Luke Miller IMTX 2018 Race Report
It's been a week... Soreness is gone, memories are digested and coming into focus. Overall it was a good day, but there were definitely some unique challenges and plenty of room for improvement.
Race Plan:
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/24677/luke-miller-imtx-2018-race-plan#latest
Pre Race - Almost Too Quiet...
Living a short drive from the race venue gave me a uniquely calm race week, I took some time off work to relax and get everything ready. Checked in Wednesday, met @Chris Oubre and @Sam Lawrence for lunch at Goose's Acre on Thursday. Practice swim, bag drop, transition scouting on Friday morning. I felt very strong during the practice swim, and got out of the lake excited to see what I could do the next morning. Had a quiet night at home Friday with the wife and daughter. My seasonal allergies kicked in on Friday evening, and I was pretty plugged up. I took a Benadryl around 7:30 and slept like a baby until my alarm went off at 3:30.
I woke up feeling well rested and ready to roll. Race morning went exactly as planned and very smoothly, which was a little a little troublesome. Ate two english muffins with jelly, a banana, and some applesauce. Thanks to those who recommended upping my morning calories, it definitely served me well. Arrived to transition at 5:20, aired tires, added fluids to bike, banana in T2 bag, texted wife for a ride to the swim start. By 6:20 I had dropped off my special needs and morning clothes bags, applied the final layers of Trislide and sunscreen, and had my wetsuit on.
Lesson learned - Use a checklist for everything!
Swim - 1:12:59 - Pleasantly Surprised
I seeded myself with the 1:00-1:10 swimmers knowing that I was more of a 1:15-1:20 guy. In 2016 I got stuck in a slower pack and wound up with a 1:27 swim... I really didn't want that to happen again. Entered the water around 6:43 and quickly fell into a solid rhythm. I stayed in a group for the majority of the swim, lots of contact. The work was worth it, and I was rewarded with some solid improvement. Despite the contact, I never felt like I was working too hard. (My HR on the first 5 miles of the bike was 113, so I wasn't too winded coming out of the water)
Lesson learned - Do the practice swim. It allowed me to have that "fight or flight" moment the day before the race, which resulted in me staying with the pack on race day.
T1 - 6:52 - Who moved my bag?
2016 T1 was over 15 minutes because I decided to apply sunscreen and empty my bladder in transition. Not this time! Out of the water, goggles to forehead, wetsuit down to the hips, go to last stripper, jog to bag area, bag is not where it was dropped yesterday! Apparently all of the bags got shuffled a little, and mine got pushed to the other side of the column. Luckily, this only cost about a minute of looking (despite it being marked with bright pink ribbon). Changing tent went well, didn't sit down. Dumped my bag, short sleeve jersey went on easily, helmet on, shoes in hand. Volunteer was very appreciative of the gift card. Jogged straight to the bike, shoes on before unracking, visor down. Brisk walk with shoes on to the mount line.
Lesson learned - Check on BOTH transition bags race morning.
Bike - 5:55:36 - Focus on "The Box"
Apparently I punched a little bit above my weight class with my swim and T1, because there were some fast (and stupid) folks around for the first few miles. Lots of nice bikes! I saw two accidents within the first 10 miles, so I decided to take it extra easy and not get caught up in any of the racing going on around me. I'd had to empty my bladder ever since the swim start, so I used this relaxing part of the bike to do such. This was my first sign of distress, a consistent burning while I was going. I wasn't sure what to make of it, I hadn't had any of these symptoms earlier. I figured it must have been because I had held it a little too long, and made a mental note to really try and nail my hydration. Around mile 15 there were some very bumpy side roads, which were apparently bad enough to eject the lid off of my repair kit. I didn't notice it until I saw my CO2 inflator skipping across the road to my left... Nice. I definitely do not recommend the Xlab Mini Cage Pod.
