Tony’s 2019 IMWI Race Report – ‘Runnin’ with the Devil’
Background information:
IMWI on 9/8/2019 was my seventh IM, six at IMWI.
Age 58 (59 by 12/31/2018); live in a northern suburb of Chicago.
FTP 272; Weight 177 lbs at the weigh in at registration ( I gained 4 pounds during the taper of mostly water weight).
Summary
I feel I’ve reached an inflection point in my IM training and racing. The sort of ‘Aha’ moment you get when a 2 x 4 board hits you across the head.
My IM PR is 11:47 in 2018 at IMMT and I went 12:02 at IMWI in 2017. Previously at IMWI, I went 12:39 in 2016 and 12:13 in 2014.
My goals for this year were:
Placed 20 /110 in my 55 – 59 age group.
Clearly, the disconnect between what I thought I could do on the run (based on my training, Race Rehearsals, past performance and training data) and what I actually did is the reason for that ‘Aha’ moment. With apologies to Van Halen, I felt like I was Runnin’ with the Devil – ‘Yes I’m livin’ at a pace that kills’…
Key Takeaways
1. On the bike, in past years I trained and raced with 225 – 250 calories per hour of real whole food of nut butter packets and limited ingredient bars with minimal gut issues. This year I trained and raced with 330 calories per hour of more processed racing food (Honey Stinger Waffles, EFS Liquid Shot and Picky Bars). Result: major gut issues on the run. Still searching for the right kind of nutrition and in the right amount to take in on the bike in order to set up a solid run. I’m looking into working with the Core Diet people on this one.
2. As an older athlete with a history of injury (plantar, metatarsal fractures, runners knee, etc.), my run training did not consistently hit the prescribed training zones for fear that the intensity would lead to injury and set back. That lack of consistency on the higher intensity workouts lead to a sub optimal run. The takeaway is to not be afraid to run fast in training.
3. I’ve race the last two years at 168 lbs in 2017 and 167 in 2018. This year I weighed in at 177 – body comp was an issue this year.
4. Believe the HR reading showing on my Garmin 310XT. I couldn’t believe the super high HR that was showing on the first 2 miles of the run. I turned on the Garmin as I started the run (I didn’t want the battery to die so I turned it on at the start of the run) and it had troubles connecting to the satellite. So I thought the 165 I was seeing was just the Garmin being wonky (vs. the upper 120s HR on my Elemnt bike computer over the last hour of the bike). When I started walking at mile 2 to test the HR reading and saw the HR start to go down, I finally believed the reading. But by then I had burned a few matches.
5. I trained, a lot, on the IMWI course. I rode the course 15 times in training, including a do-it-yourself 3 day camp staying in a hotel on the course. My race day TSS was 272, IF = .68, VI = 1.10. HR was upper 120s. The bike mirrored what I was doing on my training rides. I thought I was set up for a PR run. However, my actual experience on the run drives home the point that you don’t race faster than what you train at, and run execution during the early stages of the run will make or break how it goes at mile 18.
Race Week
Developed pain in patella tendon on Sunday of race week. Would feel it going down stairs. Came out of nowhere. Used my Marc Pro+ electrical stim device for an hour each day and only 1 run during race week. No knee issues on race day or during the race!
Swim
Very choppy. Hydrated with 4 ounces of EFS Liquid Shot in a 24 ounce bottle. Still a decent amount of contact even with the rolling start, but not as much as in prior years.
Couldn’t find a rhythm to my swim stroke given the chop. I felt I burned a lot calories battling the chop and so resolved to eat and hydrate early on the bike, increasing food and water intake by 50% during the first hour.
Overall, the swim is what it is. I was swimming a 1:40 / 100yds in the pool but could certainly use more open water practice, but the swim wasn’t the key limiter for this race.
T1
Really focused on transitions this year -- KISS principle + slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Very happy with T1 time. Still need to check where that time places me in my age group.
