A foolish consistency

Race Report: Grand Columbian Half-Iron Distance 2013

A few weeks ago on September 21st, I participated in this half-Iron distance race as a training race leading up to Ironman Arizona.

The race is ran by a small Kirkland company (TriFreaks) and having only 60 or so competitors was quite different than the thousands in the other four Ironman-branded half-Iron races I've done.  This gives a far more intimate and personal feel to packet pickup, setting up T1 and T2, etc.

The swim and T2 is in Lake Roosevelt at a campground swim area.  It's a triangle that first parallels the shore, then heads out and comes back to the starting point.  The buoys are held by a underwater guidewire that you can see and swim along.  I was very pleased the water was in the upper 60s and calm.  Unfortunately my goggles kept leaking and futzing to fix them a few times blasted my heart rate up so I had to float a moment to calm down - end result was a 45 minute swim instead of the 36-38 I wanted.

The bike course starts with a mile or so 8% climb out of the park to the road, then a slightly downhill section for a mile or so, then a four mile 6-10% climb to the top of the plateau.  That was fairly epic especially with a constant 15mph headwind.  The view of the dam and the canyon was made the climb worthwhile.  Then we spend the next 40 miles with rollers, some of them fairly large, through the wheat and rye and corn fields.  The wind was constant.  There were only a few aid stations on the course but enough; my wife volunteered at one of them.  Often I could see only a one or two competitors ahead of me, and at one point on a long stretch I could see no one ahead or behind me for miles. I finished the bike in 3:42 and I'm pretty happy with that given the climb and the rollers and the wind.

T2 and the run start are at the base of the dam, which is really quite cool.  The first two miles of the run include a climb across a bridge to the other side of the river leading from the dam, then a 4% or so downhill to the a gravel road next to the river.  Then it's just an out and back on the flat gravel road.  I ran like the usual running machine I am, at an average HR of 170 to 174, and finished the run in 2:10.  I'm OK with that too. 

6:37:24 overall time, which is my slowest HIM but this race was tougher than Lake Stevens or Boise.  The course is a lot like the older Boise course BTW, although the swim is much warmer.

Theresa came along and volunteered and she said she had a great deal of fun.  She manned the first aid station on the bike.  She found what I explained to her beforehand to be true - the first bike aid station is special. Either it's skipped because the participant is well stocked, or it's a "thank god you're here" moment because the participant dropped their food, or forgot something they need, or some such.  She told me she experienced a lot of both.

Restarting my blog and blogging amnesty

It's been a long while since I posted anything new here.  Like many bloggers, once you get behind it's hard to get "caught up" if you get caught behind the "everything must be in chronological order" attitude.  So I'm granting myself amnesty for my non-blogging period, and add things as it strikes me to do so.

Ironman Canada 2009 Race Report

I arrived in Penticton on Wednesday, which gave me plenty of time to have a relaxed lead-up to the race on Sunday. Mostly I hung out with my family (Theresa, Lana, and Danny our Corgi) and relaxed. The perfectionist in me wants to churn over goals and times and all the rest in minute detail, but after four Ironmans I’m pretty much over getting too worked up beforehand.  Like I told Mark “TheFog” Moody at the race expo, I do these for fun and I try to keep it that way.

I checked in early Thursday (20 minute wait) and poked around the Expo for a while, then we walked Main Street.  We made some dinner reservations, poked in some shops, and had iced coffee at the Bellevue Cafe.  Then we returned to the hotel to relax before the team dinner at the Lakeshore Resort.  We had a pleasant evening of conversation at the team dinner, sitting with Mark, Logan and Shannon, and Eve and Kevin.  I enjoyed the “go around the room introducing yourself” part; there were 16 of us in the race and I actually didn’t know everyone.

Friday morning I was up early for a swim in the lake with JFT2 friends.  The water was warm for the 20 minute swim.  I like the atmosphere in Penticton at IMC – lots of nervous energy in the air but most people are fairly relaxed.  And Danny (now 3 years old) enjoyed playing in the sand and getting petted by everyone young and old.

I rode the bike course with a few JFTers (Rachel, Jess, Steve, Anne, and sorry I think I missed one or two of you) Friday afternoon and it was beautiful.  Perfect weather, good company, good pace.  Rides like that are why I like being a part of the JFT2 team. 

Saturday was about cleaning my bike, putting my bags together, dropping things off, and staying relaxed.  We downtown for a while and had lunch at the lakeside restaurant (the Barking Parrot).  I had a massage while Theresa and Lana walked downtown, then later in the afternoon I enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool with Lana. In the evening I built my race plan. My nutrition plan was the same plan I’ve used in the past – CarboPro mixed with Gatorade Endurance, electrolyte capsules (Thermolytes instead of Saltstick), a GU gel one per hour, and on-course GE and water.  I switch to cola on the run and mostly skip the Gatorade. Late in the evening I figured out my goal times based on past performance as a 1:25 swim, 6:25 to 6:50 bike, and a 4:20 to 4:40 run plus average transition times. This gave a target time range of 12:21 (all three are great) to 13:10 (all three are average).  I decided to be happy with anything sub 13 hours.

Race morning was peaceful.  I had slept well and was up at 4:45am for my morning shower and coffee, got dressed, and we left the hotel at 5:45.  Staying at the Super 8 on Main Street meant that was closed on race day, so we went the back way via Government Street (as per prior planning) and it was super easy.  Once at the race start I dropped off my special needs bags, put my nutrition and electronics on my bike, and was ready to go.

Swim- 1:21

I seeded myself on the far left because I didn’t want to get kicked around too much in the swim like last year.  I saw Michael, Jill & JFTer’s (way cool!), talked briefly to Mark, and boom the cannon was off and I was wading out. It seemed like a long time I was wading, and soon after starting swimming I was getting hit around pretty good. There was one guy who kept head butting my side, and then in the span of 30 seconds I had been head butted from the right, slapped in the face from the left, my ankles grabbed from behind, then my right arm hooked and my head dunked while breathing so I choked badly. I had a panic reaction right then – I was incredibly hot, I couldn’t get any air, and a little devil in my head screamed “GET OUT NOW”! Taking a DNF even crossed my mind but that was so WTF it snapped me back to reality so I just treaded water for a bit and did a couple backstrokes to get going, then back to a crawl stroke. After that I found some good drafts, rounded the turns well, and turned in my second fastest IM swim. I was pleased overall, but I would have had my fastest IM swim without that 3 minute panic attack. Grrr. It was cool seeing Kevin Christian in the transition – we got out of the water about the same time.

