Ironman USA Lake Placid - TriathlonFull Ironman

I knew this swim would be fast for me. I did some training on the course in June, and based on my swimming in training the last few weeks, I was really nailing my swims. So I felt good about having a solid and strong swim.

Even though I could have pushed the swim and broken an hour pretty handily, I kept the effort feeling very easy. No sent to swim hard and gain 4-5 minutes on the swim, if I could swim easy and still finish in the vicinity of ~1 hour. I didn't want to be much longer than an hour, so I could be ahead of most of the masses as we hit Keene.

Up to the first turn, I kept a wide line, and swam about 20-30 feet off of the buoy line/cable. There were plenty of feet, and I had plenty of water around me. Kept the excitement level low, and prevented me from wasting energy fighting for space/position. Got on the feet of big pack and let them pull me along.

Things got congested at the turn, but I was able to sort through it with minimal fuss. After the turn, was able to slide a bit closer to the buoy line/cable as the pack I was following also moved over. I stretched out a bit here and moved through the pack a bit to stay with the faster swimmers in the group, as the pretenders slid back. By the end of the first loop I was swimming about 5 feet off the buoy line, and able to sight on the cable just to my left. Focused on good form and good turnover and staying calm and cool. As I was coming into shore for the end of the first loop, I saw a 29:xx time click over to 30:xx and knew that I was right on track with where I wanted/expected to be.

Time to do it all again! Jogged along the beach and back into the water for the second loop. Got past a few guys who were kinda dazed looking, and was able to hook up on the feet of another group of about 5-6 swimmers in front of me. Latched onto them, and hung about 5 feet off the cable to the right.

Uneventful 2nd loop, except it started raining on us. I remember thinking to myself "Wow, these guys are really kicking hard!" thinking it was splashing from their kicking. Then I realized it was rain. Didn't bother me at all, since we're already wet.

It stopped by the time we got out of the water.

Saw a 1:02:xx on the clock as I came into the finish. Perfect, right on schedule. Secretly hoped I might break an hour, and I probably could have, but was quite happy to swim a 1:03 with a pretty easy effort.

Success at the IM is all about energy conservation. So the few minutes I potentially gave up on the swim meant I conserved maximum energy.

Didn't quite make it across the mat before the clock clicked over to 1:03, but almost.

Swim a bit harder? It'd get me a faster swim time for sure, but swim is not my limiter for IM.

Out of the water and began peeling off the wetsuit.

Pulled off goggles and cap and held them in my hand as I laid down to get my wetsuit STRIPPED ( oh, sorry, PEELED ).

Picked up suit and started jogging to T1. It's about a 1/4 mile or so from the lake back to the oval where the transition tents.

Got to T1, grabbed my bag and into the tent.

Dumped out my stuff, and started putting it on. Socks on, bike shoes on and ratcheted down. Volunteer started stuffing my wetsuit back into my bag. Put on gloves, jammed my baggie of salt tabs into pocket. Gel flask into pocket, helmet and sunglasses on and then on my way out of the tent.

Yelled out my number over and over, but there were 3 volunteers standing there looking dumbfounded at me, instead of grabbing my bike and having it ready. Okay fine, I'll do it myself, thanks for the help. Run down the rack, take a few seconds to get my bike out ( rack too short, seat got stuck and bikes on either side so hard to tilt it ). Get the bike free and I'm finally on my way.

As usual, there was a jam up at the mount line as everyone came to a screeching halt and started to get on. I ran past this, about 200m down the chute to where it was open a bit. Did a flying mount ( slower than I would at an Oly race ) and got on the bike and got down to business.

Go a bit faster in T1, but there's a rather long run from the swim exit to transition that can't be avoided here. Probably 2-3 minutes of actual transition, and good part of that is running the length of the transition area.

Rolled out of T1 and onto a short steep little descent with a sharp turn at the bottom. And the roads were wet. Of course! A few daredevils blasted out of the gate, but I'd rather make it through safely than end my race 30 seconds out of transition.

Road out along 73 past the ski jumps and started the first little climb out of town just past the River Road turnoff. The course was absolutely PACKED. Just a literal sea of people on bikes. No way not to be "drafting" in the letter of the law, as there was nowhere to go, but it's a climb, moving at barely 10 mph or so, so really not much benefit. It started to spread out a little bit by the end of the "out" part to the rollers before the Keene descent. So the hills did their job and broke things up a bit.

