2012 Louisville Race Report/Year Summary
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What a amazing year this has been! My outseason began in November 2011 which prompted me to buy a IRONMAN in training 2012 shirt from Ironman.com. Louisville Ironman seemed so far away at that point. Thinking of ANYTHING in 2012 let alone August 26, 2012 just seemed hard to imagine ever coming. Not only did it come, but it now has past. This is my race report for Louisville 2012 and some of the events that led me to the race.
First I need to mention that this year was full of events that had already been planned, as well as some that I added later. My outseason was quite the awakening. I purchased a computrainer with the Louisville course included in October 2011. I got semi-involved with the EN forums (quite the lurker) but read everything I could on the race, racing with power, podcasts, and webinar's. In my excitement I bought a Zipp 101 set with powertap from wheelbuilder with racejacket fairly early on in the season. I was ready to kick in the 30-30's. Until I started to realize that Marathoning and Triathlon don't always mix.
I was racing the Boston Marathon 4/12 so I talked with Coach Patrick and modified my outseason training to allow for a good marathon. I was very happy with the improvement in my FTP. I had gone from 198 to 230 until I began my focus on Boston. Well most know that Boston was warm (87 degrees) and my time suffered by around 30 minutes slower than expected to a 3:39. I did not requalifiy so I planned a redemption race at the Cleveland Marathon the next month. It was also warm (80 degrees) but I ran better a time of 3:26 which was good enough to attempt to get in Boston 2013.
My bike training suffered and now had to refocus on triathlon. I had done a local YMCA sprint in May, Eagleman (91 degrees) in June, July I did a Olympic, and attended the EN training camp in Louisville with Coach Rich, then had Louisville in August.
WED/THURSDAY
My wife Audrey andI arrived in Louisville the Wed. before the race and stayed at the Galt House. Since I had done the Louisville camp (only 1 day due to work) I was familiar with the course, and the swim start area. I had rented race wheels with a powertap and got them put on Thursday at 0900 and then started the registration process. All went smoothly, the excitment was in the air. When Audrey came down later she was taken back at how I was so pumped up and just smiled as she knew this is what I had been training for since last November. The remainder of the day was getting Audrey familiar with the area.
FRIDAY
Friday was bike recon day with Roy and Terry. We did as Coach Rich suggested, we parked at the church and rode half of the out and back. Got back to our cars then drove to LaGrange and rode from there to the Marathon station on the upper edge of 42. That was it for triathlon that day. Audrey and I got away from Louisville and went to a mall about 10 miles away and earned some SAU's. Met the EN team with Coach Patrick for the Team dinner at the Old Spagetti Factory. I will be positng several team pictures in the near future. Great meeting the families and people in person. Then went to the mandatory meeting which was informative, but most everything was in the athele's guide.
SATURDAY
Saturday I slept in to 0800 (I know not as much as Coach Rich suggests) and did about 7-10 minutes of the practice swim. I am very glad I did. I discovered my goggles leaked terribly and took some adjusting to finally set them correctly. I also found out that the depth just prior to the steps as you leave the swim is still fairly deep and that I could not stand on ground until I actually had a foot anchored on the bottom step and my hand on the rail. Then it was time for the 4 keys talk with Coach Patrick. It was very well attended and as always informative. At 12:00, it was time to deliver my bike and run/bike bags to transition. Audrey had noticed that it was 12:10 and there was an amazing amount of people there already, she said you guy have until 5 PM right? I said yes but....lol.
RACE DAY Morning
Went to bed the night before around 9 PM and slept until 3:15am. Got up, ate my usual prep race breakfast (oatmeal, muscle milk, bagel with almond butter, cinnamon, and honey). Got my special needs bags together, let Audrey sleep and off to transition. Put my bottles on, check the tires, put on the Garmin computer and my Garmin GTU 10 tracker which I have velcroed to my storage box on the back of my Speed Concept. (The GARMIN GTU10 allows Audrey to follow me on the course and the run so she does not have to guess where I am, she can see me on the map on her IPAD or IPHONE in real time)
SWIM 1:19:01 2.46 miles per my garmin 910xt
Walked over to the swim start. I thought I would be fairly close to the front being that I was in transition at at 4:45 but noooooo, the line is no joke, it goes on forever. I was fortunate to have Jeremy allow me to crash with himin line and we looked for other EN and found Ian. He then joined us in line. We got in the was about 7:15. I got in the line that was closer to the first dock which was slightly longer (I had read that that line moved more quickly, which it did). Minimal contact on the swim, I did run into a guy using a snorkle (which I had heard that he did not finish the swim, I'm not sure). I have a history of calf/hamstring cramps in the pool and at the end of wet suit swims as I go from horizonal to vertical. I was hoping that my swimskin would be different. Nope. I had cramped in my left calf and quad badly, this happened under the first bridge. I stayed in control, swam on my back until it had improved. Took 3-5 minutes for the cramp to resolve. I thought OK I'm almost to the the swim exit, no worries. WRONG! This time, both quads AND calfs cramps within about 500 feet from the swim finish. I knew I was in trouble, I had nothing but pain in both legs, I could not move because it would cramp worse. I felt I was in trouble and called out "HELP". Thank goodness that a Kayaker was about 70 feet from me, she came over and I told her that I was cramping, NOT tired and she let me hold on to her oar and I worked the cramp out which took about 5 minutes. I told her I was OK (I wasn't) and let go, I cramped again and held on. After only about 2 more minutes the cramps ended and I was able to swim to the finish.
