Ironman Mont-Tremblant - TriathlonFull Ironman

What can I say, it was a perfect swim. Right off the bat, I went hard and was in clear water immediately. There was one guy to my left and another group over to my right but I had a clear line and no contact at all. For the first 5 mins or so the pace was high but then it started to settle down a bit. I decided to tuck in behind the guy to my left who was headed over to the right to tack onto the pack. For about half way of the first leg that's where I stayed. At that point I noticed that the group to the right was starting to go faster than us so I looked for a spot to jump into the train. This was the only point in the swim that I had any serious contact - took a punch to the face but it didn't affect me too much. Once we made the first turn, I noticed that our group had separated from the pack a bit and I was at the back end of it and trailing off. I didn't want to end up in no mans land so I picked up the pace for a minute to grab back onto the group. After making the final turn for the long stretch back, I noticed we started to pass some of the different colored caps of the pros that had started 10 mins ahead of us - that's when I knew we were going at a good pace and it would be a good time. The rest of the swim was very un-eventful and i just followed the feet of the guy in front of me. When we got out of the water, I looked for a clock but didn't see one so I had no idea what the time was.

Nothing, it was a very relaxed swim and I felt great throughout it.

There was a long run from the water to the change tent, probably 300-400 meters but there was a nice red carpet for us to run on the entire way and it was packed with spectators! Once I got into the tent I was able to quickly get everything done. I had a very nice volunteer who was a great help, he told me that the time of day was 7:58am so I knew my swim time had to have been quick.

Not much

It was a pretty uneventful ride for me. I kept an eye on my power to keep it in the 175 range and did an ok job of doing so. The exception being on the steep stuff on the way to Lac Superieur. There were several times were I had to go over 300 just to keep moving. Lots of people standing up and hammering up the hills - I just tried to keep things as smooth as I could. On the fast descents, I kept the power going and re-passed a lot of the people who passed me on the way up. I hit 73.5 km/hr along here somewhere.

At around the 110 km mark I noticed that I was starting to pass more people than were passing me (with the exception of the hill up La Conception). I just stuck to my power and it seemed lots had overdone it early on the bike and were paying for it. The wind also picked up a bit on the second loop but it was never too bad that I was miserable.

AP: 169w
NP: 181w

That gives a VI of 1.07 which isn't that great but with the steepness of the hills I'm not sure I could do much about that.

http://app.strava.com/rides/19135930

30 km 55:04 32.69 km/h
90 km 1:56:14 30.97 km/h
120 km 56:58 31.60 km/h
180.2 k 2:03:31 29.24 km/h
Total 5:51:47 30.73 km/h

Maybe ride more short steep hills at home as practice but it went well overall. It certainly didn't feel like I was out there for almost 6 hours.

Handed my bike off to a volunteer and ran to the change tent where another nice volunteer helped me out. Only mistakes I made here were not turning my 305 on as soon as I got in there so it could lock on and putting my run shoes on before changing my shorts (doh).

Turn watch on right away and put shoes on last!

During the bike, my calves had cramped a bit on the steep hills and I could feel them pretty early in the run too. My plan was to run between the aid stations for as long as possible. For the first lap I was able to do this with the exception of one steeper hill on the way back. After about 10k my stomach wasn't feeling all that great so I had to stick to just water for a bit and then tried some coke. That worked well for a while until I got a coke that wasn't flat - ugh!

Starting out on the second lap in the hills things were getting rough. I was starting to cramp in my hamstrings a bit and the stomach was still iffy. I did my best to just keep going between aid stations but eventually started doing short walks between them as well. Anytime things went vertical at all my hip flexors were also starting to complain. When I got back to the last 5k or so in the hills, it was really bad. I pretty much had to walk up all of the hills and going back down them was no bargain either.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the run considering I had never run more than 26k in training (or ever). Anytime I walked I made sure I kept a good pace with it and never stopped (except for two porta potty breaks).
About 2km from the finish it started POURING and I got totally soaked and a bit cold. I felt bad for the people who were still headed out on their second lap. It must have been a bit rough being that wet for so long.

21.1 km 2:12:59 6:18/km
31.9 km 1:07:08 6:12/km
42.2 km 1:30:33 8:47/km
Total 4:50:40 6:53/km

Run way more in training. Unfortunately my left knee and hamstring didn't allow for that. Oddly enough, those held up just fine in the race and my right one was worse off.

It was raining, I found Tab and we went straight back to the hotel. I had a rough night as my stomach shut down after about an hour and I couldn't keep anything down. Any time I moved in bed the room started spinning and I was grabbing for the bucket.


Insufficient run training.


Everything about this race is ideal. Perfect location for spectators, great roads to ride on, lots of accommodations right on site. I don't know how you could make it any better!