IMMoo: Where's the remedial class?
Poor execution. Period.
Days leading up were spot on.
2am- Ensure x2
4am- Bagel/PB/Honey/Banana with coffee. Perform up until the start, 2 gels 30' prior to the canon.
Swim- As a MOP swimmer, and memories of IMFL thrash still fresh, I was in a great mindset for the swim. Started just left of the ramp and about 10m back. Very OK with being surrounded the whole (most) of the time. EZ effort, let the masses pull you along kind of thing. Only stressed a few times when other peeps were freakin' and doing MMA stuff. Goggles knocked off, kick to the gut, but never lost my cool. Felt like I was in for one of my best swims (not saying much) and then blew it with the last turn. That last red bouy which called for a 'U' turn like approach back to the ramp got by me. I noticed it late, made a hard left, but not hard enough. Now, instead of swimming a straight line to the ramp, I'm going at a bad angle to the shore. Think of the 3 sides of a Triangle ABC. If A-C is the straight line to the finish, I went A to B to C. I was sooooo pissed at myself for this. Let it go as I got to the exit cuz it was in the past and I didn't want to carry it for the rest of the day. 1:27
T1 don't remember the time, but it was efficient, maybe 10 min, not rushed.
Bike- don't laugh. don't cuss me out. I've already done all that. IF......0.82. Yep, I said it. I even posted it here for ridicule. Pnorm 213 (FTP 260). VI 1.05 I was pretty happy with this metric, but, obviously smooth doesn't help much if IF is so much higher than prescribed. Perform bottle ~30-45'. CarboPro sip ~100 cals every hour. PBGel every hour. Water to rinse when available. Had a great time on the bike. Loved the course and support. Loved the climbs. RPE was just what we preach. Felt ez, FELT ez, but numbers don't lie and I let my numbers self believe the lying RPE self. Peed twice while riding, 80 mile and 108 mile. 6:04
T2- feeling fine, smooth time, ~7min
Run- first few miles were a bit too fast, but not much considering it's net downhill. Started settling into goal paces (10:15-10:30) around mile 6. But, again, slowed down to goal pace instead of speeding up to goal pace as prescribed. Perform sips every aid station and sip of Carbopro every 45'. Miles 8-14 saw some slowing down and RPE going up to maintain the slow side of my goal pace. Though these changes were going on, I had no idea as to what was coming up in about 2-3 miles. Stomach felt bloated, head started swimming, then an awful headache. Pace slowed alot, alot. Thought a potty break would get it out of my system. Turned into a vomit purge. Told myself I'd surely feel better now. Ran about 50 yards until another bout of headache and dry heave. Paused for a second. But, now I had trouble with calf and hammy cramps with any step larger than a baby's step. Pace slowed dramatically and walk/run became too much walk/not enough run. For the first time in 5 long distance events, I REALLY wanted to just stop. I went from 'Hey, I'm feeling pretty good today' to 'I've done this before, I got the Tshirt, it ain't worth it, who cares if I quit' over the short span of about 2-3 miles. Two very opposite extremes. Lots of the right kind of thoughts started returning around mile 19 or 20. Like, I've worked too hard. But, mainly, it was the thought of how much my wife, kids, work, have put up with over the last 9 months. They put up with all of my nonstop selfish needs for pursuit of a medal and T and now I'm gonna just stop & quit 7 miles short of 140.6. Nah, keep moving. Keep moving. Paces were slow, but they were now 'jogging' and that was better. Still bloated and severe headache. Chicken broth and coke but never really shook it. Legs beat up by cramps. As the final 5k came around, I was ecstatic that I hadn't listened to the bad thoughts from earlier. I can NOT tell you how happy I was that I hadn't listened to me at that time. EN mojo and Lauren M's pep kept me running back to my wife. At that point, that's all I wanted. For her to see me finish instead of meeting me some place where the Sweep Wagon would drop me off. Despite the poor execution, it meant so much to me to finish this one. Gut check? Yeah, you could say that. No pun intended. 5:01
12:49
Off to the med tent cuz the headaches were a red flag. Didn't lose that much weight, so not sure if dehydration had any role in it. But, after a couple of bags of fluid, my head felt better and I wasn't nearly as nauseated.
Gut probs with last 2 IM runs in the last 2 years. I will continue to work on this for the next IM. Obviously, IF has to come down to a more humanly level. I'm going to tinker with other fueling strategies, too, with the help of all of our resources. And, I'm gonna make 2014 a run focus year and race shorter local tri's for fun. God willing, IMChatt '15 will be next and get a more disciplined Hardbeck.
All in the name of fun....and the challenge.
C
Comments
I don't know about the other time you had GI issues on an IM run, but in this case at least, your gut issues were made a lot worse by how hard you worked the bike. The harder you work, the less you can extract fuel from what you are ingesting — which often results in the types of symptoms you experienced on the run.
Congrats on finishing out a tough race, Chris. Nice to meet you and your wife and seeing you on the course. Thanks to your wife for cheering - think I saw her on both the bike and run.