TIP- I wanted to pass along a tip which I found to be very helpful for the swim. I practice in the pool with a Finis swim metronome tucked under my cap. I have it set to 1:08 which allows me to stay focused on my stroke and keep pace. To me it's like a pacing tool like my garmin for the bike or run. As it clicks I count to the clicks in my head. I train with this device and used it for the race. I asked WTC they said no problem. As I was swimming, to me I was at home, comfortable, not rushing my stroke...keeping the pace I practice with. It put me in the zone. "Swim as fast as you can keep your form" per our Coaches. This worked like a charm.
T1 9:39
No real issues, I had no time goals for the race. I took my time and make sure I did not forget anything.
BIKE 112.43 miles 6:16:02
FTP 230
TSS 280.0
AVG Power 153 watts
NP 161
VI 1.05
IF 0.701
Started the bike with my gears 1-4 in site taped on the bike to remind me to follow the plan. It was not difficult to NOT follow what everyone else was doing. Everything the Coaches had taught was true, all of it was playing out all day long. People standing on the hills, coasting down hills (even small rollers). Going up the hills I stuck my nose on my power, took in nutrition and bombed down the hills. My max speed was 45 MPH, with a avg speed of 18 per my garmin 500. The temperature on the garmin ranged from a avg temp of 91.1 to 102.2(not sure about that one but was recorded on the garmin) as the day went on.
By now, everyone likely has heard that there were tacks on the course. I thankfully did not experience a flat but saw several. There was a auto accident just prior to LaGrange between two cars that had lost patience with the bikers. When I had reached the accident, there were police and well as the drivers using very colorful language at each other as the bike passed on the right. LaGrange was fun to ride through, I was expecting intersections with cars still trying to cut in front of the bikes but thankfully, this was not the case. No issues in LaGrange.
Nutrition, my downfall. I had 3 bottles mounted on the bike, I had filled them with Infinit and 1 packet of Gatorlytes in each bottle. I also had shot blocks and Bonk Breakers. I ended up eating 6 bonk breakers, 2 packs of Cliff shot blocks, all 3 bottles, then drank several bottles of Perform, along with water. Due to my nutrition, my run suffered.
Rookie mistake for sure, I did not stop for my bike special needs which had contained 2 more bottle of infinit/gatorlytes. Special needs came up on me so fast and within feet seemed to be behind me. I heard them call my number as I approached but no one was holding the bags, so I decided not to stop and then live off the course.
Overall, by the end of the ride(last 15 miles) I was passing many (who looked very tired)with miles 108-112 being over 20 mph with my last mile at 21.6. I felt I had paced the bike well and was ready to run.
T2 8:55
Nothing to report. Took my time, headed out of the tent and on to the run. I had applied sunscreen prior to the bike, I thought that was enough..nope. I should have had the volunteers apply more. Sunburn yep...
RUN 4:30:40
I am a marathoner, I've run 12 marathons over the last 3 years, 3 Bostons...etc.. I was looking forward to the run in the worst way. In the back of my mind was..."you feel like you rode too easy on the bike, prove it on the run." I was ready. My stomach was not. I started out at a stupid slow pace but started to feel sick to my stomach...I mean like, if I could only vomit, life would be good. I HATE to vomit but in this case I was looking forward to it. At one aid station a volunteer said I didn't look so good what can I do to help, I said if I could only vomit I would feel so much better. He replied, follow me and I'll help you throw up..... 
I said no thanks but thank you....I have no idea what he would have done to help but I kept moving. I just could not run without feeling sick. I felt terrible. I was thinking Coach Patrrick is at Mile 18 or around 8 or something, I will ask him for help when I see him, in the mean time, don't stop. Walk the aid station take in nutrtion and get back to my slow jog. Finally, I see Coach Patrick on the side of the road (at I think mile 8) and said to him " Coach Patrick I nailed my bike, I had a .70 IF but my stomach is going to explode. I've been vomiting and sick this whole run, what can I do?" The first thing he asked me was what did I eat. I went over my bike nutrition, and he said that I was taking in too much FAT!! Your GI tract has slowed and your body is rejecting what you ate. Turns out that Bonk Breakers have 9 grams of fat in each bar. He then told me to use the salt solution that I was carrying on my fuel belt (gatorlyte/water mix) into coke. I did that for every aid station after, it wasn't until around mile 20 until I started to feel better. I began to run, but by then I was unable to pick up the pace much. I started to put my marathoner hat on again and skipped the last 3 aid stations and ran my fasted 3 miles at the end of a Ironman.
Finish Line 12.24:17
OMG!! Kenneth Smith from Warren, Ohio, YOU ARE A IRONMAN! What an amazing feeling! My goal was to finish wanting to do another IRONMAN in the future and with a smile. I accomplished both. I enjoyed every minute despite the things that did not go as planned...but so many thing went right, thanks to the EN way of racing and training. The volunteers were laughing at how excited I was at the finish.
Finally.
I want to thank the EN members for all of there support since last October. Knowledgable, friendly, and I never felt embarassed to ask a question on the forums.
Coach Patrick, and Coach Rich words cannot express the graditude that I have have for you both. Class acts all the way.
Next up:
NYC Marathon 11/12
Boston 2013
Planning on my local Sprint and Olympic as last year.
Eagleman 2013
Lake Tahoe IM 9/13
Can't wait!!!
Comments
Ken...Congratualations...y...we have similar pedigrees (running) and pace/power...but you definitely executed better than I on the bike....
Great Read..Great Tips...Great Success...! congrats to you again.
Terry
Congratulations! Great to meet you and Audrey. Impressed with how you dealt with adversity on the swim and the run and you really nailed your bike. Great job! Look forward to racing with you in the future.
Ian
see you in Tahoe!!!!