Stanbaugh - IMAZ Race Report - 2019
2:55 Bike PR and 32:17 Overall PR
I’m back to swearing off November races!
But – I am really happy that I did this one. The EN Mojo in Tempe on November 24th was off the charts. It was an incredible experience and I feel really lucky to meet, re-meet and catch up with so many EN Teammates!
Arrived Tempe on Thursday, unpacked, went for a short run, had dinner and put bike together before bed.
Friday went for an early course recon (round about lap 1 time for the bike) to get a feeling for how planned bike clothes & watts were going to feel on race day. I quickly flatted; pilot error - I had pinched the latex while mounting the tire. Feeling very fortunate to have discovered this before race day, finished the ride and headed back to the Airbnb to pack bags, then to team dinner that evening.
Saturday had a big breakfast (or two), dropped off bike / bags (long line), grabbed lunch on the way to the apartment where I sat around chilling (napping while @tim cronk and @Coach Patrick discussed ultra plans) until dinner time (carry-out pasta). Fiddled BestBikeSplit and watched replays of Parks & Recreation, everything 100% packed for race morning except the things I would be wearing, took a warm shower, shaved, put on timing chip and went to bed (where I tossed and turned listening to everyone celebrating an unexpected homecoming football win). Earplugs helped marginally.
Sunday sunblock, race kit, more eating, and off to transition. Everything was very chill, no surprises apart from an extra trip to the porta potties before lining up to swim.
Swim – I really thought that I would swim somewhere around 1:12 – 1:15. 1:24 was a pretty big, unpleasant surprise. Water was cold for the first couple hundred yards and I had a ton of contact, but overall it was a very low stress swim. My Garmin track looks like a seismograph, but I don’t think it is accurate. I swam straight enough that I never encountered a volunteer and always had people on either side of me. Finished swim, wetsuit stripped, looked at watch & sprinted to T1.
T1 – super fast to the tent, after slow swim, took a little extra time to towel off and get warm clothes on, ran to bike with go bag… then realized swim booties still on and gloves not on. Putting the gloves on probably took 90”… awesome gloves, but not for cold wet hands. Lesson learned. 10:08
Bike – Planned 5:05, actual 5:16. First thing I noticed was that the wind was more relevant than I had anticipated, so decided to make a small adjustment at the beginning in case the weather was different all day. I had planned to ride out (little uphill / headwind) at 210w and back (little downhill / tailwind) at 180w and I dropped that to 205w / 175w respectively. My overall stamina had been declining since IM Louisville, so the plan was always to take stock on the third loop and ride at a level that protected the run. In the end, I ended up using HR as a guide on loop 3, just trying to keep the level of effort fairly consistent. There was A TON of fairly low-skill riders weaving all over the course on loop 3. This slowed the course a little. Overall, my bike was OK relative to what I had to give on November 24. The cold morning air had a similar effect on me as Louisville (can’t count how many times I pee’d), but I really pushed the electrolytes (Gatorlytes and Saltstick capsules) hard and was able to get 7-8 x 24oz of GE in/through my body this time. This was my fastest IM bike split - 2:55 pr.
(note: I track pedaling VI on courses with a lot of descent – takes away the no-pedal time on descents and measure how consistently your power is while pedaling).
T2 – Planned ≈3:00, actual 3:56. I changed into a run singlet (sun was very warm), washed salt out of my eyes, stopped by porta potty and was off a little slower than planned.
Run – I hoped for 3:45. Run stamina was suffering from a combination of bad / cold weather and work eroding my free time. Apart from HR & cadence, I did not pay much attention to my watch, focusing on RPE and trying to run “easy-fast” and to stay hydrated. By the end of the first loop, my stomach was starting to get that sloshy feeling, so I poured a Gatorlyte in a coke and drank it. I’ve done the same thing a dozen times… but this time it felt like one of those baking soda / vinegar volcanoes we made in grade school. I knew I was going to erupt, just wasn’t certain when! I had been running with HR pretty steady around 152bpm just under 9:00 per mile; after the fizz bomb, my HR dropped to low 140s and pace increased to be closer to 10:00 per mile (at 2:30 on the graph below).
