David Salzman's IMMT Race Report
Ironman Mont Tremblant Race Report
Short Version
As I sit here in the days following the event, I am still basking in the glow of my excitement from my massive 30 minute PR, finally breaking 12 hours in an IM, and having the opportunity to participate in a first class event. It was also a really special and amazing experience that I was able to race with and be on the same course as my Uncle. I think I went into this race (my fourth IM) the best trained that I have been for an Ironman. But I also knew based on previous races that fitness would be critical, but still needed to be able to stick to the game plan and race a smart race. In the end it worked out and I had a truly epic day at the races. And just as epic as the race experience was, so to will be the race report.
Long Version
Arrival in Mont Tremblant
I had been eagerly anticipating this race. As my Facebook friends will attest, I was counting down the days in excitement. I felt really good in the final race rehearsal and for the two weeks following just simply was itching to race. I didn’t want to wait for the entire taper, I just wanted to race and was getting a little ansty. In the week leading up to the race, my quads felt flat, my back was tight and achy. I attributed all of this to the disease process I discovered last year henceforth known as Ironmanitis. It is a condition where you feel fine all throughout training, are not injured, and there is absolutely nothing really wrong, but the mind plays games and insists that you are a cripple.
I arrived in Mont Tremblant, met up with my uncle who also raced, got through registration quickly and easily. We then went on a recon ride of Montée Ryan and the Lac Superior section of the course. I am glad we did those two parts as Patrick suggested in the webinar. First off, my bike was shaking on the high speed descents. Not sure if the front wheel wasn’t seated correctly, I didn’t have the tire pressure correct, or it was the rain. Whatever the problem, I resolved by reseating and securing the wheel, double checking the pressure, and riding again on Saturday around town and the wonkiness had resolved.
That night it was great to meet so many of the team from the east coast and catch up with the Midwesterners and others that I had met at previous races.
Day #2 – Friday
Friday morning I woke up and went for a swim in the lake. Clear water, perfect temps, great day. Met up with Bruce and JT, swam with my uncle for around 30 minutes, easy and relaxed.
Met my family after the Four Keys talk for a picnic lunch at the top of the gondola. It was awesome to have such a wonderful support and cheering crew with me for the entire weekend especially when the weather wasn’t spectacular the entire time.
Day #3 – On Saturday, I woke up, had a big pancake breakfast with family at the condo we had rented, got all of the gear ready and dropped off. Nothing quite like leaving the bike with electronic shifting outside all night in the pouring rain…. I had the front end covered in a garbage bag as I didn’t want the junction box to have problems or the armrests to be soaking wet when I started the ride.
I dropped off all of the transition bags, and then went back to the condo to try to get off of my feet for a while.
Day #4 – race day
I woke up at 4am. Looked out the window and could see stars. Not the stars as in I just hit my head, but real actual stars in outer space. Amazing, maybe the rain was going to hold off for the morning. I had my two bottles of Infinit, a banana, and a cliff bar. Bundled up to stay warm and grabbed one more bottle of perform on the way to the swim start.
Met up with the team for the team picture, wished everyone good luck and then it was off to the beach.
Swim 1:09:48 Division Rank 65
Gear: Desoto 2 piece, mirrored goggles, 910XT
I spent about 2 minutes warming up. I wasn’t rushed but just didn’t need to do much. I just wanted to get water in the wetsuit and on my face, feel the temp get a couple of rotations of the arms and get back to the beach for the start. I placed mysefl around 3 rows back from the start, dead center of the group. The fireworks went off, I started my watch, locked the keys as I was walking into the water, and then it was off work. I probably stayed a little left of the bouy line the entire way. I encountered a little traffic about 100-200 meters into the race and then again at the first turn bouy but that was about it. Intermittently I found some feet and bubbles to trail. At other times I just swam my race. My goal was to be out of the water in 1:10-1:14. I swam a 1:09:48, a new PR. I felt completely relaxed after the swim, was not tired at all. Wetsuit off, and ran off to transition on the red carpet. Oh wait, there was no red carpet. Uggg. Cold hard asphalt for a quarter of a mile was suboptimal. Oh well.
