IMFL 2009 RR by Jeff Braaten
Okay here goes.
This was my 3rd IM all of them in Florida. '05 in 12:11, '07 in 11:34, and now. My goal time was to go under 11 hours and hopefully a top 10 age group finish. I only got my green card into " The Nation" in October so I haven't really had any time to train as most of you have. I did get some great information from the forums leading up to the race and the 4 Keys talk was very helpful to formulate a race plan.
Before I get to the nitty gritty I wanted to say it was great to meet everyone at the team dinner and 4 keys talk. Its nice to be able to put a face with the online names. I really think this team concept is totally cool and glad to be a part of it.
My support crew of 8 family members and I arrived on Weds and checked into the Boardwalk pretty much at ground zero so we were close to everything. My main goals for the days leading up to the race were to get plenty of sleep, stay hydrated, and stay off my feet. No problem with any of these. On Friday I went down to rack my bike and found that in any position my bike was too tall for the bar and kept falling over onto the other bikes. I found an official and we decided to just lean my bike up against a tree. Problem solved. I had a big early dinner and in bed by 8pm. Pretty much slept like a rock but when I did wake I could hear waves I hadn't heard before. I checked the window and saw real surf. Uh oh!
Up a 4am with a breakfast of a Boost, PBJ, and a banana with peanut butter. Down to transition to drop off my Infinit and water to the bike as well as my second bottle of Infinit and a PBJ in my special needs bike bag. Got back to the room for a potty break and then down to the beach.
Swim goal time--1:10 I am usually behind the leaders on the swim but ahead of the middle of the pack. I started out wide right and seemed to catch a draft at the start. Unfortunately I was getting beat up pretty bad and aside from the usual bump or elbow I lost my goggles twice but was lucky to catch them before they floated away. The first turn was chaos and then then the waves started to kick up. I made the first loop in 35 min. oddly enough. The second loop was a different story. More open water but the waves were worse and I couldn't seem to swim straight no matter what. Swim time--1:19:28 Oh well it was done.
T2 Kind of a long run up the beach, They didn't find my bag so I did it for them and got changed and out on the bike in 7:55.
The bike was where I had real questions coming into this. I had been calculating my FTP by taking 95% of a 20 min. TT. This left me with a FTP of 260. Using Rich's calculator, the forums, and wishful thinking I decided to ride at a .75 IF with the first hour or so at 180 and the rest at 195NP. The numbers are below:
Entire workout (187 watts):
Duration: 5:17:36 (5:19:18)
Work: 3569 kJ
TSS: 359.2 (intensity factor 0.824)
Norm Power: 194
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: -1.51%
Pa:HR: -7.8%
Distance: 113.037 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 472 187 watts
Heart Rate: 99 138 130 bpm
Cadence: 1 253 124 rpm
Speed: 2.2 32.9 21.3 mph
Pace 1:49 26:49 2:49 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 1802 148 lb-in
The first 45 min. were 176 NP and the rest was 196NP for the averages above. The TSS seems a little high but I don't really know what all the numbers mean yet anyway. But it is what it is. Two hiccups on the bike. 1. At the halfway point they didn't have my special needs bag so I had to use the gatorade on the course with hammergels I had just in case. 2. I got penalized for not passing someone in the 20 second window, this was not intentional if it was true but it pissed me off in light of all the pelotons passing me all day. So 4 min. in the penalty tent at mile 70. Goal bike time was under 5:30---accomplished.
T2 uneventful and out on the run in 4:43 with a quick pee break included.
Run goal time was to go under 3:55. I had never heard of a VDOT until EN. I did two tests a month before and came up with a score of 47 which based on the chart on a good day I could go 3:54. Being an optomist everyday is a good day so I was going for it. Went out slow the first 6 miles at 9:20 per mile. Picked up the pace to 8:50-9:00 per mile for as long as I could but somewhere between mile 12-15 my " 1 thing " of a top 10 finish turned into just being able to make it to the next aid station for the 30 sec. walk break. Just like Coach P said, I was living for these little breaks. Making the first loop I had to chuckle because I saw a volunteer trying to hand me my special needs bike bag, so that's where that went. Waved it off and kept running. I didn't think the line would come to me so soon. I tried to stay focused and think about all the training over the last year, I wasn't going to walk!!! At mile 22 I realized if I could continue below a 10 min. per mile pace I could go under 11 so that was a great incentive. Final run time---4:06:45 9:26 per mile pace.
