Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Our very own Onsite Marketing Analyst and Wellness Coordinator Jen Boland just finished her 3rd Ironman Triathlon and took some time to write us a report on the race. Congrats, Jen!

Ironman Wisconsin Race Report

"I spent the summer preparing for Ironman Wisconsin. An Ironman is comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and then a full marathon (or 26.2 miles) of running. This was my third Ironman, so finishing wasn’t really the issue. I wanted to race fast.

I trained very differently this year. I came to the sport of triathlon from swimming so I spent very little training time in the pool. In addition, because I work in Cheyenne and live in Fort Collins I have a one-hour commute to and from work each day. As my training became more intense, sleep became more and more important and many, if not most, of my early morning swim workouts went by the wayside. I did get in some long slow swims, so I knew I was prepared for the distance, but not as much for speed as I would have liked.


It was a totally different story on the bike. The most I rode was 80 miles, although I did many 70-80 mile rides and all of these rides had race pace or faster intervals within them. I also did a lot of hill repeats to prepare myself for the many short steep rolling hills on the course.

I also ran a marathon in May to start getting in running shape. After the marathon I immediately switched to a bike focus and then slowly added back the running mileage. I wish I had maintained a little more speed work on the run, but I just wasn’t able to recover enough between all the workouts to do that. I can’t emphasize enough how important rest and recovery are to the training process.

So how did the race actually go? The swim went okay. I lined up so that I had a straight shot at the buoys. Unfortunately, so did most of my competitors. It was the most crowded, brutal swim I have ever experienced. I did what I could and just got through it and came out of the water 2-4 minutes slower than I had expected. Oh well, it’s a twelve hour day so what’s 2 minutes, right?

The transition was uneventful and then I was off on the bike. I made a big mistake on the bike. I went out way too hard. At mile 58, just beyond the half way point, I toggled through the metrics on my powertap computer to see that I was riding about 10% faster than I should have been. I immediately slowed down and less than 10 miles later my legs started to scream at me. I managed to keep it together until about mile 90 then I started to fall apart. We had a slight headwind, but it felt like a wall. I limped back to transition at a pathetic 14.5 mph. All I could think about was how am I going to get through this run.

Luckily, I never thought about the marathon in its entirety. It's really just twenty-six one mile repeats. You run aid station to aid station. To my surprise, my legs felt okay so I started my slow jog. I never felt great nor did I feel terrible on the run. Since I don’t wear a watch when I race I didn’t have a sense for how great or bad of a day I was having until mile 13 of the run. This is when you can see the clock at the finish line. I was a little disappointed with my time so I decided to just have fun and enjoy the last 13 miles of the run.

And so I did. I gave hi-fives to all the little kids along the route. Mostly, I just relaxed and the miles ticked off. About a mile and a half from the finish line I had a rush of adrenaline and picked up the pace. I pumped my arms in glory as I ran down the finishing shoot. After all, isn’t it just a blessing to be able to do one of these races? Sadly, I put my arms down just as the photographer snapped my picture. But the glory of my finish lives within my heart."