Bike 6:04:11 Division Rank 110
Gear: Parlee TTiR Di2 with Flo 60 front/80 rear, Compact crank and an 11-28 cassette. RudyProject Wingspan, Rudy Project Noyz sunglasses. Garmin 800, 1 BTA bottle, one frame bottle, rear mount Xlab wing with spare tubes/co2 in xlab bottle thingy and open bottle holder as back-up which wasn’t used.
Race weight of 141, FTP 240 and wt/Kg of 3.75.
Everything that I had read about this race indicated that the bike course was fantastic and I was definitely not disappointed in my expectations. Overall, the road quality, conditions, and protection/separation from cars were probably the best that I have ever experienced in any race that I have done. Quite simply, I was amazed. Nearly all of the road is asphalt and only a few years old. There were hardly any expansion cracks or seams to navigate. The smooth roads meant I could focus on riding my bike, get into a great rhythm, and didn’t have to worry about navigating potential disasters. The other aspect which definitely cannot be overlooked is the course is essentially closed to all vehicular traffic. I think there was one place cars crossed the course and another where for maybe a few miles there was one lane of cars on an opposite of barriers.
The weather forecast had changed several times in the days leading up to the race. On Saturday night, it appeared as if the day would start with temperatures in the low 50’s at the start of the bike and get up to around 65 by the end of the ride with partly cloudy/partly sunny conditions and a chance for rain around 1. This is tricky weather to dress for, I didn’t want to be too hot and run the risk of overheating, but I also know from previous rides that I do not do well in cold weather. I was worried that with a northerly wind and having to head into that wind for the first part of the ride that coming out of the water wet could set up the rest of the day for badness.
As I got to transition, I decided to stick to most all of my plan from the night before. I threw on the EN cycling jersey, over my EN tri top and added arm sleeves. I figured that would keep my entire core warm. I pulled off the toe covers which I had put on my shoes…more to come on that later…turned out to be a great decision. Gloves on as I was running to my bike, helmet, sunglasses, ready to go.
My plan for the bike was to aim for a max average watts of 168 which would be 70% of my 240 FTP. Well, it wasn’t my most recent FTP, I did the final test in the weeks leading up to the race and earned a new higher FTP on the computrainer, but didn’t want to overcook myself on the bike as I have done in all of the 3 previous IM races.
Average watts for the entire ride was 142 with an NP of 156 and a VI of 1.1. I’m not too surprised by the VI, but quite honestly I am not too upset about it. I started spinning out on some parts of the course at above 30 mph so I stopped pedaling, and even with the compact there were some points where I was hitting numbers close to or right above FTP and had run out of gears. I definitely did a great job staying seated and not standing on the climbs. Only once or twice on the Lac Superior section and that wasn’t for extra power but rather to stretch my legs out a little
I got on my bike and started the ride out of town. I saw my spectator crew out near the turn around with the water fountain cheering me on.
As I started the ride out on Monteé Ryan I was amazed that even in these first set of climbs out of town that people were already standing, mashing up the climbs in their big ring. I was wondering where they were in a rush to go. I laughed, remembered in my head that 90% of the athletes don’t know what they are doing so to do the right thing just do the opposite… That and my game plan was to take those climbs easy, stay relaxed, start focusing on nutrition and getting into a rhythm.
The first section of the course moved along a lot faster than I remember during the recon ride. I think that is because the roads were drier and it wasn’t raining. I hit 117 and started to head north. There was definitely a north wind, which combined with the general uphill climb made for that first section to be an entertaining ride. The downhills were great and I just stayed in my box, watched my watts, and worked on nutrition. The turn around on 117 put the wind at my back, gave me a general net descent (apart from one long climb) all the way back to St. Jovite and I just cruised, trying to stay aero as much as I could. In and out of St. Jovite was nice, good spectator support, I saw Bruce roll by and he was looking really strong. We chatted for a few seconds and he was on his way.