Around mile 20 we joined the Hardy Toll Road. I take the Hardy to work every day, so it was kind of interesting (and extra boring) to see it from this perspective. It was nice to get down in the bars and start riding my planned watts, with the speeds I was seeing I felt like it was going to be a great day! At about mile 25 I slipped my chain at the top of an overpass. I guess I must've accidentally bumped the Di2 button for my front derailleur while shifting the rear. Stupid mistake, took about 3 minutes to fix. Nutrition and Hydration are all going to plan - 30 ounces of GE per hour, 1 salt tab hourly, and 2 shot blocks every 20 minutes. I had to relieve myself again at about mile 30... This time it burnt so bad that I had to check my leg for blood. Not cool. Shortly after this I started getting little flashes of cramping and nausea. While it wasn't unbearable, I was only able to get about 60% of my fluids down without burping them back up. I knew this was going to come back to haunt me later in the day. I decided the only thing to do was to keep taking as much fluid as my body would allow, and make extra sure that my solid foods and salt were according to plan. Looking back, I wish I would have stopped at an aid station and tried to empty my bladder completely and drank drank a full bottle of water to try and flush my system.
By mile 50 my situation was the same, I was feeling decent given my stomach issues. Power was on track, RPE, HR and overall mood were still good. My computer and watch lost the feed from my P1 Pedals around this point, probably due to a low battery (I checked the batteries using the app on Tuesday, both reading almost full, apparently that wasn't the case.). I was thinking through a plan to ride based on RPE and HR for the rest of the day when I heard that sound that no one wants to hear... Hissing from my rear tire.
I quickly pulled off to the right side, where there was actually no shoulder. Had to wait for a gap and run across both directions of bikers in order to set up and change the tire. Luckily there was a huge shoulder on the other side of the road big enough to drive on. It just so happened that there was a volunteer driving down the shoulder offering mechanical support right after I flatted (my C02 inflator was gone). It took about 10 minutes (valve extender change and a stuck chain), but we were able to get everything up and running again. I'm pretty sure it was a puncture flat, but I couldn't find anything on the tire. I'd ridden this set of latex tubes approximately 75 miles in training, so I don't think anything was pinched.
The remainder of the ride was fairly uneventful. Special needs was quick and painless, the high school girl that got me my bag was very appreciative of the gift card. The draft packs were ridiculous. At one point I was forced to abandon a pass because an opposite direction peloton was taking up more than their lane, spilling over the cones and into opposite direction traffic. I painfully urinated two more times, but kept eating and drinking as much as possible. The biggest challenge was that my mechanical delay put me into a group of much slower riders. This forced me to either ride a little too hard and pass people constantly, or back way off and ride much slower than I wanted to. I tried to take the middle ground and choose my battles. On one hand I knew that it would be foolish to try and power my way out of the deficit caused by my mechanical issues. On the other hand, it was very painful to sit back and soft pedal behind a pack of people on road bikes doing 16 MPH.
As the heat crept up and the run grew closer I took Coach P's advice and tried to stay soaked and cool in preparation for the run. I backed off of solid calories after the 5 hour mark, but couldn't get any gels down. I decided that I'd just push as much GE as my body would take (and then some) and hope for the best. I finished the bike with about a 30 ounce fluid deficit from what I had planned.
Average moving speed for the bike was 19.7, about what I expected. Actual speed was 18.6 counting my total time stopped (19 mins). Average HR 136. Average power for the first 50 miles was 140 Target for the total ride was 155. (Average speed on the 94 mile 2016 course was 17.9)
Lessons Learned - Do something else with your repair kit. Replace P1 batteries for races regardless of how new you think they are. Consider stopping at an aid station to catch up on fluids and possibly calories, and empty bladder completely if you aren't feeling right.
Loving my Ventum - I'll earn this thing one day!
T2 - 5:27 - Hot Pavement!
I rolled into T2 feeling pretty good. Ready to be done with the bike, hopeful that I set myself up well enough to run, and ready give my wife a kiss and daughter a high 5. I wound up leaving my shoes on the pedals, and ran barefoot to my T2 bag. The first thing I noticed was just how hot the pavement and side walks had gotten! After about 30 seconds of jogging I decided that my feet were getting a little too torn up on the pavement and settled for a brisk walk to the changing tent. I was a little concerned to see a nasty mixture of blood and dirt on the bottom of my feet from the jog in... Apparently I got a little more scraped up than I thought (luckily it was just minor scrapes, feet held up fine for the run). I wiped off the feet as well as I could with the outside of my socks, put on my shoes, grabbed my go bag, and got moving. T2 in 2016 was 8:56, so I was pleased with this transition.
