JImmy's IMTX Race Report
IMTX race report 2014
Short version – NEWS FLASH – Ironman Races Are Hard.
This got ugly early. Swim was crowded. Power was tough to come by on the bike. Run started slow and only got slower. Training times indicated that I was capable of going faster on all 3 legs but looking back I don’t think that it was lack of will. It just wasn’t my day.
The purposes of putting this report together are:
To get my thoughts down in writing before time has a chance to color them. The further I get away from the suffering of a race, the harder it is to remember just how hard I tried on that given day.
To try and identify mistakes and places where I can improve in terms of race execution for next time (IM COZ Nov 30th!)
To help another team member who might be looking at this race in terms of logistics, execution (what to do and what not to do).
Age – 43
Ht: 5'9"
Wt: 162lbs
Experience: 7x26.2, 3x70.3, 1st IM was IMFL last November. (11:35).
Train up:
After IMFL and a little down time, I went to Coach R to get a season plan. Given my target races of IMTX and IM COZ, he suggested we cut the year in ½ and focus on the 1st ½. Run Focus, Get Faster and then drop in to IM plan 12 weeks out from TX.
Run Prep: I had some Achilles problems towards the end of Get Faster but the cleared up in about 10 days. Over all, run prep went very well relative to IMFL run prep. I attribute this to 3 main reasons in this order : 1) given the time of year, the temps were cooler. Cannot overstate this one. My fastest run times have come in temps in the 40's. 2) It was my second time through the process, not my first. 3) During the last 12 weeks, I split my runs into 2x per day on Tuesday and Thursday and another single session on Saturday. The end result is that I was able to put up 2x40mile run weeks in weeks 16 and 17 of 20. Prior to implementing this run protocol, I had never put together more than 36mi in a week ever.
I tried the split run to solve two problems: 1) I have chronic cranky Achilles and running on back to back days is a recipe for disaster for me. 2) Getting up early enough to do a 2hr run before work was very tough on my coworkers and my family during IMFL training. If Ironman racing is going to be sustainable for me, I needed to find a way to get 8ish hrs of sleep.
So, after reading of another member's success with split runs, and other research suggesting that splitting the runs was viable, I decided to give it a try. I plan to stick with it for at least 1 more race. I don’t think that this was the cause of my poorer than expected performance at IMTX. In fact, I felt like my run fitness was improved over IMFL prep. Both in terms of pace and vol.
My Vdot suggested that my Long Run Pace was 9:59.
Bike Prep: To state the obvious, getting in bike shape for an early season race means climbing a steeper training hill than getting ready for a late season race. And it also means more trainer time. I was able to do a little more work than I did for IMFL. I had the same FTP (220w).
I did a "Camp week" on my own by skipping out of work for a few days on the week that he plan suggested for camp. I did the full swim, the race rehearsal brick and followed it up with another r4hr ride the next day. It was a struggle for me for sure. But RR1 was a struggle last time also.
RR2 was better with NP at 159w and 6 miles at 10min pace comfortably done.
MY bike schedule was Wednesday interval bike and FTP work on the trainer. Saturday long ride with intervals and Sunday ABP ride. I could have ridden more. The folks that I look up to rode more. But I put more saddle time in for IMTX than I did for IMFL and it was tough on the family. My feeling going into the race was that my bike fitness was on par with last race.
Swim prep: I swam Monday Wednesday and Friday at lunch. My RR swims were 1:15 in jammers and 1:12 in a skin suit. Both were faster than IMFL times and on the whole my swim continues to slowly improve. I made the decision to spend more of my swim time swimming and less of it drilling during this train up. I plan to work with a swim coach over the summer on mechanics before it is time to build endurance again for Coz.
My training led me to try and execute as follows – seed myself with the 1:10 swimmers. Hustle thru T1. Ride 158NP and run by heart rate. Lap 1 at no more than 150bpm and no faster than a 10:30 pace, lap 2 at 155 and lap 3 with whatever I had left. I didn’t set time goals because I didn’t want to get behind and let it impact my execution. Or get ahead and let it impact my execution.
Race week and logistics – I came up by myself due to some last minute family conflicts. I stayed at the Woodlands Resort. Not a race hotel but it was about 2mi from everything and since I had my car it was easy to get around. I recommend the location esp if you have kids as the pool area is nice. There is a grocery store about ½ mi away.
