Attila Matyas - IMFL 2015 Race Report
Attila Matyas – 2015 Ironman Florida
Finish: 12:40:41 // Swim 1:26:37 // T1 8:12 // Bike 5:31:51 // T2 6:15 // Run 5:27:46
Background:
As a family guy training time is almost always a compromise but I had pretty decent training block leading up to this year’s race with bike volume from ToC camp and 3 different bike focus weeks on the trainer using TR and Sufferfest. Did almost all of my training on the trainer to include 6 hour course rides. I did more swimming and running frequency and mileage this year as well. The frequency really helped improve my run albeit still slow it has become more comfortable and enjoyable.
Pre-Race Days
I flew with my softcase for the bike and curbside guy was cool and for a proper tip he let me slide on the bike fee which always feels good. We flew down to PCB on Wednesday and arrived late evening. Thursday was just logistics of getting the mountain of gear unpacked, race check-in, taking a small bike ride to make sure all the parts were working and a test swim. I did the test swim in the wetsuit and was quickly reminded how neoprene and sand just don’t get along. I didn’t bother with body glide and even from the short swim I got nice road rash on the back of my neck. Water wasn’t crazy warm but it was hot out and race day temps were predicted to be even higher. I was already thinking ahead and was very happy I packed my speed suit.
Friday was big breakfast at Another Broken Egg then 4keys talk in the morning with the rare sighting of both Rich and Patrick there to present. It’s always great to see the banter between the two of them. Athlete briefings were saying that water temps were hovering at 77 and expected to rise. I started thinking about what I would be doing, wetsuit or not. I’m no great swimmer but the thought of roasting in the wetsuit was not too appealing and secretly I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do an ocean 2.4 mile swim. I put my sleeved jersey in my T1 bag anticipating the no wetsuit swim. I followed this up with checking in the bike and T1/T2 bags. The afternoon brought the Ironkids race which I always love.
Race Day: Pre-Race
Woke up at 2:45 so I could start breakfast by 3AM because they moved the start to 6:15AM. As usual I ate my gourmet blend of applesauce, protein powder, banana and perform. Went downstairs to drop off BSN and RSN bags and booming over the microphone was water temp of 77.5 so no wetsuits. Ok decision made I was going to roll the dice and try it without a wetsuit. Did the band aid taping of all parts that needed it, chamois buttr and then put on tribib and speed suit and headed downstairs.
Swim: https://www.strava.com/activities/430084949
The new rolling start had a big chute setup with big signs on it for your anticipated swim time. Theory was you were supposed line up in some orderly self-seeding fashion. The reality was that it was a giant sh$tshow. People were just piling on top of each other with 1 hour swimmers arriving late and then trying to push their way through the crowd. It was a total mess and I would gladly have taken the mass start over that mess any day.
Since there were no pros they launched the XC people who went off with a whimper and then the horn went for everyone else, it was just a mass exodus to the water, nothing rolling about it. I missed the traditional canon, the horn was lame and also missed them playing Panana by Van Halen versus some DJ mix crap. Probably overly critical but sometimes it’s the small things that you remember the most.
PCB always has a sandbar not too far offshore that some people decide to walk which is not too smart since it spikes the HR but this year the sandbar was so high you did not have a choice. So it was really two starts; you get in the water with the waves crashing and it got deep and then super shallow again at the sandbar. This made the waves behave kind of crazy. That’s me in the middle of the pic below with black desoto and bad tan lines pondering what the heck I’m supposed to do next.
Once you made it past the breakers it was ok except then the exodus of people started and the kicking and hitting commenced. I’ll admit it wasn’t as bad as 2012, I only got kicked in the head 3 times hard enough to flip my goggles up (always put your goggles under your cap). So this continued and that first turn buoy seemed to take forever in traffic. Upshot was my extra swimming I’d been doing after reading Mike Robert’s posts was really paying off now. I didn’t have my usual claustrophobic panic attack and I felt comfortable and strong in the water. I also didn’t take any crap and held my ground when showed or pushed which in the past I always gave in.
