Hoff's 2017 IMLP Race Report
IMLP 2017 Race Report
Ironman #8 in the books, first attempt at a KQ
Results - 20:24 run PR & 21:24 race PR
moved from 209th overall in 2016 to 163rd overall, yet slid back from 10th in Age group to 14th. Apparently the best 50-54 year olds according to AWA rankings showed up in Lake Placid this year. The # 1 ranked guy in the AG only went 3rd.
Bike file - https://www.strava.com/activities/1098495819
Run File - https://www.strava.com/activities/1098713884
If there is one summary it would have to be my favorite song, “you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need…” My self expectations changed a year ago. I had gotten to accept that I would never be good enough to get to Kona and that I’d start doing events where I could have more fun with my fitness. With no idea as to how well I was doing, I finished in 10th of 280 in my Age Group at Lake Placid in 2016. This finish changed the game for me and enabled me to focus my training volume and quality to a new level.
Arrived on Wednesday, Checked into the house, got settled and went out for a run lap of Mirror lake.
Thursday morning went with the group to do a one lap swim of mirror lake, pace per 100 was exact to the same swim a year ago. Big sigh of relief to feel confident about my swim as I had a bit lower swim training volume coming into this race vs last year. I also experimented with a bit of technique and was concerned that I completely FUBARed my form.
The Race! And from start to finish, for the first time, I was truly racing!
Swim – Projected time 1:10, Actual time 1:07:53 [PR]
Lined up at the front of the 1hr – 1:10 group and after the gun went off moved up. New addition to the start, they now had a clock beeping every 10 seconds, they had two people that were dropping a flag in front of the line causing it to pause for 10 seconds before allowing a small group of around 10 people through for 10 seconds and repeating, Yet more of an effort to ease the congestion on the swim course. While I was theoretically lined up with people that were faster than myself, I found myself swimming the same speed as them. I did find that overall the swim was rougher than I remember last year in terms of contact. That said, I definitely was in a good frame of mind, I got into my longer pull relaxed stroke sooner than usual. I also never had the moment I have had in every IM swim I’ve previously done, the feeling of not liking this, not wanting to be there and dreading the rest of the swim. The mental self talk was very positive.
I started my watch late, probably half way down the first leg, this meant I would have no gauge at the half way mark when you come out of the water between laps. Fortunately, they still had the race clock running on time of day and I had the sense that I had swam for 35 minutes which would put me on target for my 1:10 swim.
While having had less swim volume in this build than last year, I had found a training partner that swam virtually the same pace as me which led to some incredible training swims where we pushed each other and I felt strong all the way to the end. Clearly that paid off, thanks James!
T1 – Target 4:30; actual time 5:10 [PR]
I got out of the water with purpose, ran to the strippers, pointed at the two largest guys I could find, who promptly relieved me of my wetsuit. I got up, threw my wetsuit over my shoulder, channeling the advice I got from John Withrow I ran hard for transition, grabbed my bag with pink duct tape which was near the end of the 3rd to last row closest to the transition tents, I went inside it was reasonably empty, got the attention of a volunteer and dumped the contents of my bag on the ground, only to discover that the contents weren’t mine. It took me a few seconds to realize that I grabbed the wrong bag (the pink duct tape confused me). The volunteer took care of it and I went back to get my bag, fortunately it was very close to the tent. Upon return, I sat next to Rob Sabo saying what happened. Rob dumped out his bag and actually had the same problem. Rob is THE master of the run and needed all the time I could get on him, last year I passed him on mile 20 of the bike, this year, I got him in Transition, good things happening for me. (Rob went on to have THE fastest run of the AG passing me at mile 14 or 15)
I clicked on my helmet and bike shoes, grabbed my $5 work gloves asked an volunteer to pack my bag telling him that there was a gift card for him in the pile, thanked him and ran out. I made sure to make eye contact with the volunteer announcing bike numbers and yelled my number, ran carefully around the end of the bike racks, down the middle, got my bike from a volunteer and ran to bike out and mounted among a very thin crowd of me and 2 other people.
