1st Ironman Done! IMLP RR
To make a long story short as to how I got here...after semi-retirement from triathlon after last year I got a call from some friends who had just signed up for IMLP in October by taking charity slots. When I recieved this call I was in the middle of the Chesapeake sailing and several drinks into Happy Hour. They said I "Had" to do it...so there I was the morning of the 24th treading water with 2000 people wondering "what the hell am I doing here." Turns out, about to have a pretty good time all things being equal.
I had some goals (in this order):
- Finish healthy and in good spirits
- Finish before dark
- Finish in under 13 hours
Prerace: Got into town on Thursday after flying into Albany and driving up. My wife and son had been up in the area for a week or so with my wife's mom. Wife came down to pick my up and we drove back up to LP and checked into hotel. They had been renting a house over in Saranac and she was more than happy to check into lodging with some air conditioning.
Those other friends that were doing the race were all staying at various places around the area and one of them had been nice enough to bring up my bike so I went over picked that up. Immediately put the disc cover on and the 808 on the front and begged my wife for lift up to the top of the Keene descent. She complied and I went down the hill in very windy conditions. Gotta tell you I was a little scared but when finished, figured I had now done that part of the course, twice in perfect weather and once in a driving rain during the LP camp and now once in a pretty strong wind, so I figured I could handle anything on race day. Rode for an additional 30 minutes or so out to AuSable and then back to town to get over to the EN gathering. EN gatering was nice, saw Brenda, Keith, Nate and his wife and a few others.
Friday- Just kinda hung out went to beach with wife and son, swam about half an hour, quick run, checked in at race. Definitely nervous. Feeling every little sniffle, ache, pain, twinge... you name it. Back was acting up so went and got some free ART. Weird what the mind does.
Saturday - Standard stuff, tried to rest a much as possible. Big lunch at LP Brewery then checked in bike and bags. Wanted to go to merchandise tent but decided against it because did not want to jinx the results of the weekend by buying something that said "finisher" before I actually did the race. Parents came up and everyone headed out to early dinner. Had a pretty light dinner and had a glass of wine to calm the nerves a little, plus it went really well with my fish. Got back to hotel and relaxed lights out by about 10 did not fall asleep until at least 11 or so but slept pretty well after that.
RACE DAY:
Up at 4 and down to breakfast, had some oatmeal and coffee. Back up to room, took care of business (luckily), said goodbye to wife and sleeping son, and gathered up my stuff. The father of one of my friends was nice enough to gather everyone up and drive us down to transition. We were there so early, total newbies, we were there at like 5 on the dot. Plenty of time to get ready. On the positive side I was the second one in line for the guy who pumps up the tires so I was all set, or so I thought. First challenge of the day, guy drops the presta cover thingy into my tire with the disc cover. I spend like 15 minutes trying to fish it out so I don't sound like a clothes dryer with a quarter in it for 112 miles.
They announe that it is not wetsuit legal if you want to try for Kona spot, mmmmm, let me think, I will wear it anyway!
Saw Coach P pumping up his tires one row behind me, saw Nate P, saw Steve Ross. Continued to sip on my gatorade, peed like 47 times and met up with my 5 buddies to head down to the swim start.
Swim: 1:16:xx
Got wetsuit on and crossed mat, friends and I deciding what to do while looking at the mass of humanity crammed into a pretty small space. They are all slightly better swimmers than me and all a little bigger so they decided they were going to head right out into the thick of things. Two of the guys, not so confident, were going to hang back on beach. I am pretty comfortable in the water but was a little nervous with all the people. Decided my strategy would be to go out with my buddies and use them as my wedge. Figured I would stay right behind them as long as I could and they would kind of block for me. Yeah, not so much! We all wished each other luck, high fives whole nine yards, cannon goes off, I put my head down to swim right behind them. That is the last I see them until the bike course.
Oh well, do the best I can on first loop. Constantly getting pounded, occasionally finding some clear water, but pretty rough overall. Once I get around the turn things seem to thin out a bit until end of first loop where things get congested again. Hop out of first loop look at watch at says 39 minutes. I am fine with that, my goal was somewhere between 1:15 and 1:20 for whole swim.
Dive in for second loop and notice I am right behind a girl with no wetsuit. I say to myself, she must be a good swimmer she is not wearing a wetsuit, she must be trying to KQ lets see if I can stay with her for awhile. Well, I stayed right on her toes for the entire second loop and she was awesome. I looked up once or twice at the beginning to sight but see that we were right on target I did not look up again. She guided me around like a pro, I did not get bumped or run into one other person, I touched her toes a few times and that was about it. Felt like I was not even working. Got out of water for good an looked at watch 37 minutes, two minutes faster than first loop and I was not even breathing hard. Nice!
