Trevor's 2010 IMWI Race Report
I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to sit down and write my race report, perhaps in part that I didn’t want to admit that the journey is over and behind me. I know we’re in IMWI RR overload on the forums right now, but either way, let’s do this.
Prologue:
Saturday I had double lunch from Noodles and Co (2 big bowls, Pad Thai with shrimp, Peanut satay with chicken) then a small salad for dinner. I picked up a smoothie from Jamba Juice (small PB shake ~500 calories) and brought it back to the hotel for 2am. Night before I took a shower, marked my arms with my goal watts and paces along with some other inspiration and actually fell asleep without issue. Woke up at 2am, downed my smoothie but could not fall back asleep for the life of me. Rolled around for what seemed like hours until I finally fell asleep. Then the alarm went off, I’m not sure if I had actually fell asleep 15 minutes before the alarm, but thats what it felt like.
Race Morning
Woke up and felt so-so, indigestion and some heart burn. I always feel this way if I eat and go to bed immediately. The smoothie was the culprit but I knew from prior experience that it usually goes away so not sure what else to do about it. Had a small amount of dry cereal from the hotel but mostly was sipping on EFS + PreRace and waiting for my stomach to settle, which eventually did. Was rushed at transition because I forgot to drop off my SN at the capitol but got everything squared away and made final bathroom visit just in time to start heading down the helix. I ended up fine, but was not as relaxed and ready as I would have liked, next time get there earlier!
Headed down the helix with Jim, Eric and then ran into Beth and my boss who is also a triathlete and was doing the race. Got into the water plenty early and lined up a little past the boat ramp, which sounds like where everyone went but somehow I didn’t see anyone. I lined up towards the front, asked what everyone was planning on swimming and it was in the 1:10 - 1:15 range, sounded good to me.
Swim
Gun went off and I kind of took it easy, waited a few seconds for everyone in front of me to get moving. Already things were off to a much better start than at MOWS (2.4mi OWS race of the course 3 weeks prior) which literally started with me getting elbowed in the face, knocking my goggles off and giving me a black eye. That turned out to be a blessing because I learned you should NEVER wear swedes in triathlon since they transfer all blows straight to your eye socket. Was wearing my somewhat new BlueSeventy hydra vision goggles which worked like a dream, took a few blows like a champ. The swim was near constant contact for the first loop just as everyone else described, I swam the inside buoy line and got swam over plenty, the turn buoys were complete dog piles. But I still seemed to be taking less severe abuse than I did in MOWS or some other previous races, I’ve become accustomed to getting hit in the head hard enough to make my ears ring and or give me a black eye. And of course I remembered to give out a hearty Mooooo at the Moo corner (first turn buoy). Made me smile and remember to enjoy the race.
Things opened up a bit more on the second loop, tried to find feet when possible, kept sighting, spent some quality time laughing under water at the guy swimming next to me with a snorkel (snorkels are USAT legal). Before long was out of the water at 1:14. This was 4 minutes faster than I had done at MOWS 4 weeks prior, and historically my best HIM swim was something like 37 minutes so I was pleased enough. I feel I could have pushed harder in the swim and I know that I have a lot of room for improvement swimming in general, but think that will come with time since I have only been swimming for about ~1.5 years.
Swim: 1:14:17, Div Place: 69, Ovr Place: 756
Transition
Jogged up the helix, was chatting with a friend from home who came out of the water same time as me. I enjoyed watching the crowd on the helix and was just kind of caught up in the moment. In T1 tried to get to business but wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Volunteers were helpful, plenty of space, surprising since I figured I’d be in the mass of swim finishers. Made one ‘mistake’ in T1 I suppose, I put my bike shoes on right then and there in the chair without thinking. Headed out the door and remembered that my bike was extremely close to bike out, so I would have to run across the entire transition in my bike shoes (with speedplay cleats) or take them off and run with them in hand as I had originally planned. I wore socks however since it was chilly in the morning and didn’t want to get my socks wet so I just ran in them, well clomp-jogged if you will. Got my bike, then fumbled around with trying to get my damn Garmin off my basebar and onto my wrist for a minute. No problems with satellites since I had left it on before the race. Garmin 310xt was just my backup and wanted to have it in place for the run, Joule was my primary computer. Definite room for improvement on T1 time.