Bike – Target 5:35:00, Actual 5:49:27 [2016 time was 5:47:01
I worked with Coach P on figuring out my target power based
on recent long rides and the target was to ride 190 to generate 185. Based on
the advice I got from Tim & Al in the days before, I’d need to go deeper
and test the limits
Stats were 186AP/194NP, IF .72, TSS 320, VI 1.04
2016 Stats 168AP/178NP, IF .68, TSS 275, VI 1.06
I got to work as soon after hitting the bridge on the out by
river road and soon thereafter Danielle Santucci rode up to me, yelling at
me to ride my numbers and get going… I responded that I was 10 watts over my
target and she’d better look at what she’s doing.. Never saw her again until
waving on the out & backs. Aside from some drizzle on the out of town and
Keene descent and some actual rain on the beginning of the flats out of Keene
the lap was pretty benign. I knew the course, I knew where I could push,
apparently for the first lap, that was virtually everywhere. I had put a
sticker on the top tube of my bike before the race this week channeling Romain Bardet's success on the tour: “take the risk or
lose the chance.” I wasn’t being stupid, there were plenty of people around me
hammering hills. I was very much doing what we are told to do: “the opposite of
everyone else,” I was just pushing the upper end of the envelope.
I finished the first lap in 2:50. While a few minutes outside of my target, good enough to knock 7 minutes off the time if I could hold power for the second lap. On the 2nd lap I had a guy follow me down Keene which I always channel my inner Withrow on and aside from that it was obvious from early on out of town that there was evident wind in our face. It wasn’t crazy strong, I looked it up on the almanac and it was rated at 10mph with gusts of 12-15. I didn’t think it was that strong, but it was a factor on the descent and certainly on the TT sections from Keene to Ausable Forks. It was obvious to me by the time I got to the turn at Jay to go up to Wilmington that I was potentially overcooking the bike… Reminded myself of two things, one I had a solid run base that I didn’t have a year earlier, and two that I was here to take risks.
During Lap one it was cool, with most of my nutrition coming from Gatorade and the fact that I pee a lot on the bike meant that I needed to switch some of my nutrition from Liquid to solid, so I started grabbing more clif bars at the aid stations. By the middle of lap two things clearly warmed up a bit and aside from my power dropping, I also realized that I might be a bit dehydrated, so I immediately started chugging what was left of my Gatorade and went hard on the fluids for the rest of the 2nd lap. I did feel power recover a bit on the flats.
T2 – Target 2:45, Actual 2:33 [PR}
Pretty uneventful, removed feet from bike shoes as
approaching bike in, handed bike off to a volunteer with shoes still attached,
jogged to bag racks, grabbed the right bag, went inside, put on sox &
running shoes, grabbed my go bag containing number belt, Coach Ps race Saver
Bag, 1 Gu and my hat that I’ve worn in every IM I’ve done. Again asked a
volunteer to pack bag which was really just my helmet and told him of the gift
card left for him.
Run – Target 3:47, actual 3:49 [20:24 PR]
The irony of all the hard bike work is that I started the run only 40 seconds faster on the overall race clock than I did last year. I came out right behind a very fit looking guy in my age
group. Where I live isn’t very different from the LP run course, all of my runs
start out with a short steep downhill and a moderate grade downhill within the
first 3 miles. I turned on the downhill speed and the guy stayed with me. I
stopped at the first aid station for ice in my Mile18 race saver bag, put it
inside my hat, sucked down a Gatorade, water over head, got going… Mr fit
looking was right in front of me as we crested a small uphill and I turned on
the speed for the downhill, watching Heart Rate and ran comfortably away from
him. Keeping an eye on heart rate and working it up to the mid 130s I ran the
first three miles at an average pace of 7:40, I felt I wasn’t doing any long
term damage as there was quite a bit of downhill that I worked on “coasting”
down.
The course now flows along River Road for an out and back section of about 3 miles each way, with 3 aid stations that you run through in both directions. Goal in this section was to get into my pace target of 8:35 – 8:40 while maintaining a mid to high 130s HR. At aid stations I’d toss a cup of water over my head, stop for a few steps to get Gatorade down and get going.
