Kyle Krywko IM Lou R. Report (2016)
This was IM #1 (will not be my last)! 17 months ago I bought my first road bike and began endurance training for the first time in my life. 4 Sprints, 1 Olympic, and 1 70.3 later, I’m tickled to have finished IM Lou. One thing I know for sure - I have a lot to learn. But, the support from the EN staff and community has been invaluable, and I can’t wait to take this latest experience and improve.
Overall Thoughts:
(1) I peaked from a body composition and run fitness perspective in early August, and it went downhill quick. A nagging calf issue forced me to shelve a lot of run volume in August and September, which led to a decrease in motivation, and an increase in poundage (12 gained before race day). I surely did not plan it this way, and only have myself to blame for the loss in motivation and allowing the scale to slide the wrong direction.
(2) A Fall IM is not ideal for my family schedule. Travel soccer for my girls gets intense in September, with some away tournaments on the weekends. I tried my best, but riding a trainer at 4:30 am in a hotel is not my idea of a good time.
(3) On the positive side, I started to understand the metrics of training and racing (power, HR, etc.) during the build. Big thanks to Doug Johnson for the excellent tutelage.
Pre-Race:
Jill (my lovely wife) and I arrived in Louisville Thursday afternoon. Registered and attended the athlete meeting. Then met some EN folks for dinner. Not surprisingly, everyone was delightful and I was very happy to meet those I have been following on Strava and the EN site in person. Did my best to listen attentively to Tim Cronk and Ed Eovino, who happened to be at our side of the table, while they waxed uber knowledge. Those words definitely had a calming impact on a very nervous me.
Joined John Henault and Rob Gould for a short recon ride on Friday. Paul Curtin recommended the route, and what he suggested was perfect as far as a part of the course that was a “should see”. Then had lunch with more EN folks.
Saturday was legs up day, aside from dropping off the bike and bags. The size of transition was amazing to me.
Race Morning:
The Michigan/Rutgers football game put me to sleep until 3:30, when I woke, ate (Bagel, PB, Banana and Clif Bar), showered and greased up. Made the trek down to transition, filled my bottles and put bike comp. on sleep. Then, got in line for the swim start. The line was crazy crazy long, but ended up moving very quickly.
Swim:
I was hoping/expecting 1:10, and ended up with 1:09:38. I swim almost exclusively in a 25m pool, where my normal times would project a faster swim. History told me, however, that I’m terrible at sighting and that I have a bad habit of not finding my pool rhythm in OW. History repeated itself, on cue, during the race. That said, all in all, I was ok with the swim and it went by quick.
T1:
Submerged from the water, got peeled, and was smooth in getting into the tent. I got slowed up by a fogging helmet shield that refused to snap back in for a few attempts. Quickly understood why I got a weird look from the dude next to me when I asked to borrow the corner of his towel to wipe the moisture from the shield (the towel happened to be covering his naked torso).
Ended up getting out in 8:30 - room to improve. Helpful tips to avoid the fogging and securing the shield??
Bike:
Coach P and Doug have helped me a ton in tackling appropriate metrics on the bike. The plan was to go out easy, lower the HR, then up the NP after 45 minutes. I was targeting 170 NP for the first 15 miles, then average 190 NP for the remainder. I was shooting for 5:30 or so with a avg. HR of 134.
The ride was so much fun! The opportunity for legal drafting was plentiful, and I think I did a good job in executing. I rarely need to get out of aero, which was true for this ride. Only did so on the up-hills when I was slower than 9 miles per hour. I think I got out of the saddle once, on a steep short hill the 2nd time I hit it. Nutrition was good, I peed on the bike 5 times, took in 1.5 bottles of GE per hour, a shot blok every 30 minutes, and a caffeinated gel on mile 40 and 80. Stomach never felt full or uncomfortable.
Overall, my NP was 184 for the ride and avg. HR of 143. I was surprised to see the time at 5:15:46, which was quicker than expected. I would have thought this would set me up for a decent run (gosh, I was wrong)!
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1400797394
T2:
I kept my shoes on, which was a mistake. Why not get off bike, take 10 seconds to get feet out, then run barefoot? Dumb!
Aside from that, got shoes on quick and grabbed my to-go bag. I felt smooth and was out in 5:28.
Run:
I began the run eating a Clif Bar and watching my HR. I was shooting for 137 HR the first 6 miles, but I was well above that (mid 150s). The problem was that I felt good and aside from the 1st mile (7:48), my pace was conservative (so I thought).
