Greg Dowd - IMFL gut busting race report
“Its always hard, it always hurts, and hardly anyone is ever satisfied with their result immediately after.” – Al Truscott in Jimmy Augustine’s race report.
Al, I’m glad you said this, because even though I beat my goal time of sub-11, I can’t say I am “satisfied” with my IMFL race. Maybe it was all of the perfectly executed EN ninja racing that went on around me, but I feel like I came up short on this one.
Now, I don’t want to be all Debbie Downer-y, so let’s focus on some positives about my day:
· The volunteers, the crowd, and the enthusiasm from the other racers and EN team was awesome. Inspiring. If only people acted like that in every day life!!
· IMFL gets somewhat of a bad rap, and I wasn’t really looking forward to it from all the stories I had heard, but I actually REALLY liked this race. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
· I had an IM PR of over an hour (IMLP 2011 in 11:49). Yeah, IMFL was a faster course on a fast day, but hey, a PR is a PR.
· Came in the top 15% of the field and my age group – not bad.
· Got to race with my best bud of 30 years and EN teammate, Mike Burke. Mike had one of those supreme ninja execution days and I could not be prouder or more happy for him.
Now, let’s get down to business. I value the feedback of the EN group and I can take the criticism, as I do want to get better.
Executive Summary:
· Overall time 10:43:19
o Swim: 1:14 – happy with this
o Bike: 4:57 – happy with this, but would have like to have pushed a bit harder
o Run: 4:17 – NOT happy with this. Really was after sub 4 and thought it was realistic
· 411th/2,891 overall and 78th/500 in M40-44
Relevant background
· Started triathlon 7 years ago at age 35. No history in swim, bike, run. Except I did win the Connecticut State Championships in BMX when I was 14. Then I shut it down for 20+ years. I guess I thought I hit the pinnacle in 1984.
· This was my 2nd IM. Did IMLP as my first IM with EN in 2011 in 11:49 with no power-meter. I have since gotten the power.
· Ran the Philly marathon last November in 3:30:18 with a perfectly even split 1:45:09/1:45:09. Proud of that one.
· I don’t swim very much compared to the other stuff. It is my weakness. I logged 45 hours of swimming and 135K yards so far in 2013, with most of it in the last 4-5 months.
- Did the Chesapeakman aquabike as my RR because it is flat and windy like Florida and had a 1:20 swim and 5:05 bike. Did not run afterwards and WSM Tim Cronk was upset with me, and rightly so. I missed a good opportunity there to test my run there.
· I’m big. 6’5”, 220 lbs. And I am not one of those guys who can say “yeah, but it’s all muscle”. I know. I know. Put down the cheeseburger and beer. I’ve already been studying the ‘race weight accountability’ thread.
Race morning:
· Woke up at 3a and had 5 cups of applesauce and a protein drink, just like in my race rehearsal. That’s a lot of applesauce. But it worked x2! Powerbar and perform later and a gel before the start.
· Got the bike ready, but made the mistake of not checking on the location of my transition bags which made it tough to find when I got out of the water.
· Other than that, it was a smooth morning and we got down to the beach where I saw my wife and the kids and got some good luck hugs and kisses.
SWIM - 1:14:43
After seeing how close the corrals were together, Mike and I thought that was a recipe for a rough race so we ignored them and went further right and to the front. Got in the water and did a few warm-up strokes before the national anthem and then got back on the beach.
At the canon I got down and started swimming as early as possible and found myself past the waves with no issue. For the most part it was pretty smooth sailing for me. Not an absurd amount of contact and some clean water. I was pretty wide of the buoy line, even for the first turn, but I was ok with that.
Garmin says I covered 2.8 miles and it looks like I zig zagged quite a bit. Just getting my money’s worth.
Just tried to keep it smooth and steady and came in from the first lap feeling good. They try and force you back in the water right away, but I went around the crowd and back up on the beach to run down to the buoy line rather than do the diagonal swim. There were only a couple other people doing this so it felt out of place, but I think it worked well. Once again, very little contact for an IM mass start. Finished feeling fine and in control.
