Vincent 's 2019 Wisconsin Race Report
This is how I started my IM Wisconsin Race Plan few weeks ago:
”my goal for IM Wisconsin is very simple, I don’t really care about the overall time but I want to run the marathon and if I can do it not too far off 4:30/4:45 I’ll be happy. […] In short I hope I will for once be able to race smart and correctly execute all the great things I’ve learnt from the team’’
Mission accomplished. I ran a 4:30 marathon, I loved the race although it was brutal on the swim and bike, and I even ran Observatory Hill twice!
Overall 12h55, 62/181 (35%)
Swim – plan 1:15 / actual 1:19 (46th)
Swim was brutal was very choppy water and big waves that would crash on your face and your shoulders especially on the long headwind return. My Garmin shows 4,000m, I felt I was hard to sight given the conditions and I found myself close to the kayaks several time. I think several folks had to be brought to shore, it was probably the hardest swim I had done in a race.
T1 – plan 10’ / actual 13:35
Slow… I walked from the swim exit to the Convention Center (including the Helix) to bring my heart rate down. I felt a bit embarrassed as everyone else was running in the Helix but that was the plan…
Bike – plan 6:15 / actual 6:42 (97th)
Ouch, this was slow. I think I kinda executed the plan but did not push enough. The first 20 miles at JRA, then trying to stay close to 175 watts (0.68 IF) but I did not ride the EN way on the downhills, not pushing enough so I ended up with a slow time and 0.65 IF with a VI of 1.13. Can clearly do better. I kept on telling myself that my only goal was to not walk the marathon so even if I was slow this strategy worked.
The course was not easy, the hills are not big, but you can’t gain any momentum, the roads were often pretty rough and we had headwinds on the lollipop that I did not expect. But the crowd in the three bigger hills were amazing. Really a great course.
I tried to front load nutrition, I had 8 bottles, gels, bananas and finished with blocks. Digestion was easier because I was not pushing it. I probably lost 5 minutes to use the restrooms, although the weather was not super cold I decided I would stop (4 times in total) and stay dry.
T2 – plan 7’ / actual 7:11
Had to stop to pee, executed relatively well otherwise
Run – plan 4:30-4:45 / actual 4:32 (46th)
My heart rate was ~ 125 on the bike so I wanted to keep it under 130 on the run and I felt good right away. Temperature was perfect in mid 50s which made it easier, I really do bad with the heat. The course took us to the Badgers Football stadium (pretty neat to run on the football field), some short hills but mostly flat with the exception of Observatory Drive. Probably wasn’t very smart but it was payback time for the choppy swim and the windy bike course so I decided I would not walk these rollers and so I ran them (slowly).
I also front loaded my nutrition (Gatorade plus gel at every other aid station until mile 6), everything was going well, I was still running.. I was racing with a friend of mine who was 15 minutes ahead (and he’s a better runner) and I thought I had a shot a catching him before the end as long as I did not stop (except AS). That actually was fun to see the 15’ become 12’ then 8’ and 5’, I finally got him one mile before the finish line. I had never run like this in an IM (most of which I completed in over 5 hours and sometimes 5:30+) and the feeling of being able to accelerate the last 3 miles is pretty awesome.
I did see another EN jersey, I assume it was Tony who was about an hour ahead of me but we did not have a chance to meet before unfortunately. He was running strong.
My whole run was between 128 to 135 bpm so in theory I wanted to run the last 8 miles faster with a heart rate of up to 145 but I got stuck in this easier, comfortable pace. That is something I need to work on for next time.
The whole day I remembered the comments some of you shared such as patience and discipline, right turn leads to a hill on the bike, I also drove the bike course twice. I felt all your comments were so spot on and really helped, thank you again.
Overall, I’m really pleased with the execution; this is why I joined the team so that I could learn, execute and run the marathon. There is no better feeling that being able to push it the last few miles on the run…Now, thinking about 2020 my goal will be to be able to run a bit faster (4 to 4:15) and with a stronger bike.
