Rick Hochstetler - Ironman Wisconsin 2010 Race Report
QUICK SUMMARY
The EN vibe was amazing all weekend from the welcome dinner on Thursday to the pink speedo party on the run course. Thanks everybody for making my 1st IM such a memorable experience!
Overall I was happy to finish - 1st IM. I told myself at the start of the day to just enjoy the experience and finishing was the #1 goal. Secondary goal was finish in around 12:30 with a breakdown of swim 1:30 - bike 6:30 - run 4:15 & 15 minutes in transition. I was right on with the swim 1:25 and bike 6:30 but very disappointed with the run 5:18. I've been trying to stay upbeat about completing my 1st Ironman and the fact that none of my family and friends care if I was an hour slower than I wanted to be on the run but I just can't bring myself to be OK with that. I have an overwhelming feeling of disappointment around my performance - mainly because I don't feel I executed and completed the race to the best of my ability. Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased with the overall experience, just my performance has left a sour taste in my mouth. There will definitely be more Ironman races in the future!
DETAILS
I've been going over the swim & bike to try and figure out what went wrong on the run but I just can't figure out what the problem was - most likely a combination of a bunch of small issues.
RACE MORNING
Woke up at 2am - downed a 400 cal Naked Juice protein shake - back to sleep no problem.
Woke up at 3:45 - piece of toast with peanut butter bananna and honey - standard breakfast from training rides.
Got to transition around 5:15, no issues, felt nervous about swim mainly from a bad experience on Friday in the choppy waters.
Jumped in the water around 6L40 to warm up & work through issues. About 5 minutes of warming up & I was feeling good. Flipped over on my back and waiting for swim to start.
SWIM - 1:25
Lined up just to the right of the ski jump - probably started to far back and it was a chaos at the start, couldn't start swimming for at least a minute. 1st leg to the turn bouy was annoying but nothing eventful, everybody was considerate with all the bumping into each other. Once I got to the back stretch after the turn I stayed to the outside and had open water pretty much the whole way through the swim. Had to slow down/breastroke 2 times to pee during the swim. Overall no issues, couple times the calves started to cramp but went away after a couple strokes.
BIKE - 6:31
Not a power athlete so was relying on heart-rate and PE to keep the effort under control.
My HR Zones:
Z1 / < 70%: < 150
Z2 / 70-75%: 151-159
Kept it under 140 for most of the 1st half and then under 150 for 2nd half. Overall HR for ride was 141 with a max of 162 which I hit at the crest of a couple hills as I shifted through the gears to the downhill. HR slowly crept up over the day but felt good especially the last 16 miles back into Madison with the tailwind. HR actually went down in this section but speed was up and just cruised to T2.
Peed twice on the bike around miles 20 & 70. Didn't notice the heat until about mile 90 coming through Verona the 2nd time but only because it was the 1st time all day I finished the water in my aero bottle before I hit the aid station.
I think I was pretty well hydrated on the bike - went through just about a full bottle between each aid station and peed at mile 2 on the run.
Only red flag I can come up with on the bike was I took in less infinit than I had on training rides. Had 2 bottles ~700 calories each - but only ended up going through about 2/3 of the 1400 cals. I was still sipping every 15 minutes but was feeling good and I consciously took in a little less to try and make sure my stomach would feel good on the run. I was right on the verge of being hungry the whole time on the bike which is what I wanted. Stopped drinking infinit with about 30 minutes to go and switched to perfom which I had done in training rides - learned from 1st RR that infinit w/protein doesn't sit well when I start running. So overall took in about ~1000 cals of inifit from 0:30 to 6:00 on the bike ~168 cals an hour. Maybe a little low but as Coach Rich says less is way better than more when it comes to calories on the bike.
So I was pleased with the bike execution - kept my HR down - time was just what i expected. Felt great in t2 and took off on the run. I just keep going over the bike and I just can't figure out what I might have done to screw up the run.
RUN 5:18
VDot of 50 - EP of 8:30
Figured on doing 9:30 for 1st 6 just to be safe and then going from there. Planned on 9:30 for the whole run so a 4:15ish overall time. Nutrition for the run was going to be water/perform - alternate perfrom every other aid station to not take in too many calories.
Drank a glass of water in T2, took off on the run. Garmin was registering 6:XX right out of transition & I kept slowing down/walking to get it under control. 1st mile was 8:44 which was a lot faster than my 1st 6 mile pace of 9:30 but not like a 6:30 or something stupid. Hit the 1st aid station grabbed a perform & as soon as I drank that and took off running out of the aid station I got an instant cramp/stitch in my stomach. It wasn't in the normal place on the side but more the along the whole top right under my rib cage. Actually made it hard to breathe for the next couple miles. I slowed down to 10:00+ pace at this point to try and get things back under control but from this point on I just wasn't comfortable on the run. Made a decision to just take in water until mile 6 thinking maybe my stomach was upset. Stomach pain started to feel a little better around 5/6 or maybe I was just getting used to it. Attempted to pick up the pace a little after mile 6 but it wasn't happening. Figured I needed to try and get some perform/calories in so went back to alternating water/perform at the aid stations. Held it together until about mile 14 and just knew I was in trouble. My stomach was sick of perform & water.
