Given that my IM South Africa and Wildflower reports got a bit long and never saw the light of day, I figure I better just write something quickly to share the experience at IM Texas. I like IM Texas not because I really love the course. I like it for the following reasons:
Massive thanks to Mike Young and family. I don't do away races anymore unless I get to do them with friends or have friends that will look out for me. After ending IM Switzerland 2011 in an ambulance from a crash all family members feel more comfortable when I have "family" at the race venue.
They say you should not race the other racers, just race the conditions. Race with the body you have on race day, not the body you THINK you have....oh man, if I just had the body I THOUGHT I HAVE and if the conditions were fast....but alas. Heck, I wish I had the body I had 2 weeks ago at Wildflower where I was 2nd in 50-54....
Race morning I emailed my buddies back home at 6:15 am and said, "this place has humidity so thick it's worse than Borneo after a monsoon rain". I better adjust my race plan. Original plan was to target sub 10:30 with a 70 min no wetsuit swim, 5:10 bike, 4 hour run. I had some really good bike training and my wattages have been close to all time highs and some nerve problems with my bad left leg from a 2011 crash were under control (they were very bothersome on the bike in South Africa) where I was 12th in 50-54. I just ran sub 4 at IM South Africa and felt I could do it again.
The swim went to plan. I loved the rolling start and emerged into the transition "mud pit" in 71 minutes. Getting out of transition was a bit long and took me over 4 minutes (yikes). Onto the bike, my plan was to ride the first 100K at around 188W to beat the wind as much as possible and then dial back in the last 80K and focus on fueling for the run and end up with an average of 182W which is what I did in my last 4 IM's (Texas, Whistler, Tremblant, South Africa).
I was really happy with the relative lack of congestion and everyone racing pretty clean. I don't know what it is about Texas but in my 4th time racing in this state I find you guys are generally better than back at my "home race" at Tremblant , where the races invariably explode into draft fests at some point and as I was riding along thinking that, we got into the hillier area. On the downhills I get into my extreme tuck sitting on the top tube with head buried on the aerobars, elbows tucked into the hips, and quickly catch/pass guys pedaling. At this point, I closed quickly on a draft zone, but ran out of "downhill". But I know the rules and not do the 400W surge to make the pass. At that very moment, I was dinged for my first drafting penalty in 29 Ironmans.
On the one hand I was really upset with myself. I know the rules and I am an "on the bubble" athletes. I need every minute to get within the Kona rolldown bubble...most importantly, I know the rules and always harp on them. At the same time, I was happy. I was happy because I am on WTC/Jimmy Riccitello's case after every race about what is or is not working in terms of race fairness, so I was happy that WTC officials did exactly what I asked for...give racers a fair race.
I asked where the next penalty tent was, and then mentally got over it with a plan re adjustment to account for the penalty.
By 100K while I was on track for my wattage goal, I was having problems with my right pelvis. The story here is long and I don't like making excuses, but because of my accident in 2011, I had to re learn how to walk, then jog, then ride a bike. At first my left leg would come involuntarily unclipped. At IM South Africa, my leg was reverting to this behaviour, so I was very diligent to do all my core/rehab/stability work before Wildflower and Texas, but on Monday of race week I kind of messed something up and pulled my right groin. By end of week, the pain was gone, but the tightness was there. 100K into the bike both the hip flexor and right glute were in pain. This is the part of "race the body you have, not the one you think you have". My original plan was to do a lot of "soft pedaling" in the second half to bring my average down to 182W (at this point I was at 188W) and focus on refueling and digestion (digestion is always easier at low watts). Well, it was not even a choice. Each time I looked at my power meter, I saw numbers like 155W, 165W etc etc. This is barely my warmup pace. My recovery pace for intervals is 180W and I could not even hold that.
I decided, to just work with what I had. My B goal bike time was sub 5:30 in case of wind or body no cooperating and I went with that. I needed to ride closer to 5:10 to be in KQ range, but the reality is, I still need a rolldown. So I decided that rather than worry about "racing", I would see what I could get out of my body. Rather than sub 10:30 shoot for the B goal of sub 11.
