login
 Swim
Comments: I'm not a great swimmer, and in the past I've put a lot of training time into the swim without much to show for it. So my strategy in training this year was to swim only 2-3x per week to make time for extra bike and run sessions. I figured I would make more time there than if I swam a lot more. I usually did 1 5000 yard swim, 1 1000-1500 yard open water swim, and 1 very high intensity 3000 yard swim per week. I figured this would be enough to get me through the swim comfortably. Last year I started to the right of the boat ramp about halfway back, and just got clobbered continuously. This year I decided to start about 10-20 yards off the buoy line where I noticed there was a big hole with not a lot of people. This was a great place to start, I actually had a really clean first couple hundred yards. After that there was a decent amount of contact for a while, followed by some clear water. It seemed like it alternated like this through the first 2 turns and onto the backstretch. My effort level felt really low though so I was happy about that. I kept encountering little pockets of resistance for the rest of the swim, but nothing too bad really. When I saw 1:15 getting out of the water I was pretty happy, given I trained the swim less and still went 3 min faster than last year on what felt like a lot less effort. Although not getting beat up for the whole swim this year probably helped. What would you do differently?: Nothing, very happy with my effort.  Transition 1
Comments: The size of the transition area makes this slow by default. I got the wetsuit off using a wetsuit stripper, which was quick and great. I took it easy running up the helix and made sure to take my time to get my gear on and organized how I wanted it. I also took 2 pepto tablets and 2 antacids, as last year I felt sick for a good protion of the bike. I decided to run barefoot until I got to my bike, then put my bike shoes on. Other than that a pretty uneventful transition. What would you do differently?: Not much, just move a little quicker.  Bike
Comments: My goal for the ride and what I kept telling myself over and over was conserve conserve conserve. The stick portion I rode at a stupid easy pace, and infact I probably left some time out there, but I was feeling good heading into the loops so it was probably the right thing to do. The pepto really helped, I didn't feel sick at all after the swim. I just kept focusing on hydrating appropriately and getting my nutrition in. I use a variety of items, ritz peanut butter crackers, Larabars, EFS liquid shot, and Perform to get my calories. That way if something isn't working, I can switch it up. Fortunately everything was going done and sitting well on this day. I also tak 4x SaltStick tablets per hour, as I tend to sweat a lot, even when it's cool. So between all that I took about 350 calories per hour and about 40 oz per hour of fluids. I had to pee three times so maybe a bit too much on the fluids but it didn't seem to hurt me. The first time through the big hills I felt strong and just spun up them, actually passing quite a few people. I was actually worried I was hitting them too hard, but my heartrate was still pretty low. The second time through the loop I passed a lot of the people that were power bombing it past me up the hills early in the race. I wonder what makes them think that is a good race strategy. Around mile 80 all of the sudden the inside of my right knee started to hurt. I've never had pain there biking, so I was a little worried. The it really hurt, to the point every pedal stroke was painful. The second time up the big hills was pretty rough with that going on. It felt good to get back on the stick to head home, but I was worried about the knee. That last big hill on Whalen is always a killer, but I just got down in my bailout gear and spun up it, no sense in hammering it there. After that things felt pretty easy, and the pain in my knee magically subsided, but not to the point of being gone unfortunately. I wondered how running a marathon on it was going to feel. The last few miles I made sure to get some nutrition and hydration in to prep for the run. Got my feet out of my shoes right before the helix, got up it and was done with the bike. What would you do differently?: Not have my knne hurt the last 35 miles or so... Transition 2
Comments: This was a little slower than I would have liked, but I did change shorts and there was a bathroom break in there too. Still, I was hoping for 5 min or so. Nothing specific went wrong, I think I was just moving really slow. What would you do differently?: Move faster...  Run
