Jimmy's IMFL 2016 report
IMFL 2016 race report - kinda long...just like race.
The plan was to try and improve on last year's showing at IMFL of 11:20 / 40th in M45-49 and check off another box toward kona legacy eligibility. 1 out of 3 ain't bad.
I had a great race here last year. A good enough non wetsuit swim, a solid bike, a run that faded but didn't disintegrate and much improved transitions set me up for my best AG showing.
I managed to find much more time to run this year. Kids soccer practice? Run around the field for 30 min. Kids karate class? Run around the block for 30min. Time to walk the dog? Time to jog the dog. As a result of these short extra run sessions I was able to put up a number of 40+ mile weeks with my peak run mileage being 49 miles 3 weeks before the race with a longest run of 18 miles. No running injuries. I just felt tat at the right pace I could run all day long. The right pace depended on the south texas weather but it was easy to find by rpe.
I rode 95% of my bike miles on the need to ride pre dawn and a big road construction job in the area around my house put me on the trainer. I got used to it. I watched a ton and a half of Netflix. Looking back on my season I think that I can continue to do most of my work on the trainer. I honestly prefer it right now. Zero admin time getting to and from the ride. Zero chance of being hit by a giant redneck truck. But one thing that I did notice is that the lack of side to side movement on this trainer meant that my lower back got pretty sore from time to time.
I was concerned that my lack of time in the wind on the road would be a hinderance on race day. I really don't think that it was. Race day was very very windy. As an IM Cozumel vet, I would say that it was every bit as windy as the back side of Cozumel yesterday. For all my time on the trainer I didn't feel out of control or extra demoralized by the wind.
Swimming was swimming. Short intervals on Monday. 100's on Wednesday, 400's on Friday. Once I was ramped up it was 9k per week.
Across all 3 sports I would say that intensity wasn't as high for this race. Volume was good. But I was giving up intensity in the quest to log the hours. After a rest, I am actually looking forward to the out season and some shorter harder efforts.
Body composition was a weak spot for this one. I dieted pretty hard for both Florida 2015 and texas 2016. I spent a decent amount of time hungry. I know that it effected my work productivity. I was racing just below 160lbs (I'm 5"9). For Florida, I wasn't up to being hungry again. So I tried to eat sensibly but if I was hungry, I ate. So I showed up at 166 but man I felt much heavier. I also think that it was symptomatic of being a bit burned out from Florida, Texas and Florida over a 13 month span.
I've had problems with sinus infections for years. Every time I get a cold, I end up on antibiotics. I finally went to see an ent about my problems and was told that I needed surgery to clean things up because I had scar tissue tat had sealed my sinus cavities. So in mid June I went under and had the procedure. The Doc was an ultra runner and assured me that I would be back to training after a week. While that was technically correct it was more like a month before I felt like myself again.
After the race in 2015, my stepfather decided that he had seen enough and that he was ready to sign up for his first full. So when he committed to Florida, I decided that I would do the same.
The swim start area for this race needs some rethinking. There are bottlenecks in terms of people traffic getting down to the beach. If you care about your positioning for the start you MUST get down to the beach 45min before the cannon. Or get creative. The swim start is based on self seeding. There is a starting corral that is way too small with signs showing where to position yourself based on your expected time. The problem is that unless you get there really early, the corral will be totally packed and you will not be able to move up. You would have thought that I would have learned this lesson last year but I found myself there again crammed in with the 2:00 to 2:20 folks. But this time I found the solution. I climbed over the side of the barrier, walked up to the front and climbed back in. Easy. If anyone plans to do this race in the future this is the way to go.
The swim itself was uneventful. More contact than usual but I never felt panicked. Lap 2 was a little slower than lap one and I really think it was because the pack spread out and I didn't have the same draft pulling me along. On the second lap, the sun was up and so after the first turn you really couldn't see anything between the glare and the swell but it was only for 100m or so. I was able to sight off of other swimmers for most of the day. And found the perfect hip for 1000m or so. This was my first experience drafting this way and I really liked it. I like breathing to my left and with a good swimmer right there I didn't have to sight much and didn't get worried about constantly grabbing someone's toes. I didn't find this out till the last leg of the last lap. I'll be looking for this kind of arrangement from the gun next time.
My swim time was 1:15 which was about 5min slower than I had expected given pool times and other IM swims. But it wasn't demoralizing. In fact I swam slower at this race last year in the non wetsuit swim so I figured that a PR was still possible.
