IMMD Race Report Nate Parady
Hey folks, IM number 4 in the books for me. Pardon all the grammar issues and tense issues. I was anxious to get this out there instead of sitting on it for another few days.
Ironman Maryland: Division Rank 46 out of 166 in my division. Overall 188 out of about 1400.
Swim :50 (3,000 Meters)
Bike 5:54
Run: 3:54
Total Time 10:57 (Previous time at Chesapeak Man was 11:27)
On Training
After a solid winter of bike and run training focused on short hard
efforts I entered into the Spring feeling pretty good about my fitness. I also spent some time getting a run analysis
completed in order to address some nagging injuries. This was very much worth my time. It was
suggested to place an orthotic in one of my shoes which made me much less prone
to injury. In June, I did a half Ironman
on what I would call minimal training.
Think I swam maybe 7 times. Ended
up going 5:19 on a ridiculously hot day in Virginia. After a few weeks of recovery it was time to
ramp back up for my 4th Ironman. I decided to change up my training
routine from what I had traditionally followed.
I fell into the below routine which gave me between 12-15 hours of
moving time each week:
Monday: Afternoon Swim 45 minutes/ Core Work :10
Tues: Morning Bike 1 hour (Hard/95-98%) / Run 6 miles immediately
after
Wed: Morning Bike 1 hour (Hard/80-85%)/ Run 5-6 miles immediately
after /:45 Swim in the afternoon
Thurs: Morning Long Run building up to 18 miles and about 2:30 in
duration
Fri: Afternoon Long Swim 1 hour /Core Work :10
Sat: Long Bike (Did 10 bikes at or over 4 hours mostly on the trainer)
/5-6 miles immediately after
Sun: Medium distance Run up to 10 miles
Running: I set a lot of personal records running this time around,
running over 528 miles since July and hitting 40 miles per week for almost 8
weeks in a row.
Race Week
On Wed of the “original” race week we were notified that the race was
postponed for two weeks because of a hurricane.
This caused a lot of emotional turmoil amongst myself and fellow
teammates. Somehow I was able to muster
up the decision to just do 1.5 more weeks of training which meant for me
instead of racing on that Saturday I did 4 hours on my bike trainer and Sunday
ran 15 miles. One benefit of the race
being delayed by two weeks was additional recovery to a slightly sore back and
a strained hamstring. The original race
week I still managed to run 32 miles followed by a week at 28 miles, then
entered into a new “race week” feeling more refreshed and well rested than the
“original” race week. The majority of
the impact for the delay for me was mental.
All the fitness was still there.
Day Before the Race
Big Breakfast, Big Lunch, Pretzals all day, Gatorade All Day, and
smaller dinner of Rice and Chicken.
Almost no veggies all day.
Morning of the Race
Woke up at 1:45am and ate 1 bannana, Protein Shake, 2 cups applesauce.
Back to bed
Woke up at 3:30am Got dressed, body glide and aquaphor all over, ate
half a bagel, drank some Gatorade and out the door with my morning bag. Was at the middle school to catch the bus to
transition by 4:35. Was at Transition by
5am. Man was it cold and Dark. Headlamp was on. Got body marked, put a bottle of Gatorade on
my bike, filled up my 20oz hydration system up with more Gatorade, air in my
tires, bike computer mounted, found my Run Bag and placed a bottle of water and
Garmin inside, Dropped my Run and Bike Special Needs bags off and then hit the
porto potties. All of that was done by a
check list making sure nothing was forgotten.
I was also, sipping on Gatorade, ate a sleeve of Cliff Bloks, and
snacked on pretzels prior to the race beginning.
One of the major impacts of the two week race delay was the weather in
Virginia really starts to go south.
There was a predicted Low of 39 degrees for race day which causes a lot
of concerns with what to wear, what’s the water temperature going to be, and
adjustments to how you fuel during the race potentially. I believe the announcer stated that it was 42
degrees in the morning but there was a wind chill that made it feel like 35. By about 6:30 the wind really picked up and
the river was moving. They made an
announcement that there was a small craft advisory and that the swim was going
to be shortend to 1.2 miles, ok, not that bad, 5 minutes later then made
another announcement that the wind had died down and that the swim was going to
be 3000 meters. Ok, that’s better. I think at this point everyone just wanted to
get started because we were so cold waiting for the race to start. The
original start time was for 6:50 but Ironman had stated they wouldn’t start
until it was light enough outside. It
was very cold waiting for the race to start. I had long pants, socks, sandals, long sleeve
shirt, winter hat, hooded sweatshirt and I was still cold. I eventually put my
wetsuit on and was still kind of cold. My wife and daughter found me and my
wife gave me her jacket (she’s a keeper).