Lesson Learned - Throw a small towel in both transition bags, it can't hurt.
Run - 5:08:24 - Hold it Together!
I started the run according to plan, stupid easy. Was able to eat a banana coming out of transition. A couple miles in I stopped at North Shore Park to painfully empty the bladder one last time.
I began following my HR, RPE, and trying to force myself to run about a 10:30 pace. I knew any slower would quickly deteriorate from a run into an inefficient shuffle. Almost immediately, my heart rate surged into the 150s. I had hoped to keep it in the low 140s for the first lap. I felt good, effort level was extremely low, so I stuck with it (despite the 85 degree temp). I usually see a big bump in HR at the beginning of a run, and it settles down after 20-30 minutes. Apparently that was not the case today, because I held the 150-155 HR all the way through mile 10, when it finally settled into the high 140s.
I spotted Meaghan and Charlotte (wife and daughter) near mile 10, which gave me a huge pick up mentally. Shortly after that, I started to slow down, closer to an 11:30 pace. My nutrition and hydration challenges from the bike were catching up with me. My walk breaks at aid stations started taking longer and longer as I tried to regroup for a push to the next aid station. I used my go bag for ice at every aid station, dumping the melted ice over my head as each mile passed. I started pushing Coke at about the half way point, which helped some with my stomach. Unfortunately, solids just weren't going to happen. I was able to eat another couple bites of banana, but that was it. I stuck with my only walking the aid stations approach until mile 23. I felt like I had to make a choice between eating pavement or taking more regular walk breaks. Who knows if that was actually true, but in my head I was certain that I was going to wind up passing out if I didn't back off a little. I walked/ran/shuffled miles 23, 24 and 25... Hating every minute of it.
I was able to pick it up a little at mile 26, and run the last mile to the finish. I spotted lots of friends and family near the chute, which was awesome! I was thrilled to finish, proud of what I'd accomplished, but knew that I could have executed a better race.
My run time in 2016 (split run with a 30 minute break deducted due to thunderstorms) was 5:05:51, a few minutes faster than my 2018 run. Unfortunately this was the only area that I didn't improve.
I moved up slightly from 135 to 115th AG ranking, 2016 overall time (adjusted by Ironman for time stopped, bike was 18 miles shorter also) was 12:11, today it was 12:29.
Lessons Learned - I should have went even slower, perhaps using a run/walk of 4:00/0:30 (instead of just aid stations) for the first lap. - Almost everyone that is walking the run wants to talk about their awesome bike split... Kind of funny.
First time seeing Charlotte during the race, about mile 10 of the run. Almost as awesome as the finish line!
Happy to be done! There's a slice of pizza in my right hand...
Going Forward
I have absolutely no regrets about my training or build for this race. EN is awesome! I'm looking forward to what's next... A couple years of getting faster and focusing on the 70.3 distance and some medium distance run events. I'd like to extend a huge THANK you to my wife Meaghan, daughter Charlotte, and the whole team at EN for getting me to the finish line!
Thanks for reading! Please fire away with any thoughts or advice!
Race Plan:
https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/24677/luke-miller-imtx-2018-race-plan#latest
Pre Race - Almost Too Quiet...
Living a short drive from the race venue gave me a uniquely calm race week, I took some time off work to relax and get everything ready. Checked in Wednesday, met @Chris Oubre and @Sam Lawrence for lunch at Goose's Acre on Thursday. Practice swim, bag drop, transition scouting on Friday morning. I felt very strong during the practice swim, and got out of the lake excited to see what I could do the next morning. Had a quiet night at home Friday with the wife and daughter. My seasonal allergies kicked in on Friday evening, and I was pretty plugged up. I took a Benadryl around 7:30 and slept like a baby until my alarm went off at 3:30.