Did a good job of running up the first hill back to town,
ski jump hill. For those new to LP, the new bridge is about 10’ higher than the
old, so the hill is not as bad as before, Cruised through to the bottom of
townie hill and slowly jogged up to the traffic light, made the turn and kept
going. The energy throughout town is awesome, saw Jill & Casey, got a hug
from Paul Takac who was a volunteer in the middle of the course, saw Laura
Becker as I made the turn to mirror lake drive, cruised the out and back and
got mentally prepared for the second lap.
By the end of River road i was hurting and looking forward to my walks at the aid stations. On the return, I walked about 20" between aid stations around mile 19, here the race begins. I notice that a guy walking in front of me who starts running is in my AG, we both start running. I ask him what lap he's on, he responds "second," I try not to give up where I am and say "good for you, finish strong!" and with that had a lot of trouble holding him and found myself walking 10 steps again in a half mile, after the next aid station he picked up another guy in our AG who was walking. I told myself that they are both hurting, they were both walking, I can beat them.. find a way. By the end of River road, the 2nd guy ducked into a Porta John & the first guy was within 200 yards. I was reasonably sure he thought I was long gone and decided to use ski jump hill as a pick. He would walk, I would be stronger and go by him. When I turned onto the main road, he was already halfway across the bridge, I walked for 20" and resumed a slow jog, not that what I was doing before that wasn't a slow jog, this was slower, probably 10:30 pace, he slowed to a walk and I accelerated past him and kept going - I was racing and once up that hill, my mental attitude changed I was going all the way with only walking minimally at the remaining aid stations, got some positive mojo from Patrick Marsh, a good chat with Trish, up ski jump hill, passed anyone I could see, down and back mirror lake drive, into the oval and into the arms of my buddy Dr Stu who also caught me last year across the finish line. As I came across the finish line, I heard Mike Reilly announce that this was my first time under 11 hours and that my official time was 10:54
I Beat Withrow's PR, 11 hours for an IM and a solid run under 3:50 in the process. No Kona slot for me with this performance, but the knowledge that I put together a race to the highest level of my ability and one that would have "no excuses" which was on my EN Signature all year.
Withrow egged me on with a charity contribution for beating him, Please join and make a donation you can afford from $5 or more by July 31 as all donations to my chosen charity, World Bicycle Relief, will be matched by their corporate sponsors in the month of July. The link is on my signature below.
Thanks for reading, all comments and charity donations are encouraged. (A note on the Charity component, this is not a "pay for my race via charity effort," WBR is not contributing to my racing at all, read the page & learn about my 1st hand connection to WBR)
| 2016 | 2017 | |
| Swim | 1:09:39 | 1:07:53 |
| T1 | 5:29 | 5:10 |
| Bike | 5:47:01 | 5:49:27 |
| Bike NP | 178 | 194 |
| Bike AP | 168 | 186 |
| Bike VI | 1.06 | 1.04 |
| TSS | 275 | 320 |
| Bike loop 1 | 2:49 | 2:50 |
| Bike Loop 2 | 169 | 2:59 |
| Bike Loop 1 NP | 185 | 202 |
| Bike Loop 2 NP | 160 | 186 |
| T2 | 3:34 | 2:33 |
| Run | 4:09:51 | 3:49:27 |
| Total | 11:15:34 | 10:54:30 |
| AG Place | 10/229 | 14/236 |
| Overall place | 209 | 163 |
| race time start of run | 7:05:43 | 7:05:03 |
| Mile | Pace | HR |
| 1 | 7:54 | 131 |
| 2 | 7:53 | 136 |
| 3 | 7:38 | 136 |
| 4 | 8:15 | 137 |
| 5 | 8:11 | 135 |
| 6 | 8:28 | 135 |
| 7 | 8:34 | 135 |
| 8 | 8:28 | 135 |
| 9 | 8:53 | 135 |
| 10 | 8:54 | 137 |
| 11 | 9:00 | 137 |
| 12 | 8:51 | 139 |
| 13 | 8:34 | 132 |
| 14 | 8:32 | 131 |
| 15 | 8:45 | 133 |
| 16 | 8:40 | 130 |
| 17 | 9:02 | 132 |
| 18 | 8:54 | 131 |
| 19 | 9:29 | 129 |
| 20 | 9:42 | 128 |
| 21 | 9:02 | 129 |
| 22 | 9:44 | 129 |
| 23 | 9:25 | 130 |
| 24 | 9:50 | 129 |
| 25 | 9:33 | 131 |
| 26 | 8:32 | 131 |
Comments
You had very little HR variability; looks like both bike and run were between 125-139; very nice consistency. Curious on your bike laps ... looks like the laps were manual instead of automatic ... what was your trigger point for lapping?
