IMC Re-Visited ...

OK ... better late than never right? I wasn't even going to bother posting since it's so late but it was written weeks ago so figured I might as well. It's been a crazy 7 weeks with multiple bouts of travel, busy days, and seemingly endless recovery from the year. Here goes ... it's a bit long but thats the way it is. If anyone wants detailed data from the bike course just let me know. The TTE crew had great race plans and they were very effective ...

IMPORTANT Items in Pre-Lude to IMC
- I did ZERO running JAN-MAY with Plantar Fasciitis (poor equipment choices) … had a decent final 8 weeks leading into the race with about 4 weeks of “IM specific running”
- My Mom passed away in late June which made training far down the priority list and a little challenging mentally at times
- Schedule … I had big conflicts (no training & high energy demand) at weekends 6 & 4 weeks out from the race but we managed a couple solid days mid week in replacement of training volume that week.
- I took some stress off my own planning and sought out advice from Gordo Byrn and his EC crew this time around. It helped to have others ideas help in my prep and valuable as a coach to see other “methodologies”.

THE RACE:

Pre Race … confident, very calm, and a solid race script in my head

SWIM … I started front row, half way across. It was a little chaotic to start as a bunch of folks to my left wanted to swim across me to the bouys … it settled and strangely enough I swam most of the way to the first turn in clear water (not ideal, but calming) with lots of 3 and 4 stroke breathing. I managed to link with a group coming in to the first turn but lost that group around the turn when I went wide. From there I swam “steady as she goes” and was surprised to be swimming up behind athletes and simply swimming around them until I arrived at point about 200 meters out where I swam solo into the shallows. I decided to stand, walk, finish taking a pee and opted to pull the wetsuit off there to skip the strippers and help get HR settled ASAP

Time 1:01 @ the timing mat after taking suit off in the water … content with that.

BIKE

T1 to Richter Pass (40miles) … Because of the comfortable swim it was nice to have the HR settled as soon as I got on the bike. It was amazing but it felt like everyone rode by me between Okanagan Falls (mile 15) and the base of Richter Pass. Hard to mentally swallow a couple of the big groups, and marshals not doing much about it, but noticed that they were riding very erratically and definitely not their own efforts. Wind was calm until we hit a little head wind the closer we got to Osoyoos.I was super comfortable to the “Husky Station” hitting mile 40 … stomach was good, moving well, confident in my own world!

- NOTE: I had to pee a lot early (this continued all day) and I did it coasting on the bike. I coasted at every opportunity when the speed was up. (continued this trend the rest of the day)

Richter Pass (7 miles) … I just relaxed and started cruising up Richter but began to get a little alarmed that EVRYONE was riding past me. Confident in my own plan I just kept it even and did my thing. As we got to the second piece of Richter we began to face some headwind that slowed the downhill sections. I just stayed on some nutrition and kept moving. All systems still go, stomach good, brain good … nice easy first 50 miles!

All the Rollers and to the out and back (21 miles) … interestingly enough It was here that I started to move up on a few folks and kept doing so through the entire 21 mile section. Strangely enough most of it was on the down hills while coasting, but also on the flats. Stayed aero, chin down, and relaxed as often as possible. It was a bummer to get rolled up by another group at the end of this section, but I still felt great going into the out and back, Still lots of reserve … needed to keep calming my desire to crank it up! Brain, body … all systems go!

---(picture above is not of me but the conditions on the Yellow Lake Climb)---

Out & Back to Yellow Lake and False Flats Above Twin Lakes (29 miles) … the tailwind on the out section made for easy speed and quick trip to special needs. We headed back off the ridge with a stiff headwind that would continue until we hit the trough below the final climb at Yellow Lake. The confidence continued to grow as I was consistently passing folks, even though I felt like I was going so slow because of the wind and gradually uphill terrain. Yellow Lake climb felt simple considering I had good legs / energy, and I even felt like I could press the pace a bit here (not common for me this late in the ride). The big issue was that the building wind we were dealing that brought in dark clouds and the light rain before the Yellow lake climb turned into a torrential downpour and rapidly dropping temperatures on the climb. Even with the changes, I was still feeling really good in mind and body.