T1: 7:56
Bike
I went into the bike with a goal IF of 0.7 and goal TSS of <286, this would put my goal NP at 182. Starting the bike had no problems with the helix, enjoyed the uniqueness of it. Coming out of town I was getting settled and watching my goal power however I had no issues keeping it low due to the no-pass zones and complete admin-time nature of the exit from Madison.</span>
Loop 1
As soon as we hit the first hints of hills on Whalen the tone of the day was immediately set, everyone flying by as usual, passing everyone again on the flats / downhills. No disrespect to the chicka’s but women seemed to take particular enjoyment in passing me, with one woman proclaiming proudly “You may pass me on the flats, but I’m just going to keep passing you on every hill!”. A lot of anxious riders with something to prove even from this extremely early part of the race.
Moving forward into the loop proper, the EN story book repeated. Passed on every hill, re-pass everyone while they were coasting at the crest, descent or flat. After hearing it a thousand times, seeing is believing. You really have to be there and realize that you really are doing the opposite of nearly EVERY other rider out there.
The first loop, especially before the big climbs, was quite congested for me. Avoiding some of this congestion could be one big benefit of increasing my swim time as it ended up taking a lot of mental (and physical to boot) energy in order to try and avoid drafting and work my way through the riders. I also paid close attention to my wattage and realized that the congestion was causing me to ride many “virtual hills” in that riders would impede me from riding my goal wattage, however they would be clustered in such large groups that I would have to exceed my goal wattage past comfortable levels in order to pass safely and avoid a blocking or centerline penalty. In retrospect, I believe I had far more wattage spikes as a result of these early race passes than I did as a result of the bigger climbs to follow.
Speaking of the climbs, they were uneventful on the first loop. I had to lower my cadence to ridiculously low levels to stay at power, but once I dialed it in the climb itself was a breeze. My HR was steady, it was just easy. Timberlane was more difficult, both in how far I had to lower my cadence but also in the attempts by the spectators to rally you into an epic climb. Several riders passed me flapping their arms to pump the crowds before stomping up the hill out of the saddle to resounding cheers and applause. Meanwhile people looked upon me seemingly with pity and offered somewhat hushed words of encouragement “looking steady... you can do it” to help mask the shame of the poor rider who could barely make it up the hill on even the first loop... he surely is in for a long day. Nonetheless, I rode this portion with a smile on my face, simply taking in the scenery, when a spectator told me “hang in there buddy” I assured him in a perfectly calm and unlabored voice that I was doing quite well thanks, but thanks for being out there.
At the top of the hill, I quickly passed our King of the Mountains who was looking some worse for the wear. Only other event worth noting on the first loop was losing both my nutrition bottles from my rear bottle cage (aka bottle launcher) going over the Rail Road tracks in Cross Plaines. I stopped to go back for them, the nozzle of one bottle had broken off rendering it useless but I took it with me anyway. At the end of the first loop I stopped for a bio-break in Verona, swapped the caps on my nutrition bottles to put the working cap on the full bottle for my second loop and proceded on.
Loop 2
Congestion started to rapidly thin on the second loop. Largely uneventful until the second go at the climbs. I was however very happy that I managed to effectively skip the first major roller on Witte road by carrying some wicked speed through the downhill. On the second climb of Old Sauk I began to feel a dreaded but familiar twinge in my right quad. I lamented about this in my RR but even when I keep my power low, I am extremely prone to cramping when I drop my cadence below 60, especially into the 50s I am almost guranteed to cramp. For better or worse, I loaded my left leg more than my right to avoid the cramping and it worked. I similiarly was able to avoid cramping on Timberlane, more KOM heroics on the climb by other riders. I briefly reminded one commenting spectator that I was pretty sure the finish line wasn’t at the top of Timberlane but I owe him a beer if it turns out to be.
The rest of the ride was uneventful, the route was incredibly sparse by the time I passed through Verona I was virtually alone heading to Madison. More admin time coming into town due to no-pass and trail, no problems going up helix. Was coming into T2 when I unclipped my one leg and threw it over my bike to scoot into transition as I often do when... complete cramp and seisure of my left leg, perhaps as a result of my unbalanced loading of it on the last climbs. I yelled to the volunteers “Help me, help me, help me!” and they replied “How, how, how?” I stopped, had them grab the bike just in time for me to twist off and do the worlds best pirate peg-leg impression as I hobbled into transition gritting my teeth.