Love the finish photo. I don't see the hat so I'll presume you tossed that to the crowd like the pros do :-)
I love that you put it all out there and then went and did what you set out to do (the things you can control anyways). But with that said, I still see many places you can still improve. I think more swimming in training will setup a better late half of your bike and therefore setting up an even better run... I think even more 5+hr rides will help your bike fitness, leading to a better run... And finding a "darker" place on the run will get you an extra few minutes as well... Then you just need the stars to align and have a "normal" field show up in your AG on the day... You already know all of these things and I'm convinced you will keeping working and pushing the needle where you want it to go.
I'll be excitedly watching your progression from the back of the pointy end to the front of the pointy end over the next couple of years (or maybe months). I can remember fondly when you were a younger man and were firmly in the middle of the middle of the field. That should be a shining beacon for anyone in the haus willing to do the work, imagining that amazing things can happen! Fitness and experience can grow increment by increment over time.
I think the points you make are valid and on target. I am giving myself this week as a break and will be quickly ramping up a push for an IM-TBD (LV or Choo likely). Plan on upping everything I should have been upping in the last 8 weeks of pre-taper training for LP. More 5 hr rides, more swim volume, more hills on my run, then I can put this bus back in a race and work hard at finding that darker place. No excuses for this race, but that really was one area I could have improved. HR & Pace for the last 7 miles clearly went in the wrong direction.
We had a fantastic evening discussion around the table in LP, Me, Steph Stevens, Teri, Dani, Tim, Heather, Al, & possibly Roberts. The conversation topic was "how to mentally get in the dark place" and what that meant to the masters of it at the table. Wish I had seen what was evolving it would have made for a great video.
I need to go away Labor day week, right now it may be a spa in the Berkshires with Jill where I can SBR all week, wanna host us at Club Withrow? I might be able to convince her to go to Minneapolis...
@Paul Curtin - that hat's been with me for all 8 IMs.. it was safely tucked in my rear waistband with my mile 18 racesaver bag..
Laps were done manually with my 15' reminder on my Garmin.. not always on time as you can see, but they do a good job of keeping me focused on power & nutrition. I prefer time vs mileage laps.
a 21' PR is nothing to be shy of.
When I look in your run strava file, I like how you managed heart race and how quickly it went down after the hills.
Any reason why your HR didnt start to climb in the final 6-8k of the run ? is it cuz you are that fit ?
When looking at your NP, bike time and TSS comparation to both year, its funny to see how a 20w increase compare to 2016 "costed" you 2 additional minutes to your total bike time and add a 50 additional TSS.
keep working, you are almost there ! its a matter of time before you get that ticket!
simply put, I didn't dig deep enough... no excuses, but I could have worked harder in the end. I was not as trashed across the finish line as one should be if they put it all out there... I've seen Teri go to the med tent 4x & ER 1x; I've seen Tim across the line at Kona and MD... I KNOW what that looks like, so i still have room to perform...
Hopefully I get the golden ticket in the next 1-3 races, else I will hit the magic 12.. I really WANT to go to Kona the hard way. I DO have the option to join the XC program as they've invited me, but for now, I am holding off on that since I clearly can hopefully get there..
Keep up with the frequency, don't take off a month or two, and just let the run durability and fitness grow.
You still have some pretty easy gains to be had on the swim. Even though I've preached that sermon many times before, Kona cares about minutes. And there are minutes to be had in the water.
The elephant in the room is your bike split. Your watts were way higher this year, but your speed and time were slower. Huge disconnect there, as we've discussed. We're the same size, same bike, you rode a staggering 23 watts more than me, and I finished 4 minutes faster? I don't think so. I suspect your P1s were totally out of whack and that you rode closer to last year's mid-170s. Because I seriously doubt you could pull off that run after a 320 TSS ride.
