Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

Well, it certainly feels good to finish the season off with the accomplishment of a goal I’ve been looking at for a couple years now. A 9:44 in 2006, and 9:29 in 2007, a 9:01 and an 8:52 in 2008. I wanted that last one badly. A big shout out to Chuckie V for his suggestions on a slightly altered training focus post Ironman Canada. Though I’m not working with him directly…yet…I have no doubt the short time working those few things helped in a big way to knocking a good 10 minutes of my run split.

The race started before sunrise in Arizona. With the goggles on, from water level, it was difficult to make out the first buoy. Very strange feeling to be about to race an Ironman in that kind of light. Once the gun went off I did the best I could to get on some feet. I lost them pretty quickly and started thinking it may be a lonely swim. A few hundred meters later I took a some really good sites to try and sort out was going on. I could see an inside line group forming so made the effort to get on. Somehow I managed to kick it into another gear and get on the back, thankfully. Given the weird curve of the canal/lake-ish body of water we were all able to cut a pretty good tangent. I’m sure this is where the quick times came from with most being a couple minutes quicker than you would think. Myself included. Around the two far end turn buoys it really started thinning out. I’m not sure if the leaders of my group – probably the second group – picked up the pace or if the buoys simply stretched it out. Most likely both. Either way it was a bit tougher to find feet on the way back. Coming in for a 52 and change swim was a shock. I honestly did a triple take of my watch.

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Nutrition was:
~1000 calories from Ensure+ - 3 cans in a bottle
~1200 calories from Carbo Pro 1200
~4 banana halves
~1 Fruit source bar
~2 bottles of NUUN
~Crazy amounts of water
~2 advils at 90km 1 more at 150km
~2 or 3 gasX tabs
~2-3 electrolyte pills per hour.

On the bike, my mind set was to take it easy for the first of three, 60 km laps and see what kind of time that put me at. I figured between a 1:35 lap and a 1:40 lap would be a decent start. Getting out to the far end of the end of the course, 30 km in, I looked at the watch and it said 54 minutes. I had gone easy for sure, cruising along with other like minded athletes, Jim Vance and Jose Jeuland. 54 minutes was not a good sign. Jim must have made that observation as well ‘cause we both started hammering pretty good. Thankfully with the help of the downhill and tailwind we made up ground and brought it home in 40 minutes for a spot on 1:35 lap. That lap set the tempo for the remainder of the day. I would be happy with a ~4:45 and kept ticking off the splits like that. 54 minutes out,40 back. The false flat, small climb, headwind outstretch was tough. Making the turn was a bit of a relief.
Even though the effort is still there it feels much easier when you’re moving 60 km/hr. It was really quite an uneventful bike, simply focusing on my nutrition intake and holding the pace steady. I had to pee 6 times. Arizona is not the most pee friendly course. Typically I like to have some downhill to coast and just let it out. I can now say I have mastered peeing WHILE pedaling. Peeing while coasting was easy, peeing while pedaling is something altogether different. Haha. My final lap was my strongest of the three…in terms of fatigue/feeling, but a little bit slower with respect to time. The legs and bike were awesome, I had plenty in the tank. Resisting the urge to lay down some rubber and make up ground on those that I could was difficult. Sticking to my pre-race plan and not letting my deficit affect me was important. It’s very easy to get negative when you see Kieran Doe, Chris Lieto, and Jordan Rapp heading home and you’ve still got 15 minutes of riding to get to the turnaround. Sub 9 hrs was my race goal today and I came in pretty much on schedule with a 4:49

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Nutrition was:
~600 calories from Carbo pro 1200 spread over the 3 hrs
~A choke of gel
~Plenty of coke after the first lap
~1 motivator tablet - Basically caffein
~water like crazy again
~9 electorlyte pills - Thermolytes from Carbo Pro.

Going into the run I was supremely confident I could hold, at slowest, 7 minutes/mile. This is the first Ironman I’ve actually recorded every single mile split. What a great way to break up the run, I’ll definitely be doing that again in the future. My sole focus was on keeping those splits under 7:00 for as long as I could. They started ‘fast’ at around 6:30 for the first two. After the second mile at that pace I made myself slow down even though it felt like I was prancing. From there I kept ticking off between 6:40-6:55. It was the 13th mile where I hit my first 7:05. I only did one more mile under 7:00 but I had banked enough time early on that it was still looking good for a 3 hr run split. It was those final 3 miles where I started losing it. My focus went from mile to mile, to 9 hrs is FOR SURE. “All I have to do now is run 9 minute miles and I’ll make it under”. Not good thoughts to be running through your head at that point of the race. It is SO easy to give in to that, and give in I did. I went from 7:15’s straight to 8:00+ minute miles. I didn’t even bother taking a 25 mile split but finished the last 2.2 in 16:30. Even so – 3:05 for my best run split by far and a reasonable whopping of the 9 hr barrier in 8:52.

http://web.me.com/trevorandheather/Trevor_and_Heather_Wurtele_-_Can... or http://www.fyzz.ca

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