Jen Dat's IM AZ RR
I was heading into this race after having a disappointing race at Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June. With my friend Sheila's help ( a registered sports dietician) , I had re-vamped my nutrition plan and was confident I was correcting the mistakes I had made back in June. I was working from a plan developed by Stacey Simms of Osmo Nutrition. I felt like I had some good solid training going into this race. I was healthy (finally) and feeling mentally and physically ready. I completed Ironman Arizona in 2010. That was my first Ironman race. I was eager to see how my results would compare four years, and four Ironman races later.
We ( my husband and kids and I) drove down to Arizona an entire week early. My family lives in the area and the kids had a couple of days off from school, so we decided to go for it and enjoy a bit of vacation time before the race. We rented an awesome little house in Scottsdale away from the craziness happening in Tempe. The morning after we arrived, my husband woke up sick. Thank goodness I had rented a 3 bedroom house, as he was quickly booted into the spare room. I was worried I would get his illness and ruin my race before it even started. The quarantine worked, and Sunday morning arrived with me feeling just fine. 
Tempe Town Lake is a man-made lake. It is very murky, no swimming is allowed other than during events. The lake is notorious for containing high levels of contaminants and other yucky stuff. My dad , who lives in the Phoenix area, was telling me all about the medical waste including syringes that was found regularly in and around the lake. This influenced my decision to NOT participate in the practice swim on Saturday. After listening to Coach Rich's advice regarding doing the practice swim on Saturday, I elected to forgo the practice swim. I was familiar with the swim course and did not feel the "return on investment" was high enough to warrant risking a water-born illness!
On to the race...
Swim: The swim is a deep water mass start. I was in the water about 15 minutes before the start. You have to swim about 200 yards from the swim entrance up to the start line. This was plenty of time to warm-up. I seeded myself about 3-4 "rows" back from the front just left off of center. My strategy was to start near the front in order to avoid having to swim around a bunch of people. There were over 1,000 first-timers in this races, which I thought would mean many would start further back. Not the case. Even starting that close up, when the gun went off it was pure chaos. I was dunked and swum over at least 4 times, I also was running into people who were breaststroking or just plain swimming very slowly. I was never able to get in a good rhythm until about 2 miles in!!! I think the massive draft must have helped, because my garmin had me swimming at a 1:27/100 yard pace. ( I normally am about 1:38/100) . Regardless of my fast pace, my garmin said that I swam 5,050 yards. This is over 800 yards longer than the official race distance. Regardless, I made it out alive.
Time: 1:13:32 (projected 1:10-1:15)
T1: Upon exiting the swim, you have to hoist yourself up onto bleacher-like stairs. The lowest step is a little higher than water-level. Volunteers were there to help pull the swimmers out, but it was a bit of a scramble to go from horizontal, to up and out, and then run up about 10 stairs to the sidewalk. I used the wet-suit peelers and then jogged the .3 miles to the changing tents. Grabbed my bag on the way in, found an empty spot near the front of the tent and quickly put on shoes, socks, helmet, and sunglasses.
Time 4:52 ( projected 5 minutes)
Bike: The bike course is three loops. A few turns out of town and then 9 miles out on the Bee-line highway, flip it , and return for approximately 37 miles /loop. I was very aware of keeping my power within a certain range. I was disciplined and was able to keep it relatively steady. The winds out on the bee-line were pretty swift, but it did not seem to affect me too much as I tried to stay aero and stay patient. The tailwind on the return more than made up for the slow outbound slog. I carried 3 bottles of OSMO on my bike. I ate a 1/2 bonk breaker within the first 5 miles and then switched to 1/4 honey stinger waffle every 15 minutes. I stopped at special needs to replace my water bottles. I have never stopped at special needs and was reluctant to do so, but it really only took about 20 seconds to switch bottles and get rolling again. After the first half I started alternating the waffles with honey stinger chews ( I wanted to add a little caffeine at this point). I also began taking a tums tablet every hour. I also peed several times on the bike!!! First race I have been able to go on the go!
Time: 5:37:28 ( projected 5:40-5:45) NP 163, target was 165. VI was 1.01 Tss 280
Overall 11:22:33 6th in AG ( projected 10:55-11:05)
This was a PR at the Ironman distance for me by 14 minutes. Most of that time was gained on the bike. I was almost 2 hours faster than IM CDA earlier this year.
Comments
Try to determine which direction you want to go (what to try next) and start practicing again on every long wko.... I know you have heard that before but that is all there is...
It's really hard to replicate a race with an RR since none of us will run more than 6-7 miles after that bike.....
For RR's... eat EXACLY as you would before a race starting with 2 nights before , the entire day before, the morning of , the exact time frame and amounts....
RR day - Do the full swim , this will add more than an hour to your RR but it will help in trying to replicate race day conditions of your nutrition by hopefully giving you enough moving time to have any nutrition issues show .... again that day should be consume everything exactly and on the same timeline as you would race day... that means getting up early etc! Other than running a full marathon there really is no way to replicate race day... I have played around with an RR day with a shorter bike and a longer run after someone suggested a Metric IM as an RR.... I have not done it yet but might this year during a BTW far enough from raceday to see how it feels... My thoughts are this might be a good alternative for strong bikers like yourself!