T1- I learned how to transition by reading Tim Cronk's race reports. It is simple. The key is prerace preparation, and to never stop moving towards your bike. Pre race I put my shoes and glasses on my bike. I have my race suit on under my wetsuit or speed suit. My t1 bag has my helmet and a spy belt with extra nutrition. Once I'm standing, I put my goggles on my forehead and start walking up the beach. I unzip my wetsuit and pull it down to my waist. I don't use the strippers. They are on the beach and you will just get covered in sand. While walking towards my bag I put my arms in my race suit, pull it up and zip it. I get my bag and walk towards the tent. While walking I open the bag and get my helmet and belt out. I take my cap and goggles off and put them in the bag. Once in the tent I step out of my wetsuit and hand it and the bag to a volunteer, thank them, and keep walking. I walked the entire way this year because my heart rate was through the roof and it took 5:35. I jogged a bit last year and it took 5:00 flat. The guy who won my age group had a t1 of about 5min. I've got lots of problems with swim bike run but the transitions feel pretty solid.
It was really windy on the ride. It felt a lot like Cozumel. You just hunker down, watch your computer data and know that it will end eventually, you would make a turn and the headwind would become a tailwind. I decided immediately that I would not be looking at my speed. I had hoped to be a little quicker than the 20.7mph I averaged last year and on a calmer day if I was feeling strong I had planned to check average speed from time to time and make sure I was where I wanted to be. But by early on in the ride it was clear that this was not a normal day.
I couldn't get to my target watts. Last year's numbers and training suggested I should be able to generate 155-160w with a heart rate of 136 and feel like I could go all day like that. But I couldn't. I couldn't even sniff the 150's without it feeling like an FTP test. So I rode by Herat rate and rpe. My heart rate target was 136bpm and rpe was assessed by asking myself if the decision I was making at that moment would be one that I would be happy with at the start of the second lap of the run.
Nutrition wise (it always makes me laugh that we refer to the salty sugary garbage that we take in during these races as "nutrition") I was looking for 400cal per hour on the bike. A bottle of g2 and a clif block every 10min would cover it. So I would grab a block every 10min and at each aid station I would : discard old bottle of g2, grab a new one and rack it, take a water and swallow a bit and move on.
I spent the first hour just riding easy waiting for my heart rate to come down. My normal heart rate graph for an IM drops for the first hour, levels out in the low 130's and creeps up towards 140 in the last hour. So I watched my heart rate drift lower for the first hour as every single person who owned a bike on the planet earth rode past me. No problem. It is a long day. I'll see you all later right?
My sinuses are draining. I air hanky'd my way around the entire course. By the time the ride was over the shoulders of my suit were a yellow green mess.
As the ride wore on it became clear that I was going very slow. I wasn't looking at speed but I did have 5 mile auto lap turned on and I was seeing lap after lap come in above 15min. But I was still unwilling to accept that I was just sick and it was going to be a rough day. Instead I decided that my power meter was malfunctioning and that everyone else was either over biking or riding as slowly as I was. Delusional but that is what I was telling myself.
Towards the last 30 miles or so, my stomach started to complain mightily and I decided to allow myself to skip a block or two in hopes that I just needed to give myself a rest. My heart rate was not elevated. In fact it just kept dropping. I came walking out of t1 at 155 bpm ( which in hindsight is really high) and got off the bike at 116 which is crazy low.
The ride almost 5:50. NP was 134w which equates to an IF of .64. Vi was 1.04 (higher than I would have guessed) and my EF really tells the story though. I was only able to produce an EF of 1.02.
T2 was 3:30 because I elected to walk. T2 in Florida is faster than t1. There is less ground to cover. As soon as my garmin said I was 111 miles into the ride, I open up my shoes and slip my feet out and just ride the last mile on top. The actual dismount line sneaks up on you at this race. It is around a bit of a corner and all of a sudden you are done. Normally I will swing a leg over and hop off at a little trot. But I didn't feel up to it. So I stopped and handed my bike off. While moving towards the tent I unbuckle my helmet. Grab my bag. Dump it. A sock is in each shoe. So sock on shoe on sock on shoe on. Helmet and glasses in bag. Give bag to volunteer and go. Everything else that I want with me on the run is in a quart ziplock bag and I sort it out as I'm running. Race belt, more clif blocks, hot shot for cramps, visor. I put all that stuff together during mile one.