Bike
Very happy with bike execution and felt it would lead to a great run. Back in 2017 I took only water at the aid stations and consumed 220 calories per hour over 6 hours, with Justin's honey almond butter, Primal Kithchen's macadamia nut bars and Greenfield Systems NatureBite bars. This year I increased the calories to 330 / hour from different fuels sources. With the cooler day I thought the gut could handle the increased calorie load and I didn’t have a problem with the fuel sources during training. But I had major bloating and gas on the run.
Felt good about the holding the watts and I was riding pretty much what I planned:
TSS=272; AvgPwr=167; NP=184; VAR=1.10; IF=.68; AvgHR=123; AvgCadence=68
I rode a 50/34 compact crank with a Quark power meter on the crank and a 32/11 cassette.
Pee’d 8x and so it could be argued I overhydrated on the bike, especially with the cooler temps, but I kept up with the salt and would rather be over-hydrated than under-hydrated for that run.
T2
Very happy with T2. If I were to do it differently, I would pedal up the helix with feet on top of shoes.
Run
Devil of a run. Plan for the run was to load up on the nutrition over the first 6 miles and start out slow. I consumed 4 - 5 ounces of EFS Liquid Shot over the first 90 minutes. I started out slow, even though HR was high, but just got slower…
Gas/bloating hit at mile 9 – 10 and right quad cramped at mile 15.
Peed 3x during first 9 miles and 2 more times on the back half of the marathon. I estimate I spent 18 – 20 minutes in the porta pots.
Next steps
1. Dial in the run training to more closely align with race day goals (don’t be afraid of intensity on the run;
2. Diligent with strength, mobility and recovery protocols;
3. Monitor body comp throughout the year so I don’t have so far to go to get to race weight (sub 170);
4. Test and experiment with the right nutrition and amount for the bike in order to set up a run that will not require multiple stops to the porta pots.
Comments
Great race report @Tony Ledden, this for sure was not an easy race. I think the choppy swim and the tough bike probably did not help having a solid run but overall this is a great performance. I think the 11-32 cassette shows experience of this course, clearly something i should also have gone with (i ran a 11-28 with a 50-34 in front but 32 in the back would have been better).
To your point about body comp, i think it's probably the most critical point. I also raced at 177, down 10 pounds from IM Santa Rosa and it did help. I can't imagine what it is to race at sub 170 but i'm sure it will help you run at or under 4 hours.
Congratulations again, great race
@Vincent Sivirine : thank you for your insights. I came away scratching my head over this race thinking I had done everything right to set up a PR run. But as the dust settles and I take more of a 10,000 foot view of the race within the context of my entire training season, I can see the workout fueling and running limiters that came back to bite me on the run. Hopefully I get one more chance in 2020 to send those limiters into the inner circle of the inferno where they belong.
Swim - Hydrated with 4 ounces of EFS Liquid Shot in a 24 ounce bottle.
Bike - Pee’d 8x and so it could be argued I overhydrated on the bike,
Run - nutrition over the first 6 miles and start out slow. I consumed 4 - 5 ounces of EFS Liquid Shot over the first 90 minutes.
Gas/bloating hit at mile 9 – 10 and right quad cramped at mile 15.
Peed 3x during first 9 miles and 2 more times on the back half of the marathon. I estimate I spent 18 – 20 minutes in the porta pots.
@Tony Ledden It really takes a week to ten days to process IM. Congratulations on a great race! You were on track to hit your goals but your gut issues derailed that. As I read your report I can see areas to reflect on.
You may be good at oxidizing at for fuel based on how you fueled in previous races. We want to promote being a healthy athlete but come race day what you body wants is carbs and electrolytes in the correct volume. Your choice of HS waffles and picky bars are good! EFS shots has to be used with finesse because of the concentrated carbs that could back up absorption in to the small intestine.
I would still guide you to using bars and whole food. The bars you used in the past are high in fat. That's ok if you are cruising at avery low HR like in Ultras, but in IM, lower fat is better. What isn't calculated here is the amount of sodium per hour you took in.
At your previous weight your daily diet may have set you up for oxidizing fat more efficiently. Daily diet determines how we fuel on race day.