Lap 1 was done and exiting the water was a struggle with the waves and now they had volunteers trying to force you to get back into the water to swim diagonal instead allowing you to run across the beach. Loop 2 was less traffic but the ocean seemed angrier now and the swells were bigger and it was impossible to stay on the buoy line. After the turn it seemed to be even rougher. I just stayed in my little world and kept swimming. Swim felt long and after downloading data and looking at a bunch of others on strava it seems consistently long but it is what it is and the official distance is still 2.4. I emerged from the swim probably the most comfortable I’ve ever been. I attribute this to swim frequency I mentioned above. I got out went up the steep embankment and under the hoses then to T1.
T1:
I can never pee in the water and this is something I have to fix since I always have to go in T1 and it’s just a waste of precious time No different here by the time I was running toward the T1 building I was dying so I jumped into one of the port o pots, ugh. In T1 I grabbed my helmet and put on my sleeved jersey since I couldn’t wear this on the swim and also my compression sleeves. I placed my nutrition in the jersey pockets in the morning (Thanks Tim) and the weight of the gel flasks actually made putting on the jersey pretty easy since the weight held the jersey straight. Shoes were on the bike so off I went.
Bike: https://www.strava.com/activities/430086090
Did side mount onto bike, started garmin and got going. First couple of miles is just a huge traffic jam of people along Front Beach so I was surprised to see a marshal pull up next to me about 3 miles out of T1 and give me the hand to back off the guy in front of me. I was in the bull horns and drinking at the time. Hmmm…maybe they’ve been reading slowtwitch about all the draft trains.
Temps at this point were already rising and more importantly you could feel the humidity. I started on hydration and just getting situated until the overpass by the airport. I kept looking at my powermeter and seeing the numbers just really low like 70 and 83 watts but I was going 19 and 20 mph. Arrrgh was my quarq acting up? It was zeroed, fresh battery etc. so WTF. I flipped to screen with HR, speed, and 3s power. I started going with HR knowing where I needed not to be with HR spikes as I was just not trusting the PM at all. Rest of ride was uneventful downright boring as IMFL bike course tends to be. No stop at BSN just kept riding. I will say that the marshals were on point all day. Penalty tents were full of people and you never went more than 15-20 minutes without a motorcycle rolling by. It didn’t bother me but from all counts there was one marshal that was very zealous and handed out penalties like he was working for commission.
I peed on miles 30, 50 and 80. I drank 10 or 11 bottles of GE and kept up with the nutrition of powergels and powerbar (first 3 hours only). I felt fine on the bike, it was mostly overcast and we got one soaking rain shower as well. Toward the end of the bike going out the stick there was a bunch of headwind so my speed was dropping but I kept my HR steady. The reward was at the turn around where it all turned into a tailwind and cruising at 26-27 was nothing.
Rolled back into town, did flying dismount and handed off bike and onto T2. Sun was absolutely blazing at this point.
T2:
I didn’t think it was all that hot out on the bike until I sat down to put my socks and shoes on in T2. I could just feel the heat radiating off of me, not good. I changed into a more comfortable running shirt, grabbed my go bag and headed out. Stopped to say hi to family and started on the course.
Run: https://www.strava.com/activities/430085074
In the first mile I could tell that there was going to be trouble. As mentioned I’ve been happy with the progression of my run. My training runs had all been solid to my pacing but all of them had been in cool temps of fall weather in New Jersey. This is what the day was looking like for the run:
I started moving along and watching my heart rate which immediately spiked and just would not come down unless I started to walk. I walked a bit and let HR come down and when I started moving again it was right back up again. I started with the ice bag, drinking etc. but nothing was helping. I just slogged along trying to cool down.
Now all the ice and water was running down my legs and my feet were getting shredded. I put tape, band aids and Vaseline in my go bag and RSN but my feet were soaked and nothing was sticking. By mile 8 or so I could feel blisters and now things were getting painful where my foot issues were over taking the heat problems I was also having. I stopped countless times trying different things but to no avail. At end of first loop I dried my feet off re-applied from RSN and was good for a little while but blisters and toe issues came back quickly and now it was like running on glass just miserable.
I mostly walked along and eventually finished and to be honest I was pretty pissed off. I worked really hard on improving the run this year and went into this race having high expectations of finally having a run that for my pace I could be proud of. That did not happen.
