Keith W.--IMMT race report
I arrived in Mont Tremblant on Wednesday after spending some time in Quebec City and Montreal with my wife and kids. It made for a shorter drive than from our home in Boston and allowed me to settle in and get ready. I checked in first thing on Thursday morning which made it quick and easy.
My big concern coming into IMMT was my non-existent run training. After completing the 70.3 Mont Tremblant in June, I had 2 runs of longer than an hour, the last of which was July 4th. I did some shorter runs the week after the 4th , but ended up with a hip/back issue that kept me from running at all until the Monday before the race. I decided that my run was going to be slow and painful, but to see what happened and go with it.
Team vibe was awesome and everywhere…..seeing people at check in, around town and the team dinner. The course was littered with EN athletes and it was great to get your encouragement during the day. Seeing the OSC on the course, the group of EN cheerleaders at the out of town rotary and other points was great. Team EN really does rock!!! 
One funny Coach P moment was the aide station right before the turn around on the paved run path----walk 20 steps, I think not….Patrick went through there full pace trying to grab everything and he literally destroyed the aid station. There was ice, perform, drinks flying everywhere….it looked like one of those police chases where someone runs through the store and all the display racks start flying everywhere…..I almost fell over laughing!!!!!!
What the hell was up with the weather?????
Overcast preswim—clear goggles, midway point—bright sun—can’t see anything. T1—no vest, “It’s Sunny out”—leave the tent—overcast, cool-WTF??. End of bike on descent—sprinkles…..4 minutes later—sun. Sunny run----wait a second—pouring rain…..more sun here it comes…..seriously it was weird!!!!
Swim: 1:16:43
The swim was choppy , but I stayed smooth and steady. A little slower than I wanted, but I think I can improve this with more focused swimming. I will mention there was this one guy who I’d see every buoy, literally swimming perpendicular to everyone else on the course, then he would swim back inside the buoy getting lost until the next one. My other issue was getting kicked, smack in the face at the first turn buoy. It was one of those kicks where I thought I spit my lip open and busted my nose—ouch!!!
T1: 7:22
No wetsuit stripper for me as I hate all the sand on those mats. I was in a good jog, but the concrete was not as nice as the red carpet they had for the 70.3. I saw my kids and gave nice hugs/kisses—that was great—their first IM too!! 
I was able to eat my first rice cake during the run from the tent to my bike & before mounting, which set me up to just have to drink the first hour.
Bike-5:53:56
This was a good split for me. My target was 175 watts and I finished with an NP of 178. I know I went out too hard during the first hour, but I settled in better after that and really tried to be more steady. At one point on the first out section on the highway it was tough to hold back because I would literally get sucked into this group by holding my watts, pass, but then hit the headwind which would spike the watts and I’d go backwards through the group. Others would then go past, but it was such a big group that you’d then get sucked to the front again---nowhere to go unless you decide to coast. They finally went away when they hammered one of the longer hills, which helped me get back to my numbers. I would hit the lap button every hour, watching NP and ended up with -185, 178, 181, 172, 175, 175.
My nutrition plan worked good through the first 5 hours. I had no stomach issues or gut rock. Thanks to all the nutrition peeps that talked about trying to use real food which got me thinking and experimenting.
Hour 1: blueberry/choc rice cake (249 cal), 2 bottles Skratch (220 cal)
Hour 2 &3: apple rice cake (159 cal), 1.5 bottles Perform (262 cal), 1 salt tab
Hour 3: blueberry/choc rice cake (249 cal), 1 Skratch (120 cal), ½ bottle perform (88 cal)
Hour 4: apple rice cake (159 cal), 1.5-2 bottles Perform (262-350 cal), 1 salt tab
Hour 5: I was done eating at this point—just didn’t want to. Drank Perform -1 bottle to let stomach empty to get ready for the run. Planned on another rice cake, but felt I was ok.
Entire workout (174 watts):
Duration: 5:53:42
Work: 3686 kJ
TSS: 298.5 (intensity factor 0.712)
Norm Power: 178
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: 2.86%
Pa:HR: 2.07%
Distance: 110.732 mi
Elevation Gain: 4631 ft
Elevation Loss: 4633 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-3 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 374 174 watts
Heart Rate: 114 165 144 bpm
Cadence: 1 145 82 rpm
Speed: 0 46.9 18.8 mph
Pace 1:17 0:00 3:11 min/mi
Altitude: 705 1184 856 ft
Crank Torque: 0 1701 186 lb-in
T2: 4:08
This needs to be faster. I’m not sure why I felt so disorganized. Out of the tent—more hugs/kisses for the kids & wife.
