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Ultraman World Champs race report
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Here is a link to my full report with pics etc. and lots of details.



Below is a quick summary of stuff that STers may find interesting:

- training volume was relatively low (23.5 hours was my biggest week), 28 mile long run, 6 hour long ride
- lots of focus on quality over quantity for the run especially. The people you surround yourself with are critical (twice a week with Colleen de Reuck and Joanna Zeiger to force high quality tempo work). I view it as a good day if I can keep up with those two in training. And of course I usually have Billy Edwards, Tyler Butterfield, AJ Baucco and Davide Giardini way ahead up the road reminding me that I have a lot of work to do to reach their standard.
- 1X setup worked quite well, except for day 2 where I had 4 dropped chains for some reason (not exactly sure why, will investigate this over winter). I was on a small Dimond frame, with the new Zipp Vuka extension (which I love) and fit fine-tuned by Ivan O'Gorman.
- Zipp 454 was awesome. Also I took a risk and raced on Supersonics - they survived those harsh roads with zero flats
- The key to success this year was a lot of patience on the run. I started the run in about 15th place and was in 2nd by the end. I managed to negative split the run (52 miles from Hawi to Kona) with 3:30 first half, 3:29 second half. The main lesson I learned is to be very aware of your own limitations and to not think that on race day you will magically survive 52 miles running faster than you should.
- The pacing was critical - with my winning margin only 5 minutes.
- I am sure people will have questions about nutrition. Most of my race was fueled by Glukos products (bars, drink powder and gummies during, and protein bars after each day), but happy to answer anything else that people may want to know.



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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [Thomas Gerlach] [ In reply to ]
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Thomas Gerlach wrote:
All I saw was "supersonics"... Wow, just wow!!! Super congrats!!!

amen to that!

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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [Thomas Gerlach] [ In reply to ]
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Thomas Gerlach wrote:
All I saw was "supersonics"... Wow, just wow!!! Super congrats!!!

Amazingly they still look brand new. And on the Hilo side the roads are strewn with little volcano rocks and debris. Very impressed with them.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Hey Rob, on your 10 min run, 1 min walk around 2 months before the race we talked about how to pace the 10 minutes. Did you go with the "start faster after the rest walk and then settle in to a steady pace" or did you go with "start at the steady pace and then pick it up ini the last 1+ minute before the break" and then let the heart rate settle during the walk. Also did you find that the walk section allowed your body to settle down and heart rate drop ensuring you could both stay in fat burning mode as much as possible, while also allowing your body to absorb more nutrients. Finally what was your total cals over the double marathon, and how did you take those in. For example, I assume the first 60 min you are totally topped up from breakfast and last nites glycogen top up, but you're probably still wanting to fuel early in the run for later in the run spreading "lunch" over several hours. Also what time did you start racing and what time did you have breakfast, and what was breakfast and when were you last calories before race start?
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Hi Dev. I actually just aimed for 90 sec of walking during each 15 minute period. Relatively, even the run pace is mostly in "fat burning" mode since I'm only at 7:15-7:30 pace while running. I actually just started by feel, since my legs were quite sore from the previous days. My starting pace was more like 8:30 including the walks, and then I built up to faster running. After Kawaihae I did a few "blocks" at 7:30 pace including the walks, and then settled down again into an average of 8:00/mile.

Calorie goal was 250-300 per hour and it was mostly Glukos, some iced tea and then 4 x Mexican Coke after the first marathon. The only "solid" was one Glukos gummy per 15 min, just sitting under the tounge. I don't like chewing them anyway because they get stuck in my teeth.

I've got the precise calorie records in a spreadsheet that I've not yet looked at, but that was the ballpark number.

Breakfast was just one bagel with pnb and 2 x ensures

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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robgray wrote:
Hi Dev. I actually just aimed for 90 sec of walking during each 15 minute period. Relatively, even the run pace is mostly in "fat burning" mode since I'm only at 7:15-7:30 pace while running. I actually just started by feel, since my legs were quite sore from the previous days. My starting pace was more like 8:30 including the walks, and then I built up to faster running. After Kawaihae I did a few "blocks" at 7:30 pace including the walks, and then settled down again into an average of 8:00/mile.

Calorie goal was 250-300 per hour and it was mostly Glukos, some iced tea and then 4 x Mexican Coke after the first marathon. The only "solid" was one Glukos gummy per 15 min, just sitting under the tounge. I don't like chewing them anyway because they get stuck in my teeth.

I've got the precise calorie records in a spreadsheet that I've not yet looked at, but that was the ballpark number.