I registered & expo'd Wednesday and drove the northern section of the bike course. The roads up there are bad. Just like the ones that I ride on every weekend. Glad I saw them though.
4keys on Thursday then team lunch. Then team dinner. Friday morning team breakfast. Great group of people from EN at this race. I did not feel like I was there alone. After a post breakfast nap, I went to bike drop. The line moved quite quickly. Team advice was to show up in the middle of the bike drop time window so as to catch the line when it is shorter.
With all admin completed, I retired to my room to watch Netflix. (Breaking Away. Michael Crosby's suggestion was perfect!) Had a peanut butter and honey sandwich and some perform. Tried to sleep.
Race morning I was up at 3:45. Time for applesauce and protein powder. Tastes like racing. Shower. Massive amounts of sunblock.
I wanted to be out the door by 5 because I was worried about traffic and finding parking. No traffic. But because I was so early, I was rewarded by the parking gods. I got a spot right across from transition in the HEB parking lot. At the time, this made me very happy. I was a little worried about self sherpa'ing all my stuff back to my car after the race. Getting in to this parking lot fixed that.
After special needs drop, there is a mile or so walk to the starting area.
SWIM: 1:16 177 / 450 or so in AG
I spent too much time chit chatting before getting in the water. I had maybe 2 minutes between getting wet and the cannon going off. This was a mistake. There was room to warm up and time to seed. I didn’t do any of that. I also didn’t take the time to pick out landmarks to sight off of. Mistakes before the cannon. One minute I was chatting the next I was racing.
There was a lot of contact. I felt stuck behind packs of people. I didn’t want to expend the energy to swim over them. I think that I could have swam harder but I told myself that this was not the place on the course to struggle. There would be plenty of time to struggle later. I was told to think of the swim in 3rds. 1/3 out, 1/3 back and 1/3 canal. In retrospect that seems about correct.
Felt a little warm in my wetsuit towards the last ¼ of the swim. But the race was wetsuit legal so I wasn’t going to go without.
I glanced at the clock and laughed to myself because my time was exactly to the minute the same as IMFL. Huh.
Looking back at IMFL, I was disappointed with the pace of my transitions. So prepping for IMTX I practiced them and got prepared mentally to push thru them quickly. There would be time to "settle in" and mentally shift gears while on the bike. I am happy with how T1 went for me. 4:42 was limited by how quickly I run. Grab bag, dump bag outside tent. Helmet on, gel flask in pocket, glasses on. Carry bike shoes for the run to my bike. Shoes on at rack and get out.
I left T1 feeling good physically and happy with the race so far.
BIKE: 5:42 NP of 152, IF of .69, VI of 1.03 TSS 274 111 out of 450 or so in AG
The IMTX bike course can be divided up into 3rds more or less. The first 40mi +- is very fast. Tailwind (usually), smooth roads. Then there is the middle. Mile 50ish to mile 80ish. Rough roads, more wind (side wind, headwind) and a "middle of nowhere" vibe. I don’t look at my speed on the bike. Just Lap NP, heart rate and lap time so I can auto lap every 15min but I could tell I was going slower. The good news here is that I had seen this part of the course and had been told repeatedly by Coach P that it was coming and that it would end. The last 3rd from 80 something to 112 is your reward for riding smart. Headwind but downhillish and smoother pavement.
My race fueling plan was at least 1 bottle of perform every hour, ½ of a powerbar every 30min for the first 3hrs and then a caf power gel every 30min till the end. This is where things started to get away from me.
I decided to try and get an extra bottle of perform into me during the first hour. I was feeling great and I decided that if I felt good I would eat more, not ride faster. I started to bloat. It came on slowly but by the time the ride was over I felt like a manatee. I have never had GI issues in a race or race rehearsal or long ride. I thought that the years of abuse that I put my stomach thru in my youth had toughened it up. NOPE.
I peed once at around the 2hr mark. I tried to keep forcing cal and perform down. My stomach had become a roach motel. Perform was checking in, but it wasn’t checking out. I decided to ease off on the power targets and see if the reduced workload on my body would help it digest. I don’t know if that helped or not. I know that I didn’t end up taking enough fluid or cal in. There was no second bike pee no matter how much I pleaded with myself. I got off of the bike scared for what was coming. The bike stats look conservative but you can see from the time that I spent in t2 that I was in trouble.