Run: 4:49:21
My plan for the run was to go out, feel it out, and make sure I stretch every 2-3 miles or sooner if needed. My hip mostly hurts running downhill, so I knew I had to short stride the downhills. A few times throughout the run I wanted to quicken the pace and stride out, but as soon as I did I would feel my little warning twinge that tells me things were going to go bad quick. When they go bad I walk—not possible to run. I’m happy to say I managed this the entire day and never had to walk (except the planned walking of aid stations). Weeks ago I did not think this was possible. I just kept ticking off mostly 10:15-11:30 miles. My shoe choice was my new Hoka’s with only 3 runs on them—yes, not smart, I know. I chose these thinking the cushioning would help minimize any hip/back issues. By mile 6 I wanted to throw them in the woods and go barefoot as I had a big blister and my feet were numb
. I made it to special need where I changed into my Kinvaras—much better (except when that blister popped—ouch). Another hug and kiss from the kids and wife. While I’ve always known that triathlon was about my ability to suffer, I only really began to push this boundary this year, starting with 70.3 MT. I just finished the book Iron War and while the story was great, the one thing I took away from it that helped me keep running was the research mentioned in it that says that the body can continue to perform at the same physiological level provided the mind allows it to embrace the suffering. This was my mantra starting at about mile 5 “It’s about pain tolerance, your body will tell you when it can’t go any more”. I also kept telling myself that if I wanted to get back to my family, the quickest way was to run. At the final uphill, my kids & wife were there and they started to run up the hill with me—it was an awesome twenty steps of my life, but then they dropped (really-that’s all they have….). The finish was great..smiling and enjoyable. I need to work on run nutrition some, but given my pace it didn’t impact me today. I had 1.5 sleeves of cliff blocks and 2 gels, 1 banana and Perform at most aide stations.
Overall: 12:11:30 (47 minute PR)
I couldn’t be more excited to set this PR, especially given my lack of running. That needs to be a focus for the fall for me as I think I have another good chunk of time to come off if I can learn to run. Once again, thanks everyone for supporting, coaching, watching online and making this such a smart, great team. IMMT 2015—here I come!!!
Comments
I always enjoy seeing you at events and the times we have shared at LP & AmZof, glad we finally got to share an IM course & speak on the run a bit. I was very excited to hear your name called by Mike Reilly as I was collecting my bike from transition and really excited to hear this was a PR for you given your ordeal. I wish you had shared the Ironwars mantra when we were running, I could have used that myself!
Sorry the Hokas didn't work out for you - before you toss 'em in the woods... what size are they?? :-)
The concept of eating rice cakes is interesting, as a person recently diagnosed with celiac. What prompted you to move away from course food?
Recover well!
Cheers,
Woody
@ Woody-- part of the switch has to do with an overall diet change with no bread, pasta, etc, which has helped me drastically lower my overall sugar input. My wife read a book called the ABASCAL way (the To Quiet Inflammation diet) and in eating differently, I shed 15 lbs quickly with a more even energy throughout the day. I also have had gut shut down and processing issues at times during races, so I closely followed the conversations in the EN forums (particularly the debate going on between JW and TC) and decided to try real food from the Feed Zone Portables book. I definitely felt different, but I need to keep refining this.
ditto on the hokas, what model/ size?
As alway's Keith great to break bread with you. Your day played out well with a PR but there was a lot of hard work put in to get you to the finish line. Well done well deserved ! Now time to rest reflect and tackle your "run" as you say,bravo zulu !
Keith....incredible job with so little run prep. Congratulations! Wait till you can actually train properly for the run!
Always fun to see you and look forward to racing with you again - IMMT for 2015? Bruce and I are in....
good work. nice to meet you and chat. and great to see you and others on the run.
would like to join for tremblant next year but does not work for the schedule.
as my gut seems to be getting less tolerant of the powerbar stuff, maybe I will consider starting off with scratch and a couple portables.
I am reading, born to run, great quote, "strictly by accident, Scott[Jurek] stumbled upon the most advanced weapon in the ultrarunner's arsenal:instead of cringing from fatigue, you embrace it. You refuse to let it go. You get to know it so well, you're not afraid of it anymore."
Another good mantra, thought you'd enjoy.
Yeah, I liked that book a lot. I just finished reading the book Scott Jurek wrote about himself, which was also pretty interesting. In general, I always keep the Buddhist noble truth in mind that life is suffering...but truth #3 is that there is a way out of suffering, which is partially through acceptance......I might start my own church and call it the New Trinity (swim, bike, run)