Post-Race
After the finish we snapped a couple of pictures and said goodbye to the in-laws, my mom and my two kids for the night. They were all such troopers and I couldn’t attempt to do what I do without their support.
After gathering up all the gear and getting cleaned up we came back down to watch my buddy finish his first Ironman. It had started to rain by then and I was hobbling around but it was worth seeing the giant smile on his face as he crossed that finish line.
Lessons and What Worked and What Didn’t
Frequency works. I increased my swim and run frequency this year and it made for much more comfortable swim even though it was a tough swim by any standard for the course. I think the run frequency also worked just not in the way I thought it would because of the hot temps. This is something I need to figure out but I have no doubt that running more is key and just from my own comfort level I am a believer of this whether it translated for me at IMFL or not. I plan to keep the frequency up and am pretty excited to jump on the new durability plans in the OS.
I need to be able to pee on the swim to not waste time in T1.
Gel flasks are much better than individual gels. Yes the variety is lost but let’s be honest at mile X they are all disgusting. The flask is simple easily dispensed and doesn’t leave the sticky back pocket full of gel empties. I labeled mine with a sharpie for Caf and no Caf.
Putting everything on bike saves time in T1. I put sunglasses, toolkit, arm coolers and nutrition all on bike ahead of time. Remaining nutrition was in my sleeved bike jersey so all I had to do was put it on and I had everything ready to go.
Rice paper in humid conditions doesn’t always work. I had a nice seven layer cake of powerbars in my bento box that I just peeled off piece by piece to eat as I rolled along. This I think was still better than trying to unwrap bars.
Transitions can always be faster. I shaved over 5 minutes off my transitions from IMFL 2012 but these still pale in comparison to the big boys like Tim Cronk and Mike Roberts this year.
Running implosion in the heat. I will get with the coaches on figuring this out a little deeper but I’m a bigger dude that clearly did not train in any heat and it just destroyed me so I have to find some middle ground so I don’t have to avoid every warm weather race out there.
Foot issues; shoes, blisters etc. I’m still in search of the perfect shoe I guess. I’ve had foot surgery on both feet and have orthotics and ran in the Hoka cliftons at IMChoo last year with only one lost toe nail. This year though with the wetness the cliftons absolutely trashed my feet. As I’m writing this the popped blisters and toenails are what hurt way more than sore legs.
Career Comparison:
So I’ve done a total of three IMs and after IMFL I was initially kind of disappointed just looking at the time as it was slower and I knew I had quite the run meltdown. After looking at the numbers and the process to arrive at the time I got I realized that I’m still moving forward and getting better so I’m happy with the result and hope to continue to improve. No IM next year so I will use next year to focus on improving my weaknesses/
|
Column1 |
IMFL 2012 |
IMChoo 2014 |
IMFL 2015 |
|
Overall |
12:34.27 |
12:20.58 |
12:40.41 |
|
Swim |
1:25.06 Wetsuit |
57:59 No Wetsuit; crazy current |
1:26.37 No Westsuit |
|
T1 |
8:58 |
8:13 |
8:12 |
|
Bike |
5:57.53 |
6:04.34 |
5:31.51 |
|
T2 |
10:11 |
6:45 |
6:15 |
|
Run |
4:52.19 |
5:03.27 |
5:27.46 |
|
Overall Rank |
1063/3061 (34%) |
1045/2349 (44.5%) |
781/2980 (26%) |
|
Gender Rank |
851/2223 (38.3%) |
840/1607 (52.3%) |
649/2185 (29.7%) |
|
Division Rank |
221/561 (39.5%) |
138/282 (49%) |
125/434 (29%) |
I’m thankful that I can be out there enjoying this hobby and have the support of my family and look forward to next year.
Comments
Even if your overall time is higher, you improved in the rankings, that means the day was hard for everybody on the course. It was sure difficult for you to keep with humid&hot training knowing the weather in NE is not that friendly starting October for that kind of training.
Attila,
What a great report! Yours makes mine look like a 3rd grade essay. It was really great meeting you and sharing some bike rack space, even if winning the Tri Club champs meant sticking us in the farthest corner away from Bike Out. I too was a little disappointed when I crossed the line because I had basically equaled my pre-EN IMFL time. But like Tim said, the surf and heat made this a completely different and unique IMFL. Apple, orange.
