IMSG Race Report

Yesterday, in talking through the race with my friend, advisor, supporter and sponsor, Paul Harrell (of Harrell’s Bicycle World), he encouraged me to write an honest assessment of the race including my race-day nutrition so that we can analyze the experience and make necessary changes moving forward. So here goes …

If I had to describe the experience of racing Ironman St. George is in 3 words, I would say, “epic learning adventure”. I did not achieve the outcome I’d hoped for, but also wasn’t surprised with the way things turned out. I knew it was a hard race and I went into it with a specific goal, both from a time and placing perspective, and I raced toward that goal as wisely as I knew how, until I could not physically continue. The result was my first ever DNF (Did Not Finish). The goal was to qualify for the Ironman World Championships racing in the M35-39 division. Last year’s division winner’s time was 10:04:12 and so my goal was 10 hours +- a few minutes (preferably minus!). Here’s how I planned to achieve the 10 hour time goal:

• Swim between 55min and 1hour at a steady effort level


• Ride 5 hours 30 minutes holding a heart rate around 140 BPM, which is a “steady” aerobic zone, about 75% of my max HR.


• Run 3 hours 30 minutes maintaining a heart rate between 140 bmp and 150 BPM
  

Here’s are some of the attributes of the race, climate, and conditions

• Considered the most difficult Ironman branded ironman, primarily due to the difficulty of the bike and marathon courses.


• I recorded nearly 7000 ft of elevation gain on the bike using my Garmin with Elevation Corrections enabled (for those familiar with the Garmin). Here’s the data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84350103


• I recorded nearly 2400 ft of climbing on the run before my collapse at mile 22.5 of the marathon: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84350131


• The climate is extremely dry with no shade on the entire course. None!


• It was hot with the temperature reaching 94 degrees at the time of my collapse around 4:30 PM in the afternoon


• This area of southwestern Utah is fantastically beautiful


• The residents of St. George are some of the nicest people we’ve ever encountered across the board. They make our supposed “southern hospitality” seem like utter rudeness.


• The city is very clean, well manicured, and very easily navigated.
  

Pre-Race: Jennifer and I arrived in St. George Utah on Wednesday afternoon. With the race taking place on Saturday, this gave us plenty of time to get settled, perform all mandatory the check-in procedures, and preview / train on the course.

Sand Hollow Reservior where the swim is held

Pre-race training (Thursday)

• AM: Run 2 x 5k (1st with Jennifer at her pace, 2nd by myself at steady pace)


• PM: Swim +- 1300 meters / 18 min followed by


• Bike: 27 min / 10.5 miles on race course

Pre-race training (Friday)

• 
  

  Swim 10 min / 700 meters. Did not feel comfortable in the water, very anxious, short of breath. I swam with friend and fellow M35-39 competitor Chris Olson.



• 
  

  Bike: 29 min / 10.4 miles with Chris

• Run: 15 minute trail run, again with Chris, easy pace / talking the whole way.
  

Pre-race training

Following the workout Chris and I drove the bike course. Jennifer and I relaxed the rest of the afternoon / evening and then went out to dinner. I had soup, salad and 2 slices of chicken alfredo pizza from Olive Garden. Before bed I had an electrolyte/sports drink and decaf hot tea. We got to bed around 10:00 PM and I fell asleep around midnight and awoke at 4:00 AM race morning.

Race morning nutrition

• Nutrigrain bar


• Kashi mini-wheat type cereal w/ Almond Milk


• ½ Bagel w/ cream cheese


• 1 bananna


• Another Nutrigrain bar


• Electrolyte / sports drink (Powerbar lemonaide)


• Water (24 oz)


