Ironman Wisconsin - My race results and analysis.

The Stats:

Division - M25-29
Overall Place - 284
Division Place - 38/156
Total Time - 11:12:37
Swim Time - 01:12:00, Swim Overall Place - 704
Bike Time - 06:13:30, Bike Overall Place - 769
Run Time - 03:35:14, Run Overall Place - 107

Stats taken from my IMMOO results at TriResults.com


Swim Analysis: I was very pleased when I got out of the water and saw that I swam in the 1:12 range. I had anticipated a time between 1:10 and 1:15, but my intuition had me closer to 1:15 than to 1:10. The frustrating part about the swim is that it took a lot time during the swim before I felt like I was actually swimming and making progress. The major issue was sighting efficiently. I ended up using small breast strokes in order to sight, because either I was swimming zig-zags or those around me were - or we all were to start.

This can be improved upon by doing more open water swims during the summer, but it will help to just become an overall better swimmer too. This is the first year in my entire life that I have swam the entire year (not a lot a couple months, but still swam some). That consistency for 2008 will be essential again. I would love to be a sub 1:05 swimmer, since Nikki swam 1:05 at her first Ironman.... maybe she'll motivate me to actually swim some workouts with her this year?

I will also seek swim technique analysis.

Bike Analysis: I wrote a lot of information prior to the race about my race simulation rides. (Tags and links to articles) The interesting thing about my expectations for Ironman Wisconsin and those rides are that the two didn't quite run parallel. What do I mean by that? Well - During the simulation rides my common riding time for riding 36.2 miles was between 2:01 and 2:15. If you take that distance and time and derive an estimated Ironman bike split it would be around 6:15 to 6:30.

My expectation going into Wisconsin was that I could ride at or just under 6:00. Why did I think that? Because I wanted to be able to ride 6 hours. That expectation was based upon a hope and dream, not on the reality of my current riding fitness.

There are a couple things that saved my bike leg from completely blowing me up:

1. I understood that riding too hard would blow me up and I knew what type of effort I could comfortably maintain for 112 miles. While I didn't get a logical bike split expectation from the race simulation rides, they did teach me about my effort levels. Luckily I had spent a lot of time mentally preparing for the race and was able to ride at my proper effort levels and didn't chase the 6 hour idea... luckily.

2. A period of contemplating reality and pain. I've been asked before, "What do you think about all that time." During the bike, I had a long period of time (around an hour) where I thought about two people, John Reier and my aunt Connie. Both of those individuals have meant a lot to me and both are currently dealing with cancer. I spent a lot of time talking to John and it allowed me to quit feeling sorry for myself and the bloating I couldn't get rid of. I thought a lot about how it was difficult for John to eat after his chemo treatments. It made me realize the joy that I was experiencing by completing an Ironman. Praise God for the day he granted me!

3. Ale8 and a Honey Bun. The bloating that I had and all the peeing I needed to do made it very difficult to take in Gatorade or eGel's. (I wasn't trying both at the same time!) Even taking all the salt tablets didn't help. What did help was the honey bun in my special needs bag and the bike bottle I had that contained Ale8. If it wasn't for the approx 700kcals I took in by eating and drinking those two items, I would have headed directly for bonksville. The Ale8 also calmed my stomach down quite a bit (it might have been the ginger?) and I was able to resume taking in my gels.

So coming in 13 minutes slower on the bike was a little bit of a bummer, but I knew I had ridden smart (besides the two times up Devil's Hill) which meant I was ready to run.

Run Analysis: I made it through the transition pretty quick and tried to get into a "quick feet" running pattern right away. My legs actually felt sluggish to begin, but in the first mile I felt like I passed a hundred people. It also was nice to hear some of the encouragement from the spectators:

"Gary, you've got a nice cadence!" "Gary, you're making it look easy" "Gary, your pace is excellent!"

I didn't necessarily feel that way, but it was nice to get that feedback. When I hit the first aid station I contemplated to run through it and not walk through. But true to my training strategy since last November, I hit the split button on my watch and walked through the aid station grabbing water and gatorade. At 20 seconds, I took off again. "Quick feet, light feet," I kept telling myself.

I used this pattern for the entire marathon, but around mile 16 I decided to walk for 30 seconds instead of 20. That may seem like a "break down," but I was happy to be increasing the walk by 10 seconds and not several minutes or miles!

There were a few things during the run that motivated me and helped me push on: I was passing lots of other runners, I saw all the others with me several times and got encouragement (Eric, Beth, Jeff and Nikki), I ran with a guy (Jonathan Cross) that I met on the run and he was encouraging and during the last four miles I thought I was on pace to go under 3:30.

It turns out that I wasn't on pace for a sub 3:30, but did run a 3:35. That was the 107th best run of the day. That made me happy.

Final Analysis: The one thing that makes me happy about the Ironman Wisconsin race is that I had a race plan and executed it almost to perfection. The times are a little bit off (re:bike analysis) but that was due to improper expectations not poor execution. As a first Ironman attempt, I'm not sure I could have been happier with that level of committment to a goal. I beleive all the years of reading others' race reports talking about going too hard too early has really driven home the message that execution is a major factor in Ironman events.

Feeling very happy about the experience and what I was able to accomplish I have to admit that I was a little down yesterday. Looking at a time of 11:12 and then looking at where the front of pack guys race, I realized that it is going to take a lot to make it up there. "How can I get my bike that much faster?" I have asked myself that question several times the past few days.