Back in on Monteé Ryan, and off to Lac Superior. Did my best to spin up the hills, spiked watts a little, not awful though. The goal on the first trip up this section was to ride easy, remembering that I still had to come and ride these hills again, and run a marathon. Nothing really notable here, it’s a fun climb, and even better descent. What I really did notice the first time, and even the second, was that many people would mash up the hills and then get to the top totally cashed. I took my time, let them pass and then cycled through the gears getting all of that time and distance back on the way down. Of course after a little distance, my light mass just didn’t have the momentum to keep going forever and they would catch up but I suspect that I kept a lot of life in my legs.
I was flying coming down from Lac Superior. Hit just over 44 mph on one segment as I was probably protected from the wind and felt completely in control the entire time. Turn around by transition and then off to the second loop. First loop done in 2:50.
The second loop is the same as the first so I will only highlight the differences. I stopped at special needs and picked up some additional salt tabs which would turn out to be the only time that I would put a foot down for the entire ride. The wind was a little stronger on the second time up north which also meant that I got a better push on way back south. My IT band and quads started to get a little tight around my left knee at around mile 80. It’s happened before in races, I didn’t worry about it too much, tried to stretch out at times while riding, and just kept going.
Ultimately, my goal for the entire ride was to keep my watts in check so that I could be able to ride up Lac Superior without blowing up. I figured that if I blew up the second time around it would be hopeless for the marathon. It seemed like I succeeded, riding up was able to spin up the hills and lay on the gas on the downhill sections. I got off the bike feeling pretty good and ready for a marathon. Handed off the bike to a volunteer, ran through transition, gloves off, peeled off arm warmers unzipped jersey and was getting ready to minimize time in T2.
So remember that part earlier when I mentioned that I was glad that I had taken off my toe covers. Well this is the part where that becomes important. My nutrition plan was 1 salt cap every hour, around 1 bottle of perform every aid station, and 1-2 cliff bars during the course of the entire ride. This would give me around 1800 calories which was a little under what I needed based on the calculations, but also about all that my stomach can really handle without revolting. Well, here is the funny part, all of those bottles of perform are definitely a lot of liquid and when it is only in the high 50’s and not a lot of sweating was occurring, all of that excess fluid has to go somewhere. I peed a lot on that race course and I honestly stopped counting. But for me, there was one fantastic part of peeing on the go…I didn’t waste any time which would be critical during the later stages of the race.
T2 – Time – 3:37
I tried to keep everything simple to keep it smooth and fast. Bike shoes and socks off, running socks and shoes on, helmet, bike shoes, arm warmers, gloves, jersey into bag. Hat, and race belt in hand, start running, put on while moving. It was time to go and run a marathon. When I look back at my T2 time it was much faster than I thought. I honestly felt slow – but then again slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
Run – Time 4:29:11 – 10:16 min/mile - 122 Division
Gear: Saucony Triumph 11 shoes, Rudy Project Noyz Sunglasses, EN Cap (white version), hand held hydration bottle
Plan – For my long runs and race rehearsal bricks, I have been averaging 8:51 min/miles for the past 8-9 weeks. My last half marathon pace was 8:34. I have had trouble on the marathon in every single IM that I have done. I have fallen apart at mile 15 with my stomach in revolt mile 16 with my knees in revolt, and I think the other one I have just tried to block from my memory. This time, the plan was to run the first 6 miles at 9:30 pace, then try to drop down a little, hold on to that pace, or just see what happens. The first 6 miles were 9:51, 9:23, 9:27, 10:00 (restroom), 9:34, 9:31. I was very pleased. That included some hills and then a good portion of the flatter rail bed. I continued to do alright until the hills on the way back into the town. Then I did the best that I could, walked a few of the steeper parts, and ran on the downhills sections. Ran back to town and apparently felt a little gassed as I was going up the steep hill right by the swim start…
I made the turn around, ignored the finish line, and just headed back out. My split was 2:09:41. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but not too far off either. I heard my dad yell at me as I passed, “you can make it, you have 2:20 to get to the finish line.” I had told my parents about my goal to break 12 hours, I had a general idea where I was but the additional help was useful. I continued to run out, around mile 14 my stomach started to feel very bloated. I took in some extra salt tabs and switched to coke which I had put in my hand held bottle to completely decarbonate. It seemed to be work. On the trail it started to pour. Interestingly, my last race rehearsal it also poured and I had a blast. Instead of thinking that I was in the middle of a marathon, I just envisioned that easy 6 mile run and just kept running. I got to mile 17 looked at my watch and started to do the math. I could break 12 hours, I had to stay around 10:30’s including the hills that I knew were going to get me on the way back.
