Hi - Pretty much a straight cut and paste of my race report, apologies for the length, this race meant a lot to me and I wanted to capture as much as I could. Stop at the readers digest version if it is too much!
James Graham – Ironman Canada Race Report 2009 (36min PB):
Readers Digest Version:
• 10:57 finishing time.
• Tough day in strong winds and heat temperature in the 90’s.
• 2nd Ironman after Wisconsin in 2008 Personal Best of 36minutes on a significantly harder day than Wisconsin.
• Solid Execution including a strong bike followed up by hanging tough on a hot hilly run course to break 11hours.
Race Photo’s:
http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?S=20&EVENTID=45838&BIB=867&DIVISION=&TEAM=
Preamble:
Training had been very solid during the offseason and through the in-season. Consistency and durability were excellent didn’t swim at all between Sep and March and really just concentrated on short hard bike and run sessions to lift my power and VDOT run thresholds during the offseason. During the in-season really just worked hard, only rode 100miles twice and almost all of my rides were 4 – 4.5 hours max just made sure when I was riding I was riding hard and through the hills of Litchfield County in CT. The same can be said about my run training just 4-5 days a week of back to back running with a tempo run, long run and 3 x transition runs a week for an average of 35 miles a week. Think my biggest training week between Nov and March was 7 hours and between March and Aug 17hours. Straight out of the EN coach’s playbook 
I had two goals in 2009 1/ To go sub 5hrs at a HIM, 1st goal achieved at Eagleman 4:56hrs despite having a really bad race. 2/ Go sub 11hrs at IM Canada goal achieved.
Pre-Race
Arrived in Penticton with the wife sans kids on the Tuesday did the usual IM race week things swum most days drove and rode the bike course and just tried to relax, I must admit I was kinda nervous the first few days, it was just so freaking hot felt like you were in an oven. Given the lack of a summer we have had here in the North East I knew it was going to be a tough day for me with no heat acclimatization, race day was forecast to be in the 90’s. On about Thursday I started to relax and just decided I would go out and execute as best as I could and not worry about time this freed me up and put me in a really good place mentally.
Swim – 1:10hrs 1:39/100YD pace (826/2595 Place)
My swimming is really weak this year compared to last year but that is what happens when you take 6 months off swimming and really only swim for 3 months in lead up to an Ironman. Funny thing is in 2008 I swum a 1:10 at Wisconsin on about 1:06 swim fitness. The difference was all down to positioning. At Wisconsin I swum on the buoy line and got crushed the whole time. At Canada I started with the 1:05 swimmers as far wide of the buoys as I could and just caught drafts around the course as the faster swimmers went past me. I took minimal contact the whole way and pushed it fairly hard the last 1/2mile back.
T1 – 4.43mins
Hit the lake edge and ran as hard as I could through transition changed as quick as I could lost probably a minute as my compression socks didn’t want to slide on my wet feet. Handed my bag to a volunteer and then sprinted through grabbed my bike and was off. Really happy with this transition time.
Bike – 5:36hrs, 20mph (445/2595 )
Power Zones as follows: Function Threshold 1 hour Power (FTP) 280 watts.
Watts/Kilo: 3.5watts
Plan as Follows:
FTP: 280 Watts
Estimate Time: 5:50 conservative time.
IF: 70%.
Macro TSS Budget for the ride: 288TSS.
Power Gears:
1st Hour Flats 1st 186
Flats after 1 hour 2nd 196
Hill Cap 80% of FTP3rd 224
Nutrition Plan:
Infinit fluid containing 280cals per hour, and 4 E Caps per hour. Had the 1 x bottle of infinit on the bike with 3.5hours and another bottle at special needs with 2.5hours of fluid.
Started out of Transition and just couldn’t believe how crowded it was couldn’t find clear space and rode like a bit of a twit at stages as I didn’t; want to get pinged so ended up spending power where I didn’t want too, spun up Mclean road and really pushed the downhill which was scary some of the people on the course had no right to be on a bike. Saw a really nasty crash at about mile 13, tried to ride really conservative and tried to take advantage of the tail wind out to Ossoyos (Sp?) First section of ride as follows:
To Ossoyos:
Duration: 1:40:00
Work: 1074 kJ
TSS: 73.8 (intensity factor 0.665)
Norm Power: 186
VI: 1.04
Distance: 35.447 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 447 179 watts
Cadence: 38 174 92 rpm
Speed: 3.7 29.7 21.3 mph
Perfect couldn’t have ridden that much better conserved here but averaged a good speed.
