Ironman Race Report -- Why I haven't been around...

Short (sprint) Version:

I trained really hard, I had a great race day, I was thrilled and I am crazy enough to sign up for another IM in November.

Swim 2.4 miles -- 1 hour 7 minutes
Bike 112 miles -- 5 hours 42 minutes
Run 26.2 miles -- 3 hours 54 minutes

Total: 10 hours 52 minutes

Ultra Marathon Version

Prep/Training

August 2008 I was untrained and felt like a slug. I was using my bike mostly as a towel rack in the garage. A few friends did IM Louisville and a friend was gearing up for IMFL, so I got caught up on the spirit of getting fit again. In 1 day, I signed up for IM Switzerland, signed up with a coach (Chris Hauth) and bought a new bike. Big day for the kid. Why Switzerland for someone without a single hill for training? In a word…poor decision making. Oh well.

September through early February was mostly long weeks of low HR base training. I did finally get under 20 minutes for a 5k, so I was happy with progress. In February, I did a training camp with Coach Chris in scenic and hilly Tucson. Biggest volume week in my life and some killer hills, but it was very fun. Through mid April, training went pretty well with reasonable volumes (up to about 14 hours a week) and reasonable intensity (mostly low HR with only some intensity).
I did a small 1/2 IM in early April and was 5th overall. My time was great (4:37), but I found out later that the course was a bit short. Still, I rode according to the plan and ran hard. I did the Disney 1/2 IM in early May in 4:56, but that course was a bit long and the day had pretty tough conditions. Still, another good race. I stuck to the plan and was pleased with the result.

From May through early July, the training really ramped up. Weeks of 18-20 hours were standard and there was lots of intensity on the bike and running. Since it was so hot, I was usually up at 4 and on the bike at 5 for long days. For 3 months, I trained like a maniac. 1 week, I did more than 10 hours on the bike. 1 week I did something like 53 miles running over 5 days. In retrospect, training last August through this April was structured principally to get my body ready to handle the real work of May-July.
In general, I was swimming 3-4x per week, probably up to 12,000 meters a week at most. Biking, I rode 3-5 times a week, including one session on the CompuTrainer and a long ride on Saturdays. Overall, I probably did about 15 rides of 4 hours or more with my longest ride in training being just over 6 hours. I probably ran 3-5 times a week. Always a short transition run after the long bike ride and usually 1 or 2 runs of an hour or more a week. Starting about 8 weeks out from race day I did lots of moderate pace intervals and one weekly track session. Overall, I did lots of runs in the 10-12 mile range, but my longest runs in training were the 2 runs of 13.1 miles in the two 1/2 IM’s I did.

I got pretty lucky with injuries. I had a few minor tweaks, some slight ITB, but nothing major. I started doing soft tissue PT once or twice a week, every week, and I think that helped a lot.

Race Week
We decided to travel with Ken Glah’s outfit, Endurance Sports Travel, since I didn’t want to try and figure out all the logistics myself. I figured IM in the alps was enough to get my head around in 1 week. We arrived on Monday, but my bike box didn’t. Oh Joy. Bike finally arrived on Tuesday, but when I went for a ride on Wednesday, I noticed a crack in the seat collar part of the frame. Not good. Fortunately, one of the main benefits of EST is that they bring along a professional mechanic, in this case Colin. Working with Colin, we came up with a short term fix to the bike issue that involved (I am not making this up), 2 part epoxy glue, hose clamps from home depot and tape. Nice.

After dealing with the bike problem, I was feeling pretty good until we did a tour of the bike course by van. Uh oh. It’s a 2 loop course. Each loop starts with about 30k of flats near the lake. Then there is a short climb, not too steep, followed by another 20k of rollers up above the lake. I didn’t realize this during the tour by van, but on race day, I dubbed this section “cowpoopstrasse”. Lots of dairy farms up there. Descend and then straight back up “the beast”. This hill is about a 5-7k climb, not too steep but unrelenting. You get to the top, look down at the lake and realize that you came up a LONG way. Down some very steep descents and then another 5k long slog uphill from the town of Egg that takes you to the top of the course. Screaming descent (my top speed on race day was 48 mph!) back down to the lake, back into town and out to the last hill, “Heartbreak Hill”. Heartbreak is very steep but pretty short, very similar to Sugarloaf in Clermont. On race day, there were probably 5,000 fans alongside the road cheering everyone on. It was kind of like a mountain stage at the Tour with everyone in the middle of the road, bands playing and people going nuts. Over the top, steep descent and back to transition to complete the loop.

Most of the rest of race week, we did some tourist stuff like a boat tour of the lake, ate fundue, got organized and hung out.

Race day
3:45 up. 3x Nutella on wheat, 3x double expresso, finished with breakfast by 4:30. Felt pretty full. Drank powerbar sports drink right up until race start.

