Bridget Pichette's IMMT Race Report
Ironman Mont Temblant Race Report
It’s time for me to summarize my thoughts and facts for race now that body & mind are on the mend.
Fact: Ironmans aren’t easy, but the people who do them are wonderful. The camaraderie is great as we are all in it together, each trying to do your personal best while fighting your internal mental demons who tell you to slow down or quit! The demons are strong, but we usually prevail over them.
First of all: Thank you to the coaches and everyone on the course. It was awesome to be racing with so many ENers on the course and to have so many others in the crowd cheering for us. It was very motivational and helped me to keep my head in the game.
I must give kudos to my husband, Don. He is the best training partner, Sherpa, bike mechanic, inspiration and supporter that I could ever have. He is always there for me!
Pre-Race Day:
Arrived on Thursday afternoon (6hr drive), we had just enough time to check in at Ironman, check into the hotel/unload stuff and get to the EN team dinner. Wow, so many people. Nice evening chatting with new acquaintances.
Friday 7am – met the team for a practice swim. That’s when I discovered how chilly the water was. We spent the day exploring the area. Mont Tremblant is a very quaint place & good for families. Friday night – dinner with friends from NH.
Sat – make rice cakes, pack up race bags, drop stuff off and relax. Weather wasn’t great so it helped us to stay low key, otherwise I would have wanted to do stuff.
Race Morning:
Up at 3:45am, eat breakfast (banana, protein drink, applesauce, couple of salt tablets). Start sipping on a bottle of Skratch. 5:00am time to prep bikes, fill water bottles on bike and drop off special needs bags. Once that’s complete, Don & I go back to the hotel, put on wetsuits and head over to the team EN photo.
Swim: Actual Time – 1:13:01
Don gave me a kiss and he was off to do a pre-swim warm-up. (that was the last I saw of him until the bike). I never warm up in the water before the swim, because I get too cold standing and waiting around. Since women >40 were the last swim wave, I just put my feet in to see what the temperature was like, mid 60s, so it was warmer than the air that morning. The water temp was chilly (I used my long sleeved wetsuit), but water was really clear for good visibility. Time for our wave to line up: 7:00am. I lined up near the front on the right side. There was some bumping but not too bad. Following advice from others, I spent the entire swim trying to find some bubbles (feet) of someone faster and just follow along. The only trouble I had was that I started to come up on slower swimmers for earlier waves and had to negotiate around them a lot. I did get one kick in the face from someone, so I had to stop and adjust my goggles then I kept going. The water started to get choppy approximately 1 mile out so after a few mouthfuls of water I adjusted my swim and kept going. The turnaround was very crowded, but I quickly got to a clearer spot and just kept swimming. For me, it was a good swim and it felt quite comfortable.
T1: 6:42
Jogged from the swim to transition, used wetsuit stripper, but they got one foot stuck so lost a little time there. Moved quickly into changing area. Since I was wet, I couldn’t get my coat on so I decided to ditch it and ran out to my bike. I did manage to eat an applesauce squeezer.
Bike: Actual Time – 5:50:10
Grabbed bike, and ran to the mount out. Time to settle into my ride and settle heart rate. Target power was 155. Hitting the hills early had me pushing a bit too hard, but I tried to settle in and not go over 200 for the hills. Up Monteé Ryan was a little crowded with bikers, and the downhill where the cones narrowed, was a bit sketchy, but okay. I started to worry about my decision to not wear the coat as I was quite cold. Once I reached the highway section for 117, it was time to ride steady and I warmed up a bit. The roads were fantastic (no potholes, traffic, sand, etc..)
First loop was going really well. I felt strong, but didn’t see anyone from my age group so I didn’t know where I was, but I just tried to keep steady. As I’m coming off the highway section, I hear Don yell my name & telling me to keep going. I’m surprised to see him on the side of the road, he appears to OK and I was hoping that it was just a mechanical. No worries, I think he’ll catch me soon.
Ride into town on Monteé Ryan, crowd support is growing and get ready for the fun section out to Lac Superior. As we had done our training ride on Friday, I knew that this section was hilly & curvey with uphill on the way out and fast, fun downhills on the return.
Back into town, stop at special need to replenish food & drink supplies (see below). And out to do it again. Pretty much the same on the second loop, but Rt 117 seemed to be a bit windier the 2nd time out, stopped at porta-potty on Rt 117 and still no Don sighting. I’m starting to worry as he should have caught me by then. I finally see him on the out/back to Lac Superior so I know that he’s ok.
I felt really good on the bike, but realized that my first loop was a bit too hard. NP is where I wanted it, but I got there with a too hard 1st loop & easier 2nd loop (but windy). I need to balance this better so I can have a better run.
Bike Data from Golden Cheetah.
