Derrek's Breakout Race! Ironman Louisville Race Report
Ironman Louisville 2017
Race Report
“There are two things one can control, how you prepare for life and how you react to what happens in life” ~unknown
First, a look at my race history:
IMMT – 1:28 / 6:51 / 4:10
= 12:52 AG 169/307 (pre
EN)
IMLP – 1:25 / 6:26 / 3:51 = 11:58 AG 33/315
IMChatt – 1:17 / 6:09 / 4:13 = 11:52 AG 19/313
IMLOU – 1:06 / 5:46 / 3:32 = 10:37 AG 10/219
Let me start by thanking @Coach Patrick In June after coming off a disappointing Eagleman 70.3 and signing up for IMLou, Coach P recommended I do the advance minimalist plan. “What, minimalist? I’m not a minimalist kind of person”, were my initial thoughts. Of course I questioned why. Long story short, he knew I had accumulated a lot more bike miles/fatigue in my legs at that point in the season than previous years. When I reviewed my Training Peaks log, I confirmed it…he was right. Comparing Oct – June to the previous year, I logged over twice as many miles (trainer and outside) this season. Thanks Coach, for putting me on the right plan and the personal attention to my training. The other significant change I made during this IM build was hydration. Eagleman was disappointing due to having sever cramping on the run, it was the worst ever. Thanks to suggestions from the Team, especially @Paul Curtin, I doubled my hydration consumption per hour. Also, I focused on my swim starting in January, working on body position (bands/pull buoy/snorkel), increasing my stroke rate and stronger pulls (accelerating through the pull and swim cordz sets).
Race Morning:
I had breakfast by 4:00 (Oatmeal, banana, apple sauce, Naked Juice and ~8oz of GE). By 4:30 I was ready to go but since Transition Area didn’t open until 5:15, I laid down for 45 mins to chill, rest and visualized my race. I arrived at transition area around 5:30 and everything went smoothly. I started drinking Skratch Rescue Hydration (700 mg sodium) about 45-60 mins prior and had a PowerBar gel about 15 mins prior to race start. At the swim start I found the 1:10 to 1:20 group and then did a 5 min warm-up run.
Swim: Goal 1:10 – 1:15 (RR Swim was 1:13); Actual 1:06 53rd AG https://www.strava.com/activities/1232564427
I jumped in the water and had a big shock from the cold water temp, which took my breath away. I was heavily panting like I just did an all-out 100 yd sprint. Quickly my senses returned and knew I just need some time to acclimate. After 15-20 seconds of the breast stroke, I felt much better and started my race. I had more contact than I expected or wanted, which always threw off my rhythm. Throughout the swim I was passing and having to swim around people but was able to find open water for most of the swim. After the turn down river, there was much less contact and crowding as I stayed on the buoy line. With the choppy water conditions, I really had to focus on a high stroke rate and strong pull to mentally block out the chop. I also knew the faster I swam the sooner I’ll be done. I came out of the swim confident I had a good time and not too exhausted. I didn’t look at my time until a few hours on the bike, which put me in a happy place for a while.
T1: Goal, sub 5:30; Actual, 6:12
Almost uneventful. Ran to T1 bag, to tent, shoes on, helmet on, and ran out while putting wetsuit in bag. The run from the bike out arch to the bike mount line was on concrete and too long in bike shoes. Running in bike shoes was like running on my toes and halfway to the mount line I started to feel my left calf muscle tighten, so I walked for ~20 seconds then returned to a slower run. According to the IM Tracker App, I passed 18 AG people in T1…sweet!
Bike: Goal, 5:45 – 6:00; Actual, 5:46 31st AG https://www.strava.com/activities/1232561475
Best Bike Split estimates were 5:55 at .70 and 5:47 at .73 IF. Based on BBS and my race rehearsal, my plan was to ride between .70 and .73 IF. Actual stats: .70 IF, 1.04 VI, NP 176, TSS 285, Avg HR 130 (low Z2).