@Ken Mclaughlin passed me again (he was also struggling a little with stomach) and we felt sorry for each other again. I was talking to Ken again around 20 miles, then found a nice tree and vomited. I felt a ton better afterwards, but there was no finishing with Ken; last thing I heard was “five more miles!” and he was gone. I caught up with @tim cronk around mile 23 and was really surprised to see him because he was running like a beast when I’d seen him on the first loop. Stopped to chat and he gently told me something like ‘get the hell outta here…’ and I left feeling disappointed that teammates are not supportive of slacking at the end of a race. About a mile out I caught up with @Al Truscott and stopped for another chat. He said he felt great and then kicked me on towards the finish line. By this time, I was scared to death that I would see @Kori Martini and get ‘encouraged’ again, so I ran to finish the run at 3:59:15 and 10:53:18 overall (32:17 pr).
About the team – I’ve never enjoyed the team aspect of Ironman as much as this race. Everywhere I looked, I saw EN kit. By far, this was the best part of the weekend for me. Thanks to everyone for the big mojo and the fun times!
Final Thoughts – Every race is different. Almost none of them look the same when you are in swim line that they did when you signed up. My fitness was really good about 8 weeks ago… but events conspired to change the equation by race day. I feel pretty good that I am learning to recognize situations and make adjustments during the day that will keep me going faster longer into the day.
This winter, I will fix my swimming.
Comments
@Rich Stanbaugh Whats to say? Bike PR, IM PR , and your happy with the day. Doesn't get any better than that. Or does it? Since your a fan of giving me impossible targets, I thought I'd give you some that are actually achievable. Sub 10hrs period. 15' in the swim, 15' on the bike, 20' on the run, and 5' for a normal T1 = 55' or a 9:58... How ya like them apples ?
Made my day to see you catch me on the run, you were looking great with only a couple miles to go. Solid. Glad you didn't hang around to harass me :-)
Gloves- I like the 3-5$ walmart knit gloves, they dont provide wind protection but find them quite usable down to mid 40's and they go on when hands are wet.
Now go get in the pool!
@Rich Stanbaugh Looks like a pretty good race to me - anytime you can link together a 5:15 + sub 4 hours marathon, that's a win. I'm am 100% convinced the swim was 3-400 meters long, so don't fret some of that swim time. But, yeah, someone looking at your stroke for weeks on end is surely a good idea this winter if you can swing it.
If you want quibbles, your chart looks like you were too hot starting the run. HR was a solid 145/6 on the bike, that should have been your ceiling for the first 13 miles. Steady drop in pace/power reflects that also. The fitness was there, as you were able to call on it for the last 2-3 miles.
@Rich Stanbaugh Congratulations on a great race and PRs! It was a pleasure meeting you and while I don't believe we crossed paths on race day, I agree that EN mojo on race day was fantastic.
Great job reacting to the conditions on the day and adjusting your plan. There's a lot to learn from that.
Nice work. Sorry we didn’t get to mix it up on the run. Have some good swim work.
@tim cronk - Thanks! I'm game to try... I'm more frustrated that 9:29 won my AG and know that I don't have an answer for that one yet! 1:10, 5:00, 3:30 should not be impossible... we'll see!
Thanks @Al Truscott - I'm still trying to figure out the HR. My Bike HR was a little low at AZ. I probably didn't ride hard enough and/or the downwind/downhill recoveries dropped it enough to keep the average low... It should have been to 150bpm for the last loop. My normal run Long Run HR is in the lower 160s from the start and climbs from there, so holding it to the low 150s feels ridiculously easy. In hindsight, I think that if I had poured the Gatorlyte into something other than a coke, I would have been ok for at least another hour. This is something I have to dial in for sure. I should have run faster after holding back as much as I didn on the bike.
@Jeff Phillips & @robin sarner - thanks and very nice to meet you both. I look forward to our next shared race!