My target heart rate on the run was 142 for the entire race. So for the first hour I had planned to stay under 140 no matter how great I felt. Then if I wanted to pick up the intensity later I would let myself. But for the first hour 140 was the limit. With good weather, I could run high 9's at 136bmp for what seemed like all day so I expected low 10's at 140 on race day.
On the day however, I was getting 11's. and I was going downhill fast. I realized with clarity that I was feeling at mile 2 the way that I usually feel at mile 22. All day long I had found ways to keep my spirits up and stay hopeful that the day would come around and that I would get out of the race what I had put in to the training. While the bike had been slow, I told myself that it must be the wind, or tat my power meter must be on the fritz or that I would come good on the run because I had put in so many miles. But the simple truth is that I was sick and that it was going to be a grinding struggle to find the finish line at all.
I found myself looking for my "one thing" by mile 3. And it didn't help at all. My one thing was that I wanted to progress. To improve. Even by 1 minute. I had always found some small improvement in each season. A new PB on something. I knew that this wasn't going to be a new record time but I could still move up in my age group right? I mean, you never know. If the day is tough for me imagine how tough it must be for all those people who didn't work as hard.
But I was feeling quite unwell now. I couldn't swallow anything without a wave of nausea. I somehow managed t grind out the first 10 miles like that. 135 bpm was only moving me at an 11:15 pace. But I couldn't eat or drink and things were getting worse.
So my one thing was no longer a motivator. I was sick, hating life, getting worse fast and 11 miles from home.
My family was at a corner on the run course about 2/3 of the way between the finish and the turn around in the park. I made it my mission to come up with something to make my kids laugh each time I passed them. The first time I snuck up on them and pelted them with grapes. The second time I dumped ice down their shirts. The third time I put empty paper cups in my kit like Madonna in the 80's.
By this point I was going to finish. If I had to walk every step of the way, I would finish the race. This past year, both of my girls had come to me at separate times asking to quit soccer part way through a season and quit karate 6 weeks after starting. Needless to say I had spouted parental gasbag platitudes about not giving up till it was over - things like you don't have to sign up again but you have to finish what you started. So guess what? I had to finish what I started.
I kept trying to jog but each time I would feel sick so I'll I would worry that I would have to stop. So I would walk. I figured that either I would walk the entire rest of the way, or I would rally and run on in.
I straight up walked 8.5 miles. At a 16:40 pace. Just walked along. After I got past the ego problems, I had a good time. The people that I met were very nice. They were happy to be getting around in the 13's and having a good time. It all comes down to expectations and perspective. I had some good chats. I didn't complain. I didn't feel compelled to make excuses. It was a great night out at this point. And the spectators and volunteers were having an infectiously good time.
It was around the turnaround point in the park that my new "one thing" came to me -I just wanted to be with my kids again. And the only way that I would be able to tell them again how much I loved them would be to keep moving forward. If I kept moving I would be back with them. So that is what I did.
Somewhere around mile 19 I was trying a test jog and my stomach stayed put. I tried counting steps. I got to 70 before things went south. Eventually I was about to get closer to 100 steps before I would walk again to calm my insides. The last 6mi went by at a 13:30 pace.
With 4mi to go, I got to where my babies were. I had hollowed out two tiny pretzels from an aid station. I was going to offer them to them as wedding rings. But they had packed up. I found out later that they were tired and hungry and needed to go back to the house. I was pretty crushed. I cried a bit as I wound through that bit of neighborhood on the way side one last time. Luckily it was totally dark and no one saw.
I crossed the line in 13 and change. With a run split longer than my bike split and no interest in ever doing this again.
I got back to the house and the kids were very excited to see me. They were proud as always and completely oblivious to the fact that the race had not gone according to plan. And that is what this is all really about for me. Past the ego and accomplishment it is about putting myself out there in front of the people that I love and who love me. It is about trying something very difficult where failure is a real possibility. It is about being vulnerable and opening myself up and letting them be there for me regardless of the outcome.
Later that night I told Terri that I was very glad that I decided to finish but that I didn't think that I wanted to do this anymore. She told me that I couldn't quit on such a bad race. And that the kids really loved the experience. The iron kids run, the cheering. So she turned me around in about 2 minutes. I'll be back.
The thing is, going 13:10 doesn't erase the fact that I went 11:20 last year. Being in the bottom 1/2 of my age group doesn't erase the fact that I have been in the top 20%. Those things still happened.