Swim:
The water in Lake Zurich is cool and very clean. The lake is ringed by snow-covered alps, so you would think the swim would be nice and tranquil. Not. Deep water starts are not that fun. 2,200 people treading water take up a LOT LESS SPACE than the same number of people when they are swimming. Very violent for first 15 minutes, so I just searched for clean water. I swam off course a bunch of times, but preferred to swim in open water off course to swimming on course with 2000 others. After the first loop, you get out of the water, run across a small island and get back into the water for loop 2. Kind of neat. Swim time 1:07, a 9 minute improvement over previous best IM swim.

Bike.
Heading into the bike, I wasn’t really concerned about how I would manage to survive the hills. I train with a SRM watt meter, and I figured watts in Florida are the same as watts in Switzerland. That said, I was pretty interested in how my race plan and target watts would translate into speed and bike split. Based on lots of training rides and testing, we set my bike plan to ride 190-200 watts in the flats, and up to 225 watts up hills with a hard cap of 240 watts.

Overall, the bike was easy as pie. First 30k was flat, lots of other bikers, some drafting, but unavoidable. Watts felt super easy. First climb, I dialed up 210 – 230 and watched entire race pass me by. I kept repeating to myself “M is for marathon” and stuck to the plan. Next 30k were mostly flat up top and I just held my 195 watts. Descended very well (for me). Didn’t get passed on downhills. In fact, I passed lots of people on the slight downhills when I could pedal. Next 2 hills were the big and long ones. I just kept watts dialed and it was easy. Back into town on the flats, still very easy. Heartbreak hill was easy, other than wanting to go faster than watt cap allowed. 2nd loop also extremely easy. 2nd loop 30k flat, I led a train of about 30 riders, one of whom thanked me for the pull. 2nd loop hills same as the first, still very easy. Started passing people going up hills. 15k back into town, it was no problem whatsoever dialing up 195. I could have ridden much harder, but M is for Marathon. Passed about 100 people in last 30k. 2nd heartbreak hill no problem whatsoever. Back into transition and ready to run.

Loop 1, 2:49, Loop 2, 2:53, total, 5:42. 3677 kj total work. Not especially fast, but super easy and it gave me confidence to be able to run. Previous best IM bike was 5:50 at IMFL.

Bike nutrition. Based on previous races, I had hoped to get in about 400 cals an hour or a bit more. This would allow me to replenish just over half of the calories spent on the bike. Hours 1 and 2 were the same, start with a power bar (I like vanilla and banana) and then do 1/2 bottle EFS gel. By end of 2 hours, I had 2 bars (2 x 250 cals) in me plus 1 bottle gel (400 cals). 900 cals total. Rest of the ride, I hit the EFS gel every 20 minutes, finishing 1 bottle (400 cals) per hour. Chased with water only. Finished about 2/3 bottle powerbar endurance over course of bike ride (100 cals). Felt well fueled, full and hydrated all ride. Overall, total cals were (2x250) + (4.5 x 400) + 100 = 2400 or about 415/hour, right on target.

Run
The run at IM Switzerland is 4 loops around town and it was PACKED with spectators. My run plan was to run easy for 20-25 minutes to find my legs and let my HR settle into whatever zone if was willing to offer up on race day. After that time, I check my HR and set a zone of 5 beats above or below whatever number I see. In the early miles, the HR cap prevents me from running too hard, and later on, the HR floor prevents me from slowing down too much. It worked well in my early season 1/2 ‘s, so I was cautiously optimistic. Still, having never run a full marathon in less than 4:35, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Loop 1 – I ran easy with quick turnover. Didn’t look at watch or HRM until 22 minutes. HRM showed 148, so I set target range for the day at 143-153. Hit EFS gel for about 2/3 bottle during first loop. Water, at least a sip, at every aid station, some stations hit the powerade. Hit “split” on watch at 10k, did some math and knew I was ahead of plan. Ran every step, including aid stations and the bridges, underpass “hills”. (if you’re from Florida, they are hills!).
Loop 2 – I thought “let your feet carry you”, which is easier than it sounds. Prior to the race, I thought about that they may be like the free miles after a hard bike. During this loop, the miles weren’t free but they didn’t get hard until km 18.5 (I looked at a sign). Finished out loop 2 by thinking about how important loop 3 would be. Finished first EFS bottle and started 2nd bottle. Didn’t get it all in, but knew I was a bit ahead of cals from the bike, so no stress. Hit water and powerade at stations. Legs felt ok, but hammies started to tighten. Ran every step.
Loop 3 – I thought “this is the money loop”. Did not want to hit the gel anymore, but kept it in reserve for if I needed an instant shot late in the race. Started hitting powerade at all stations to get in calories. Kept focusing on getting the next color wrist band at about 5k of the loop (26k overall). Once I get the wrist band, the loop is half over and I feel that I am on the way home. Got the yellow band and kept pace up. HR still in zone. Hammies getting very tight. Almost on the verge of cramping, but could just be totally worked. Just keep going. At about 28km, on the way back to start the 4th loop, things got interesting. Started to struggle with picking feet up high enough not to trip on kerbs and small items. Started swinging elbows/arms. Focused on getting lap 3 done, since I thought lap 4 would be easier due to being near finish. Thought about form, but knew it was starting to slide. Kept up powerade, started cold sponges. Felt great that I had 3 wrist bands and others had only 1 or even none. Got to the end of loop 3 and got the pre-arranged signal from my wife, something along the lines of “you trained really hard, don’t f__k this up”. Ran every step of loop 3. Knew pace was eroding, but still ahead of sub 4.
Loop 4 – By this time, I was hurting pretty good. To make the time pass, I tried counting steps between km and couldn’t get all the way through a km without losing focus. I really thought about form and especially swinging arms. HR still way up, probably from the arms (HR stayed hi but pace went down. Need an arm-swing correction to the formula). Started with coke, but it was warm, fizzy and (I think) diet. Not good. Up hill out of transition and right after first aid station was bad news. I walked 2nd aid station to make sure to get in full powerade. Just focused on getting red arm band, signifying last lap. Pumping arms really hard now. Must have been a hoot to watch, me running as hard as hell and going so slow. Got my red band and started feeling great. Walked another aid station to get in last of 2nd bottle of efs, since I started needing calories. Started doing more math and felt I had a good chance of sub 4, but hammies were so tight that I worried they could seize up or snap at any time, so I didn’t take it for granted. Once I got to the turnaround by the lake, signifying 3km to go, I started to feel really good. It hurt BAD, but I thought I was home sub 4. I had no idea of overall race time, so I started doing math, but that was simply not in the cards as my brain had turned to mush. As best I can remember, I thought I might be 10:59 or 11:05 or something like that. Last 1.5k, I ran hard as I could and felt stress in gut/chest (not pain, just the discomfort of running hard like in a 5k) for the first time. Ran down the chute and saw the time and could not believe it. Finished and became very emotional. I worked very hard for this and the day went as well as possible.
Loop 1 -- 53:35 for 8:11/mile pace, 148 average HR.
Loop 2 -- 57:51 for 8:50/mile pace, 149 average HR.
Loop 3 -- 59:28 for 9:04/mile pace, 149 average HR.
Loop 4 -- 1:03:47 for 9:44/mile pace. 151 average HR.
Overall run -- 3:54:43 for 8:57/mile pace.