I served my penalty at mile 93 or so and then mentally got ready for the run. Cruised into transition in 5:29 with the penalty (so 5:24 ride time) at 174W (my last 4 IM's were 182, 181, 182, 181W)
At IM South Africa, my run was 3:58 in similar temps and less humidity. Leaving T2, the race clock was 6:48. I needed 4:10 for a sub 11. I started the run and the hip was fine for running now with my body out of the aero position. I gave it 3 miles at the pace I need to get to sub 4. I pretty well know my "degradation profile" and what pace I need to feel comfortable at early to end up at a final decent run. I felt the perceived exertion was too high and with the humidity in Woodlands to hit sub 4 and quickly adjusted my effort so that I could at least not walk and hit a 4:10. The rest of the run was spent in nutrition and pacing management. Gradually, I moved from 30th off the bike to 17th as I later found out. In 50-54, you don't have to run fast for placements behind the front of pack....you just have to keep running.
The course alternated between feeling like a sauna in the Borneo rain forest of a 90F wind tunnel. I don't know what was worse. Finally lap 3 was ending. I looked at my watch and I was at 10:55 with the final stretch to go. Sub 11 was in the bag. I came in at 10:58. Not the best day for "racing" but an excellent day for mental execution.
This was my 29th Ironman. I have run EVERY Step in 28 of them. I am pleased that I have never come to an Ironman simply with a goal to tour. I have always felt that I came to RACE. At heart, even though my legs don't run as fast as they once did (drive by brag, I was a 2:48 marathoner 20 years ago), I am still a racer at heart. The racing today is racing my own body, not racing others. As life moves on, we find new challenges in racing, not chasing the ghost of our former selves.
This spring was a really tough work schedule. I have already flown over 70,000 miles this year on biz travel. I spend half of my time on the road, running in parking lots, treadmills, airport gyms, hotel 8 m pools, and flipping constantly over 8-14 hours of time zones as I started off new business initiatives at work. I know everyone has their own challenges. What is cool that if you are using a 4G network to read this report, you're reading it through the interconnect switching semiconductors that my team does. The cost of winning 100% of the 4G market is myself and teammates having this very nomadic life trying to win in global markets. Trying to train like a pro on top of this is borderline insanity, but as I told my friend Rob Gray, I have been living like this since i joined the Armed Forces. I was the crazy guy doing squats with my rucksack in the field to gain fitness, or intentionally taking "punishment laps and pushups" to get fitter so that I could get the higest score on the fitness test. Some things just end up being part of the DNA.
At the finish line the FIRST person I met with Jimmy Riccitello,
Jimmy, "Congrats Dev, how was it out there"
Dev, "I signed up for the wind and humidity and it broke me"
Jimmy, "How as the officiating and drafting"
Dev, "Jimmy, hats off you guys did an awesome job. I got my first penalty in 29 Ironmans...went into a draft zone and did not make the pass"
Jimmy, "Well, it is rare that people stand up and take ownership for their violations, but good to know"
Dev, "The rolling start worked well to break it up a bit, but your guys were everywhere pretty well all the time. Thanks...this is what I always ask".
And so it ends.
Massive thanks to Mike Young without whom I could not have done the race, and to Rob Gray back in San Jose. Rob has been my "training partner" all spring as I seemingly spend a lot of time in San Jose on biz. We had some awesome hammerfests up Mount Hamilton, Metcalfe and Sierra climbs as well as a fun trip to Wildflower. More on that soon.
Final times 71 min swim, 5:29 bike (174W average), 4:09 run, 8 min of transitions, 10:58, 17th M50-54, 258th overall.