I woke up feeling well rested and ready to roll. Race morning went exactly as planned and very smoothly, which was a little a little troublesome. Ate two english muffins with jelly, a banana, and some applesauce. Thanks to those who recommended upping my morning calories, it definitely served me well. Arrived to transition at 5:20, aired tires, added fluids to bike, banana in T2 bag, texted wife for a ride to the swim start. By 6:20 I had dropped off my special needs and morning clothes bags, applied the final layers of Trislide and sunscreen, and had my wetsuit on.
Lesson learned - Use a checklist for everything!
Swim - 1:12:59 - Pleasantly Surprised
I seeded myself with the 1:00-1:10 swimmers knowing that I was more of a 1:15-1:20 guy. In 2016 I got stuck in a slower pack and wound up with a 1:27 swim... I really didn't want that to happen again. Entered the water around 6:43 and quickly fell into a solid rhythm. I stayed in a group for the majority of the swim, lots of contact. The work was worth it, and I was rewarded with some solid improvement. Despite the contact, I never felt like I was working too hard. (My HR on the first 5 miles of the bike was 113, so I wasn't too winded coming out of the water)
Lesson learned - Do the practice swim. It allowed me to have that "fight or flight" moment the day before the race, which resulted in me staying with the pack on race day.
T1 - 6:52 - Who moved my bag?
2016 T1 was over 15 minutes because I decided to apply sunscreen and empty my bladder in transition. Not this time! Out of the water, goggles to forehead, wetsuit down to the hips, go to last stripper, jog to bag area, bag is not where it was dropped yesterday! Apparently all of the bags got shuffled a little, and mine got pushed to the other side of the column. Luckily, this only cost about a minute of looking (despite it being marked with bright pink ribbon). Changing tent went well, didn't sit down. Dumped my bag, short sleeve jersey went on easily, helmet on, shoes in hand. Volunteer was very appreciative of the gift card. Jogged straight to the bike, shoes on before unracking, visor down. Brisk walk with shoes on to the mount line.
Lesson learned - Check on BOTH transition bags race morning.
Bike - 5:55:36 - Focus on "The Box"
Apparently I punched a little bit above my weight class with my swim and T1, because there were some fast (and stupid) folks around for the first few miles. Lots of nice bikes! I saw two accidents within the first 10 miles, so I decided to take it extra easy and not get caught up in any of the racing going on around me. I'd had to empty my bladder ever since the swim start, so I used this relaxing part of the bike to do such. This was my first sign of distress, a consistent burning while I was going. I wasn't sure what to make of it, I hadn't had any of these symptoms earlier. I figured it must have been because I had held it a little too long, and made a mental note to really try and nail my hydration. Around mile 15 there were some very bumpy side roads, which were apparently bad enough to eject the lid off of my repair kit. I didn't notice it until I saw my CO2 inflator skipping across the road to my left... Nice. I definitely do not recommend the Xlab Mini Cage Pod.
Around mile 20 we joined the Hardy Toll Road. I take the Hardy to work every day, so it was kind of interesting (and extra boring) to see it from this perspective. It was nice to get down in the bars and start riding my planned watts, with the speeds I was seeing I felt like it was going to be a great day! At about mile 25 I slipped my chain at the top of an overpass. I guess I must've accidentally bumped the Di2 button for my front derailleur while shifting the rear. Stupid mistake, took about 3 minutes to fix. Nutrition and Hydration are all going to plan - 30 ounces of GE per hour, 1 salt tab hourly, and 2 shot blocks every 20 minutes. I had to relieve myself again at about mile 30... This time it burnt so bad that I had to check my leg for blood. Not cool. Shortly after this I started getting little flashes of cramping and nausea. While it wasn't unbearable, I was only able to get about 60% of my fluids down without burping them back up. I knew this was going to come back to haunt me later in the day. I decided the only thing to do was to keep taking as much fluid as my body would allow, and make extra sure that my solid foods and salt were according to plan. Looking back, I wish I would have stopped at an aid station and tried to empty my bladder completely and drank drank a full bottle of water to try and flush my system.
By mile 50 my situation was the same, I was feeling decent given my stomach issues. Power was on track, RPE, HR and overall mood were still good. My computer and watch lost the feed from my P1 Pedals around this point, probably due to a low battery (I checked the batteries using the app on Tuesday, both reading almost full, apparently that wasn't the case.). I was thinking through a plan to ride based on RPE and HR for the rest of the day when I heard that sound that no one wants to hear... Hissing from my rear tire.
