Jenn's IMC Race Report: First Podium!
First Ironman Podium: Ironman Canada Whistler 2014 - Race Report, Reflections and the Three Bears
Ironman Canada Whistler 2014: Race Report, Reflections and the Three Bears
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Getting to the Start Line: “It doesn't matter when you cross the start line or when you cross the finish line, just that you cross them both.” - Unknown
“Will you do it again?” This was a question we heard often in the days leading up to Ironman Canada (IMC). I’d purposefully planned on doing IMC four weeks after Ironman Coeur d’Alene (IMCDA) to test one of a few avenues of getting to Kona. Accumulating twelve finishes will potentially earn a “Legacy” slot and a chance to race on the Big Island. Two IMs a year would cut the time in half and if all went well by the end of 2014 I’d be at six finishes, with six more in “only” three years!
Managing recovery and training in the four weeks between two IMs isn’t exactly a precise science or a good idea from many perspectives. I arrived in Whistler with much less refined estimates of my splits but in good spirits and without so much as a niggle of pain anywhere. I was fairly confident that barring any major catastrophe I could earn that sixth finish but a lot can go wrong and finishing was certainly not a forgone conclusion. “Well, I can’t answer that ‘till after Sunday!” was my response to those questions!
*** The Performance Management Chart out of Training Peaks: The blue line represents “Chronic Training Load” and is an indicator of overall training volume. It starts out as a very pretty graph (in my opinion) followed by pretty ugly! **
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The Swim: Swimasstrophy
I was only half joking when I’d told Mark I had no idea whether my swim time was going to be back to the 1:05 I’d turned in at a couple of my early IMs or a leisurely 1:15. He figured it would be somewhere in between and darn it he was right! If anybody ever asks me where to line up at the IMC swim start I PROMISE to redact myself! I thought I’d lined up similarly to last year where I had a relatively unencumbered and successful swim. Unfortunately my experience was a 180° from 2013.
*** IMC 2014 Swim Start: It was little consolation that Mark was out there… somewhere… rescuing someone ELSE! ***
We all expect congestion in a mass start but significant body contact continued ALL the way around the first two turn buoys and really didn’t open up much at all ‘till the second lap. I didn’t get the sense anyone was intentionally trying to clobber me, just that there was no room to get into any sort of rhythm. I tried to swim further to the outside but as the lone anchovy in the school going diagonal to the flow, let’s just say it didn’t work out very well. When I saw 1:11 on the clock I was bummed – my worst swim time ever in very good lake conditions. Oh well. I figured this had already put me out of contention of a top-ten placing in my age group like the 9th I’d earned at IMCDA but I stuck to the mantra for the day of “emptying my tank” and had no intentions of phoning it in. I hustled through transition looking forward to getting on the bike!
*** An Overhead View of Turn Two: It looks so serene from here. ***
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The Bike: Strong, Steady and the BooBee Target
I’d reduced my target wattage for the bike since IMCDA in consideration of how I’d felt there and assuming I’d lost some power in the weeks in between. As a result of NOT crashing at the start as I’d done in 2013 (hyperlink) and a very conservative effort I felt REALLY good for the first hour and regained some optimism for the day. That was buoyed further by an exchange with a competitor going up the first ascent. “Hey, #642! That was my number when I had my best race ever! I think you’re going to have yours today - it’s a lucky number!” Who was I to argue?
*** Postcard views like this ALL DAY LONG! It Doesn’t Look Like It – But I’m Up Because This is a Climb! ***
I stuck to the plan for the entire ride and although it got predictably more difficult to hold that effort. Even though Whistler it is one of the toughest bike courses with significant elevation gain there is a 30-mile segment late in the ride called the “Pemberton flats” that is just that, dead flat. The temperature pushed to over 95° and in a sick way I wished for the headwinds that had plagued us at IMCDA. I probably passed over 150 folks in those flats as the heat continued to climb and the collective enthusiasm waned.
My revised nutrition plan was working well and being thoroughly vetted in the heat. Nearing the end of the flats I was quite rudely stung by a bee that made its way into my top where boobs should be. In my frantic digging around to flick out the (still stinging) bee I managed to fling my stash of Wheat Thins out too. I know, I know… Wheat Thins? Yes, five Wheat Thins an hour are a part of my (highly sophisticated!) nutrition plan. They keep my stomach from getting overloaded on all the sugar that makes up the REST of the race day nutrition. Arg. Oh well - I was just about to start the fourth hour and would only miss two “servings”. When I made the final turn to begin the 20-mile ascent back to Whistler I still felt relatively good and was confident I’d finish the bike strong.
