Josh Church IMChoo 2017 Race Report
Race Report IMChoo 2017
· Age 29 (raced 30-34)
· Weight 148 race morning
· VDOT 48
· FTP 251
Going into this race I had put a good bit of time into reviewing last years race data and how I executed the race. Comparing that with my race rehearsals and long bike/run workouts I had an idea of what I was capable of. With that said, I really felt like I hadn’t improved from a pace and speed standpoint. My long runs were similar to 2016, and my RR rides were along the same lines. My run durability was much better and I was very consistent in my build. Now at the end of the tunnel, I can say NONE of that defined my race. On the eve of race day I was a smarter and very prepared athlete. Lets get to the race.
IM Racing History
|
|
IMTX 2016 |
IMChoo 2016 |
IMChoo 2017 |
|
Swim |
1:23:47 |
59:53 |
53:17 |
|
T1 |
4:42 |
3:46 |
3:20 |
|
Bike |
4:34:48* |
5:50:30 |
5:39:45 |
|
T2 |
6:58 |
2:39 |
2:01 |
|
Run |
4:25:39 |
4:33:22 |
4:01:17 |
|
Overall |
10:35:54 |
11:30:10 |
10:39:40 15/149 |
*IMTX bike 96 miles
Leading up to IMChoo:
2016-2017 was my first OutSeason and first time training with power. It took some time but I got a handle on understanding the numbers and in turn be able to race using them to set my run up. I was a more consistent runner in 2017, usually running 6 days a week and I had 13 weeks averaging 25-34 miles leading up to taper. The major change I made was my pace. I usually ran into injuries if I attempted much intensity. So I was comfortable and safe running around my TRP/TRP+20sec. I truly believe this was the only way I could hold weekly volume and I became very confident in my run durability. I also ran almost no hills, something I hope to change for 2018.
Day Before Race
Slept
till 715, crushed a massive amount of pancakes at The Blue Plate. Needless to
say I was carb loading just fine. Had
some pasta and chicken for lunch and dinner, smaller potions of course.
Bike drop off went without a hitch, long line though. I did go just a bit too early but the line moved quick. Headed back to the room for some Air Relax, movies and race plan review. Asleep by 830-9.
Race Morning
Up at 330- 2 cups Apple Sauce, Naked Smoothie, Banana and Gatorade down the hatch. Got En kit on and headed to T1. Again I was there early so I had to stand in line for about 10 mins before it opened at 430. Oh well no rush. Got all the admin stuff taken care of in transition. Then they announced no wetsuit on the swim, water temp 77.?? I was very happy with that, more people starting behind me, less in front. That was the entire reason I was there early, so the bike course would be less crowded. And it paid off, early in the swim line, less people in front. Except Brian Terwilliger, somehow snuck up to the front and beat me in the water.
Swim- 34th 53:17
Nothing special here. Jumped in warm water. Counted strokes, sighted every 15-20 strokes, followed the buoy line pretty tight. Felt very comfortable never swam outside of myself and started catching people near the island. Passing more under the bridges and had a pretty clean and clear swim exit up the stairs. Mike Roberts said I was capable of a 53 min swim with the current, well guess what, 53 it was. Good call MR.
T1
I always try to be the fastest in transition. With a 3:20 I was 4th in my AG, beat by 33 seconds for 1st. Not really sure how he did it except run faster. Maybe his bike was near the exit and he ran faster without it??? Awesome flying mount always fun and always sketchy.lol. Photo credit @Mariah Bridges
Bike- 27th 5:39:45
Like my normal T1 fashion my HR was 170, just like last year, getting on the bike. Too my time in an easy gear, got my feet in the shoes. Deep slow breaths, soft pedal till my HR came down to 130s. My plan was to hold 167 for the first bit then target 173-175 the rest of the day. There are lots on little ups and downs on the course so I was not super steady, I let the watts trend down if my speed was up and kept watts steady when I could. I felt great all day really. At mile 80 I took a double espresso cliff gel and it was money! It kept me focused all the way back into town.
Nutrition wise I finally nailed it and had no issues or hunger at all. My first 2 hrs of infinit and 1 salt pill was gone in the first hour, bonus points for getting calories in early. After that it was roughly 1.5 of GE, a cliff shot and 1 salt pill per hour. Water as I desired and lots of peeing on the bike!
Feeling so strong from the Hog jowl turn around into Chickamauga, and continuing that into town gave me confidence that I was disciplined and didn’t over cook the bike. In the end I came out with an IF .64, NP 161, TSS 234, Avg. HR 139. Oh forgot to stop the garmin, thankfully auto pause kicked in until the unit died.