The rollers were pretty uneventful, and I just pushed over the watts I had on my target range, and tucked into descending position when I could. Got in 1/2 bottle of Infinit before Keene, as I figured I'd digest it while I was descending.

As we came up to the descent, noticed that the road was wet. Great. It was also a little gusty still from the early morning storm that blew through. Joy. Started the descent, and things got a little hairy. The people in front of me couldn't hold a line very well, and my brakes were only working so-so, and I had an 808/Disc combo which was getting pushed around in the gusts.

I was sitting up, braking, and trying very very very hard to keep the rubber side down. This was quite scary, as I wasn't able to slow myself much below 45mph. Heh. So, I just managed the best I could, and focused on staying in the race ( by not crashing ).

I breathed a sigh of relief as we made it to Keene, and was very happy to hit the nice smooth roads of 9N. Finished my bottle of Infinit, and kept a nice steady pace going. Despite this being the "flat" section, I didn't really see any drafting packs, but I did see several draft marshalls ride by on their motorcycles.

Finished my second bottle of Infinit and had 2 gels by the time I was rolling out of Wilmington to start the evil part of the course, the climbs back up 86 into Lake Placid. Ground away up the climbs, keeping watts in check, resisting the urge to be bike course hero. Stayed on target, and cranked through. Finished my 3rd bottle of Infinit at the top of Papa Bear. Rolled back to town with a quick stop at special needs to load up on my bottles for the second loop.

Went through the "crit course" they had setup in town, and past transition and back out onto the bike course out of town.

Past the ski jumps, and the second time through the climbs out of town I came up on Alaina (jazzynumbers). We leap frogged a bit on this section, depending on whether we were climbing or descending. :)

Made it through the rollers in the canyon before Keene, and then started the descent. The sun had come out a bit and dried things off, so it was less sketchy this time. At least due to the weather and road conditions. There were 4-5 people in a kind of group ahead of me, riding all over the road. Couldn't really get past them without going across the yellow line, and I didn't want to do that. They were not great descenders, and they were making me nervous. My distrust was warranted when one of them shook lose a water bottle! ACK! Not what you want to see when you are descending at >45 mph ( max speed I hit was ~50 mph on this time down ). It skittered and rolled and edged to the right.

I went wide left, and tucked down to pickup some speed so I could get past them before the next piece of junk came flying off their bikes. Argh. And I thought the second time would have been less scary. Guess not.

Made it back down to Keene the rest of the way uneventfully. Stopped at the aid station along 9N to make a quick pitstop. Decided to not go on my bike. Plus I needed to apply some more chamois lube to deal with some chafing before it became a problem. Took <2 minutes total time to stop, so it didn't impact me too much, and not dealing with the chafing now would have cost more time later on.

Continued with the same fueling nutrition schedule. So I was down to only 1 bottle of Infinit as I started the climb up the gorge out of Wilmington. Pushed along, and was feeling good, and that was my plan. I wanted to ride the second loop stronger than the first. I managed to accomplish that. Even though it took a little bit longer ( likely due to increased headwinds ), I had a higher average power on the second loop than the first. Woot! And I was feeling pretty good still.

Made it back over the cherries and bears ( I still don't know where the cherries are ). Just pushed it over and stayed on my power targets. Felt good coming Papa Bear for the last time. Back through town and the crit course to the oval.

I pulled my feet out of my shoes as we turned off main street by the Olympic Center. Rode with feet on the shoes from that point on, and did a flying dismount right at the line. Passing by a few people who had come to a complete stop to dismount. Ran a few steps with the bike, then it was taken from me by a volunteer.

Nutrition plan was: 3x300 cal bottle infinit @ loop. Plus a gel flask with 5 gels in it ( which means I probably got 4 gels out of it ). So right around 2200 calories. Or about 350'ish cals / hour.

BIKE SPLIT 1: 30 mi. 30 mi. (1:20:04) 22.48 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2: 56 mi. 26 mi. (1:33:54) 16.61 mph
BIKE SPLIT 3: 86 mi. 30 mi. (1:22:17) 21.88 mph
BIKE SPLIT 4: 112 mi. 26 mi. (1:37:45) 15.96 mph

Slight positive split between the loops, but not too bad.