Got wetsuit stripped and took a leisurely jog down to transition.
T1: 13:05
What the hell was I doing for 13 minutes? Grabbed bag and ran into tent, as I am running to chair I slam my little toe on one of the rail road ties or whatever they were (clearly marked with red tape, that clearly I did not see) and crumple into a chair yelping in pain. Look at the toe, feel it, wiggle it, hurts like hell, volunteers all asking if I was ok. My response: "Thank you and I guess I am going to have to be Ok." Turns out it was fine, just smarted like heck. Anyway one volunteer rips open my bag and starts grabbing everything that I had neatly organized in the bag and starts spreading it out all over the place. Bless the guy for trying to be so helpful but took me awhile to figure out where everthing had gone and then get moving in the right direction.
Get to my bike and volunteer is trying to rip it out of rack, my pedals are in the spokes of the guy next to me so I tell the volunteer just to take a deep breath, I have plenty of time, and he can take his time getting me the bike, which he does and I run what seems like a half mile to mount line where there are literally 30 people trying to get on their bikes. What a cluster. I wait until things clear out a bit then move over to the side and get on the bike and move out.
BIKE: 6:28:xx
My goal was to do the bike in under 6:30 as I had done the course at the rally in 6:40 or so. My goal was also to race the EN way. I had my watts and gears all figured out and I was going to ride the watts. I had even decided to take speed off my joule so it did not even factor into the equation.
Heading out of town was JRA and was getting passed by hundreds of people, most of them panting like we were doing a Sprint. I was concentrating on drinking lots of water as I was sure I needed fluids after the swim. I was calm and my heartrate was low, which was a great sign for me. Went down the descent no problems and hit the interval button to head out to Ausable.
Tried to JRA on the first loop and that was easy because my stomach was not feeling well. Felt like I was going to yack, had a lot of water up until that point because I am heavy, heavy sweater and decided just to stop taking anything and see if stomach began to feel better. Pulled over for my fist of 4 pee stops (need to learn how to do this while riding as it had to take at least 6-7 min with all the breaks). Felt a little better after that and gradually my stomach began to feel better at which time I started to take in my infinit. Caught up to one of my friends and chatted for a few which was nice then just kept movingn along. My watts were below my target but remembered P saying to just take it easy until you get to the turn up 86.
Got to the turn at 86 and cruised right up that and again got passed by hundreds of people, or at least it seemed like it, caught another one of my friends from home, actually my next door neighbor and we chatted for awhile then I moved ahead. We would see each other throughout the rest of the ride, he pulled in right behind me at special needs and again at the bike finish. So that was nice.
Got to special needs and went to switch out my bottle of infinit and notices I still had about 1/4 of it left because of stomach issues at beginning of ride. Took me forever and a day at special needs because I could not find my sunscreen for the life of me because of all the crap (which I did not need) in the bag. Eventually got on my way again.
At start of second lap I toggled my Joule back over to totals and saw my NP was way under what I wanted my goal watts to be but my time was decent so I was not too worried. Decided I would try to ride my goal watts of 155 on second loop.
Took the climb back out of town basically the same as first loop because wanted to have something left for rest of ride and that was also the first time I started to actually think about the run ahead. Noticed that this time around there were very few people passing me.
Turned onto Rt9 and just wanted to try and hold 155, turns out I did not but I was passing a ton of people anyway. I mean I was flying by people. I was feeling great but began to think about the big picture more and more and that was that I still had to climb back into town then I had to run a marathon and I could feel the temps rising. I was drinking a full bottle of water along with my infinit between each aid station and I was peeing so I thought my hydration and nutrition were good (I took a Roctane to make up for the 1/4 bottle of infinit that I was short on first loop).
Turned onto 86 and started climb, felt fine, actually felt good. Drinking, nutrition trying to be steady and not spike watts. Decided at gas station that I was going to push the climb back into town a little harder as I was feeling pretty good. In looking at power file my Peak 60 minutes was the last hour climbing back into town which I am really physched about. Tells me that I executed pretty well on the bike.
Towards end of bike, knees and back were feeling it, got back into town and was pretty happy to hand off the bike to volunteer.