Here is a link to TP and Garmin hopefully one of them works.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1997074515
Bike Special need, Chickamauga
T2
Killer fast dismount, remember I do my best to always be the fastest, volunteers didn’t great at bike catch and I was off running to my run bag. Helmet unbuckled, grabbed bag, go bag in mouth, shoes out of bag, helmet in bag all while running to my chair. Sat for a few seconds socks on shoes on and tight. Out the door, unfortunately I turned right instead of left out of the tent and it cost me my fastest in age group T2 by 1 sec, 2:01. On to the run!
Run 15th 4:01:17
Managed my go bag stuff for the first bit. I felt like I had a ton of crap and my pockets were full of gels from the bike. So I had to take stock of what I needed and discarded the rest. In the mean time HR was ok, 138-140. I walked a few seconds to help HR stay down on the initial hill out of T2. Before I knew it I was in front of Mariah trying to stash junk in my jersey so I could throw a gang sign. Priorities yo, gotta throw the gang sign!
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1997075805
Yes I was side stepping and yes that is my go bag stashed in the back of my jersey.
After this awkward picture, I got straight to business. Did my best to jog slow and keep my HR down. It was actually riding higher than I wanted, first 3 miles HR avg was 141, I would have liked to see 138-140. It was slightly warm but a passing cloud every now and then would provide a few minutes of nice shade. I managed my first 6 miles at 9:37 and HR avg 140. I was trying to play defense and save some heart beats for the hills. My first trip up and down Barton Ave. I managed a 9:19 pace with my HR peaking as planned at 156, then I let it drop on the down hill to 137. I continued up towards the right turn into the neighborhood, this slight up hill was actually harder on me than I imagined it would be. The neighborhood/golf course is what it is, I focused on taking advantage of any downhills and staying stead on the up hills and flats, not many flats though. Coming back to the backside of Barton I avg. 9:20 up/down and HR peaked at 158 and fell to 137 on the downhill again.
Finally out of the hell hole/hills of the north shore, I started my second lap. The two hills that you hit out of T2 are alittle tougher the second time, no shade and the sun was blazing. The course is now crowded with walkers just off the bike or 2nd lap people not running anymore. They like to form lines and take up the entire blocked off lane we are supposed to run on. I had to run around and yelled ahead a couple times to make some room. I was able to keep my pace a little faster avg 9:17 for the mostly flat 7 miles of my second lap. At this point I did not make a decision to “run faster” I was just trying to keep moving a steady pace with my HR floating between 144-150.
There is a .3 mile wall around mile 8 right before heading over the bridge to the hills. This short hill is tough on the second lap I walked 20 long stride steps after my run slowed to a stupid wiggle.lol. Got running again and saw my wife ahead, I think she hangs out on this hill so she can tell me to stop walking. Anyways, she told me to run 9:00 miles per Coach P. So from mile 20.5ish to the end I was racing. I knew I could hold 9 on the bridge but the up Barton and through the neighborhood would be tough. Here is a breakdown to the finish line:
Bridge to Barton- 8:28
Up and Down Barton- 9:11
Neighborhood/golf course- 8:59
Back of Barton up/down- 8:56
Walking Bridge to Finish 8:10
This was a tough push avg HR was 158 during these last 5-6 miles. At the time I didn’t know if I was capable of pushing the hills but I just went for it. Overall I was less conservative on this run and I let my HR ride a few beats higher than I had raced at before. I learned a lot from this run about myself and what my HR and RPE is capable of.
I did manage to negative split the marathon, not on purpose at all. I just put into practice the EN tactics at the start, stayed steady in the middle and pushed what I could for the last bit. I had no idea what my time was. I couldn’t remember what my bike Garmin said and the only thing I looked at on the run was HR and pace. I saw my wife in the finishers shoot and asked her what my time was 10:39:40!!! WHAT?? I was looking to go 11 hrs and anything in the 10’s meant it was a very good day. It turned out to be an unbelievable day for me. I didn’t think I was capable of much below a wishful 10:50:00, but I didn’t let that hinder me, I just executed and raced when I could. It was probably good that I didn’t know my time so it didn’t effect my mindset. I like the finish line surprise too. I am most grateful for this beautiful young lady. My wife is always supportive and encouraging. I love that she seems to enjoy the race as much as I do and she was so excited to tell me my finishing time when I asked her.
With another IM in the books, I find myself looking and planning for 2018. And oh yea, you can catch me at IMChoo 2018!! Im really looking forward to the OutSeason then Blue Ridge Camp. Thanks for helping me along my 2017 journey team.
