2019 Miami Man Race Report
This was my A race and 3rd half ironman distance race. Fitness wise I felt really good going into the race but I could tell my body was very fatigued. Adductors have been killing me the past couple months from over use I'm guessing. I'm going to whole heartedly embrace this rest period for the next week or two.
@maurice matthews was nice enough to host me for the first two night I was there (thurs and fri). His wife is very nice and just being around relaxed people helped me to relax as well. We did a shakeout 4 mile run on Friday which helped loosen up my legs a little bit.
On Sat, I got my bike from Tri Bike Transport. And the first sign of things that went wrong reared its ugly head. My powertap hub based power meter wasn't functioning. I even switched out batteries and it still didn't work. Dangit. I came to grips that I'd have to race by feel on the bike. I'll def be sending the power meter into SRAM after the race to fix. I hydrated, ate and slept well that day and felt as good as I was going to feel going into the race on Sunday.
Race day!!!! I actually got to Transition early (45 min before it closed lol). Got in enough time to do a 200 yd or so swim warmup as well. I felt relaxed and ready to go. None of that mattered haha. I swam so slow I could've sworn they were cleaning up the bouys by the time I got out. I was hugely disappointed after seeing the 61 min swim time as I exited the water. I was last out of my AG, Yikes!!! Nevertheless, I kept pushing. T1 time was pretty good. I keep things pretty basic in transitions. Onto the bike!!
I felt ok on the bike. Actually had a nice little, legal pace line going for the first 15 miles or so. The second thing that went wrong occurred at this point. I hit a pothole and my aerobars, which obviously were tightened back on as tight as they should've been, unloosened and pointed at a downward angle. I tried muscling them back to around the original position to no avail. I would have to ride the remaining 35-50 miles like this. Not impossible but not optimal either. As I stated before, I had to ride by feel. Mainly going off speed and HR. I was able to maintain a 140 HR. I probably could've pushed a little harder but really had no way of telling since I'm not used to riding by HR. I was able to maintain 22.6 mph until I reached that dreaded headwind the last 15-20 miles. It was disrespectful AND hard on the quads lol. At around the 43-45 mile mark, I hit yet another pothole and my remaining bottle of Infinit flew off my back cage smdh. Luckily it was right before an aid station so I was able to grad a bottle of GE. I took a huge drink and placed on my back age. The remainder of the ride was me just focusing on powering through the headwind and trying not to lose too much speed. As you can tell from the pic below (each bar represents a 4 mile intervals), my speed decreased and TSS increased around that headwind mark. In hindsight, I should've done more hains point (DC) rides, which can be quite windy. I knew from my avg speed, 21.6 mph, that I made some ground up and caught a couple people. Although not outstanding, it's a little better than average. Onto T2!!
I usually have fast transitions but not at T2. My shoe insoles kept scrunching up so I took them out hahaha. At the start, of course I went out too fast, which seems to be a theme for me on the run. Right away I noticed my back and upper quads were crazy tight. No doubt from the odd position my jacked up aero bars placed me in. It was getting difficult to maintain the speed I had in the 2 miles. My pace started to suffer greatly. At this point, I'm thinking "No way I'm going to make up ground. I've basically wasted the whole year on this sorry run effort." The gravel and grass sections didn't do anything to inspire confidence either. However, I understood that everyone had to run on it. At mile 6/7, I noticed I started to get very hot as evidenced by my HR. I started pouring ice down my jersey per Maurice's suggestion. It worked. Then on mile 10, a miracle happened and my back loosened up......I saw a couple Age Groupers in the distance who had USA jerseys, so I knew they qualified in past years. I finally had a target to gun for. In the last 5k, I was able to dig deep and run at a satisfactory pace.
As I crossed the line, I knew I was close to qualifying but not sure until I saw the results. It was my slowest HIM time wise but given the weather and conditions, it may have been my best effort bike and run wise. I still have a VERY LONG way to go swim wise but I'll work on it. I'm still on the fence of racing the 2020 ITU world championships but glad I accomplished the goal of qualifying. Feel free to comment and/or give criticism as well. Thanks for reading!
Swim - 1:01
Bike - 2:36
Run - 1:42
Overall - 5:25 (14th out of 29 in AG)
Comments
Way to hang in there and qualify for the ITU Worlds. I say you go and experience the race, you earned it. Well done
Strong finish on the run. AND superb race management of all the things that didn't go the way you expected.
Did you see any animals - giraffes, etc - on the run? That's always fun there.
Thoughts on whether to compete in the 202 long course WC in Almere...first off, you know you are competing against the 29-33 year old AG for qualification, right? So your placement in the 30-34 is different from your placement in the qualifying group.
Second, the ITU races are really well put on, and treated like a really big deal - since it's a week long festival of multisport, there are 1000's of athletes from all around the world and feeding off of their energy is a great boost to one's ego.
Third, the course there is TOTALLY FLAT, of course, so no worries about terrain - just wind!
4th, it is the 140.6 distance, which if you've never done it before, might seem a challenge. But assuming you want to be competitive in Ironman races, you gotta start somewhere, and why not at the top?
Finally - Language is not an issue in Holland, and you can visit Amsterdam if you've never been there before, a very cool city.
