site of my (former) stress fracture! J

I arrived in sunny SoCal a few days early, and stayed with my friend Leslie in Solana Beach, THANKS LESLIE!  Oh, and by the way, it is official, I love San Diego!  On Race morning I woke up for my usually pre-race 3am breakfast of  24oz of Ultragen, a banana and apple sauce ( I was trying something different and skipped the tomato soup…sorry L).  I got to the race site around 5am with plenty of time until my 6:40 swim start.  I prepped my transition area, said hello to several friends and competitors and went for a short warm up jog with fellow Timex Team Member Tim Hola.  Had half a PowerBar, 20oz of First Endruance Pre-Race/EFS and before I knew it I was in the 59 degree water and ready to go!

Swim 26:40

A little slow, but I have been working very hard on my swim with Dave Williams of Triangle Multisport and fellow pro triathletes of the triangle and it is certainly paying off.  I had taken care putting on my Aquasphere wetsuit to make sure that it was well positioned on my body and it felt pretty good and certainly kept me warm in the chilly water.  A few sighting and tactical errors caused me to loose my group for the last quarter of the swim, but I felt strong and smooth throughout the whole swim, certainly an improvement! J

Bike 2:24

 I had only ridden my new Orbea Ordu a few times, however, it felt great out on the course today, very stiff and very smooth.  Also I should note this was the first time I had raced in the new Rudy Project Wingspam helmet, it was fantastic!  The first hour of the bike, as we cruised up the coast, I really pushed the pace and was very aggressive with my pacing.  I was taking in as much of my First Endurance EFS/Liquid Shot mixture as I could, however, it was tough while riding at this pace and I was getting very bloated.  I backed off on the caloreis and began to feel better.  My PowerTap was showing me numbers well above 300w for most of this portion.   I was really suffering for certain periods of this hour, however, I knew I needed to be aggressive to get into a strong, non-drafting, group of riders to help push each other.  At the 1hr mark I found myself with 4-5 other riders and as we turned away from the coast and begin to climb the hills of Camp Pendleton, I settled into my goal half-Ironman pace/power and rhythm and began to take in more nutrition.  The hills on the backside of Camp Pendleton were tough as always, however, the wind was stronger than in years past and made it tough at times.  I made a few surges though out this section to make sure I maintained contact with the group and it may have taken a little more out of me that I would have liked, but hey…it’s march.  At mile 45 one of the rides in our group took off ahead and I decided to go with him, however, by mile 50 I was riding harder than I wanted to at that portion of the race, so I eased off and cruised into T2 at a slightly more relaxed pace.

Run 1:25

Yeah, this was the one point of the race that I certainly need to improve on, however, again, given my injury last year, simply completing the run without hip pain is a big improvement.  As my wife said to me before the race, “anytime you feel horrible and want to stop, just think, last year you couldn’t even have tried to race, so be grateful and don’t give up!”  I found myself thinking of these words a several times on the course, but particularly the run.  The first half of the run my low back was very tight, which I have learned, from my Physical Therapist, is an indication that my running form is poor and I am placing undue stress on my hip, which often begins to hurt shortly after my lower back begins to tighten.  I thought I was going to have to go into “survival mode” as they call it.  I slowed my pace a little and focused on my form.  My lower back slowly loosened and my stride became more fluid and efficient, I found some energy and I actually got to take advantage of the quick toe off of my Brooks Ravenna running shoes.  The second half of the run felt much better, I was running pretty well and came pretty close to negative split on the run.  I continued to sip nutrition from my FuelBelt and I caught up to and passed a few guys.  In the last mile there were 3 of us who were all within 20-30 seconds of each other, they surged ahead and I had nothing left in the legs, I was moments away from running out of fuel as I crossed the line.  In retrospect I forgot to take my gel at the end of the bike heading into T2, not sure why I forgot…I guess I am just of out practice.  I think this, along with my concern about my hip, may have been my mistake, lesson learned.

All in all, not a bad day in Oceanside.  I celebrated my return to racing with a fish taco and a carne asada burrito and washed it all down with an extra large portion of Ultragen, it was delicious!! J  There were some highpoints and there were some low, but more importantly I am back to racing and on track to have a great season.  As always a huge thank you to Timex, my coach Kurt Perham, my teammates/training partners and all my sponsors and partners who help and support me along the way.  However, most importantly a huge thank you to my wife, Ashley, for being so understanding and patient with me through the last painful (physically and emotionally) 10 months.