Greg Charbeneau IMAZ RR
Greg Charbeneau
Team EN IMAZ Race Report
10:04:49 114/2402 9/264
Pre Race
Taper was so good to experience, long season! This will be my 4th IM, but first race of the year. I had signed up for Philly Olympic Distance and Eagleman 70.3, however I was unable to compete due to a grade 2 muscle tear in my calf. Had to train hard to overcome, however I feel stronger and faster than ever. My long runs were better than the previous two years along with the opportunity to have many long runs as opposed to only a few. My previous IM’s were always preceded with injuries and bad illnesses. This year I changed my diet and stuck to a Paleo food plan (90% of the time anyway) and convinced it helped me maintain a healthy time period leading up to the race. I also implemented the use of Jay Robb vanilla egg white protein and ground flax seed and feel this helped as well.
Monday and Tuesday (Nov 15 & 16) were really tough at work, couldn’t really focus on work and didn’t want to be there. I was really excited to “check” out and get to Az to prepare for the race mentally. Funny story leading up to my race; I found out that a friend who I met this summer during lake swims was a fellow EN team member and didn’t know it. I found out one week before I left while reading his Team EN IMFL race report. How great is that, a fellow team member in my own back yard! Tuesday night I packed up my bike, clothes and “stuff”.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Kristin (wife) was kind enough to leave work and drive me to the airport. I always get so paranoid about shipping my bike and having TSA go through the search process. One year I packed all my bottles, tools and bike stuff in the bike case and the agent took over 20 mins swabbing absolutely everything in the case………OMG……frustrating as I understand there are idiots in this world and we need to check for bombs, however they just don’t understand that our bikes are important. I am sure there are many of the married men out there understand they have to take care of their bike because their spouse won’t let them replace the darn thing and TSA is admonished from all responsibility……..any way on to IMAZ trip. I show up at the Philly airport expecting to experience the same treatment and was pleasantly surprised! The ticket agent took my case and no dealings with TSA agents! Breezed through security and did not have to get groped or xray so I was pleasantly surprised once again. Landed in Pheonix and anxiously awaited for my bike and luggage. Got my bike case and noticed one of my locks was broken and the case partially opened. I was pissed because I shipped my bike from IMFL last year via FedEx and they destroyed my bike case. Of course FedEx did not warrant the “shipping container” so I had to repair all the damage last week and is important for this part of my report. I opened my bike and found one of those notes from TSA saying they had to examine my case and they were not responsible for breaking my locks etc. That is bullsh*!........why couldn’t they have called for me to unlock it. Now I have to replace the stuff I just fixed two weeks ago. Finally got dinner about 8 PM local time. Had a burger, fruit and sweet potato. Oh yeah, and a glass of red wine to relax!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Had a decent night of sleep. Got up assembled my bike and organized my race stuff. Shoes, helmet, infinite bags pre-measured at home and water bottles etc.
Also worked on writing out directions for my daughter so she could go to the Eagles vs. Giants football game Sunday night. Since I am in IMAZ and my wife is flying out here Saturday to watch, we could not go to the game. My oldest daughter and her swimming friend Pat will go in our place. Should be an electric game after spanking the Redskins this past Sunday. Pivotal game for standings and super bowl hopes!
Went to the expo center and checked into race. Smooth operation and not crowded at all. Checked out the river, water clarity and quality looked horrible! Coach P was really right the way he described the water during the 3 bullets talk! Went and did my race recon ride that was supposed to be max 30 miles. Chose to ride only 24 miles at race pace and went well. Ended up riding with a gent from Austria who rode my wheel the whole way out. I turned around and caught two other guys and they too latched on to my rear wheel. One was from Austria and the other Toronto. My goal watts for the race is 200 – 205 which is 70 – 73% FTP and ended up averaging 189 watts normalized on my training ride. The average was lower because of the traffic lights etc., obviously race day we will be able to ride straight through with out stopping. Average speed for the ride was 20.7 (19.3 going out against the wind and 25 going back with wind) and never felt as if I was over exerting. According to Weather.com average wind speed was 8 mph. I really wanted to crank but knew better and exercised great restraint. Had to pick up my buddy at the airport then to the Team EN social gathering at Rula Bula. Didn’t make the informal gathering and ended up going for Mexican food.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Day before bike and gear bag check in. Did an easy 35 min ride and 30 min run. No pickups on the bike but did do 3 x 2’ (1’) z2 intervals and felt good. Didn’t feel like I was exerting much effort and easily held 6:44’ pace during intervals. Visited the expo again and picked up few more chochtkies. In the afternoon I worked on my bike and got my bags and supplies organized for the gear bags. Went to dinner at Rula Bula with Team EN. There were about 30 people there; including my buddy Dan.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Saturday AM I finished getting my gear bags ready and last minute adjustments to the bike. Drove the bike course for recon. Weather for race day was showing it to be somewhat of a crummy day. 50% chance of rain with 14 mph winds out of SW which meant we would have a head wind going back to the transition area.
