IMLoo Race Report -- Best IM so far and I am ready for KONA!
Race Report – IMLoo, 28 Aug 11.
Current Stats: FTP: 265, VDOT 48, Weight 165lbs, W/Kg - 3.53
Total: 11:56:55 (overall 583/2865, division 98/373)
Swim: 1:16:10 (2:00/100m) (overall 1118, division 173)
T1: 5:55
Bike: 5:49:25 (19.23mph) (overall 585, division 112)
T2: 6:26
Run: 4:38:59 (10:38/mi) (overall 583, division 98)
Power Data:
Entire workout (158 watts):
Duration: 5:48:50
Work: 3313 kJ
TSS: 235.8 (intensity factor 0.637)
Norm Power: 169
VI: 1.07
Pw:HR: 3.81%
Pa:HR: -7.83%
Distance: 112.738 mi
Elevation Gain: 1848 ft
Elevation Loss: 1853 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-9 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 412 158 watts
Heart Rate: 100 144 129 bpm
Cadence: 25 221 85 rpm
Speed: 0 44.2 19.4 mph
Pace 1:21 0:00 3:06 min/mi
Altitude: 434 915 728 ft
Crank Torque: 0 778 158 lb-in
NOTES:
-IF was 1.06 until last 45 seconds. Grrrrr!
-Note the distance calculated by GPS
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Pre-Race Nutrition: Total Calories: 1240
0200 – Wakeup and slam two Ensure Plus drinks (700cal)
0400 – Wakeup second time, 2 x oatmeal packets (340cal), cup o’ coffee
0400 - 0500: 2 more cups o’ coffee, 17 oz water,
0500 – 0600: 24 oz sports drink (EFS – 100 cal)
0630: 2nd sports drink (EFS w. Pre-Race – 100cal)
Pre - SWIM –After getting in line for Transition to open (mini-race #1), it was time to hustle through so as to get into the swim line (mini-race#2). Uneventful, but definitely had an elevated HR due to the power walk down to get into line.
Lessons Learned:
- It was good to have a partner for line admin, but a group of three would have been better. As it was, both my buddy and I had to get out of line for the Port-O-Pots at the same time, and that was when they shifted the line forward yet again.
- Trying to do a Family/Sherpa meet-up at a set time (0600) is a bad idea (see above)
SWIM: In the water at 7:04:57. Swim time 1:16:10
This swim was faster than any of my Race Rehearsal swims by several minutes. I dove right in and got on my effort. I had a bit of traffic the first 200m or so, but then it was clear. I stayed to the left on the way up, and then swung WAY WIDE on the way back. I had pretty much clear water all the way until crossing under the 2nd bridge.
I was well hydrated before starting to swim. In fact, I had to go starting at 0630 and the Port-O-Pots were not really an option by that time. Once I got in the water, I relieved myself. And did so another couple of times during the remainder of the swim.
The only issues I had was that my goggles started to fog. I began to tread water so as to spit/rinse and my left hamstring started to cramp up. Later I saw guys *walking* and thought that was pretty stupid. Then I realized I could stand up for a quick second and have no problem cleaning out my goggles. In the words of Homer Simpson, “DOH!”
Lesson Learned:
- The Galt House is an excellent sighting reference for the way in. Its red roof is very distinctive.
T1: 5:55
No real issues in T1. I even stopped for a quick second to say hi to my wife as I crossed over the bridge. My bag was very easy to find as I had taped Pink Duct tape all the way around and put a bright green X in the middle with Green tape.
Even though I had a towel in my bag and used it to dry my arms, I still had a hard time getting my deSoto Cool Wings on. Thankfully I had an enthusiastic volunteer to help.
Lesson Learned:
- Forgot to visualize taking off my speedsuit so I almost forgot to do that
- Pointing at a volunteer and saying, “COME WITH ME” worked wonders
BIKE: 5:49:25
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111167679
For the first 10 miles or so, I had the thought, “Am I Ricky Racer?” I was trying to sit on my JRA goal of 176W and I was just passing lots and lots of people….even on the slight hills out of town. By the time I got to the Out-and-Back, that had stopped and now I was getting passed quite often. Based on my pre-ride on Thursday, I had decided that I was going to take the big descents with my hands on my bullhorns so I would have immediate access to my brakes should I need them. Thankfully I did not. But I did find that to be very fatiguing on my shoulders.
Roughly ¼ of the way into O&B, I realized I had to pee bad. I hadn’t noticed any Port-O-Pots on the way out, but I told myself that I would hold it until I got back onto KY-42. I found it increasingly difficult to hold my target watts, 186W now, as I was spending a lot of “Mental Energy” keeping my bladder from voiding. Alas, there was nothing at the turn onto 42, so I learned how to pee while riding for the first time. I shifted my hips to the right which ended up causing a lot of stress on my left leg and hip (which will come back to bite me in T2). This was my first of at least 6 times that I peed while riding --- Necessity IS the Mother of Invention!
I was targeting 250 cal/hr. My nutrition on the bike was a 3 hr bottle of Infinit at the start, a 3hr bottle in Bike Special Needs, and then a single 2nd Surge Gel to take at Hour 5. I ended up consuming:
- 1st Infinit – completely consumed: 840cal
- 2nd Infinit – 2/3 consumed: 560cal
- Gel – 100cal
- TOTAL – 1500cal / 258 cal per hour (ON TARGET!)
For hydration, I have a distance alert of every mile, and like Pavlov’s dog, I take a swig or two from my Speedfil hose and then tuck it back between my arms. I have no idea how much I drank, just that I was VERY, VERY hydrated.
My aid station routine was only water. Yelling and pointing at a Volunteer, “WATER!” was very effective. Approaching the aid station I would take a couple of swigs of water. Grab one bottle, chug a little bit, pour the rest on shoulders/neck/arms. Time permitting, I would try to put some in my speedfil. I would get a second bottle, bite off the cap if required, refill my Speedfil and then drink/pour the rest on me before pitching the bottle.
My only incidents on the course were two near-missed with cars. The first time was a car that moved left so that I could pass on its right. It gave me about a ¼ of the lane. However, as I was abeam the passenger door, it started veering back towards me. I almost imitated VonHoogerland’s exploits from the Tour as I only had about 10inches of median with big-ass rumble strips and then a significantly deep ditch next to it. Thankfully the car missed me.
The second was on KY-42 on the way back. A BMW decided it had to pass me as I was going 28-30 on a slight downhill. Thankfully I kept an eye on it since it decided to stop short right after passing me and wait for traffic so it could turn left. Had I been looking down at my LYC or drinking, I would have done an Al T imitation and planted myself through its rear window. Lets just say I spiked my watts on that one (!).
A funny thing happened twice on the same climb. As I was sitting on my watts and getting passed like I was standing still, a couple of teenage girl spectators gave me the pitying, “You can do it!” call out. I had to laugh.
On the final 33 miles into town, I could see the carnage beginning as lots of riders were sitting up, stretching their necks, stretching their backs, etc. It was a precursor as to what I would see on the run.
One note about potty stops: As I said earlier, I learned that day how to pee while in motion. I remembered, though, a post by one of our WSMs who shall remain nameless (but his initials are AT and he lives in GH, WA…) He posted how it was his belief that stopping to pee was actually a really good thing as it broke up the bike, recovered your HR, etc. So I stopped at the 2nd to last Aid Station to use the Port-O-Pots. When I went to get back on my bike, my left shoe would NOT clip in. Ruh-Roh! I stopped…tried again. No Luck! I stopped again and had a volunteer hold my bike as I tried to dig out a powerbar or something from my cleat. That quick stop ended up costing my over 4minutes and a lot of VI. J
Lessons Learned:
- It is hard to hold watts when you really have to pee
- I need to get much better at holding my IF where I want it. My target was .70 and I ended up at .637 (TSS target 278-286, actual 235.8)
- Trying to shift to my 11th gear on the super-steep, really short, hill, messed up my rear derailleur by stripping out the cable a bit. Thankfully, I knew enough to stop and adjust the barrel/knob on it so I at least had moderately functioning gears
T2: 6:26
Coming into T2, I did my normal routine and took my feet out of my shoes while they were still clipped in. I handed my bike to the catcher (God, I love them!) As I ran by my bags, I grabbed my bag. Thankfully a wonder volunteer ran up to me and said, “You’ve got the wrong bag.” “No I don’t” “Yes, you grabbed the T1 bag.” “DOH!”
My T2 was a bit slow as I couldn’t bend over to put on, much less tie, my left shoe. I think it was b/c of the shifting to the right while peeing that caused my left hip to cramp/tighten up. I got my shoes on and tied eventually. Grabbed my glasses, two instant cold packs, and off I went.
I thought for about a millisecond about putting one of the cold packs in my pocket to save for later, but I knew instantly the jostling noise would drive me crazy. So I activated both of them (one large and one small) and held them in my hands.