*** After three stings in my top on this course in two years, I’m thinking this angle just shows that I must look like target practice for bees. Or maybe I just need bigger boobs. Also, for the record, I’m not cranky here, honestly! **
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The Run: Gonna Get Run Down? Not Today!
After a good transition I hit the run curious as to how I’d feel. I began the mantra I’d planned for the first half of the run: “comfortably hard, comfortably hard, comfortably hard… ” My target pace at IMCDA had been just under a 10-minute-mile and in that race during the first few miles of that race I’d actually had to hold myself back. Alas, not surprisingly, today was different. My “comfortably hard” effort was turning in a 10:30 – 10:45 pace. Although it didn’t feel great, it did feel better than in The Epic Bonk of 2013. (hyperlink) I was fairly certain I’d be able to run the entire way, it just wasn’t going to be the 4:20 I’d run at IMCDA.
Somewhere out there a bear was having a little run of its own on the race course. Although we did see a bear on a reconnaissance ride early in the week I didn’t actually see this one but it is a very FUN video. Note the runner that decides she’ll go ahead a walk a bit as she passes where the bear went into the trees!
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*** Bear on the Run: Added a Swim in the Spirit of Ironman! ***
For the record, there is literally almost NO stretch of the Whistler run course that is straight or flat so it is hard to gauge effort. The run is constantly twisting, turning, up, down, asphalt, gravel, dirt - a smorgasbord of trail and just what you’d expect for a nice Sunday trail run in a beautiful resort town. Of course today we had the benefit of aid stations and lots of people to cheer us on! I revised my race plan to go based off of RPE (Rate of Perceived Effort) and HR (Heart Rate) for the balance of the run.
Miraculously, at about mile three or four, “comfortably hard” started to result in a 9:45 or even a 9:30 pace. Awesome, I thought - the day is looking up! At mile 13 I saw Mark for just a second and he told me I was in fourth place. Say wha???? He must have meant fourth off the bike. I was fairly certain I wasn’t in fourth at the half-marathon point. Teammate Steve S. had made a “podium” comment earlier in the week and I almost laughed, certain it was jinxed. Er…. well… that’s cool but… um…. well it’s time to grab the mantra for the second half of the run: “Empty the tank, empty the tank, empty the tank….”
*** Again with the Postcard Scenery! Yes, That’s a Floatplane in the Background! ***
Shortly after seeing Mark I bumped in to RTB teammate Craig P. We had a quick chat about how our days were going. I mentioned that Mark just told me I was in fourth but that I usually get run down on the run so that was probably wrong. “Well”, he said, “Not today!” So, I added another mantra: “Not today, not today, not today!” To which I was promptly passed by a gal in my age group (AG). Sad trombone. Time to HTFU. I kept plugging away and made note of my HR determined to keep my effort up. And then well, well, well, what do we have here? I was about to PASS someone in my AG! She was looking pretty dejected and I made the pass with a few pleasantries and little worry she would rally. Score: Them: 1, Me: 1. Not today, indeed!
As far as I can tell there wasn’t any more passing in my age group for the balance of the run. After a quick high-five to Mark with about a mile to go I made the turn down the finishing chute elated to be finishing strong, running and HAPPY!
*** If You’re Happy (To Be Done) and You Know It, Clap Your Hands! ***
*** SUPER Happy Here and Not Even Crying All Over Some Poor Teammate!!! ***
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Fourth Place!
“Can anyone tell me what place I finished?” I asked around in the finishers area. The (otherwise fabulous) volunteers looked at me like it was the craziest question they’d been asked all day. Um, at IMCDA they had a timing table and handed you a card with all your splits and placing, certainly I wasn’t making this up! Without data on Mark’s cell phone we had no way to know. Ultimately I ended up calling my brother 3,000 miles away to get my finish. Fourth, indeed!
We spent the rest of the evening cowbelling on teammates to the finish and relishing in a great day. We knew there were three Kona spots in my age group at IMCDA and if that held true here there just one spot would have to “roll down” for me to get a slot. It was unlikely, but possible! I tried not to dwell on it just waited for whatever the award ceremony would bring.