@Sheila Leard : Thank you for your insights! Totally agree it takes a bit of time to process an IM experience -- so many intertwined moving parts.
I took 875 mg of sodium per hour on the bike. Given the amount of water I was offloading on the bike, I should have increased the sodium intake commensurate with the water I was taking in.
On the swim, my stomach did feel like the EFS Liquid Shot wasn't moving through -- definitely should have diluted it more / used less over the hour before the swim. Fortunately, I took a dramamine an hour before the swim which helped to keep me from becoming nauseous riding the waves and losing everything that was still in my stomach.
Early on during the run, my stomach wasn't sloshing but I did feel as if I was carry a more fluid around my mid section since my tri top felt noticeably tighter. I consumed about 300 calories of Liquid Shot during the last 45 minutes of the bike, and with the addition of another 4-5 ounces during the first 90 minutes of the run certainly set me up for poor absorption, even though I was taking a salt stick and water at the aid stations.
I've spent a lot of time this past week self reflecting and debriefing the entire race experience and have concluded that my two biggest limiters are daily nutrition and its connection with race fueling (as you noted) and run training at the pace I plan to race. In order to address these limiters over the Run Durability and Out Season, I'm looking into working with the Core Diet folks (and taking advantage of the sponsor code - I've started in on Kropelnicki's book 'Endurance Training Diet and Cookbook'). I'm thinking that changing my daily nutrition and pre/during/post workout fueling will help with hitting the run targets during training and hence on race day. Plus, in order for the body to handle the increased intensity on the run, also plan to track/record my recovery , strength and mobility sessions in Final Surge (and Training Peaks). Perhaps even use MyFitnessPal to track nutrition. I've found that if I don't track and/or measure, it just doesn't happen. I was hoping that a mostly Long Slow Distance approach to the run training would work for me this year, but it didn't fully. It did keep me from suffering an injury that would keep me from racing, but that missing 20% of intensity at the higher heart rates seems to make all the difference...
@Tony Ledden Great race and great race report. Madison was challenging this year, but you persevered! I think you are on the right path after your reflection post-race around RDP, OS, tracking nutrition, etc. I've been trying to figure out the race-day nutrition game for awhile now too!
@Sheila Leard Any broad guidelines for much to reduce caloric intake during run? 1/2 has much as bike? Separating nutrition from hydration will be important, so are most individuals successful with some combination of chews/ blocks/ GE/ coke as nutrition and water as needed?
@Tony Ledden Nothing at all to be ashamed of in this race. Your transitions were awesome, your bike showed a steady, measured effort well within your capacity. And your run, while maybe not as fast as you'd like, nonetheless shows minimal slowdowns - maybe @ mile 15, and again @ 21/2. Overall, you won the battle with that devil, IMO.
My thoughts on what might help in the next run? One thing for sure is weighing ten pounds less would automatically produce a faster run, all else being equal (from Runner's World: "There's certainly evidence that weight affects speed: An American College of Sports Medicine study shows that a 5 percent reduction in weight improved 3K times by 3.1 percent, while a 10 percent reduction improved times by 5.2 percent, and experts say that this difference becomes greater as your distance increases.")
While I am not a nutritionist, I have done over 30 IM marathons, and here's what I've learned about calorie intake...first, the faster one goes, the less one should think about taking any solids. Maybe a max of 90-100 cal gel per hour over the first 3 hours. The rest should be liquids - i.e., Gatorade Endurance. Again, the faster one goes, the more frequently one encounters aid stations, and taking 6 oz of GE at every one can build up the calories very fast. For me, I found for my 4:30 +/- 30' marathons, taking a cup of GE every 2nd or 3rd aid station was all I could handle (but I weigh 145#).
I also think that over loading on calories on the first hour of the run produces obvious results which you experienced. Best to plan on being underfed than over. Once 3 hours goes by, it will become increasingly hard to ingest any calories. Coke every other aid station is what I turn to at that point, but, really, the final 60-90' seem to be done on fumes, not carbs.