Numbers:
Climb out of town first loop: 31 min, IF .625, NP 139, VI 1.05, RPM 89
Interval 1: 1st loop bottom of Keene to turn onto 86
Duration: 1:03:01 (1:04:10)
Work: 500 kJ
TSS: 40.7 (intensity factor 0.625)
Norm Power: 139
VI: 1.05
Distance: 21.044 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 254 132 watts
Heart Rate: 102 149 131 bpm
Cadence: 36 150 89 rpm
Speed: 0 34.2 20.0 mph
Pace 1:45 0:00 3:00 min/mi
Interval 2: 1st loop (Climb from 9 to end of out and back)
Duration: 28:31
Work: 226 kJ
TSS: 20 (intensity factor 0.649)
Norm Power: 145
VI: 1.09
Distance: 7.166 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 258 132 watts
Heart Rate: 106 143 132 bpm
Cadence: 37 134 83 rpm
Speed: 5.5 39.8 15.0 mph
Interval 3: 1st Loop (climb up to town from gas station)
Duration: 49:37 (52:25)
Work: 428 kJ
TSS: 37.5 (intensity factor 0.677)
Norm Power: 151
VI: 1.05
Distance: 12.931 mi
Elevation Gain: 990 ft
Elevation Loss: 156 ft
Grade: 1.2 % (838 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 284 144 watts
Heart Rate: 107 153 142 bpm
Cadence: 30 150 87 rpm
Speed: 0 30 15.6 mph
Pace 1:60 0:00 3:51 min/mi
Interval 4: Second loop (Climb out of town to bottom of Keene)
Duration: 47:44 (47:45)
Work: 326 kJ
TSS: 31.1 (intensity factor 0.625)
Norm Power: 139
VI: 1.22
Distance: 14.822 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 268 114 watts
Heart Rate: 93 152 133 bpm
Cadence: 53 156 89 rpm
Speed: 7 37.2 18.6 mph
Pace 1:37 8:37 3:14 min/mi
Interval 5: Bottom of Keene to Ausable and back to 86 (second loop)
Duration: 1:02:51 (1:03:48)
Work: 506 kj
TSS: 41.8 (intensity factor 0.634)
Norm Power: 141
VI: 1.05
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 324 134 watts
Heart Rate: 107 152 138 bpm
Cadence: 33 141 91 rpm
Speed: 0 33.8 19.9 mph
Pace 1:47 0:00 3:01 min/mi
Interval 6: Climb to Out and back off Rt 9 (2nd Loop)
Duration: 28:58 (30:45)
Work: 238 kJ
TSS: 20.9 (intensity factor 0.664)
Norm Power: 148
VI: 1.08
Distance: 6.936 miles
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 248 137 watts
Heart Rate: 99 147 135 bpm
Cadence: 35 159 84 rpm
Speed: 0 39.1 14.3 mph
Interval 7: Last climb back into town
52 min, NP 153, VI, 1.04, IF .69
Entire workout (130 watts):
Duration: 6:23:07 (6:30:59)
Work: 2987 kJ
TSS: 262.2 (intensity factor 0.643)
Norm Power: 143
VI: 1.1
Distance: 112.085 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 335 130 watts
Heart Rate: 89 154 135 bpm
Cadence: 30 159 88 rpm
Speed: 0 39.8 17.5 mph
T2: 7:10
Again, I have no idea what took so long except maybe the long run to bike then back to bag and having to change socks. Also, made sure every square inch of exposed skin was covered in sunscreen. Stopped yet again for quick pee and off I went.
Run: 4:36:xx
Ok, the good news for all of you reading this missive, is that this part was fairly uneventful and not a whole lot to say.
Bottom line is that I am not a real strong runner because of that I think I went a little easy on the bike because quite frankly I was scared of this part. But I executed the EN way and am very happy with the results.
Starting out, through the great work of Matt and others with the heat index thing, I was planning on running first 6 miles at 10:10s or so. But on the bike and once I got off the bike thought the temp was definitely higher than 74 so decided to back it off to 10:30s and see how that felt. Turns out it felt pretty good. Ended up running with George for first few miles until I saw the family and stopped for a few seconds.
Strategy was to walk 30 steps, no more no less at every aid station and I did it through every single aid station. 30 steps period.
Took in the warm Perform every other aid station and water every other aid station. One of my bribes to myself was that if I ran through mile 20 I could have coke.
First few miles were a little quick so slowed it down, made it to first turnaround and felt good on way back started to see a lot of hurting people. So I thought do I try to go fastget, felt pretty good, or do I stick with the 10:30s, HR was low 130s and usually when I run my HR starts to go up after 1st 10 or so miles so fact that it was staying down told me maybe just stick with 10:30 for awhile.
