Ironman Coeur d’Alene was my first attempt at the full distance. I actually did a couple of short 3-hour triathlons last summer and liked it. I signed up in August 2004, not realizing what I would be getting myself into. I didn’t start taking my training seriously until the middle of April 05 at which time I ramped up from 10 to maybe 20 hours a week. I mostly did biking. I think I did 7-8 centuries in a span of 2 months preceding the June 26th event. It took a lot out of me. My training actually stopped about 3 weeks prior to the event due to a cold, which could be a good thing in disguise. I actually didn’t want to start tapering until 2 weeks before. During those 3 weeks preceding Coeur d’Alene I went down to 4 to 5 hours training a week for each of those 3 weeks.
I went over to Coeur d’Alene on Monday and Thursday before the event and did a couple of open water swims. The water was pretty cool, about 60 degrees. I actually did very little swimming in the 2 months preceding the event where as during the winter I was actually doing more. I don’t like to swim at the Y. It is very boring and tedious and my average heart rate for the swim was only 110. So I never really pushed it, but then again I could push it if I wanted to in training. For some reason I just couldn’t work harder in the water.
Saturday before the race. I had a sore knee (maybe a meniscus tear?) that has been there since February. For a while it hadn’t really bothered me that much. I found it interesting that it sort of perked up the actual day before the race, even though I didn’t feel it at all during the race. It didn’t bother me at all. Even after the race, for a week or two after it didn’t bother me. Although after yesterday’s 55 mile ride to the top of Mt. Spokane, 4,000 feet elevation, it has been bothering me(probably because of the low 50-60 cadence). I will have to have an MRI in a few months and see what it really is.
That morning I felt really good. I got up around 4:30. I was very nervous. I got all my stuff together and walked to the transition looking at other folk’s bikes. It was the most fascinating thing I ever saw. I saw someone have a what appeared to be a brownie taped to his bike frame with electrical tape and it looked like the tape you would have to cut to get out. You would need something to get it off like a pair of scissors. I noticed other people have gus taped to their frame, which seems to be a pretty good idea. I did see a lot of disc wheels. I got in the water before the swim, about 5 minutes before we started. The water wasn’t too cold when the gun went off. I started swimming and it was very disheartening to be squashed in between people and be hit in the head and knocked around quite a bit. I just kept pulling away and swam in different directions not the shortest straightest way. I thought it would possibly take me about 2 hours to complete the swim. After the first lap, which was1.2 miles, I looked at my watch and it said about 40 minutes, so I was pretty pleased when I got back in the water. It was not as crowded but I was still disenchanted and at one point I went the wrong way for a couple of moments. I got out of the water at 1:23 and was extremely pleased with that time. I went into the tent and spent 8 minutes in transition, which is 2 or 3 times longer than I should. I think next time I will wear my bike shorts underneath my wet suit.
When I was on the bike, it was sunny out about 70 degrees, just perfect. The first few miles of the bike were pretty easy going. There were a lot of people. It was quite a task. I finished my bike ride in about 5 hours and 53 minutes. That average was about 19 miles an hour, which I found very good. By the way, my average heart rate fore the swim was 145, which is pretty high compared to when I did 110 in training. My average heart rate for the bike was only 137. In all the centuries I did, I usually averaged about 130. So I took the bike pretty easy, but I was surprised to see how I actually did negative splits in the bike. I did the second 56 mile loop in about 10 minutes faster than the first loop.
Next time I do an Ironman I think I will grab my Gatorade and fluids from the nice volunteers(by the way my wife Pam pulled my wetsuit off and caught me at the finish line)and not carry so much stuff on the bike to keep my weight down. I stopped and used the restroom twice on the bike segment. Transition 2 was another slow stop. In the Outhouse forever (I need to learn how to pee on the bike maybe). I thought at some point my system would shut down and actually it did when I didn’t go to the bathroom at all in the marathon but I was still well hydrated. Starting the run was amazing. I couldn’t believe how good I felt. My legs were strong. The only issue that I had was cramps on the first 2 or 3 miles. I know what I had to do and keep my shoulders and head looking straight up and started to drink tons of coke and some chicken soup. At every mile marker I stopped and grabbed some of that stuff. In the end my heart rate was 145 for the run, but once again I ran negative splits and 135 in the first half of the marathon and in the second half I averaged 155. And I finished very strong. I finished 4th in my age group out of 160 people and ran a 8.16-minute mile. I was closer to 50th out of 163 people aged 45-49 In the bike .
I was 18th out of 160 people overall. The last half of the run when I did see my family I picked it up. I almost caught Joe my bike mechanic. When I saw him, mile 17 he was about 15-20 minutes ahead of me. I tried to close that gap . I knew in about mile 17 or 18 that I had this thing whipped. I have run many marathons. Mile 18 was definitely quite euphoric. If you normally start really slow typically the last 6 or 8 miles, you might get very fast.
Going into the Ironman, I actually thought that I would have a very difficult time at breaking 12 hours, especially considering that I really dropped no weight, but I would have liked to in the months preceding Ironman Probably because of all the training I did my metabolism was burning hot. I finished the Ironman in 11:05 and was extremely gratified knowing I could have broke 11 if I hadn’t spent so much time in the transition. My one regret for the Ironman was that I started my training so late and didn’t take it seriously at all, until the last couple months before Ironman. But, I suppose I had some type of base to fall back on. It turns out that I did, especially when it comes to running. When I crossed the finish line I became so overwhelmed and I asked for about 3-6 cups of ice to continually pour over my head. I may have got dehydrated and became very nauseous. Thanks to all the volunteers and all of my family and friends that came out. I have registered for next year’s Ironman Cda. Knowing what I know now, I think it once again will be an overwhelming event. Next the challenge is whether or not I can shave off 4O minutes mostly with increased and harder bike training and more swimming time. Possibly I will delete some running miles . I hope to qualify next year for Hawaii with a 10:30 Ironman. Thanks for reading my long report and may you be inspired. It is quite a commitment and I feel I can effectively delegate enough and become very efficient and not take away from the other things that are really important in my life such as church and family and work.