• 3 cups of coffee
  

Swim: The course is rectangular in shape with all turns being to the left. This suits me perfectly as I breathe to my left side. I entered the water as soon as we were allowed, which was about 10 minutes before the start. I don’t know why but I didn’t do any warm up swimming. I just floated there, putting my head under the water occasionally to acclimate to the 62 degree water temperature. I lined up on the right side of the start line with the intention of spotting and merging left into a fast group and drafting on that group for the rest of the swim. I believe I was too far right as it left me an addition 100 or so meters to merge left before the first turn buoy. That alone cost me up to 90 seconds. The biggest problem that I encountered in the swim was a panic attack at about 250 meters into the swim. I found myself unable to get a deep breath and having very negative thoughts. I stopped and pulled the neck of my wetsuit to let a little cool water inside and calmed myself. I’m not sure how long I was stopped … maybe 30 seconds. Once I continued the swim I was able to find a decent rhythm and began steadily passing other swimmers. Eventually things got sorted out and I found myself swimming with 1 or 2 other guys and a girl. We stayed with each other for the rest of the swim.

Swim Time: 1hour 38 seconds. Not too far off my goal, but in an ideal world, with better start line placing and no panic attack I believe I had the potential to swim 58 minutes at my steady pace.

There is no doubt that my swim times are a bit off this year. Time to get to work in the pool and open water!

T1: Nothing notable here. Time: 2min 56sec

Bike: I was surprised at the pace and the way some of the guys were riding on the bike. Many guys would regularly power up climbs, standing, etc and then coast / recover down the other side where I would catch a pass them again. So there was a lot of yo-yo-ing going on. I use Perceived Exertion and HR to pace myself on the bike with the goal of not going over an HR cap of 160 while climbing and maintaining my effort on descents … almost exactly as others use power meters, just a lot cheaper! I was surprised at the number of guys who passed me on the bike, but I stuck to my pacing and nutrition plan nonetheless.

Bike Ride data: http://connect.garmin.com/splits/84350103

• Average HR 140 (exactly on target)


• Max HR 155 (@ mile 90 at the top of “the wall” climb)


• Avg Cadence: 85

Bike Nutrition / Hydration:

• Approx 300 calories per hour of EFS liquid shot. Taken as squirt from bike bottle every 20 minutes. Approx 1600 calories total


• 4 x Honey Stinger waffles (120 cals each) taken at min 30, hr 1.5, hr 3, and hr 4.5. 480 calories total.


• Occasional GU Chomp (4 pieces total). 90 calories total


• Total Calories: 2170. Too much??


• 4 Allieve + 2 ibuprofin to address low back pain from swim and to prepare for punishing terrain on run. Don’t think I’ll ever take NSAIDs during a race again … wondering if this caused the bloody diarrhea later that night.


• Fresh water at every aid station (every .5 hr / 10 miles). Whatever was left from the old bottle was poured on
  my head, neck, chest, back, shorts


• Peed at mile 30, 40, 70 and in T2. Felt well hydrated.
  

Coming in on the bike

Bike Time: 5:29:13. Right on target. I’m wondering if I can run well off a 112 mile bike ride paced at 145 or 150 BPM?? I’ll need to experiment with this in training as that could potentially allow me to ride a good bit faster.

T2: Nothing notable here except 1 mistake which was not getting out of my shoes on the bike and therefore having to run to the change tent in bike shoes. T2 was a little slow b/c of the pee break also. Time: 1min 55 sec

Run: Getting to the run I believe I had set myself up really well to achieve my 10hr goal. Now I just need to run my planned 3:30 marathon to make it happen. Starting out the run my legs felt surprisingly well. My main concern was a lot of belching in the first mile along with some side stitches. You start running uphill so there’s really not a chance to just cruise for awhile. Soon those were gone and I was ticking along passing quite a few guys in my division …

First lap of run

Run Nutrition:

• 2 endurolyte capsules every few miles


• A shot of gel from a hand held flask every few miles


• Water at every aid station


• Coke and Perform every once in awhile.