Breakfast was just one bagel with pnb and 2 x ensures

Did you go for 15 min run + 90 min walk to kind of target a nice round ~2 miles per "run-walk leg".....Why not 7:30 min on and 30 second walk (also 8 min mile average). Just curious what drove the breakdown. Did you prefer less frequent and longer walk breaks to keep yourself honest in terms of not getting tempted to take walking breaks more often?
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
robgray wrote:
Hi Dev. I actually just aimed for 90 sec of walking during each 15 minute period. Relatively, even the run pace is mostly in "fat burning" mode since I'm only at 7:15-7:30 pace while running. I actually just started by feel, since my legs were quite sore from the previous days. My starting pace was more like 8:30 including the walks, and then I built up to faster running. After Kawaihae I did a few "blocks" at 7:30 pace including the walks, and then settled down again into an average of 8:00/mile.

Calorie goal was 250-300 per hour and it was mostly Glukos, some iced tea and then 4 x Mexican Coke after the first marathon. The only "solid" was one Glukos gummy per 15 min, just sitting under the tounge. I don't like chewing them anyway because they get stuck in my teeth.

I've got the precise calorie records in a spreadsheet that I've not yet looked at, but that was the ballpark number.

Breakfast was just one bagel with pnb and 2 x ensures

Did you go for 15 min run + 90 min walk to kind of target a nice round ~2 miles per "run-walk leg".....Why not 7:30 min on and 30 second walk (also 8 min mile average). Just curious what drove the breakdown. Did you prefer less frequent and longer walk breaks to keep yourself honest in terms of not getting tempted to take walking breaks more often?

I think either would work just fine. I like the predictably of 4 walks per hour

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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robgray wrote:
devashish_paul wrote:
robgray wrote:
Hi Dev. I actually just aimed for 90 sec of walking during each 15 minute period. Relatively, even the run pace is mostly in "fat burning" mode since I'm only at 7:15-7:30 pace while running. I actually just started by feel, since my legs were quite sore from the previous days. My starting pace was more like 8:30 including the walks, and then I built up to faster running. After Kawaihae I did a few "blocks" at 7:30 pace including the walks, and then settled down again into an average of 8:00/mile.

Calorie goal was 250-300 per hour and it was mostly Glukos, some iced tea and then 4 x Mexican Coke after the first marathon. The only "solid" was one Glukos gummy per 15 min, just sitting under the tounge. I don't like chewing them anyway because they get stuck in my teeth.

I've got the precise calorie records in a spreadsheet that I've not yet looked at, but that was the ballpark number.

Breakfast was just one bagel with pnb and 2 x ensures


Did you go for 15 min run + 90 min walk to kind of target a nice round ~2 miles per "run-walk leg".....Why not 7:30 min on and 30 second walk (also 8 min mile average). Just curious what drove the breakdown. Did you prefer less frequent and longer walk breaks to keep yourself honest in terms of not getting tempted to take walking breaks more often?


I think either would work just fine. I like the predictably of 4 walks per hour

It seems like the hardest part to this would be to commit to the plan...early, the desire to run too fast and not take the walk breaks....later run too slow and take too long or more frequent walk breaks than the plan. I THINK that would be the hardest thing in many ways is just sticking with the plan and not getting tempted either way.
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Huge congrats, interested on how the small frame changed your fit or vice versa. (I am moving to new bike and smaller frame soon #positionwars)

2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [BBLOEHR] [ In reply to ]
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Mainly lower stack. The reach ended up around the same with the new extensions, pads more forward, as well as closer together. Seat height also ended up 7mm higher.

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [BBLOEHR] [ In reply to ]
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That Pinarello frame looks like awesome geometry for our #positionwars. I'd be tempted. Pity it costs like a bazillion $

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Before I even read it, I want to say congrats and I know this was an insane amount of hard work and science. Goddam bravo and all that. Absolutely amazing. Ok... now off to read it. lol.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats and thank you for your posts and contributions to the forum.
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Ok, one question... In my search to find an anti-chaindrop gadget, I also came across some tips that chain drop is caused by the chain being too long, which makes it too loose and it can bounce off. So there are two scenarios for this to start happening suddenly - 1. Riding tons indoors and stretching your chain (that's not by much and probably not it) and then riding the open road on race day where the bouncing makes it come off. And 2., getting a new chain for race day (totally reasonable) and that chain is just slightly a bit longer than your old one, and it doesn't take much to make a difference. I can totally see you getting one of these lube-treated superchains for the race (who wouldn't?) and then it's a tiny bit longer than your last chain that worked fine, and then this one bounces off more frequently.