The sad reality is, once you hit 4w/kg (you have), there's not a huge upside opportunity for 99.9% of us. Sure, you could get to 4.05 or 4.1 and eke out some marginal gains, but they'd be marginal. IMO, your biggest bike challenge is to figure out how to get more speed (mph) out of your current power (watts). When a 4 w/kg guy like you on a tricked-out P5 and with a bunch of other speed accessories throws down a .72 IF effort, I would expect to see a 5:30-35 and a top-10 AG ride at LP. It could be fit, position, riding style or something entirely else, but I would view that as an opportunity to snag another extremely important 5-10 minutes in your hunt for Kona.
Desperately looking forward to watching you try to back this up at Louisville or Chattanooga, then gearing up over the winter for Mallorca and another year of IM racing in '18.
Congrats again on a killer race.
MR
Not sure if I completely agree with all of this.
Places I agree
- room to grow on swim, but it will always be a limiter, that's not defeatist, it's reality, but I am putting in more work, especially over the winter. I expect that we will have a swim camp as part of mallorca led by you!
- Agree on the run frequency
- the bike split issue, will get solved, got in touch with the PT people and they are analyzing the data file, so that's a start.
I think the real elephants in the room are:Naturally MR would emphasize the swim, and there may indeed be a couple of minutes there, but the biggest opportunity coming from increased swim volume would be downstream in the race - starting the bike with a lower HR, and less glycogen deficit. 10-12,000 meters/week in the last two months before a race, with an emphasis on lots of long intervals (600-3800 meters) builds that strength.
We've talked about body comp over the years, and I've always been a bit skeptical of your desire to get it all done at once. Its a life-long venture, not a six month sprint. Keeping a lid on any increases after race season is the first step to finding those final 3-4 kg you need to rid yourself of. Tangential aside - maintaining muscular strength and size with steady weight training is essential to making sure that loss is pure fluff. You've made good progress; daily attention to diet, along with eliminating seasonal changes, is going to get you there.
Tweak the bike fit to perfection.
Execution: I see a very well-executed bike - steady VI of 1.04 is AWESOME for this course, and the stable HR is also impressive. The run, however, could use some improvement. You ended the bike with a 128-130 HR in the last hour or so, yet you bombed - DOWNHILL - the first few miles in the mid 130's. Most telling, compare your speed and HR in miles 3-9 with the second lap 16-22, coupled with how you were mentally losing focus miles 19-21. I told you this post race, and the more granular data I'm seeing in your files confirms my initial impression.
I remain of the opinion that the fastest way around an IM marathon is an even split between the first and second halves. The requires a lower HR at the start, and a higher one on the second, than you exhibited. No matter how dark a place you put yourself in miles 18-25, if you go too fast in the first 10 miles, you speed will drop in the last ten. 8:35-40 should have been your average pace the entire way; you were capable of that. A steady pace/increasing effort was probably worth 4 minutes, minimum, all by itself. Add in the weight loss, and continued improvements from training, and you're starting to tickle a 3:3x marathon.
I was the one yelling "make me pay" at you on the first loop on River Rd. I was really pulling for you to KQ & was glad to pay up seeing your results. You raced strong regardless of finishing position.
P.S. No offense, and not to take anything away from your victory, but if your next challenge is boxing or something similar my $ is on @John Withrow all the way.
My only advice is what Patrick told me - " let the race come to you". Yes you need to push and try to squeeze every second that you can find, but when the fitness is there - and it clearly is for you - sometimes you need to just let it flow and not over think it all. Stay on your power and pace and let it happen.
As others have mentioned I think you will do well in your next events and that fitness will shine through with more amazing times!
2017 was a HUGE year for you across several fronts!
I got to see the Eye of the Tiger during the Aspen Pain Sessions that @Al T. handed out to us each day. Enjoyed very much watching you get the work done that week.
I watched the consistent work leading up to IMLP on Strava as well and noticed the enthusiasm and passion with which supported your team mates!
All that seemed to come together in BIG PRs for you at IMLP confirmed with a great run after a steady .72 IF bike effort!
WOW!
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