my first IM RR (an Iron distance AV with a run thrown in for fun)
My first ever IM RR is in the books! Happily enough that corresponded to my first first iron distance (or any distance) aqua velo... the timing was just about perfect.
The OWS (my first 2.4 open water endeavor), went off without a hitch. Some pushing and shoving to start, but it was a small race and it opened up in the second loop... in time for the waves to come in... I didn't wear a watch, didn't see the point of it - it's my RR and I wanted to stay in my box. Official results aren't up, but based on what another woman said her time was in the tent, I think I'm in the 1:15ish range. I went to the bathroom treading water to start, I took that as a good sign of pre-race hydration. I also went rounding the last turn to finish... hard to do while swimming, stopped kicking altogether and concentrated on relaxing...
T1 seemed okay to me - think I kept my cool, got my stuff and got in and out smoothly. I know FL will take more time as it's a longer run, I'll shower, and there will be a very much needed sunscreen station.
The ride itself was loooooong and hot. I definitely still have to work on some fit issues... after about 3-4 hours my knee was tweaked and IT band was hurting, but I think it was left over from last week... but my neck/shoulder were off from the get go and that caused some serious discomfort.
My plan was to ride an hour in Z1. Then I programmed a midZ1/mid Z2 range to stay in for the remainder. I programmed my Garmin alarm for every 15 minutes for me to eat and stretch. Because of my aches and pains, after about 4 hours I had to sit up more often than every 15" to stretch, roll my neck, and roll my arm/shoulder... My "line" came on the bike. Miles 64-100 were just plain hard. It was sunny, hot, and windy the entire ride. My knee was hurting. My right shoulder was hurting. My neck was stiff. My forearms were sore/chaffed (I"m shocked that the word "Zipps" isn't permanently embedded in each... (I think I need to body glide my aero pads or something... this is a new hurt and it totally sucked). I was having trouble staying in my programmed Z1/2 range - I was too low... But when I hit 100 my mood just jumped. And I made it my mission to not allow my avg speed to fall below 17.3 (which is what it was reading at mile 100)... and it didn't, I actually picked it up a hair. I definitely had to wiggle around a lot to find the money position that made me forget my knee was buggy... My watch time read about 6:22 for the bike, but I stopped it to pee twice and at special needs... so It's probably closer to 6:30-6:35 officially. With tired legs on a new and not quite perfectly fit bike, on a hot and windy day, I'm good with that. Very Florida esque course... As I mentioned, I went to the bathroom twice. Once about an hour in and the second time about 3 hours in... not again til after I'd finished running, stretching, changing... The first hour my avg speed was in the 15-6 range. Most of my "work" segments were 18-19, but there were some slower ones thrown in there... likely when I was hurting or when it was particularly windy... overall my avg was 17.4, I think.
Unbelievably enough, I was happy to run for an hour and was way too fast the first 30 minutes... Instead of running 10:50 (10:20 Z1+30) I was closer to 10:20 (and then because I stopped to walk and slow myself down). The way back was closer to 10:50, walking through water stops (I ran on the IM course with my own fuel belt). It was flippin hot... I will admit I didn't get to running ASAP, a friend was at the AV finish - she had to drop out as she cut her foot really badly coming out of the swim and blad through her shoes... ugh... so I probably chilled out about 10 minutes or so before I actually got moving...
Morning Nutrition: I did a 1am smoothie, bagel and pnut butter w/ banana when I got up around 4 or 4:30. Drinking water and gatorade as I got ready and hung around the swim start/T1 area. I had a hammer gel about 45 minutes before the swim start then got in the bathroom line.
Ride nutrition: I programmed my watch to beep at me every 15 minutes. I had 2 3-hour bottles (marked bottles to keep me on track) of infinit with water. Every 15 minutes I had a big gulp of the infinit and a gulp or two of water. I would also take the opportunity to sit up, stretch out my back, legs, whatever... then got back down. About 3 hours in I took a banana on the course. Never done that before but I was feeling like solid food (had a hammer gel and a bar on me)... I ate half and kept going. I'm REALLY glad I did that because special needs was at mile 64... so I was off my 15" eating plan - but didn't feel any pangs... Somewhere around hour 3-4 I took 2 advil (it was sort of soon after the banana) to help my knee. Since I'd been going to the bathroom and just had solid food I felt safe doing that. I took 3 sport legs at 5:15.
Pre-run: as I've done for the HIMs (and HIM RRs), I had a gel with some water and then got going. I carried water and PowerBar Ironman Perform for the run... Never had the Ironman drink before - but know that's my only option at IMFL, so I ordered some... no GI problems all day.
Doing the AV and an hour run after gave me some confidence that I will, in fact, actually be able to finish an IM... it may not be pretty, but I know I can physically and mentally do it... so, the event was a success.
Comments
Good work!
I know there are two camps on this subject, but I'm a big fan of shutting aches down early. Consider the ibuprofen. And before that, stretching. I happened to get a good shoulder stretch in about halfway through IMWI and it made me a much more comfortable racer. Much.
Great Job Becky!
If you are going to take anything for pain, take tyleonol( Acetomiophen) during these events. NSAIDs like advil can lead to Hyponatremia and GI upset/distress. The big concern here though is hyponatremia due to NSAIDs effect on the kidney. Especially if dehydrated
Here is a link to an article speaking of it
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/...urance.htm
thanks for your thoughts!