Swim file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/400470971
T1 - 8:26
Came out of the water, got my suit stripped, brief shower that did not get all the sand off, struggled to find bike stuff bag, got to the very crowded tent and there was barely any room. People were changing everywhere. Finally found a seat and got ready. Got my bike and was off.
BIKE - 4:57:08
Background notes:
· My FTP on bike is 342W. I tested this several times. Did both the full 60 min test and the 20 min test, and I am confident this is pretty accurate.
· I rode my first RR (Chesapeakman) at .675 IF and that felt ok but like I said, I did not run. I was really badly sunburned, so I decided to sit down in the shade and eat nachos instead.
· For my 2nd RR I jacked up the intensity and rode it at .72 and ran GREAT afterwards. In hindsight, the difference was (1) I swam first @ Chesapeakeman, and (2) it was a hot day. My 2nd RR was about 30 degrees cooler. My plan for IMFL was to target around .71 or 243w.
It was so crowded heading out of T1. Admittedly, I was uncomfortable with just sitting in behind people and coasting, so just started moving around them. Probably a mistake as I kind of ignored the JRA pace thing and went to work. Nothing too crazy…I was still under my target watts…but it was more than JRA. Saw my heart rate was a little high after the turn on 79 and forced myself to chill and bring it down. It came down but much slower than expected.
Started to get into a rhythm after the bridge. There were a couple guys riding at my pace that I grabbed onto and tried riding at 4 bike lengths behind to see if I could gain any benefit there, but I didn’t notice anything obvious from it. Not sure I would.
Hit some really big packs that were taking up the whole road, which was frustrating. Probably burned a few too many matches trying to get out of one in particular, but I did drop them and never saw them again.
The out and back was very bumpy and uncomfortable. I did not stop at special needs as the only thing I had in there was a tube and CO2.
Hit the 56 mile mark at exactly 2:30 into the ride. Let myself momentarily ponder a sub 5 hour bike split, but then rejected the thought of trying to go for it as I didn’t want to jeopardize my run.
At the time I thought nutrition fueling was going well. Plan was to grab a bottle of perform at every aid station (I think there were 10?) and finish it, which I did for the most part. Also took 4 powergels and 1.5 power-bars and a few salt tabs over the course of the ride. I did not pee at all on the bike, even though I tried. I knew this was a potential problem and continued to drink more and more, but nothing. Same thing happened at IMLP and Chesapeakeman aquavelo. I did pee 3X in my 2nd RR on similar fueling, but it was a much cooler day.
The last half of the ride the crowd thinned out quite a bit and I just did my thing. Lots of legal slingshots around folks, and smooth riding. Apparently, I passed 662 people on the bike in total, but only 83 of passes were in the last 40 miles. 433 were in the first 34 miles.
I was constantly taking stock of where I was and managing ‘the line’. The one thing I noticed was it seemed a lot harder to generate the .72 power I was looking for. Each of my 5 mile splits had me in the 230w range instead of the 240w range. But, when I would push up to the 240s my heart rate would shoot too high, so I preferred to go with an easier effort. My AHR for the ride was 138bpr and should have been closer to 130bpr per my training rides. The last 50 miles my HR was 141bpm, which is way too high, but my avg normalized power was only .67 IF (230w) for that distance. So, I was working harder than normal but getting less of a power result than normal out of that work.
Coming back down 79, I noticed my speed was really picking up so I assumed that there was a pretty hefty tailwind, which made me think sub 5 ride could happen. I didn’t push any harder, but I did use this target to keep me focused on maintaining my watts, which helped as I find it easy to loose concentration at the back half.
Pulled out of shoes and left them on the bike and had a clean dismount. Some details from the garmin file which is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/400471012
· Avg Power: 227 W
· Max Power: 718 W
· Max Avg Power (20 min): 244 W
· Normalized Power (NP): 233 W
· Intensity Factor (IF): 0.681
· Training Stress Score (TSS): 228.9
· VI: 1.026
· FTP Setting: 342 W
· Work: 4,032 kJ
· Avg Heart Rate 138 bpm
T2 - 5:16
Well, this time the tent was pretty empty and I had a volunteer stick with me the whole way. He was awesome. Laid out all my stuff for me. Got a glob of sunscreen on my neck and hit the port-o-potty for my first pee.