I quickly pulled off to the right side, where there was actually no shoulder. Had to wait for a gap and run across both directions of bikers in order to set up and change the tire. Luckily there was a huge shoulder on the other side of the road big enough to drive on. It just so happened that there was a volunteer driving down the shoulder offering mechanical support right after I flatted (my C02 inflator was gone). It took about 10 minutes (valve extender change and a stuck chain), but we were able to get everything up and running again. I'm pretty sure it was a puncture flat, but I couldn't find anything on the tire. I'd ridden this set of latex tubes approximately 75 miles in training, so I don't think anything was pinched.
The remainder of the ride was fairly uneventful. Special needs was quick and painless, the high school girl that got me my bag was very appreciative of the gift card. The draft packs were ridiculous. At one point I was forced to abandon a pass because an opposite direction peloton was taking up more than their lane, spilling over the cones and into opposite direction traffic. I painfully urinated two more times, but kept eating and drinking as much as possible. The biggest challenge was that my mechanical delay put me into a group of much slower riders. This forced me to either ride a little too hard and pass people constantly, or back way off and ride much slower than I wanted to. I tried to take the middle ground and choose my battles. On one hand I knew that it would be foolish to try and power my way out of the deficit caused by my mechanical issues. On the other hand, it was very painful to sit back and soft pedal behind a pack of people on road bikes doing 16 MPH.
As the heat crept up and the run grew closer I took Coach P's advice and tried to stay soaked and cool in preparation for the run. I backed off of solid calories after the 5 hour mark, but couldn't get any gels down. I decided that I'd just push as much GE as my body would take (and then some) and hope for the best. I finished the bike with about a 30 ounce fluid deficit from what I had planned.
Average moving speed for the bike was 19.7, about what I expected. Actual speed was 18.6 counting my total time stopped (19 mins). Average HR 136. Average power for the first 50 miles was 140 Target for the total ride was 155. (Average speed on the 94 mile 2016 course was 17.9)
Lessons Learned - Do something else with your repair kit. Replace P1 batteries for races regardless of how new you think they are. Consider stopping at an aid station to catch up on fluids and possibly calories, and empty bladder completely if you aren't feeling right.
Loving my Ventum - I'll earn this thing one day!
T2 - 5:27 - Hot Pavement!
I rolled into T2 feeling pretty good. Ready to be done with the bike, hopeful that I set myself up well enough to run, and ready give my wife a kiss and daughter a high 5. I wound up leaving my shoes on the pedals, and ran barefoot to my T2 bag. The first thing I noticed was just how hot the pavement and side walks had gotten! After about 30 seconds of jogging I decided that my feet were getting a little too torn up on the pavement and settled for a brisk walk to the changing tent. I was a little concerned to see a nasty mixture of blood and dirt on the bottom of my feet from the jog in... Apparently I got a little more scraped up than I thought (luckily it was just minor scrapes, feet held up fine for the run). I wiped off the feet as well as I could with the outside of my socks, put on my shoes, grabbed my go bag, and got moving. T2 in 2016 was 8:56, so I was pleased with this transition.
Lesson Learned - Throw a small towel in both transition bags, it can't hurt.
Run - 5:08:24 - Hold it Together!
I started the run according to plan, stupid easy. Was able to eat a banana coming out of transition. A couple miles in I stopped at North Shore Park to painfully empty the bladder one last time.
I began following my HR, RPE, and trying to force myself to run about a 10:30 pace. I knew any slower would quickly deteriorate from a run into an inefficient shuffle. Almost immediately, my heart rate surged into the 150s. I had hoped to keep it in the low 140s for the first lap. I felt good, effort level was extremely low, so I stuck with it (despite the 85 degree temp). I usually see a big bump in HR at the beginning of a run, and it settles down after 20-30 minutes. Apparently that was not the case today, because I held the 150-155 HR all the way through mile 10, when it finally settled into the high 140s.
