Well March 6th was a blast. How can IM ACTUALLY be fun. Well I just found out how.
Race day dawned quite chilly but not cold. A gentle mist was rising from the lake (making navigation a bit tricky). The water had dropped to 16 degrees C after several weeks of rain and cloud. The swim course was altered since the flood gates on the river couldn't be closed. The course was NOT short as one friend suggested. If anything I think it was long. I certainly swam long, following some idiot doing a "Tour of the Stars Homes" rather than theIM swim course. The current also made a difference but not by too much. I was hoping for 58 min but did 1:02 so missed the swim prime :-(
The real bummer was the long jog in a wetsuit to T1. An additional 400m compared with the normal course. TriDork doesn't wobble very fast in a wetsuit, so this part sucked and I lost plenty of places before T1.
T1 was slow due to adding arm warmers and a vest to the attire for the bike ride. I should have put on my toe covers too. Onto my brand new Cervelo and away we went.
The bike ride was fantastic. I'd trained on the course a few times so was quite familiar with where to push and where to cruise. I followed Gordo's recommendation to go slowly for the first 40km and it worked a charm. I set my HRM to 150BPM and rode at 95 cadence. In hindsight, 155BBM would probably have shaved some bike time without damaging my run split. IMNZ bike couse is pretty devoid of traffice and relativley scenic so is very enjoyable. For the first 135km I felt awesome and on target for my planned 6 hour bike split, then I turned for the last time and faced the wind. Time to choose. Go hard, for a good bike split or keep the cadence and HR numbers and go for a good run split. Go with the numbers and cruise the bike was my choice. Surprisingly, I passed a few faltering people that had tried to pick up the pace. This never happens to TriDork so I was pretty darn pleased with myself. 6:33 was 1/2 hour behind schedule but I was feeling good, so not tooooo worried.
In to T2 I was truly FRESH and rearing to go. In the past I exit T2 with excrucitating back pain (sciatica) and legs of clay. This time I jogged (couldn't really call it a run) out of T2 and felt awesome. legs felt great, HR and breathing were excellent. I ran through town and back, grabbed some fluids and headed south to turnaround 1. I followed my plan of walking the aid stations and some of the tougher hills. (hey, at 1.7m and 85kg, all hills are tough!) I actually convinced myself of one thing. At a talk given by Cameron Brown several months ago I heard him say "it's 4 10km runs and a 2 km sprint for the finish". I thought to myself, I can run to the airport, so I did. At turn 1 I thought, hey, that didn't hurt so bad, I could do that again and it worked. I got to 21km right on plan (2 min early actually!) and thought to myself "wash, rinse, repeat as necessary" :-) so I headed south again.
By this time, my less than perfect hydration was starting to catch up with me. I normally drink from my drink bottle so I can measure my fluid intake. This time I was dousing myself with water from my bottle and drinking coke. I wasn't sure how much coke I was getting down and it proved too little. Damn. I still felt good. No blisters, no cramps, no wobbling, no headaches etc. I was slowing down simply becasue my breaks were more frequent and getting longer but when I was running I felt good. About 7km from home I starting realising I was going to do PB if I didn't blow up, but 13 hours was looking shaky. I pushed my writhing, heaving, sweaty body along the road as fast as my suffering would allow but 13 hours came and I was just short of the finish line. Damn again. A PB by 18 minutes but shy of a finish time with a "12" in it, by about 4 minutes. I was really happy to finish and in such great shape. Normally it's a limp, shuffle, wheezing finish. but not this time.
I spent time in the med tent for the first time, since I'd lost 4kg. The very salty soup made me spew which meant the medics wouldn't let me leave for a while. I tried to warm up under a blanket which made me look like a refugee, but I was elated at finishing with a PB and with no injuries. I guess I should have pushed the pace on the bike to get those 4 minutes but who's to say.
I'm back at work and I'mhaving a hard time concentrating, what withthis silly grin on my face. I can hardly wait for my next Im so I can set my HRM to 155 and see what happens.
TriDork
p.s. what a buzz. Come and do IMNZ some time and give me a call.
