Chris Oubre's Ironman Texas 2018 Race Report

By the numbers

This race was a 2:36:11 PR!!!  This was made possible by several people which I’d like to thank.  First and foremost is my wife Mia. We worked together to make space for my workouts to be possible.  She supported me when I was broken and was my biggest cheerleader. NExt on the shout out train is Coach Patrick.  His constant upbeat energy and triathlon wisdom have helped to motivate me to believe and achieve things I was sure were impossible.  The system he has laid out built me piece by piece while staying relatively injury free. Next I want to think all of my EN teammates.  Their matter of fact wisdom and eagerness to share have taught me so much. Lastly I must thank the developers of Zwift, Their application was the single biggest aid in building my bike fitness.

Race Day

Executive Summary

• No warm-up before the swim.

• Extreme heart rate spike in the first five minutes of the swim.

• Turning my gear bags backwards made them much easier to find.

• Fast bike loaded with massive peletons.

• Stomach issues started at hour 4 on the bike.  I suspect it was due too much salt.

• Ninja like execution of heart rate pacing on first six miles of the run enabled me to minimize slowing on the run.

• Power is good to help even out pacing through heart rate spikes.

No issues with race morning.  I enjoyed the cocoa pebbles, even though the hotel fridge completely froze the milk :-)  The host hotel was perfectly located and made race morning a breeze. One logistical issue

The Swim

Prologue

It is a rolling seeded start.  There is no warm-up water access available.  I was very chill and ultimately didn’t leave myself enough time to get a warm-up jog in.  I got in line with the 1:30-1:40 group and just jumped up and down a bit to try to get my HR up.  I was not panicked or stressed. Just focused.

Introduction

Right before I got in the water I realized my left goggle still had too much soap in it and was smudged.  When I got into the water I just hung out near the pier and washed out that goggle. I then pushed off and started to swim.  Because it was a seeded start I had lots of space to swim. Unfortunately my heart rate spiked and my breathing was coming in short gasps.  I just floated along in my wet suit and lightly kicked, waiting for my breathing to come back into control. I wasn’t able to put my head underwater for the first 200 yards.  Finally this calmed down and I was able to begin my swim. I estimate I spent at least 5’ not really doing much of anything.

The work

The time I spent practicing sighting really paid off.  I swam straighter than ever and was able to avoid most collisions.  Nobody swam over me! There are a few parts of this course where following the buoy line will cost you yards.  I was able to take the shortest path consistently in both the lake and the canal. At times I felt that I was taking so long.  I was sure that I wasn’t going to PR because of my bad start. That said I tried to stay focused on my swim form and counted strokes.  I used the tempo trainer to force me to be consistent. One twist to this swim...this was the first time I’d ever swam in my wetsuit without a tri top on.  And it turns out that neoprene and nipples do not get along. By the time I was 1000 yards in I already knew that I was bleeding and there was nothing that I could do about it.

T1

I was SO STOKED to see a 1:30.  I took my time and prepared for a long day.  On race morning I turned my bags backwards in the line.  This made my bag stand out as it was the only mostly white bag.  You see each bag was blue on one side and white on the other. I rubbed some shammy butter on my abused nipples and damn that stung.   I’d swam without a tri top thinking it would be easier to put on my heart rate strap and tri top if I wasn’t wet. Every time I swim with my HR strap on it just falls to my waist.  I stepped into my tri top, put the rest of my gear on and got a volunteer to pack my bag up.

The Bike

Average power = 178

VI = 1.04

The plan was to take it easy easy easy for 10’ and get my heart rate down to 135.  I nailed that and enjoyed watching people fly past me like they were shot out of a cannon.  I started eating 10’ per schedule and stuck with it. I really enjoyed this bike course. It was protected and smooth.  There was ~ 100 yards and really rough bumps then back to butter smooth.

There were no race marshals on the course.  So apparently that means cheating must be ok.  There were massive (30+) bike peletons. I tried to stay in my box and tell myself that they didn’t affect me, but I failed whenever the really big groups came by.  I got out of areo and gave the the pointy finger of blame and yelled “CHEATERS!” Then I got back and aero and said a quick prayer, “Lord, please make them feel shame. Amen”  Because of the massive drafting there was multiple terrible multi-bike wrecks. I head that 22 athletes ended up in the hospital because of bike wrecks.

About 2 hours in I had to pee.  I can pee while riding but I hate the way it makes my feet feel.  I tried moving my salt schedule up to help fight the urge to pee. I was taking a salt pill every 30’.  Eventually I just peed and dealt with it. I didn’t pee again until special need. There I stopped and got off my bike.  I ate my waffle and used the port-o-let.

One thing that I wasn’t able to do successfully was manage the water to Gatorade balance.  I ended up drinking more Gatorade than I planned. The Gatorade on the course was stronger than how I blend it at home.  The combination of low temperatures and stronger sports drink may have resulted in too much salt. Around the four hour mark my stomach was no longer happy.  I tried to up my water intake and stopped eating my chews. As a result I missed ~ one hour of chews. My pallette didn’t water Gatorade; however, the chews were just fine.  At the time I thought I had too much sugar in be but now I suspect it was to much salt.

To pace myself I let my watch auto lap every 5 miles.  This helped me understand if I was picking up or fading since this course is so flat.  I also kept an eye on IF for the first time in a race. This was really useful as it helped to average out the power peaks and valleys.

T2

Nothing fancy.  Just took my time and got lots of sunscreen.

The Run

My goal was to try and use power to pace the run.

I stayed on top of my heart rate and kept it to 142 which was the average the last part of my bike ride.  As a result my HR stayed nice and tight. I noticed that my power numbers were not going to happen. As the run unfolded I was able to find what the day’s power numbers would be.  This became useful as I used power to help pace me right after aid stations while I waited for my HR to come back up to speed. I told Mia to quiz my at mile 7 and to make me slow down if my heart rate was to high.  This was awesome as it gave me a goal with consequences. I wouldn’t be allowed to run harder if I failed to keep my HR down.

At mile 7 I saw my wife and started to pick up the pace.  As you can see from the graph above the direct result was I started taking longer and longer walks at the aid stations.

My stomach was still very crampy.  I didn’t feel bloated or nauseated.  I just felt sharp pains from my gut. As a result I switched to RedBull around mile 12,  much earlier than I’d placed. I made sure to drink 1-2 cups per aid station. I kept myself cool with ice and just ran.  I didn’t talk to people. I didn’t wave to the crowd. And I never EVER looked back. I was a machine here to execute. No emotion.

At mile 18 I forced myself to pick it up again.  Man I REALLY just wanted to walk and enjoy cup after cup of Coke.  I used my one thing and my pre-planned thoughts to fight this. The second loop was tough but the third loop just flew by as I knocked one mile down at a time.

Finally I took the turn for the finish.  In the daylight! I didn't sprint the finish because I wasn’t coming in close to an hour mark.  I hammed it up with the crowd, saw my wife and walked across the finish. It was done. I was an Ironman again and had executed an amazing race to an unbelievable sub-12 finish

Post Race

As soon as I stopped moving I was immediately nauseated to the point that I couldn’t talk.  Mia got me back to the hotel room where I then emptied my gut. As soon as I got out the RedBull and other fluids I felt instantly better.  To the point where I was able to chow down on french fries and pizza.