Bike – 6:52

My plan here was patience, go easy, and kick it in at the out-and-back. I felt smooth and steady, and kept an easy low-wattage pace to Richter. That climb was uneventful, and it was great seeing all the JFTers – Jeff, Anna, Rachel, Judith – and the JFT support van folks waved out the window. The descents and rollers were uneventful, and then I started hitting it harder leading up to special needs. One problem was that they didn’t have Gatorade Endurance on the bike – they had regular Gatorade which I find sickly sweet and I hate hate hate Orange. I was drinking more on-course water than Gatorade but otherwise following my usual nutrition plan of a fuel bottle per 90 minutes (two scoops CarboPro, two scoops GE), and taking two Thermolytes per hour, and the occasional gel.

The ride was steady and my plan was going well.  I saw Anna, Rachel, Jeff, James and I think one or two other JFTers.  On the climb up Yellow Pass I started to get nauseated – pretty sudden onset. I stopped at the top of the descent to retch, but managed to bring up only a little and only felt a little better.  Yuck.  Time wasted, and I still felt crappy and sloshy inside. A nearby medic came over to check on me, and his advice was that my stomach had stopped processing fluids due to sodium depletion, and I needed to get salt in by sucking on pretzels or the like – no fluids, no food in my stomach because that would make it worse. He pointed out I was covered with salt residue from sweating which hasn’t happened before. I told him my nutrition plan, and he said in his 10-Ironman-finisher experience that I was overhydrating and under-electrolyting, which seemed reasonable.

Anyway, I started riding again and pushed it fairly hard but I didn’t feel strong and was still nauseated. My 6:52 was just past my upper goal so I’m still pleased with that. In T2 I needed to pee, and I noticed it was medium brown in color – meaning I was in ketosis (burning all fat, no carbs) and pretty much “bonking”.

Run – 4:30

My run plan was an under-10 minute pace to meet or beat 4:20. No walking except the steepest parts, determined by a low pace and a rapidly rising heart rate. The first few miles flew by at around 9:45 per mile, and I was feeling better so I was hydrating a bit with crushed ice, a little cola, and some water, and sucking on pretzels for the salt. Each time I had fluids I felt worse for two or three minutes, then it would pass. If it lasted longer, I’d reduce the next fluid intake, if it was short I’d increase.  I probably had 20-30 ounces of fluid in three hours – less than half of what I would normally have in that heat.

The out and back nature of the run lets you see a lot of people you know.  I saw a number of JFTers.  Mark was going the other way running strong and waved hi as I was going up an incline, and Shannon was right behind him (it must have been just after he passed her). I saw Kevin, James, Jeff, John, Judith, and Rachel all running their race.  We all exchanged “Go JFT” and “looking goods” and had fun.

Pace-wise, I hit 6 miles at 0:57, then 12 miles at 1:57 (meaning my pace was dropping slightly), then was quite surprised to hit mile 18 at 3:08 – way off the pace. Looking at the my GPS data now, you can see that the combo of low energy and walking the steep part of the hills hurt my pace badly: mile 14 – 17 were 10:25, 14:17, 11:27, and 13:12.

Right then I decided to go for it – eat a gel, down two colas, and kick it as hard as I could. I’d either completely blow up, or make my time goal.  Thankfully it worked– soon enough I felt much stronger and my pace returned to the upper 9s.

All through the run I kept thinking I was going to come right down to the wire for a sub 13:00 finish.  At mile 18’s 3:08 I thought I’d probably miss it by 3 or 4 minutes – probably too much to make up in only 6 miles but I had to try.  I didn’t know really what time it was in relation to the race start.  While I had my Garmin, I had not synchronized it to the race clock and I only wore it during the run.  At least I could make this my “2nd fastest Ironman” which means beat 13:08.  Around mile 22 I was feeling good and felt that was close enough in that I could “bring it!” to make the finish line and poured it on.  I was passing many runners as I ran up Main Street in the low 8s.  It was great to hear the cheering and “looking great” etc from the fans. One of the best things about IMC is the incredible fan support.  I always make a point of giving high fives to every kid with their hand outstretched, even if I have to slow down (or even bend down) to get them all.  I high fived more than a dozen kids in those last few miles.

Before long I was running past the cheers of my fellow JFTer’s on Lakeshore Drive, grabbing a drink at the last aid station and making the last turnaround to run past them again.  That’s when I was stunned by Jill yelling “you can still make 13!”  Thanks so much Jill for saying that, because although I thought I was running as fast could, I dug deep and found a little bit more. 

I could hear the announcer Steve King saying something like “Let’s cheer everyone in for a 13 hour finish – 2 minutes to go!”  All I could do was run toward the finish line as hard as I could hearing him count down “90 seconds to go”, “less than a minute to go”, then “30 seconds”.  I passed three or four runners and the crowd was really cheering but I could barely hear them over the sound of my hammering breath and pounding feet.  My Garmin says I did the last quarter mile at a 6:57 pace with an average HR of 189 and a peak of 197, which must have been right as I entered the finish chute and knew I had made it.

I ran the last few yards with my arms overhead in victory, and broke the tape at 12:59:46, falling onto the catcher on the other side.  She got me standing and walking and I saw my fellow JFTer John Marquis just a moment later and screamed “I made it!”  I knew he was a finish line volunteer and I was so happy he stuck around after his shift was over.  Thanks John!   I also saw Theresa and Lana on the other side of the barricade and I was so happy that they had seen my “big finish”. 

John and another volunteer helped me walk around, and I wanted to talk to medical about my ketosis problem.  I got their advice to get some chicken broth in me, and get fluids starting but to sip constantly rather than gulp in large amounts.  The volunteer brought me some broth and we chatted for a while, mostly me prattling on about how my race went.  The broth was incredibly good (meaning I really needed the salt) and I was also sipping a water bottle, and within a few minutes I felt good enough to make my way over the pre-arranged meeting spot where Theresa, Lana and Danny waited.

