Limbert Ironman Arizona Race report 2017
Ironman Arizona 2017 Race Report
Bottom Line: 10:15, (Swim 1:00, Bike: 5:15, Run: 3:52), 12th AG (40-44). The weather cooperated in general (56-82 degrees F). For this race, I wanted to learn where my execution skills are and assess my training/preparation in order to determine if KQ is realistically in my future. I am grateful for all the advice and recommendations I got from the forum, this was my first IM distance in the last 8 years. So, I felt that I raced with better execution because of the experience shared by the other EN members. The race gave me exactly what I was looking for: insights and questions I need to address to get better.
Pre-Race:
Wrote my schedule and stuck to it. Attended the practice swim in Sat, it was worth for me because I got a feel for the water temperature and murky visibility and I got to meet Tim Cronk. Quick bike check in. High carb low diet, stay off the feet. Use of checklists. Nothing unusual
Swim: 1:00 pace 1:34/100m AG rank: 7 Data: http://tpks.ws/G2FCs
Race plan goal accomplished – Get over the cold & zero visibility water. Find rhythm early. Check! I met Tim Cronk and Satish Puna in the swim bullpen and we seeded ourselves at the back of the 1 hour group. The gun went off for the age groupers, we filed off to the stairs to belly flop/step off the last stair into the water. Water was 68 degrees F. No wind. A little minor contact, but I accomplished my goal – found a rhythm, counted strokes between buoys and focused on racing the swim (RE: Al Truscott). I took Mike Roberts advice and did my best to stay on the buoy line – which I literally hit the buoys with my left hand several times. Surprisingly, this was a clear lane, when I looked right I could see large packs of swimmers way off to my right. “What are they doing way over there?” “Am I on the right part of the course?” “If I’m way off, why are the kayaks not harassing me?” It was weird. Climbed out of the stairs to T1 and the bike. (see white stairs/railing on the right – swim entry and exit)
T1: 00:04:10
Race plan goal accomplished. Keep it simple. Taped a neon green index card to my bag – found it on the run. Put my EN jersey on – I didn’t know how cold it would be race morning and I didn’t want to ride in a wet jersey. It ended up being warm enough and I could have worn the jersey for the swim.) Shoes on. Helmet and glasses on while running to the bike.
Bike: 5:15 AG rank: 19 Data: http://tpks.ws/4be76
Race plan goal accomplished: Be smart, fuel on schedule. RPE rules. Use HR, breathing rate, power, stomach indicators in the calculus of sustainable RPE. 3 out and back loops – wind from the NE made for a tough outbound “uphill” leg followed by a wind aided “downhill leg.” I kept my RPE at the “uncomfortable all day” level (RE: Tim Cronk) and kept on my nutrition schedule. I never looked at speed (its not on my display). Watched HR, power and cadence. All were in the conservative ranges from my race rehearsals. (NP: 195, VI= 0.99, IF= 0.68). I peed 3 times so I felt that the hydration and fueling schedule was working (2x GE + 1 GU per hour). I kept my stomach working and got off the bike feeling neutral, not full, not empty. Seemed good.
T2: 00:01:53
Race plan goal accomplished: Keep it simple. Switch shoes. Leave with go bag (hat, race belt, visor, race saver bag, etc) and get organized on the run while keeping the run heart rate = bike heart rate.