Hit Richter Pass and I really wanted to ride easy here, nothing to be gained and I knew afterward would come the 7 sisters which in my opinion is probably the hardest part of the course. I just spun up the climb and watched all the hammerheads mash past me, reckon I got passed by 100 people at least through this section. Given I passed approx. 600 people from the swim to the end of the run I am guessing I probably passed 98 of these people back. It was now starting to get hot and the wind was blowing down the ascent.
Richter Ascent:
Duration: 30:42
Work: 381 kJ
TSS: 28.8 (intensity factor 0.75)
Norm Power: 210
VI: 1.02
Distance: 5…314 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 333 207 watts
Cadence: 54 108 75 rpm
Speed: 6.1 29.3 10.4 mph
Really happy with the above numbers climbed right at the bottom of my climbing range and kept a nice even power output at a nice cadence as evidenced by the low VI and NPower.
Felt really good on the decent down from Richter and felt like I hadn’t ridden at all and just stayed low in my bars and finally had some room to ride. Hit the 7 sisters who consist of 7 climbs of about ½ a mile each I really concentrated on riding steady on the descents and flats and spinning up the climbs by this stage the wind was really blowing and it was hot. Cleared the 7 rollers and that was the point for me to start riding I had now cleared the hardest area of the course and was at about mile 60. Also worth noting after mile 60 I was not passed by another rider for the rest of the day that I did not over take again.
7 Sisters as follows:
Duration: 29:21
Work: 355 kJ
TSS: 27.3 (intensity factor 0.747)
Norm Power: 209
VI: 1.04
Distance: 7.546 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 45 323 202 watts
Cadence: 50 136 84 rpm
Speed: 6.2 29.5 15.5 mph
The reminder of the ride to Karameneos (Sp?) and then onto the Out and Back I rolled the dice a bit in a controlled way if that is possible? I knew I was never going to be able to run a 3:45-3:50 in the heat so I would need to make it up on the bike I pushed hard on the flats and downhill’s and really gunned the out and back my logic was as the last 12miles of the course was downhill to town I would not expend as much juice in this section and the ride would be effectively done at mile 100. I was hammering it through the out and back just head down parked on my power computer sitting at 200watts averaging 26-28 with the wind and 15 or so into the wind I could see people starting to crack now and I was going past a lot of people. Had a quick sneak peak at my mileage and speed on my computer and quickly did the math and realized I was on track to ride a sub 5:30, holy sh*t where had that come from?
Exited the out and back and then I hit the headwind up the long false flat to the long climb at Yellow Lake, speed really dropped here and I just concentrated on holding my power numbers and getting as low as I could on the bike. The bike climb up to Yellow Lake was awesome but very hot, sweat was just pouring off me the crowds were awesome passed Fred (Salinfast) on the way up he would later pass me on Mile 7 of the run. Cleared the top of Yellow Lake and started the decent to Penticton. I did a quick mental check and felt really great given how hard I had pushed from mile 60 - 80 I was second guessing had I gone too hard? I made the decision right there to push for T2. I new I would need every minute I could get as a buffer on the run and for me not going sub 11 would be a failure and I had to be in to win.
Not sure why but my power tap only recorded 5:03hrs of the ride. Extrapolating up for and additional 33minutes I calculate a TSS of ~275ish with the IF and NP for the ride exactly where I wanted them to be. Reason of course actual TSS was less than 288 Macro TSS budget is I was off the bike 20+ minutes faster than I thought I would be. VI very good as well at 1:04 I rode very steady through the whole ride and spent my power where I could ride fast.
Entire workout (187 watts):
Duration: 5:03:42
Work: 3400 kJ
TSS: 243.1 (intensity factor 0.693)
Norm Power: 194
VI: 1.04
Distance: 92.27 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 447 187 watts
Cadence: 38 183 88 rpm
T2 – 3:10mins
Came of the bike flew through transition grabbed my Garmin set it on the ground got my gear on and was ready to go but my Garmin was still acquiring satellites. Ducked into the Porto Pot quickly and came out and grabbed my Garmin. Probably lost a minute here.
Run – 4:03hrs, 9:18min/mile (330/2595 Place)
My Pacing Plan based on a VDOT of 50 was: (I hadn’t tested since April so guess closer to 52)
First 6miles @ 9min/mile
Mile 7-> End @ 8:30min/mile.
It took me about .5 of a mile to realize I was not going to be able to run those paces it was brutally hot and the wind had all but disappeared. I knew I would have to run faster than a 4:07 marathon to break 11hrs and was now on to my strongest leg easy huh? Or so I thought
Running along Lake Shore about 1.5mile into the run I suddenly developed a gas bubble under my ribs have never had one of these before and I knew this was bad. I took a tum and went a little light on my infinit. Basically managed an upset stomach all the way to mile 14 but it went away then.
