RR Ironman Florida 2009

I put this in the Ironman Florida Group and on my facebook notes page so I apologize if you saw it there.
Readers digest version is I went 10:03:17 swam 1:04 bike 5:19 Ran 3:28
Had a great day a PR by 34 minutes and pretty much stuck to my race plan all day long.a

Ironman Florida 2009
Brittany and I arrived in PCB on Wednesday night for a Saturday race. Stayed at the summit condo complex which is now next to the finish line and about ½ mile to the transition area. I had shipped my bike via fedex the previous Monday and expected it to arrive Thursday. As far as pre race stuff, it was pretty laid back. We laid by the pool a fair amount and tried to mostly lay low. This was my fourth Ironman and third time in Florida. Panama City is a redneck sort of place but it is usually pretty warm, the ocean is nice and I’m more of a beach bum than a tourist on vacation so it suits me pretty well.
Race day conditions were pretty good. Not the best I’ve seen in Florida due to the wind and it was almost 80 degrees on race day. This was my third time doing Florida 2004 and 2007. I also did IMOO in the monsoon of 2006.
The swim was like it always is in the Ironman, a lot of people in the water at once. I didn’t go into the race with any real swim goals since it is such a small part of my day. I seeded myself pretty close to the front maybe two or three rows back which was about the right place to be. While I don’t mind some congestion in water it does slow you down. While I didn’t expect any big miracles on the swim, I was pretty surprised when I did my first loop in 29 minutes. So much so I slowed down a little too much and sort of lost some of my form and ended up off course being corrected by a guy in a kayak. Looking back, I should have not even looked at the time and just kept swimming instead of slowing down. Still beat my fastest IM swim by a few seconds.
T1 6:16
The transition setup had changed a little from previous years. We had to find our own bags, bikes, and do a fair amount of administrative running around the huge transition area so longer than I expected but it was long for everybody.
Bike 5:19:26 21 mph.
Goal 182 watts first 40 miles then 192 watts the rest of the course. Ironman Florida terrain as well as the smoothness of the pavement just doesn’t replicate well in central Iowa so I really didn’t have much of an idea how fast I would go, I figured 5:30 or maybe a little less. My functional threshold going into the race was 270 watts, I weigh about 172 lbs I'm 6 feet 2 inches tall. I’m certainly not off the charts strong on the bike. The weight thing was something I really tried to keep a good handle on all year 172 seems to be a pretty good race weight for me.
The bike course is a one loop affair with some small rollers on the back half. The first 42 miles were solid head wind. My plan was to average 182 watts for the first 40 miles of the bike. I ended up being averaging 186 for the first hour 191 for the second hour. I went a little hotter than my goals for the first two hours but definitely not enough to nuke myself. My normalized power for the rest of the ride came in at 191 watts so I rode within 1 watt of my goal. This is a huge confidence booster because I knew that if I kept my effort level low on the bike I could split a great run. This course lends itself to large draft packs forming, it is no surprise to be passed by a large group of 60 cyclists going 25 mph. I did manage to get swallowed by one of these groups in a tailwind for about 25 minutes, there was truly not a lot of place for me to go as there were easily 100 riders in this mess and I wanted out and finally managed to break out once we hit camp flowers road. The most scary part of my ride when was I passed AG World Champion Joe Bonness at mile 105, I rechecked all the data on my powertap just to make sure I wasn’t doing something massively stupid. Sure enough, he had some medical issues and ended up pulling out. All in all a solid bike here is the geek stuff
Entire workout (185 watts):
Duration: 5:21:13 (5:21:25)
Work: 3563 kJ
TSS: 264 (intensity factor 0.702)
Norm Power: 190
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: 1.14%
Pa:HR: -6.9%
Distance: 113.249 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 428 185 watts
Heart Rate: 122 158 148 bpm
Cadence: 38 239 98 rpm
Speed: 2.2 34.4 21.1 mph
Pace 1:45 26:49 2:50 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 740 160 lb-in

T2 4:27. Not much to say here, I do change from bike shorts to identical looking tri shorts (Desoto) I did manage to put my shorts on backwards otherwise it just takes a few minutes to get through the transition area because it is such a massive area.
Run goal 3:25 to 3:28 based on a vDot of 56
I knew I had the ability to run 3:2x if I could just be patient. I took another page out of the EN playbook and ran the first 6 miles at 8:15 pace. This felt crazy wicked slow like I was almost shuffling down Thomas drive. Put into proper context though an AG’er going at an 8:15 is far from going slow. Honestly without my garmin 305, I would have nuked my race in the first loop. I try to give out a lot of good Karma on the run, if I pass someone I usually tell them good job, or hell yeah you look strong or make a joke like when I passed an old couple with a dachshund and told them “Nice Weiner!” Most of my humor was just lost on the poor English speaking Europeans on the course. I try to smile, joke, and have a good time out there even if I’m suffering it makes it a little better if you give someone a “hell yeah” and they laugh. After the 6 mile mark I sped up to around 7:45 per mile.
I saw Greg C out on the course, somewhere around 17-19, I gave him a shout as well as several other EN folk since I didn't bring much of a crew down and didn't have any special gear on the run was a pretty lonely place the second lap did get a little better as more people got on the course. I did still manage to walk all the aid stations taking in some coke, water, broth, and grapes at the aid stations. The last 4 or so miles, I looked at the time of day and knew it would be pretty darn close to a sub 10 hr race, I also knew that if I started to run 7 minute miles it would have expressed itself as 3 miles at a 7 minute pace followed by 3 miles at a 16 minute walking pace. I stood down a little and dropped my pace down just a few seconds, peed for the first time all race and managed my effort vs implode. I have no clue how many people I passed on the run, I don't recall being passed at all...though it very well could have happened. I'm much better off if I just stay in my little box and have some fun. Running down the finishers chute (without another racer in sight) reminds me why I spend the time staring at my powertap, banging out 3000 yard swims at 5 AM before work, and on long runs with Ferris (my Rhodesian Ridgeback).

Thanks to my loving wife Brittany who travels with me to all Ironman races, those who trained with me and those who watched online.
Here is the geek stuff for the run, it is a little messed up because of the auto lap and auto start stop

Entire workout (148 bpm):
Duration: 3:27:57 (3:38:01)
Work: n/a
rTSS: 239.8 (0.779)
NGP: 7:32 (213.6 m/min)
VI: n/a
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: 0.19%
Distance: 26.09 mi
Elevation Gain: 4408 ft
Elevation Loss: 4348 ft
Grade: 0.0 % (60 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 102 159 148 bpm
Speed: 0:37 0:00 7:59 min/mi
Altitude: -178 95 7 ft