I had a great day at Lake Placid on Sunday. I made a number of mistakes which I hope to correct next year. They were instructive.
First mistake was to leave the bike special needs bag with my Carbo Pro mixture at home. This didn’t worry me since it was a nice day so I figured I could live off the aid stations for the second loop of the bike. That didn’t work since you just can’t get down enough calories with Gatorade on a cool day since you just can’t drink enough of it. At least I can’t. Practice your transitions and bringing all your junk to the race. Mistakes have consequences.
My second mistake was to take off my saddle cover. This lead to some discomfort on the second loop including three “breaks”. These breaks take a lot longer for us old guys than for the young turks on this board who don’t have any reason to even know what a prostate is. Next year I make to trip to my favorite urologist and assume the standard position for 30 seconds before my next race.
Despite these problems and not having done much swimming at all this year, the swim went really well with a 1:10 swim split. I had figured that my best possible time this year would be 1:10, so I have no complaints. Well except for the kicks in the googles, chin, and various other areas that are not a big problem for the women in the race. I nearly lost my race cap. The draft was amazing however, so the full contact swim is definitely worth the price.
The bike went really well too. It was a beautiful day, so I should have brought my disc. The first lap was 3:03, which is seven minutes faster than I ever did before on that course.
The thing I did well this year was to lose the weight. I lost 10 pounds and it made a big difference on the hills. Getting the weight down is more important than lots of training, at least on this course.
The other thing I did well was learn how to ride a bike. I descended the Keene hill without brakes or fear and hit 48 mph. That is a first for me that only took five years of trying.
The second bike loop was 3:25 including three eating and bathroom breaks mostly caused by not having my Carbo Pro and seat cover. I got off the bike at 7:45 into the race which was exactly my best case time. The problem was that I was behind on my nutrition.
My brain was working well enough to know that I had to attack the nutrition problem quickly. I invested some time in the first three aid stations to chow down on the marathon bars and lots of water to wash them down. This cost me some walking time, but I pulled back from the bonk so it was well worth it. I kept running fairly well until the hills starting at mile 9. These slowed me way down for a first lap of 2:23, which is not bad for me at least.
My third and biggest mistake of all though was not fixing my very tight hamstrings. My right hamstring completely locked up the first time down the hill by the ski jumps, but I was able to stretch it out at a cost of two or three minutes. My left one is the worst though, and it made it nearly impossible to run over the last few miles. Even walking through an aid station would cause a lot of pain when I tried to start running again.
At the 20 mile mark, with only a stinkin’ 10K to go, even 12:30 miles would have easily had me home under 13 hours. My left leg would not cooperate, so I hobbled home in 13:07. I am very happy with the time, all things considered.
My fourth mistake is not having yet addressed the reality that I simply can’t run a marathon, even without a bike and run before it. I need to find a way to fend off injuries well enough to do some 18 plus mile runs next year. I am guessing this will be on my treadmill, since running on the treadmill is a lot less pounding on these old bones than running on the roads.
I really enjoyed the support from the various Slowtwitchers at Lake Placid. Particular thanks to Kona2008 who cheered me on each time we passed on the run. It helped.
Next year will mark my fifth try at Lake Placid. My time has come down about 20 odd minutes each time. Do you think there would be a market for a book called Five years to a 13 hour Ironman? Hmm. Guess not.