I enjoyed meeting your family at the dinner. Please thank your husband for sharing his experience living in SLC. I didn't get a chance to because my oldest daughter ran off while we were talking, and I had to chase her down.
I hope we get to race together again!
"... 5:37:28 ( projected 5:40-5:45) NP 163, target was 165. VI was 1.01 Tss 280…" - WOW! that's about as good as it gets, Jen.
And your run was a study in pure, naked determination. Overcoming your stomach woes for the full 26 is impressive.
But … I REALLY, REALLY think you should consider a couple of things for your nutrition plan. First NO SOLIDS, starting with the evening before. No Waffles, no glucose tabs. Second, buy some Gatorade Endurance Formula, and start practicing with that on the bike and the runs you do in training. If that works on your bricks, try it in a HIM. It's what will be on the course for IMs next heart. Third, stop taking extra stuff along with you on the run - figure out how to live off the course meaning water, Gatorade, and Coke.
Finally, if Gatorade works on the run, then you might start playing with combining it with OSMO on your rides. Multiple sources of calories IMO is better than trying to single source solely thru OSMO.But I;m not a nutritionist like Stacy. I am, however, a guy who's done 20+ IMs with no GI issues except when I tried to single source one race (granted it was Perform).
You WILL unlock this - commit to experimentation during your training next spring and summer. What works in theory or the lab doesn;t always pan out on race day. We;re learning that we all have unique GI micro-flora, and so we each have to find out what sources of carbs and calories works for our own internal gut bacteria. But… no solids is a pretty strong rule for those who are trying to get to the front.
Jen...a great race given your GI problems on the run. Great job on the bike. I agree with both Al & Tim. Keep experimenting during your race rehersals. I like Al's idea of no solids. I use Infinity liquid for both the bike & run and have had no GI problems in 6 IMs and numerous HIMs. I've used it b/c I can stand the taste of Perform. next year I'm going to experiment with Gatorade Endurance so I can live off the course.
It was nice meeting you and I look forward to seeing you at future races.
I agree with the no solids if you have nausea problems.
Since I am going the fat adapted route I can't give you much advice on fueling unless you are interested in the different approach. The whole idea is, when you become fat adapted, you access your own fat stores for energy while exercising, and just don't even have to worry about providing nutrition. An ultra runner/nutritionist I've talked to, is after 5 years of converting his diet, is fully fat adapted, and runs 12 hour ultras on water only. Thats my goal!
Stacey Simms believes in "calories in the pocket, hydration in the bottle". She advocates for solid real food for as long as possible. She even recommends a few bites of sandwich( I think she said turkey on focaccia) in T2. I was not brave enough to eat a sandwich in T2 but stuck to solids for first half of bike. She also recommends chews/ chomps for second half of run only. She is very much against gels of any type because of the osmotic pull of water from the bloodstream into the gut can be a problem. I don't have the link to the articles she wrote, but I think they van be found somewhere in the slowtwitch forums,
Another theory is " leaky gut". The permeability of the gut increases and allows bacteria ro enter the bloodstream. Whether this is nutrition related or hormone related remains to be seen. I don't know if there is a way to test for this. My problem seems to strike about 7 hours in. I am curious to learn more about optimizing fat metabolism. I have been looking into Vespa.com. This is a whole system for becoming fat adapted as well as a product to help with fat metabolism( they gotta sell you something, right?)
I am also wondering if my stress hormones reach some sort of peak at the 7 hour mark which may contribute to the nausea. Again, I don't think I can test for this.
I do seem to have a problem with the taste, sweetness of most sports drinks including perform and Gatorade. I have tried osmo and scratch. They are less sweet and have a much lighter taste.
The only race that I did not experience nausea was when I used carbopro mixed with scratch. I carried a concentrated bottle, but had to ditch it half way through bike because I started getting sloshy stomach. I went to bananas on course for remainder of bike and them gel on run.
Another thing to mention is that avoiding maltodsxtrin and fructose has been advised. These two ingredients tend to create a higher osmotic pressure in the gut, again pulling water in the gut.
Physiology is so complicated! Humans vary as well. I wish there was a one size fits all plan and that if was as simple as " eat this many calories per kg of body weight and drink this much fluid".
I appreciate appreciate all the input.
Tim, I think your idea of extending the time on the RR is key. I may add a swim at the beginning and increase the run just a bit to get past that 7 hour mark. The biggest frustration is that each plan I have gone into a race with has been tested fir months bad has worked beautifully in training only to fail during the actual event.
Hey Jen,
I think you had a great day out there and rallied very well, considering the problems you were having. And you've obviously got some great resources, locally and here on the team, to help you solve these problems.
If you wanted to extend the time of the RR, go get closer to that envelope where you seem to have problems, you could swim first, ride 6-6.5 hrs and then run 45'? Pacing and otherwise executing the bike isn't your issue. But maybe just punching the clock out there longer would help expose these problems in training? That side, I would do this for the 1st RR, then maybe a couple sorta similar long days in wk16 and 17 of the plan, but do the RR as prescribed in Wk18.
As for fat adaptation, you could start with Bob Sebohar's book, metabolic efficiency.