Intervals
|
Interval Name |
Duration |
Distance (miles) |
Work (kJ) |
Average Power (watts) |
xPower (watts) |
Max Power (watts) |
Average Heart Rate (bpm) |
95% Heartrate (bpm) |
Average Cadence (rpm) |
Average Speed (mph) |
30 sec Peak Power (watts) |
||
|
1 |
1:04:04 |
20.70 |
584 |
152 |
157 |
359 |
143 |
152 |
86 |
19.4 |
234 |
||
|
2 |
1:43:27 |
34.90 |
961 |
155 |
160 |
346 |
140 |
144 |
86 |
20.2 |
239 |
||
|
3 |
1:10:09 |
20.75 |
609 |
145 |
148 |
304 |
132 |
139 |
85 |
17.9 |
231 |
||
|
4 |
1:52:14 |
34.83 |
914 |
136 |
144 |
309 |
131 |
138 |
82 |
19.0 |
232 |
||
|
Metrics* |
|||||||||||||
|
xPower (watts): |
153 |
||||||||||||
|
Relative Intensity: |
0.710 |
||||||||||||
|
BikeScore™: |
294 |
||||||||||||
|
Daniels Points: |
148 |
||||||||||||
|
Daniels EqP (watts): |
153 |
||||||||||||
|
TRIMP Points: |
0 |
||||||||||||
|
Aerobic Decoupling (%): |
2.2 |
||||||||||||
|
10 sec Peak WPK (wpk): |
3.8 |
||||||||||||
|
TSS: |
304 |
||||||||||||
|
NP (watts): |
155 |
||||||||||||
|
VI: |
1.062 |
||||||||||||
My nutrition plan worked well. I had no stomach issues (sloshing, hunger, nausea). I am really happy that I have finally found a solution to my nutrition as Lake Placid was tough especially on the run.
Hour 1: cinnamon/date rice cake (160 cal), 1 bottles Skratch (110 cal)
Hour 2 &3: cinnamon/date rice cake (320 cal), 1.5 bottles Skratch (180 cal)
Hour 4: cinnamon/date rice (160 cal), 1 Skratch (120 cal)
Hour 5: cinnamon/date rice (160 cal), 1 Skratch (120 cal)
I had 1 more rice cake that I didn’t eat and I had 1.5 more bottles of Skratch. Felt fine but I was a little worried that I didn’t take in more. I have resorted to eating less, due to stomach issues.
T2: 3:08
Into transition, grab bag, and try for a quick change. Asked for sunscreen and that’s when I felt the wetsuit burn that I had. Ouch that stung when she sprayed the sunscreen. Oh, well time to run.
Run: Actual Time – 4:15:20
Running out to transition, my Garmin is frozen. I spent the first ½ mile fiddling with it. Finally get it to work and I’m going too fast. I feel okay, but I was running a 8:40. I should have been a 9:30. First thing we hit are the hills. I settle into a 9:00-9:15 pace, but my watch dies at mile 4. I’m flying blind and I just try to maintain a steady pace. That’s when I realize that I haven’t eaten anything yet. Grab a water and a bag of honey stinger chews from one of the table. I consume the package over the next 2 miles on the rail bed. I seem to be okay, but now I feel the beginnings of sloshing in my stomach. I remember that I had salt tabs in my race belt. I take 2 tablets. Drink more Skratch from my race belt. I kept looking for Don on the run course as he should have come out by now. Maybe he’s walking, I wonder. I need to keep a good pace on the flatter rail bed so I keep moving along. I continued to do alright until the hills on the way back into the town, now I can feel my quads starting to ache as I was going up the steep hill right by the swim start… That’s when I see Tim Cronk telling me that I’m in 2nd place and to keep holding strong. Now I have doubts as I really blew up on the run in Lake Placid.
The crowd was cheering and they were so motivating. I decided that I didn’t need my special needs bag, but I needed to make a porta-potty stop. As you finish the hill coming into town, you run down the center of the village, I made it the split for the 2nd loop, tried to ignore the finish line (and the wonderful smells from the bakery & Poutiniere), and just headed back out. That’s when I finally see Don. He’s exiting the hotel, has already changed into street clothes and I finally know that his race is over. I’m so bummed out for him.
Time for the second loop and it was not pretty. Hills were tough and I had to walk a bit on the steeper parts. I started to grab chews at every aide station and water. I don’t like Perform or Red Bull, so I knew that I needed more salt. I took two more salt tabs on the rail bed. Then the skies opened up and poured on us. Now I’m flying a bit blind as I had my prescription sunglass on and they were fogging up. Take them off and I can’t make out the faces of people (just blurry forms). This went on for a few miles so I apologize to those on the team that I didn’t say hi to. Every step hurt my quads now even on the flat sections. I kept telling myself – “it is going to hurt whether you walk or run, so run” “Kona is a possibility if you don’t blow it on the run” “Don would keep going so do it for him”. The mind is a tough adversary on the run as it is so easy to just walk.
So I did the best that I could, walked a few of the steeper parts, and ran as much as possible. I could feel my running form falling apart. I was leaning forward & crunching up. My lower back was beginning to ache. The last few miles were a blur and I don’t really recall a lot except for the relief that I felt when I got to the split for finish vs 2nd loop. I had made it to finish shoot! I tried to look around a bit to take it in, but I was so tired and I couldn’t stand up straight. I finished, but not with finesse or grace.
Total time: 11:28:21
PR by 8 minutes from Lake Placid. (All the time came from the bike as the swim/run/transitions were within seconds from the previous year)
It was nice to join the team post race for dinner and watch all the others finish. I really enjoyed the company of our EN team members/families/friends.
Summary / Lessons Learned:
- Nutrition plan is finally working for me. Must make sure that I get enough though.
- Aero positioning was good.
- Started too hard on run. Lost momentum at the end.
- Get a better watch for the run so I can really watch my splits.
- Must make a note to keep good running form, ended race like the hunchback of Notre Dame.
- Definitely a drawback from not doing any run course pre-work. I had no idea what the course was like so not being able to anticipate different sections was a problem.
- Believe in yourself and have a good thoughts to draw from when the race gets really tough.
Comments
Great RR and even greater race. Good luck in Kona.