IMFL Race Report- From a slow first timer's perspective
1st Ironman. Looking for feedback on what may have gone wrong on the bike. Met my goal of finishing in under 17hrs. but I know my bike was not what it could have been.
Friday woke up with a sore throat…. Uh-Oh! I’ve been trying to be extra careful, using Wet Ones and taking Airborne for the last week. Hoping it was just from the salt water Thurs. Yeah, that’s it… I’m not getting sick the day before my first Ironman! Started off Fri. w/ a big breakfast at the Waffle House w/ Mom & Dad. Tried to eat as much as possible to get the glycogen stores fueled up but couldn’t eat as much as I thought! ½ waffle, biscuit, eggs, bacon and hash browns. Team meeting at 10, more admin stuff, including dropping off the bike and gear bags. That was a load (literally) off . Wendy’s for lunch, then some chillin’. Dinner at home for pre-race dinner of the usual pasta and turkey meatballs.
Wondered if I could do this, and the gun went off. Guess I'm doin' it! Van Halen’s “Panama” was playing (very cool!) and I slowly trudged down to the water. Noticing people behind me, I realized I was already off my plan to be last into the water. Oh well. There were some waves but not as bad as Thursday. Once I got over the waves I started swimming. Nothing of great note happened, just swimming. Hit some people, and vice versa, but nothing major. I was pleasantly surprised at the swim as I had built it up as a nightmare in my mind. (And it very well might have been further up with the faster swimmers) But not too bad back in slow-man’s land. And no jellyfish!! I was psyched I had finished the first loop in about 45 mins… right on track with what I thought my best swim time could be! In the second loop, still felt good but felt my wetsuit rubbing my neck which was annoying. Never had that happen before, and I had “lubed up” prior. I actually hardly kicked and just kept my legs together to reduce drag and felt like a seal moving through the water. My final swim time was 1:39 so my second lap was slower than the first, most likely due to the “beach walk” and just general fatigue. My left shoulder started to feel tired about ½ way through the second loop.
My plan was to ride at about 65% of my “FTP” for the first hour, then bring it up to no more than 68%, based on my previous race rehersal rides. I got started drinking my Infinit/Gatorade cocktail right away and finished my first bottle pretty quickly. Was nice to get the salt taste from the swim out of my mouth. Then I opened a Stinger waffle. I ate about ½ then dropped the rest. Ooops. I had plenty of nutrition on me, plus I had trained with Perform and GU which is what they had on the aid stations so no worries. I was hydrating ahead of plan in the beginning to make sure I was setting myself up for the remainder of the day. I remained very well hydrated as I must have stopped at least 4x at porta-potties. Felt great for the first half of the bike. I was passed by a lot of people, which is not a bad thing. (And it means I actually swam faster than some!) I even saw Mirinda Carfrae (Former IM World Champ) heading the opposite direction which was very cool. A few more miles and turns and saw my parents again unexpectedly which was nice. (Having the tracker is a good idea so your “fans” can “stalk” you!) High fived my Dad as I rode by and was feeling strong. Saw them a couple more times, then came to the “road from hell”. This is maybe a 2-3mi out and back, so about 5 mi total off non-stop bumps. I’m not sure when I started feeling nauseous but this was about it. I had been following my nutrition and pacing pretty much as planned so wasn’t sure what was going on. I have never felt nauseous in previous races. I thought maybe I had taken in too many calories and/or hydration so I backed off. It was rough for most of the back half of the bike. I wasn’t able to hit my target power either. Ended up closer to 58% vs. 68%. And ½ hour slower than I had expected. The bike in generally my strongest so that was really disappointing. I did feel better towards the end but then the balls of my feet were killing me and going numb. I unclipped my shoes and tried to ride with another part of my foot for a bit. That did the trick and I headed into T2. Bike took me about 7:33, 1/2 hour slower than anticipated.
Comments
Well done! It was great to finally meet you in PCB, and thanks for all of the stuff you did for the group.
That bike course was so very hot and windy (and I think it got hotter and windier the longer you were out there), which is my guess on why you might have had a slower 2nd half of the bike than you expected. Sounds to me like you had pretty good execution on the day, that was a very hard day for all of us!
Kim - congrats. You earned it. You are an Ironman!!
2x what John W said about the weather conditions impacing your bike.
I thought it was pretty hot, and definitely windier than predicted. So X2 on what John said. I think you had your mental game together, and it really doesn't sound like you gave up or gave in despite not feeling well. You stuck to your plan, and got it done with plenty of time to spare and with a great smile at the end. Really great job on your first IM!
Did you happen to notice how calm the water was on Sunday? Figures...
Kim, congrats again. So nice to meet you in FL...You failed to mention the awesome breakfast we had on Sunday at Waffle House....Yum.
You said you unwrapped a waffle and then dropped half of it (consider my technique of wrapping piece of waffle,bars, blocks, in rice paper , then stacking in the bento box. No wrappers, open , grab one, pop in mouth, keep pedaling).
4x porto potty stops sounds fine, but you are leaving a lot of time in those stops, if your not yet willing or able to do your business on the go. Just something to consider in the future.
You thought you may have taken in too many calories or hydration at some point, and also commented on hydrating "ahead of plan". Stick with your plan, dont change it on race day, do what you have been doing during training and RR's. How did your calorie/fluid/sodium intake compare to your Race Rehearsals? Keep track and keep fine tuning that is a work in progress you will eventually figure out what works for you.
The back half of the bike is always harder than the front half. Do you use caffeine at all? Introducing some caffeine into the second half of the bike helps alot with the mental aspect of what is going on. Waiting as long as possible before you start seems to work well.
Kim - Persistence pays off. Carry that with you.