Then an interesting thing happened. I kept waiting to totally implode like I had on previous Ironman marathons. I was waiting for my knees to give out, my stomach to completely give up (as opposed to only partially), or to just have the thoughts of I wish I was doing anything else other than running. All the while, I just kept moving, kept putting one foot in front of the other, and started to think about the finish line and was seriously motivated by my desire to break that 12 hour mark. So I kept running and watching the kilometers pass made the run move along rather quickly. Around mile 22 I realized I was getting mighty close for comfort knowing full well that the hills were still to be conquered.
The last 3 miles into town the hills seemed flatter than they did on the first loop and the town was getting closer. I have no idea who I was running with from the team around mile 24 and she was on her first loop but the motivation and positive words were amazing. I decided to see if there was anything else I had left in my legs and just go. I ran over the bridge, up the hill by the swim start, went flying down the other side of the hill, up the hill by the swim exit and then the smile appeared. I hit the village, looked at my watch, and knew that I was going to make it across the line before 12 hours. My arms went up at the top of the descent through the village, I could hear the cheers and the finish line excitement which apparently helped propel me to an 8 min/mile pace and I felt like I was floating on air. Nothing hurt, and nothing was going to get in my way of that finish line. I made the turn for the final chute and crossed the line in 11:56:53. The second half marathon was 2:19 for a total of a 4:29:11 marathon and a 10 minute IM marathon PR on what felt like a harder marathon course compared to Madison which I have done before.
After the race I found my uncle who was waiting in the food area for me to arrive. He had known that my big goal was to break 12 hours. I showed him my watch and we both started hugging and cheering for each other. It was also at that point that we found Bruce and my uncle confirmed that Bruce had won his age group. I was excited for Bruce and he was equally as excited for my own victory as we had talked a lot about the 12 hour mark on our training rides. It was such an awesome day to be able to share with my uncle and to be greeted at the finish line and share the moment with family and teammates.
Day #5 – Heading home
After spending the night in Tremblant, purchasing the requisite finisher gear, another trip up the gondola to actually see Tremblant without clouds, we headed back to Montreal to catch a flight back home. The car ride, flight, and day of travel took its toll. I got in a taxi at O’Hare and the cab driver asked what country I had just come back from as it looked like I had been travelling all day. I left it at I had just done a really long race…
Two days after the race, still really not enjoying the stairs, up or down, forwards or backwards, it just doesn’t matter, the quads don’t really appreciate anything right now. 3 days later and I am starting to move a little more like a human being and the legs are definitely not screaming as much.
My big picture thoughts as I transition to the outseason… Ultimately, the race was a collection of smart execution decisions.
-This race was fantastic. The course, the town, everything associated with the race was amazing. I would definitely recommend to anyone considering doing an Ironman race.
-We got super lucky with the weather. It was rainy, cloudy, & cold in the days leading up to the race. At least we saw the sun for a good part of the day.
-I made some really smart decisions during the execution of this race. Could I have ridden harder on the bike? Sure, but I was only 4 minutes slower than a previous IM bike split where I rode waaaay to hard and completely imploded on the run. My IF of 0.65 might suggest I left something out on the course, but at what cost? I find that most of my races my IF is a little lower than predicted. I don’t know if that is because I get some free watts with the aerohelmet, wheels, etc, if it is just a little lower because I don’t have to deal with the increased watts from starting and stopping at lights/stop signs in the city on training rides etc. My average HR was 129 which was probably a little low. I also don’t know what impact the cooler temperature had overall.