Monday morning Mark and I headed to the Olympic Plaza for the ceremony. We set up shop at a table we shared with a nice couple I’ll call Mama Bear and Papa Bear. We shared our experiences from the race and they were excited to hear I would be in contention for a Kona spot. Our Endurance Nation team collected First Place in the Tri Club competition and I was called onto the podium to collect my fourth place award.
*** BAM – On the Podium!!! ***
Next came the roll down. We excused ourselves from Mama Bear and Papa Bear to make our way closer to the front in case my name was called. As anticipated, there were three Kona spots up for grabs. Fast Gal #1: Want your spot? Yes! #2? Yes! #3? Yes. Ouch, that hurt. Tears started to well up. Mark put his arm around my shoulders and sheparded me to the exit. I hadn’t expected to get a spot but it did hurt to be so close. I’d promised myself a maximum of a one-minute pity party and let loose a few tears. I swear I saw a couple in Mark’s eyes as well.
I pulled out the last mantra for the weekend: Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. I am so lucky to be able to do this sport with these great people in this beautiful place. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. I managed to get the tears under control within the minute allotted. As we continued back to our hotel and we bumped into Mama Bear and Papa Bear. Mama Bear had tears streaming down her face FOR ME! Hugs all around. Geeze lady, now I need to have ANOTHER one-minute pity party. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude….
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Reflections
Yes, it takes me FOREVER to get my race report done! I think this is partly because I do a lot of reflecting after the race and partly because writing the report is kind of like me finishing that chapter and moving forward. It’s cathartic!
* Compared to IMCDA I was, indeed able to keep my HR up late in the run. Also, coincidentally my average HR for both races was EXACTLY the same. Even though the time was a bit slower, it was hotter and I’d probably lost a bit of fitness so in retrospect it makes sense.
* My subpar swim may have benefited my bike. I’ve consistently had difficulty getting my HR to come down in the first hour of the bike. This year, it was almost 7 BPM less in that first hour. We’ll call that the consolation prize for the craptastic swim.
* After the race I was pleased to see that my “Variability Index” (VI) was 1.03, down from the VI of 1.06 in 2013 indicating I’d had a much steadier ride and metered my effort smoothly.
Overall, I’m really pleased with my effort on the day. Although I wasn't completely spent as I was in IMCDA, at the most I figure I could have squeezed another couple of minutes out of myself with better execution. The third place finisher was 20’ in front of me and fifth place was 7’ behind me – there wasn't really anything I could have done to catch third place and fourth place was relatively safe.
Also, I’m proud of how hard I worked this year. I spent fifteen weeks with fifteen or more hours of training and four different weeks approached twenty hours. By working hard I don’t mean that I blindly threw a lot of time at all sports, but I was very strategic in what I did, how I did it, and why. In particular, I listened to my body and backed off occasionally when something started to hurt or I got a a sense of getting over-trained. Sure enough, I did not get injured and stayed motivated. I also learned a lot and will have a few tweaks for next year. The “behind the scenes” part of this is how well it went on the home-front. I don’t take for granted that it “takes a village” to get an athlete to the start and Mark is 95% of that. I also am humbled by the the support of friends, family, teammates and training partners. What a great community!
*** There is a lot of support that goes into getting this amount of training done! ***
Will we do it again? Yeah, probably. IMCDA suits my strengths and nobody is more shocked than me that I can contend at IMC as well. With races not selling out the day they open there isn’t an urgency to sign up but I suspect if this fall goes well I’ll be signing up for both over the winter. As long as we are both having fun in this crazy journey…. Anything is possible!
*** Hardware! ***
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Comments
Wow! So close..... What a great attitude though. Very impressive.
Great pictures. Great report. VERY well done. Congratulations!
So close and yet so far.... Its just going to make it all the sweeter when it happens.
This >>>> I spent fifteen weeks with fifteen or more hours of training and four different weeks approached twenty hours. By working hard I don’t mean that I blindly threw a lot of time at all sports, but I was very strategic in what I did, how I did it, and why. In particular, I listened to my body and backed off occasionally when something started to hurt or I got a a sense of getting over-trained. Sure enough, I did not get injured and stayed motivated. I also learned a lot and will have a few tweaks for next year. >>>>>Will get you to KONA, long before the Legacy Approach!