T2 6:20
For most folks, T2 is faster than T1. It usually is for me as well. I didn’t drop anything or trip, I just had a hard time generating enthusiasm to get out of that tent.
The Scene of the crime – THE RUN – 5:09 – 150 out of 450 or so in AG.
In 2008, I completed my first marathon. I was 25lbs heavier. I started cramping at mile 16 and crossed the finish line in 5:08. I was so happy that I cried. Since then I dropped the weight and 1:20 off of my marathon. Im still a cramper though. If you cramp, experiment with Pickle Juice. I swear to god that it is like a magic potion for me.
This time I got crampy in the first couple of miles. There is a dusty dirt out and back section early in each lap that leads to a dirt/grass hill. The ground is uneven. Full sun. Zero fun. I started cramping there and pulled out the pickle juice. Cramps went away. Time to execute. There was a lot of racing to go at this point and days can turn around for the better so lets just take this 1 aid station at a time.
The plan was HR under 150. Get as wet as I could and put ice everywhere. Perform at every aid station and a gel every 30 min. Get as deep into the race as possible before switching to coke. Pace should be around 10:30.
Coach P was stationed early in the lap. When I passed him in lap 1 I was scared. I felt awful. But the miles were ticking by on the first lap and the pace and HR were at the right spots.
At mile 6, it was time for my second gel swig. The flask came apart in my hands. Big nasty sticky mess. There was nothing to do at that point other than see what it is like to eat off of the run course.
The run just went from bad to worse. I couldn’t get the Gu gels down. I only had 2 of them. Meaning instead of 9 or 10 gels I had 4 total on the run.
Lap 1 was the low point emotionally. Seeing the lap markers for laps 2 and three was hard. Nothing like being on mile 3 and seeing the sign for mile 20. Going in, I felt like lap 2 would be the toughest patch. Nope. It was 1. I think that by lap 2 I had adjusted my expectations and outlook for the run.
By lap 3, I was in a mode of shuffling for 2 minutes and walking for 30 seconds. By that point my 10:30 pace had become a 12:30 pace. In a haze I decided that 13 minutes was unacceptable under any circumstances and that a time over 12:30 was not to be allowed on pain of death. Funny how the mind works in extreme situations. I wonder what would have happened if I decided that 12hrs was the slowest acceptable time.
At mile 23 I gave myself permission to hit the cola. Man was it good. Flat and cold. The run course volunteers were all really great.
Some of the canal folks were way too much to take though. Especially by the 3rd lap. The guys banging on trashcan lids with drumsticks were funny in lap 1 but by lap 3 I wanted to hurt them.
I remember the mile 18 marker and thinking "oh, so I can start racing now, right?" and having a good internal chuckle.
Mile 19 – out of nowhere, my right big toe feels like it is on fire. I cant find a way to adjust my "Stride" so that it doesn’t hurt. I take my shoe off. Nothing. I take my sock off. The biggest blister that I have ever seen covering most of my big toe. I have never gotten a blister running during any race ever. Ever. Now I am walking with 1 shoe on and thinking that I will not DNF even if I have to walk the rest of the way in one shoe.
Mile 19.2 – On the ground in front of me are two sealed, perfect band aids. Thank you IM gods. It was seriously an emotional experience. Problem solved. Back to my IM Shuffle.
I saw a lot of people who were really hurting during my last lap. Lap 3 is so different from lap 1. During lap 1, I had all the run still in front of me and everyone that I saw on the run course was at worst in the same spot that I was and most of them were on lap 2. I was surrounded by people who were running faster and who were closer to being home. It was tough mentally. By lap 3, I was on the other side of the grand canyon. I was almost done. Many of the folks around me were not. I could hear conversations between folks on their first lap about time cutoffs, and would they finish before getting pulled from the course.
I remember chatting with a spectator at mile 20ish. I was shuffling along at 12:30 laughing to myself about all of the 8:00 minute training miles that I logged. A guy on the side of the road said "Go man! Keep running!". I said something like "I'm not sure this qualifies as running but it is all I can do right now." He asked me if I was on lap 1 and when I held up 3 fingers he said "Wow! You are almost there!".
I guess to an outsider, being 6 miles away from the end of a 140.6 mile race IS almost there. To me, it felt more like ½ way.