Madison is a wonderful venue for a race, everyone we met was so friendly and the volunteers were just awesome. This is a race that works well for me timing wise (late Summer), I know the EN race is Lake Placid next year, but I may do this one again, I really loved it.
Thanks for reading,
Vincent
Comments
Congrats Vincent! Thank you for sharing. Sounds like a terrific day!
@Vincent Sivirine You met your goals! That's a huge accomplishment. You said maybe you should have gone harder on the bike, but had you done that your run may have suffered. You stayed in your box. Great racing🤜🤛 Congratulations.
@Vincent Sivirine Great race report ! I was happy to read about the run, especially when you wrote, "I had never run like this in an IM (most of which I completed in over 5 hours and sometimes 5:30+) and the feeling of being able to accelerate the last 3 miles is pretty awesome".
Great execution, way to go!
Thanks @Virginia Edmonds , @Sheila Leard @Jeff Phillips for your kind words. It's amazing how good it feels after a good marathon. Yes there's soreness and the body aches but more importantly there's also the realization that with the right training this off season and what I've learnt these past few months i can have an even better experience a year from now. Exciting!
@Vincent Sivirine Any time you run an IM marathon all the way, especially within your target time, it counts as a successful race in my opinion. So now that you know you can do it, never fail on the marathon again.
With that goal, consider biting off one improvement at a time (maybe 1 and a half). The next step IMO is to get stronger on the bike, so you can work at the same perceived effort level, but go faster. That means dedication this winter to the OutSeason, raising your FTP so you are ready to take advantage of your new bike strength in the summer's training and races.
The half step improvement is in the transitions. I know from my own experience there in the Convention Center that you could gain 6-7 minutes on the transitions through better execution and maybe a bit more confidence that running the helix will not affect your new-found bike strength and current run prowess. This fall's IM AZ is a great place to apply transition best practices for "free speed".
Still doing IM AZ? It offers an opportunity for a faster time on your current fitness. The cooler weather and the flatter course might give you about 10-15 secs a mile, and running increasingly harder the last 5-6 miles offers another minute or 2. But I've found it's best to not get married to a target IM marathon time. It's better to commit to meeting process goals, and then be pleasantly surprised by your time at the end of the day.
Thank you @Al Truscott. I'm not doing IMAZ, i'm doing 70.3 North Carolina in 6 weeks and i was planning to end the season there but to your point above i'm playing with the idea of going to Panama City on 11/4 as it's still open (or is this a bad idea?).
My FTP is 257 so i could / should have been able to go faster on the bike without compromising the run and this is why I would like to have another shot this year and push more on the bike and still be able to run the marathon.
For my outseason i was thinking of focusing more on the run than the bike as i see the run as my main limiter but i will follow the guidance of @Coach Patrick when we talk later about 2020.
And yes you're spot on about transitions. I saw Tony's race report and he was much faster on transitions so clearly something i will work on.
Thanks again for the feedback and good luck for Kona.
@Vincent Sivirine Congrats on a well executed race, especially on your run after a that choppy swim and challenging bike course!
@Sheila Leard is spot on with her comment that going harder on he bike would have impacted your gains on the run. I think the key on the bike is not necessarily harder but smarter -- not burning the matches on the hills, smart decisions being made every 2 - 3 minutes, using momentum up the next punchy hill, and not being afraid of speed on the downhills. My bike computer shows I reached a max speed of 50.7 mph on one of the downhills.
For T1, I placed a pair of junk shoes under the canvass that covered the gated barriers at the end of the wet suit strippers on the right side. i slipped them on and was able to sprint (yep -- burned a match here) more easily to the changing room at which point I asked the volunteer to load up my swim gear in the bike bag while I put fuel into my pockets, helmet on, grab shoes that were rubber banded together and sprinted to my bike. I was racked close enough to the bike out that I put on my shoes while the volunteer held my bike, took the bike and lightly jogged to the mount line.
Congrats again on a great race!