Run: 3:52 AG rank 14 http://tpks.ws/5eD8I
I'll give myself partial credit here. My race plan goal was “to be competitive on the run.” I say I that I partially accomplished this goal because I felt competitive until somewhere around mile 11-12. I came out of transition and forced myself to run easy first to the 4 mile mark, then the 8 mile mark. I focused on keeping my HR at the same level at the same level as the bike. I walked the aid stations – counting to 10 out loud – RE: Mike Roberts. I took ice and GE early. I took a GU at the 40 min and 80 min make. A couple of times in the early 8 miles I felt really good, and I felt like it was time to get to work, but I decided that if I felt good I should eat and hydrate. Around mile 9 to 10 with the section that goes around Curry road I felt really good again. I was motivated and getting psyched to lay down a good run for second half. But that didn’t happen. I must have made a poor choice at an aid station after the 9-10 mile mark upon descending Curry Rd. By the time I got to the other side of the lake at mile 13, I was trying to figure out what by body needed? GE? Coke? Nothing? GU? I chose poorly. I noticed my stomach was tight? Hungry? Not sure? Anyway, I went to the Coke. But, either I didn’t take enough or too much. Something. This began a continual search for the thing I was missing. I tried taking Coke and swishing it around in my mouth and spitting it out. I tried, a little or a half a cup. Back to GE. GU. Felt good, felt bad. Blood sugar roller coaster. I was puzzled and became more conservative. This is unique because it doesn’t happen during my long runs or race rehearsals. Most likely because those training events don’t last this long. Anyway, this continued for the rest of the run, until Satish Puna (mile 22) and Tim Cronk (mile 24) passed me. Tim made it look easy and I followed him to the finish line. But he decided to stop and kiss his wife to celebrate a 2nd place age group finish, I decided that I had a meeting with a chair at the finish line and decided to meet him there. The feeling and mindset I from miles 1-4, then 4-8, and finally 9-10 was what I needed. I really felt that I was going to have a great 2nd half. I want to experience that again and I want the execution skills to hang onto that feeling (physically and mentally). But for this race, it only get partial credit. As Coach Patrick said during his podcast with Paul Curtin, once you know where you stand and the work you will need to do to improve, you can do 1 of 2 things – say this is enough and go find something else to do or you can go do the work.
Lessons learned:
1. I felt that I executed beyond my own experience level, given that I had not done an IM in the last 8 years. I incorporated a lot of the advice from the rest of the team and I am grateful to all that share their years of experience and insight. I certainly was better for it.
2. Nutrition is personalized. To be competitive deep into the race I need to figure how to read my own body and signs, and figure out what it looking for.
3. I followed the EN training plan – without much modification. The most competitive athletes have figured out what works for them in order to optimize training stress, recovery and execution. I don’t know enough yet to make significant changes, but it is something I am interested in learning more about.
Thanks to @Scott Dinhofer, Tim Cronk, Al Truscott, Mike Roberts, Trish Marshall, Dana Burns, Jeremy Behler Jeremy Behler, KMF man, Dawn Cass, Danielle Santucci, Betsy Kantor, and many others who have offered advice and encouragement. It was good to meet David Richmond, Gary Lewis and Satish Puna. I look forward to next time.
Thanks for reading. I always appreciate any recommendations or comments.
Comments
- Your bike was way conservative. Next time, if you want to advance I think you'll need to be more aggressive with your targets. 0.68 IF is not what you're capable of.
- I don't know if that photo is an anomaly, but look at your head position compared to the guy behind you: your sticking your noggin up in the wind. You head is the leading edge, and needs to be hidden down near your shoulders.
- You weren't nauseous, or walking, or cramping on the run. So whatever you were "feeling" after mile 9-11 on the run wasn't really a big potential impact on you ability to run. I've found *nothing* (in terms of what nutrition to take) really feels right after that point. But most times, I'm able to keep running, so I try not to focus to much on that. The simplest thing to do is half water/half GE, for me, with coke on ice every third aid station.
Bottom line, you ran the whole way, and lifted yourself up to where you can see the race now.Are you a caffeine user by any chance?
I very much enjoyed watching the Punna-Limbert-Cronk battle. Given your running pedigree, I knew you were struggling late, but I was (of course) clueless as to what was really going on. I don't think you were hungry, and it doesn't sound like you were sick or dehydrated. I think for 99% of us, our stomachs just say "no mas" after 10-14 miles. I used to wait until 20 to hit the Coke, but Behler convinced me that it's OK starting the second half, and it's worked fine in my last two IMs. Nothing tastes good, your stomach definitely doesn't feel good, but you keep going. Ironman is hard and it hurts. After 8 years, you had probably forgotten just how much. It may take you 12-24 months of consistent training and racing to crack the IM Code, but when you do and run the 3:20 you're capable of, lights out! You are an AG nightmare; that guy that runs by you at Mile 20 at 7:15 pace and puts the final nail in the podium/KQ dream. Congrats on a great race. Looking forward to meeting you in Mallorca.