I had a dramatic and fun finish to an overall strong performance and a good day of racing.  I realize that 14 seconds doesn’t matter in the scheme of things, but I really wanted to make 13 hours because that was my goal and it was a realistic goal.  The only thing standing between me and a sub 13 was me and how hard I could run.  I wanted Ironman Canada 2009 to be a repudiation of my poor performance last year, and it was.  I was more than an hour faster, but more significantly my determination and racing spirit never wavered this year.  Even when I thought I’d missed the 13:00 goal, I just set a new goal (sub 13:08) and strived to make that.  Yeah, you could say I’m pretty pleased with myself.  :-)

 

Race Report – 2009 Ironman Boise 70.3

Theresa, Danny (our Corgi, of course) spent the weekend before last in Boise for the 2009 Ironman Boise 70.3.  A “70.3” is the WTC branded name for a half-Ironman, so it’s a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 run.   I’ll have a separate post on the trip itself.

So, straight to the results: 5:46:47, 575/1186 overall, 90/170 in M40-44

• Swim: 46:21, 712th place overall, 105/170 age group
• Bike: 3:01:02, 547th place overall, 84/170 age group
• Run: 2:00:21, 565th place overall, 90/170 age group

I’m very pleased with those results.  I had “no excuses needed” race in all three events, and despite stormy weather on the bike I delivered my best bike performance ever in a race.

Pre-race

The race has a 2pm start with my wave at 2:50. I had breakfast (coffee, eggs, toast) at the Residence Inn, then we (Theresa, our Corgi Danny, and me) headed over to BoDo to hang my T2 bag on the rack and wait for the bus to take me to the Lucky Point Reservoir swim start. I had the 11:15 bus ticket but had I known it was a 2:50 wave I would have done the 12:30 bus.

The bus ride was uneventful, just athletes chatting about the route and the potential for rain. At the swim venue I setup my bag on the rack at T1, setup my bottles, added the powermeter, that sort of thing. Hours to kill now. I used some of the extra time to practice the swim to bike transition, fiddling with helmet placement, practicing getting my aero helmet on quickly without folding my ears backwards, and the like.

I did see my friend Jill B., and she was very worried because her Garmin 305 was dead and her entire race plan was HR based. No Garmin == no HR == no race plan. I convinced her to take mine; I was using my Garmin for fun because my bike plan was watts based and my run plan was RPE based.

I was hoping this bit of good sportsmanship would give me positive karma for the day...

Swim

By the time my 2nd-of-2 M40-44 wave started at 2:50pm, the wind had significantly increased. The outbound leg of the swim was going to be straight into it, and there were occasional whitecaps on the lake . I had never swam in those conditions before, but I was not unduly concerned.

We had about 4 minutes in the water before the wave started. My choice of booties and neoprene hood worked out; the water was cold but not at all unbearably so. I seeded myself near in the back in the middle, doing some underwater exhales and dunking my head to get used to the water. I had forgotten my silicone putty earplugs, but the hood seemed to be keeping the water out of my ears well enough. Just before the horn sounded I noticed my watch had reset back from Chrono setting to Time, and I lost the first 3 or 4 seconds after the horn to fiddling with my watch. Not at all relevant in the course of the race, but it seemed like an eternity to float there after the gun, not swimming y et.

My swim plan was to push hard, stay focused on form, and stay “in the moment”, not letting my mind wander ahead. You’d be surprised how easy it is to let your mind go off on some tangent until literally you find you swam off on some tangent too, and have to get back on track.

There was a lot of chop, but I was breathing well and not having problems. Sighting and drafting was quite difficult, though. There were only say 85 people in my wave, and we spread out way too far to find people to draft. And the buoy line was quite difficult to see – there just weren’t enough of them. This was vastly different from say Lake Stevens where there was no chop and an underwater guidewire for the buoys that we could all see and follow. So I am sure I added 50 yards or more zigzagging the outbound leg.

After the first turn the wind was now at my side, and more water blasted over my head with every breath. I surprised myself by not really having any troubles breathing through all the water streaming over me. I could sight better, and I managed to find someone to draft a bit. Same for the second turn, and now the wind was behind me and it was actually quite easy to breath. By now I was passing some of the slower swimmers in the previous waves, and also being passed by the wave behind me – the different color swim caps made that easy to tell. Again, the buoys were too few and far between, and I am certain I added unneeded extra distance and time with zigzagging.

Half way through the last stretch I heard some crying and shouting, and popped up to look. A woman nearby seemed to be having a panic attack and was crying for help. I have to admit my first thoughts were unsympathetic – we must have been less than 200 yards from the finish, and nowhere near the time cutoff, and here she was screaming how she couldn’t finish? A kayaker was on the way, so I went back to my own business of finishing the swim. I hope she calmed down and finished the swim.

I spotted the time clock on the way out of the water (no dizziness, BTW), and was disappointed by a 46 minute swim – it felt faster than that to me.. I’m going to attribute a good part of that to chop and poor sighting adding extra distance.

Results: 46:21, 712th place overall, 105/170 age group.   I need to sight better, zigzag less, and understand the course more beforehand rather than plan on relying on buoys.

T1

There was a long run up the boat ramp to the wetsuit strippers, where as usual my calves cramped during wetsuit removal. My helmet and sunglass practice paid off, but I burned time drying me feet, putting on socks and shoes. I sometimes talc my socks but didn't this time. I was using Newton running socks in my bike shoes and they were just too tight for wet feet.

Results: 5:15.  Not bad for such a huge transition area.

Bike

I rocked the bike course! Seriously, it was my best triathlon bike performance ever. I loved the course, I overcame a few issues, and turned in an 18.6 average despite heavy winds and rain. A lot of people have said they were "hypothermic" on the ride due to wind and rain. I certainly was wet, but never cold.

