LATE LATE IM FL REPORT
Dunno why I never got around to filing the report. The more I read them, the more value I see in them. Anyway, here's my belated IMFL report.
55 year, 177 pounds, 6'1....Vdot 43, FTP 234 at race time
FIRST IRONMAN
PRIOR: two HIM, including FL 70.3 in May
24 hours before: followed advice and had larger lunch, light dinner. Hydrated well day before. Up at 2 am to slam 2 protein Naked down, then up at 5 to choke down about 1/2 of the green one.
SWIM: lined up a few back, a few to the right of buoy line. Knew this was optimistic. Never had done a mass start before. Hoped to do1:10-1:15. Enjoyed the expected washing machine first leg. Settled into a good stroke, though. Great view in the clear water, white sand. Visited with a few jellyfish and saw a stingray at the bottom. The clock read 1:16+ on exit which was OK with me. Only later did I find out it was set for the pros, and my time was 10 minutes shorter. Woohoo! Something like 5th out of the water in my AG.
T1: It was then I realized that I had lost my left contact lens in the spin cycle, apparently. The changing tent went well. I kept the trishorts and EN top on and just put a riding long sleeve top on. I get cold. I'm from Florida...
Although I had a spare lens in my Bento box, I never did take the time to put it in. My vision is bad enough that without the lens my eye just shuts down and doesn't confuse. Not great depth perception of course. OK, I should have stopped to put it in.
BIKE: I had hoped to be stronger on the bike, but I worked with what I had. I decided to follow the EN plan to a T. I just kept my watts in the suggested range. Never even looked at the MPH. Tried to keep my cadence up, as I have a habit of pedaling to slow. I had projected to do 6 hours, and did exactly that.
Nutrition on the bike, in hindsight was my major problem. I took in a water bottle every aid station and did well with that. I had to stop 4-5 times to pee. Still haven't mastered peeing on the bike, dang it. It's a training goal for 2012. But I had loaded up concentrated Inifinit with the plan to take a swig every 4 miles or so, and I did a bad job of it. I refilled the Speedfil at SN, and didn't really look, but at the end of the 112 I estimated I took in less than 1/2 of planned calories.
T2: smooth transition. Peed there and in retrospect, not again for the day...
RUN: I planned to follow the EN plan here as well, and indeed added :30/mi for the first 6 over my projected pace. Unfortunately, around mile 9, my legs started giving out. I realized I had messed up nutrition somewhere along the way. I tried in vain to take in gels, coke, bananas, but found myself walking longer at each aid station, very disappointed in my performance.
At about mile 19, my teammate Tim passed me in the park encouraging (OK chiding or shaming me) into moving and I got motivated to try to keep up. Although he ran well ahead, I was able to keep moving, mostly by will not muscle. About 3/4 mile from the finish, another bloke ran by hitting my on the shoulder and said: "HEY, 9 minutes to sub 12, we can MAKE it!"
I had no idea of the clock time at all, and this spurred me to run the fastest pace of the day. I finished with about 41 sec to spare.
FINAL TIMES:
SWIM 1:06:43 BIKE 6:00:41 RUN 4:39:53 TOTAL 11:59:21
AFTER: elated, wobbly. Had to walk down a mile down the road to the hotel. Didn't sleep all night. 9 hour drive home the next day. (THAT was stupid...)
LESSONS LEARNED:
1. Need more OS prep (joined EN to late last year, in JAN OS now)
2. Need better execution in the nutrition department. Had similar problems in Race Rehearsals. I need to make this part of my practice rides every time, and develop more automatic feeding habits.
3, IMs are HARD! But a lot of positive feedback for finisihing one.
4. I want to do better...got to do another in 2012...signed up for IMKY! Need more bike and run fitness first, though.
Thanks to all in the haus for getting me through my first one
Comments
A note: I went 5:35 on the bike at Florida with the same FTP. Time to get better at the aero game?