Had to help out Dan as his inner tube blew and discovered his tire was bad. Had to go back to expo and get tubes and a tire. Came back and so he could fix his bike before loading gear and bike into car to check in. Met Dan at the bike check in area and then dropped off gear bags.
Recon’d the transition to get a good understanding of where to go after each segment. Somewhat good location in the bike area; I was located all the way to one end so finding bike should be easy. Long way to run with bike before mounting though!. Both gear bags are located in “row 4” from the entrance of each location. Picked up Kristin from the airport around 8:15 PM. Smooth flight and on time so really grateful so we could get back to the hotel for pre race workout.
Sunday, November 21, 2010 RACE DAY
Had an ok night of sleep! Between the text messages coming in from the Team EN group messaging, Kristin snoring and alarms going off because I didn’t compensate for the time zone change I kept waking up. Alarm set for 4:15 however really didn’t need it. Ate a modified version of my pre workout breakfast. No blender or frozen bananas so used greek yogurt, 1 full scoop of Jay Rob egg white protein, 1 tablespoon flax seed, fresh strawberries and blueberries and of course a cup of joe…….can’t go without the AM fix. Got my bottles out of the freezer and fridge and put with my bags and other stuff needed to get bike set up and be ready for race. Got to transition around 6:05 so Dan and I could get our bikes ready, tires pumped up, special needs dropped off and give day clothes etc. to Kristin. Got wetsuit on, gave Kristin one last kiss goodbye and headed off to the swim start.
SWIM 57:18 (ugh!)
Jumped into the water and was glad it was on the chilly side. I heard it was either 61 or 64, not sure but glad it was in the 60’s nonetheless. Filled up my wetsuit with water, jumped out onto a nearby dock to drain excess water and of course took the opportunity to drain the bladder one last time and got wetsuit situated just right. Jumped back into the water and headed for the start. Jockeyed for a start position right up front but ended up moving twice because the swimmers were idiots clambering for a better start position. I moved towards the edge to get some open areas around me and minimize the “boxing match” for position. The swim buoys were hard to see and not in a straight line. I found that very unusual and felt like I had to swim in a zig zag fashion just to go from one buoy to the next. My swim was the worst swim compared to any other race and was at least 2 – 4 mins off what I should have been. I often felt as if I were in a washer machine getting bobbed around. At one point I could have sworn that one of the patrol boats drove really fast causing a wake. Exiting the water via a staircase was extremely interesting and you had to be really careful. The wetsuit stripping was pretty funny; it took two guys one holding me under my arms and another pulling in the opposite direction yanking my wetsuit off. Total time on the swim was 57:18.
T1 5:15 which is not good, but sort of took time because it was the first race of the season and not into the transition race mode.