Total time: 10:52:55, about 96 minutes better than my previous IM PR.

Post Race
Immediately after the race, I was beyond thrilled but more than a bit sore. I emailed friends that I was “the happiest person in Switzerland, but I may never run again.”
We decided to bail on the awards lunch the next day to get a jump on our next stop. We rented a car and drove down to northern Italy for some serious recovery and nutrient replenishment, particularly the nutrient of white wine. Saw some very nice cars...I was sore for 2-3 days, but after that I felt great. So great that less than a week after Switzerland I signed up for IM Arizona on November 22. I’ll take 1-2 weeks off and then gradually slide back into training.

Until then, more time to drive the Blue Car.

See you out there!

 

Since I didn't have a 5 hour bike ride, I could enjoy the car a bit. You caught me on the way over to visit the Lambo store and say hi to Bud.

 

Honestly, I trained pretty hard for this one. My first IM, at Florida in 2003, I didn't really train that hard, but since I had pretty modest goals (and since it's a pretty easy course), it was no problem. For that race, I trained myself and probably did about 10-12 hours a week. Second IM was a disaster, probably since I took it lightly after the first one went so well. This time, I worked very hard with a coach. From January thru June, I probably did an average of about 14 hours a week, with a bunch of 17-20 hour weeks in late May thru June. No real long runs, but a TON of 10-12 milers, and lots of short transition runs (20 - 40 minutes) after long bikes. Training runs of 12 miles, with intervals and speedwork, should get you thru 20 miles on race day if you pace the bike properly. The last 6 miles are purely guts anyway.

If you can swim at all, can bike at all, and have done some running, I think you would be fine with 10-12 hours a week if you picked a relatively easy race (Florida, Brasil, Arizona) and have modest goals (13-17 hours).

I have a full time job that requires travel as well as 2 kids, so I just get up VERY early 5 days a week to get in everything I want to do.

If you want more detail, just give a shout. I can (and have) talk for hours about this sport. Crossing the finish line in my first IM was probably the most empowering event of my life. If you can complete the Oly this weekend, you can do IM next year.... For me, I find IM's are easier than Oly's or sprints. Short races HURT from lactic acid and make me want to puke. The longer stuff just hurts when the muscles get sore...

"You can do it"
-- The Waterboy

 

Nutrition is the 4th key element of a triathlon. The day before race day, I put down about 5,000 - 7,000 calories. Race morning was another 1,500 pre race (the 3x double expresso helped take care of the previous day's fueling...), and then about 3,500 during the race. With all that, I was in a calorie deficit for the 2 days. Race day I burned about 1,000 cals in the swim (just a guess), burned 3,700 cals on the bike (calculated by bike computer) and another 3,200 calls on the run (calculated by heart rate monitor). With general respiration, nervous energy etc, it was a 12,000 cals burned day...

 

Dude, you drove almost 2,000 miles non-stop in a Ginetta, you are WAY tougher than I will EVER be.

Suck it up and decide to train and you can do it. It's a time commitment to train and then it's 100% mental to execute on race day.