Ride Summary:
Before the complete cramp and seisure of my left leg coming into T2 my predominate thoughts were about how fantastic I felt. From a whole body perspective I felt fresh and untaxed, I mean really I felt great, not at all like I just rode 112 miles. I strongly believe that my problems with cramping are not entirely attributable to poor decisions made during riding but are a direct result of the manner in which I am forced to climb with my current bike set up. This has now happened to me 3 times (2 RRs + race), it is no longer a random occurence. Once I have been going for sufficiently long enough, if I drop my cadence below 60 with an IF near ~75% I immediately cramp. This corresponded to a power of about ~200 at that low cadence on the hills. If I was simply riding, and needed to pass someone I could shortly increase power to 200 or more with absolutely no protest from my legs at a higher cadence. Lesson learned at this point, I’ve done everything I can to squeeze more gears out of my double by pairing it with an 11-28 cassette. This year I am going to sell my Quarq and have a new one built into a compact at some point.
Cramp-ageddon aside, I enjoyed the bike course. It is a difficult course, but we all knew that. Looking at my summary below it is easy to note that I was below my power goals for the entire ride. I find it very difficult to ride WI with a high NP/IF and a low VI. A high NP with no disregard to VI is no problem, just hammer the hills and your NP/IF will be through the roof. But if you really try to keep your VI low I found it very hard to keep my NP high. On virtually every instance that I was riding on flats I found my current power to be about 195, 10 watts north of my 185 watt gear 2. Yet my overall NP/IF was still low due the constant turning, descents, etc. I could have gotten my NP up riding even harder on the flats, but I was not comfortable seeing numbers G3/G4 power numbers when I was supposed to be cruising at G2. I am very happy that I was able to ride at an overall VI of 1.05 though. If you have read any of my previous feature-length rants you’ll remember that I am admittedly horrible at riding low VI, both my RR’s on the Wisconsin course were at 1.1 or higher so I was very happy with 1.05. Still room for improvement but showing progress.
Hour |
Avg Speed |
NP |
IF |
TSS |
VI |
0.5 |
18.6 |
160 |
0.615 |
19.5 |
1.07 |
1.5 |
19.6 |
179 |
0.689 |
47.5 |
1.03 |
2.5 |
20.0 |
180 |
0.691 |
49.5 |
1.05 |
3.5 |
20.4 |
176 |
0.678 |
46.6 |
1.04 |
4.5 |
19.4 |
174 |
0.671 |
46.3 |
1.05 |
5.6 |
20.9 |
168 |
0.647 |
45.9 |
1.05 |
5:44:13 |
19.5 |
174 |
0.67 |
255.1 |
1.05 |
Entire workout (165 watts):
Duration: 5:44:44
Work: 3387 kJ
TSS: 255.1 (intensity factor 0.67)
Norm Power: 174
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 2%
Pa:HR: -1.59%
Distance: 111.623 mi
Elevation Gain: 2665 ft
Elevation Loss: 2707 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-33 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 562 165 watts
Heart Rate: 138 178 159 bpm
Cadence: 26 166 96 rpm
Speed: 0 46 19.4 mph
Pace 1:18 0:00 3:05 min/mi
Altitude: 833 1268 1024 ft
Crank Torque: 0 705 149 lb-in
T2: 3:58
T2 was slow for me due to the cramps, I took the time to try and loosen my leg up and immediately took 2 saltstick caps in T2. Fresh socks, fresh race number since first one came half off during bike, fresh sunscreen + bio break = ~4 min T2.
RUN
I entered onto a nearly deserted capitol square and was immediately taken aback by the incredible spectator support. There was literally only one other runner in sight and it made me feel as if I was somehow one of the first riders off the bike. I felt like a complete super star, the cramps disapeared, my legs were light as a feather, the wind was at my back, I was unstoppable! I was also running a 6:30 mile. After looking down at my Garmin and realizing that little gem I proclaimed “holy !” and immediately began to try and slow myself down. I tried my best to stick to my LRP+30 pace of 8:45 for the first 6 by starting to incorporate a walking at the aid stations. I still was way too fast on the first mile at 7:51. Nonetheless, my first 6.35mi split ended up averaging out to nearly my exact planned pace of 8:45.
