To start, I will be having this discussion with my personal physician but I’m interested to know if any other men in their late 40s early 50s have had similar problems with their bladder during an Ironman. This past weekend at Ironman Florida, during the run, I was forced to stop and urinate literally every 15 minutes give or take a few minutes. It was very frustrating and somewhat concerning to be fully emptying my bladder at such an abnormal frequency. I stuck to my usual hydration plan of 1 bottle of Scratch Labs hydration an hour on the bike along with Clif Blocks solid nutrition and I did urinate twice during the bike leg. It was much cooler and less humid in PCB then I’m used to down here in SWFL so I’m thinking maybe I over hydrated but the frequency and volume still seems extremely abnormal. On a couple occasions I almost had accidents when the aide station porta-potties were occupied. I do have family history of prostate enlargement so I’m wondering if that is something, perhaps being on the bike for 5 1/2 hours inflamed or aggravated something? What are your thoughts on this rather embarrassing issue?
Every 15 minutes seems extreme. That said, I urinated a number of times on the bike and run in FL while on the go. As you noted temps were fairly cool for Ironman standards so it’s possible your sweat rate was lower/you did not need as much fluid as you are used to consuming in a hotter race. That is what I’m chalking my experience up to at least.
Kinda all of the above from my experience as guy in his 60’s. This is always a strange time of year, when things get cooler. I find I tend to overhydrate on the bike, the “older man’s” prostate getting banged around for hours on the bike along with the situation that once you start urinating frequently, your body tends to get into a mode where you keep needing to urinate frequently.
I will say things improved when I switched my bikes to Wove saddles. Pricy but worth it.
If it keeps up for a few more days, it is probably worth seeing a urologist just to make sure things are OK down there.
I have not. I hydrate pretty well but I sweat heavily (over 1l/hr) so it pretty much stays in balance. I think that TBV_Runner has it right, you may want to get a fit or try a new saddle and perhaps talk to a urologist.
Post-workout is different when you get older, I feel like I need to go every 15-20 minutes after big training days 
Did you get cold? I had that happen to me one time at an Ironman race where I got chili and just couldn’t get over it. I’m 65 and had no problems this time. I had to go once on the run and that was it.
Were you expressing a decent amount of urine each time you stopped or just a small amount due to an irritated bladder?
I did Florida as well and in that AG. Oddly enough, @DrAlexHarrison just sent this through his Saturday communications last week: (for the record, I pee’d once during the swim and once on the bike)
Don’t stop for number one. Pee in your kit and wash it away with water at the next aid station.
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Incredibly helpful, thank you!
First thought is a bladder infection. It’s easy to dehydrate from all the training for an IM and for me this leads to bladder issues. There’s a test kit available at the drugstore. Thinking you would have experienced these issues in training if it was an enlarged prostrate, but maybe this time it was also inflamed.
Since having prostate/urinary issues I came to the conclusion that I’m lucky to be a triathlete. I mean have you ever heard of a golfer, tennis player, or bowler being able to piss themselves while playing? The ability to pee on the swim, bike, and/or run is a performance enhancer in our sport!
This happened to me during IM Hamburg last year, I’m not a physician, but figured I took waaaaay too much caffeine on the bike (somewhere 1.5-2g) with the gels. Staying away from caffeinated gels now until the 2nd half of the run.
Absolutely, I am 59 and, unfortunately, urinate all the time. As others have noted, it seems to increase markedly with drops of temperatures. To your point, IMFL is certainly at the tail end of the racing calendar so the temperature, I have to assume, was dropping and, as you noted, you went from southern Florida to Panama City Beach and you noted the drop in temperatures. I am no doctor just speaking from personal experience.