Also, the race doesn't "owe me" anything. The race doesn't care. You do the work, you get to the starting line and you play the cards that you are dealt on the day. I'm not the first person to have a bad race and I won't be the last. My long term goal is to keep pushing at this sport till I get to kona via legacy. And if I am planning on doing that many of these races, the law of large numbers tells me that one of them will be a real stinker.
In terms of evaluating my training, I'm not sure how much I can really take away. During the main race prep phase of August 1 to oct 31, I logged 210hrs and 13,332 tss. Not the biggest I've had but certainly not the smallest.
I was run heavy. 66 of those hrs were spent running and 107 were biking. I just kept finding easy opportunities to run 45min or so and I took as many of them as I could. I have no idea if it helped or not. Sickness will trump training every time.
Looking ahead, I would like to spend the winter getting some swim lessons. I'm afraid that I am spending 3hrs a week just grooving the same poor stroke mechanics and the winter seems like a good time to put my stroke under the microscope and see what we can see. I'm also looking forward to a good old fashioned out season trainer street fight. The outseason run program is problematic for me as too much run intensity gets me injured but I can bury myself I the trainer.
I'd also like to explore some alternatives to the standard race day nutrition. I just re read my texas report and I had the same stomach trouble just not quite as bad.
I'm writing this at the really awesome beach house that has been home for the past week. Time to put the iPad down and go see the surprise cake that my girls baked for me. When your one things make you a cake, you show up and eat it!
Thanks to the team for the insight and support. And getting the game ball was really awesome. I will find somewhere prominent to display it.
The plan was to try and improve on last year's showing at IMFL of 11:20 / 40th in M45-49 and check off another box toward kona legacy eligibility. 1 out of 3 ain't bad.
I had a great race here last year. A good enough non wetsuit swim, a solid bike, a run that faded but didn't disintegrate and much improved transitions set me up for my best AG showing.
I managed to find much more time to run this year. Kids soccer practice? Run around the field for 30 min. Kids karate class? Run around the block for 30min. Time to walk the dog? Time to jog the dog. As a result of these short extra run sessions I was able to put up a number of 40+ mile weeks with my peak run mileage being 49 miles 3 weeks before the race with a longest run of 18 miles. No running injuries. I just felt tat at the right pace I could run all day long. The right pace depended on the south texas weather but it was easy to find by rpe.
I rode 95% of my bike miles on the need to ride pre dawn and a big road construction job in the area around my house put me on the trainer. I got used to it. I watched a ton and a half of Netflix. Looking back on my season I think that I can continue to do most of my work on the trainer. I honestly prefer it right now. Zero admin time getting to and from the ride. Zero chance of being hit by a giant redneck truck. But one thing that I did notice is that the lack of side to side movement on this trainer meant that my lower back got pretty sore from time to time.
I was concerned that my lack of time in the wind on the road would be a hinderance on race day. I really don't think that it was. Race day was very very windy. As an IM Cozumel vet, I would say that it was every bit as windy as the back side of Cozumel yesterday. For all my time on the trainer I didn't feel out of control or extra demoralized by the wind.
Swimming was swimming. Short intervals on Monday. 100's on Wednesday, 400's on Friday. Once I was ramped up it was 9k per week.
Across all 3 sports I would say that intensity wasn't as high for this race. Volume was good. But I was giving up intensity in the quest to log the hours. After a rest, I am actually looking forward to the out season and some shorter harder efforts.
Body composition was a weak spot for this one. I dieted pretty hard for both Florida 2015 and texas 2016. I spent a decent amount of time hungry. I know that it effected my work productivity. I was racing just below 160lbs (I'm 5"9). For Florida, I wasn't up to being hungry again. So I tried to eat sensibly but if I was hungry, I ate. So I showed up at 166 but man I felt much heavier. I also think that it was symptomatic of being a bit burned out from Florida, Texas and Florida over a 13 month span.
I've had problems with sinus infections for years. Every time I get a cold, I end up on antibiotics. I finally went to see an ent about my problems and was told that I needed surgery to clean things up because I had scar tissue tat had sealed my sinus cavities. So in mid June I went under and had the procedure. The Doc was an ultra runner and assured me that I would be back to training after a week. While that was technically correct it was more like a month before I felt like myself again.
After the race in 2015, my stepfather decided that he had seen enough and that he was ready to sign up for his first full. So when he committed to Florida, I decided that I would do the same.
