2017 Season Recap
To anyone that knows me, or that has the unfortunate luck to get stuck in a triathlon conversation with me over the past 4 years, I have told them that my goal was to get to Kona.
2017 was going to be my year. I had developed a pretty deep level of fitness from training religiously for the past 4 years. I followed every plan my coaches gave me, every day, day after day.
I’ve had some small successes in the past, to the average folk, 9:53 in IMLou in 2016, 13th ag in IMWI in 2015, that type of thing. But I’ve never been able to get to the real FOP. Swimming was my weakness. Swimming an IM consistently in the 1:13 range just isn’t going to get it done. So in the winter of 16-17, I once again, found a specialized swim coach and did a lot of swimming. Then season gets going and bike and run come back into the mix and I wave goodbye to the swim coach.
2017 Starts with IM Madison 70.3: I knew from the registered athlete list that some pretty big names in M40-44 were going to be racing. I also knew that if I wanted to KQ in IMWI 2017, I’d have to prove myself as being able to race with these big dogs because they were going to be there as well. My coach (JonnyO) and I, put together a very conservative race plan because it was HOT that day. I finished 19 OA and 6 AG! That was a huge confidence booster for me.
Next up: Door County 70.3 2017: An absolutely beautiful race day temp wise. Soo windy that the RD shortened the swim from 1.2 miles to the day before’s sprint course of 400yrds. It was a very rough 400 yrds but I told myself that if I survive it, I’ll never come out of the water that close to the leaders, so in the water I went. I pushed real hard on the bike. I had just caught #1+2 OA on the bike course at mile 35, hit a bump I wasn’t expecting, and over the bars I go at 35mph! BUMMER!! No broken bones, thank God, but a lot of road rash. My first DNF.
IMWI 2017: My A race for 2017. 6 weeks post crash. Swimming is swimming, I’m on a new bike and running strong. I feel great. That is until my left hamstring flared up 2.5 weeks prior to IMWI. I didn’t freak out. I got help for it. I didn’t run for 1 week. My coach helped me through this difficult time perfectly. I rolled right into the taper and started to really feel good again. I was going to race IMWI hard and the hamstring would hold on or it wouldn’t. I had a pretty good day. The hamstring held on. I went 10:01 for #6AG. It was a good day for me, but still a little short for the KQ. I knew that M40-44 was stacked this year. I did the best I could on that day. Now what?
After a few days, I talked about the situation with my coach JonnyO. A 5 week turnaround to race IMLou would be tricky. I needed to rest and recover, but not lose any fitness. I’m in.
2017 IMLOU race report
Recovery from IMWI was quick. I felt great 1 week post-race. 10 days post-race I was hitting hard workouts again and feeling strong. For those that like the numbers:
Week 1 = 4.5 hrs +321 tss
Week 2 = 13 hrs + 853tss
Week 3 = 14.5 hrs +994 tss
Week4=12 hrs+717 tss
Week 5=14 hrs +935 tss includes the IMLou race
I was very confident in my fitness 3 weeks after IMWI until…the last long ride on the Saturday 2 weeks before IMLOU. It was a great ride, .8 IF (240 NP)for 4 hours. I did it. It was a great ride. It absolutely sapped me. Week 4 I started to ease into a taper that continued and accelerated into week 5. I really mentally felt flat. I wasn’t burnt out or hurt, just lacking any pop about anything really. This is IM # 7 for me. I know the drill. I did Louisville last year. Just get it done I kept telling myself. Nothing really to note pre-race other than I flatted my front tire in the hotel parking lot heading to drop the bike off. Oh well, better today than tomorrow I tell myself. Writing down my estimated times for my wife, I tallied up a 9:40. I was almost shocked by that. I still doubted my capabilities to pull that off.
This year the swim start was changed from a first come single file line to one that was self-seeded swim time single file line. Even swimming a 1:05, that moved me way up in the line from where I started last year. That was a huge help with congestion for me on the course. My swim was pretty uneventful. 2.4 miles is a long distance to swim. I somehow managed a 1:03.
T1 was smooth. I grabbed my stuff without issues. I had a volunteer hold my bike near the mount line as I put my shoes on and off I went.
Bike: My plan was to ride 220 NP all day. We upped my calories a bit from WI to try to set me up for a better run. I had 2 bottles of Carbo Pro mixed with Gatorade and emptied salt stick capsules for a total of 1750 calories and a planned ride of 5 hours. The bike was normal for an IM. A few blatant drafters, that I always call out when I can, hardly any course marshals, a few people riding in the middle of the road, some wind gusts, some hills, and lots of people sitting upright on their TT bike. The bike was fine until my stomach started to feel just a smidge off around mile 100, so I backed off just a bit and road into T2 about 15 watts lower than the rest of the ride. Bike split of 4:54, 219NP, 214AW, all calories in.
T2 was smooth again, not crowded at all J
Run: Heading out onto the run course I knew one of the mistakes I made in WI was one that most of us do, I ran the first mile or 2 way too fast. I really concentrated on keeping the pace in check as most of the first mile at Lou is up hill to boot. I thought I could run a 8:00 pace for the entire 26.2, so I didn’t really want to go any faster than 7:45 for the first 13.1. I saw my wife at mile 1 and she informed me that I was showing as number 7 AG. That wasn’t really what I wanted to hear. I had hoped to had picked off a few more spots on the bike, but oh well. About 5 miles into my run, the expected front swept through the area. As I was trying not to be blown off the run course, my heart went out to the many people still out on their bikes. It had to have been scary out there. It was almost scary running with so much debris blowing, it was crazy. But thankfully the temp dropped like 15 degrees in 30 minutes, from a warm day to a great running temp day. Anyways, I was successful in keeping my pace in check. About half way back to the far turn around, mile 17ish, still feeling good, I decided that the time was right to take the chains off and run however my body wanted to run. Continuing to feel good into the low 20’s I tried to push my pace a bit. I concentrated on driving with my legs and relaxing my upper body and NOT slowing down. It was hard, but I felt good for the entire run. This is a TT race, you’ve got to go hard all the way through the finish line, and I did just that. A 3:23 run and an unbelievable negative split.
Overall time of 9:30:44, that still feels weird to type and say.
I ended up #5 ag in M40-44. There were 4 slots and I very excitedly took a roll down slot and
I AM GOING TO KONA!!!