Mike
That feeling at mile 13? Your body was craving a double cheeseburger and fries ... thankfully they don't offer those at the aid stations. Seriously though, it wouldn't surprise me that it was hunger, especially if you're used to eating more on long training days
The points Al and Mike make about that "feeling" speak to just how incredibly simple race-day nutrition needs to be. For me it's Shot Blox early with maybe some GE, then nothing but Coke after a certain point. It's all your body needs to get to the finish line. And of course salt intake has to be perfect to avoid a sloshy gut. There's a real randomness to the Ironman run
"For this race, I wanted to learn where my execution skills are and assess my training/preparation in order to determine if KQ is realistically in my future."
I'm with Roberts. You're there. Maybe you just needed this race as confidence boost
I think you have all the pieces needed for success, in whatever way you define that. It seems to me, judging from your hr profile you had a good race- your effort didn’t dip and you were able to pick it up at the end which is excellent.
I don’t have a lot of advice to offer, but something I’ve been told to do is that as soon as there is a negative thought, feeling down, etc during the run , immediately take some sugar and caffeine. For me that’s a signal to switch to coke ( or a caff-gel etc) while it is still a mental issue and before there is a physical issue. It has worked for me reliably, sometimes early in a race as in this weekend and sometimes late. Maybe something to think about?
Caffeine works. @Satish Punna and @jimmy augustine both mentioned it. Caffeine will be absorbed around 30-45 minutes after ingestion. Take it before the fade .... mile 10 - 13 on the run. Take it in a form that is absorbed quickly such as anhydrous caffeine found in https://firstendurance.com/nutrition/prerace/
@Al Truscott - more aggressive bike RPE (HR/power) & aero head position are goals for the OS. That picture unfortunately was not an anomaly. I noticed it after some pictures from Canada 70.3 mid-summer, but I didn't want to mess with the position then because my back feels good and hasn't given me a problem on the run. The OS might be a good time to see if it makes any difference to get lower. I certainly plan to experiment with different helmet visor vs. current helmet sunglasses combination so I can get my head lower without changing my overall position.
@Al Truscott, @Mike Roberts, @Paul Curtin - I did play a bit too much defense on the back half of the run, intending to "protect" my stomach for the big win. A few tweaks to my fueling strategy and a bit more offense/HTFU should gain me some time back
@jimmy augustine, @Sheila Leard, @Satish Punna, @Mike Roberts, @Paul Curtin - To paraphrase the Dos Equis commerical: "I normally don't caffeine - But when I do, it's a Clif Bar GU double expresso (100 Mg)." I'm not a coffee drinker or daily caffeine user, so I usually get a boost from it. I did race rehearsals with caffeinated GU. 1x per hour for the last 2 hours of the bike. These were the last GUs I took on the bike. The next GUs were +25 mg caffeine at 40 and 80 min into the run, which is about the longest I ran for a race rehearsal. I'm not saying that this was my problem, but maybe for me its kinda like coke, once on the caffeine say on the caffeine. Or, wait until longer into the run to go to the big mg caffeine GU....minor point but could help and something to practice with on the longer days/race rehearsals, along with realizing the stomach may be as good as it gets. Another option may be going to the shot blocks on the bike (same fuel content as the GU) then shift to caffeinated GU, GE or coke on the run. Thoughts?
@Al Truscott, @Paul Curtin, @Mike Roberts, @Statish Puna - Thanks for the encouragement and yeah I signed up for IM AZ 2018 to do it all again - I'm at the point where "I can see the race now!"
Getting to know you this year has been a privilege, I will never forget the experience of riding back from the Frying Pan dam to Basalt on your wheel with the knowledge that while I was riding at .95 IF IN your shadow, that if I scratched an itch or drank a drop, I'd lose you for the remainder of that stretch. You've got the power and now you've got a level of experience of what to do with it and one not uncommon problem to solve in terms of nutrition.
Looking forward to what your "2nd" IM will look like...
which one will it be?