BIKE 5 hours 21 mins Pn 180 watts Ave speed 20.9 mph
T1 was not the fastest transition and the run from the water to the bag area seemed fairly long (not as long as Lake Placid at least). Got my socks, shoes, race belt, helmet and sunglasses on and headed to my bike. I met a volunteer who helped me in T1 who was a fellow EN Team member and told me he was in Da Haus! As I was running out of the transition area with my bike I inadvertently dumped my bike and when it fell on the ground my entire aero bottle drained. Didn’t worry about it since I had two bottles of Infinite on board and I would grab water at the first aid station. The bike course was three loops that were essentially out and backs. I did not care for the hair pin turns at each end of the course but I just told myself that it was a great opportunity to change position and stretch some. It turned out to be a very windy day with wind up to 25 mph of which it rained for about 20 mins and it was cold! The first loop was not too bad and was ahead of my pace goal even though it was windy. My goal nP was 200 watts but decided to keep around 190 for the first 40 mins or so. Second loop got a little more difficult as the wind picked up. It was a tail wind going out and head wind coming back. While I would have preferred the opposite, the upside was the tail wind helped me get up the “hill” and the down hill helped combat the head wind. The winds at times gusted so hard that it threw me and the bike to side a few times. I had my Flashpoint 60 on front and disc cover on rear so at times it made like a sail in the wind. Third loop was really difficult I thought; the wind seemed to pick up even more; I tried to ride hard within my game plan but my power dropped as each hour went by. I think I should have targeted 180 for the first half and then jack it up to 200 on the second or something like that. I made sure I ate well and hydrated enough throughout the entire ride. Ate 1 1/3 powerbars, 5 accel gel packs, 1 bottle of infinite and multiple arrow bottles of water. I had to pee on the bike for about 2 hours and tried like hell to let it out while riding and just could not get the plumbing to work. Every time I tried I had to stop pedaling to try and relax; it didn’t work because I ended almost stopping and had to start pedaling again so I would not fall or stop. So……I decided to use one of the orange port a potties. It took over an hour to find one that did not have a huge line. Once I found one it was a huge relief! When I came out I told the guy who helped me with my bike that “my god that felt good…….I need a cigarette”…he got a good laugh over it. As I started on the third loop I quickly discovered that I had to pee again and decided that I would hold off and “treat myself” in T2 with another visit to the orange receptacle! Oh yeah, and during the first two laps I entertained myself with the thought of “I sure could use a TSA pat down because my junk is totally numb”! It took almost three hours to get that to go away, however I am not sure the numbness went away as I think I just got numb all over! Bike stats on hour intervals:
Hour 1 Pn 191 watts 21.0 miles
Hour 2 Pn 192 watts 21.7 miles
Hour 3 Pn 187 watts 21.8 miles
Hour 4 Pn 171 watts 21.4 miles
Hour 5 Pn 162 watts 19.5 miles
Last 20 min Pn 157 watts 18.0 mph
T2 3:20
RUN Total time 3:37 Ave Pace 8:19 Ave HR 136
Was glad to get ready to get off my bike. As I was trying to enter the transition area my frustration with yahoo riders peaked. There were a lot of people not riding very well, keeping to the left and swerving as if they wanted to be on Dancing with the Stars! I ended up catching two riders who would not get out of the way and had to slow way down and come to a crawl before I could enter the chute into T2. Luckily the volunteers in T2 were great and handed my bag as if I were a running back taking the football. I don’t think I broke stride running to the changing tent. Took off bike shoes and put on a fresh pair of socks…….ahhhhh! Put the shoes on, put my hat on and opted not wear my sunglasses since it was pretty crappy out. Once I was ready I headed to the orange port a potty to give myself the treat or relief!! As I headed out I had to fix my race bib on my belt since one side came off during my ride. Got it situated and adjusted to try and minimize the noisy flapping you get when it is windy. While on my first loop I stuck to my game plan and tried to maintain 8:30 pace for the first 6 miles. My splits were 8:32, 8:28, 8:27, 8:33, 8:27, 8:33, 8:32 & 8:44 and felt good about it. I took a lot of restraint to hold back and stay the course. During the first 6 miles one of the pros passed, gave me a pat on the back and asked how I was doing. I responded “good, stickin to my game plan” and he said sticking to the plan was a good thing! I later passed him on the 2nd loop! As I approached the end of the 6th mile I assessed my current state of mind, how I did with fluids and