Comments: Started out the run with the legs feeling decent and the knee thankfully not giving me any trouble. My wife and mother-in-law were volunteering at run special needs so I got the boost of getting to see them right off the bat. The first few miles are mostly downhill, so those didn't feel bad at all. I did notice I was sweating a lot given it wasn't that hot, so I tried to back the pace off a bit and drink more. Around 4 miles in I started feeling sick, so I took 2 pepto tablets and that helped for a while. The first trip up Observatory hill wasn't too bad, I ran slowly up it. On the sharp downhill after that hill I took one awkward stride, and my right knee started hurting again, and hurt pretty much the rest of the way, so that sucked. I focused on just making it to the halway turnaround at that point without walking. That was important to me. My stomach started to get upset again, but a visit to the port-o-john about 15 miles in helped with that. At that point it was becoming clear that I probably would not be able to run the rest of the way. Usually I am very stubborn about not walking until I am completely wrecked. On this day, starting with the observatory hill, I made the decision to take walk breaks when I needed to. Now I walked very briskly when I did walk (12-13 min miles, and only for 0.1-0.2 mile increments). I absolutely believe this saved my race. My running intervals I was still able to run 8 min miles, and it kept the knee pain to a minimum. I just focused on getting nutrition and hydration in and walking when I needed to. With a couple miles to go, I realized I had a shot at a sub 4 marathon, so I ran most of the last couple miles. Made it to the finish feeling great! What would you do differently?: Nothing, this was my best effort on this day. That's all you can ask for! Post race
Warm down: Got my medal and my picture taken, and grabbed a chocolate milk and a couple slices of pizza from the food tent. Met up with my wife and mother-in-law ans we took a couple pictures and headed to the Terrace to grab my bike and gear bags. We packed up the car and headed to Culver's to grab a quick dinner. We made the drive back to Cedar Falls after that, got to bed around 11:30, up at 6:30 to go to work the next day. What limited your ability to perform faster: Lingering knee issues during training and a separate knee issue during the race. Working long hours and not sleeping enough. Event comments: I can honestly say this is just about the most fun I've had at a race! I just can't thank the volunteers and spectators enough, they really make this race something special. I'll never forget this one in particular! Last updated: 2011-10-24 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
World Triathlon Corporation
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 307/2340
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 56/270
Coming into this one, I knew this would be my last ironman for a while. I've been feeling a little burned out from the training and lack of sleep, and I've been working 60+ hr weeks pretty frequently, so I need a break. Plus my wife and I want to start a family, and it wouldn't be fair to her to continue to devote this much time to a hobby with young kids. I really do enjoy these events though, but on the plus side I will be able to focus on going faster at shorter distance events. With all that in mind, I really wanted to focus on enjoying the day, soaking up the energy of the spectators and volunteers, and just have fun and let the chips fall where they would. I'm usually overly focused on achieving a goal, so having this attitude was kind of fun. I was very relaxed coming into the race, despite having some nagging knee problems most of the year. I drove in from Iowa Friday afternoon and took care of athlete check-in right away. Seemed like it went a little quicker this year. It was nice to see that $600+ gets you a little nicer backpack this year. I bought a polo at the ironman store and also a water bottle to carry for the run because I'm a heavy sweater even in the relatively cool conditions we were forecasted to get for raceday. Headed over to my hotel after that. I stayed at the AmericInn-Madison West, which was great and a lot less expensive than the hotels right near the Terrace. The logistics weren't bad and the hotel staff was great! I went to the athlete dinner, but bailed about halfway through the presentations because I was getting tired. I called the wife and wished her good luck, she was doing a half-marathon Saturday near where we live then heading over to Madison. Got a good night's sleep Friday night, and took care of gear bags and bike check early. After that just chilled and watched college football most of the day until my wife got to the hotel. We went to diner early at the Olive Garden, then went in the hottub at the hotel for a little while, then just relaxed in the room. Got to sleep early and slept well Saturday night. Up at 5 AM, had a Larabar and a bottle of Perform, and grabbed a bagel from the hotel breakfast on the way out. We found street parking a few blocks from the Terrace, I pumped up my tires, dropped off bottles, and gave my pump to my wife and said goodbye. I went inside and used the bathroom, got my wetsuit on, and headed down to the lake.
Swam out to my position in the water, and treaded water for about 10 min.