The swim start area for this race needs some rethinking. There are bottlenecks in terms of people traffic getting down to the beach. If you care about your positioning for the start you MUST get down to the beach 45min before the cannon. Or get creative. The swim start is based on self seeding. There is a starting corral that is way too small with signs showing where to position yourself based on your expected time. The problem is that unless you get there really early, the corral will be totally packed and you will not be able to move up. You would have thought that I would have learned this lesson last year but I found myself there again crammed in with the 2:00 to 2:20 folks. But this time I found the solution. I climbed over the side of the barrier, walked up to the front and climbed back in. Easy. If anyone plans to do this race in the future this is the way to go.
The swim itself was uneventful. More contact than usual but I never felt panicked. Lap 2 was a little slower than lap one and I really think it was because the pack spread out and I didn't have the same draft pulling me along. On the second lap, the sun was up and so after the first turn you really couldn't see anything between the glare and the swell but it was only for 100m or so. I was able to sight off of other swimmers for most of the day. And found the perfect hip for 1000m or so. This was my first experience drafting this way and I really liked it. I like breathing to my left and with a good swimmer right there I didn't have to sight much and didn't get worried about constantly grabbing someone's toes. I didn't find this out till the last leg of the last lap. I'll be looking for this kind of arrangement from the gun next time.
My swim time was 1:15 which was about 5min slower than I had expected given pool times and other IM swims. But it wasn't demoralizing. In fact I swam slower at this race last year in the non wetsuit swim so I figured that a PR was still possible.
T1- I learned how to transition by reading Tim Cronk's race reports. It is simple. The key is prerace preparation, and to never stop moving towards your bike. Pre race I put my shoes and glasses on my bike. I have my race suit on under my wetsuit or speed suit. My t1 bag has my helmet and a spy belt with extra nutrition. Once I'm standing, I put my goggles on my forehead and start walking up the beach. I unzip my wetsuit and pull it down to my waist. I don't use the strippers. They are on the beach and you will just get covered in sand. While walking towards my bag I put my arms in my race suit, pull it up and zip it. I get my bag and walk towards the tent. While walking I open the bag and get my helmet and belt out. I take my cap and goggles off and put them in the bag. Once in the tent I step out of my wetsuit and hand it and the bag to a volunteer, thank them, and keep walking. I walked the entire way this year because my heart rate was through the roof and it took 5:35. I jogged a bit last year and it took 5:00 flat. The guy who won my age group had a t1 of about 5min. I've got lots of problems with swim bike run but the transitions feel pretty solid.
It was really windy on the ride. It felt a lot like Cozumel. You just hunker down, watch your computer data and know that it will end eventually, you would make a turn and the headwind would become a tailwind. I decided immediately that I would not be looking at my speed. I had hoped to be a little quicker than the 20.7mph I averaged last year and on a calmer day if I was feeling strong I had planned to check average speed from time to time and make sure I was where I wanted to be. But by early on in the ride it was clear that this was not a normal day.
I couldn't get to my target watts. Last year's numbers and training suggested I should be able to generate 155-160w with a heart rate of 136 and feel like I could go all day like that. But I couldn't. I couldn't even sniff the 150's without it feeling like an FTP test. So I rode by Herat rate and rpe. My heart rate target was 136bpm and rpe was assessed by asking myself if the decision I was making at that moment would be one that I would be happy with at the start of the second lap of the run.
Nutrition wise (it always makes me laugh that we refer to the salty sugary garbage that we take in during these races as "nutrition") I was looking for 400cal per hour on the bike. A bottle of g2 and a clif block every 10min would cover it. So I would grab a block every 10min and at each aid station I would : discard old bottle of g2, grab a new one and rack it, take a water and swallow a bit and move on.
I spent the first hour just riding easy waiting for my heart rate to come down. My normal heart rate graph for an IM drops for the first hour, levels out in the low 130's and creeps up towards 140 in the last hour. So I watched my heart rate drift lower for the first hour as every single person who owned a bike on the planet earth rode past me. No problem. It is a long day. I'll see you all later right?
My sinuses are draining. I air hanky'd my way around the entire course. By the time the ride was over the shoulders of my suit were a yellow green mess.
As the ride wore on it became clear that I was going very slow. I wasn't looking at speed but I did have 5 mile auto lap turned on and I was seeing lap after lap come in above 15min. But I was still unwilling to accept that I was just sick and it was going to be a rough day. Instead I decided that my power meter was malfunctioning and that everyone else was either over biking or riding as slowly as I was. Delusional but that is what I was telling myself.