TriDork
"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"
Race day dawned quite chilly but not cold. A gentle mist was rising from the lake (making navigation a bit tricky). The water had dropped to 16 degrees C after several weeks of rain and cloud. The swim course was altered since the flood gates on the river couldn't be closed. The course was NOT short as one friend suggested. If anything I think it was long. I certainly swam long, following some idiot doing a "Tour of the Stars Homes" rather than theIM swim course. The current also made a difference but not by too much. I was hoping for 58 min but did 1:02 so missed the swim prime :-(
The real bummer was the long jog in a wetsuit to T1. An additional 400m compared with the normal course. TriDork doesn't wobble very fast in a wetsuit, so this part sucked and I lost plenty of places before T1.
T1 was slow due to adding arm warmers and a vest to the attire for the bike ride. I should have put on my toe covers too. Onto my brand new Cervelo and away we went.
The bike ride was fantastic. I'd trained on the course a few times so was quite familiar with where to push and where to cruise. I followed Gordo's recommendation to go slowly for the first 40km and it worked a charm. I set my HRM to 150BPM and rode at 95 cadence. In hindsight, 155BBM would probably have shaved some bike time without damaging my run split. IMNZ bike couse is pretty devoid of traffice and relativley scenic so is very enjoyable. For the first 135km I felt awesome and on target for my planned 6 hour bike split, then I turned for the last time and faced the wind. Time to choose. Go hard, for a good bike split or keep the cadence and HR numbers and go for a good run split. Go with the numbers and cruise the bike was my choice. Surprisingly, I passed a few faltering people that had tried to pick up the pace. This never happens to TriDork so I was pretty darn pleased with myself. 6:33 was 1/2 hour behind schedule but I was feeling good, so not tooooo worried.
In to T2 I was truly FRESH and rearing to go. In the past I exit T2 with excrucitating back pain (sciatica) and legs of clay. This time I jogged (couldn't really call it a run) out of T2 and felt awesome. legs felt great, HR and breathing were excellent. I ran through town and back, grabbed some fluids and headed south to turnaround 1. I followed my plan of walking the aid stations and some of the tougher hills. (hey, at 1.7m and 85kg, all hills are tough!) I actually convinced myself of one thing. At a talk given by Cameron Brown several months ago I heard him say "it's 4 10km runs and a 2 km sprint for the finish". I thought to myself, I can run to the airport, so I did. At turn 1 I thought, hey, that didn't hurt so bad, I could do that again and it worked. I got to 21km right on plan (2 min early actually!) and thought to myself "wash, rinse, repeat as necessary" :-) so I headed south again.
By this time, my less than perfect hydration was starting to catch up with me. I normally drink from my drink bottle so I can measure my fluid intake. This time I was dousing myself with water from my bottle and drinking coke. I wasn't sure how much coke I was getting down and it proved too little. Damn. I still felt good. No blisters, no cramps, no wobbling, no headaches etc. I was slowing down simply becasue my breaks were more frequent and getting longer but when I was running I felt good. About 7km from home I starting realising I was going to do PB if I didn't blow up, but 13 hours was looking shaky. I pushed my writhing, heaving, sweaty body along the road as fast as my suffering would allow but 13 hours came and I was just short of the finish line. Damn again. A PB by 18 minutes but shy of a finish time with a "12" in it, by about 4 minutes. I was really happy to finish and in such great shape. Normally it's a limp, shuffle, wheezing finish. but not this time.
I spent time in the med tent for the first time, since I'd lost 4kg. The very salty soup made me spew which meant the medics wouldn't let me leave for a while. I tried to warm up under a blanket which made me look like a refugee, but I was elated at finishing with a PB and with no injuries. I guess I should have pushed the pace on the bike to get those 4 minutes but who's to say.
I'm back at work and I'mhaving a hard time concentrating, what withthis silly grin on my face. I can hardly wait for my next Im so I can set my HRM to 155 and see what happens.
TriDork
p.s. what a buzz. Come and do IMNZ some time and give me a call.
TriDork
"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"