Run spits:

• Mile 1: 7:22/mile @ 147 BPM


• Mile 2: 7:48/mile @ 149 BPM


• Mile 3: 8:39/mile @ 152 BPM (has a long steep climb to the Redhills Parkway)


• Mile 4: 8:00/mile @ 148 BPM


• Mile 5: 6:46/mile @ 150 BPM


• Mile 6: 7:16/mile @ 152 BPM (HR is rising a bit now)


• … more here: http://connect.garmin.com/splits/84350131
  
  
  
  

Starting the 2nd lap of the run

When I crossed the timing mat the ½ marathon turn around my Garmin read 1 hr 40 minutes leaving me 1 hr 50 minutes to do it again to reach the 3:30 goal. It was getting REALLY hot and I was starting to get tired. I knew the final ½ marathon was going to come down to a physical and mental battle so I was prepared for it and ready to take it on. With a 10 minutes buffer for this 1/2 of the marathon, I began slowing the pace a little and taking more time in the aid stations to get cool with ice and sponges and drink as much as possible. Soon though, I couldn’t stand the thought of anymore gel, water, coke, sports drink or anything going into my stomach and I started walking up the steeper hills. By mile 20 I things began to really come unraveled. Math was hard to do in my head and I was having a hard time walking straight. By mile 21 I was having a hard time walking. I could only go a few steps and then I would stop and hunch over with my hands on my knees. I finally neared the end of the Red Hills Parkway and staggered to the aid station at mile 22.5. I stood beside the Porto John contemplating stepping inside to purge myself. I had the thought that it was hot inside and I might pass out and I didn’t want to be found passed out in a toilet. So as I stood there with my hands on my knees hunched over a volunteer came over and led me to a pop-up camper and laid me down on a bed. The brought me some oranges and asked if I wanted to go to medical. I told them I thought I needed to and went sort of in and out of consciousness lying in the camper with a slice of orange in my hand. When they go me up to drive me to medical there were a few more athletes crammed in the camper. I borrowed a phone from one of the volunteers and called my wife and told her that I was being brought down to the medical tent. Race over.

After a few IV bags in the medical tent I was able to walk around by myself and we went back to the hotel. My stomach started moving again and that when I had the first bloody diarrhea. It happened again through the night. The next day I drank a good bit of Smart Water and regular water and was able to eat and wasn’t having anymore issues. By Monday I was totally back to normal.

My opinion is that I got severely dehydrated because I was taking too much gel on the run and not getting enough water. The gel wasn’t getting diluted to the 7% ratio and therefore wasn’t being digested and blocked water from reaching my large intestine where it could be absorbed. I’m not a doctor so this is all laymen’s speculation. I think the blood came from irritated stomach lining from the NSAIDs.

Obviously I was very disappointed to be less than 4 miles from the finish and unable to even walk it in, but I take some solace in the fact that I didn’t really have a choice to make.

Lying in that pop-up camper feeling like I might die I swore off triathlon all together. By later that night I’d decided I would keep racing but no more ironman distance until our 3 kids are grown (ages 9,6,5 now). By Sunday I would give it at least 3 years until I raced an ironman again (that’s how long it had been since my only other ironman). On the plane ride back home on Monday we tentatively decided on IM Cozumel for 2012. Tuesday at work I made the executive decision that I’m not traveling to another ironman and going for a Kona spot without a proven approach and therefore I need to race a late season regional non-branded (cheaper) ironman to test the changes I’ll make as a result of what happened at IMSG. So now I just need to figure out what those changes will be.

So far I’m thinking:

• I’ll go to an all liquid nutrition strategy on the run


• Cut back on the solids on the bike, especially if I train to ride at an additional 5-10 BPM.


• Do more specific swim sessions so I’m not stuck with low back pain from swimming with a wetsuit for an hour (never do this in training as I train almost exclusively in a pool)


• Never take another Advil or Aleve unless I have an acute injury and need to reduce inflammation.

Opinions Welcome!