HR was lower on the second loop by a couple beats, but power was about 5 watts higher (Av Power) on the second loop. The wind picked up, so that's a little bit expected to be slower. Power went UP though, which was what I was shooting for, riding the second loop stronger.

Train my FTP to be higher, so I can push more watts over the whole course. I paced this very well for the fitness I had, not pacing for the fitness I wanted. So while I'd love for it to have been a lot faster, I paced it very nicely.

In order for a higher FTP, I need to be able to train more intensity which means not blowing up my knee over the winter. :)

Ironman transition, and they take your bike at the dismount line. So nice.

Ran through, got my run bag, then into the change tent.

Dumped out run bag.

Helmet on the ground, gloves in helmet, bike socks off and in the helmet. Gel flask in the helmet.

Bodyglide feet and toes, put on fresh socks, pulled on 2XU calf sleeves, then put on shoes.

Grabbed garmin, visor, and baggies of gels/chomps/salt tabs/etc. and headed out the door.

Finished putting on visor and strapping Garmin 310 onto my wrist as I headed out onto main street to start the run. No reason to do that sitting down. :)

Put more lube on my feet. Ended up getting a huge blood blister on my right pinkie toe.

Went about as fast as an IM transition can go, considering all that goes into it. Better not to rush it IMHO, as you have to be comfortable for the next 26.2 miles! A wrinkle in your sock can really compound over that distance.

I've gone out too hard on the run the past 2 IMs, and I was determined to not do that this time. I also feel that I under fueled my past IMs as well, both on the bike, and on the run. I did a great job on the bike hitting my plan, and needed to continue getting in calories early in the run while I still could. Those were my goals as I started.

As you leave T2, you head out on a downhill out of town, with spectators going nuts on both sides of the road. Very easy to lose focus and go too hard. I looked down at the garmin and saw 7:xx pace. Woah there! Reeled it back in, to low 8's and made sure to stop and walk the first several aid station. Took in 2-3 cups of calories and 1 cup of water at each aid station. Munched a couple chomps as well, as I headed out past the horse show grounds.

Stopped at a porta potty about Mile 2 for a quick pitstop. Made it pretty quick.

Partly cloudy, a nice breeze, and mid-70s temps made this about as perfect conditions for an IM run as you can hope for.

As I headed out on River Road for the first time to the turn around, I saw many of my faster friends working their way up the standings. Alaina came past me about mile 3 or 4'ish. I saw MJ out there as well. Quite a few Blazeman uniforms out there, so I called out to each one as we passed.

Moved to a plan of running/walking every other aid station. I was still feeling pretty good, but knew there was a long way to go still. The run course is so awesomely scenic it's hard to describe. Made my way through, clicking off the miles. About mile 8 or so I heard the call of nature, and had to take a longer porta potty pit stop. :) The one-piece uniform made it a little bit harder, but not really too bad.

Back on the road shortly and back to business. Came back out of River Road and hit the ski jump hill. Ooof. It was hard, but I kept strong, shortened my stride and kept turnover high. Made it to the top and was relieved to be back on flats for a bit. A slight downhill and then the big climb back to town. Again, I shortened my stride and kept turnover high and made my way up. Passed a lot of people who were walking. I fought the urge to join them, and kept on pushing. Made it up to the top of the steepest part, but then you turn the corner and have another 1/3rd of a mile of climbing to go. Saw Laura and Jorge and did my best to say "Hi!" but I was pushing hard mentally and physically to make it up the hill.

Turned the corner again onto the Lake drive, and special needs. Not much for me there, I just grabbed the baggies with a couple gels and another pack of gu chomps and was on my way.

Got to the lake turn around, and as we started back towards the oval to start the second loop, I was able to force down a gel.

Downhill back out of town to start the second loop. Legs are feeling it at this point, but I still felt pretty decent. Didn't check my watch to see how far in I was, I just focused on running a mile at a time and making each mile good.