I thought this was a fun bike course as I love blasting down the hills and the flats were fast. I used the first 10 miles/30 mins to get my HR down, which happened after 5-10 mins but I still waited for the 30 min mark to start working. I was getting passed by so many people going up hills and I had to keep reminding myself that I would see them again, if not on the second loop then on the run. The winds weren’t too bad for the first 90 miles; it was a typical windy ride making you stay aero as much as possible, especially into a headwind. But when the storm system hit, I had the windiest ride ever with a cross-wind of at least 15-20 MPH and gusts even higher. With my deep rim wheels (Flo 60 carbon clincher) and an aero wheel cover on the rear (Flo 90 CC), the strong cross winds were pushing me all over the road. The worse was the last 10-15 miles where it was nearly impossible to avoid all the fallen tree branches, sticks, debris and those green balls (black walnuts). That was not fun, but again my thoughts were the faster I go, the faster I’ll be done. I had good energy levels throughout the bike, never had negative thoughts or felt like I was working too hard. There were a few times I caught myself spiking watts at the start of hills, then quickly asked, “why are you pushing it…remember mile 18” and would ease back to goal watts.
Nutrition/hydration: I had a gel about every hour (the last 3 gels were caffeinated), 2.75 bottles of GE the first hour and then ~2 bottles of GE every hour and 1 S!CAP every hour. I was drinking every 15 mins and would sit up or stand (if I wasn’t on a hill) to stretch my hip flexors and neck. I peed at least 5 times…I knew I was well hydrated! Actually, I need to work on not holding “it” too long waiting for the ideal time to pee. A couple times I became very uncomfortable, dropping power and losing focus from holding “it” for the ideal time. I just need to let it rip.
T2: Goal, sub 4:00; Actual, 5:42
Flying dismount then a rather slow 200 yd run with the
bike to the bike catchers. Ran to T2 bag, ran to the tent. Socks, shoes, race
belt, trucker’s hat on and ran out.
Run: Goal, 3:35 – 3:40; Actual, 3:32
2nd AG https://www.strava.com/activities/1232564599
Coming out of T2 my HR was in the low 130s…bingo…that
was my HR at the end of the bike. I was looking forward to this run. It was
flat and the temps were cool…perfect running conditions! Other than a
bloated/full stomach sensation, I was feeling great. I planned to make a concerted
effort to run the first 6 miles at Z1+30” (8:45). Well, that didn’t happen. I
wasn’t too surprised because I’ve never been able to run that pace unless it was
90 degree temps with high humidity. Plus, the net downhill on the out portion
of the out and back didn’t help. I took my only porta-potty stop between miles
1 and 2. The next few miles were all smiles. After mile 5, I was still feeling
great and decided it was time to work. Well, not really work. My mantra became “do
no harm pace”. Looking at my splits post-race, I was basically running at my
TRP (7:45) pace +/- 15 to 30 seconds, which has been my long run pace all year.
In other words, I was working, but it wasn’t hard work, yet. After mile 6 or 7,
I stopped looking at pace/HR and ran by RPE/feel until mile 19-20. I planned to
start “racing” at The Line...mile 18; but at mile 17, I decided to move the The
Line to mile 20. Then, at mile 20, I said Ok, let’s go. My RPE felt like I was
running sub 7:30 min miles, but after a half mile, I looked at my watch and saw
my pace was the same. At that point my goal became, don’t slow down. In mile 23
I took my longest aid station walk (~30-40”) thinking it would be my last walk
break. I didn’t know my exact run time (it’s not on my watch’s main display) until
somewhere between mile 22 and 23 when my watch alarm sounded. My watch alarms
every 30 mins (an obsolete take-a-gel alarm), which I had been ignoring. But
this time I knew it had to be at the 3 hour mark. With 3.5 miles to go, I knew
my run would be close to, if not below 3:30. Actually, my wife said the IM
Tracker had my estimated finish at 3:25 at one point. The most satisfying aspect
of this run was I had zero muscle cramps; not even a slight muscle twitch
indicating a cramp is coming. In past 70.3 and 140.6s races, I would get inner
thigh and/or quad muscle cramps at some point and would have to slow down to make
the cramps go away, which essentially was my limiter. This time I was able to
run without that limiter and finally run to my potential.
