Chris Dodd's IMLP Race Report
Lake Placid was a great experience! My official time is 13:52. My actual time is 14:31. I'm happy with both, but having the official time under 14 hours is going to make it tougher to PR in the future! 
I was happy to have completed both loops of the swim. I could see the lights of the police boat on the other side of the course while I was swimming back to the beach but I didn’t know about swimmers being pulled from the water until halfway through the run.
The race was good overall, a couple of hiccups that threw me off my plan.
Swim T1 Bike T2 Run
Target <1:20 10 7:20 5 <5:00</span>
Race 1:15 10:24 7:18 13 !? 5:33
Equipment:
Xterra wetsuit
Felt B16 with stock front wheel and Flo 60 rear wheel. Xlab Aero bottle. Garmin 500 & Power2Max PM.
Bell Lazer helmet
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The swim was great, stayed to the outside and enjoyed clear water and just stayed with my planned pace. I knew the planned pace wouldn't take too much out of me after the Peaks to Portland swim 2 weeks earlier which I pushed a little harder and still felt good at the end prior to doing the rest of my RR. Got a bit too close to one of the turn buoys so I had to fight through the scrum on that one but otherwise it was easy going. My left hip started tightening up in the last 1/2 mile so I tried changing my kick a little & that helped.
T1 went as planned, took my time to make sure I had everything I needed. I did drop one of my arm warmers between T1 & the bike though. (glad I used the tube socks instead of my good ones.)
The bike was wet & cold for the 1st 30-40 miles & again during the second loop on the climb back into LP. I felt my FTP had dropped since the last successful test so I had adjusted my target watts accordingly. My plan was to keep the NP <=150. I ended up being a little lower. I felt great finishing the first loop and only minimal burn during the second. I was happy to be off the bike but I don't hate it! <img alt="" align="absmiddle" class="afEmoticon" src="http://members.endurancenation.us/DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif" style="vertical-align: middle; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" /> Still need to work on hydration and nutrition on the bike, I feel I was a little behind on both. To answer Patrick’s stock question; too many times on loop 1 but just once on loop two. Since it was raining, the Felt got christened.
T2. Hiccup #1. I planned for 5 minutes. I have no idea how I got to 13! I was very deliberate in everything I did in there & also took a little extra time to massage the beginning of a cramp out of my foot. That cramp is something that just started happening on the last two long training rides. A pain or cramp at the joint of the first metatarsal of the small toe. Since it was relatively minor and doesn’t show up until the end of the rides, I felt it was better not to experiment with a cleat adjustment so close to the race.
The run. My legs felt great! The long T2 probably helped a little but I was surprised at how good they felt for the entire run. I started at a very conservative Z1+60 seconds. I started getting gut cramps around mile 5 or 6 after each aid stations. Similar to the issues I had at the White Mtn Tri. I tried adding extra salt tabs and trying different things at the next aid stations with no positive effect. My run pace dropped and overall pace dropped a lot with several precautionary porto-john stops! At mile 14 or 15 I started walking at a quick pace. The difference between a 12 min pace plus porto-john stops and a 15-16 min pace with no stops was close enough to a wash and it was helping my gut. At about mile 18 my gut was feeling a bit more stable and I decided that I would start running at the next turn around.( ~ mile 19) Was able to get right to an 11 min pace and continued to increase it. I was able to continue increasing the pace all the way to the finish. I was feeling good but still felt the beginnings of a cramp after the next aid stations. I decided to minimize the aid stops after that and skipped the last 3. I had to stop at mile 21 to put on a knee brace. The EN group and some Kennebunk members were near the pub which was a great boost. Other than when I stopped to put on the knee brace no one passed me after I started running again, I passed everyone I encountered except the person in the last 100 yards. I recalled what Patrick said about enjoying the finish and finishing in the clear so I backed off and enjoyed the last 100.(I would have been passing her within feet of the finish line, so this way we both had clear finishes) Another group of KBTC members were cheering at the fence there. Great to see Laura and Matt just after finishing.
I know the power walking helped my gut and legs. What I didn’t expect though was how fresh my legs felt on those last 7 miles.
I’m sure the gut issues are related to the hydration/nutrition on the bike. I feel once I get that nailed down I will be able to have a consistent run. Garmin 910 stopped collecting data at mile 52 of the bike! Luckily it was still displaying my run pace during the run. I have the swim, t1, and bike(from the 500). I'll just have to work with my split times on the run to evaluate that segment.
Good decisions pre-race that helped the day:
-Bought a cycling vest on Monday due to the possible rain and put that in the T1 bag.
-Took off the front Flo 60 and put my stock (30mm deep) wheel back on. It was one less thing to worry about during the descent.
-Wore my race helmet. Less vents = less rain pouring in on my head!! Also the visor was further from my face so it didn't fog. I had brought my road helmet to LP in the event it was going to be a really hot day.
-Carried my knee brace with me on the run. My knee hadn’t really bothered me since before the camp but I wanted to be safe, very glad I had it.
Still needs work:
My hydration and nutrition; not nailed down yet.
Transitions. T2!
Increase FTP on bike.
Post Race: I felt great. We got the bike back to the hotel, cleaned up and came back to cheer on the finishers. Only pain that was not just mildly sore muscles the next day was my knee and that was fully clear by Tuesday.
Looking at this from a Four Keys perspective:
1. I think the majority of my execution was good. As nervous as I felt going into this for the first time I did feel prepared and knew I would finish as long as I didn’t do something stupid or have an accident on the bike. That being said I know I still have a lot to work on regarding execution. First and foremost is hydration and nutrition; I have that much closer to where it needs to be than 2 months ago but it is still not there. Bike VI, still way too high. This coming weekend I’ll be looking at the individual laps to calculate 9N, Jay to Wilmington & the climb back into LP separately but the ride as a whole was too high. The fact I knew my VI was usually still too high was a big part of the reason I backed my target power down a little extra. Transitions, more practice and pack less!
2. Well my race restarted at mile 18. Too many porto-john stop during the 2nd quarter killed my pace there and I did have to slow down during the 3rd quarter of the marathon to get my gut back to normal. The last 7 miles was fantastic.
3. I stayed within my box. That was easy except during the run cramps and the ride through town between loops one and two on the bike, got the watts up a little too high enjoying that ride. During everything else I was able to just focus on what I was doing and generally ignore most of the outside influences.
4. Well this is a tough one for me. I’m not doing this for any cause and I don’t get overly emotional about it. It’s a challenge I set for myself and I decided to do it. So my one thing was I’m stubborn and I was going to finish. I will probably have to revise that for the next one.
Comments
Chris, You completed a great race. Like Rich & Patrick say, there are no easy Ironman races. However, I am sure there are many that are not as tough as this race was. Considering all of the atmospheric issues we faced, you really nailed your goal. Great job and great race report.
Great Job, I am very happy for you. It really shows that eventually things can just work out and you being able to run the last 7 miles is great.
Way to finish strong.
Good luck with your recovery.
Great report Chris! I enjoyed reading it. Congratulations on a great race. It was awesome to see you out there!
Congrats
@Mary, It was great to cross paths with you several times on the course. Your words of encouragement while I was battling the stomach cramps were very helpful!
Congrats and well done on such a challenging day!