Made it back out onto River Road and finally had to stop to address a growing discomfort on my right toe. I didn't want to stop, so I pushed through it as long as I could, but I couldn't ignore it anymore. Found a good sized rock on the side of the road to sit on, so I didn't have to sit on the ground. Pulled off my shoe and sock, and saw that my pinkie toe had basically become a single huge blood blister. DOH! I had a little tube of Aquaphor, so I jammed it all into my sock, put it back on, re tied my shoe and hoped for the best. It helped a little bit, and lessened the pain to the point I could resume running.

Made it to the turn around on River Road and this was where the mental battle began. Every step is one step closer to the finish. ~6 miles to go, and the body just wants to stop. Sun was out a little bit more now, so I took a salt-stick tab. Was on coke, water, and salt tabs for nutrition. Couldn't stomach a gel, or any more powerbar perform. Started grabbing broth too, as that was out on the course, and that really hit the spot!

As I was almost back to the ski jump hill, I passed a guy in a mylar blanket who gave me some encouragement as I went by. He picked it up and was running behind me for a bit, talking to another guy, before I placed his voice. It was Marvarnett! I was not expecting to see him anywhere but the LP Brewery after the race. He apparently keeled over at an aid station around mile 20'ish, and had to spend some time there, convincing them he was okay to continue to the finish. He made the most of a bad day, by helping encourage everyone else out there, talking a few guys who were struggling to run with him as we made it back into town. He passed me back and danced his way up the ski jump hill and back to the finish. Very impressive and classy, and motivated me to keep on pushing too.

I made it up ski jump, with a break for walking a bit in the middle of it. Mentally, every step was a struggle. Pushed through it and started running again to finish the hill. Made it to the entrance of the horse show grounds then I had my own little chernobyl meltdown. I started weaving like I was drunk and had to stop and walk a bit. I was a little lightheaded, and think I decided I was low on calories. I choked down a few more chomps, and stopped to squat and stretch out my quads a bit, as they were cooked.

I punched both of my quads a few times, made myself HTFU and started running. I knew I wasn't far, so I kept making deals with myself to run to the next whatever, and then keep on going. Finally made it to the last hill. I was deep in a pain cave, so I don't really remember much, except focusing ahead on the horizon, on people ahead of me on the course, and pushing myself to keep running uphill and catch them. I reeled quite a few people in on the last hill. Finally finished the hill, and made the turn onto the lake drive. I knew this meant about 2 miles to the finish, and I was just about at 11 hours race time ( I finally checked the time ).

I hit the aid station by special needs/mile 24.5. Nothing but coke and broth. I only had to make it 2 more miles, then I could fall over and be happy. I picked the pace up a bit more, and kept on picking people out and then running them down.

I hit the turn around by the lake, and then it was a mile or so to go, and slightly downhill. A wise friend once told me "You can do anything for a mile". I proved that again here. Pushed with everything I had, forced myself to get back to a proper running stride, and gave it all I had. Skipped the aid station as I came back by special needs. Just kept on reeling people back in, and every one motivated me to go faster. As we came up to the oval, I really kicked it hard, and finally got past a couple of guys who had been hanging on just out of reach.

I sailed around the oval, and as I came around the bend I saw 11:14 on the clock and knew that I had done it, and ran my way to a new IM PR.

I gave a big fist pump and jumped in the air as I crossed the line. At first I thought I might fall over, but actually felt pretty solid. I had a great catcher, who stayed with me for a while, helped make sure I got everything, as I was mentally a bit out of it.

Saw Laura and went over to kiss her. She said "You did it! You PRed!!". I was a little bit emotional as the weight of the mental effort lifted and it sunk in. I admit I almost cried a bit ( only almost! ).

What a crazy day, but hugely satisfying, and my best executed race to date.