- It is in the same time zone (more or less) as home, so I can fly into it and out of it quickly. I only need to use 2 days of vacation and being a Saturday race , I can be home on Sunday and at work the next day
- Although I suck at riding in wind, because of the wind and oher elements IM Texas is a clean race. Everyone who beats me is a better athletes on the day
- I love the run set up and support....the multi loops and fan support is 1000x better than many IM's where you are in the middle of nowhere on the run
- The heat and humidity on the run will always favour me, as long as I just shuffle. No matter how badly I swim and bike, guys will blow up from over cooking it
Massive thanks to Mike Young and family. I don't do away races anymore unless I get to do them with friends or have friends that will look out for me. After ending IM Switzerland 2011 in an ambulance from a crash all family members feel more comfortable when I have "family" at the race venue.
They say you should not race the other racers, just race the conditions. Race with the body you have on race day, not the body you THINK you have....oh man, if I just had the body I THOUGHT I HAVE and if the conditions were fast....but alas. Heck, I wish I had the body I had 2 weeks ago at Wildflower where I was 2nd in 50-54....
Race morning I emailed my buddies back home at 6:15 am and said, "this place has humidity so thick it's worse than Borneo after a monsoon rain". I better adjust my race plan. Original plan was to target sub 10:30 with a 70 min no wetsuit swim, 5:10 bike, 4 hour run. I had some really good bike training and my wattages have been close to all time highs and some nerve problems with my bad left leg from a 2011 crash were under control (they were very bothersome on the bike in South Africa) where I was 12th in 50-54. I just ran sub 4 at IM South Africa and felt I could do it again.
The swim went to plan. I loved the rolling start and emerged into the transition "mud pit" in 71 minutes. Getting out of transition was a bit long and took me over 4 minutes (yikes). Onto the bike, my plan was to ride the first 100K at around 188W to beat the wind as much as possible and then dial back in the last 80K and focus on fueling for the run and end up with an average of 182W which is what I did in my last 4 IM's (Texas, Whistler, Tremblant, South Africa).
I was really happy with the relative lack of congestion and everyone racing pretty clean. I don't know what it is about Texas but in my 4th time racing in this state I find you guys are generally better than back at my "home race" at Tremblant , where the races invariably explode into draft fests at some point and as I was riding along thinking that, we got into the hillier area. On the downhills I get into my extreme tuck sitting on the top tube with head buried on the aerobars, elbows tucked into the hips, and quickly catch/pass guys pedaling. At this point, I closed quickly on a draft zone, but ran out of "downhill". But I know the rules and not do the 400W surge to make the pass. At that very moment, I was dinged for my first drafting penalty in 29 Ironmans.
On the one hand I was really upset with myself. I know the rules and I am an "on the bubble" athletes. I need every minute to get within the Kona rolldown bubble...most importantly, I know the rules and always harp on them. At the same time, I was happy. I was happy because I am on WTC/Jimmy Riccitello's case after every race about what is or is not working in terms of race fairness, so I was happy that WTC officials did exactly what I asked for...give racers a fair race.
I asked where the next penalty tent was, and then mentally got over it with a plan re adjustment to account for the penalty.
By 100K while I was on track for my wattage goal, I was having problems with my right pelvis. The story here is long and I don't like making excuses, but because of my accident in 2011, I had to re learn how to walk, then jog, then ride a bike. At first my left leg would come involuntarily unclipped. At IM South Africa, my leg was reverting to this behaviour, so I was very diligent to do all my core/rehab/stability work before Wildflower and Texas, but on Monday of race week I kind of messed something up and pulled my right groin. By end of week, the pain was gone, but the tightness was there. 100K into the bike both the hip flexor and right glute were in pain. This is the part of "race the body you have, not the one you think you have". My original plan was to do a lot of "soft pedaling" in the second half to bring my average down to 182W (at this point I was at 188W) and focus on refueling and digestion (digestion is always easier at low watts). Well, it was not even a choice. Each time I looked at my power meter, I saw numbers like 155W, 165W etc etc. This is barely my warmup pace. My recovery pace for intervals is 180W and I could not even hold that.