This isn't a commonly known problem because 1x drivetrains aren't as common. New chain? Be super sure it's not longer than your old one instead of just eyeballing it.

Long question short, did you do a new chain? And did you keep your old one so you can measure against it to see if the new one is longer?

----------------------------------------------------------
Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [ZenTriBrett] [ In reply to ]
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Well, the chain is a whole saga in itself that I left out of the race report... So basically I had a few drops before I left, so I brought along a new chain that was a bit shorter. I rode all week in Hawaii (before the race) with the longer chain, no problems. Then, the day before the race I do my final bike ride. Everything is 100%. I come back, put on the brand new chain, and suddenly the di2 doesn't shift beyond #8 (impossible coincidence but there you go). We spend about 3 hours trying to fix it. I can't remember my passcode for the etube app, and then luckily we discovered that Michael has a Windows laptop. So we download etube project, update the firmware of the RD and suddenly everything is 100% again. Now I'm too spooked to put the new (shorter) chain back on again so I just leave the other one on. So I think you're right about chain length - I'll ride the short one when I get back home and see how it goes.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Great read, awesome achievement. Congratulations again.
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Awesome race - congrats! You've got it dialed in for sure.

Just curious - have you done any Vasa work for swimming lately? I'm guessing not, given the masters involvement, but curious if it's had any role in your training in the last year or even earlier than that.
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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robgray wrote:
That Pinarello frame looks like awesome geometry for our #positionwars. I'd be tempted. Pity it costs like a bazillion $

THAT FRAME, can't even begin to talk about how much I love it!

2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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lightheir wrote:
Awesome race - congrats! You've got it dialed in for sure.

Just curious - have you done any Vasa work for swimming lately? I'm guessing not, given the masters involvement, but curious if it's had any role in your training in the last year or even earlier than that.

I do tend to use it, but really just in the main Ultraman build. It's very useful for that sustainable tempo strength, which is what helps me a lot in UM. I'm coming out the water 10-15 minutes ahead of guys who swim Ironman faster than me. This year I spent most of the swim hours in the pool - Eney Jones had me working on my hip rotation more than my pull strength, and that is much better to do in the water than on dry land.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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Do you still use the dash saddle with the fancy carbon tail that holds the bottle horizontal? how do you keep the bottle in? I have that saddle and the bottle ejects every time you look at a bump.

Dimond Bikes Superfan
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [ericlambi] [ In reply to ]
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ericlambi wrote:
Do you still use the dash saddle with the fancy carbon tail that holds the bottle horizontal? how do you keep the bottle in? I have that saddle and the bottle ejects every time you look at a bump.

I do use that saddle but I don't mount a bottle in it. I had success with the Elite bottle cage (it has a ratchet dial to keep things tight), but with that angle I can't grab a bottle without seriously straining some muscle. You need to be a professional contortionist to get a bottle out of that thing. With my previous Dimond, I just put an XLAB pod in the cage with my flat kit (since I'll be off the bike when I need to access it), but with the new Marquise, I just put the flat kit in the integrated storage section near the BB.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [Thorax] [ In reply to ]
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Thorax wrote:
Great read, awesome achievement. Congratulations again.

Thanks so much

____________________________________

Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [robgray] [ In reply to ]
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robgray wrote:
lightheir wrote:
Awesome race - congrats! You've got it dialed in for sure.

Just curious - have you done any Vasa work for swimming lately? I'm guessing not, given the masters involvement, but curious if it's had any role in your training in the last year or even earlier than that.


I do tend to use it, but really just in the main Ultraman build. It's very useful for that sustainable tempo strength, which is what helps me a lot in UM. I'm coming out the water 10-15 minutes ahead of guys who swim Ironman faster than me. This year I spent most of the swim hours in the pool - Eney Jones had me working on my hip rotation more than my pull strength, and that is much better to do in the water than on dry land.

Better hip rotation should make you taller in the front and finish longer in the back and make you narrower overall....basically it should all add up to a bit more speed with the same energy expenditure when you are in cruise mode and not hammering hard. Is this what you found and is it why you are beating the same guys by that much over an Ultraman, because their pull fatigues, whereas on less pull, you're going just as fast and don't fatigue as much since the energy input is lower (meaning, you're more in a fat burning zone too and not depleting glycogen to the same degree)....and since you're in more fat burn through the swim, starting day 1 bike you're entering that leg with more stores topped up.
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Re: Ultraman World Champs race report [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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I think it comes down to me being more diesel than Ferrari. My 10k swim pace is the same as my 70.3 swim pace. Which says to me I really need to get faster over 2k! In the pool, 1:25/100m feels very easy, so I think there's some work to do on translating that to OW.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |
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