Angry Steve's Ironman Maryland Race Report and the Start of the "World Domination Tour"
Ironman Maryland
As some of you may remember from my race plan, I was “Angry Steve” due to my less than dominant performance at Cda. I had a very good training build to this race and felt stronger than I ever had. You will see at the end of this race report that I have identified several things that I can improve over the next year to be more successful in 2015.
Swim- because we didn't get to the venue until Friday morning and all the normal admin things had to be completed, I didn't have an opportunity to swim in the Choptank River before race day. I had done an OW race rehearsal in 1:07 (a 3 min PR) so I was hoping for a similar swim during the race. This was a swim smart start and I had positioned myself in the 1:00-1:10 group. The first group went off and then we started to cross the mat, but people were SLOWLY walking into the water! It took almost a full minute to get to a place that I could take a stroke. Then the water hit me in the face with a shock. Warm, salty, nasty water. It tasted horrible, I knew I had to keep it out of my mouth for fear of throwing up. My goggles would not seal and kept leaking. Finally I stopped and pulled them tight and was able to get into a rhythm. The course is upstream then returns downstream for two loops. As the race started the tide was going out which caused a severe current that we had to swim against. The return leg is protected by a harbor so there was no benefit from the current. After the first loop I looked at my watch and saw 35:00, and thought well there goes a swim PR. Back into the current for 800 meters before returning for the final leg. When I stood up to run to transition my watch read 1:15. Worst swim ever. Everyone was slower, my brother a normally 54:00 swimmer did it in 1:05.
T1- I had practiced my transitions hoping to gain a few seconds and was able to get through in 3:45, my fastest T1 ever.
Bike- this is where my training dollar had been spent since CdA. I had spent ALOT of time in the aero position on flat roads. I have always had a problem staying focused when the course is long and flat. After 10 weeks of ABP and higher than race pace rides over 100 miles I was prepared to lay it down on this race course. I was hoping for an average of 20 mph and with a NP of 210 IF .73. The first 12 miles would be in the area of 200 watts and then I could bump it up to 210w. As I was riding out to the high school (the start of the loops) I was averaging 22 mph with a wattage of 180w. As I hit the school and started the 45 mile loop number one I was averaging 22+ mph and my NP was 195w. I figured if I could hold this speed with the lower NP then I could beat my bike goals and save my legs for the run. I returned to the high school to start loop two in 2:30:00 20 minutes faster than I had hoped. The wind had started to pick up on the final 15 miles of the first loop and made me work a bit harder. I hit special needs but the volunteer rushed me through and i forgot my salt tabs. The second loop was into the wind and my average speed dropped to 20 mph, the tide had come up and caused water over the road way in several places in the refuge which slowed me a bit. The headwind at the beginning of the loop made fora decent tailwind for the return to the high school and then back in to town. I averaged 21.2 mph and a IF of .695. Nutrition went as expected except for the missed salt tabs at BSN.
T2- another fast transition 3:20. Practice makes fast.
Run- started the run not feeling well, this is usually expected but it didn't really go away. It was starting to get hot (about 85) and the heat was zapping me. My pace needed to be 9:00 for the first 6 miles, then brought down to 8:25. I stayed at 9:00 for the first 6 but was not able to speed up after that. My pace wavered from 8:45 to 10:00 until mile 16. Somehow I missed a feeding and by 16 I was bonking and had to walk a short section. It happened to be right In front of my wife and she stepped out into the street to ask me how I was doing. After some profanity, I started to run again. The next aid station I got some gummy fish and coke. 100 yards later I was running 9:00 miles again. My wife thought I was going to walk it the rest of the way and was prepared for an extended race. She checked the ironman tracker and saw that I crossed the 21 mile mat at an average of 9:41. I was running but it felt bad. The final .25 miles is up a little hill and then back down to the finish. Finished in 10:48:xx...a 4 minute PR.
I left some time on the table that I don't intend to repeat. My swim was 8 minutes slower than anticipated. I lost a minute on the entry because I wasn't aggressive enough with the slowpokes, I didn't pre swim the venue so the shock of the nasty water caused me to "adjust" on the fly, (next year we will arrive a day earlier) and becoming a stronger swimmer so the current wont effect me as much. I would expect an 8 minute improvement next year for a 1:07
I slowed down on the bike the second loop by 2 mph which caused my ride to be 1 mph on average slower- lost 15 minutes. Part of this may have been my missed salt tabs, part due to the winds, part due to letting off the intensity factor. I could have pushed at my expected IF and would have averaged another mph. I will remedy this with more long rides in my build. A 5:00:00 bike is in me, just need to pull it out.