@Rich Stanbaugh - a few thoughts here. Reading your race report makes me realize why we are friends and why sometimes we have "friction." only you and I would finish our best IM ever and shoot holes in what was wrong with it when everyone else is patting us on the back😂
there is some low hanging fruit there. The fact that a 9:29 here won the AG and that @Mike Roberts laid down a really nice 10:30 at IMFL and was like 20th to me is a statement that something else is going on. what? I don't know.. there are obviously some really strong people and there might be substances involved. All you can do is to continue peeling back the onion.
For you, this seems to me this was year 1 of a recovery from surgery and frankly a year where you broke out and achieved new levels in training that were not shown in the results as well as getting body comp spot on.
Next year, perhaps the execution will match the preparation, that said, now you have a shiny new PR to go out and better in 6-8 months! enjoy a few weeks off and get ready to build an even stronger bus in 2020!
@Rich Stanbaugh When I saw the weather change I felt bad for you since we just experienced the IMLOU cold conundrum. Congratulations on a fast back to back IM!!! No injuries to speak of is more success.
I really pushed the electrolytes (Gatorlytes and Saltstick capsules) hard and was able to get 7-8 x 24oz of GE in/through my body this time
I have some general observations to share. I believe many athletes are taking in too much salt. If your blood volume was high going into the race and you didn't sweat massive amounts, as in a hot humid race, then the electrolytes you got from your hydration drink was probably adequate. Besides, you're lean and don't carry a lot of muscle mass so I can't imagine your sweat rate to be super high. If you weren't losing salt in sweat and subsequently added salt with a high osmolality drink, you then interfered with fluid not getting absorbed, thus begins the sloshing. Cardiac drift is one potential sign of dehydration. It doesn't look like you experienced this. Your HR and pace look to be in sync. Something many of us wish for.
Anyway, just my rambling thoughts on sodium. What do you think? 🤓
@Rich Stanbaugh
I predicted an IM PR for you and you delivered!
You realize, looking at your division ranking, you were passing people in your division the whole damn time!
You passed 25 from Swim to T1 exit, 60 more by the time you rolled into T2 and another 8 unfortunate soles as you ran them down on the run! Sweet Baby Jesus, I'm glad we're friends! 😜
I think @Sheila Leard has some good wisdom in her comments regarding salt given IMAZ was not that warm.
Very nice pNorm/HR avg that spells deep fitness!
Great year for you Ironman! Congratulations!
@Sheila Leard - I really appreciate your thoughts / suggestions. Today is the first chance that I have had time to look at my data (Louisville and Arizona) with your ideas in mind.
Here is some info:
I 100% get the problem with high osmolality. I have this exact problem in both training and one race, but it was triggered by sugars from gels etc. I do not believe the sodium had any negative impact on me. I never felt dehydrated in Arizona.
I'm still wondering what happened at Louisville, but think dehydration may have played a role. Pwr:HR doesn't show it though - drift was 2.5% during the 70mi that I rode normally... but, in hindsight, the way I felt at 70mi could have been dehydration. Except that it was not an issue on the run.
I think I was out of shape and need to learn to manage my fitness Peaks!!
:-)
@Shaughn Simmons Thanks man! You always have a way of making us feel good!
I hadn't thought about how many I passed... was focused on the ones I couldn't catch!
@scott dinhofer - Thank you! Yeah... 9:29... I don't even know what to do with that. Headed back to the idea factory!
@Rich Stanbaugh Congratulations on the PR, which is impressive after racing IMLou several weeks earlier plus the fact that your fitness had gone down. It was cool seeing you move up positions on the IM tracker throughout the day. With 2 cold races under your belt, sounds like you're ready for a normal temperature race (if there is such as thing).
Congratulations @Rich Stanbaugh ! Nice PR! I’m with you. I can see a sub 10 but not a 9:30 but there are some crazy fast people. I think dry air really affects hydration. I always drink but I think I need more salt in drier locations. Great year!