The bike leg started on a sour note - the first speed bump out on the dam road launched BOTH my fuel bottles (Carbopro / Gatorade mix)! I stopped immediately because there went my nutrition plan. One had popped its top and the other had rolled to the side and a spectator was running it up to me. So OK, now I switch to plan B nutrition – the GU gels I had brought along and on-course Gatorade.

After the dam road exits to the highway, there’s a long downhill followed by a short flat segment, then a long uphill on Gowan Road toward the airport. After that there’s a series of section line roads then back into town. My race plan was to always keep a “2” on the front of my power meter – 200-205 watts on the flats, 220 on the rollers, 260 on the climbs, and soft pedal the downhills at 100 watts or so rather than just coast, all with a ~90 RPM cadence. I had driven the course (except the hill climb to the Birds of Prey center which was only open on race day) and it seemed that it would be a fast, aero-all-the-time course. I was looking forward to it.

The initial downhill then climb was uneventful, but then as the road level “pow!” there was the headwind. And I do mean “pow!” – it hit like a physical thing. “So this is the way it’s going to be today” and just stuck to my wattage plan. After the first turn, we now had a steady crosswind, then the rain started. OK, rain and wind. That’s how it’s going to be. The climb to the Birds of Prey was steeper than I expected but no big deal, and at the aid station I chucked my now-empty fuel bottle. I hated those bottles anyway .. easy to spill, hard to close, narrow necked so hard to fill. Good riddance!

A few miles before Ten Mile Road, as I started up a small roller, my seat suddenly moved, tilting the nose way up. Argggh! This had happened in training, and I thought I had it tight enough. I stopped and adjusted it, but clearly now I had the nose too low. So a mile later I stopped and fixed it again. This still wasn’t quite right, but it was bearable.

I’m generally a slow swimmer and a faster cyclist, and I usually pass people on the bike. This time though I was passing, passing, and passing some more. I was spinning at 90 RPM, wattage in the correct range. Sometimes I had a strong steady headwind, sometimes a strong steady crosswind, sometimes it was peaceful as the tailwind boosted me along, and most of the time the raining moderately to heavily. I had no knee pains or neck pains from being in aero the whole time, and I was really enjoying the ride.

There was one point where I was coming to an left-turn intersection and on the street I was going to turn onto there were several cars, an ambulance on the side, a police car on the other side of the road and a slow moving police motorcycle with his lights on. Well, it didn’t look like I needed to slow down because I couldn’t see anything really going on, so after the turn I hammered it back up to 27 mph and blasted by the motorcycle cop yelling “On your left!” I had a big grin on my face from that, you know it.

A bit later I was on a long downhill approaching Gowan Road, with a heavy crosswind and pouring rain. Normally I would be Mr. Safety First, riding down the hill up on the horns, feathering the brakes. Not today! I hard pedaled my highest gear while down on the aerobars, riding a steady 35mph at 95 rpm.

I kept up the pressure all the way into town. My computer was showing an average of 193 watts and 19mph, which I call fantastic. Of course that doesn’t count getting my bottle or fixing my seat twice, so the official 18.6 average is fine by me. That’s the difference I get from spending three minutes fiddling on the side of the road.

Results: 3:01:02, 547th place overall, 84/170 age group.  That’s my best bike placement ever in a half or full Ironman.

T2

Theresa and Danny were waiting at T2 and I spoke excitedly about how well I had just done the bike. Transition was near empty and it was easy to rack my bike. Although I was soaking wet I wasn't cold so I didn't bother with my jacket in my bag, I just swapped my helmet for running hat and bike shoes for my Newton running shoes.

Results: 3:30.   I'm surprised by that, it didn't feel that long. 

Run

The majority of the run course is a two lap circular course along the Boise River greenbelt south of BoDo, a tree shaded asphalt trail with some bridges to cross. We run out of T2 through a chute lined with spectators, which always gives me a great energy boost as I start the run. I waved to Theresa again, and settled into my “run until it hurts then keep it there” RPE-based race plan. Well, it didn’t take long for it to hurt.

The run was mostly uneventful after an uneven start. Only a mile into the race I started to get a side stitch, so I started my usual “exhale on left footstrike” to ease it which took a few miles. A little bit later I had to stop and fiddle with my shoe; something was either in my sock or shoe or I had a fold or something under my foot and I didn’t want a blister or what. Thirty seconds of shoe off, shoe on and I was running again. Then I chose to visit the porta-potty at mile 4, but since there was no line and it was just off an aid station that was quick. I had to take off my dark sunglasses early since the tree-lined course was actually rather dim, and it was getting into early evening. So for much of the race I was OCD checking my back jersey pocket to make sure they hadn’t dropped out. The course had a lot of deep puddles and sometimes I found myself trying to hopscotch around the larger and/or deeper-looking puddles.

There were many enthusiastic volunteers at the frequent and well stocked aid stations. In fact, they were so enthusiastic I started running through shouting for what I needed early and then shaking my head and chanting “no thanks, running through” the rest of the way. Otherwise I found myself having to dodge some of the volunteers. I was a good customer on the second loop, taking bananas, cola, water, and Gatorade as needed.

I see from race results that I was bit faster on the second loop (1:01:33 and 58:48 for a total of 2:00:21) which fits in with my usual pattern of warming up slowly and speeding up later in the run. I was passing a few people in my age group, especially on the second loop as more people took to walking parts of the course. I ran the entire course, pushing fairly hard. RPE was right at what felt like a good race pace – hard breathing, can’t carry on a conversation but can say phrases. I felt a tiny bit of a nausea coming on after mile 10 so I stopped getting anything at the aid stations and it passed.

The finish line was lined by cheering spectators and I saw Theresa and Danny waiting for me. He was pretty excited to see me; Theresa says he tried to drag her out in the street after me but settled for running her down the sidewalk to the finish. Not bad for a 29 pound Corgi. I sprinted down the chute as I heard them call my name, and finished. 5:56:47 overall time.

Results: 2:00:21, 565th place overall, 90/170 age group.  A good solid run.

First open water swim of the season at Lake Sammamish Beach

My next event is Ironman 70.3 Boise on June 13th, and the swim is in reservoir with cold, cold water – 60 degrees is expected on race day.  I’m a cold water weenie so I’m really quite apprehensive about the swim.  I need a lot of cold water swimming to acclimate, so last Sunday morning I went to Lake Sammamish State Park for my planned 1500 yard swim.

