Gabe's Ironman Santa Rosa Race Report
Race Report: Ironman Santa Rosa
Summary
My plan this season has been to do Santa Rosa as an early season Ironman to build a big engine that I could layer specificity on top of for ultrarunning in the summer. Overall I feel like I accomplished that goal and had fun along the way.
Highlights
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Phase |
Key Take Aways |
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Swim |
· This was the easiest swim I’ve done all year. I had an average HR of 129, which would be what I’d see hiking. · The swim seemed to be about 400-500 yards long as my Garmin reported 4700 yards. Everyone seemed to be 5-10 minutes off their usual time. But the extra yards didn’t bother me. · I’m still surprised how many people don’t use the trick of swimming inside the buoy line. It was a peaceful place, except when I had to go outside for the turns. |
|
Bike |
The first 70 miles went well. I pushed target power while keeping my HR in the low 130s. The scenery was amazing cruising through wine country. I enjoyed going, “I’ve been to that winery before!” as I passed familiar locations. |
|
Run |
· I beat my previous Ironman run time by about 30 minutes. · My HR was ridiculously low. At times I was running just under a 9:00/mile with an HR of 129. My average was 132. To put that in perspective, I can run all day long at 142. I never see it that low running. Never. · I succeeded in building a diesel engine to be able to run at such a low HR after the swim and bike. Hell, I’d love to do that in a straight up run. |
|
Transitions |
Transitions were smooth. T1 was about a quarter mile jog up the boat ramp. The go-bag was money as always in T2. |
Lowlights
|
Phase |
Key Take Aways |
|
Swim |
I wish the course was marked accurately. Otherwise, swimming this easy off an average of two swims per week is great. One of these years I’ll learn to swim, but not this year. |
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Bike |
The bike is pretty much the entire lowlight reel: · The course was beat to hell. It felt more like a MTB ride about 25% of the time. I was riding in the attack position, bunny hopping over potholes. I almost wonder if you’d be better off doing this race on a road bike with clip-on aerobars. At a minimum, I would use my Flo 30 instead of my 60 for better maneuverability next time. Pro tip: BestBikeSplit should be set to the worse road conditions to get an accurate estimate for this course. · By about mile 70 I was sizzling with the temps around 88F on the exposed section of the course. I took water at the aid stations just to dowse myself. Most of my training occurred in the 50-65F range, so I had poor heat acclimatization. I got out in the sun as much as I could, but just couldn’t simulate these conditions. · At around mile 80, my brain was fried. I thought the worse thing that could happen was to get a flat. A minute later my front wheel popped. I found a shady spot and methodically worked through the steps. There was no puncture through the tire. The tube must have gotten a pinch flat from the shitty road conditions. I’ve officially had all my flats in the last three years in my last two races! · Around mile 95, my chain started skipping. The pin in one of the links was coming loose. If I didn’t fix it, the chain would break. I pulled over near some spectators and asked if they had pliers. Luckily, one of the guys grabbed some from his car. I pushed the pin back into place and it held for the race. · The final stretch into downtown Santa Rosa was into a strong headwind. I just told myself to keep turning the crank. |
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Run |
My run started to fade abound mile 19. The same effort that was getting me a sub-9:00/mile previously was getting me a 10:00+/mile. That cost me my goal of a sub-4 hour IM marathon by 4 minutes. I probably could have turned myself inside out to do it, but by that point I was thinking about a quick recovery so I could start my epic summer adventures. I went by the EN conventional wisdom that you don’t need to do a run longer than 16 miles in training. The next time I do an Ironman, I’ll do at least two 20-mile runs to avoid the fade. That’s not really a big deal for me anymore and doesn’t come with a high recovery cost. |
Key Take Aways
· It was great racing with EN with all the mojo around the race! In particular, I’ve wanted to meet Shaughn Simmons since 2014. He’s such a great leader in EN! I loved seeing all the EN folks out on the course.
