Ironman finish #9 is in the books for me. I approached my last two IMs differently than in the past. In my “younger” days (in my 40s), I was concerned with training my ass off, getting faster, being as aero as I could afford to be, etc. My last two IMs, my priorities shifted. In 10 years doing this, I have never trained with anyone (don’t have any close friends that do this stuff), don’t belong to a tri club, have never done a “group ride”, and don’t have a coach.
I didn’t want to spend all day out on my bike training on Saturdays and impacting my family, missing the kids’ events, pissing off the wife, etc. I don’t even like cycling really. So, I made a couple of conscious decisions. I started doing all my bike training very early in the morning in the garage. My setup is laughable by ST standards. I have eMotion Rollers, but ended up getting a fork stand for them a few years ago so I wouldn’t have to “concentrate” so much, and could just watch TV shows/movies and zone out while I rode. The training I do is also laughable- basically I get on there and just ride at IM pace (for me), gearing up to simulate harder efforts every few minutes, but never getting breathless. Oh, and I bought a new road bike and rode it for the first time just two weeks ago after riding my trusty Cervelo Dual for 9 years. I went with a much less-aero position for comfort, figuring that my lack of bike training would leave me with a sore neck and back if I tried to get any sort of aggressive position for 112 miles.
For this IM, my longest rides on that setup were two 4-hour sessions and a couple of 3-3 1/2 hour sessions. My run training was solid…I am an ultrarunner also, so had plenty of run time in. Swimming…let’s just say it’s similar to my cycling. I just hop in the pool and swim a long, steady freestyle session and get out. No fins, pull buoys, hand paddles, etc. Swim was “usually” twice a week, but many weeks it was just once. My longest swims were two 35-minute sessions and one 45-minute session.
So, as you can see, I broke every Slowtwitch-approved rule in the book when it comes to training and preparation for this race. I sort of looked at it as a personal challenge to see how much it would hurt to finish an IM on this sort of training. The result? It hurt!
To condense my day out there:
SWIM
My swim didn’t appear to suffer too much. I swam I think about 1:10 last time at IMAZ (2012) and yesterday went 1:13. Maybe because I surf nearly everyday and that probably counts for some “swim” fitness. Followed Desert Dude’s swim advice on swinging well to the right after the turn and avoided a lot of traffic (thanks Brian!).
BIKE
The bike, as others have mentioned, sucked. There was a brisk northerly wind that strengthened as the day went on, so the outbound on the Beeline was a war of attrition. The wind pushing you back, and you trying to power into it, uphill for 18 miles x 3 loops. The upshot was it was a quick return trip back to transition. My new bike and more relaxed position were actually great. I never had a sore back or neck, and was able to constantly switch between the drops, hoods and clip-on aerobars, so I never held one position long enough to get sore. I did some “standup climbing” into the wind just to give the taint some relief and stretch my back. My “nutrition” consisted of Bonk Breakers, a couple of gels, and at Special Needs, I had packed a half bottle of Pepsi, an Uncrustables, some peanut butter pretzels and a Butterfinger Bar. I drank Perform and water.
My lack of bike training bit me in the ass here. I was averaging 8-10 mph at best by my second outbound and the same for the third outbound leg. The wind was blowing straight into our faces a solid 15-20 with gusts from what I could tell on the uphill outbound section so I was gearing way down and just trying to be patient and spin so as not to burn all my matches before the run. It was demoralizing. I must have been passed by over 1,000 people through the day. It blows me away that the pros can throw down such fast times! My first loop was 2:05, and things went downhill for loop 2 and 3, and I came in with a 7-hour bike ride. Ugh!
I saw a couple of wrecks including one poor guy writhing on the ground screaming in agony as med staff assisted him. Felt so sorry for that guy. One jackass blew by me before the turn off the Beeline so he could cut the turn tighter and his rear wheel was skidding on the loose pavement. He nearly went down and launched a bottle right into my path.
RUN
I started the run at a decent pace (for me) running in the mid-9 minute miles, thinking I was on track for around a 4:20-4:30 marathon (a far cry from my 3:58 at IMCDA in 2009), but alas the wheels came off after the midway point. My feet and quads started hurting with every step and I found myself extending the aid station walk breaks beyond the aid stations. By mile 15, I decided I would have to back it down to a run/walk and for some weird reason, my lower back was getting sore (never had that on the run before). There were lampposts along most of the run course, so I would walk between lampposts, then run the next two lampposts, then walk to the next one, and so on. It was a mental game that I had to play to keep decent forward progress going and manage the leg, foot and back pain, but it was working. The downside of the walking was that I was freezing out there. I was drinking some chicken broth and peeing every 3-4 miles (some of those portapotties nearly had me puking!). I was also downing Coke, chips, gels…whatever I could thinking I needed salt and sugar/caffeine.
The gas I was generating was horrendous and I couldn’t stop farting! I would always look back to make sure no one was too close or wait until I was at a loud aid station before unleashing.
Once I could hear Reilly’s voice, I ran it in for the last 1/2 mile and was happy to cross the line, but my 5-hour marathon was my slowest yet (with the exception of Tahoe last year where I had to walk about 80% of the marathon going over 6 hours), proving to myself that it is possible to “finish” an IM on minimal training, but I paid in terms of suffering and a slower finish time. Just for perspective, when I did IMAZ two years ago with more “traditional” training, I finished in 11:48. Yesterday it took me 13 1/2 hours. I do attribute some of that to the wind, figuring that it impacted my bike (and subsequently my run) times, but there’s no denying that my “faster” days are over…but I’m okay with that.
Congrats to everyone that finished yesterday!