Nutrition: 16 oz bottle of Skratch Rescue Hydration (in T2 bag); I took 3 PowerBar gels by mile 3 or 4; and one or two cups of GE at each aid station. Somewhere before mile 18 I had 2 more gels. I started Coke at mile 20 to the end. I walked 5-10 seconds about every 2 aid stations until mile 18, then walked every aid station. For the first several miles my stomach felt very full and I didn’t know if this meant I was well fueled or what. Since I didn’t want to risk being under fueled, I decided to stick to my plan of front loading nutrition while the HR was lower. The finish was a blur and kind of blah. The last mile was very tough as the tank was empty; there was no fast last mile. Coming down the finish line, I couldn’t see anything due to two bright camera lights blinding me and I couldn’t hear my name being announced. I was very happy to be done knowing I left it all on the course. I must have looked bad off because a medical guy and a volunteer walked me all the way to a chair in the food tent. He said just to make sure I was ok.
Meeting and hanging out with EN Teammates made this an enjoyable and memorable weekend. Thanks to Super Sherpa @Scott Dinhofer for making this feel like a Team race organizing all the meet ups. A big Thank You to @Kellie Moran-Jones for organizing and hosting the Team Dinner at her home. And of course I must thank my wife for her support, encouragement, belief in me, and understanding of Ironman training.
Take Aways:
- Swim focus paid off. I had great swims in all races this year. I’ll continue swimming during the winter working on stroke rate and building strength with the swim cordz.
- Many times on the bike I did not push the watts because my speed was higher than expected; not sure that’s a good strategy but I was thinking going faster on lower watts = lower TSS = better run?
- I definitely biked my “should” bike. I’m not sure biking a .73 IF (310 TSS) would have resulted in an overall faster race
- Continue to tweak nutrition. 460+ cal/hr on the bike might be on the high side. I don’t know if this caused the full stomach feeling coming off the bike
- I was happy with my body comp…I raced at 164-165. Last year I was at 160. I’ll try to maintain 165 through the OutSeason.
- Time to focus on the bike again this OutSeason. My FTP on the road bike at the end of the 2017 OutSeason was 276…would like to see that on the TT bike
- ??
Comments
75 minutes is a phenomenal improvement, but honestly I'm not surprised by your time. You've got talent. Your running background is a huge asset, and it's shown up in each of your last 3 races: 4th-fastest AG run at LP; 6th-fastest AG at Chatty; and 2nd-fastest at IMLOU. The run time improvement this year was likely due to an easier run and your improved ability to run off the bike.
You've got to be excited about additional potential improvements in the swim and bike. Your stated swim plan is excellent. I recall you shared a swim video ... maybe share another one after you've picked it back up again. Also consider masters swimming, and even private lessons from a tri coach.
As for the bike, I believe you can race harder and still run close to 3:32. Given your strong run, you may one of those who can get away with a .75 IF on the bike. And your average bike HR seems a bit low relative to your run HR. On the run you hit 138 by mile 3, so maybe next year train yourself to ride at 135 and see how your body responds. I know your TSS was 284 from the LOU ride, but raising your FTP will give you the room you need to push it.
According to obstri.com, you age up in 2019. It's going to be fun picking which race you want to KQ at (you may even do it before then!)
its clear you’ve learned *how* to bike, both on race and getting volume in training. The next step as you say will be to use the OS to max your FTP. Don’t know if you’re doing any serious leg work in the weight room, but that might help, along with VO2 intervals and five minute hill repeats.
Thanks.
MR
Thanks @Francis Picard...Thanks @Sabra Gonzalez
@Mike Roberts - At 165# that's 99 grams per hour. 2 bottles of GE and 1 gel is 115 grams/hr. Looks like I should cut back or cut out the gel. Thanks for the feedback!
Now I get to look forward to seeing your off season bike work and eventual build to LP!
Well done Derrek!
Super congrats on an amazing race! Building on the above performance and spending time in the OS, I think the others in your AG need to watch out next year. You executed well in some challenging conditions and your result shows the amount of time you put into things over the year. i look forward to seeing what is next in store for you and following the progress. Julian and I enjoyed meeting you over the weekend and will keep watch regarding what is next in store for 2018!
Congrats again.
@Gabe Peterson - Thanks!