Ironman USA Lake Placid - TriathlonFull Ironman

Over the past few weeks I must've asked about 40 people what their strategy was for the swim. Just about everyone I asked seemed like they were taking a more conservative approach, opting to stay a little in back of the front pack. I started to think that if everyone is staying back, then who the heck is up front?!? So I went to the front towards the right side of the middle, just a couple rows back from the line. I think this was a good approach as there was surprisingly less contact than I thought there would be. The pounding would come in pockets, but in between the occasional beating I enjoyed some nice open water. If I did this race again, that’s definitely where I would start again.

This was my first race where I actually was able to draft off people successfully. There was such a plethora of draft choices! For the first half lap I enjoyed the help of a non-wetsuit gentleman with a 61 on his calf. I figured he was experienced! Then I switched it up a bit and tried a variety of feet to draft from. It was like a buffet of feet.

I found myself getting agitated a couple of times when people would climb over me. But I found that little extra push you need to give to get them off you to be a real energy waster and really tried to just roll with the punches. I started focusing on “the line” (the point where the race becomes a struggle around mile 18 of the run)very early. I began constantly asking myself what I can do at this moment to manage the line that will surely come some 10+ hours later. The answer in the swim was CHILL OUT. I also would periodically open the neck of my wetsuit to let water rush in and cool me down as it was getting hot in the full sleeve suit.

It wasn’t until the return part on the 2nd lap that I finally hopped on the Mirror Lake Highway (the cable). Up till that point, I had taken a kind of wide line. Not really by choice though…other than the initial seeding, you don’t have a lot of choice in this swim. You go where the crowd takes you.

nothing!

Holy rush! Going from the silence of the swim, to throngs of screaming people, to the naked steaming tent was a lot for the senses to handle! Got my wetsuit stripped with authority by two lovely ladies. Nice. In the tent, I put on some Chamois cream, more sunblock, ran out with bike shoes on. Bike was all the way at the end of the oval which made it easy to find, but a long run. T1 felt slow, but according to the standings it was some of my best work against the field. To bad the race isn't all T1.

77ag
423 oa

I sat down in the middle of the tent which was probably unnecesary.

I ride by HR not power and the plan was to stay in high Z1 for 90% of the bike. I immediately noticed problems with my Garmin. It kept shutting off all on its own. Weird! So, I basically rode blind. I would turn it on to get a Heart Rate read every now and then and then it would shut off after a couple minutes. Tried to not let it bother me. Although I would have like to see my speed on the Keene descent as I’m pretty sure I topped 50mph for the first time ever. I’m moving a lot of beef and I was pretty aggressive. I felt very comfortable on the Zipps. The descent did not seem nearly as hairy as it did on my previous training runs.

Per the EN plan, I took it super easy and was passed by the entire world on the climb out of town. Some people are just really fast, but others were working harder than hell on the bike. You could tell the difference. There was a guy at the lake on Friday giving some of us some loud unsolicited advice (you know "the guy"!). He said he was going to ride 5:20 and run 3:20. I recognized him as he passed me on the flats out to Jay like I was standing still. Crazy thing was he was STANDING UP TALL in the wind and absolutely hammering it and breathing hard. Of course, by lap 2 when I passed him he looked like a kid riding on his paper route that just wanted to be home playing video games. Totally defeated. Not trying to pick on him, but I guess I'm just surprised to see people working that hard after every piece of advice you read or hear about ironman bike execution is DO NOT OVERCOOK!

Nutrition was a 650 calorie bottle of Infinite. Had another in special needs along with a few Honey Stinger Waffles for lap 2 for some extra cals. Target was 300/hr. Took water at every aid station whether I needed it or not and drank as much as I could.

Hard to know my splits without the Garmin, but based on clock time I’m pretty sure I even split the bike at 3:01, 3:01 more or less. Never pushed it purposely out of Zone 1 until I got on the road back to LP from Wilmington, where I upped it to Z2.

Throughout the ride, I used the “feel the pressure on the bottom of your feet and keep it consistent” hill climbing technique which really helped me not overcook the climbs.

I felt great coming into town and T2. I thought I managed “the line” the whole ride pretty well. Crowds were amazing!

make sure the garmin works

Dang! I lost a ton of spaces here. Not my best T2 effort. I did change my bike shorts for tri shorts, as well as my socks, and added sunscreen. By the way, I put sunscreen on the night before, the morning of, in t1 and again in t2 and I still got completely FRIED.