RUN – 4:17:46
Of course I came out of T2 like I was running a 5k. Put the brakes on pretty quick, but was still too fast. Heart rate looked good, though. My condo was just before Aid Station #1, so I actually stopped and talked to my family a bit. They were telling me to “GOOOOOOOO”, but I was like “no, I really need to slow down…let me stay a bit and chat”. I was really focusing on my target HR which I wanted at 140bpm, which is my all day bpm long run pace and is usually 10bpm over my bike HR. This usually translates to an 8:30 min/mile or so pace, but I was targeting 9’s out of the gate for the first 6 miles.
By mile 1 I knew this was going to be a difficult run. Heart rate and pace were fine but my gut was cramping pretty badly already. Walked the aid stations. Dumped water and ice everywhere as I thought maybe I was overheating (?). Every time I would drink perform or water, the cramp would get worse, so I skipped a few stations. Took some salt. Just had a really hard time shaking the gut cramp and it was with me the whole 1st loop.
Hit the Alvins Island turn at 1h 58m, which was right on my goal pace, but I knew this was not sustainable based on how I felt. I was already mentally taking myself out of my goal of a sub 4 marathon…probably needed a stronger mental game here.
Saw Mike for the first time since the start coming the other way right by the 14 mile aid station. He looked great…much better than me. By the time I crossed Thomas Dr I entered the very dark place. My gut was finally better, but I was completely drained and wanted to take a nap. Switched to Coke at mile 15 seemed to help. Tried grapes and oranges at some point and they made me want to barf – spit them out. Was walking a lot more now and kept negotiating places where I would start running.
On the way back the pirate aid station said they had broth, so I tried that and it was so damn good. Continued run/walk and drink coke until I got passed Thomas drive and magically started feeling great. Probably because the end was near. Felt really good going passed the girl-town girls and even asked for a whipping. By the time I hit Alvin’s Island I was hammering it and hooting and hollering. I covered the last 1.7m at 8:30 pace but I would guess I was 9 min for the .7 and then sub 7min for the last mile. Great run down the chute high fiving everyone I could. Happy as a clam.
Unfortunately, I’m trying to upload my garmin data and it looks like all my splits got erased (weird). I am bummed because I would really like to see my HR info for the run. I can’t recall to well what it was doing, but I think it dropped down fairly low when I was walking, which seemed normal.
But, here are my splits from the race tracker so you can see where I slowed up: http://tracking.ironmanlive.com/newathlete.php?rid=1143240053&bib=2066&v=3.0
So, I’m not sure what went wrong. I don’t believe I rode too hard. At IMLP I used Infinit and water and did not have the same gut problems. Well I did, but not until mile 21 of the run when I lost discipline and started treating every aid station like the Sizzler buffet. In this build I trained with IM Perform and Perform Gels and Powerbars…nothing new on race day.
Key Questions:
· Why could I not generate more power on the bike (i.e. .72 vs .68) without my heart rate jacking up out of my comfort zone?
· Why did my gut hurt so much right away on the run and why couldn’t I shake it sooner?
My suspected possible answers:
· The heat affected me more than I thought it would
· My swim training was insufficient
· My nutrition plan was off the mark
· I didn’t take the JRA bike pace seriously enough
· Unrealistic run goal
· ? Other ?
Thanks in advance for any insights!!
Anyway, I had a great time. Ended up going back down to the finish between 11pm-12a and cheered on the last finishers and soaked it all in. Sure, it’s expensive, and crowded, and hard, but, I do love racing Ironman!
Comments
i guess i am just coming from the angle of, hey, i ran a 3:30 evenly paced marathon less than a year ago and a well executed IM marathon should be within 30 min of that time. so, i feel like i left 20 min on the table and i do not believe i over-biked as my FTP was dialed in, and my VI, IF, TSS, were all on the low side.