Downtown Columbia Triathlon - Belated Race Report

Disclaimer: Blinding hazard! You may want to wear your darkest sunglasses when reading this report. Due to the early-season nature of this race, there are pictures of severly untanned skin ahead:

The triathlon season kicked off for me last month with the Downtown Columbia Triathlon, which is a short and very popular (400 entries sold out) sprint race (500m, 10mile, 5k). I was the defending champ but didn't have a lot of confidence that I could come back with another win as I was just coming back from some run injuries and feelinig fairly slow with my training emphasis on preparing for ironman. Being a early season race, this is an indoor swim hosted in the USC Blatt PE Center’s 50 meter pool. The transition area is in the Blatt’s parking lot on Wheat St. and the bike course, which was changed from year’s past, was a 3 loop affair from Wheat St. to Main St. to Pendleton St. to Bull St. to Gervais St. to Harden St. to Blossom St. to Pickens St. then back onto Wheat St. There’s a bit of climbing (up Wheat St. and Main Street) but for the most part it is fast with a lot of turns, traffic, and pedestrians to navigate while at full gas in your aerobars! The run is just as complicated as the bike as it involves running on roads, sidewalks, multiple foot bridges, up flights of stairs and through narrow fenced construction areas. It’s really more triathlon’s version of an urban assault! This year the race was held at 1:30 in the afternoon (which added to the traffic problems) amid intermittent rain showers and temperatures in the high 40s (felt colder on the bike, wet from the swim).

The swim: It seems I may have made a stragic error here. I was seeded in the same lane as my friend Chris. Chris always out-swims me, usually by 1min in a ½ ironman and 20 or so seconds in a Sprint. But I’ve only ever raced him in open water events. I offered him the inside of the lane thinking that he would swim a slightly faster pace than me and I would draft him for a faster swim time. Well, I did draft off him the whole way but I was thinking, “Man, this feels too easy … should I pass? Na, save your energy, it just feels easy cause I’m drafting”. Well it turns out we weren’t going that fast. By the time we crossed the timing mat at T1 I was like 0:15 secs behind last year’s time where I didn’t draft. Talking with Chris after the race he mentioned that he felt like he couldn't get going in the water. But it didn't stop him from getting the win!!

T1 was slow. Getting bike shoes on was not smooth. I was trying to go too fast which made me clumsy. I blame it on not having raced a tri since last september.

Out on the bike it was cold but I was able to ride hard (but not hard enough) and stay out of trouble. This was the first year where I wasn’t almost hit by a car at this race (although I just about ran over a pedestrian that walked across the road into the course without looking). Unfortunately when I came onto Pendleton on my second lap I say a tt bike against a tree with and a few cars and ambulance tending to an athlete that had been hit by one of the cars. By the time the second lap had passed and I still hadn’t caught Woody (he started 15 seconds ahead on the swim), I knew I wasn’t in as good of a position as last year. Last year I passed him for the lead before the end of the first lap and never looked back. But once again the Scott treated me well delivering me to the 2nd fastest bike split of the day behind Chris, my lane mate from the swim. As I arrived at T2 Chris was leaving and Woody was also just arriving. Looking at my HR data from the race I can see that I didn't push hard enough for a sprint race; I must not have been in the right mindset to really suffer.

T2 was slow also. Having gotten out of my bike shoes before the dismount I slipped when me bare feet hit the wet timing mat and nearly wiped out badly. I got my balance back and proceed to get my run gear on. I had a hard time unfastening my helmet strap since my fingers were totally numb. The numb fingers also prevented me from fastening my bib number belt around my waist … I eventually just tucked the ends into the back of my shorts which worked fine.

Off on the run I had no feeling in my feet. I remember listening to the pat-pat-pat of my feet as they struck the ground but with no feeling with each thud … strange sensation. With no feedback on toe-off, foot strike, etc, I just concentrated on keeping my turnover quick and my aerobic effort high and closing the gap to Mark (he got out of transition way before me and put in about a 25-30 second gap). By the turnaround I’d closed the gap to Marc down to about 15 seconds, which put us dead even. Once Marc saw the gap at the turnaround he surged and opened it back up. At that point I was on the rivet so to speak and couldn’t respond to his surge.

Chris went on to win the race with Mark coming across the line next then me. One of the college team guys (Clemson I think) was able to beat both Mark and myself but due to the TT start neither of us had him on our radars during the race. It was a really fun local race and I look forward to getting back in short course shape next year after I live out some ironman dreams this year! Now with 5 local short course races (DT Cola, Lake Murray, Tri Midlands, Tom Hoskins, Dam Tri) I’ll have a goal of winning several of them in 2012. For this year they’ll just have to be hard training days with the ultimate goal of being long-course fast for Ironman St. George and Kona or Rev3 Anderson / Beach 2 Battleship if I don’t go to Kona.