I aim for 250 calories per hour the first 3 hours, and then assume that ANY calories after that will be determined by how my stomach feels; running will be solely fed by fat at that point...
Finally, figuring out how to split hydration from nutrition on the bike is a hidden factor in IM race success. It will vary with each and every race one does, primarily dependent on the weather (temperature and humidity). When it's cooler, trying to force fluids has predictable results which you discovered on the run.
If it gives you any encouragement, @ my 8th IM in Wisconsin in 2005 @ age 56, I went 12:33 -1:08/6:26/4:46, T1+2 11:48, 2/25 in my AG. Several years later, I broke 11 hours @ IM AZ. Keep improving, you're not done yet!
@Jeff Phillips : Thank you for your feedback and support on Strava. As part of the race debrief, especially after missing some outcome goals, I think it is natural to question why we do this IM gig. For me, it is to stay fit, work off stress and keep sane. I love the physical and mental challenge, competition and meeting and overcoming my doubts, fears and demons. I like to think IM makes me a better version of myself. Reasons enough to Keep Moving Forward (@Shaughn Simmons I kept your nom de guerre in my head after mile 15).
@Al Truscott - wise words as always -- thank you for the encouragement and support. As I reflect more on the race, I caught myself making some rookie mistakes -- like taking nutrition in a way that I didn't practice thinking it would work. Need to make a plan, commit to it, practice it, and only adjust the fluid, sodium and CHO as the weather dictates based on how I've practiced in heat and cold.
With the weight definitely agree. Weight/poor eating habits is another demon that IM has helped me wrestle with. It is a continuing struggle to overcome the psychological and emotional components of sub-optimal dietary habits, especially when my IM journey isn't the same journey as those I live with...IM helps me own the dietary changes I need to stick with in order to keep moving forward -- just need to keep that bogey in mind and double down (pleasantly) during training.
Thank you for sharing your nutritional experience. While I'm a different body build and the quantity of calories will differ, the general principles you've shared are very helpful for me going forward. In particular your advice of :
These points will be top of mind for the next battle.
@Tony Ledden congrats on finishing on a tough day. Moo is a seriously tough course, and you keep coming back for more. I used to eat way too much, mostly blindly eating bars and PBJ’s on the bike, then wondering why I was having gut issues one the run. It took an EN coach and Core Diet to convince me to change dramatically. Core says 0.6 g of carbs per hr per lb on bike, half that on the run. So freaking simple. For me at 145lbs, that’s basically 88g on the bike, 44 on the run. That’s two bottles of GE on the bike and nothing more. If I’m drinking 1.5 bottles per hour, add a gel or a few chews. I have done the bike leg on GE only, but I usually do GE + a dozen chews, then a couple of caf gels + water later in the ride. On the run, it’s 24oz of GE per hour or 12oz + a gel. My general goal on the run is a gel at 5, 10 and 15 with water, but the last one frequently gets skipped for Red Bull or Coke. For me, it’s quite liberating to make nutrition so easy.
Now in my 50’s, no way I’m doing really hard run speed work anymore. For me it’s guaranteed injury. One day per week I’ll do some tempo work or strides. That’s just me, though.
Oh, and when I went from racing at a lean 155lbs to a POW 145lbs, run times went down pretty dramatically (10-15 min). Rest up, sign up, and get ready for 2020.
Mike
@Tony Ledden IMWI is arguably the most technically difficult bike course on the IM circuit.
Out the 9 different venues I have raced, IMWI bike was the leg shredder for me and the bike is my strength.
12:23:51 and a solid IM run is a solid IM hands down.
As you progress and take away learning from this experience, the best path to follow is to begin tweaking your diet along the lines of advice received above by practicing in those long training rides preceding the next IM. Employ some long training days on the calendar where you swim 3,800M upfront before the bike leg (this will make the bike nutrition real) and practice hitting the hourly carb targets with all liquids as mentioned above.
Its a journey and most of us are still practicing and dialing in.
Super congratulations Ironman!