Theresa and Danny our Corgi came along to keep me company and enjoy the sunny morning.   I put wearing my wetsuit, two swim caps, and silicone putty ear plugs to keep the water out.  Conventional wisdom says keeping cold water out of your ears will help avoid dizziness coming out of the swim – something I’ve had a problem with in the past.

I waded in, and found the water surprisingly comfortable – maybe 65, maybe 68.  I had no problems at all swimming in that temperature.  None of the gasping-for-air, my-god-this-is-cold reaction.

In the picture you can see course I took – swimming inside the buoy line is about 225 yards (so says Google Maps’ distance finding tool).  I counted strokes and estimated it at 250, so I was close.  Six laps of that was easy.

So if that lake in Boise is anything close in temperature, I don’t expect any problems.

Race Report - Ironman Canada 2008

It’s been a while since my last post (understatement!).  At first I didn’t post because I was busy, then after IMC last August I didn’t want to write about it for a while.  It took me a while to make peace with my performance and then this long to get around to blogging again.  I enjoyed blogging back when so hope to continue.

Summary

Ironman Canada 2008 was a tough event for me. I had a good swim, died on the bike, experienced dejection and chilling rain on the first half of the run, then came back a bit on the last half of the run.  Overall time was 14:09:53, which is my slowest Ironman out of four.  Again I learned that there are no miracles on race day – you get the race you trained for, minus whatever trouble comes your way, plus whatever extra you can give on race day.  I was undertrained on the bike, and that’s the race I got.

Pre-race

After the Lake Stevens 70.3 in July, it was clear that my run and swim were OK (if slow) but my cycling speed and strength were woefully beneath what I needed for the hilly, 112 mile IMC course.  I kicked it in gear (pun intended) and did a couple of ~100 mile rides (generally flat to rolling), 1 hour hill repeats on Lakemont Blvd, and some 50-60 mile hilly rides.  I was hoping that would be sufficient to get the job done.

The event is in Penticton, BC and this was the 26th year.  The town goes all out for Ironman Canada.  Every B&B, hotel, motel, etc. fills up, and it’s tough to get a place.  Theresa had booked Lana and I in a B&B about 20 miles up the east side of the lake in the Naramata area.  About two weeks before the event Lisa decided she wanted to go along, so we three left early Friday morning in order to make the athlete-checkin-and-packet-pickup cutoff time.  It’s about a 5 hour drive and we went straight to the Okanagan Lake race venue and checked in, then headed to the B&B.   It turned out there was a mix-up with the reservations and such – no kids allowed, and only two people to a room.  I had to negotiate around that for a while until the owner of the B&B let us stay.  Note that when you negotiate a place to stay in a town with every B&B, hotel, and motel full, you’re pretty much at the mercy of the kindness of strangers.  So we were not off to a good start.  Also Naramata may be 20 minutes away, but every twist and turn on the road causes a slowdown so we were 40 minutes out of town.

Saturday morning we went downtown to check out out race expo.  I saw a number of people I knew from JFT2 and from the local racing scene.  Then we had some breakfast at Tim’s before I took a short 3 mile run around downtown while the girls checked out the street festival that was setup on Main Street downtown.  Next we drove the bike course so I could get a sense of what I was going to do the next day.  The bike course through the valley is exceptionally beautiful – even my daughters thought so.  A far cry from the Arizona deserts where I’ve raced my other Ironmans.  The hills didn’t seem to bad.  Richter Pass had been rumored to be a killer, and while it look long it wasn’t steep.  Eminently do-able.   I was surprised by the size of the hill later in the course.  They weren’t the “rollers” I had heard about (although there are plenty of those), there are out-and-out hills especially approaching Yellow Lake.

Race Day

Sunday morning we headed down to the race start and managed to get there early enough to find a fairly close in parking space.  I almost DNFed before I started when I handed my car keys to Lisa, said my goodbyes, and then headed to the race start as the girls went off to find some breakfast.  THEN I realized my wetsuit was still in the car!  Five minutes of chasing back after them before I lucked out.  Note to self: race day checklist!  At least I could call that event my morning warm-up run.

Soon enough I was standing in the knee-deep water of Lake Okanagan, waiting for the starter’s cannon.  I was confident about the swim and the run, and the bike would be what the bike would be.  BOOM! and I was swimming!  The swim is an out-and-back affair, clockwise which is good for me since I breathe to the right and could see the buoy line.  The swim was fairly violent. A lot of thigh slapping, foot slapping, and side bumping.  At one point I was drafting pretty well behind someone, and suddenly his feet disappeared in the murky water.  I was wondering “What happened?” just as he kicked me hard in the face – he had switched to a breast stroke to sight and I had caught up too close.  I have never been kicked so hard before.  Just shy of starting a nosebleed. Great.

I was out of the water in 1:25, which was about what I hoped for based on training.  My day was looking up!   T1 was uneventful, and soon I was flying out of town on Main Street.  The bike course is a single loop, which I’ve never done in a race so I was looking forward to that.  My speed out of town was high, my wattage was good, and the start of the race is slightly downhill.  I did manage to see Lisa and Lana at the pre-arranged spot on Main Street as I zoom zoomed past. 

Bike

All was well for the first 30 miles, then hmm I started to feel an old familiar pain in my left knee.  This pain has plagued me on and off for years ever since I injured it in training years ago.  It’s a deep dull throb and the only while-riding cure is IT band and calf stretches.  I hadn’t felt it in months though, so I was stunned that it was back now at the worst possible time.  At 40 miles I stopped to stretch it, burning valuable clock time.  I would continue to do that every 15 to 20 miles, so I probably spent 20 minutes off the bike just stretching my legs.