· I really enjoy the training for an Ironman. It has a lot of variety and can be done primarily indoors during the winter months. It is a great way to build a diesel engine for epic summer events.
· However, I don’t know if I’ll do a vanilla Ironman again. I don’t mean this to offend anyone, but for me it’s kind of boring compared to ultrarunning or MTBing. Three laps on the run was just mental torture. It would have to be in an epic location, such as Lanzarote, or an extreme Ironman, such as Alaskaman, to get me excited.
How Does an Ironman Compare to Ultras?
I get asked this question a lot. There were a couple years separating them before. Now they’re closer together so I think I’ve got a good comparison. First off, an Ironman is legit. It’s fucking hard. Here are my thoughts:
· The training for an Ironman is more complex and harder than even a 100 miler. I don’t know many ultrarunners who put in the 15-20 hours per week that many Ironman athletes put in.
· The race itself is on par with the difficulty of a 50-mile ultra.
· The admin for an Ironman is on par with a 100-mile ultra where you must carefully plan drop bags, crew, and pacers.
· I think the execution of an Ironman takes for mental discipline than an ultra. Ultras are almost always in scenic locations on trails that demand your attention, else you’ll trip and have a really bad day. Time goes by pretty fast in an ultra.
What’s Next…
I’ve built the diesel engine. Now I get to take it out and do some epic shit! Here’s my plan leading up to the Wasatch 100 ultra.
I’ve also hired a coach, Marvin Sandoval, who has won the Leadman and ends up on the podium every year. He is one of the few coaches I’ve met who can cover cycling and running. His philosophy is aligned with mine of focusing on quality and using the bike as an extension of the run to safely get more volume than most ultrarunners.
· The Twisted Fork 64k in Park City on June 30. This is a new race but has gotten a ton of buzz among the Utah ultrarunning community. The trails in Park City as some of best in the world.
· The Crusher in the Tushar in Beaver, UT on July 14. This is a 70-mile mixed surface bike race with about 10,000ft of vertical. You can ride a MTB or CX bike. I plan to ride my new Canyon Grail gravel bike on it. This will just be for fun since Wasatch is my big goal.
· Katcina Mosa 100k near my house on August 5. This will basically be a supported training day for Wasatch. Many of the local ultrarunners use it as a tune up for Wasatch since it is also in the Wasatch Mountains.
· The Wasatach 100 ultra, one of the original five 100s. It features over 24,000ft of vertical on technical trails. It was considered the hardest 100 for many years until races like Hardrock came out. It is still probably in the top 10 for difficulty. The course is all within an hour drive of my house so I can pre-run the entire thing in sections.
As always, thanks to the EN community for all the support and encouragement leading up to Santa Rosa. I’ve learned so much from all of you!
Finishing the first swim lap and jumping back in.
I wish that was wine going into my Torhans instead of Gatorade...
Pumped to finish. Any day the ends with Mike Reilly calling you an Ironman is a good one.
Like a boss!
Comments
@Paul Curtin thanks! It will be interesting to see how the strategy plays out this year.
@John Katsoudas thanks! I'll post about my adventures and misadventures as the year unfolds.
Your comment, "I don’t mean this to offend anyone, but for me it’s kind of boring compared to ultrarunning or MTBing. Three laps on the run was just mental torture. It would have to be in an epic location, such as Lanzarote, or an extreme Ironman, such as Alaskaman, to get me excited." reminds me of a belief I have that Ironman is both easier and harder than most people think. It's easier to get it done than a non-endurance athlete imagines, but it's harder to *race* than most IM athletes imagine.
You are doing well in the ultra world, running around all sorts of great locations, with more adventures to come (Sahara, Himalayas?) Your joy and enthusiasm is fun to follow.
Nuff Said!
I really like your comparison thoughts to ultra running and I perceive you got it right.
Great to me you Gabe, to put a face to a name of a friend!
Congratulations delivering and finishing strong!
SS
Good luck on your ultras
Thanks @Derek Sanks and @Jorge Duque!