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IMLP Race Report - Patrick Marsh
On July 23rd, I finished my first IM race in 12:48, which was within the range of what I had expected but a bit slower than I had hoped. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the race and it ranks as my all-time favorite event that I have done. I achieved the two goals that I laid out before the race: i) I exited the water smiling and excited to get on the bike and ii) I ran the last eight miles of the marathon
About two weeks ago, I decided that I was going to treat this race more like a celebration capping a huge year of training, rather than an event that I was going to hammer. I am very glad that I had that frame of mind because I ended up thoroughly enjoying the day and look forward to doing another IM.
Swim: 1:26:32 (2:14/100 meter pace) - 212th out of 301 finishers in my division. About five minutes below my expectation.
- I swam at the slower end of my expected pace, but I was satisfied with how the overall swim went. I am an "adult on-set" swimmer and have been very slow in my other races. However, this year I took two swim clinics, five private lessons and swam +100 miles in preparation for the race. What I liked about my performance was that I kept a steady pace, despite being in full contact for 75% of the race. Typically, I feel claustrophobic in crowded conditions and have to slow down to get out of crowds of swimmers. However, for this race I kept moving forward even when I was in close proximity to people on all four sides of me for hundreds of yards on end. The pace felt easy and I was hoping that I was benefiting from drafting; thus, I was a bit disappointed when I saw my time on Monday. I had hoped my pace would be at least 2:07/100 meters based on my split at Quassy and the reputation for IMLP being a fast swim. I was advised by Coach P to start in a faster group, but I balked when I did a 44-minute loop on my Friday training swim. Nevertheless, I agree with what was discussed in the forums and in the Four Keys speech, the swim did not make or break race day. However, I believe that I have significant room for improvement, so I am excited to get back in the pool and improve this year.
T1: 10:25 - 3:25 slower than I had guessed it would take
This was very slow, but I was quite focused on not making any mistakes and was cautious with reviewing my equipment before I left. Also, my bike was all the way in the back, which added to the time. I had expected this to take about seven minutes.
Ride: 6:39:09 (16.84 mph) - 136th out of 301 finishers in my division. About 2 minutes (0.1 mph) faster than my expectation.
- I was pleased with my ride. I expected that I would ride at 16.75 mph based on my training rides at EN LP Camp, and finished at 16.84. Most significantly, I rode without power data. My Garmin was set to one screen with 3s Power, Lap Power, HR and Cadence. However, my PowerTap died going from Jay to Wilmington on the first lap - it was showing my power increase on the flats and fall when I was climbing - the data was nonsense and then went to zero. I suspect it was the battery, although I had changed this about two months ago, and had expected the battery to last until at least the autumn. My PowerTap has been acting squirrely all summer, so fortunately Coach P and I discussed using HR as a back-up metric. He wanted me to focus on staying at 120 bpm and not go above 130 bpm. My average HR was 126 bpm. I tried to pedal smoothly and kept repeating to myself "you are riding your bike to a marathon", this helped me take it easy on the hills and not chase people on the flats. Because I was worried about losing my PowerTap, I became very focused on nutrition. I grabbed ten bottles of Gatorade along the ride and poured them in my speedfill bottle on my aerobars. I also ate eight gels and two small cliff bars. My salt intake was good, as I took eight Endurolytes. By the end of the ride, I felt well-fed and well-hydrated. I peed four times on the bike, and once each in T1 and T2. On the Keene descent, I didn't go all out as there were a lot of people with me on the first lap riding slowly in the middle of the road. Seeing an ambulance and empty bike on the first lap was a reminder to stay laser focused. I hit 45 mph on both descents, but rode on the hoods with my hands near the brakes for the part of the descent where the asphalt was bumpy. Also, my derailleur continued to give me problems, and I threw my chain on two hills - :-(. I estimate that this cost me two minutes. Overall, I was happy with my ride and very fortunate that I had a back-up plan for focusing on my HR, and was therefore able to deal with the loss of my PowerTap.
T2: 7:00 - 2:50 slower than I had expected.
- Everything went smoothly. I just went slowly and carefully. Also, I had to use the "facilities" again because I had done such a good job of hydrating.
Run: 4:24:43 (10:06-mile pace) I had expected to run a 10:00 pace, so I was quite close to my predicted time. Finished 61st out of 301 finishers in my division.
- I felt very good on the run. I stopped at every aid station to drink Gatorade until mile 16, and then skipped every other station from there. I kept ice under my hat and tried to get cold sponges in the back of my shirt to keep cool. I found it sunny and warm along River Rd. The last climb up Lisa G's hurt and I felt that my feet were getting heavy running along Mirror Lake at the end. I "sprinted" to the finish line and felt I had accomplished my goal of running the marathon. I enjoyed the course and was happy to see so many EN team-members along the way. Oddly, it felt like a training run for most of the time. As for data targets, Coach P had me track HR and cadence only. My goal was 130-135 bpm, and my data showed an average rate of 136 bpm until my Garmin died at mile 22.
