Ironman USA Lake Placid - TriathlonFull Ironman

My plan on the swim was to start out to the right, as I expected a bit of congestion. After treading water for 5-10 minutes, the cannon sounded and we were off. This swim was to be no effort, very easy. I was surprised at the lack of contact, which I attribute to proper seeding. It took about 10 minutes to get to the buoy line, and once there I had just enough space to enjoy some draft, but not get beat up.

Space was tight at the turn around, but I quickly found some water, and the underwater cable. At LP, it seems the best thing to do is get right over the cable, and just swim under the buoys. Most seem to swim to the right of the cable for whatever reason (probably to avoid the big buoys), and swimming directly over the cable gave me some good space.

I exited the water ahead of schedule, so took my time to T1.

I decided to take it really easy for the first loop and see how things felt on loop 2. The goal was to average between 190-200 watts, with a cap on the hills of 250-270 and I ignored HR, as I never paid much attention to it during training. I was more concerned with how my HR responded due to my power increasing during climbs. If it recovered quick, I didn't much worry where my HR was. If it did not recover during descents and easier efforts, I would have adjusted some things. The first loop was very easy, and I took every opportunity to smile with the spectators, thank the volunteers and completely soak up the experience. What's great about the spectators in LP is if you give them an inch, they give you a foot. A simple, continuous smile up Papa Bear gets the whole crowd to look at you and go nuts. I high fived every kid I saw, said thank you to those cheering me on, and in return I got a ton of support. The energy was dangerously contagious and it would have been easy to use it to push the effort. Instead I simply soaked it all in and used the atmosphere as an opportunity to focus on just having fun. I nailed the first loop, averaging 195 watts and it took me 2:48.

I felt so good after the 1st loop, I made the decision to up the effort ever so slightly; yet would still hold back when speed was high. I was excited to see a lot of space on the 2nd loop, as I only had to change my effort to avoid packs a couple of times. I kept the effort in check, slightly raised to just over 200 watts, and decided to see how I felt on 86 and the final climb. When I got there, I felt awesome, so I really pushed the effort. I lapped my power to get a fresh average, and told myself to keep it under 240 watts by pushing the climbs (capped between 250-270), and coasting/soft pedaling when able.

This worked very well. I averaged around 235 watts on the final climb, and it felt easy. I arrived in town ready to run, and this was the easiest 112 mile ride I had all year. 201 watts (with zeros), 219 normalized power, 147 bpm. I negative split the bike, coming in about 1 minute faster on the 2nd loop. I expected to come in around 5:40-5:45, so arriving early was a huge mental boost.

Nutrition wise I took in around 8 bottles of Perform, 2 power bars (over first 2 hours), 1 gel every 45 minutes, and 1 salt stick every 1 hour or so. I made one nutrition adjustment while on the bike. I drank 2.5 bottles in the first hour, which I felt was way too much based on the conditions of the day, what I consumed during training and my race plan. I had to pee (which told me I had enough fluid), so I held off on nutrition for about 30-45 minutes to give that time to absorb. If my mouth was dry, I would just take a sip then spit it out. Other than that, the plan was perfect. I fed off the course. I kept nutrition very simple, and left T1 with one bottle of Perform in my aero drink and that was it. Did not stop for special needs.

The plan was to take the first 6 miles really easy, around 8:30-8:45/mile, then make the decision at that point to either try and hold 8:15/mile or stay easy. My Garmin didn't sync up for the first 2 miles, but the stop watch function was working. I held back big time, ran very slow, and everyone was passing me. First mile came in at 7:55 and it felt like 9:00. I went way easy, and told myself if I came in again below 8:00 on the 2nd mile I would walk. 2nd mile came in at 8:45, and that is the effort I wanted until mile 4-5 or so. I held that pace/effort, and felt good at mile 5, and decided to try and hold 8:15 for as long as I could. Mile 6 was 7:58, then 8:14, then 8:14. I was able to hold pace until mile 14 or 15, then it became harder to do so, but my body was not shutting down and there were no signs I was heading for trouble. I could tell at this point it was going to be all mental. Turning off of 73 onto River Road was a tough stretch for me second time through, and hitting the turnaround was a big mental boost. Before the race started, I told myself all I wanted was an opportunity to go balls out at mile 20. I got my wish. I was in extreme pain at this point. Everything from my waist down hurt badly.

I was also extremely fortunate because if I slowed down, it would be due to the negotiations in my head. I knew my body would not shut down based on how I felt from the waist up.

