Ed Croucher - Tupper Lake Tinman RR
Tupper Lake Tinman - I did not schedule a taper for the week leading into this race. However, work for me has been pretty busy and I was not able to keep the consistent training going. I did a 10K training run last Monday at near tempo pace after a very long work day. I didn't get another WKO in until Thursday when I got to Placid. I stayed in a house with my brother and three other families. four of us were signed up for the race. Thursday, I rode down Route 86 to the KOA and then back up to Placid. I tried to hold some higher watts. That ride went well. After that, I swam one loop in Mirror Lake. The workout felt great. Friday, we drove back to Tupper Lake where we picked up our race packets. We went back to Placid for dinner. I received a short visit from Tim Cronk. This was a great boost for me. Tim left before our dinner, and we took it really easy the rest of the night. I was in bed early, but work came calling. A little before 11:00 pm, my Captain called and really ruined my chances at a good sleep. The four of us who were racing, got up and headed to Tupper at 6:15. We arrived with plenty of time. I threw on my running shoes and ran to McD's for an open bathroom. I ran back to transition and set up. THE SWIM When they started calling for the Sprints to get ready for the swim I jumped in and got a quick warm-up swim. My brother and I then lined up. Our wives & family was there to give us a send off. I got into the water and stole another quick warm-up. I looked down the course and the realization of how poorly the course is marked hit me once again. This has been the norm for each time I have raced here. I set up left to try and help my sighting of the course. After the horn, I was able to quickly get into my box. I tried following the faster swimmers and only sighted every 20 to 25 strokes. I realized that most everyone was staying left, so I swam to the buoy. The line was clean there and I could see the first buoy. I was passing a lot of swimmers and by the time I made it to the first turn, there was a lot of caps from the first wave. When I made the second turn, my swim plan became mute. There was no line of swimmers and I could not see any of the buoys. I made a guess and swam down the middle. I found the first buoy and was able to stay fairly close the buoy line. However, I completely lost the last buoy and I couldn't see the swim finish. This is where I swam WAY off course. I swam a little harder to get to the finish. I never looked at my swim time until after the race. I made it to the swim finish in 37:15. That was 4 minutes off my goal. I did not rush through transition and cleared it in 2:06. THE BIKE I got on my bike and started out. I had targeted 216 watts for my goal. I was riding a little lower than I wanted, but my HR was higher. I was sitting at 155 bpm. I tried to just keep my watts where they were and try to lower my HR. That took 15 miles to get it down to 145 bpm. During these miles, my legs were pretty tight. I could get my watts up, but my HR & breathing would also increase. I was riding fast so I decided to just stay right there. I rode out at 199 watts and 21.4 mph. My VI was 1.03. I hit the turn around and tried to mirror my ride out. However, the wind was in my face and definitely picking up. my ride back was 197 watts and 19.7 mph with a VI of 1.03. I have just recently changed my fueling plan. For this race, I planned on 4 bottles of infinit, one flask of Napalm and one banana. I have increased how much infinit is in each bottle by one scope. This should have given me over 600 calories per hour. When I parked my bike, I had about 4 ounces left in my last bottle. The headwind and the course topography did not allow me to go on the bike. By mile 40, I had to go. As I pulled up to the dismount line, I pulled my feet out of my shoes and then ran into transition. I completely forgot tohit the stop button on my garmin. I quickly got my run gear on and then ran into the transition area port-a-potty. My transition was about 1:30 slower than it should have been, but when I started to run, I was ready. THE RUN My first mile was 8:25 as I started at what I thought would be an easy pace. I got my legs under me and started focusing on short quick steps. Mile one has a gradual grade and ends near the top. I tried to do a mental check on my legs and breathing. Each time I looked at my Garmin, the current pace was showing a slower pace than I had hoped for. I wasn't running poorly, but I couldn't see my average lap pace very well. A few people passed me as I was running between my one and two. Mile three started on a downhill and I could see one runner who seemed to be running near the same pace I was. I decided to try and close the gap and use him for as long as I could. Mile 3 to mile five is a gradual uphill grade. I worked the entire time trying to close on that runner and I could feel my HR rising. It never got crazy high, but I knew I was working. By mile five, I had caught up to him. As I came along side, I told him he had a great pace and I had been trying to catch him for the last four miles. He then started running faster. I thought this is great, I have a rabbit to follow. I tried to keep him closed and as we ran, the runners who passed me during mile two came back to me and I left them behind. From mile five on, there is only one small section with any uphill. My rabbit was stretching his lead on me with each mile. The course has a turn-around between mile 8 and 9 and when we passed, he looked strong. Just after mile 9 was the last uphill for the course. I could see my rabbit and I started trying to bring my pace up. At mile 10 the that it was just a 5K run flashed. I was closing the gap. At mile 11, I had cut it down to about 100 yards. At 12.5 miles, I caught him. He told me good job and away I went. There was two other runners still ahead and I caught them both before the finish. My finish time was 5:04:46. This was a new PR. My last half iron race was also here at Tupper and was 5:11:09 in 2013. In that race, I swam 37:42, rode 2:38:23 & ran 1:50:52 This year I swam 37:15, Rode 2:43:50 & ran 1:38:05. The run really made this a successful race.
Comments
The good news is that you won't have any trouble swimming straight at IMLP (But increase the swim training in your final weeks because that may have led to your higher HR at the start of your bike). It looks like all of your hard work is paying off. That is a great run split (and was also fun reading about it). Your IM will also be "All about the run" as well, but your need to be able to set up those conditions for a good run on the swim and the bike.
Seriously, awesome job man!
Great read and great performance!
Holding that line on the run, staying focused, pushing the pain to the side, maintaining self-confidence and passing that rabbit at 12.5 miles sums up the entire race!! Shows a lot of prior hard work coming in to be able to do that as well as good discipline during the race - both very hard to do! God help the IMLP competition!
Congratulations bro!!
SS
Great report on a great race, Ed. Congrats. Looking forward to seeing what you can accomplish at Placid.