Yeah, the swim sucked. The fact that your Garmin show 2.6 miles, and you swam really straight, makes me feel a little better. And I was one of the people who had to weave through the crowd to get to the very front. Sorry. I peed twice on the swim - just stop kicking, take a big exhale and . . . piece of cake.
Nice improvement on the transitions. Just continue to treat them as competitive races: as few moving parts as possibly, surgically get in and out, trying to beat everyone around you. Other than the last miles of the marathon, it's really the only time I allow the competitive juices to flow.
Great bike ride. Looks like you did everything right, as your HR and watt profiles look really steady throughout.
I used to love my Cliftons until I ran with them in the rain. They absorbed water and turned into heavy marshmallows with a nice cheese grater effect. Terrible drainage. They very well may have fixed that design flaw by now, but no way I would run a potentially hot or rainy IM marathon in shoes that don't have great drainage (my Asics Noosas got soaked all day, but I didn't blister or chafe at all). Also, I like to run shorter, sockless runs in the weeks leading up, just to toughen up the skin for race day.
Speaking of run, I had no idea the humidity was that high. You had virtually no time to acclimate, your body comp is not Cronkesque, so you simply ran into an inevitable buzz saw. The only thing you could have done better was literally do whatever it took to get your HR down the first 6-10 miles or whenever it cooled off, even if it meant walking quickly. I had to barely shuffle out to the park the first loop, and I heard a lot of spectators say, "Nice pace, Timmy. Nice pace, Ricky. Nice job, Mike." Seriously had to check my ego. Also, even though I walked every aid station, I walked them briskly. I wanted to get my HR down a bit to absorb fluids and calories, but I also wanted my pace and effort to be pretty smooth over the entire run with no big spikes up or down in effort (other than bathroom breaks at 7 and 10). Steady wins the day in IM. My run was no thing of beauty by any stretch, but I did keep HR relatively low the first half and my walk breaks aren't that pronounced. When things cooled, this allowed me to pick up the effort and pace the second half and neg split. Again, far from great, but pretty good on a tough day.
I don't know what HR you should have been targeting early on, but your early HR is near your peak all day and much higher than your HR sag from 16-24 (which is very typical). And a lot of your walk breaks were at 18-20 min/mi pace. Easier said than done (and even easier said from the comfort of a chair four days later), but even jogging a consistent 11:30 pace all day with brisk walk breaks in between, without all the choppy up/down efforts, would have helped tremendously later on in the run. Just my $.02.
In the end, this was much more of a survival event than a race. 10% DNF rate at IMFL is absurd. And you finished top quarter with a 5:27 run. That right there tells the whole story. You survived far, far better than the vast majority of the field, and that's a testament to your training, execution and determination. I don't think you need to overhaul your training or make other drastic changes. Just chalk this up as a tremendous accomplishment, take the lessons learned, and move on to even bigger/better things next year.
Congrats again. Hope we can race (or survive) again soon.
MR
HUGE improvement in your AG should be the focus here. Well done on a tough day under tough conditions.
Also want to mention that your support to the team over the last ten weeks was great and we are a stronger team for it.
Thanks for writing and sharing this report. Look forward to racing with you again soon bro.
Congratulations!
SS
OK, big guy, some tough love here. Like others, I think your % OA and Div finish improvement is huge, and should be a point of honor for you. Also, seeing a swim time non-wetsuit this year about equal to your wet suit time previously in FL shows GREAT improvement. Now, what stands out are the bike and run splits - would going 10-15 minutes slower on the bike (still a 10+ minute improvement) allowed you to have a bit more in reserve to deal with the heat??? That's my best guess. I do know that running in 82-85 F demands from me that I go at least 1 minute a mile slower than when its 70F. So to see what you could have gone, take your VDOT, subtract 2, then add 80 seconds per mile to the resulting LRP, and multiply by 26.2. That's the time you might've been expected to run, had you been walking only in aid stations, and ignored the shredding of your feet.
I know you are a steely competitor, and justly proud of your biking strength. But on a hot day like this turned out to be, better to not over play that card in favor of saving more for the run.