Ed Eovino IMMOO RR
Short version… swim PR (1:12 PR)… bike (5:51)…run (4:15 PR)…fell apart on the run due to cramping because I didn’t hydrate enough pre race.
I talked to a lot of people about Ironman Wisconsin before signing up last year. I don't think there was a single person that didn't tell me it was one of their favorites. Many of them said things about its difficulty... Some said the course crushed them... But they all had wonderful things to say about the spectators, volunteers and Madison itself.
I went up to do camp week about 4 weeks before race day. We rode the course twice and I was amazed at the hostility of the motorists. I left Madison thinking that people in the area didn't really want all these dorky triathletes screwing up their town. I thought that maybe it had changed since they did their races. Maybe after 14 years the novelty of the local IM had worn off. Imagine how surprised I was when I came back up for the race and saw how much the local community gets behind this race for myself.
My wife and I drove to Wisconsin on Wednesday night. We arrived in town about midnight. I only have one extender (needed for 808’s) for the tire hold down clamp on my bike rack. I had to transport it with my training tire on. When we arrived at the hotel I was changing out the rear wheel when the hub fell apart. I was left holding a wheel in one hand and the cassette and everything else in the other. If you know about my bike problems this past month… you can imagine how this made me feel! I tried to not let it bother me… but I wasn’t as successful as I’d have liked and I had a pretty restless night of sleep.
I woke in the morning had a cup of coffee and met Croucher and Simmons for a swim. It was only the 4th OWS this year and only 3 of those were with the wetsuit on… but I’ve never been more relaxed. I left feeling really confident about Sunday’s swim. We had breakfast and I raced to the bike mechanics tent. I was pretty frazzled and ran through all kind of options in my head…rent a wheel…drive the trainer wheel…worried about what to do. I got to the tent at 9 as soon as they opened. The guy takes a look…said no big deal and had it fixed in 10 minutes. I was very happy to have it done, but it was a good lesson in not wasting mental capital with worry.
Once the bike was fixed I instantly relaxed. This is the calmest I have ever been before a race. I even spent 7 hours and 10 minutes with my legs off the floor the day before the race.
We stayed at the Race hotel… I didn’t want to spend the extra money… but my wife was racing as well and thought it’d make it easier. The extra money turned out to be well worth it! Between my trip to the mechanics, ease with which you could get the swim venue, transition (I didn’t even have to use the Porto-John. I fixed up the bike and went back to the room to chill for another half an hour before meeting the team for the pre-race picture.
Swim… 1:12 (7 minute PR) I set up to the left of the ski jump. If you drew a line to me from the start line you’d have probably counted 5-6 people. I treaded water for about 15 when the canon went off. My goal for the swim was to get on some feet and no matter what… not back down from contact. I don’t mean in any kind of offensive way. If I was hit I planned to just take another stroke and get back to good form as quickly as possible. In races past I’d get hit… stop.. breast stroke.. everything but move forward with purpose. It’s finally dawned on me that slowing, or worse stopping, only increases the amount of time you’re going to get hit. It wasn’t going to happen this time. I took about 4-5 shots to the head, a few kicks, but I kept going. After the second turn I was headed back and was following bubbles… dude must have been lost… really swam pretty far inside the buoy line. It took me a little bit of effort to get back toward that line. The swim back was long… but I was ready for it because of Coach Rich’s warnings. The water was pretty clear and the whole second half of the swim I was able to really see the people I was following for positioning. A lot of the time I was able to set up between two sets of legs. I got out of the water and started the long long T1.
T1.. (7:30) Did I mention it’s long? I came out of the water and hit the strippers. When running toward the helix. I could feel my heart pounding so I took a few walk steps. I calmed quickly…slowed my jog and started up the inside path to the top. People screaming the whole way…cheering… amazing experience! I got to the top and headed inside to pick up my bag. Grabbed it and raced by a bunch of people while putting my helmet on my head. I dropped the bag with one hand… wetsuit with the other at the same time a volunteer came running up to me. “Do you need any help?” I dug out my bike shoes and said, “Can you shove that wetsuit in there?” and was off. When I got outside I could feel my heart beating and was having a little trouble breathing. I took 20 steps to slow down and finished the jog to the bike. There were so many people milling around in the “tent” and screwing around with their bags that I wouldn’t be surprised if I passed 200 people.
Bike…(5:52) The night before the race I read Coach P’s post about racing with HR and looked up some of my long rides to find my HR at the early stages. In those rides HR was about 118 for the first thirty minutes. When I stated the ride I was at 147. I sat up… soft pedaled and tried to bring it down. It was stuck in the low 140’s when I decided to get aero and ride easy. People were really blowing past me. I don’t think I passed anyone on the bike in the first 15-20 minutes. I saw Ed Croucher and Scott Dinhofer pass… I wasn’t wearing an EN jersey so neither saw me. I caught up to Ed and talked to him for a second, but then he was gone.