Lap Data
Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed AHR MHR
1 08m 27s 1.00 miles 08m 27s /mile 139 146
2 08m 25s 1.00 miles 08m 25s /mile 141 145
3 08m 26s 1.00 miles 08m 26s /mile 137 144
4 08m 50s 1.00 miles 08m 50s /mile 140 147
5 08m 26s 1.00 miles 08m 26s /mile 140 145
6 08m 44s 1.00 miles 08m 44s /mile 141 146
7 09m 17s 1.00 miles 09m 17s /mile 139 145
8 12m 28s 1.00 miles 12m 28s /mile 131 146 <-- porta potty stop
9 09m 02s 1.00 miles 09m 02s /mile 140 144
10 09m 19s 1.00 miles 09m 19s /mile 142 150 <- ski jump hill
11 09m 13s 1.00 miles 09m 13s /mile 142 152 <- climb to town
12 09m 20s 1.00 miles 09m 20s /mile 144 152 <- special needs
13 09m 10s 1.00 miles 09m 10s /mile 138 143
14 09m 43s 1.00 miles 09m 43s /mile 134 145 <- porta potty stop
15 08m 58s 1.00 miles 08m 58s /mile 139 143
16 08m 45s 1.00 miles 08m 45s /mile 137 143
17 09m 05s 1.00 miles 09m 05s /mile 141 147
18 10m 46s 1.00 miles 10m 46s /mile 133 144 <- tried to fix blister
19 08m 25s 0.86 miles 09m 50s /mile 137 143
20 10m 34s 0.98 miles 10m 47s /mile 131 141 <- ski jump hill
21 10m 00s 1.00 miles 10m /mile 133 141
22 09m 54s 1.00 miles 09m 54s /mile 135 141
23 11m 41s 0.98 miles 11m 52s /mile 129 143 <- ski jump hill + slight meltdown
24 10m 22s 1.00 miles 10m 22s /mile 132 142
25 10m 08s 0.96 miles 10m 32s /mile 139 148 <- final climb
26 08m 36s 1.00 miles 08m 36s /mile 143 148 <- eff this, i'm bringing it home!
27 02m 28s 0.34 miles 07m 10s /mile 152 160 <- yeah baby!



Not much, run faster. :)

Lube my feet better, so I don't get a crazy blood blister all over one of my toes.

It's an IM run PR for me, but a lot, and I was strong in the last 3 miles. I moved *up* in placement on the run, instead of my usual going backwards.

5 minutes faster and I would have gained another *10* places. So very very close.

10 minutes faster, and I would have beat this guy:

69 Sutter, Ryan 202/63/69 36/M35-39 01:15:12 05:32:47 04:09:31 11:06:37

Heh.

Got some food, then a quick massage.

Picked up my gear and bike and wandered out to find Laura.

Went back to the hotel, and I took an ice bath. OMG. So cold. I was singing, whistling, and humming like a loonie, trying to keep my mind off the cold.

Showered, and then headed back out to cheer on the rest of the finishers, after we devoured some food, including the most awesome tasting burger ever from the LP Brewery. Hung out with Kristin and Mark at the Brewery for a bit, then went back to Art Devlin's and cheered there from 10:30 to like 11:30. At 11:30, no more finishers were coming by, so we went back up to the Oval to cheer in the last midnight finishers.

The crowd was absolutely BONKERS. It was so freaking awesome. I think we cheered louder for the last finishers than for anyone else, including the winners! People were pounding on the banners/fences, it was standing room only, and Mike Reilly was at his best. It was awesome.

It was hard to stay awake that late, but so worth it. I almost didn't make it to the end of the night, but I'm very glad I did.

Finally, the day was done, and it was time to go back and pass out, which I did.

Can't leave off breakfast the next morning, which was celebrated in style back at Chair 6. So yummy. Sweet potato pancakes to die for ( or at least to do an IM for! ).


Blowing my knee up *twice* over the winter and spring. Missed some of the early season base and intensity as I worked back from those injuries.


Of the Ironman races I've done, this one ranks up as one of the top. It's a tougher course, but it was well put on. If the roads down to Keene and up the gorge were a little nicer, I'd rank this as the top ( well, after Kona of course ).

A ton of BTers and other friends were also racing, so it was great to see them all:

Andy, Jay, and Jeff from "The Show" ( Andy KQ'ed! )
Chris and D'Arcy from Team Ethos ( D'Arcy KQ'ed! )
Marvarnett, PennState, Tasr, Papson14, Yeats, Jazznumbers, WittyCityGirl, SwishySkirt, LazyMarathoner (and Mark), and all of the other BTers whom I met but whose names have slipped from my faulty memory.

Seeing so many people out there that I knew was a huge boost all day long. Congrats to all the KQs and to every racer out there on race day, and most especially to all the BTers who came up to volunteer and cheer everyone on!

And of course, the most thanks goes to Laura, for supporting and encouraging me all along the way and being a constant presence on the bike and run shouting at me all day long ( and recording it on video! ). :)