Richter Pass was a good steady climb, with the hot sun on my back and many cheering supporters lining the course.  This was the best part of my ride by far.  The descent into the valley was fine, and now I was starting to feel my thighs along with the knee ache.  More stretching, and I dropped my effort level down to 150-160 watts since I knew there were hills yet to come.  The valley has rolling hills, and each one took a little more out of me.  At the midpoint there is an out-and-back loop off the main road to get to the special needs pickup at the 60 mile mark.  This is only a few miles, but it was remarkably tiring.  The road is rough, the sun was hot, my knee hurt and my legs were tiring.  The special needs is at 72 miles, and I was pretty dejected at that point in the race.   So for the first time ever in a race I just stopped, ate my food, rested a bit and stretched.  I spent about 12 minutes off the bike at special needs preparing myself for the last 40 miles. 

I left in better spirits and resigned myself to a slow hard slog back to town.  The climb to Yellow Lake was the final straw for my legs.  I had done 60 mile hilly rides, and I had done 100 mile mostly-flat rides, but here I was at the 80+ mile mark climbing a tough hill.  And then on the descent – my reward for that climb – was that it started to rain heavily.  The long steady downhill into town was an exercise in speed control.  I wasn’t one of those nuts flying down the hill pedaling hard.  Instead I was coasting near the shoulder.  Soon enough I was back in town with a total bike time of 7:27 at an average speed of 15 mph.  I was hoping for 45 minutes to an hour shorter.  But you get what you train for, and so it goes.

Run

T2 was uneventful although a bit slow as I stretched out my legs for the run, then off I went at a slow pace getting my legs used to running. The run course is an out and back along most of the bike course, down to Okanagan Falls and then back to Penticton.  There are several fairly steep hills on the course which I planned to walk.

The rain was lightly falling and I was chilled in a short time.  I wasn’t dressed for this weather.  I had thought Penticton in August would be cooler than Arizona in April, but I never thought it would be cold, and yet cold it was.  I must admit even though my time on the bike had been slow, I wasn’t motivated to try to make it up on the run.  Running is usually my strength, but I was experiencing my first emotional “low low” in an Ironman.  I walked a couple of hills that I could have jogged, telling myself I was “saving my legs” for the run back.  No, not really.  My salvation came at the turnaround point, where a friendly couple was handing out used clothing to anyone who needed something.  I took a dark blue long sleeve T-shirt, and with that I no longer felt chilled.   The emotional cloud was lifting, and I was no longer feeling that low-low. 

At the turnaround I was hoping I still could break 14 hours. I ran faster and felt stronger on the way back to Penticton, and was again enjoying the event like I had not since that knee pain set in at mile 30 on the bike many hours earlier.  About 5 miles from the finish I was passed by a guy juggling three red balls as he ran.  This is called “joggling” in case you’ve never heard of it.  Well, that brought out the old competitive spirit – no way was I going to be passed by a joggler!   I picked up the pace and was soon back in town.  Too bad there’s a small out and back segment along the waterfront, this was longer than I thought and combined with the long slight uphill into town I had a 5:01 marathon, crossing the finish line at a total time of 14:09:53.   I intentionally made sure I was the only person in the finish chute so for the first time ever I could hear Mike Reilly (the Voice of Ironman) say “Bruce Morgan!  You … are … an Ironman!” 

Finish

I had no medical issues after the race.  My knee was fine, my legs were acceptable, and I was happy that the damn thing was just done.  I found LIsa and Lana, who had watched me finish from the stands.  I found some pizza and some fruit, and finally found the girls.  They say that the race venue isn’t super spectator friendly – lots of barricades to keep the spectators off the course, so lots of long distance walking to get to the designate places to cross.

My last surprise of the day was next.  The girls had spent time in the SUV reading and staying out of the rain, and the story was: ”Uh, Dad?  I know you told us not to, but we turned on the lights so we could read, and now we think the battery is dead.”   So my post-race time was spent calling CAA and waiting for a jump, and that took long enough that all the restaurants in town had closed. 

Monday was more fun.  We slept in, then packed up and had a very pleasant and leisurely brunch on the outdoor patio restaurant at the Lake City Casino, next the race expo.  I signed up for IMC 2009, said “Hi” to a few people I knew, and then we drove back to home.  On the way back we took the route down to I90 which was much faster than the Stevens Pass route we had taken to get to Penticton. I’ve done all the routes (north to Vancouver then east, Stevens Pass, and I90 then north) and the I90 route over Blewitt Pass is clearly the best way to get there.

Race Report - 2008 Lake Stevens 70.3

Yesterday I raced the Expedia Lake Stevens 70.3 Half-Ironman race, my first race since IMAZ last April.

But first I need to get my excuses out of the way: basically I've been working a lot since IMAZ in April, my daughter graduated high school, and my house is being remodeled.  So I haven't done a lot of training - some swimming once or twice a week, a long run on the weekends, but I only rode my bike three times since April, and that counts my 14 mile roundtrip to work once.

Summary

I approached yesterday as a training day more than an actual race.  I have IMC coming in August, and I needed find what I need to work on, and most of all I  needed to avoid injury. 

I had a good race, with a slow back-of-pack time but that's about what I expected.  I had one bad calf cramp in T1, but overall that had less of an effect than I feared. 

I also enjoyed the race a great deal.  The JFT2 team was there in full force, in our cool team kits.

Details

My race plan was to swim steady (as always), to average 150 watts on the bike, don't exceed 255 on long hills, and then on the run I was going to do 160-165 bpm.  For nutrition I had two bottles of Carbopro with 4 scoops each, one with Gatorade and one with water.   I planned on using on-course water.

The Lake Stevens venue was pretty much the same as last year.  The swim is in the lake, the bike is a two loop affair on local country roads still open to traffic, and the run is a a double loop of an around-downtown course with a loop on one side of town, and an out and back along the lake.  Lake Stevens is about 30 miles from Bellevue, so it's easy to get there for me.  

I drove up in the morning with my wife, three daughters, and of course Danny our corgi.  The day was cloudy and raining in Bellevue, and to be honest I was a little ticked off by the weather.  It's been awful all spring, and I just haven't wanted to go out and bike in it.  And now it's July, I have a race, and it's still raining?  Arrghh!   Anyway, it was dry in Lake Stevens and while not exactly summer weather, pretty good weather for a triathlon.

The swim start is an in-water wave start by age group, next to the boat launch.  I skipped the in-water warmup beforehand because there's no good place to do it; I learned last year the little area next to the dock is full of underwater rocks and logs.  I wanted no injuries from that.