When the HR stabilized I got to work and brought my power up to about 200 watts. I got started eating and drinking right away. I peed the first time around Garfoot Rd… about 35 miles in. This was odd to me. Most races I’ve had to pee a few times during the swim… not this time. I should have recognized I might have a problem. I had a lot of fun on the course… enjoyed seeing all the spectators… but nothing really stands out execution wise during the ride. I watched the watts and rode. At mile 56 I looked at the TSS and it was at 150… so I went a little easier a few times to help that number.
The highlight of this ride has to be the climb on Midtown Rd…There were people everywhere. I really would have loved to get off the bike and hang there for a bit. So many people having a lot of fun… tremendous energy! I finally peed for the second time on the stick back into transition.
Stats for the ride… 5:51…295 TSS…194 NP ..AVG power 187…VI 1.04…19 MPH
T2…(2:35) Dismount… hand off… grab bag… changed shoes… off with the go bag (greatest thing ever). Had packed a banana and ate it as I left transition.
Run…(4:15 PR) The first 6 miles of the run I was passed by everyone except 4 people. All 4 were cramping and had to pull off the side to stretch… 3 of them were the same guy! He’d pass… cramp…stretch and race by again. I only saw him for about 3 -4 miles and then he was gone. During the first 6 I was managing my own cramps. My legs were starting twinge and I knew I must be behind on fluids. It all started adding up… no pee on swim, peed really late on bike, and now cramps. I took in base salt… hit every aid station and drank about 3 GE at each. During the first 8 miles I never looked at pace. I had one thing on the screen…HR. If I hadn’t done that it would have been very difficult to stay on task and not try to stop getting passed. After Observatory Hill I moved the HR to low 140’s and tried to hold it. I did a pretty good job until about mile 18 when the cramps returned pretty bad. I was forced to walk a bit to clear the cramp out of the muscle and it caused my pace to slip over the remainder of the race. I switched over to coke… but some aid stations didn’t have it and I had to scramble to get anything else at the end of the aid station. The cramping progressively got worse and was pretty disappointing because it lost me about 15 minutes, the same amount of time that I needed for top 20.
I really handled my nutrition leading up to the race great. I ate enough… but not too much. I’m doing Louisville in a few weeks and I’ll eat exactly the same way in the days before… but I’ll do a better job drinking the night before and morning of the race.
Comments
I'm glad to see you nailed those PR's, and excited to see what you do in Louisville, when you get and stay hydrated.
Sub-11:30 on that course is pure stud material. Congrats. Trying to plan appropriate wattage on that course is difficult, because the nature of the course just adds 15-20 minutes to a "normal" time. So, you pushing at 70% on a normal course may pop you out at 250-60 TSS, ready to blaze the run. Here, you get popped out at 295, which is right on the line for many folks. Hydration and salt may have played a role, but that bike course has destroyed thousands of marathons over the years, and there's not a lot most of us can do about it. Except go and suffer through it. For you to PR the run after that swim and bike . . . kudos. Very well done. Looking forward to seeing what you can do in Louisville. Which, btw, is pretty nuckin' futs, given the fact that your taper starts next week.
MR
Well done and looking fwd what you gonna do in KY!
enjoy the small rest
Rich... Great to meet you and can't wait to dot again. I'll be watching all you do... Because there's a lot to learn... Thanks for a great time!
Mike... Part of the problem with my bike/run is do to my bike crash last month. The Ventum had 11 speed gearing when I rode it for camp week. That extra gearing might not seem like a lot... But it was huge. Also, I tried to change my gearing in anticipation for this race a couple months ago... But it was way too costly. It cost me a mile an hour and I felt like I was always working even harder than with the big gears on my bike. So I stayed with what I always ride...53/39 25-11... I know... Stupid...
"So I stayed with what I always ride...53/39 25-11..."
Please be advised that, based on new overwhelming evidence, we are officially closing our investigation into the cause of Ed's cramping on the run in Wisconsin.
Mike... Lol... Now you know why I might have left that out of the RR... When I told Coach Rich... If you would have saw his face when I told him. It took all his restraint to not call me an idiot! He even repeated the gearing back to me three times to make sure he understood what I was telling him.
Lindsay... The feeling's mutual... People like you are the reason I love this sport! Don't expect much from me at Louisville but a good time!
Tim... Crashed the Ventum three weeks ago. dI2 was down. So I had to ride my P3... Hence the gearing mess. I got a call today that it is done. Can't wait to see what it can do for me at Lou
Tim, he crashed it a few weeks before the race and rode his Cervelo.