Greg - you do know that most of us would love to have your time of 10:43 ... so congratulations on that. And kudos on looking at how you could improve next time. I vote for two of the things on your list:
"...My nutrition plan was off the mark
I didn’t take the JRA bike pace seriously enough..."
You don't really detail in your report how many calories you took in on the bike when you took them, in what form (liquid, solid, gel, etc), and how much fluid you had, how often you pee'd. All that is important data in breaking down the issue. But the cramping you had on the run indicates that excess intake of some form was probably an issue, as well as working too hard at the start of the run relative to how many calories you were trying to absorb at that point.
And, from personal experience, I know that seemingly small excess efforts in the first 30-40 miles of a bike can come back to haunt one during the run - it's happened to me twice in my 20+ IMs, both times involving draft packs.
Finally, you also note body comp as an issue, which is a real anchor to carry on the run (I'm 145#, and I know that's the primary reason I have a lot of success running.) You can't do anything about being 6'5", but you can improve your leanness, and work on running form, which is more critical the bigger you are, I think.
The good news, as you work through all this, look at where you are starting from ... an MOP swim on little training, and bike prowess you can take advantage of once you learn how to race with it.
It sounds like you had some pretty significant HR decoupling in the second half of the bike. I suggest you send your bike file to Coach P for a crucible analysis. In every race I've had decoupling, the run has sucked bigtime. In the races where I've managed to avoid decoupling the run has gone much better. There are many sources of decoupling, including hydration-related...which might be relevant here considering you biked for 112 miles and didn't pee once. Could also be electrolyte issues. And, I hate to say it, it could just be that you over-biked...despite your overall IF for the ride being lower than you expected/wanted/targeted, you might well have overcooked the bike in the first half with all the pack dodging and other stuff you mention. This is certainly consistant with Al's experience relayed above. Either way I highly suggest a crucible analysis of the bike file to let Coach P lay out the good and the bad and the ugly of your ride.
@Al and Paul: nutrition breakdown on the bike was I started with on 24oz premix of my own Perform and then a 20oz bottle at every aid station (x10). had a Powerbar gel every hour (4) and a Powerbar in the first half and half a powerbar in the 2nd half. Plus about 4 or 5 salt pills. That should be about 2200-2400 calories over 5 hours which I would think is plenty. I did not pee until T2. It is possible that after getting through 56 miles of the bike without peeing I started to 'panic' that I was not drinking enough and started drinking too much Perform. in other words, maybe I overloaded my calories on the back half of the bike which is why I cramped right away on the run.
Pickle juice, eh? I'm hearing a lot about this magic elixir!
@Matt: I've never heard of this crucible analysis and HR decoupling, but it sounds like a great next step for me. I will definitely ping Coach P on it. I have to think it was nutrition related, but I am open to the possibility that maybe I biked too hard for what I should have done on that day (using hr as the guide) even though from a power perspective I was under my targets. I did read the slowtwitch thread re: Starky and Perform and the bottom line from Rapp was that gut problems are almost always pace related. Go slower and gut problem goes away. interesting stuff...thanks!
Greg....Congrats on a solid race and PR. You were able to overcome some curve balls thrown at you and still posted an excellent result.
Here are my $.02 on your gut problem. My experience has been that gut problems are a function of pace and heat; or said another way, the higher the temperature the more likely even a slightly too fast a pace will lead to gut problems. When the temp climbs, there is just very little room for error on pace. So my questions for you are: what was the temperature on the bike? Did it climb a few degrees during the ride and did you make adjustments to your effort for the change in temp? How did the temperature during the race compare to what temps you had trained in for the past 8-10 weeks?
The crazy thing about an ironman race is that one must constantly be asking "how will what I'm doing right now effect me 6 or 7 hours from now?"
Hope this helps you solve your puzzle.
Glad you enjoyed Florida, my family had a good time there as well last year.
Congrats.