Stats Finish time 10:57:38 19/187 age group ( 50-54) 416/2424 overall 37 minute PR
Coming up the finish shoot and seeing my family cheer and hearing JEFF BRAATEN YOU ARE AN IRONMAN just gave me chills. Nothing is like that last quarter mile finish. After a shower and food we went out at 11pm to watch the last hours finishers. I have a lot of respect for them, it was a really long day for those folks. It was really cool, if you haven't done it before you should.
Really looking forward to the next year but resting now until January OS.
Feedback welcome....jeff
Comments
Great report. All I hear about IMF is the drafting and pelotons. Few folks from CDA went down last year and had pics, etc!! Looks like a good venue and good course to go fast.
All that aside you did very well. You are going to get "railed" by P about a TSS of 359 because guidance is normally for somewhere under 300, but apparently you are pretty strong runner. Though at 359 Training Stress Score (TSS) you ran a 4:06 and were planning on 3:54! One would argue that if you had ridden at 75 IF instead of 82.4 then you might have met your run goal. Reasoning is that riding 5 minutes slower on bike and hitting run goal would have resulted in 6 minutes less OVERALL time! Regardless, you crushed it pretty hard and met your goal of sub-11! Congrats!!
I can just give you my thoughts/experience. This year at IMCDA I rode at 72 IF and felt stoopid slow at some points, but it manifested in a 4:16 run and that got me sub 12 for first time. Also the first time I ever ran the whole marathon with no walking and there are some hills on the run!!
Great race and looking forward to seeing your next report and impressions of the OS!!
Jeff, congrats, that's a heck of a day. I think most folks here would tell you that you probably rode the bike too hot (TSS way in the red zone, and an IF of .82 is closer to a Half IM effort), but hard to say since you were using a different way of getting to your FTP number. Either way, solid performance on the bike, and very close to your "best day" run, sounds like a terrific day! Congrats!!!
Now, take some down time, and start studying up on all of the power metrics for the OS!
Mike
Jeff – Great race – Welcome to the House. God job dealing with the “opportunities” that the day presented and staying in your box.
On your WKO+ data , check what you have set as your FTP on that day. It looks like it is set at 235. I say this because your race NP of 194 / .824 IF = 235.
If your FTP is set to 260 in the software you get the following: Using your FTP as stated in the RR of 260, your IF for the race is 194 / 260 which = .746 That is right at the upper range suggested by the EN bike pacing strategy. Now with a .746 IF you get a TSS of 294. That is right where you would want to be, < 300. You hit the bike right on!!!
Matt
Congrats on the finish, great time. Top 10 is a tough goal because you just don't know who will show up. Let me recommend the power webinars, you have to buy them but if you have any type of commute, travel, time laying in bed etc they are probably the quickest way to start speaking the common language around here and shorten the learning curve on the training with power thing.
Entire workout (187 watts):
Duration: 5:17:36 (5:19:18)
Work: 3569 kJ
TSS: 293.4 (intensity factor 0.745)
Norm Power: 194
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: -1.51%
Pa:HR: -7.8%
Distance: 113.037 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 472 187 watts
Heart Rate: 99 138 130 bpm
Cadence: 1 253 124 rpm
Speed: 2.2 32.9 21.3 mph
Pace 1:49 26:49 2:49 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 1802 148 lb-in
I feel alot better about the information I have been reading since now this jives with what everyone has been saying. I added the run numbers just for fun since I just figured out how to copy from WKO.
Entire workout (129 bpm):
Duration: 4:04:52
Work: n/a
rTSS: 273.6 (0.765)
NGP: 9:13 (174.6 m/min)
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: 4.08%
Distance: 25.824 mi
Elevation Gain: 3337 ft
Elevation Loss: 3364 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-27 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 109 137 129 bpm
Speed: 0 14.6 6.3 mph
Pace 4:07 0:00 9:36 min/mi
Altitude: -28 153 30 ft
Dan, also thanks for the input. I just purchased the power webinar. I will review it this weekend at the Texas Tech-OU game after Tech goes up by 30.
awesome, it is solid stuff! I bet I've listened to them like 10x each....I'm an Iowa Hawkeye fan/alum. I couldn't do that we don't even start to play up until midway through the 3rd quarter.
Jeff,
Great job! That's a hell of a race. Congrats.
Dave
Aaaaaah, now that's much better!! Great race- congratulations!
Sul Ross, hhmmm. It can't be one of the major sports so I will guess Quail Hunting National Champions. Just kidding, any cowboy worth his spurs knows about Sul Ross. I will leave it up to the rest of the group to make a few guesses. You're not an alum are you?