I was still feeling pretty good at this point, freshly charged by the second portion of State street around mile 6 I began to cut down my pace to my true goal pace of 8:15. I was able to do this for 2 miles, cutting down to about 8:30 miles when I started to feel not so great. I started to feel lightheaded and my ears began to feel like they may plug. I had been drinking at every aid station, some with 2 cups, I had also been pouring ice down my shorts and putting sponges under my visor at each aid station. This had helped quiet the cramping, but I knew I had blown my hydration and was dehydrated. It went from bad to worse and at the next aid station I attempted to pee to see if maybe it was all in my head. It was not. From that point on my pace began to slip and I began to walk much more than 30 steps at each aid station, taking in upwards of 4 cups of water or Perform.
I hit a rough stretch for a while, I firmly believe my line was around mile 13, perhaps even before as the stretch back towards State was not so great for me. I felt bad on State street itself that I no longer had the beaming smile I did before. The turn around was difficult as well. Somewhere at about mile 16 or so the increased hydration started to catch up to me and I began to feel better. My legs were toast but I solemnly swore to myself that I would not walk outside of aid stations (although I cheated and walked for 10 seconds or so on the 2 little ramps coming onto / off of the Statidum). I felt almost embarassed approaching mile 18, I felt so great my first pass and I thought everyone would be able to see right through me on my second pass. To see that I was faltering, to see that I had messed it all up.
But they didn’t see any of that, instead they told me how fantastic I looked, how to keep going and bring it home. I saw many more EN singlets out there and the kind words were incredibly important to me, with each reptition of “you’re killing it!” I began to believe it just a little bit more.
Miles 18 to 26 were not by best, in fact after closer inspection I realized that they were some of my slowest. They didn’t feel that way though, I was feeling increasingly fatigued and my legs began to twinge on the uphills leading back to the capitol, but I became increasingly determined to make it back to the capitol without walking.
Finally turning onto State street my mission was clear, bring it home before I blew up, don’t let all of these people who believe in you down. I cursed every turn of the Capitol square that was not to the finishers chute, I swear the square was smaller the first time through. But at last the final turn, one way for loop number 3 (no thanks!) and one way for the finishers chute. From there it is all a complete haze but it nearly brings a tear to my eye, I remember pumping my arms to try and muster a cheer from the crowd, I remember giving more high fives in 15 seconds than I had in the preceding year, I remember hearing my name, “Trevor Garson, First Time Ironman...”
Then just like that it’s over.
Official Data:
RUN SPLIT 1 |
6.35 mi. (55:30) |
8:44/mile |
RUN SPLIT 2 |
6.65 mi. (1:00:14) |
9:03/mile |
RUN SPLIT 3 |
6.23 mi. (1:02:35) |
10:02/mile |
RUN SPLIT 4 |
6.97 mi. (1:06:03) |
9:28/mile |
TOTAL RUN |
26.2 mi. (4:04:22) |
9:19/mile |
Garmin Splits:
Note there is 0.11 mile split in there as I attempted to “sync” my Garmin’s mile splits with the mile markers out on the course, but no matter how I tried I found the mile markers on the course a good 1/10th a mile past my Garmin’s mile markers.
Split |
Time |
Distance |
Avg Pace |
1 |
00:07:51 |
1.00 |
07:51 |
2 |
00:08:28 |
1.00 |
08:28 |
3 |
00:08:54 |
1.00 |
08:54 |
4 |
00:01:01 |
0.11 |
09:31 |
5 |
00:08:50 |
1.00 |
08:50 |
6 |
00:08:45 |
1.00 |
08:45 |
<div |
0
Comments
It was surely hotter and drier than forecasted out there on race day. Way to hang tough with the cramp and dehydration--that's some mental toughness. Congrats on your first IM!
Trevor u finished in the daylight!!! Way to execute a great race...and really man I thought your transition times were fast!! Compared to mine...think I just enjoyed sitting in the comfy chairs way too long! Great swim, bike and run! Congratuations on finishing with style your first IM!!!
You can listen to Trevor's podcast with me here
For the past month or more in training , I had been thinking about you as "Mr. Ready." Everything pointed to this day for you, and I am SO HAPPY it came to fruition in every way--those cramps, notwithstanding.
Congratulations, Trevor! You are a super and talented young man, with lots of happy Ironman adventures ahead. I enjoyed sharing the ups and downs of training with you, and am thrilled you got such a great pay day!