So at 6:44 I was in the water.  I was wearing my wetsuit, and the water was warm at 72, but not too warm.  I saw Jill just as the starting horn sounded, and off we went!    Well, in about 300 yards I found my goggles were leaking, so I had to stop and adjust.   I had to do that twice more before I cured the leaks.  The rest of the swim was uneventful, except that I over-turned the second turn and swam 50 yards into the center before being waved off by a kayaker.

In T1 though I had a massive 60 second long cramp in my left calf.  I was taking off my wetsuit, so I was on the ground with it all around my feet and BOOM I was cramping and was pretty much stranded.  I hoped to just let it go away, but after 20 seconds it was obvious it was there to stay.  I tried to stretch it out, but by the time I got my foot free of the wetsuit one of the volunteers was there to help.  He did the push-my-toes-toward-my-knee bit, and the cramp worked loose in a few long, long seconds. 

Now I was completely off my game, and futzed around getting my wetsuit the rest of the way off, getting my helmet, etc.  Eventually I had my bike off the rack and took off through the bike exit, waved at my family, and then at the first turn in two blocks I was actually stopped by a volunteer and told to go back and get my race number!   Arrgh!  I rode back, saw Jill and had her hold my bike while I ran back to the rack to get my race belt.  I saw later that many, many people had no race number on the bike.

After retrieving my bike from Jill I was finally out on the course again.  The bike course is an up-and-down through rollers with a few actual climbs.  I had a good ride, staying at my fairly conservative power output goal.  The power meter shows my average was 149, which was right at the number I wanted.  Nutrition wise I was OK; I had planned on using on-course water but there was only one aid station near the end of the first lap (not near the beginning like I expected).  So my food mix was a bit undiluted until the second lap.  My left calf bothered me at times, and my left knee started to have pain by the middle of the second loop.  I'm sure this was a side-effect of the calf problems.   And of course my neck and shoulders hurt from staying aero for 56 miles.

At one point I found a referee alongside me, and heard him say "What you're doing is drafting" and since no one was ahead of me I was surprised. But then I realized he was talking to the wheel-sucker sitting behind me!   I hadn't noticed him, but Jurgen the head coach did.  And he got the red card for a four minute drafting penalty.  The guy actually argued for a moment, saying he was "part of a relay" and "not competing".  Jurgen would have none of that; as he said at the pre-race briefing "arguing won't work, once we're talking to you you're getting the penalty".

The last 10 miles of the bike I was starting to tire.  My neck hurt, and my calf hurt, and the hills seemed one-after-the-other (gee, that's because they were).  I longed for a clear flat straight stretch, but that's just not Lake Stevens.

Back in T2 I futzed around re-racking my bike.  The people around me seemed to leave quite a mess, and I was one of the later people coming back in and getting my bike in place among their bikes wasn't all that easy.  But them's the breaks when you're slow.  I switched to running shoes and hat, grabbed my gels and Saltstick capsuls, and off I went.

The run starts with a two block section out of the finish area, and I saw my family.  High-fives all around, and I told them I was doing great and I'd be done in around 2 hours, one hour for each loop. 

The first loop I had some quad cramps same as last year, and I was confident they'd be gone after the second mile.  At the first aid station I took two Saltstick capsules, ate a Gu, and had a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade while walking the station.  That's a lot, but it was a bit warmer than I expected and I needed to fuel and hydrate.  I did that at two more aid stations, plus I alternated water and Gatorade at the aid stations.

I had a great time on the run.  I really do enjoy running, and I just ran it like a long training run.  I was pushing myself a bit to the 165 HR mark, but since my calf and knee were still in pain I didn't want to push it too far.  I remember my injury back in Arizona last January, and wanted no part of that this year.I cheered every JFT team member I saw (and there were a lot!), and I chatted with the occasional racer as I passed them or they passed me.  I saw my family a couple times, and gave them all a hug and/or a high five. And seeing (and hearing!) the JFT2 cheering section was a lot of fun.  

I actually heard them call my name this year at the finish line.  Somehow I often don't hear that, although Theresa tells me they are calling my name.  I guess my concentration is elsewhere!  

The end-of-race venue was good; they had pizza and fruit along with water and Gatorade. 

Results:

Swim 49:22 vs. 40:49 last year  - 9 minutes slower
Bike 3:20 vs. 2:56 last year – 24 minutes slower
Run 2:07 vs. 1:57 last year – 10 minutes slower
Overall 6:27 vs. 5:40 last year – 47 minutes slower

And way way back in my age group.  Ouch!  But this is par for the course (pardon the pun) given my low amount of training. 

Overall, as a "identify weaknesses" event there were no surprises and I found what I expected to find.  I need to ride a lot more (especially hill training) to finish IMC with any kind of reasonable time.  I need to get in more mid-week runs, and good steady open-water swims.

Ironman Arizona 2008 Race Report

A quick race report to tide you over until I get all the power meter and Garmin numbers :-)

The word of the day was "hot".  Just about everyone remarked on how damn hot it was. 

I saw Jill Fry at the start of the race, and of course I had my whole family and my daughter's friends and Danny along, all wearing their matching shirts.  I did feel very relaxed, and it was the first Ironman where I had more than 3 hours of sleep the night before. :-)

I saw Jill Brandon at the start and we hung out a bit, calming our pre-race nerves. Jill and I discussed how it's never the actual race that makes us nervous, it's the worry that you forgot some critical piece of equipment... very OCD.

I had a great swim. I drafted a bunch of people and came in 4 minutes faster than last year at 1:20.

I start out with high hopes on the bike, given the low wind forecast. Well, that just wasn't true.  The headwind was brutal, not because it was super strong but because it was strong and steady.  Unrelenting is the word. On the back half of the first loop it was an amazing tailwind.  I hit 34mph steady on the slight downhill, then steady 31 on the flats.  I had an 18.2 mph average on the first loop, about the same as last year. 