Towards the last 30 miles or so, my stomach started to complain mightily and I decided to allow myself to skip a block or two in hopes that I just needed to give myself a rest. My heart rate was not elevated. In fact it just kept dropping. I came walking out of t1 at 155 bpm ( which in hindsight is really high) and got off the bike at 116 which is crazy low.
The ride almost 5:50. NP was 134w which equates to an IF of .64. Vi was 1.04 (higher than I would have guessed) and my EF really tells the story though. I was only able to produce an EF of 1.02.
T2 was 3:30 because I elected to walk. T2 in Florida is faster than t1. There is less ground to cover. As soon as my garmin said I was 111 miles into the ride, I open up my shoes and slip my feet out and just ride the last mile on top. The actual dismount line sneaks up on you at this race. It is around a bit of a corner and all of a sudden you are done. Normally I will swing a leg over and hop off at a little trot. But I didn't feel up to it. So I stopped and handed my bike off. While moving towards the tent I unbuckle my helmet. Grab my bag. Dump it. A sock is in each shoe. So sock on shoe on sock on shoe on. Helmet and glasses in bag. Give bag to volunteer and go. Everything else that I want with me on the run is in a quart ziplock bag and I sort it out as I'm running. Race belt, more clif blocks, hot shot for cramps, visor. I put all that stuff together during mile one.
My target heart rate on the run was 142 for the entire race. So for the first hour I had planned to stay under 140 no matter how great I felt. Then if I wanted to pick up the intensity later I would let myself. But for the first hour 140 was the limit. With good weather, I could run high 9's at 136bmp for what seemed like all day so I expected low 10's at 140 on race day.
On the day however, I was getting 11's. and I was going downhill fast. I realized with clarity that I was feeling at mile 2 the way that I usually feel at mile 22. All day long I had found ways to keep my spirits up and stay hopeful that the day would come around and that I would get out of the race what I had put in to the training. While the bike had been slow, I told myself that it must be the wind, or tat my power meter must be on the fritz or that I would come good on the run because I had put in so many miles. But the simple truth is that I was sick and that it was going to be a grinding struggle to find the finish line at all.
I found myself looking for my "one thing" by mile 3. And it didn't help at all. My one thing was that I wanted to progress. To improve. Even by 1 minute. I had always found some small improvement in each season. A new PB on something. I knew that this wasn't going to be a new record time but I could still move up in my age group right? I mean, you never know. If the day is tough for me imagine how tough it must be for all those people who didn't work as hard.
But I was feeling quite unwell now. I couldn't swallow anything without a wave of nausea. I somehow managed t grind out the first 10 miles like that. 135 bpm was only moving me at an 11:15 pace. But I couldn't eat or drink and things were getting worse.
So my one thing was no longer a motivator. I was sick, hating life, getting worse fast and 11 miles from home.
My family was at a corner on the run course about 2/3 of the way between the finish and the turn around in the park. I made it my mission to come up with something to make my kids laugh each time I passed them. The first time I snuck up on them and pelted them with grapes. The second time I dumped ice down their shirts. The third time I put empty paper cups in my kit like Madonna in the 80's.
By this point I was going to finish. If I had to walk every step of the way, I would finish the race. This past year, both of my girls had come to me at separate times asking to quit soccer part way through a season and quit karate 6 weeks after starting. Needless to say I had spouted parental gasbag platitudes about not giving up till it was over - things like you don't have to sign up again but you have to finish what you started. So guess what? I had to finish what I started.
I kept trying to jog but each time I would feel sick so I'll I would worry that I would have to stop. So I would walk. I figured that either I would walk the entire rest of the way, or I would rally and run on in.
I straight up walked 8.5 miles. At a 16:40 pace. Just walked along. After I got past the ego problems, I had a good time. The people that I met were very nice. They were happy to be getting around in the 13's and having a good time. It all comes down to expectations and perspective. I had some good chats. I didn't complain. I didn't feel compelled to make excuses. It was a great night out at this point. And the spectators and volunteers were having an infectiously good time.
It was around the turnaround point in the park that my new "one thing" came to me -I just wanted to be with my kids again. And the only way that I would be able to tell them again how much I loved them would be to keep moving forward. If I kept moving I would be back with them. So that is what I did.