nutrition and how my legs felt. I came to the conclusion of sticking to the plan and drop the 30 seconds as coached! My splits ended up being good except miles 14, 15 and 18. I am not sure what happened but I do recall battling the wind and took just a little longer at the aid stations. I stuck to mostly water the first half and some poweraid. I sucked on pretzels, licked potato chips and sucked on the juice of grapes a couple times. It wasn’t until the second half that I started to drink cola about every 3rd or 4th aid station, mainly because I wanted to try and prevent a stomach ach since there were a couple times I started feel a little sick. Also, wanted the caffeine too! My splits for the next 12 miles were: 8:03, 8:02, 8:07, 7:54, 7:51, 7:53, 8:08, 8:22, 8:37, 8:18, 8:11, 8:42. At this point I started to feel tired and got a little worried I was not going to be able to maintain pace. I fought off the piano dropping on my back as best as possible. At this point the “line” emerged and Kona was my one thing to keep me on track. Every time I started to slow down I asked myself the question “I guess you don’t want Kona that bad do you then?” It kept me going and tried like heck to negative split the marathon and finish strong. I was pleased with my splits except miles 22, 23 & 25; I jumped up quite a bit. I also conjured up what strength I had by thinking of my daughter who runs cross country and track. She has an amazing kick at the end of her races and just kicks on the turbo charger, floats on top of the grass or track and just tears up it passing girls left and right. My goal was to get my last 1.2 miles as my fastest split. I ended up being just a little short, but increased my speed a lot. At the end of my first lap Kristin told me that I was in 12th place (Kristin was on phone with daughter Alex) after the bike in my age group, which for me was pretty amazing. The bike is usually my weakest segment. My response was “no worries, I will get them” in a very calm manner as I knew I had a game plan and those guys were going to slow down! After the race I talked to Kristin and she said I clearly lived up to my word and plan because when she saw me on the 2nd and 3rd loops she could see a definite change in pace. My last 8.2 mile splits were: 8:16, 8:20, 8:01, 8:47, 9:02, 8:14, 8:30, 8:10 and the last 0.2 miles was at 7:57. My daughter Meg helped me get through the last 1.2 miles! I remember thinking on the first loop that “my god this course is like a wild goose chase and didn’t know it was going to be multi terrain”. Gravel pathways, hairpin turns and bridge crossings with wicked winds and cold rain at one point made for an interesting run. I had to have my hat cranked as tight as I could get it to stay on and when that didn’t work I had to hold it in my hand. I started the run with arm warmers on and ended up taking them off on the first loop and then back on during 2nd loop after it rained and the wind picked up even more. Many of the aid stations were hoot! One was a police/jail theme with the volunteers dressed up in very provocative outfits and awesome stage props. Others had DJ’s doing announcements, rallying the crowd and playing loud music. Arizona State University students were out in full force doing community service during the event as well. As I approached the end of the race I saw a fellow EN team member, Al Truscott and asked him how I was doing and what he thought my total time was and he told me about 10:05. I was a little bummed because I knew 9:50 would definitely give me a shot at securing a Kona slot. It turned out he was right on as I went 10:04. I was bummed for about 10 seconds as I came down the shoot but quickly realized that I had a PR, executed about as good as I could have under the weather circumstances and was extremely happy! I came across the finish line completely satisfied and even didn’t care about my pathetic swim.
Post Race
Met Kristin at the finish line and she was really happy! Went and got my shirt, medal and photo taken before we went to the food tent. Grabbed some pizza but could not eat. Ended up going to the medical tent to get some helped. Laid on the ground, drank chicken broth and sucked on potato chips. Once I got salt back into my system and some fluids I came around. Borrowed a cell phone, called Kristin and we met back at the food tent. I was able to each some extra salty fries, two pieces of pepperoni pizza and water. We met my buddy Dan after he finished, got our bikes and gear bags and headed back to hotel to shower, go out to eat and watch the Eagles kick the Giants ass. After the game we hooked with Team EN at Rula Bula for more beerz then watched the last hour of the Ironman race. It is such an inspirational and emotional thing to witness! Watching those competitors come across the finish line after 16 hours of hammering with huge smiles, high five’n and dancing down the shoot is AMAZING. It’s a great way to end a GREAT day!