The second loop was even tougher than the first going out, but a bit less of a tailwind coming back.  The third loop had a lesser headwind, but by then my legs were starting to fade and my neck was killing me from the aero position. I was chafing, too, so I kept squirming around on the seat trying to find a better spot.  And on the return, the wind faded way back, so I didn't get to enjoy a strong tailwind.  I finished the bike in 6:33, about 22 minutes slower than last year.

This is pretty much what I expected, since I knew I was coming into this undertrained on the bike.  I was crossing my fingers for good conditions to make up for that, and didn't get it.

The good news was that my nutrition plan of "fuel bottles" of water & Carbopro along with 1000mg of sodium every hour worked really well.  I had no stomach problems at all on the bike, and except for exhausted legs I was fine.

Thus I started the run hopeful for a 3:50 marathon and maybe a sub-12 finish. But alas, the heat did me in.  I ran the first two miles, then started to get dizzy and had to walk an aid station.  Then I ran maybe another mile, then walked a bit more.  My stomach was a bit borderline, but I was trying to run as much as possible.  I saw Jill, and I was confident this would be like IMAZ06 where I got stronger every loop.

Somewhere around mile 9 I fell apart.  I suddenly got very dizzy, and I felt very chilled - I had goosebumps on my arms, and that shouldn't happen in 92 degrees. I also felt very sleepy.  I sat on a curb under a bridge (shade), head on my knees, waiting for that to pass.  Several people asked if I needed help, which I declined, and of course I wanted to dodge the medical people because I didn't want an involuntary DNF.  I wasn't all that bad, I thought, and that was proved true because after several minutes the dizzyness and chills were gone and I started moving again.

After that I stopped using ice and sponges so much, and just ran most of the time at 10:30 to 11 minute pace.  Pretty much as fast as I could go until my heart rate hit 150, which seemed to be when the dizziness would strike and I would have to walk a while.  I also walked the few short hills on the course (climbs up to the bridge decks, mostly).

The sun went down (finally!) at 6:57, and now I had an hour to run the last 7 miles or so for a sub-13 finish. But after some thought about my running pace, I figured I couldn't do the 30 seconds per mile faster that would take so I set my goal at a sub 5 hour marathon. Without the blazing sunshine, I pretty much ran the entire last loop, walking a few aid stations.  I haven't checked my Garmin, but I think the pace was 9:45 or so.

I came in with a 4:58 marathon and a 13:05 overall time.

Overall, it was by far the toughest of the three Ironman races I've done.  Last year was windier on the bike, but I was better trained and it wasn't as hot.  The run last year and the year before were cakewalks compared to the run this year.  According to weather.com, I ran all but the very last part of the marathon in the low 90s.

Plus, nearly all my race time goals were going by unmet. Last year, I was on a PR pace in all three sports and overall time.  It's a totally different mental game to be out there on the course suffering without those types of goals for motivation.  You have to dig deep and really bring it to keep on running on a day like yesterday.

Back after the race ...

I'm here in my hotel room with a brace on my ankle after RICE treatment since the race. I can't really walk much, but that's OK.

I was having a great race until mile 18 or so, where I stepped on something in the road and wrenched my left ankle. I was so focused on execution and keeping pace by focusing on reeling in faster runners ahead of me I didn't even see what I hit. I think it was one of those reflector markers.

Anyway I reached mile 20 right on schedule (2:33) but each mile after that was increasingly painful and slower. I hobbled in doing 9:30s or so for the last three miles at around 3:32 and went straight to the medical tent to ice it. I didn't think it was so bad, until I tried to stand up and nearly collapsed when I put weight on it.

Even though I didn't hit 3:20, I'm putting this one in the "win" column, because I trained properly for the event, I had a proper race strategy that I executed well, and I managed to gut out a PR even with my bad ankle.

Race Plan for RNR Arizona 2008

If you've been following my blog, you know my goal is to BQ (Boston Qualify) at Sunday's Rock-n-Roll Arizona Marathon.   There are about 10,000 marathoners and 25,000 half marathoners, so this should be quite a spectacle.  My youngest daughter Lana is flying down with me for a mini-vacation, and to be my cheering section at the start and finish lines. 

My last marathon was back in October, and I did a terrible job following my race plan.  I am fairly well trained, I think, for trying for a 3:20 in Arizona, but by no means is it in the bag.  I am confident I can do it if I race smart, eat right, don't go too hard too early, and nothing out of the ordinary happens.

Start to Mile 5: Run at 7:45 per mile, which will translate to around a 155 HR, although what with race excitement it may be higher.  RPE should be reasonable, since my last MAF test showed a 150 HR at 8:00 per mile for 5 straight miles (after 20 minute warmup).  Time to 5 mile marker: 38:45

Miles 6 – 13.1 (halfway):  Run at 7:40 per mile.  RPE should be a notch up, but not hard.  Time to the halfway point: 1:40:40 or so.

Miles 13.1 – 23: up to 175.  Run at 7:35 per mile. Again, a little higher up the RPE scale, and I expect my HR to start to rise around mile 17.  My long training runs showed a steady HR for the first 17 miles, then an upward climb after that.  In my past marathons, mile 18 to 22 have been where the trouble starts so I need to run this part smart and steady.  I should see the 18 mile mark at 2:18, and the 23 mile mark at 2:56.

Then to the end: Run at 7:30 per mile or faster.  This is where I need to kick it to ensure a sub 3:20 at the finish line.

Nutrition Gu gels, my on-board fluids, and on-course water and energy drinks.  I’ll have some Endurolytes along that I’ll take in the morning and at the 10 mile point.   I'll use my Amphipod RunLite Trail Endurance that worked well in Portland, and I'll load it with 6 gels, a snack bar, and 21 oz of a Carbo-Pro / Gatorade mix.  I'd have a gel at 15 minutes then every 45 minutes, and half a bottle of at 5, 10, 13.1, and 18 miles, with water on the course to dilute.

I think I weighed myself down with too many varied foods in Portland (I had some slight discomfort the last few miles), so I'm going to drop the candy and just go with some bars and organic cereal for about 400 calories in the morning.

I also have to make sure to jog the water stops.  Looking at my Garmin during the Seattle half, I was surprised by how much my average pace dropped during a short 30 foot walk of an aid station and how long it took to get it back up.

So there it is.  Time to bring it on Sunday!