At the aid station mile 17 made a decision to get coke & water, walk for half a mile and try to get myself back under control. Was starting to feel a little light-headed too. Walked half shuffled half. Mile 18 aid station got chicken broth and water, walked half, shuffled half. Light-headed feeling went away but overall was feeling awful. Saw family around mile 19 and my wife looked scared when I stopped to tell them I was hurting but would finish. (She later told me my eyes were glazed over and she had never seen my look that way.)
Anyway - from that point in it was just a struggle to get anything into my stomach and keep moving. I knew I wasn't in any danger of not finishing so I just took it easy and got across the finish line.
I'm guessing dehydration probably did me in by mile 14 of the run but the side stitch thing at mile 2 I can't figure out - I peed at mile 2 but not again until much later Sunday night. I just couldn't get enough liquid in with the side stich/stomach problems from mile 2 onward.
I noticed numerous other people in race reports reporting similiar light-headed/stomach issues after executing well on the swim & bike. I don't mind chalking this up to a leanring experience but I'm not sure what to learn from this other than it really hurt! 
1 00:08:44
2 00:09:40
3 00:11:06
4 00:10:00
5 00:10:24
6 00:10:36
7 00:10:56
8 00:10:09
9 00:10:26
10 00:10:50
11 00:10:22
12 00:10:53
13 00:11:34
14 00:11:05
15 00:11:43
16 00:12:07
17 00:10:40
18 00:15:16
19 00:15:48
20 00:14:30
21 00:11:24
22 00:16:15
23 00:14:01
24 00:12:49
25 00:18:13
26 00:17:59
Rick
0
Comments
I get stitches when I'm not breathing properly... taking shallow breaths from my lungs not my gut... just a thought.
I'm interested in folks thoughts as I'm an HR athlete, too... and getting ready for my first (granted, I'll be riding a flat course). It sounds like you did the right stuff on the bike... I also am going to be experimenting with concentrated Infinit, so thanks for the tip about stopping drinking a bit before a run... I will definitely be paying a lot of attention to that the next 8 weeks to be sure the protein doesn't bother me!
First of all, congratulations! Way to tough it out to the finish! Hard to say what happened. Sounds like it may have been some dehydration along with too few calories on the run. Either way, you will have a chance at redemption!
Tough way to finish, after an outstanding start. Congrats on hanging tough and gutting it out!
Re not being OK with the run--I get that, I truly do. But rather than feeling disappointment, I hope you can get to the place where it fires you up to try and best it next time. In the bubble of training and racing for Ironman--and talking a lot to each other in the same small rarified world--it's easy to get lost in the details of this split, that mile time. What you accomplished is extraordinary. I hope you can come to embrace the whole day without an asterisk in your head about the run. You did what you could at that moment in time in the conditions as they presented themselves--your all out best--and there is nothing more you could have asked of yourself. Congraultions, again!!!
@Linda - thanks for the encouragement. I didn't mean to seem disappointed - just not satisfied with my performance. It did light a fire in me to do better next time.
However, I think most of us here on the forum can relate to being disappointed about not doing as well as you thought you could. And this is certainly the right place for you to look for answers and advice, since setting yourself up for good run execution is kind of a big deal here.
I have a few cool pics of you, i'll get them uploaded soon.
How did your Race Rehearsals go? What did you learn during them regarding sodium/water/calorie intake? Did you execute this during the actual race? There's a LOT going on during an IM; it's easy to let nutrition execution slip away. I'm betting low calories during the bike manifested itself later during the run; empty tank, too late.
Either way, congratulations on your first IM! They're not easy when things go well. They're phenomenally hard when things go south. What you lacked in hydration you made for in mental toughness.
Never too soon. Mark or Rick; you start that thread, and I'm jumping on board.
keep me posted where you want round 2 to be? CONGRATULATIONS
P
Great effort Rick! Fun to meet u and see u on the course! Yep, lots of us peeps had stomach and dehydration issues....the beast of the day!
1) I need to do a better job dialing in the nutrition aspect in the RR rides - I thought I did a good job but have much to learn.
2) Will be contacting Coach Rich about the PM in the next month.
@Michele - thank you again for the "escort" on Friday with the paddle board when i was struggling to get comfortable in the choppy water. It was great seeing you all over the course on Sunday. To answer a couple of your questions - I did train with perform on the run but always diluted it about halfway. I'm also going to contact Mike @ Infinit and see if we can tweak my formula based on the race results.
@Bill - RRs were in hot/humid conditions so I was much more focused on taking in as much water as my body could handle. Probably was lax on race day with the cool temps at the start.
@Kitma - I think we passed around mile 10 on the bike but it was so packed out there it was hard to say hi to everybody. I think you are correct - I was most likely dehydrated coming off the bike cause when I stopped to pee around mile 2 on the run it was a lot darker in color than is normal for me.
@Mark & Hassan - I'm ready for the unfinished business!
@Coach P - Thanks for all the encouragement on the course and for helping put together this amazing community! I'm ready to work in the outseason and come back stronger in 2011!
Congratulations. You are an Ironman! Never forget it. You make the Ohio corner of EN proud! Scott
Since you asked...
if you remember from the 4 Keys talk and DVD, we have our "could" bike split and our "should". You were guessing 6:30 and came in 6:31, were you chasing a split? When you noticed that you were going through water much faster later in the ride, did you consider slowing down? Did you consider adding time to the run pace to take into account the dry heat at the run start?
And of course look at electrolytes, etc.
Just thoughts.
I still say finishing is the greatest achievement.