I stood at the urinal in the tent for a good 30 seconds trying to squeeze out my first pee since the morning. Like blood from a stone. Ruh Roh! Needed to drink even more, I guess.

199ag
1057oa

probably don't need socks on the bike. i just wore them as a precaution for cold and blisters.

I must’ve come out of the tent like it was a 5k, because I heard Mike Riley say over the speakers “WHOA BIG GUY! Slow it down. You’ve got 26 miles to go!!”. Cool. If the “Voice-of-God” says to slow down, you slow down. I now had my other Garmin on so at least I could manage my pace and heart rate. Found it DIFFICULT to slow down to a 9:30 target pace (that would change later!).

The EN recommended strategy is to hit the last person in each aid station that has what you need and then walk for 20-30 secs to take in nutrition. Tried to do this as much as possible.

I was really feeling the heat right away. Thank goodness for the constant Macca Sponges shoved in my top along with ice cups dumped down the back. And it wasn’t that hot – only the high 70’s. Luckily, the race was not 2 days earlier when it was 90+ degrees out.

Ended up walking up the big hills back to town on the first lap for the most part to keep the HR down. Family was waiting for me in Canadian Corner and asked how I was. I recall saying “I’m getting tired but otherwise feel ok".

By mile 11 or so I was still on Infinit and water only. Decided to take in a piece of banana and felt GREAT not long afterwards. I took this as a sign to take in more calories and other goodies at the buffet tables.

Crossed over mile 18 and said “Well hello, Mr. Line. Here you are. And I feel fine. Hahaha”. I was quite full of myself. Five minutes later I was walking with severe stomach cramps. “Mr. Line” smacked me on the back of the head and said “gotcha, Mr. Cocky!”.

Looking back I blame the cramps on the loss of discipline/focus with my nutrition that the banana started. I just started eating everything in sight (except the cookies!). Bad idea. Must stay disciplined next time late in the race!

Mile 19-23 were simply run until the stomach pain was unbearable, then walk until it went away. I started to see my goal of 12 hours slip away. I just took water only from that point on trying to manage through the cramp.

By mile 23 I started to feel better and got back into my run. I recall having about 30min to do 2 miles and knew I had 12 hours in the bag. Saw the family in front of the brew pub and gave them each a sweaty kiss and they said they would see me at the finish!

Just before the oval the guy I was running with asked me if this was my first IM. I said yes and he gave me the honors to go first and said “go enjoy it and get a good picture”. That was cool of him. I high-fived every hand I could see in the oval and just soaked it in. Got a crappy picture though b/c I ended up unintentionally catching the next guy in front of me. Adrenaline rush, i guess. Oops!

Manage my nutrition with more discipline. Decide what I want to eat BEFORE the aid station and execute. This is not Sizzler.

Normally after a triathlon I eat and drink like a Viking. Not this time. I could barely eat. I sat in the food court for about 30 minutes and stared at some grapes.

While I was staring at my grapes, i started talking to the guy next to me. We talked about our races. He had been done for a while as he as already dressed. After a while, too many of things he was saying sounded way too familiar. 25 years old...Buffalo...shooting for 10hrs...named "nick"...wait a second: are you "PirateNick" from BT? Sure enough, it was...pretty funny.

Then got up to get a massage. But I started shaking uncontrollably from being cold so I just thought it best to head to the condo. The sun was starting to set and I was getting really cold.

My wife bought me an Ironman pint glass and a growler of LP Brewery 46er which I drank in the hot Jacuzzi to try and warm up. That’s my girl. I was in heaven!

After a while I summoned the strength to go back to the oval and cheer on the 15-16 hour finishers. Then hit the Pub for a couple more pints with some of the ENers that were still there. A perfect end to a perfect day.

the stomach cramps on the run. Probably cost me 15 minutes or so, but i am FINE with that.


Yes, it is EXPENSIVE. Yes it is CROWDED. Yes it is a corporation just trying to SQUEEZE its customers. But dammnit, it is awesome. If you haven't done it, you must! Just take a looke at this video if you need more convincing:
http://youtu.be/NmaYrvpx8wg