Big Kudo's to Mark... You OWE him a trip to the island!
Before you sign up for IMCDA and IMC again for next year , maybe you should think about a flat course? I know you are a strong biker and tend to lean towards those hilly bike courses... You would have an advantage knowing the courses @ IMCDA and IMC... But, here's the big but for me.... ever since I been doing triathlon's everyone has been telling me that with my size and w/kg (120lbs and 4.0+) I should do hilly courses and yet I have consistently placed higher on all the flat courses.... Just some food for thought!
Congrats on an awesome race!
You are on the bubble now, for sure! Persistence will pay off.
Regarding "flat" vs "hilly" courses…I think it may be more of an issue as to where the competition is. F 40-44 seems to be THE most competitive age group at AZ and FL - Your projected time at each of those places might get you fifth or sixth. The times were unreal for the winners, 10:00 and 9:40. I'd say, stick with what you know, and gravitate towards those courses perceived to be "harder", which will give you more of an edge, as well as thin out the field. Can't do anything about the one or two super women who show up, but you can and will slot in right behind them within a year or two.
Congrats again on a great race. You will KQ long before you have to do 12 races
I have to say I am amazed by the PMC graphic that shows a slow and steady CTL decline for over 6 weeks prior to the race. I would be terrified to see that given a sustained decline in CTL ought to represent a true fitness decline (i.e. not just a really deep taper). How do you think your body and overall fitness level was going into that race and how does that square with the PMC?
Big Congrats Jenn! I know that bittersweet feeling of coming so close to a Kona spot. Try to enjoy your success, you had a phenomenal race! The podium is not an easy place to land. I am really happy for you! Would love to chat with you about the comparison between the two courses. I am considering CdA (again) or CAN for next year. I am not quite as crazy as you to do both! Enjoy some "down-time", you certainly deserve it!
Hey Team,
Thanks for the kind words and feedback!
Regarding the PMC as Matt noted: It’s not so much the taper from peak to IMC (the later race) that I will tweak next time, it was the taper from peak to IMCDA (the earlier race) that I’d move next year. Specifically, I may do the camp week at four weeks out rather than five weeks out. This is based on objective and subjective reasons.
The peak to IMC (the later race), was a different matter. By the time I’d poured my entire self into the IMCDA race, spent a week recovering and then tried to get in a couple weeks of solid training I was spent. For me there just isn’t enough time in between to re-build. Next time I will make some tweaks to include more frequency and less distance. Specifically on the run I did an 18 miler that was totally unnecessary and put me in a hole for a couple of days. It wasn’t until very late in week three that I was finally to get in a solid five hour ride and I think the cycling would have benefited from more frequency and less duration as well.
Race Selection: Regarding races, I’m really open to anything but still leaning towards IMCDA and IMC. I will discuss with Coach P in further detail before I sign up.
Thanks again for the feedback – it has given me a lot to think about and I truly appreciate the collective mojo and wisdom of our team!
Jenn....how do you do "projections" for TSS for the future? What software are you using? I track overall TSS in TP, but like the idea of breaking it down into three sports like you've done.
Yeah, Jenn, you're showing your WSM creds here. Those two insights: splitting out the s/b/r CTLs and projecting where you want to be for each at the end of the taper are something I'm going to incorporate. I've just been charting the total for all three, and then looking at my TSB and the CTL as the main metrics for where I want to be in my taper. Meaning, I've been trying to be in the negative 30s for TSB, and flip to positive 25-30 by race day.
Jeff, I think she's just looking at what she did, then giving herself a target based on past performance, plus incorporating the desired taper reduction. No magic formula or algorithm? One has to be cautious about using someone else's exact PMC numbers, better to project from your own past performance. It all depends on what you use for your baseline when you started a 10-12 week IM build. See e.g. the difference between her 2013 and 2014 IM CDA builds.
Note to Jenn - after re-reading the above paragraph, I'd suggest you think about this when targeting your max CTL by sport and the subsequent taper drop … maybe what you should be targeting is not an absolute number, but rather the delta between where you are end of March and where you want to be mid-June?
Al....just to clarify, I would not think of using someone else's absolute TSS values. I've only done one IM and I was shelled for a full month afterward. Jenn just did two in less than a month and smoked the second one! I'm not worthy!......