Somewhere around mile 19 I was trying a test jog and my stomach stayed put. I tried counting steps. I got to 70 before things went south. Eventually I was about to get closer to 100 steps before I would walk again to calm my insides. The last 6mi went by at a 13:30 pace.
With 4mi to go, I got to where my babies were. I had hollowed out two tiny pretzels from an aid station. I was going to offer them to them as wedding rings. But they had packed up. I found out later that they were tired and hungry and needed to go back to the house. I was pretty crushed. I cried a bit as I wound through that bit of neighborhood on the way side one last time. Luckily it was totally dark and no one saw.
I crossed the line in 13 and change. With a run split longer than my bike split and no interest in ever doing this again.
I got back to the house and the kids were very excited to see me. They were proud as always and completely oblivious to the fact that the race had not gone according to plan. And that is what this is all really about for me. Past the ego and accomplishment it is about putting myself out there in front of the people that I love and who love me. It is about trying something very difficult where failure is a real possibility. It is about being vulnerable and opening myself up and letting them be there for me regardless of the outcome.
Later that night I told Terri that I was very glad that I decided to finish but that I didn't think that I wanted to do this anymore. She told me that I couldn't quit on such a bad race. And that the kids really loved the experience. The iron kids run, the cheering. So she turned me around in about 2 minutes. I'll be back.
The thing is, going 13:10 doesn't erase the fact that I went 11:20 last year. Being in the bottom 1/2 of my age group doesn't erase the fact that I have been in the top 20%. Those things still happened.
Also, the race doesn't "owe me" anything. The race doesn't care. You do the work, you get to the starting line and you play the cards that you are dealt on the day. I'm not the first person to have a bad race and I won't be the last. My long term goal is to keep pushing at this sport till I get to kona via legacy. And if I am planning on doing that many of these races, the law of large numbers tells me that one of them will be a real stinker.
In terms of evaluating my training, I'm not sure how much I can really take away. During the main race prep phase of August 1 to oct 31, I logged 210hrs and 13,332 tss. Not the biggest I've had but certainly not the smallest.
I was run heavy. 66 of those hrs were spent running and 107 were biking. I just kept finding easy opportunities to run 45min or so and I took as many of them as I could. I have no idea if it helped or not. Sickness will trump training every time.
Looking ahead, I would like to spend the winter getting some swim lessons. I'm afraid that I am spending 3hrs a week just grooving the same poor stroke mechanics and the winter seems like a good time to put my stroke under the microscope and see what we can see. I'm also looking forward to a good old fashioned out season trainer street fight. The outseason run program is problematic for me as too much run intensity gets me injured but I can bury myself I the trainer.
I'd also like to explore some alternatives to the standard race day nutrition. I just re read my texas report and I had the same stomach trouble just not quite as bad.
I'm writing this at the really awesome beach house that has been home for the past week. Time to put the iPad down and go see the surprise cake that my girls baked for me. When your one things make you a cake, you show up and eat it!
Thanks to the team for the insight and support. And getting the game ball was really awesome. I will find somewhere prominent to display it.
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Comments
I was following all day and knew you were obviously having an off day and likely weren't having too much fun. I want to see you keep plugging away towards #12, so hopefully you'll move to revenge mode soon. You train very hard year-round, and have done so for several years, so don't be afraid to mix things up, try some new things and search for that Refresh Button that can put you back on course to moving forward from the great results you got in FL '15. Cheers to a great '17.
MR
I noticed what you mentioned above during your training.
Frankly, I think you did well considering how you trained, how you carried the total fatigue load of work, family and training during this cycle. Sometimes, it is easy to only look at the IM training load and not realize the total load of what is going on all around and you just can't have a perfect training cycle every time......Then there are those training cycles where you just nail every workout from 12 weeks out and you make it to the race only to have one or more things blow up your day........
For me, doing what you did is the real Ironman. Training with the volume while managing work and family, making it to the race healthy, moving it across the finish line after a long day.......may not be what you wanted but, in my view, admirable work my friend.
KMF!
SS
And Tim I fixed your name!
nice jimmy.
I loved that you were able to connect with your children, during the race, even with your troubles.
have a good rest.
Great Race/Report Jimmy!
It is an inspiration to see someone who takes what we can never predict on race day and makes the best of it. You truly kept your focus on the things that really matter, your family. The pictures were awesome!! Love the cake. Keep it up, you will have the race that you were looking for soon!!