- Finish in the daylight / under 12 hours
- Run the marathon
- Enjoy the race!
Everything else was just icing on the cake, and if everything went 100% perfectly I don't think I'd be sitting here quite as excited as I am about what my next race will be and how I'm going to benefit from this first experience.
The real end result of this race for me was that I've caught the bug, both for Ironman/Long course racing, and for EN. Really looking forward to the future.
Congrats!
Finally, I found your race report. It took me only 5 months to realize that we have a race report section. I knew you did IMWI as I follow your twitter workouts, but could not find it anywhere.
Very nice work Trevor. Loved your race report. I notice a few things, you swim in Hydra Vision. That is the only goggle I use, the only one that fits my face and I love it for the same reason as I took a few blows and it stays on.
I have never done an Ironman, so I don't have much to offer. To me, it appears as a smart swim, solid bike, run was tough, no doubt.
Cramps. Well, as you know, science is fuzzy on that at best. You also know that if you bring this subject on a well known forum, you instantly get two fold response, either over exerted on the bike (don't think in your case) or not enough Sodium. The second one stirs up a lot of discussion.
I don't have a suggestion to offer, but I will tell you that I suffered from cramping for three years of racing and have lost several overall podiums due to cramping on the run. I have cramped in every race I have done except sprints during run. The problem got so severe, I was cramping in the second half of the swim at 2010 70.3 KS. I knew something was wrong. I certainly was not "over exerting" during the swim, cramps went on entire race. I eventually had leading to the race, cramps at night, during swim practice.....
In my case it turned out not just sodium, but calcium also. I was not consuming calcium in adequate levels, sodium was kept lower than optimum. My wife sat me down, had me document my eating habits to track my electrolyte intake. It was way low, hardly anywhere to find any of it in my food. We dialed in Calcium and Magnesium through Calcium Citrate, I was taking a banana a day for Potassium, sodium went to 1200-1500mg/hr while training, including swimming. Instantly, I felt the difference. Finished Branson in blistering heat without a twitch at any point. It was refreshing. My wife knew that it was a true test of her/ our work in this department.
Experiment, you will find what is the cause in your case.
Awesome job and congrats on your first Ironman.
Congratulations, Trevor! Good job at knocking goals out of the water -- even when it was tough.
And, yes, I am certain they made capital square bigger and steeper for the second lap. Clever WTC engineers.
Alek,
Thanks for the feedback on cramping. One of the things that I meant to go into more detail on in my RR was my nutrition plan but ended up getting caught up in the narrative. My bike principal bike nutrition consisted of 2 feed bottles each with 3 scoops of CarboPro and 2 scoops of EFS per bottle, each bottle came out to ~550 calories for a total of 1100 from the 2 feed bottles. I typically ride very lean and take in additional calories as necessary, I did take in one bottle of Ironman Perform for in the final leg of the race for additional calories and electrolytes.
Anyway, speaking of electrolytes, I thought I would be covered with the EFS with almost 1200mg of Electrolytes per serving at 4 servings I took in over 4600mg of electrolytes including 400mg of Calcium and 640mg of Potassium,
Serving Size: 1 scoop (32g)
Servings per Container: 25
Yes, in spite of this, I'm still learning to be in more in touch with my body and identify my nutritional needs, much like many other people my nutritional plan is constantly evolving each season, I still haven't found that perfect blend.
Anyway though, appreciate everyone's kind words, 3 weeks later and I'm still smiling about what a great time I had the whole weekend.
Sorry, I did not reply sooner, I did not check of the box to subscribe.
Dialing in nutrition/hydration/electrolytes takes time and it is no easy task. It is good that you are approaching it with an intent and science. Science will get us to a point, than art helps pinpoint through experiment. Be patient and keep dialing it in, it will come together.
I just shared what took me. We are all a bit different. When it comes to calories, I am one of those freaks that can ride at FTP and consume 300+cal/hr of Infinit and Infinit only, everything else comes back. We appear to have similar weight, body comp, FTP and run VDOT. I am very interested to see how the cramping resolves for you.
Keep up the good work. I will write to Ferrero to include more electrolytes in Nutella. It may become my race fuel. I took down 3 jars last week in a reward for a job done at Branson.
Congrat's on a great race. Enjoyed your race report. I'm looking forward to IMWI 2011.