Around mile 8 or so Crhis G passed me and he was moving, although he made a joke that he did not know how he was still running. Looked like he was running fine to me as he disappeared into the distance. Saw P twice and tried to encourage him. Also, some guy runs up next to me and says "Four Keys right" I'm like yeah who are you? Turns out Rich used to be the guy's XO in the Corp. Small world.
Ran up all the hills first time and made it back into town just fine. Started second loop and felt pretty good, got to turnaround everything fine and just about 1 mile back towards town the pain started. Here is what I was afraid of this whole time. I mean I had been hurting a little since about mile 10 or so but at mile19 or so it got bad. Hips, knees, ankles, everything. HR was still low, not breathing hard but just a lot of pain. I remember thinking at mile 18, "well I feel pretty good," dummy, dummy, dummy. Just told myself, like so many had told me to do when I posted in the forums, JKR. So I did. My reward was that I got to walk 30 steps at every aid station. My seondary reward was that if I made it to mile 20 running I got coke, well I got to mile 20 and decided to give myself one more goal, did not take the coke at 20 made myself wait until 21. Ran up hill off River Road and it actually felt good. For some reason the pain went away going up hill. Ran up second hill into town as well, again pain went away going up hill.
At top of hill Coach P saw me and said "Alright, Go William!" Note to self: Next time you sign up for a race do not use your given name, William, use the name that you want to be cheered. It was too funny listening to people say 'Go, William" all day. It actually made me laugh several times which I guess is a good thing.
Last couple of miles were tough, allowed myself to walk for probably 45 sec at last aid station to make sure I could run home strong. Once I heard the roar of the crowd it was not tough to pick up the pace. Pretty cool. Here are my run splits, pretty consistent, wonder if I could have pushed a bit more.
Lap
Time
Distance
Pace/Speed
AHR
MHR
1
10m 11s
1.00 miles
10m 11s /mile
127
144
2
10m 09s
1.00 miles
10m 09s /mile
132
137
3
10m 15s
1.00 miles
10m 15s /mile
132
144
4
10m 42s
1.00 miles
10m 42s /mile
133
145
5
10m 13s
1.00 miles
10m 13s /mile
132
136
6
10m 33s
1.00 miles
10m 33s /mile
133
145
7
10m 26s
1.00 miles
10m 26s /mile
135
148
8
10m 22s
1.00 miles
10m 22s /mile
135
147
9
10m 21s
1.00 miles
10m 21s /mile
139
144
10
10m 25s
1.00 miles
10m 25s /mile
141
157
11
10m 37s
1.00 miles
10m 37s /mile
139
158
12
10m 38s
1.00 miles
10m 38s /mile
140
154
13
10m 16s
1.00 miles
10m 16s /mile
134
142
14
10m 23s
1.00 miles
10m 23s /mile
132
145
15
10m 19s
1.00 miles
10m 19s /mile
136
143
16
10m 28s
1.00 miles
10m 28s /mile
134
145
17
10m 41s
1.00 miles
10m 41s /mile
137
148
18
10m 14s
1.00 miles
10m 14s /mile
137
143
19
10m 35s
1.00 miles
10m 35s /mile
137
147
20
10m 45s
1.00 miles
10m 45s /mile
137
144
21
10m 30s
1.00 miles
10m 30s /mile
138
150
22
10m 42s
1.00 miles
10m 42s /mile
143
156
23
10m 26s
1.00 miles
10m 26s /mile
144
158
24
11m 14s
1.00 miles
11m 14s /mile
144
156
25
10m 56s
1.00 miles
10m 56s /mile
146
159
26
10m 54s
1.00 miles
10m 54s /mile
139
149
27
00m 38s
0.05 miles
12m 28s /mile
149
151
Summary: Total Time 12:41:47
Overall, I was very pleased with my race as a first timer. I think some of the fear I felt may have prevented me from going a bit faster but maybe it also kept me from blowing up and going slower.
The support from/for EN is awesome. It was so motivating to hear people cheer the whole way because they saw the EN jersey.
If it was not for all the members here with great advice and tips I know I would not have done as well.
I learned that less is more with nutrition, in retronspect, in every other race I have done I have taken in too much.
Thanks for reading.
Comments
I gotta repeat what everyone else has said - you rarely see run splits (at any speed) that consistent. SUPERB execution accounts for it.
BTW, I suspect that we don't NEED a lot of water in the first hour after the swim - what with swallowing a bit and our semi-permeable skin in the hands, feet and face absorbing it, plus the (usually) cooler, less intense sun rom 8:30-10 AM, I usually can get away with 8-12 ounces in that first hour, then back load my fluids from then on.
It's great when you exceed expectations, isn't it?