Ironman Canada - TriathlonFull Ironman

Took it out hard on my own. Started looking for feet after a few minutes. It was rough, it was rough the whole way. I couldn't believe how ruthless some people are. All in all I didn't let it affect me, I just dealt it back and got it done with a decent group. The main group of names was about 1.5mintues up by the end...decent and a confidence boost. I've never been nervous for the IMC swim, very good headspace and I've got to carry that over to other races.

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Bike Nutrition:
-Water, lots of water. NUUN to start. Hardly touched Gatorade. Only once I topped up half my aero drink with some Gatorade. I would like to have brought another NUUN tablet. Could have even drank more.
-2 Ensures plus calories – but I should have brought 3. I could have easily had another and was a bit miffed that I had to go to Carbo Pro 1200 after only two hours on the bike.
-Half a powerbar early in the bike.
-Grabbed lots of banana – probably 3 halves
-had half a Organic food bar at special needs(120Km) luckily. Glad I put that there, it went down well.
-had a bottle with a full 1200 calories of Carbo pro 1200. This was good but would like to have had more ensure. Next time it could be good to simply carry more ensure but keep the same amount of CP 1200 so I can go back and forth if need be. It was very sweet, maybe water it down a bit next time
-I also would like to have had a fruit source bar with 20km to go. But then again…I had no stomach issues without it. I think I grabbed a banana instead. Maybe it was good I stayed away from solids late in the ride.
-Grabbed one gel at some point. I ate it…but forget when. I think ~100km in.
- Lots of electrolytes. I would say 2-3 per hour.
- 2 Advils, one at ~60km and another at ~120km
- 2 gas X’s with the advils.


The ride itself was OK. I didn't feel strong at all, but somehow managed a smoking fast ride. The first 60km were easy, paced with a small group of 3 including the womans leader Belinda Granger. Felt kind weird sharing the pace setting with someone who was competing against my wife. I started doing my own thing at the base of Richter, then turned it up a notch over the top of the first two rollers leading to Keremeos. I caught Justin Daerr and Nigel Gray, but couldn't stay with them when they turned up the heat a bit. Ended up riding the rest of the day on my own. Climbed yellow lake alright, hurting. Finished the ride strong, however.
It was not a good idea to ride a new bike, one that I had only trained on for 5 hours total during the race week. Blue - www.rideblue.com - sent us some new rides and the positions were close...but even small changes can be huge over 180km. Love the bike and looking forward to getting more time on it.
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Started out with my two belt flasks of Carbo Pro 1200 and water. They felt very heavy so I emptied the CP 1200 to 3/4 and drank a bunch of water. Better. Legs were in rough shape and I just had to keep talking myself through it. I was very worried, this was the most fatigued I had ever felt starting an IM marathon. My pace was good though. Things got very bad as we hit the hills. 17km-29km were painfully slow and tedious. For some reason something clicked at that point and I just started running hard. Really running hard. It was sweet. I think I was moved by the desire to get under 9hrs. With 10km to go I had 42 minutes left to reach it. Running hard was necessary. In the end I missed 9hrs by a little over 1minute, but it felt so good to finally finish an Iroman by running hard and strong and didn't walk once the entire day. A big confidence boost despite the run time that I wanted to be about 10minutes faster. I think that headwind on the way out was killer, more than I realized. It was crazy.

Nutrition was OK. The CP1200 wasn't going down very easily, but I forced it through and it worked out. Had an Advil at half way, had a 'motivator' after 1hr. Also started drinking coke after an hour of running. Coke and water at every aid station, Watermelon now and again. CP1200 and water in between the stations. Electrolytes, had 2-3/hour.
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Med tent with Chicken broth and water. Managed a cookie after 30minutes or so. Maybe not a good idea, got sick about 20minutes later. Thankfully didn't have to throw up this time. I still felt very rough all night and didn't sleep at all. Heather and I ended up going to find a Dennys and 3:00 in the morning after tossing and turning. Shitty food never tasted so good.
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IM Canada is such a great course.