IM CdA race report: GH
my goals for IMCdA were to try to swim better than 1:20 overall time. bike with steady watts. run faster than 3:48.
this was my first time at CdA, so anytime would be a course PR and the above goals were based upon my arizona performances.
i arrived wednesday to not rush things. unfortunately, i ended up missing most of the EN get togethers due to this 'not rush things' philosophy. however, taking our time with everything made for a pleasant, stress free trip for my supporters and younger brother, who was racing his first ironman.
of course, this all changed when the night before the race we had to be evacuated from the building in the middle of the night because some knuckleheads were smoking weed in their room and set off the fire alarm!!! if i hadn't taken an oath to “do no harm” in medical school, they would have been going to the ER before the police station.
still, tried to stay calm and went back to sleep.
swim: thankfully the water was calm. 2 days before it was windy with swells that were lifting mup and smacking me down. I staged with some of the team on the shore, wished them luck. headed out after the EN guys, so as not to slow them down...my plan was to hold my trajectory until half way and then veer over to the buoy line. i had staged myself about 1/3rd of the way to the right of the buoy line. unfortunately, everyone around me veered over to the buoy line right away! so, after getting clobbered a few times i just went with them. i got to the buoy line sooner than I wanted and once i felt like i could move, i swam over to the right again to avoid everyone...but i went to far!!! next thing i know i was WAY off to the right. basically, the whole swim was like this for me. a lot of veering off. i did do a good job of staying calm and not rushing, so i was able to exit lap 1 in control and also finish in control. Not all was lost in other words. i did not wear a watch for this, since my goal was to stay in my box regardless of time. i also managed to not feel the cold during the swim, but this is almost always the case for me on race day. must be due to the adrenaline. time 1:35!!!!! worst time in three years by 15minutes!!!!!
conclusion: too much time spent racing in the safety of arizona tempe lake. my open water sighting and proprioception sucked and i had come to believe that i actually was getting better at this skill. Thus, veering off slowed me down and, of course, i still need to improve my swim ability overall.
t1: for the last three years at Arizona, I have gotten a cramp at the swim exit. This time…no cramp!! I entered t2 and went straight to the seats near the exit of t2. changed and was ready to go. wore a vest, had arm warmers on already. i didn't feel cold, but wore the vest because i feared the temps in the shade. i don't remember the t1 time but it was pretty decent. at this point i didn't know if i had swam slow or fast.
bike: the good news is that my VI overall was 1.08, which is what coach P did in 2008. The other good news is that I was focused the entire time and made sure to not let my effort drop in the latter part of the ride. I rode in aero where possible and wasn’t dumb in the hills. I passed a ton of people on the first lap and second lap, especially on the return from the hills on each loop. The bad news is that again, although I can honestly say that I rode to my ability on race day, I can’t seem to get my numbers to be like everyone else in EN!? TSS was 218.6 and IF was 0.586 for the whole ride. 6:21 or 6:22 bike time.
Conclusion: I think I did not ride enough at 0.80 in training. Instead I ended up doing a lot of long slow distance, unintentionally. I will definitely focus on this for the OS. However, the goal of riding steady was achieved.
T2: uneventful.
Run: felt good going out. Held very easy pace in the neighborhood section and my plan was to hold it until after the big hill, before switching from very easy to easy pace until mile 18. For the first time ever in an Ironman run, I started feeling like I had to go #2(bowel movement)!!!! It was not upset stomach, just felt like I had to go around mile 3. I did not take food in the first three miles because I didn’t want to make my stomach upset, but figured that I needed to make a pit stop soon or risk not eating over more miles and bonking. Stopped, did my business, and then headed out again. My garmin is set to beep and give pace each mile, so at the next mile mark, my pace went from steady 8’s to 11, due to the pit stop. Oh well. 
On my way out to hill, I started to see a lot of the EN team heading the other way and that was my first clue that my swim was slower than usual. I slowed over the marathon, but not by much, and I was running strong the whole time. One other new thing for me was a cramp in inner thigh that made me pull over for about a minute on the descent from the big hill of lap 2. I think this was due to a bit of apprehension on my part, as far as nutrition intake goes, since I didn’t want to go #2 again. I was not taking in as much nutrients from mile 3 forward and my muscle rebelled. After the cramp, I started taking in more food and the cramp never returned. The finishing straight was pretty incredible. I happened to arrive at a time where it was pretty much just me on Sherman Ave all along up to the finishing chute. I zig zagged once in the chute, high fiving everyone and crossed very happy with how everything went down. Run time 3:50, 2minutes slower than Arizona, but with a pit stop, cramp, AND over a much harder course!!
Final time: 11:56 or 11:57.
I am signed up for next year, since I really like this course. There’s a lot to improve still for me, which is very motivating. It was great to have Rich out there and all the EN athletes and supporters. It was great to be a part of the CdA 2011 group. I’ll focus on my day job for a couple of weeks and then will begin to address the areas that need improvement and basically just get stronger overall.
Wishing everyone a quick recovery and much success to everyone with races still to come! Congrats to all who raced and gave it their all, no matter the outcome. Also a special congrats to Al for making it back from his accident.
GH
Comments
Thanks for all the advice you've given me the past several months thru the OS and IM training. It's been great to train with a veteran like yourself. Also, thanks for letting me share a room with you and your bro at RR #1.
PS, congratulate Carlos for me on finishing his first IM! When I saw him late in the run, he was still smiling.
You are definately a runner! Great race, it was a pleasure to meet you.
everyone: thanks for the kind sentiments!
david: the centuries helped me psychologically to not be afraid of the small hills at CdA, but i rode those centuries at too low an IF. missed out on the opportunity to raise my FTP by riding them conservatively.
however, as soon as july 11 comes around, i am hammering at 80-85% ALL THE TIME!
GH - As usual, it was great to spend even just a little time with you pre-race. You've got a great execution plan and you were really focused all week. When I saw you on the bike, I admired your aero position through town, and your steady power - your lower VI was really obvious from your body language. I'm with you, I think we need not only some more FTP type intervals, but also some time for those good steady back to back weekend rides, sometimes hard to come by in our profession.
BTW, seeing the growing list of peole who are committing to IM CDA next year, (not only the local crew, but ENers from far afield), I'm seriously considering making it an even 10 next June - if its really true that Coach R, Nemo, GH, Terry Olivas, and others will be there. At a minimum, I'll sure come to watch the race.
GH - Under 12 hours. A wonderful time. What a great run you had. I saw you once on the run going into town and you were just flying (you went by so fast I barely recognized you). You obviously paced yourself to be able to maximize your running strength. It was great to meet you at the race and thands very much for your advice and encouragement duiring training. Looking forward to staying in touch thru the Haus.