It could have been that I turned 29 years old yesterday, which made me think about the "what next" question a lot, but I walked around the early part of my birthday thinking that maybe Ironman should become a thing of my past. Even though I enjoyed the event, I thought maybe I need to move on. Return to "the checklist". The list that says I have to accomplish "x,y,z" in order to feel successful and happy. A list that would be difficult to fulfill if even more of my time was dedicated to "going faster."

Sitting at my computer I turned on - The Samples. It kind of brought me back to a place in my life where I once lived. A place where "conquering the world" wasn't so high on my list. A time where the romance of spending a year learning to surf or running away with a loved one seemed pretty important.

Then I came full circle. Ironman is about a lifestyle I want to embrace. I want to be active, I want to enjoy the outdoors. I want to share the joy of movement. So what if I drive a wrecked '95 Saturn SL2.... I may or may not "conquer" Ironman, but I'm going to embrace it! So I'm signing up for IMMOO '08, maybe another full-distance race too if I can find one in May or June.

[Sidenote: Interesting that Nikki gave me the book Stumbling on Happiness for my birthday!]

Race Sim and Nutrition - 2007, #1

Last Sunday (7/15/07) was my first race simulation ride (in 2007) as I prepare for Ironman Wisconsin. The ride was a workout that I took from Gordo's bike workouts within his "Coaching Ironman Athlete's" document. The specific's of my workout were:

Lap 1 - 36.2 miles, 2:10:18, 125bpm ave, 159bpm max
Lap 2 - 36.2 miles, 2:03:58, 134bpm ave, 165bpm max
Lap 3 - 36.2 miles, 2:01:47, 135bpm ave, 169bpm max

Lap 1 description: made sure to ride what I thought felt "easy", used my hr monitor to keep it in check too, tried to not let hr spike on climbs/hills. Nutrition: 3 egel's, 1 bottle of xtra strength gatorade (1 bottle = 200kcals), 2 salt tabs, 2 bottles of h2o.

Lap 2 description: rode a little harder but never felt like I was pushing it, as the Gordo workout says, I tried to ride at Ironman effort/pace, let myself ride a little bit harder on the hills. Nutrition: 4 egel's, 1 bottle of xtra strength gatorade, 2 salt tabs (I use salt stick), 2 bottles of h2o.

In transition: ate a honey bun.

Lap 3 description: rode the loop backwards, primarily to see Nikki and check on her and b/c Jeff couldn't ride entire loop again. Tried to push and "work" the hills. It didn't feel easy, but as you can tell from my results, my body didn't seem to react much differently... (more later on this, see: fatigue below). It was very difficult to eat any calories! I felt like burping or vomiting for about 20 miles of the 36. (I think a really good perspective on this was written by Jeff Shilt, MD titled, "Tips to help prevent Gastrointestinal Breakdown")

What I Learned about Nutrition last year:

So I don't repeat too many things, I'll share two posts I wrote last August in my attempt to straighten out nutritional plans for the Runovia Triathlon:

1. Figuring out a racing nutritional plan #1 - 8/6/2006

2. Racing nutritional plan #2 - 8/15/2006

Here were the highlights of those lessons:

- eat more than you might think you need (in most cases)
- monitor fluid intake; h2o and sports drink
- drink early in ride
- eat early in ride
- comfort food is good when used wisely (re: Ale 8 and oatmeal cream pies)
- move back and forth between sports drink and food by the hour

My current thoughts based upon this past workout; I forgot about the concept of moving from gel's one hour to sports drink the next. I will definately try that option again b/c eating seven egel's in 4 hours was easy to do, but left me feeling like I was unable to eat more. The other issue I feel I had was using the extra strength (not too much extra) gatorade. I'll just use the regular strength gatorade.

A major lesson for me on this ride was that the extra spikes in intensity / heart rate changed my ability to digest the calories I was taking in. - (really go read the post by Jeff Shilt, MD)

A couple changes that I have made are changing from oatmeal cream pies to honey buns. The pies seemed too sweat and actually became hard to eat, while the honey buns go down really quick and are packed with calories... (the jumbo's are over 500kcals and they take about 20 seconds to get down!). The second change is using gel flasks. It seems a whole lot easier to manage than using so many packets.

Fatigue.

So this race simulation ride came at the end of my biggest (duration wise, not counting Brevets) week of training this year. I could definately feel it in my legs and noticed it in my heart rates. The highest my heart rate climbed to was 169bpm on the third lap. This was while I was pushing as hard as I felt possible at a couple points, once during a climb and once at the end trying to fly home and go under 2 hours.

In a normal rested state, my heart rates will easily reach the upper 180's and stay in the 160's for several hours. (Running they'll stay in the 170's for hours.) An example of this was during our 300km Brevet from Atlanta back in May, when we hit a climb in Alabama my heart rate got up to 186bpm and stayed above 180bpm for a good 20 minutes. All of this shows me that there is probably a level of fatigue setting in. (Other signs show this too.)

So yesterday (7/17/07) and today I'm taking it easy, trying to put down a little of that fatigue and come back to have a big training cycle Wednesday through Sunday. While the extra day (today) of less training was unexpected, I hope the rebound will be quicker and I won't end up overtrained.