@Carl Alleyne Congratulations on a great race! I was impressed with your positive attitude during the low points in the race. Most people might've simply mailed it in but you kept grinding and were rewarded for your effort.
I was interested in reading your race report as @Al Truscott mentioned in an earlier post the ability to go there and compete for a spot to represent the U.S. in worlds.
Would you recommend this race?
@Dave Legg Thanks, I'm leaning towards doing it. I can't assume I'll ever get the opportunity again.
@Al Truscott Thanks a lot! One thing that carries over from my football days is problem management and sticking to the plan when things go bad.......Yes, I saw some wild life. probably 1/4 of the run was in the zoo. The time I was paying attention to my surroundings I saw zebras haha. You're right, I need to get into the 140.6 distance at some point, might as well be then. I have to check out the qualifying groups as I'm 34 this year so that'll be interesting. This will force me to work on body comp and swimming.
@Jeff Phillips Thanks!......Yup, I would definitely recommend it. Course is totally flat and well supported with 3 aid stations. The swim, although not wetsuit legal, was in a lake with calm water. The run was cool too. Aid stations every mile or so. However, half of it was on grass/gravel. This year wasn't crazy hot either. And like Al alluded too, it's a qualifying event. The food was good after and they have plenty of recovery station vendors with electro stem, recovery boots and massages. It was a great late season 70.3 race.
@Carl Alleyne Congratulations on your awesome race and qualifying for worlds. Great Job of overcoming so much adversary and persevering. Looking forward to your 140.6 debut.
@Robert Sabo Thanks! Yes, the 140.6 will be "fun" lol.
@Carl Alleyne Congratulations on a great and qualifying for Worlds! Great job overcoming your obstacles and staying focused on your race. Well done.
@Carl Alleyne Really nice race! How did the ride compare to riding it with a power plan? IOW is the time you rode by RPE close to what you expected to ride? Do you think you would have ridden different if you had power? Great job managing problems. You should for sure find a way to do worlds! Congratulations.
@Carl Alleyne congratulations on Leading from the front, holding that line and qualifying for Worlds! Way to Keep moving forward superman!
@Shaughn Simmons @Derrek Sanks Thanks a lot!
@Sid Wavrin thanks! That’s an awesome question. If my aero bar didn’t get displaced and I had a power meter I think I would’ve went a lil faster but not a crazy amount. Maybe high 21mph/22 flat. I think I did a pretty good job or riding by RPE. there were some lull periods but not very many.
@Carl Alleyne and @maurice matthews and @Paul Hough - it was great to see you all out there! Yes, the headwind on the last leg just highlighted the importance of using power and HR vs just mph. I was working as hard doing 20mph as I was doing 27mph!
Carl - Paul did at Ironman in Almere and is going. He claims it was an excellent race and said he is open to any questions. Good job working through the rough patches - shows character, which is part of why we do this.
I just signed up for Miami-Man 2020! I will be 60 next year and will try to qualify for the ITU Worlds in Township, Australia. Hope to see you! 😎
USA, USA, USA! Awesome work @Carl Alleyne ! Congratulations on qualifying for ITU worlds. You RR is a great reminder to be ready for the unexpected on race day. Great job staying focused in spite of those complications. I fully support you going to ITU worlds if it fits in from a life perspective (even if it means you won’t be racing IMMD 2020 with me 😔😜). I’m excited to see your continued improvement! Let’s hope we can meet up for an event next year!
@Larry Peters Yea we def need to do 2020 event together. Maybe Al's camp in the summer.
@Joe Hallatschek Great to meet you as well! I was amazed at your speed when you passed me on the bike course! As of now, I'm signed up for Mallorca but I'm thinking of switching up to the Arizona tri camp.
@Carl Alleyne YES!! We need to do epic things in Colorado together!
@Carl Alleyne Invite to the team for June camp in CO coming after I return from Arizona next week...stay tuned.
Looks like you were 13th in the "34-38" AG, so you've got an automatic spot?
@Carl Alleyne congratulation an awesome race and qualifying for Worlds! So proud! Oh, and glad to see you are taking it easy..... 😉
@Al Truscott Looking forward to it!!. I raced 30-34 in Miami and got 14th. I'm curious, where did you see the results for the 34-38 AG?
@Brian Hagan Thanks! Yea I'm forcing myself to not run haha. So hard!
@Carl Alleyne - go to the MultiRace webpage and then to the Miami Man results. If you are 34 aging up to 35-39 all you have to do to see your results in the '34-38' AG is to first score yourself as if you had been in the current 35-39, then subtract out any 39 yr olds that were faster and add in the 34 year old guys who beat you in Miami. I raced for Team USA at Almere in 2008 (it was the Nice distance, not an Ironman), and will be going back to do the full aquabike this time. I hope to meet you there.
BTW, I had a similar incident with my aerobars in a half earlier this year. I could not pull the bars up while riding and ended up making a quick stop and banging them back up with my fist. You had a great time at Miami considering the swim. If that's your weak point you might consider investing more time in the pool this winter ... or getting an on-deck coach. Just saying. For what it's worth, I never do well in the Miami Man swim. Congrats again on your race!
@Paul Hough Most definitely! I signed up for a masters class the week before the swim. It's the weakest of the 3 sports by far. I have a lot of work to do. I'm sure we'll definitely catch up in Almere. Congrats to you as well!