The Swim :50 (3,000 Meters)
Pretty soon it was time to go, lined up with the 1:10 swimmers and off we went
with a rolling start which meant everyone just marched off into the water down
a boat ramp. They didn’t allow anyone to
warm up which I was nervous about because of the 62 degree water. The contrast
between the air temp and water temp was unusual. And
luckily 62 degree water actually felt kind of nice relative to the air temp
outside. In the end, the temp of the
water really wasn't an issue until you exited the water and realized, "it
was cold" outside.
I had contact with other swimmers the entire time and struggled to see
the next buoy most of the time. One of
the other challenges is the last minute course change had most of us entering
the water having never seen the course.
All I knew was to turn right at the Red Buoy, straight at the Yellow
Buoy, and it was two laps. It’s probably
lame to say that the Chop Tank River was really choppy, but it really was. Took in a couple of gulps of salt water and
almost immediately gaged wanting to throw up that salty water. Gross.
Got punch really hard at least 3 times and kicked in the nose 1 time
which was really close to ending my day right there. All in all, although a few meters short of
2.4 miles it was everything an Ironman swim should be and typically is. I really just kept my effort nice and steady,
head down, pull hard and before I knew it I was towards the end of my second
loop. Suddenly I kept coming upon much
slower swimmers with cadences much slower than mine and then it dawned on me that
I was now lapping people who were finishing their first loop. I exited the water feeling as if it was a
nice warm up. I purposefully decided not
to wear a watch so I wouldn’t know my swim time. I didn’t want to know good or bad.
Transition time: :10
I wore just my tri-shorts under my wetsuit, so came out of the water
with only a wet pair of shorts on.
I quickly toweled off with a hand towel in T1 and place an EN Tri Top, EN
cycling Jersey, Arm Coolers, and a pair of socks over the coolers. I also put
on socks for my feet. I left the tent with a pair of gloves in my hand but
decided I didn't need them as I ran to my bike. Ended up just shoving them down
my jersey which worked out nice because they felt warm. I also had another
small pair of gloves in a jersey pocket and two "emergency" hand
warmers as well, in case I needed something to warm me up. I also had a small
wind vest in the middle jersey pocket. My third jersey pocket had 4 Power Gels
and 4 Cliff Blok Sleeves.
All of that took me 10 minutes to do in transition. But was totally worth
it. I was cold for the first hour of the bike and then was only slightly
"cool" afterwards. Never getting hot or warm all day on the bike.
Only ditched the socks off my arms after mile 80 on the bike.
Bike 5:54
There isn’t much really say about the bike course. It’s a 112 miles of beautiful, flat and windy
terrain. Anyone
who thinks flat is easy really needs to come do this race. It may be slightly faster but is in no ways
easy. There were times I was going 24 MPH
and then we would turn the corner or the wind would shift and the same effort
would yield 15MPH or even less. A few
times the wind caught me leaning the wrong way and almost had me off my
bike. One funny thing did happen on the
bike course at about mile 5. I and a few
other rides were almost all taken out by a cat running across the road. We all just looked at each other and shook
our heads. We were moving pretty good at
this point and had no time to even hit the brakes. The other thing that I saw was in the first 25
or so miles I came across several athletes that made me wonder how they got in
front of me. It then occurred to me,
that they probably only did 1 lap of the swim. Maybe this isn’t true but it
sure felt like it.
For the first half especially, my eyes were focused on my power meter
making sure I wasn’t pushing too hard. I
would hit the interval button every 15-20 minutes to zero out all my data and
start over. I was really keeping my effort in check throughout the
entire time. I only once looked at the entire ride data to see what mile
I was at but didn’t look at my total time.
I didn’t want to know. By mile 50
I was passing a lot of people on the bike who had already decided or realized they
had gone out too fast and were now backing off their pace. Every aid station I would grab a new
bottle of Gatorade or water. One of the
early aid stations I grabbed a bottle and dropped it because my hands were so
cold they had lost some dexterity.
Luckily I had enough Gatorade on board to get me to the next aid
station. The second half was noticeably
worse with the wind and by mile 95 my body was really feeling like I needed to
get off the bike. As
I progress into the second half of the bike I raced more by feel and didn’t
force anything versus trying to hold a certain power number. I was ok with seeing lower watts on the power
meter and simply kept pedaling and keeping my head down. The colder temps made me not want to eat or
drink but I forced myself to stay on plan.