Comments
Congrats again on a killer race. The result is what I expected. You felt like you hadn't gotten any faster since 2016, but IM is rarely about raw speed. It's the ability to hold form, move forward at medium speed, and never slow down. Your consistent work over the entire year gave you the fitness to not slow down. And, of course, execution. Your execution was spot-on. Did what you had to do in the swim, stole the available free time in transitions, and rode and ran per plan.
Already looking forward to Choo next year. Your swim is solid, but there are always technical skills that can be improved. From an FOP race perspective, you under-cooked the bike a bit. I plugged in your 161NP into BBS and added 5lbs to equalize our weights, and it said I would ride 5:43. So, pretty close to what you actually did. Which is good - means your rode efficiently. When I changed it to the 180NP I would like to ride on the low end, it spat out a 5:17. Big difference. And at the 185NP I would prefer to ride, it's sub-5:15. A sub-50 swim and a 5:15~ bike puts you near the front of many, if not most, male AGs existing T2. So . . . keep working to build that w/kg up to 3.75 or so next year and your 5hr power into the 170s and maybe 180. As for the run, your 4-hr effort is probably about best-case for a 48 vDOT on that course, in that heat. Pretty close to perfection. You should feel very, very proud about that achievement. If you can raise your long-course (i.e., HM) vDOT up to 49 or even 50, you can move into the 3:50s and even 3:40s and really play at the pointy end.
Congrats again.
MR
I have been thinking about my swim, And I know we don't swim in the Outseason but I thought about doing one 2100 yd swim a week just to keep some muscle memory. I felt like it took the entire two weeks of swimcamp to get just a small amount of strength back. I am going to get a wetronome also. Get my best cadence down with it and work on turn over. I probably need to check out the swim ebook again.
It has already went through my head about riding higher watts. I will be working hard to get my ftp up and hopefully 5 hr power also. I don't think I can race any lower than 146-148lbs which is what I did this year, so from that standpoint its all about getting stronger. Is there a correlation at all with an increase in FTP thus an increase in 5 hr power? I think I am also guilty of not pushing my long rides hard enough during training. I need to focus on staying put on watts and not backing off just because im holding ok speed.
Yes I feel very fortunate to pull off the run I did on race day. I think the en calculator best estimation was 345 or 3:50 on a good day. On the other side of my running issues, I would guess I have some weak glutes and hips, which flare up my IT band, so I would like to incorporate some strength exercises but not so much I hinder my running. Ill talk to coach P about it also, there has to be a way to balance this or just improve my running form somehow.
Thanks Mike I always enjoy reading everyones responses and critiques, its how I keep evolving as an athlete.
The bike looks really good; steady power throughout; position looks good from the photos. Agree you could have pushed it a bit harder given a 234 TSS. But getting the perfect power number on race day is IMO the hardest part of racing an IM; too much and you're cooked; not enough and you give up huge chunks of time
The negative split run on that hilly course was impressive! How did the heat affect you? Judging from how your heart rate came back down when it should have suggests you did fine
Two considerations for your running: 1) can you push a higher heart rate for a longer period, perhaps more time in the 150's or getting to 150 sooner; 2) should you increase your stride rate - those early miles in the mid-160s could have an inefficiency cost - the later miles were in the 175 range and that seems like a better rate. Experiment with 180+ this OS and see how that feels
You are very disciplined and do a great job riding and running within your abilities. As you gain more experience and get stronger (and get over your nagging run injuries) you'll be on the podium in no time. Well done!
thanks paul I have a lot of work ahead of me this OS and I'm going to do better when preparing next year at holding more respectable watts.
thanks for the running considerations. That course, for me, is such a battle to ride the line. I think this year gave me more confidence and knowledge about here to strategically put effort out and where to relax but keep a steady pace to take advantage of the terrain.
To me the heat was not that bad, it slowed me down more than I wanted the first 6 miles but I was able to do a little work after that. I didn't really well with getting in fluids and gels the first 6. But like you know I crushed tons of fluid on the bike that set my run up well also.
@Derrek Sanks
thanks D, pumped for your IMLou venture come up. I wanna see some of that run magic!
I was the one sitting next to you with those massive pancakes! LOL. Great race report.
The other element which will support desired improvement is taking your already ninja-like run execution skills (not many folks negative split an IM marathon) is learning how to replicate them while working harder and harder as the run goes by.
Great results, work hard during the OS to get your numbers higher, in one year you almost cut down an hour which is a huge improvment.