Hopefully your Ventum will be ready to rock for IMKY!!!
Nonetheless, you got an IM PR on the run, which says something about your heart, grit and determination. No sense wasting those qualities; next time, tweak that nutrition a bit, and think about just what is realistic for you on the run. Given your recent half marathon times, you should be able to run an IM marathon in the mid 4:00's. Looking at your splits on the run, you may have been going a touch too fast - 9:02/06/11 for miles 6-17 - based on your proven run capability. Save that effort level for the final 8 miles; aim for 9:15-20 the middle miles, you'll probably be able to keep on motoring instead of falling off. When you were strategizing your run pacing, did you discount your VDOT by 2-3 points? Its best to use ALL the data at your disposal - HR, RPE, and pace - to keep yourself in check for the first 18 miles of the run. If any one of those metrics is too hot, best to back off, despite what the other two might tell you.
I saw how committed you were every week in training during this cycle banging out the long runs and back to back rides with a big work like load and high training fatigue. Your resilience at CAMP confirmed your mental toughness abilities to me as well.
Also I think want to thank you for making my training cycle much more manageable with your constant support while pushing me each week of the grainy schedule to the end!
PR ing the IM run means doing a lot of things right during a very long and tough day. That alone makes your 2016 a successful triathlon year given all the many distractions and challenges leading up to the finish line.
Just wanted congratulate you and recommended you just go have some fun at IMLV in a few weeks!
SS
Ed, Congratulations on the finish and a really strong day! From reading your report you executed the race really well! 7 minute PR on the swim is HUGE! Your time in transition was great and despite having some cramping issues you battled and passed another 12 people in your AG with a run PR to boot! I agree with the others, that takes some real toughness right there, well done.
It has been awesome seeing your build this year and the improvement over last year! You always have some comment that motivates me or gets me fired up! I’m looking forward to training more with you in the 2017 season and racing at MT. I’m expecting some bigger things out of you! Good luck at Lou!
I'll own the brow beating I deserve from the WSM's. I will however submit in my defense this : I did change out the gearing on this bike at Coach Rich's suggestion about two months ago. Coach Rich suggested I use a compact crank, but I was using a Quarq Riken PM and this would have proven a costly option. After consulting the LBS about options the best 10spd plan they could come up with was changing the cassette to 28-12. I had them do it. When I got a few rides my perception is that the rides felt much more costly... as I'd loose speed on the setup decent on hills and have to spin at a lower speed on the way up. After a few weeks I reviewed all the data and saw that on average I was losing 1 mph.
I settled on doing what any (idiot) triathlete would do in this situation. I bought a new bike! It was at the same time as the Ventum deal popped up and I jumped at it. It had big gears... but 11 spd cassette. I took it to camp and it and I preformed great. I was able to ride my watts on the second day of riding the course AND run a really easy 15 on the Sunday after that. I felt I was locked in. I came home and crashed the next week. It took the Ventum option away from and now I was stuck with the bad geared P3... and you have what I did race day.
I'm not really sure what you meant about my run. My v-dot is right around 47. I ran a PR HM of 1:36:xx in the spring and proved that that wasn't an anomaly by running two more in the next couple weeks at 1:37. Did you mean I'm capable of getting into the mid 3:xx's with my marathon? because I did this one in 4:15 even after things went to shit?
What I can add about this marathon is that I completely executed my plan. I can out of T2 and ran only by HR (135) for those 6. I did have a few twinges in the legs during this... but the low speed really helped my get in front of it... well at least even again. After that the increase in pace was only due to my conscious effort to bring my hr to low 140's. I never really did view my paces during this race. I had totally committed to the efforts I had proved out in the build.
https://www.strava.com/activities/712585680
Thanks again for taking the time Al... you always help me grow!
Can't tell you how happy I am that we're going to train a year on the same schedule and unleash what we build together on the same day!
Following you this OS made my fitness what it was. You killed it every day and set a strong veteran example to follow. I genuinely don't know how you completed this race the way you did. I've told you before that I wouldn't have even tried... And I'm not kidding... I would have withdrew and tried to do another race... You didn't... And not only did you complete it... You were strong! You are one tough dude!
Thanks for everything Ed... It was a great weekend
Ed,
Great to meet you and Connie and to see you race out there. Notes:
Again, great race and I look forward to seeing you there again soon!
Ps... Look at my profile pic... That's the way I usually come in... Don't know why... But Wisconsin agreed with me... So I owned that EN sign!
Terrific race, and congrats on all the PR's! I'm very mpressed by your run after the biking folly ;-)... Get that straightened out for IMLou and I'm grabbing popcorn to watch more PR's fall!
The execution piece is key. Keep those horses reigned as long as possible on the day, and then let it rip on the backside of the run. Good luck!