I need to work on my run off the bike and run in the heat. I wasn't able to speed up after my initial 6 miles. My expected time was 25:00 faster than I did. I will remedy that by my run frequency with more runs off the bike and more runs in the mid day heat. I need to improve my run nutrition by using a system that will work in my training. I need a different nutrition plan than what I use on the bike for variety. I have a 3:45 run in me, I will do it next year.
Finally, I raced here heavier than I wanted to. I was up 5 lbs since IMCdA. My goal for next season is to drop to 172 by June. I have a 'program' figured out and have already started to implement it. Dropping 20 lbs will increase my w/kg ratio and improve my run pace. Making the above improvements more achievable.
Expected 2015 Ironman Maryland
Swim- 1:07:00
T1- 3:30
Bike- 5:00:00
T2- 3:00
Run- 3:45:00
Finish time- 9:53:30
Comments
Steve - man I'm happy you got that PR. And a fire in your belly for more. Advice on that:
I know you can do MUCH better than a 4:08 marathon. Body comp, flexilibilty, and a smooth bike (1.015 VI) are the trick for that, I think.
Paul- Yes the conditions were great. But the nice thing is everyone has to race the same conditions. A good wind can make those little guys fly around on the bike. Also I would love a nice rainey windy day. I am from Washington after all.
Al- Body Comp is priory number one! I've already started. My brother (tip of the pointy end)is helping me with that. Promises me that on his program I'll be at race goal weight (172) before any volume ramps up. I want to increase my FTP by 20 watts over the winter. That would put me at a w/kg of 4. Certainly not out of the realm of possibility. I WILL do a 3:45 run at IMMd next year no matter what the weather. I keep colorado in my head for next year, that sounds great.
Ah, Angry Steve… so glad you had a much better race than you felt you did at CDA! Hold your head high – you learned a lot about yourself this year mentally and no doubt there were be more learnings in the year to come.
Couple technical questions/notes:
- Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see your VI noted? For the first loop I see 195 NP /180 AP = 1.08? How did that turn out? And you mention your average speed in the first loop vs. second loop but not the power comparison deets – might be some gems in there to tuck away in your arsenal about negative splitting it. And what Tim said – take the MPH off as it looks like you already have. It really isn’t what you can control on race day, IMO.
2 – What the heck is up with the water over the roadway?!? Do I understand correctly that this shiz has SALT in it? No actionable thoughts here just a WTF for your poor bike!
3 – You mention you didn’t feel well off the bike. What do you mean specifically? Just zapped? Or tummy troubles? Lots of ways to attack that depending on the root cause…
4 – As usual Al is spot on with comp and flexibility notes – I’m taking his advice as we speak *** picks at sad salad ***.
As you know I’m on a World Domination Plan of my own. Glad we’ll be in it together this year – fingers crosses for another spectacular summer here although nothing wrong with a few weeks in CO with Al if you can swing it, right?
Congrats!!!
Jenn- My powertap died at mile 85 so the data is not perfect. I had my fastest ever 40K during the race @ 1:06. My AP was 201 and my NP was 201, but remember that this is a flat course. Average cadence of 101. I slowed down a bit on the second loop due to some head wind. My run distress was mostly just feeling zapped, it was starting to get hot and I don't LOVE my nutrition I had on the bike. Revamping that over the winter. Water over the road was brackish water from the rising tide. The slower you were the worse it was, Georgeta got it pretty bad. We need to get together regarding body comp, I have a plan that worked great for my brother (who got 3rd in AG 50-55). It may be the ticket. We will ride this spring on our way to World Domination!
Robin- Working with Patrick this winter to increase Vdot and FTP. And also to improve endurance.
I was set to 3 mile laps, so there are 37 laps. They went something like this:
1 st Loop- 8:50,8:03, 8:16, 8:29, 8:12, 8:01, 8:01, 7:59, 7:52, 7:48, 7:59, 8:14, 7:59, 7:59, 7:55, 8:31, 8:34
2nd Loop- 8:32, 8:24, 9:10, 8:55, 8:59, 9:01, 9:14, 8:32, 8:23, 8:28, 8:30, 8:56, 9:05, 8:58, 9:01, 8:18, 9:52
Definitely lost some time on the second loop. Due largely to the wind, maybe some fatigue, and probably nutrition to some degree.