The day after the race I found out there were 7 Kona slots allocated to my age group so I went to the roll down. My expectations were extremely low since this was only the second IM of the year for 2011 Kona and did not expect guys to decline. My wife was soooo excited and tried to get her to stay calm! Just prior to the roll down process I found out that I made it into Kona 2011 and was super happy. My wife was ecstatic and I would not allow myself to celebrate until I had the paperwork in my hand. I was so happy and never thought I would ever qualify since the guys in my age group are frickin animals and so fast! I was so grateful to Coaches RnP, the program and Team EN support! I still can’t believe it!
I got home around midnight local time and came home to an awesome surprise. My oldest daughter, Alex had decorated the entrance door and inside the house with Hawaiian themed stuff. She had balloons in Team EN colors with the Iman logo she drew on them, fake tiki torches on the walls, Hawaiian dancer chick posters and a congratulations sign. It was so cool to come home to that. Both daughters were fast asleep, but sure was nice coming home to them.
Comments
Fantastic race AND report.
I'm going to pick apart a couple of things: declining watts on the bike like that usually indicate a caloric deficit, and salt cravings afterward indicate a need for more sodium during the race.
Goin' to Kona! Congrats.
Number one,enjoy your time in Kona. It's kinda cool to be the reason for a lot of other people to come to Hawaii and party!
great job, Greg! enjoy Kona!
GH
@ Bill, thanks very much. I tried to consume more on the bike and had a tough time fighting down what I did. I think I am going to increase the salt content in my infinite and make sure I take in more on the beginning of the run. Thanks for the feedback and will remember this for next year. Cheers, Greg
@ ; Al, Thanks Al! I greatly appreciated your support and encourage before and during the race! Cheers, Greg
@ David, You will do great at IMAZ. Train hard and stick to your game plan and you will achieve! Cheers, Greg
@ Scott, it was great having you there. You helped me get through the roll down process for sure! I was really grateful when you walked up and inquired! All the best, cheers. Greg
Greg,
Great race and great race report! Looking forward to our call and interview on Monday!
And, FWIW, I'd KILL for a 57min swim!
Huge congratulations on a great race and getting the slot! Very nicely done.
P
A HUGE congrats! Well done, Greg. I'm so happy for you. Bouncing back from such a difficult injury is so impressive.
When I checked in on the blog to see if anyone I knew was racing, I was pumped to see you were doing IMAZ. You've been quietly working hard and I love to see the payoff.
If you get a chance, I'd love to get more details on how you rehabbed your calf. Also, you're a pretty fit, guy, I'd like to know how/why the change to the paleo helped you so much.
You can give me all the details via halligandavid@hotmail.com
Congrats,
Dave
By the way, the link below will take you to the police/jail aid station set up by the Phoenix Triathlon club. It was definitely top notch.
the peeps that manned this station did a top notch job of not just filling our needs, but taking our mind off the pain and enterataining us, first rate volunteers!
Not to hijack this thread, but that video was a hoot! Thanks.
As for your " horrific" 57 minute swim.... Don't get me started. You could never pull off a 1:20 like me. Not even if you tried really hard and swam with 1 arm and 1 leg moving( hah!!). You would still smoke me. Go easy on yourself Mr Fish. You are amazing!!!
Love what your girls did for you!!
Woo Hoo!! Team Chavez is doing Hawaiin dance for you right now!!!
Hula, hula!!!! Happy dance for you! Congratulations on a super race!
@ Carrie,
Thanks! Great to hear from you! I hope the Chavez team is doing well! What races are you doing? Steve is your husband's name right? How about him?
GC
@ Scott....... I see you signed up for IMAZ again next year. Very cool!
The aid station certianly was a hoot and lifted my spirits all three times around the block!
All the best. It was a great day to sail on the Delaware River. Winds were blistering with white caps and all outside my office!
Cheers,
Greg
Steve and I are good. Steve had a great Kona race. We decided to take an IM free year next year. First time since 1999. Steve did 21 IM races in 11 years. I did 13. NEED A CHANGE!!
We have a fun 2011 planned. Steve and I and 28 other teammates from here will run Boston!! Steve's first marathon! He qualified at Kona. Crazy. Then Vineman 70.3 in July. Mixed in will be all our local fun races. Our secret goal( shh!) is to qualify for 70.3 worlds in Vegas. We always passed on Clearwater due to Kona. So I hope we can both qualify.
You? Plans for 2011 besides the BIG DANCE??