Overall, I had a great time at IMLP. I felt well-prepared and was happy that there were so many EN'ers supporting one another throughout the weekend. All season, I kept a spreadsheet tracking my training progress. (Oddly, my FTP and VDOT dropped as the volume went up.) My data suggested that I would finish in the 12:30-12:40 area. I finished outside of that range. The biggest contributor was my swim which was off by about five minutes. The rest of the lost time can be attributed to my snail-paced transition times. The combination of my bike and run was very close to what my data suggested.
My goals for the out-season are to i) increase my run volume ii) improve my swim skills iii) build my strength/core/flexibility iv) further improve my body composition and v) finally resolve the discrepancies in my indoor (Kickr) and outdoor (PowerTap) power data
Thanks for reading my race report.
About two weeks ago, I decided that I was going to treat this race more like a celebration capping a huge year of training, rather than an event that I was going to hammer. I am very glad that I had that frame of mind because I ended up thoroughly enjoying the day and look forward to doing another IM.
Swim: 1:26:32 (2:14/100 meter pace) - 212th out of 301 finishers in my division. About five minutes below my expectation.
- I swam at the slower end of my expected pace, but I was satisfied with how the overall swim went. I am an "adult on-set" swimmer and have been very slow in my other races. However, this year I took two swim clinics, five private lessons and swam +100 miles in preparation for the race. What I liked about my performance was that I kept a steady pace, despite being in full contact for 75% of the race. Typically, I feel claustrophobic in crowded conditions and have to slow down to get out of crowds of swimmers. However, for this race I kept moving forward even when I was in close proximity to people on all four sides of me for hundreds of yards on end. The pace felt easy and I was hoping that I was benefiting from drafting; thus, I was a bit disappointed when I saw my time on Monday. I had hoped my pace would be at least 2:07/100 meters based on my split at Quassy and the reputation for IMLP being a fast swim. I was advised by Coach P to start in a faster group, but I balked when I did a 44-minute loop on my Friday training swim. Nevertheless, I agree with what was discussed in the forums and in the Four Keys speech, the swim did not make or break race day. However, I believe that I have significant room for improvement, so I am excited to get back in the pool and improve this year.
T1: 10:25 - 3:25 slower than I had guessed it would take
This was very slow, but I was quite focused on not making any mistakes and was cautious with reviewing my equipment before I left. Also, my bike was all the way in the back, which added to the time. I had expected this to take about seven minutes.
Ride: 6:39:09 (16.84 mph) - 136th out of 301 finishers in my division. About 2 minutes (0.1 mph) faster than my expectation.
- I was pleased with my ride. I expected that I would ride at 16.75 mph based on my training rides at EN LP Camp, and finished at 16.84. Most significantly, I rode without power data. My Garmin was set to one screen with 3s Power, Lap Power, HR and Cadence. However, my PowerTap died going from Jay to Wilmington on the first lap - it was showing my power increase on the flats and fall when I was climbing - the data was nonsense and then went to zero. I suspect it was the battery, although I had changed this about two months ago, and had expected the battery to last until at least the autumn. My PowerTap has been acting squirrely all summer, so fortunately Coach P and I discussed using HR as a back-up metric. He wanted me to focus on staying at 120 bpm and not go above 130 bpm. My average HR was 126 bpm. I tried to pedal smoothly and kept repeating to myself "you are riding your bike to a marathon", this helped me take it easy on the hills and not chase people on the flats. Because I was worried about losing my PowerTap, I became very focused on nutrition. I grabbed ten bottles of Gatorade along the ride and poured them in my speedfill bottle on my aerobars. I also ate eight gels and two small cliff bars. My salt intake was good, as I took eight Endurolytes. By the end of the ride, I felt well-fed and well-hydrated. I peed four times on the bike, and once each in T1 and T2. On the Keene descent, I didn't go all out as there were a lot of people with me on the first lap riding slowly in the middle of the road. Seeing an ambulance and empty bike on the first lap was a reminder to stay laser focused. I hit 45 mph on both descents, but rode on the hoods with my hands near the brakes for the part of the descent where the asphalt was bumpy. Also, my derailleur continued to give me problems, and I threw my chain on two hills - :-(. I estimate that this cost me two minutes. Overall, I was happy with my ride and very fortunate that I had a back-up plan for focusing on my HR, and was therefore able to deal with the loss of my PowerTap.
T2: 7:00 - 2:50 slower than I had expected.