Ran through the first 6miles and felt ok lots of ice and sponges and Ecaps with infinit at each station was experiencing a few cramps in my hip flexor and heel, but other than that legs felt great. Mile 8 things started to get very hard, the heat was just crushing me, people were starting to walk run around me I wanted to hold 9min miles as long as I could so just kept barreling along. I kept thinking I shouldn’t feel this bad, had I miss-paced the bike? Kept running along Skaha lake and then hit the big climb at mile 10 – 11 ended up walking half of this hill was a real struggle to get running again and just in the nick of time there was a big descend and a breeze kicked up off the lake pounded down the hill at 7:30 pace. And that would be how I would run the big hills from mile 10 – 15 I would run/walk the up hills then pound down the down-hills. My legs felt great as I was running so slowly and they were conditioned to run at sub 8pace but I just had no energy from the heat. **Through the first 13.1 mi. (2:01:14) **basically between mile 11 – 13 I had gone from running average pace of 9:00’s to 9:15’s. I was starting to slow down big time.
Redoubled my efforts from 15miles and managed to get my average pace down to 9:10’s by mile 18. Coach Rich & Patrick talk about the importance of having your 1 thing’s to get you past the line and to the end. I had exhausted all of mine by mile 18. Walked through the mile 19 aide station and couldn’t start up running again, decided I would walk until my average pace on my Garmin showed 9:12, did that and tried to run again and couldn’t I was just frying from the heat I had lost control of my race I just walked. There were three ambulances parked along this stretch with people getting oxygen and IV’s. I so desperately wanted to get in one to get a break from the heat. Got to mile 20 and my average pace were up to 9:18. In one mile I had gone from average 9:10’ to 9:18 pace another mile like that and sub 11hrs would not happen. I started the cola then that helped me big time I then had my final new one thing “I kept repeating to myself if you break 11hrs I will never force you to do another one of these things again and at the time I meant it” busted through mile 20 fast my legs felt great they could run fast it was just my cooling systems weren’t working dragged my average pace back to 9:15 and I walked through mile 21 aide station and carried on walking through the aide station until the average pace on my Garmin showed 9:18 again. I would then again bust the rest of the mile at sub 8 pace to the next aide station and drag the pace down to 9:15 again I had my strategy I repeated this to about mile 24 then I hit the crowds and they got me through to the end. Final 13.1 mi. (2:02:34).
In all honesty I have never suffered so much in anything in my life; even now I wonder did I push the bike too hard? I don’t; think so is the answer. My run splits look very close but they don’t tell the true story I walked 2 of the last 8miles. I think if I made one mistake it was I maybe ran the first 6miles too fast I maybe should have adjusted my first 6miles to 9:30’s. I was expecting to run a 3:45 – 3:50 run, both of my long runs in training were 2:30hrs, 18.5miles at 8min mile pace but big difference in running on the hills in Connecticut at 4am in 70degree temperature vs the day we got at Canada. Also looking at my run position I got 330th out of 2600 with only a 4:03hr run that says how hard a day it was. It was my best placing of the day in all the legs.
Final Thoughts:
Ironman Canada is just the most beautiful course ever, I really like Placid but Canada is 100% better and just as challenging. The crowd support was awesome and the volunteers were amazing. My only criticism was how crowded the course was it was just damn right dangerous on the bike especially given how bad triathlete’s bike handling abilities are it was like playing Russian Roulette for the first 40miles out to Ossoyoos.
I am still stunned about my bike split. I rode a 6:02 at Wisconsin in 2008 so big improvement. I have seen a huge jump in my fitness and ability this year and with a kinder temperature day which would have let me run to my ability I think a 10:40hr time was a real possibility. The good thing is I am so far away from my potential I can still see big improvements over the next couple of years as have only really been training consistently for two years and my body is still adapting to the 37lbs I have lost since Sep 2006 and 10 years of doing nothing.
My racing plan for the next 18months is IM L Placid next year 2010 where I want to go sub 10:30 and then IM NZ in March 2011. Yes I will be doing another IM I have almost forgotten how much this IM hurt
Big shout out to Rich and Patrick from EN these guy’s just drip integrity and there number one concern is their athlete’s. Been a fantastic 2 years training in the Haus.
NZ sounds incredible. I’ll have to see if Kyra will go for that since I’m not doing an IM next year!