Once I hit the coke at mile 23 I felt much better. Very quickly. I was able to work a bit harder and pick my heart rate up a bit. It makes me wonder if it was the coke or if it was being at mile 23.
IM finishing chutes are magical places. Seeing the barricades and the carpets. Getting a little space between yourself and the spectators who are screaming. Taking all of that in is so amazing. Looking at all of those total strangers who are so clearly, genuinely supportive of what you are doing at that moment is moving. I hope that I never take this hobby so seriously that I forget to savor the finishing chute. There is no other place like it on this Earth.
I did not have the race that I expected. Given my train up and the weather I expected a better run. Over the next couple of weeks I will be thinking about what I want to do differently next time. The obvious ones are – carry salt tabs and tums in case of bloat. Experiment with different gel flasks. Make sure that my running socks do not have seams along the toe area. Do a couple of my runs in wet socks and feet. If nutrition goes south, hit the coke earlier.
If I hold true to form, in about a week I will start second guessing my effort on race day. Once the pain subsides my brain will start telling me that I could have run faster if I had just wanted it bad enough. I want to go on record now and say that at the time, I repeatedly asked myself if I had more and the answer was NO.
Thanks to Team EN for all of the support before during and after. Part of the reason that I chose this team is because of the results that our athletes put up. I was in the bottom 1/3 of the team at this race and was still in the top 1/3 of my age group. Surround yourself with fast, successful athletes. Do what they do. Good things will happen.
See yall in Mexico in November!
Comments
It was a pleasure meeting you and the rest of the Team. Just awesome!!
Jimmy...as you know, this was my first IM, so I am not qualified/experienced enough to give even constructive criticism.
My only "question" is what is/was your bike sweat rate? I know you said your goal was 1bottle/hour. Do you think that was enough? Is that what you did at IMFL?....and did you pee twice (or more) there? What had you been drinking in your RR recently? You drank 2 bottles in the first hour and then your gut rebelled....just wondering why? Maybe you are too.
Overall, though, I am impressed by your "stick-to-it-ness". I can certainly imagine how an incredibly difficult, long, painful day (ie....normal IM run situation where a PR is possible for example) can just evolve into a feeling of "circling the drain" when you KNOW early on the run that it is "just not my day". The motivation to hit paces/HR targets/etc. would just evaporate and with the mood/excitement/adrenaline of the IM marathon or a PR slipping away, it would just become a viscious circle of "why am I still trying to run?". I guess that's "The Line" on that day....but instead of "only" 8 more miles or so, you have most a marathon to finish (somehow)....with no silver lining at the end except that it will end. What I'm trying to say (and having a hard time conveying
) is that you refused to "quit" (I don't mean DNF....I mean quit trying to run and just walk it in until the chute).
As I think about doing more of these "races", I really do not want to ever have a day like that.....but I know that if I continue to do them, it WILL happen to me. Whether it's a GI problem, cramping, crash, kick in the nuts on the swim, overheating, dehydration, etc...your racing self owes it to your training self to give it your best and finish as strong as you can. It sounds like you honestly did that.....it was not your day....but you still finished top 1/3 on your "bad day"! Congratulations! Learn, adapt, adjust, reload and when it is "your day", you will enjoy it even more.
BUT, looking at my bike data, my heart rate was still quite high coming out of t1 and it took a good hour for it to drift down from 150 to 140. Maybe the engine was still revving too high to put in the extra gas. Maybe I wold have had better success to wait for hour two when my body had calmed down. In any event, race day was not the time to try and down an extra bottle. And I was not prepared for digestion problems because I had never had them. I will be ready next time for sure.
You are right about motivation when things get tough. I knew going in that I wasnt going to PR on this course. My goal was to be under 12 hrs and that slipped away very early. In the end th real driver was not wanteing to have to explain to family and friends why it took me longer to run the marathon than it did to ride the bike leg.
The good news is in November I will have my texas time dangling in front of me to try and improve on.
And besides, it could have been worse. I could have had someone ride into me like Annie!
Finding the bandaid was really a big moment - blisters on toes can end a race in a hurry. Wet shoes & socks will do that especially when everyone is throwing wet towels and water at you. I usually put a 2nd pair of socks (and sneakers) in special needs bag just in case.
Congrats on your finish !