I ran about the same pace for the first 14 miles (where my HR elevated to low 160s), taking a little GE at each aid station (along with a shot blok every 2 miles). I then walked the aid stations for miles 15 and 16. It was then that I hit the wall!
As best as I can describe, my legs just felt like concrete and all of a sudden really tired. I also started to really feel my calf injury, but I suspect it was always there and the difficulty of the moment made it more apparent. I did not fell pain, per se, but pure exhaustion and tightness in the calf.
From there, I simply did the walk/run thing without any pattern or reason. I would see a light post and a traffic light in the distance, and tell myself to run between the two. Rinse and repeat.
The only positive from those last 10 miles was seeing some EN folks and realizing I can pee on the run (sorry kid at mile 8)! Ended up running/walking a 4:21, which was well above my expected time (3:50). Clearly my run execution was poor (HR way too high) and I’m looking for any additional feedback.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1400797398
Finish:
I ended up finishing in 11:00:35. Because I only used my 920 for the swim and run, I had no idea what my cumulative time was while racing. Previous race reports I read scared me about the battery life of the 920, if I used the triathlon mode the entire race. If I would have had my cumulative time, I would have forced myself to get in just under 11. Not the biggest deal in the world, but I compare it to golf where a score of 79 just looks so much better than an 80! Worst part is that my 920 had plenty of juice in the tank to have kept it on during the ride.
Alright, 1st RR complete. I know it is not as metric-centric as I have seen, but I’m still a neophyte. Let the suggestions and critiques commence.
Comments
One thing...If you hear Tim and I talking again...tell me to shut up! You'll learn WAAAYYY more!
Kyle - Tickling 11 hours in your first IM, being close to the top 10% overall is a very encouraging maiden effort. Especially considering how much better you could have gone on that day with tweaks to your run execution. More consistent training and weight control in the final 6 weeks, as you note, would also have helped.
Sounds like you already know you could do better on the body comp and training front. So, if I were you, I'd start setting my sights a bit higher, by focusing on the skills required for better IM race execution. The place you want to get to is where you can correlate your inner feelings of how hard you are working with your heart rate and your pace. There's no short cut to that; it requires paying attention to all three of these things every workout, and then testing things out in multiple races. This winter/OS, I;d suggest scheduling a couple of 5K running races as your tests weeks 4 and 8, a 10k about week 10, culminating in a half marathon at the end of the OS. Your job in those races is:
Getting good - really good - at IM means, in addition to bike strength and run speed, learning how to manage and control your pace to a very fine degree throughout the day. Since you can really only do one or two IMs a years, you need to learn how to do that in your daily workouts and shorter races.
Your swim is "serviceable". Your bike is amazing for someone who just got a road bike 17 months ago. Given the 4x greater importance of the run (over the swim), and the risk of losing big chunks of time there, that's where I'd put my next round of emphasis if I were you. Not to get faster (although that will probably happen during the OS), but to get really in tune with your body, and learn just how hard you can push it, and also how to meter out efforts over the course of a race.
Totally agree with the above comments, you had an incredible first Ironman. And I've seen your run times before you got injured - you have a lot of potential.
As for the run ... look on the bright side, you beat Oprah's marathon time ... it took me three Ironman races to accomplish that.
(as a side note, I couldn't access any of the Garmin files ... you may need to edit them ... for each file click the lock icon on the top right and select "everyone" for the privacy setting)
KK, I watched you train smart and hard this year. Was pure joy having you on the Strava IM team!
As others have mentioned below, we now know you are a 10 hour IM guy pulling off an 11:00:00 on your first one!
Very hard to do as many things as you did right on the first IM without having any experience. You are obviously a much quicker learner than I am and you have great people around you that are going to take you to the next level when Round 2 comes about.
Sincere congratulations on a fantastic effort / performance !
SS
Like others mentioned, it sure did not seem to an outsider like this was your first IM! It was great to see you on the course, and it was obvious you were in for a good day. Congratulations on the race, Ironman!
Thanks again for setting up the ride on Friday. I thought it very beneficial to see that part of the course.
Again, congrats on a job well done!
Bike file: https://www.strava.com/activities/741364590/laps
Run file: https://www.strava.com/activities/741364420/laps
The bike numbers look great - no major spikes, and you had great speed for the power you generated. The run laps show just what you described -- heart rate started rather high and stayed up there, moving from 154 to 160. If you get the run HR closer to 145 for the first six you'll fly through those later miles.