Results: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=2277

It's 2011

and I’m really overdue for a post …

There’s not a whole lot going on here at the moment. The holidays were super nice. Having 11 consecutive days with my family and not having to go to work was the absolute best. I think that was my favorite gift!

The 8 week winter training block (Nov 1 – Dec 26) that I wrote about in my last post went off without a hitch. Training was frequent and consistent with just enough volume to get back into the swing of things without needing a day off for rest or recovery. Each week was only about 12 hours’ worth of work with almost all the bike sessions done indoors on the trainer or rollers (much to my wife’s liking) because of the unseasonable cold weather we had in December. The only downside was the 5k race at the end of the training block didn’t go that well. I ran a disappointing 18:23, 15 seconds slower than last year at the same race. Conditions were worse this year (sleet/snow mix) but I still expected a sub 18 min result.

On the plus side, I’ve started to lose some of the off-season pounds and I’m on my way to getting nice and lean. Also, I’m pleased that my swim volume is building back up, although I’ve yet to see the benchmark paces to give me confidence for the early season short course races. Hopefully the speed will come back around during the next 8-10 weeks.

So now my focus shifts to specific preparations for the ironman in May and all that entails. I have 18 weeks until race day to get myself ready mentally and physically for the performance of a lifetime. Both Jennifer and I are excited about the trip and we’ve already started planning our flights and hotel. The kids aren’t hiding the fact that they want to go to Hawaii in October to see flowing lava and go snorkeling and they’re expecting me come home with a Kona slot (no pressure, eh?). I’m really looking forward to my “Big Fridays” every other week where I’ll do the specific work to simulate the conditions I expect to face in Utah (as much as SC weather and terrain allow me).

I’ll try to blog a little more regularly with updates, pictures and video from my journey to St. George as well as race reports for some of the smaller races along the way.

Peace out -

Back in the saddle again

Starting out ... feeling like a rockstar

I've put together a mixed up post with some pics from our recent trip to the mountains (which was an endurance event itself) intermingled with an update about my plans for Ironman St. George.

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Monday kicked off my return to formal training and quest a great race at St. George. I was just a little tiny bit anxious to get moving again so started training a bit more frequently last week. On Wednesday I was on my 4th run of the week on the trails of Harbison Forest when I sprained my ankle on a rock or root disguised under fall foliage. It's healed enough to run again now although the foot is still a colorful with purple/green/yellow hues. Ah, the colors of Autumn.

The crew at the base of a waterfall near Chimney Rock

During my 8 week hiatus from structured training I managed to put on 6 pounds!! And that was with still training about 5 hours per week (my sanity training I call it). So that shows you just how lax I'd become with my diet! When people (generally non-athletic folk) ask me about losing weight I tell them that (in my non-expert opinion) to lose weight and then maintain an optimal weight they need to commit to a moderate and balanced diet AND a minimum of 1 hr per day of aerobic work of some kind. I think I've just proven that theory correct.

Kids at a Lake Lure overlook

So now the work begins. The next 8 weeks will be "training to train" for St. George. The actual training for St. G will begin in earnest on Jan 1, exactly 18 weeks from race day. The next two weeks will be devoted to re-establishing frequency and consistency at a mostly steady effort level. I will sprinkle in some intensity here and there each week and will gradually increase the frequency of high intensity work as the 8 week block progresses. As the weight and pace come down (as they often do in parallel) I'll begin to do some of the local winter run races that I use each year as a measure of fitness with the hopes of setting all-time 5k and 10k PRs before the longer work begins. If I could break 17 minutes in the 5k I would be thrilled! The hope is that I'll carry a good deal of that speed all the way to the Ironman.