Hope I am able to be at your next IM, and give back like your wife did at IMMoo.
Because its a fun game, I'll be around to try again!
Stubborn and stupid.
At this point, I'm not even sure that I had a correct idea of what my FTP actually was. I've been asked if my FTP could've actually been higher, thus an 'ez RPE' with an IF of .82. Which sounds like a solid question, until I go back to the gut/digestion probs late in the run which would suggest that overcooking it on the bike was the culprit.
flashback to IMFL '12... IF of .69 and gut rot at Mile 0 of the run. I ran most of that mary on a total of about 1/2 can of coke. So, at this IM, I drank aggressively on the bike, tried to have a very easy RPE (knowing that it was crucial to allowing digestion to happen), didn't really get 'sick' of Perform like I did by the end of the bike at FL, and ..... actually pee'd....twice, mile 80 and 110. Then, took in sips of Perform often and baby sips of CarboPro sludge q 45' for the first half of the run. I 'thought' I had done everything right. Though, I was aware that my consistent 30' intervals with Pnorms of 210 instead of 185-190 could be a prob later.
IMO, the peeing and the unimpressive 4lb weight loss rule out dehydration. Def points to 'biking way too hard' even though I never felt like that.
And, this point, I've been waffling on even bringing this up....I had only been using the CarboPro sludge for about 5 weeks. And, at about 17 weeks in the Plan, I noticed that I would bonk REAL early on even the shortest of runs when I was practicing the CarboPro sludge. I chalked it up to IM Build Fatigue and just added a week to my taper. But, there were still enough 'good' runs that I wasn't very sure that me and CarboPro weren't going to get along. Ultimately, I was wondering if I just crash hard off of CarboPro if I don't get it perfect. But, that's just reaching at straws.
If I had to diagnose...
1. biked too hard, didn't believe PM, wasn't confident where my FTP really was, I still can't overcome the fear that backing off on the bike might give up 10' in bike time but will gain 30(?)' in run time, and even though I refused to admit it, I tried to make up for getting lost on the swim.
2. not enough running to get ready. I'm making this a focus next year. I have a wall, not a line, and racing smart is the biggest key to getting past that wall. But, I'm not confident that I have any run strength for those last 6-12 miles. Concrete legs and bad gut....all from poor execution?
3. too short of a try-out period with the CarboPro. Needed to be absolutely sure, not hopeful.
That's my read. Work too hard on the bike, it plays havoc with your nutrition plan.
Also, I've gone away from concentrated nutrition "pastes" or "sludge". I dont think they absorb as well. It's hard to getthe right amount of additional water. For concentrated calories, I go with gels, right now my preference is EFS after trying Hammer, PowerGel, Gu.
Keep trying to find what will work during long rides, followed by a brick
tried Skratch stuff last OS but got run off by the idea of having to 'pack' rice bars for the race.
EFS looks like my next shot.
Also, we've spoken about the rolling hills in your area, right? I usually have a really big diff between indoor FTP (ended the year around 225-230) and outdoor FTP (260-270, based on feel and swag with very hard one hour TT's on the rolling hills in the area). Some peeps have said my FTP might be higher than the 260 I took to Wisc. Sounds great to me, but, I have to admit that I'm wondering if it's actually LOWER since I had the blowup on the run. Bottom Line....I need to find an accurate way to get that outdoor FTP. So, two questions.....
1) establish that indoor FTP, do most of my work on the trainer, and take indoor FTP + 10(?) watts max for the outdoor work?
and
2) since I really don't have any stretch of road longer than 4 min that isn't cresting and descending, how do you recommend getting an accurate test result? What do you do in your area? The best stretch that I'm aware of in an hour's drive west, high admin and SAU cost.
- Go with my trainer FTP, as is
- SWAG it
- Drive 25 minutes to a seven mile section with only one hill, otherwise flat
- drive 15 minutes to a rolling generally uphill straight country road
- do prolonged uphills @ my second home in CO
In the end, I'm racing by a combo RPE, HR, and guesstimated FTP based on a combo of some of the above. I find the FTP most helpful to rein me in on climbs. Im using RPE on flats, and HR to keep me from going too easy.
I believe that I may be on a similar path. Just at the very beginning of that path.
My SWAG reasoning has flaws so I'll start putting less of a priority on that.
Using FTPindoors as a starting point and also driving to the flatter stretches might be how I lean next year.
Crap, next year? I'm already getting back into it. I may 'scope' this out over the remainder of Fall and the beginning of Winter, then take a break before OS.
Thanks a ton. Really appreciate it.
Now back to my other goal of getting down another 15 pounds and upping my weekly run mileage from 18 to 40.
(I'm only semi-kidding)
The ironman is such a puzzle...I guess it's what keeps us coming back because we know we can do it better. I have similar plans for 14 and maybe in chatt with you in 15.
You nailed it. It's the puzzle. I plan on continuing as long as I feel that I can do a better job of prepping and racing/execution. It's not even about a PR, just looking for the satisfaction that I did the build and race 'right'.
Be great to race IM with ya in '15. Hope it works out!