The Descent & Trip Back to T2 … things got pretty scary / dangerous on the initial descent as the wind was swirling and harsh, it started to get cold, and cones were strewn across the road. Even though I am confident descending I unfortunately had to sit up, slow down and get on the brakes to keep me safe and upright. This continued all the way to the HWY 97 turn where things were a bit warmer and not quite as windy … problem is I was VERY cold and stiff! Good news is I actually felt pretty aware and was still moving through folks at this point. In hindsight, two things struck me as I moved through the outskirts of town: 1) I had to pry my hands from the aero bars and straighten my fingers (I had claws) 2) I had some fuzzy vision and a little lack of senses, even though I was very aware. At first I thought I was bonking but it simply wasn’t the case considering the calories I’d ingested. Both of these were simply the effects of being much colder than I initially realized. Rolled by more guys on the way into town … feeling good mentally (but obviously still cold)

- OVERALL Ride Time: 5:36

-NOTES … I actually moved up about 50 places overall during the bike largely because of the last 45 miles … this is new for me as I usually give up places. OH, and I have NEVER pissed so much during a bike ride before! ;-)

T2 … I realized, again in hindsight, that I was a bit dis-oriented from the cold on the bike. It was hard to get socks and shoes on properly (I had to adjust them all at mile 2 of the run once I warmed up) PLUS I dropped my Garmin 3 times on the way out and could never work the function buttons

RUN
-Pacing plan (based on my very short run build up) was to simply run conservatively to mile 16, taking 20-30sec walk breaks at the back end of all aid stations, then try to lift if the ability was there.

- Nutrition: alternate carbo pro from a flask and cola at every aid station adding water and sodium as needed

Miles 0 – 10 … I simply pushed the easy button and coasted along comfortably knowing I could sit on that effort the entire 26.2 … pace was just below 8min and felt ridiculous. All felt good, stomach was good, and mentally the big challenge was being patient

Miles 10-16 … I wanted to just get through this hilly section and drop down to mile 16’ish with hope of increasing the speed. I got to the turn holding just at 8min miles (that was the conservative goal) and headed back up the first steep hill. Coming down to the turn my quads started to really load up but I didn’t think much of it until they did the same on the steep pitch out of OK Falls. At that point I didn’t have much real estate left to the top and to “get out of Dodge” where I figured it would be all good. I really just cooled it going up the long grade trying to get to the top un-scathed. When I got to the top the quads were very sore but I still had good mental/physical energy and figured I’d just get to the flats and hang on. I started down the last long grade where my quads just seized and I was simply too sore to run. For the first time all day doubt crept in my head, so I did a bit of walk/jog management to the flats. Once I got down to the flat section I could barely run … the bottom just dropped out.

Miles 16-Finish … I simply just did what I could the last 10-11 miles to keep moving forward. I’ve never really thought that Ironman races were “painful”, just A LOT of discomfort at times. This was actually painful and I found a walk / jog scenario that kept me moving toward the finish. I can see now how people punch out mentally and just walk it in … I simply couldn’t stomach that. It was very difficult mentally to handle the quick change of direction my body took since energy was quite good and my stomach was cooperating.

First 13.1 Miles = 1:44:??
Final 13.1 Miles = 2:13:??
Overall = 10:43:??

RUN NOTE … an amazing stat to me was that considering how horribly I ran I didn’t give up any places over the run course. I finished in the same place I started the run … hmmmm

FINAL NOTES:
-I can’t recall ever feeling so good on the swim and bike combo during an IM race before (faster yes) … and matter of fact it felt “easy” (relative term) for most of the day. I simply had a good combo of fitness, pacing, nutrition, and mental game rolling and felt very much in control heading to T2. Maybe my first warning sign of what was to come was the odd sensation riding back to town.

-I told those close to me before the race (back in early July?) I’d be very happy to even get to the start healthy and mentally intact with all the complications of the build up. In the end I was very happy to have done the prep for the race and to have fought the good fight. We had a nice crew of athletes that made the process even more enjoyable. The biggest challenge I’ve had is feeling like my race ended abruptly and I wasn’t able to finish it off … even though I physically finished. I also realize now that because of my lay off from running and schedule this was the only time I raced all year and was missing some very valuable “race fitness”. I’m feeling a bit hollow and sore, BUT actually motivated for more in the future. We'll see what happens next ... for now it's taking care of the body and TTE Nation!