A triple waterfall

As for the ironman specific training, I'm going to experiment with completely different approach than any I've done before. In the past I've used a fairly standard periodization approach where I would build volume for 3 weeks and then recover for 1 week. Each cycle would build on the previous one until I had no more time available and I was good form. While I can't argue with the race results that have come from this approach, my complaint comes from the plateau I reached earlier this year. The level where I plateaued was good enough to win some races and generally be competitive every time I toed the line, but we're not really looking for "good enough" are we? No, we are hoping to become the best possible. My goal is to race ironman on the world stage against the world's best. And I'm not "looking for clues", I truly believe I can get more out of this mind and body (and also spend even more time with my family) by taking a different approach. That's the goal.

Here are the primary principles that I'm basing my St. George training on:

• Consistency: Nothing new here, I'm a big believer that consistency leads to great performances, and as such, I like to operate on a "basic week", which is a repeatable weekly schedule. This year I'm calling it my "basic cycle" because it's a two week cycle that I'll repeat with the two weeks being quite different from each other.
• Running Frequency: Nothing new here either, it builds durability in the body. I like to run just about every day even if only 20-40 minutes.
• Specificity: This is where I failed in the past. If you know me you've probably heard me say that I usually race faster than I train. That's great, but what if I trained as fast as I raced? Then how fast would I race? For St. George, specificity means hills, hills, and more hills at race intensity. While it will be a challenge to duplicate the terrain of Utah on the bike a, I've already scoped out some very hilly run routes that will give me nearly the elevation change as the St. George marathon.
• Recovery: This is another area where I've failed badly in the past. Not surprising since specificity and recovery tend to go hand in hand. Lack of recovery left me in a state of grey for many consecutive months ... unable to push as hard as I should in training (e.g. specificity)
• Getting Lean: I'm 5'11" (180.3 cm) and spent most of last season at 158 lbs (71.8 kg) at around 9% body fat. Losing 5lbs from last years race weight (that's 11 lbs from my weight today) would put me around 153 lbs /69.5 kg and 6% body fat. I believe this would pay huge dividends on a course like St. George that has such a massive amount of climbing on the bike and run.

I'll get more into the specifics in a later post. For now it's back to "training to train"!

Resting on the trail. The hard work is done. I love that feeling!

Unplugged

Yep, I've pulled the plug on the 2010 triathlon season. Since the SC Half ironman I haven't done any training ... only exercise. While exercise for me is still swim, bike and run, it differs in some ways from training: 1) There's not so much of it 2) it is not purposely focused on a race and 3) it's done when I want, for fun, with whatever equipment I choose. For the first week or two it was easy, but because I love to swim, bike and run so much I've had to force myself not do it so much!

With all the extra time I've mainly been spending loads of it with my family (which has been very special). And I've been eating lots of whatever-I-want and putting on some weight (or at least I feel like it). I've also been putting a lot of time, thought and energy into preparing to move. With a family of 5 with 3 little ones this is no simple task! I'm not 100% positive where that will be yet (only about 90%) but one thing is for sure ... we're movin'! I should have something more concrete on this soon and I'll let you know.

But there are a few other reasons besides time-with-family and moving that helped me decide to take an early off season ...

For one, I'd hit a plateau. I was in a rut and in order to bring my racing up to a higher level in 2011, I needed to take some rest mentally and physically and prepare for the work ahead. I believe I know what my program was lacking this year and look to address it for next year. But I can't do that without first unloading. When I look back I don't think I've taken any breaks except for 2 weeks after Clearwater last year and maybe 2-3 weeks after Beach 2 Battleship in 2008.

Secondly, I'm happy to have met the objectives (and exceeded some) that I set out for 2010. The foremost was actually winning some triathlons. So there's nothing that I feel is left undone with the 2010 season (which is a great feeling!). I've worked hard, learned some things, made memories, shared awesome experiences with friends and family, and managed to get the results I was after. That's what it's all about.

Thirdly, my next high priority race is Ironman St. George on May 7, 2011. This race will demand more of me mentally and physically than any other race to date. After all, it's being called THE most difficult Ironman. With my preparation for St. George beginning in November, if I'm going to take some down-time it needs to be now.

I'll save the 2011 goals for another post :)