I just like the idea of separating the sports (if it doesn't take manually inputing stuff into a spreadsheet painstakingly)....I know there is overall fatigue/fitness to consider, but I definitely notice that more running makes it harder for me to do more running, but doesn't affect my ability to ride as much (ie....the fatigue accumulated and ability to hold threshold efforts seems more sport specific).
1 - Interview / Race podcast with Jenn goes live on Monday 8/11 at 9am on our podcast channel. 80 minutes of awesome, a must listen: www.endurancenation.us/podcasts
2 - On the almost Kona thing, Matt, there are a lot of stories of folks who feel like they are almost there ("I was 8th and there were 4 slots so close!!!!") but in reality, there are (A) only 12-15 such people in each race, (B) many of these are still many many minutes out of contention, (C) they are in AGs with 6 slots vs 2 or 3, aka men vs women. If I had a dollar for everyone who told me they were so close...
3 - On the CTL thing, I think Jenn was fine into CDA (her A race). You site a 10% CTL reduction and for CDA you were 12% (Swim) and 13% (Bike and Run). That's pretty damn close in my book. More importantly, take how you performed into account as well as the data...you had solid races both, on a very short timeline. Your bike remains very strong but your swim is a few minutes off and run is still evolving. IOW how you performed should also drive your data decisions...not just a declining blue line and how it makes you feel.
4 - Obviously we have another annual consult coming up (!) but my money is on continuing to improve your run and swimming better this year. Lots of benefits to increased swimming for someone in your position (and lifestyle) and your bike is just so awesome right now...
5 - On the flat races, don't underestimate your ability to ride super steady as a super power. 26.2 is still a long way to go if you can't bike smart, and you might be surprised at the outcomes. At the very least, it might be interesting for you to throw in a wildcard flat race at some point just to see how you feel / perform. You might be surprised.
Thanks all for sharing, especially you Jenn!!!
Thanks All,
Yes, splitting the sports out in TP is easy enough to do and I feel provides much more relevant info as obviously the three sports have different loads and tapers.
@ Jeff regarding the projections there are a couple of ways to attack it. For macro season planning later this year I will be inputting an entire week of TSS points as one planned workout for each sport on a Sunday for each week. This gives me the rough picture without the tedium of entering every.single.workout. Closer to race day (and what I did about three weeks out this year) I’ll start inputting planned workouts and their TSS to refine the taper.
Al is right in my intention with the CLT targets I simply targeted a slight bump from this year and then the targeted taper percentage to get the race day CTL. This is the figure I will reevaluate about six weeks out. If CTL is lower than I’d anticipated, I’ll adjust accordingly. It’s more the taper figure (the delta) I’ll be able to adapt at that point, no way to force CTL that late in the game. Trust me, I have no problem pulling the plug on a workout if I’m not feeling it so those slightly higher CTL figures may or may not manifest themselves, just depends on if my (now 40!!) body can absorb it. And yes, P – the taper was pretty close and I won’t be too obsessive with this figure – just something to keep an eye on as I have more and more data over the years.
Happy Sunday and Al: CONGRATS again on the Nationals performance!!!
Awesome race and report! It has been fun following your builds on Strava, and then seeing you crush the race execution to terrific results! You are knocking on Kona's door, and when it opens, we will be able to say "we knew her when..."
Great job on the podcast as well! Very insightful. Enjoy the rest of your season, and the afterglow of 2 rockstar races.
Wow, Jenn! I read your report and i realize how much i still have left to learn. I'm not a gambler, but if i had to wager, i'll bet that you kona qualify long before you're eligible for the legacy lottery. I get that you have the CDA course really dialed in, but perhaps consider wisconsin, with it's challenging bike course and your ability to ride so very steady. It might be a good match for your skill set. Congrats on 2 great races and making the podium at IMC. Great season and i look forward to following your continued progress on Strava!
@ Mark and Ian - thanks for the nice feedback... never been “interviewed” before and was a little nervous about it. @ Jen D – I think I covered the basics about the IMC vs. IMCDA in the podcast but I welcome any additional questions or considerations you may have? They are quite different and of course you’ll need to take into account your own specific strengths which I’m not too familiar with. Just let me know how I can help and I’ll do my best!