I decided, to just work with what I had. My B goal bike time was sub 5:30 in case of wind or body no cooperating and I went with that. I needed to ride closer to 5:10 to be in KQ range, but the reality is, I still need a rolldown. So I decided that rather than worry about "racing", I would see what I could get out of my body. Rather than sub 10:30 shoot for the B goal of sub 11.
I served my penalty at mile 93 or so and then mentally got ready for the run. Cruised into transition in 5:29 with the penalty (so 5:24 ride time) at 174W (my last 4 IM's were 182, 181, 182, 181W)
At IM South Africa, my run was 3:58 in similar temps and less humidity. Leaving T2, the race clock was 6:48. I needed 4:10 for a sub 11. I started the run and the hip was fine for running now with my body out of the aero position. I gave it 3 miles at the pace I need to get to sub 4. I pretty well know my "degradation profile" and what pace I need to feel comfortable at early to end up at a final decent run. I felt the perceived exertion was too high and with the humidity in Woodlands to hit sub 4 and quickly adjusted my effort so that I could at least not walk and hit a 4:10. The rest of the run was spent in nutrition and pacing management. Gradually, I moved from 30th off the bike to 17th as I later found out. In 50-54, you don't have to run fast for placements behind the front of pack....you just have to keep running.
The course alternated between feeling like a sauna in the Borneo rain forest of a 90F wind tunnel. I don't know what was worse. Finally lap 3 was ending. I looked at my watch and I was at 10:55 with the final stretch to go. Sub 11 was in the bag. I came in at 10:58. Not the best day for "racing" but an excellent day for mental execution.
This was my 29th Ironman. I have run EVERY Step in 28 of them. I am pleased that I have never come to an Ironman simply with a goal to tour. I have always felt that I came to RACE. At heart, even though my legs don't run as fast as they once did (drive by brag, I was a 2:48 marathoner 20 years ago), I am still a racer at heart. The racing today is racing my own body, not racing others. As life moves on, we find new challenges in racing, not chasing the ghost of our former selves.
This spring was a really tough work schedule. I have already flown over 70,000 miles this year on biz travel. I spend half of my time on the road, running in parking lots, treadmills, airport gyms, hotel 8 m pools, and flipping constantly over 8-14 hours of time zones as I started off new business initiatives at work. I know everyone has their own challenges. What is cool that if you are using a 4G network to read this report, you're reading it through the interconnect switching semiconductors that my team does. The cost of winning 100% of the 4G market is myself and teammates having this very nomadic life trying to win in global markets. Trying to train like a pro on top of this is borderline insanity, but as I told my friend Rob Gray, I have been living like this since i joined the Armed Forces. I was the crazy guy doing squats with my rucksack in the field to gain fitness, or intentionally taking "punishment laps and pushups" to get fitter so that I could get the higest score on the fitness test. Some things just end up being part of the DNA.
At the finish line the FIRST person I met with Jimmy Riccitello,
Jimmy, "Congrats Dev, how was it out there"
Dev, "I signed up for the wind and humidity and it broke me"
Jimmy, "How as the officiating and drafting"
Dev, "Jimmy, hats off you guys did an awesome job. I got my first penalty in 29 Ironmans...went into a draft zone and did not make the pass"
Jimmy, "Well, it is rare that people stand up and take ownership for their violations, but good to know"
Dev, "The rolling start worked well to break it up a bit, but your guys were everywhere pretty well all the time. Thanks...this is what I always ask".
And so it ends.
Massive thanks to Mike Young without whom I could not have done the race, and to Rob Gray back in San Jose. Rob has been my "training partner" all spring as I seemingly spend a lot of time in San Jose on biz. We had some awesome hammerfests up Mount Hamilton, Metcalfe and Sierra climbs as well as a fun trip to Wildflower. More on that soon.
Final times 71 min swim, 5:29 bike (174W average), 4:09 run, 8 min of transitions, 10:58, 17th M50-54, 258th overall.
Last edited by:
devashish_paul: May 20, 15 8:00