I was drinking 30 ounces of Gatorade or Gatorade Endurance (3x sodium)
an hour and eating either a Power Gel or Cliff Blok sleeve every thirty minutes
to an hour. I had 4 Gels and 4 sleeves
and a lot of Gatorade. By mile 80ish I started
to feel a bit nauseous and decided to back off on the Gatorade and drink some
water which helped a lot. I really have
the nutrition part of the Ironman game dialed in for hot temps, but this was
really my first time going long in cooler weather. It was very weird to do an Ironman and
almost never break a sweat. Believe
I made 3 quick stops at open porta potties losing only 7 minutes of non-moving
time for the entire bike
Bike Data for all the data Geeks. Data is from a Powermeter in my rear wheel
feeding a Joule 2.0 bike computer up front.
Entire Ride
Ride Time (Time Moving) |
5:47:40 |
|||
Distance, mi |
110.94 (didn’t turn my computer on |
|||
Work, kJ |
3034 |
|||
Temperature, °F |
63.8 |
|||
Average Power, Watts |
145 |
|||
Average Cadence |
82 |
|||
Normalized Power |
150 (IF .62/FTP240) |
|||
|
|
Average
Moving Speed 19.18
First 55 miles
Total Elapsed Time |
2:50:47 |
Ride Time (Time Moving) |
2:49:09 |
Distance, mi |
55.48 |
Work, kJ |
1521 |
Temperature, °F |
61.0 |
Average Power, Watts |
150 |
Normalized Power |
153 (IF.63) |
Next 55 miles
Total Elapsed Time |
3:01:12 |
Ride Time (Time Moving) |
2:54:28 |
Distance, mi |
54.84 |
Work, kJ |
1501 |
Temperature, °F |
66.5 |
Average Power, Watts |
143 |
Normalized Power |
148 (IF.61) |
Coasted/soft pedaled the last two miles stretching my legs
and getting my mind right for the run.
Transition time :07, I was pretty quick in transition but
between racking my bike and running around to get my gear bag it added up to 7
minutes. I entered the tent to a scene
which was pretty funny. Several guys
just sitting there talking about how bad the bike sucked. Too Funny.
I changed my socks, put on my shoes, emptied a few things
from my pockets, Garmin on, Visor on, and off I went.
The Run: (3:54)
The run course at Maryland was great. 2.5 loops that take you along the river and
through the downtown area. Tons of
support on the course and people cheering us on. However, the temperatures and wind played havoc
on the run course the entire time. I pulled
my zipper on my jersey up and down probably 5 times each lap to keep either
cool or warm.
I ran out of the tent turning my Garmin on. It didn’t synch up for the first .5 miles
which was ok because part of my plan was to not look at my time or pace for the
first several miles. I wanted to go by
feel and keeping my breathing steady and Heart rate low. I was ready for whatever nightmare lay ahead
and just wanted to let the run develop without trying to make anything
happen. My plan for the run was to carry
a bottle of water and eat a Cliff Blok every mile. This would allow me to run through each aid
station not having to stop. Besides
having to stop and pee at mile 1.2 (bathrooms were full in transition) I didn’t
stop at an aid station until mile 12 where I had a volunteer fill my water
bottle back up. By mile 6 or so I finally
looked at my Garmin and saw something like 8:56 Average and I then started
glancing at my mile splits. By mile 13 I
had run out of Cliff Bloks and now needed calories from the aid stations. Funny thing is I actually dropped a Cliff
Blok Sleeve at some point but didn’t stop to pick it up. I just kept moving. I saw the first age group Male and Female on
the course and noticed how amazing it was how many other athletes were still
actually running. This would change
later in the run. At mile 13 I grabbed a
Gu
Comments
@Bob, I would do IMMD again. Cambridge is 2.5 hours from my house so its hard not to say I wouldn't do it again. Ideally this race will stay towards the end of September or next year its 1 October. In VA there is usually a pretty big difference in weather between the beginning and end of October.
@Roy, Probably on the Half Ironman Plan for next season, but yes I really liked the schedule that I fell into. For one, doing run/bike all in the morning on Tue/Wed gave me almost 22 hours to recover between sessions. The Wed Bike/Run/ and Swim in the afternoon was hard but had to be done. The main thing this schedule did was drop all expectations of doing back to back long rides on Sat/Sun. I have never enjoyed that Sunday ABP ride so I simply didn't do it. Much better at doing two harder/shorter sessions during the week. That would be an area to improve upon maybe next time and commit to doing a second medium distant bike. however, I never really felt like doing a 10 mile run on a Sunday was really wimping out. the time it took to do that and get back to family stuff made the ROI so much higher.
"...My feet were killing me, my legs were on fire..." And yet you kept on running. You had a driving goal, and you started working on it long before the race ever started, then you ignored all the resistance in its path. Sub 10 hour Bike/Run, sub 4 run - that's a Serious result. Your happiness is well-deserved.