-Could I have swum harder and faster? Perhaps, but I still PR’d the swim and got out of the water feeling good. As Coach P says, the swim is just the entry price for the rest of the day.
-I think the best decision I made the entire day was to add an extra layer for the bike and add arm warmers as well. Staying warm kept me in a happy place for the remainder of the day.
-I have definitely become a better runner, but I have to get better. I still think I could run a faster marathon, I improved another 10 minutes from last year. There is more time to gain, I just need to come up with a better plan to get there. Obvious answer is to increase my VDOT. More complicated answer – I usually am able to raise my VDOT in the outseason, but then with the increased volume, struggle to maintain the speed in the work-outs and instead compromise to make sure that I get the volume. Maybe I am doing that wrong, maybe I just haven’t learned to fully embrace the hurt.
-This race was also the culmination of 2 years of training to get back my fitness. As many of you recall in July 2012 I was racing in a half ironman when I was struck by a car while on my bike which resulted in a separated shoulder. Part I of my return was getting to the starting line in Madison last year. Part II was getting even stronger, becoming a better athlete, and racing IMMT this year. In the end, life is confusing and complicated, and sometimes doesn’t make any sense. And while I don’t have any kids, and probably can’t imagine the pain, I was touched by the story of Timothy Jenks knowing full well that I could have had a very different outcome when I was hit by the car 2 years ago. So I wanted to remember just how lucky we all are to have the opportunity to race and participate in this great adventure we call life. If you watch closely around 2:12 in the 2014 athlete video, not only does EN make an appearance, but so does TJ.
-Thanks to everyone who read through this entire thing, it was long for sure. I’m so grateful for the collective mojo of the team, the new and old friends, and am looking forward to the years to come.
Comments
Ps. Regarding the run, perhaps a prolonged run-focus would yield enduring benefits. If your tri races aren't until late-season next year you could consider a December or January marathon (eg Disney) and really try to build run strength prior to the OS. Possible heresy for the EN athlete but realistically you've been at this game a while so some different strategies to elevate your running game might be warranted.
David...congrats on your PR and breaking the 12 hour mark. Well done. I could tell from our GR HIM & Madison rides that you were getting stronger on both the bike and run. You executed a smart tactical race that allowed that new-found strength to manifest itself. A great combination of fitness & race execution resulting in your breakthrough performance.
Thanks again for training with me, and sharing the excitement we both felt at the end of the race. I look forward to more good training days and races with you.
You have at least 20 more minutes you can find in the IM marathon at your *current* VDOT. If you are routinely hitting 8:51 in long runs and RRs, you can approach 4:00 without geting any faster @ 5k. Matt's suggestion and Bruce's example of run durability focus will help, but consider 2 other things. First, draw on the confidence you have from this race, feeling the second half wasn't *that* hard, to redouble your efforts in training (and any races you do) to make it a point of emphasis to work harder in the last half, and try to find your limits of suffering. Second, don't discount the impact of your high VI and faster first half on the bike on your ability to be stronger, longer on the run. If you'd gone 1.05 and 2:58/3:02, who knows how much more able you might have been to hold 9:30 the whole way?
A huge shout out to you for accomplishing your goal of sub 12. Really enjoyed getting to spend time with you last yr at IMWI. You bring a humble approach to your races which I believe really has paid off in your continued discipline to the training and racing. Great race execution to get to your goal. And yes you did PR on the RR as well. Lots of good stuff here which I found most helpful as I prepare for IMWI. Felt like I was on the run with you with my stomach getting tight as I read along. Tears welled up too as I came through it with you to "floating in" Congrats Man!
Congratulations on a terrific build and outcome! It was great to race with you last year, and early this season. I'm sure we will cross paths on the midwest circuit again soon.
Ian