I spotted Meaghan and Charlotte (wife and daughter) near mile 10, which gave me a huge pick up mentally. Shortly after that, I started to slow down, closer to an 11:30 pace. My nutrition and hydration challenges from the bike were catching up with me. My walk breaks at aid stations started taking longer and longer as I tried to regroup for a push to the next aid station. I used my go bag for ice at every aid station, dumping the melted ice over my head as each mile passed. I started pushing Coke at about the half way point, which helped some with my stomach. Unfortunately, solids just weren't going to happen. I was able to eat another couple bites of banana, but that was it. I stuck with my only walking the aid stations approach until mile 23. I felt like I had to make a choice between eating pavement or taking more regular walk breaks. Who knows if that was actually true, but in my head I was certain that I was going to wind up passing out if I didn't back off a little. I walked/ran/shuffled miles 23, 24 and 25... Hating every minute of it.
I was able to pick it up a little at mile 26, and run the last mile to the finish. I spotted lots of friends and family near the chute, which was awesome! I was thrilled to finish, proud of what I'd accomplished, but knew that I could have executed a better race.
My run time in 2016 (split run with a 30 minute break deducted due to thunderstorms) was 5:05:51, a few minutes faster than my 2018 run. Unfortunately this was the only area that I didn't improve.
I moved up slightly from 135 to 115th AG ranking, 2016 overall time (adjusted by Ironman for time stopped, bike was 18 miles shorter also) was 12:11, today it was 12:29.
Lessons Learned - I should have went even slower, perhaps using a run/walk of 4:00/0:30 (instead of just aid stations) for the first lap. - Almost everyone that is walking the run wants to talk about their awesome bike split... Kind of funny.
First time seeing Charlotte during the race, about mile 10 of the run. Almost as awesome as the finish line!
Happy to be done! There's a slice of pizza in my right hand...
Going Forward
I have absolutely no regrets about my training or build for this race. EN is awesome! I'm looking forward to what's next... A couple years of getting faster and focusing on the 70.3 distance and some medium distance run events. I'd like to extend a huge THANK you to my wife Meaghan, daughter Charlotte, and the whole team at EN for getting me to the finish line!
Thanks for reading! Please fire away with any thoughts or advice!
1
Comments
I used my race sherpa to quiz me on HR and keep me honest.
You planned to race smart, and you raced smart. I'm impressed that you handled race-day issues with aplomb
Get faster at shorter distances, and when you're ready, come back to Ironman distance. IM will always be there. But don't change your bike position -- from that photo you look incredibly aero
I know it was hot, but, still, that's a lot of salt on you in those run photos. To keep going the way you did is a real testament to fortitude and perseverance. IMO, that 12:29 would have been = to 11:30 in that shortened 2016 race?
@Chris Oubre I really didn't want to walk too much at all... In hindsight, it would have been better to walk some at the beginning than a lot at the end. Great racing with you, and congrats again on the huge PR!
@tim cronk If it was easy, it wouldn't be any fun! Thanks for all the guidance, looking forward to continued improvement!
@Paul Curtin Thanks for all the wisdom with my plan! It really helped on race day. There's no way that I would have been able to work all those issues and minimize their impact without all the EN knowledge I've picked up. I'll be back to the full distance in a couple years with that same bike position!
@Al Truscott My quick T1 porta potty stop in 2016 cost about 6 minutes waiting in line, so I was gun shy this time. In retrospect, I should have either went in transition or stopped at an early aid station. This performance was definitely better than 2016. It's hard to call it a PR, since this really the first "full" Ironman I've done, but I definitely won't complain about the improvement. The 2016 run was also in cool rainy weather (post thunderstorm), while this one was more challenging because of heat.
I never did figure out what the burning issue was. My best guess is the nasty lake water made its way into my system at some point. There were a lot of people that got very sick from it during the bike, so it's not too far fetched.
Thanks again everyone!
My memory of that Lake is the smell of manure and duck poop. I'm wondering if you had an infection. The fact that you have seasonal allergies and took that Benadryl all adds up to some nasty inside you. As long as you weren't peeing the color of cola you were OK. I sense that Benadryl was the culprit.
Big victories for problem solving and sticking with it!! Congratulations.