@Michele - good point about hydration... it was definitely hot out there and I was surprised I didn't have to go to the bathroom again for hours...
@Tracy - very wise advice. I hesitated to take anything but bc of my ibuprofen eligible status (having pee'd) and having solid food in me I decided to try. I will pack Tylenol from now on... and hope my bike fit gets worked out so I don't need anything at all (I don't like taking meds while working out... and I know my bro, a urologist, will be very upset with me).
@Nemo - you're absolutely right... and don't worry... the 17.3 was just a number. I don't have a computer on the new bike, so my real goal was to actually stay in zone (no beeps on the garmin) for those last 12 miles and I will admit I assumed that would mean I'd stay with my pace. A few times in that last stretch I beeped too high and I reigned myself in.
Results are finally up:
swim: 1:17:26 - ehh... not thrilled, but I'll take it. Since training began this spring I've been more of a 1-2x per week swimmer, never swimming 3x in any week for either HIM or to date for the IM... I will have to try to be a consistent 2x a week'er from here on out and hopefully this time will stick. I know the swim may be a lot tougher race day bc of the number of other swimmers and the potential for rough water. Staying in the box will be crucial for me.
T1: 5:33. This surprised me (as high), but i'm fine with it. I'd rather have what I need than rush around and forget something... If I can move a bit faster in FL I'd be happy... with the goal of keeping the T1 time around there bc there will be more moving parts in FL (shower, sun screen, more people in the tent, longer run to the tent, etc)... Maybe 6-7 minutes is a good transition goal...
Bike: 6:29:15, avg 17.3. OK. Not great. I think I can do better. In fact, I know I can do better. After the hour warm up in Z1, I was lower than my race zone (mid Z1-midZ2) for a lot of the ride (lots of too low beeps) due to discomfort. So, if I can successfully stay in that race zone, I will be better. Hopefully I can improve on this in the second RR and get a better sense of where things stand and what I can do (and if I can run afterwards successfully). I could run successfully for the hour after this ride... I just hope it won't be nearly 90 in FL on race day!
This was an amazing learning experience. I'm really glad I did an AV for my RR to figure out how it all works and it all comes together.
I think it's very important to know what your hourly intake of calories, fluid, and sodium is for the race. more importantly, you should have an idea of what your sweat rate is for race conditions. You should also have a plan as to what to do....as in how much to increase your fluid and sodium intake if temps are higher than anticipated.
thanks, coach P! Still working with Todd on the fit... sent another video post RR... and moved the saddle position some more. Had a decent drainer session today, so fingers crossed.
@Kit - re my nutrition: I looked up my new Infinit mix recipe and every hour (6 hours worth) on the bike I took in: 231 calories, 344mg sodium, 100mg potassium (might be 160, can't read my writing), 56g carb, and 1.99g protein.
I also ate half a banana around the midway point of the ride. I took 3 sport legs around the 5:15 mark.
I chose not to take S! caps bc Lori at Infinit told me that that would be too much sodium... your thoughts?
Before starting the run I had a hammer gel with water. I ran for an hour with 2 7oz flasks of Ironman Perform - and drank both. I also drank water. No solids during the run.
How much fluid are your taking an hour? Is there sodium in Sportslegs?
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 500-700mg of sodium per liter of fluid intake for prolonged exercise. That works out to 358-500mg per 24 oz of fluid (24 oz is the typical size of a water bottle). Your hourly sodium intake is a bit on the low side (which may be just perfect for you!). However, if you need to take in more fluid (and it sounds like you did for this RR) you will need more than 344 mg of sodium an hour. I really like taking S!caps because they have so much sodium in one capsule (341mg). If you take any sodium or electrolyte tablets/pills you should drink at least 6-8 oz of water with it to dilute it. Don't drink sports drink with a salt tab or you will be in Pukeville.
As for potassium, it's mostly intracellular. I really don't think potassium intake really helps for IM racing--unless you have a kidney problem (which you could develop if you decide to take Ibuprofen when dehydrated).
hmm... 1) I don't think sport legs has sodium... 2) not sure what Lori meant, but I think she did the math and added the 344 in my mix plus the sodium in the S! Caps (I was taking one an hour) and was worried about my system going nuts... I was probably okay before bc i never got through all my infinit on schedule - not even close.
Now I'm doing a 3 hour concentrated bottle (not much water there) and my speedfill holds 40oz of water. I'm not sure how much water I actually got through on the bike bc at an aid station I added more (before it was empty) and at special needs I added more before it was empty, not to mention drank from a cold bottle... typicall one big gulp of infinit was followed by 2 gulps of water. sometimes I drank more water during the 15 minutes. because I didn't pee after 3 hours I will definitely drink more water... and it sounds like, at the very least, carry S!caps on the run bc my quick online search shows that ironman perform has less than 200mg sodium. So every hour on the run I will take an SCap and plenty of water to wash it down.
And no Advil - Tylenol or nothing (hopefully my fit will be dialed in and I'll go with nothing).
Thanks Kit!
adding pics... to prove it DID happen (and show off my new bike).
I've got "535" tan lines on both arms... ugh... 
Good job chica !