- Everything went smoothly. I just went slowly and carefully. Also, I had to use the "facilities" again because I had done such a good job of hydrating.
Run: 4:24:43 (10:06-mile pace) I had expected to run a 10:00 pace, so I was quite close to my predicted time. Finished 61st out of 301 finishers in my division.
- I felt very good on the run. I stopped at every aid station to drink Gatorade until mile 16, and then skipped every other station from there. I kept ice under my hat and tried to get cold sponges in the back of my shirt to keep cool. I found it sunny and warm along River Rd. The last climb up Lisa G's hurt and I felt that my feet were getting heavy running along Mirror Lake at the end. I "sprinted" to the finish line and felt I had accomplished my goal of running the marathon. I enjoyed the course and was happy to see so many EN team-members along the way. Oddly, it felt like a training run for most of the time. As for data targets, Coach P had me track HR and cadence only. My goal was 130-135 bpm, and my data showed an average rate of 136 bpm until my Garmin died at mile 22.
Overall, I had a great time at IMLP. I felt well-prepared and was happy that there were so many EN'ers supporting one another throughout the weekend. All season, I kept a spreadsheet tracking my training progress. (Oddly, my FTP and VDOT dropped as the volume went up.) My data suggested that I would finish in the 12:30-12:40 area. I finished outside of that range. The biggest contributor was my swim which was off by about five minutes. The rest of the lost time can be attributed to my snail-paced transition times. The combination of my bike and run was very close to what my data suggested.
My goals for the out-season are to i) increase my run volume ii) improve my swim skills iii) build my strength/core/flexibility iv) further improve my body composition and v) finally resolve the discrepancies in my indoor (Kickr) and outdoor (PowerTap) power data
Thanks for reading my race report.
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Comments
Your enthusiasm and camradarie on the run course was huge, I may not have been acknowledging it then, but hearing you yell "D I N H O F E R" at me at our 3 or 4 passes, was huge...
Let's get the group together for a debrief over beers soon! Hoping you decide to stay with this, as I know how hard the training is with your job, You have a bright future in this sport if you decide to stay with the distance!
Very nice report on a very successful day. It was great meeting you and sharing the course with you. You always had a smile on your face, which just proves how much fun this sport can be (even when interrupted occasionally by pain). Keep plugging away, getting smarter, getting stronger, getting faster. You'll be amazed at the improvement you make across the board in your second IM.
Cheers.
MR
Glad to hear that you enjoyed your day. Kudos to you for hanging in the swim pack and jumping over to plan B when your power failed...that would've elicited a few expletives had it been me.
You were already ahead of where A LOT of people (myself included) have been as far as knowledge, planning & execution before your first IM. Go build on that for the next one.
@Nemo Baruch - Thanks. Not sure where along the way I heard or read that line, but once I my PowerTap data faded away, it was the only thing I could I think of to keep me from blowing up on the bike.
@Derek Sanks - It is been great training in same blocks as you this year. Look forward to doing the same race with you in the future.
@Al Truscott - Thanks. I hope you are right about the transition times. I was pretty surprised when I saw how long it took me. I am surprised I wasn't assessed a penalty for lolly-gagging in the tents for so long...
@tim cronk - Thanks. I had no idea what kind of pace I was riding, and was surprised it was so close to what I had expected after riding at EN Camp. Lucky guess, I suppose.
@Paul Curtin - I saw one picture of me coming out in the crowd of swimmers. I looked like a deer in the headlights but was smiling on the inside, because I knew I was done with the swim and feeling ready to get on the book.
@Scott Renick - Thanks. I felt that these threads, the race plan and the EN camp had given me a good idea of what to expect. However, I really wasn't sure what to expect with that long of a swim in a crowd and how a marathon would feel after a hilly bike ride.
@Jeff Kane - Thanks
@Robert Sabo - Thanks. There were definitely a lot of business trips that required a lot of planning to find pools and routes to run.
@Trish Marshall - It was great training with you and breaking bread with you at camp and the EN dinner. It did seem like we get crossing paths on the bike and run and LP. Hope you have a great summer and out-season. I feel pretty good now and am looking to put together my calendar for next year.
You did an awful lot of things right on your very first IM! Starting with not going out too hard up front on the swim.
While the swim may not have been what you expected, I can argue that overdoing it on that leg up front early (especially on your first Ironman) can wreak havoc on your ability to keep moving forward later in the day.
I enjoyed watching you train this year and loved the race report! You picked one of the best venues out there in my opinion!
Sincere congratulations Ironman!
SS
Thanks Shaughn. It has been great to train virtually alongside you this past year and to see how well you did at IMMT. Congratulations! That was a fantastic race performance.