RUN. VDot 48 in the heat. 8:49 EP. Temperature-adjusted pace: 10:05 (THANK YOU MATT!)
Time: 4:38:59 (10:38/mi)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111167690
Going into the run, I knew that I was not going to ‘max-perform’ my run since I have KONA in less than 6 weeks. My goal was to hit the 1st 6 miles pace, and then assess. If I felt super-fantastic-great, then I might start creeping my pace up. Otherwise I would just hold the AdjustedEP+30”.
Given the temperature, I also knew that heat management would be a major task all day. Accordingly, one of my main objectives at Aid Stations would be getting ice to put in my hat , also (I made this up on the course) to dump into my cool wings so I could have it pool on my arteries/veins that are normally used to draw blood), and finally to have in my hands so it would melt and cool my hands between aid stations. This worked great except for the one aid station that said each athlete could only take one small cup of ice. NICE!!
The layout of the stops did not really facilitate the 30” per station walk-technique, so I had to adjust on the fly. Looking at the graph below, you can really see the effect on my HR for the walking stops that I did, though.
My hydration and nutrition plan was to alternate water and Perform at each stop. Odd stops, water. Even stops, Perform. That plan did not last very long as the only flavor they had was the Mango Orange (DRECK!); which is especially foul when it is warm. After two attempts, and almost hurling, I abandoned that plan. My modified plan was water only until mile 12 when I would consume my 2nd Surge gel that I grabbed in T2. I would pick up my other gel at Special Needs and then consume it at mile 18. If I ran into a calorie-deficit, I would then start improvising at the Aid Stations. As CoachR says, “There are an infinite number of calories within minutes.” Thankfully, it never came to that.
Due to my high level of concern for the Heat, I did make sure I took in plenty of water, plus occasional endurolyte caps that I had in small ziplock bags (4/bag, 3 bags). Over the day, I consumed 8 total caps since I was (a) sweating like a dog, and (b) I stopped to pee four times on the run.
The carnage on the run was impressive. I stopped counting people after mile 18 when I hit 100.
Like I said, I was deliberately underperforming the run since IMLoo was an A- race for me. A couple of times I thought about pushing it up, and if I wasn’t careful my pace would creep up to the low 9:30s. But my goal was to just sit on the 10:30s and cruise. I never hit the wall. Mile 18 was a non-event….no line whatsoever. The closest I came to a problem on the run was at Mile 22 my left adductor decided to get very stiff. It didn’t cramp up, but it was uncomfortable.
Lessons Learned:
- The TIRP is Da Bomb! Without the fantastic work of the Team, I would have tried to run 8:49EP and I would have blown up. The temp was only 85, which didn’t feel hot initially and never got ‘scorching’, but the effects were visible on the field! I saw a number of people sitting on the curb and they were DONE!.
- I need to change my Garmin screens for IM runs to just show Pace over HR with no scrolling. I got annoyed that I had to wait for it to scroll through, even at Medium Speed, in order for me to get my current pace
- Per my Garmin, I ran an extra ½ mile……
- Coach Patrick’s technique of bending over while squeezing a sponge out on your neck really did help keep my shoes from becoming overly waterlogged. Thanks!
OVERALL:
- This was my best IM to date. PR by over 10 minutes versus IMAZ in ’09. This bike course is much harder and has a lot more elevation change.
- While I did have my challenges (stripped cable, cars trying to kill me, unable to clip in, etc….) I stayed in my box.
- I think I earned the title of Apprentice EN Execution Ninja. Had I gotten closer to my desired IF on bike, I might have awarded myself the rank of Journeyman.
- I AM READY FOR KONA!
Gangsta Pictures ----
Regular pics --
Comments
Thoughts about your concern for the bike...is it possible that the terrain had more to do with the lower IF and TSS than your effort? Would it have been worth it to hammer more? You raved about the TIRP, do you think if you had pushed it harder on the bike then the heat-adjusted run would have been even tougher?
Run thoughts....Saw your letter regarding the Perform drink. That sucks. I'm sure that might have cost you some time. That was a strong effort to pull off on mostly just water.
I do think that was great execution. Although I cringe at the thought of myself doing 2 hot IM's in less than 2 months, I think you had a great day to practice what you'll be doing at Kona. That's pretty cool.
How are you feeling/recovering after such a good job of executing and holding back (since it wasn't the A Race)?
Welcome to world of Pissing on the Glide!
Good to meet you in Louisville, and best of luck at Kona!