I then took a look at my florida time and took 105% of that time and got 12:09. So really, the majority of the difference was that even on a relatively cool day, My break even result target was about 12:09. I only missed by 10 minutes. Maybe I could have hit 12hrs if I did everything right. But really, I was in the ballpark. Certainly within the realm of rounding error. The only reason that I don't "feel good" about 12:19 is that I was comparing it to a different course. Screw it. 12:19 is just plain fine.
Folks like you and Jeff and Co. were certainly faster on race day. But you were faster in training too. And you put more hours in. Simple. Just not easy.
See ya next time!
PJ - I am starting to think that you are right about digestion. And the band aid gods were smiling upon me for sure. I got lucky.
That was my tri club that had the gauntlet of cheerleaders along the canal.
You didn't like getting spanked by a bunch of MILFs each lap?
MA: As usuall you make a number of good points and leave me with some questions to ponder. A clear answer to the question "why am I doing this?" would help me to have a better focus. Hope to meet you in person some day.
AT: Thanks for the confirmation. For some reason, I really dont want to be the guy who overcooks the bike. Given the run I had I was second guessing my bike prep and bike execution but it all looks ok on te computer anyway.
TC - great to see you and your better half again. You are one of the best parts of EN membership as far as I am concerned. Getting my mind around how hard Coz bike/run will be is really good advice. If I had done the math around IMTX run, I would have left t2 looking to run under 5 hrs instead of 4:40. That would have effected my emotional and mental experience on the course. Would I have gone faster? Maybe. Would I have had more fun? For sure. And for me, having fun is a big part of this deal. Hope to see you again soon.
Awesome report JA -- very similar to what I went through... and you've got all the big guns providing feedback which is exactly what I needed to read as well. Great job on getting it done. I've really got to figure out my nutrition blunders as well. After my issues Sat, it's back to the drawing board with that.
FWIW, I thought the guys in their mullet wigs and jammers looked like they had too much fun at a Dead show. I'm surprised they didn't try to sell me a burrito. Made me giggle and gave me something to think about for a few more steps. Keep in touch! I'll be cheering you on virtually for Cozzzz...
I'm a first-timer at this distance, so my offerings at this point are few. However, I want to let you know that the little time we spent at dinner and breakfast together helped calm me and give me comfort that someone, who has completed multiple IM's, also had struggled with family balance, squeezing in or skipping some workouts, etc., and yet you seemed chill and ready to get after it. That stuck with me and helped ease the anxiety. Thanks!
As a lifelong athlete, I've experienced being undertrained, but having a beast show up on race day, as well as being perfectly training and not being able to summon the fitness when needed. I think we all long for that perfect day where we are prepared, our best self shows up, and the race course provides the ideal conditions. That's why we keep coming back, in hopes that today is the day. It's the athlete version of playing the lottery.
I wish you the best at COZ and will be following you for sure. I'm interested in that race in the future, so I'm sure I'll be reaching out to you. Good Luck!
MC- Breaking Away will forever be a Day Before IRONMAN tradition. Hope to see you soon.
Awesome report and great race my friend...
Picture poster of the internal/emotional strength it takes to get one of these things done!
You were very quiet/serious Sat morning as you sat beside me waiting to put that wetsuit on, yet well focused. I could see that "Eye of the Tiger" in your eyes and I remember thinking that this guy is going to do whatever needs to be done to "Get it done" and you did!
That is a great IM experience!
Congratulations IM!!
Congrats on finishing that tough day! You must have passed me on the bike, but it must have been around the time I was getting patched up, because I never saw you. Pleasure sharing the course with you.
Hopefully I will read this in mid november before IMCoz...
Dear future me: It looks like the run problems that you had at IMTX were a function of your elevated heart rate on the bike. Yes, your watts were ok and the VI was ok. But your avg heart rate in IMTX was 146 on the bike and that is too high for you. Next time, make your goal for the first 30 min to get your heart rate down into the 135'sh range. Then start to eye watts but look to have an average hr of 138 for the bike leg. If you cant generate the watts without running your HR too high, back off on the watts.
Craig Alexandar can go for 8hrs at 150bpm. You are not Craig Alexandar.
The bloat was a symptom, not the cause. The cause was running the engine at too high an rpm for too long.
Coach has some good thoughts.
At 10 irons, still tweaking things myself. Nutrition. Following HR. Etc. you will apply your new knowledge well in the future.