No cramping, I had a slight appetite and I could take in nutrition with no problem, though at this point the Cokes were getting old; I was just in extreme pain. I looked at my watch, and knew I could basically crawl to a 10:3X, which was awful for me mentally. My reach goal was in the bag (Next year, I may run with no running clock). However, I also knew if I just ran I would come in around 10:28 or so. Going sub 10:30 would have exceed my wildest dreams. Shit, what I was already doing was exceeding my wildest dreams. You could say I was doing the impossible based on who I was 2 years ago. It was very hard to push through that reality.

Coming up the hill into town was brutal, though the crowd gave me good energy. At this point, I couldn't return any of it, and just focused on each step.

It is at this point of the report that I really want to tell stories of how I sucked it up, fought off cramps and limped to the finish line. I cannot do that, however. The last 4-5 miles were pretty slow, some were 11 minutes, some were 10 minutes. The only good thing was the final mile came in at 8:35, while although good, confirms I had more in me. I averaged 9:42/mile over the final 10k.

Now, I didn't leave much out there. Based on my current fitness, I pretty much nailed this race. Best case/perfect scenario we expected coming into the day was 10:25-10:30. I do feel I can run 20 minutes faster based on where my fitness is just off the experience alone.

I will say I had a BLAST coming into the oval. My family was right there, and I was all smiles into the chute where I looked behind me, saw no one coming, and said to myself, "I'm walking this in." I savored the moment, as it was extremely special. Not because of what I accomplished. I did enjoy the moment, but mainly I realized what is possible if you just try. The answer is you have no idea until you just blindly jump in with both feet, and you will most likely be stunned by the result. Really, that is the only way to determine what you are capable of. There is no answer in a textbook, in a lab or based on the experience of others; have a passion, go hard and enjoy the ride.

I felt good when I finished, and my coach ran over and she was going nuts, "Dude, you nailed it!!" She laid out a great plan, which at first I told her was too conservative. But it was dead on.

They walked me over to the food tent, were I had some old pizza, then all of a sudden my whole body became very tingly, and it started to get much more intense. I stayed on my feet as I didn't want to sit down just yet, and after 10 minutes it didn't go away and kept getting more intense.

I must have looked pretty bad because a volunteer came over to me and asked me if something was wrong. I told her the sensations I was having, and she said, "Let's go to med." Nothing exciting here, standard routine and after an hour I was limping back to the hotel. Well, except when my bud Matt K. got the bed right next to me, and one of the nurses spilled hot broth all over his boys. Matt is a riot and he made the best of the situation and got a bunch of good laughs out of it.

I had an absolute blast. My wife said to me this was the best race she has ever watched. Every time she saw me, she said I was smiling, looking in the crowd for someone to wave to. She summed it up by saying, "You never looked like you were in pain once, all the other races you do you are so focused, when I scream your name you never hear me. At Placid, I didn't even have to call out your name, you found us." That pretty much captures my race plan. Just let the day come, don't force anything, and enjoy every single second. She got a ton of great pictures of me, and I'm smiling in every one, yet I was not smiling for the camera. I was one continuous smile from Papa Bear all the way through town on both loops. Same thing on the run up the hill back into town and through the out and back; on the first loop anyway.

Where do I go from here? Well, nothing for 1 week at least. Thus far, walking seems to help recovery big time. So I will probably walk 2 times a day for 20 minutes or so. Maybe 1-2 walks this week at 45 minutes. Then get into some easy stuff next week. I have a local sprint race in 3 weeks, then my last race of the season is The Syracuse Half IM September 19th. After that, I will shed all fatigue and eliminate all the niggles the season caused. I will give back a lot of fitness with the understanding of building it back stronger. I expect this phase to last 2-4 weeks, and this is where I could use some feedback (Gosh, I hope most are still reading this!). Then around November 1st, will start with a base phase of some sort; I expect.

I discovered I truly love this distance, something about the steady pace for 10 hours and an opportunity to beat down mental demons at the end. Though this year they won, I feel with the experience and another year of training, I will be better suited to take them on next year. Speaking of next year, I did sign up for IMLP again. A big focus for me in training (in addition to swim bike and run, and more of it) will be durability and mental strength.

A race I am looking at to simulate the pounding you take at Ironman is the Triple T in Ohio in late May. A half iron in late March and/or a big training week/camp would be ideal as well. All are placed well with regard to a July Ironman. I would consider an Ultra event as well. I need events that are extremely slow paced and have you at wits end in the final hour, aerobically fine, but in a world of hurt. I will most likely include long hikes (6-10 hours), probably 2-3, slowly building to a 10 hour vision quest to build durability. Also, I will most likely reduce or completely eliminate the short course activity next year as my time will be better focused with IM specific training. I honestly feel with the experience, more training, and more (year round) nutrition focus, sub 10 is a real possibility next year and Kona is a legitimate goal.

Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts!