Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 160)

Shermbelle - 2011-06-29 12:27 AM Bracelet is long gone. Went to a concert last night in Seattle (Dropkick Murphys) so I will be willing to bet I was the only one of you in a mosh pit the day after an IM. When will I learn that I am not 20 anymore?

Ha!  You definitely beat me there!  Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in my (adopted) hometown!  Seattle this time of year is truly the best

Oh and yeah, I took the bracelet off on Monday night.  Too much 'splainin' to do at work...

Really enjoyed your report and pics.  Congrats to you and hubby!  I know an aside... but really like your bike kit you wore on your last ride before the race too.

I don't think I can add a link to my RR, because it is on our team website, and you can't see it unless you are a member. So I will post it here....and this should also push us to that all so important 200. Us Ironmen are crazy about numbers

My first goal with IMCdA was to finish. I had a time goal of 15:00 but
I knew that would only happen if everything went perfectly, and I
would be happy just to finish my first IM.

I arrived in Spokane WA on friday morning at 9am, got our bags and my
bike and picked our rental car and drove right to the packet pick-up.
It was just after 10 so the line wasn't too long. Then we went and had
lunch then and checked into our hotel only about 2 miles from
transition. I was meeting some "friends" from Beginner Triathlete (one
guy was from Coeur d'Alene) and he drove a bunch of us around the bike
course and gave us some local tips. Went back to the hotel and put my
bike together and rested a bit before the athlete dinner. I met the
TTT gang and we were able to get a group of seats together for the
dinner and meeting. The food was gross but the vibe and energy were
great. My teammates were awesome and got me a cake and hats since
Friday was my birthday! So much fun. Went out for a sandwich with Amit
after since the meal in the tent was not great. My friend Kelly flew
in Friday night to come and watch my first IM.

Saturday morning I woke up and met Brian and Kris from TTT for a swim
and quick bike. I swam about 15 minutes, which was good because it
gave me an idea of how cold the water really was. After about 2
minutes my hands and face were numb, so I was ok  Then we went on a
25 minute ride. I really just wanted to make sure everything was
working on my bike. Went back to the hotel to pack up all my
transition bags and get them ready to drop off at the transition area.
Took Kelly and Amit and headed over to transition and the expo.
Dropped off my bike and bags (after making sure I could access and add
things to my bags the next morning). Then we walked around the
transition area and I picked up Co2 for my bike and a t-shirt and
140.6 sticker from the IM store, we the. Went to lunch and back to the
hotel to chill out and make some posters with Allene and gang from
TTT. I had pizza for dinner with Kris and her support crew and called
it an early night at 7.
I actually slept well saturday night getting between 6-7 hours of
sleep. 

Woke up at 4am and had my oatmeal, banana, and ensure along with
a few cups of coffee. Amit and Kelly dropped me off at transition and
I dropped off my special needs bags and got marked. Went first to my
transition bags and added some food and drink to the bags. Then I
headed over to the bike racks. I took my bike over to the mechanic
station to get the tires topped off, added my fuel to the bike and
went to get in line for the bathroom. At this point I had everything
set up and I didn't want to make myself crazy by going back and forth
over everything again, so I put on my wetsuit, got my caps and
goggles, and went off to watch the pros start at 6:25. I found coach
Kristen sitting by the swim start and I just hung out there for a bit
chatting and then watched the pros start. I then got in line to head
down to the swim start, I wanted to make sure I had the spot I wanted
for the swim start. I got in the water to get some in my wetsuit and
then waited for the craziness to start. 

Swim- 1:09:03
I started front and center of
the pack, and I was not quite prepared for the mess of people when the
cannon went off. I was swam over and pushed down, and all I kept
thinking is "don't stop swimming or you may get pushed under". So I
kept pushing along and after about 5 minutes I was able to get some
open water and start swimming and not just fighting for space. I felt
really good on the swim, and I only had a few times that other
swimmers were in my way ( the ones who like the zigzag in front of
you). The swim was a 2 loop and by the time I jumped back in for the
2nd loop it was free and clear swimming. I came out of the water
and felt great, although my hands and feet were frozen and not
really working all that great. Had my wetsuit stripped off, got my T1
bag and headed to the changing tent.

T1- 9:46
Thank goodness for planning my transition so well, and wonderful
Debbie in the changing tent, otherwise I would have been in there
forever. The first thing I did was dump my bag and had her grab my
towel and try and warm up my feet. Then she harped me change and get
the rest of my gear on. I had planned ahead of time that I would be
changing clothes in T1 since the water was going to be so cold. I had
to have Debbie zip and fasten just about everything I put on because
my fingers were so cold I couldn't get them to work. Even with all of
those issues I was still able to get a fairly respectable and what
seems to be short transition for this particular race.

Bike-7:44:43
I had planned on doing the bike with HR alone. I took my computer
off, so I wouldn't be tempted to bike faster. I was to stay in 135-145
except on the hills, and then I was to try and keep it under 160. This
plan actually worked out really well for me. It is tough as one of the
first people out of the water, because you get passed A LOT! I just
stuck to my plan and it was working for me. What wasn't working was my
nutrition, right on the bike my stomach felt weird and nauseous. I
thought it was because right out of transition my HR was in the 160's
and that once I settled into the bike I would be ok . I had planned on
biking for 20 minutes before I started my nutrition plan, which was
drink water and electrolyte drink every 15 minutes (so that I was
consuming 1 1/2 bottles every hour) and eating a quarter of my PB&J
sandwich and Swedish fish every 45 minutes. This was fine until I
tried to eat. I had to force the food down, and even then, it was not
going well. I was only able to eat 3/4 of my sandwich on the first
loop. By the 2nd loop my legs started cramping because of my
nutrition. I stopped at special needs and drank part of my sweet tea
and I at some of my payday candy bar hoping that would help... It
really didn't. I stopped at the aid station after special needs to use
the bathroom and get more sunscreen. As I started back into the hill
part of the course, my leg cramps got so bad i was worried they might
seize up on me, so I stopped right before the hill section to stretch
my quads and drink some more electrolyte and water. From then on I was
just drinking and eating bananas from every aid station. I felt ok
other than my stomach and legs, and I was in good spirits. I had
"calm" "smooth" and "easy" typed and taped to my aero bars and that
helped me when I felt badly because so many people were passing me. I
felt like my time could have been better on the bike, but that would
have required my nutrition plan going well, which it didn't. I didn't
do anything I hadn't practiced with, I think it may have been the
dominos pizza the night before....I don't usually have dominos. Anyway
all in all I was happy with the bike and how I felt coming off the
bike.  The course was more difficult than I thought it would be, but
it was so beautiful out the I almost didn't care 

T2-5:46
Stopped in the bathroom after handing off my bike, by this point I was
actually feeling really good. Much better than I thought I would. Went
into the tent took off my bike jersey, helmet and bike shoes and
socks. Threw on my honey badger don't care birthday shirt. Put some
glide on my feet before I put on my toe socks and running shoes. Had
the volunteer add more sunscreen, out on my visor and fuel belt and
went out the door. While I was in T2 I was drinking my GU brew
recovery drink, in the hopes it would help me get some calories in.

Run-6:39:03
I had originally planned on doing my run 8 walk 2, but I was feeling
like that might be a bit too much to start, so I decided on 4/1 while
I was still on the bike. I took off and for the most part was feeling
good (except my stomach). I stuck to my plan of run 4 walk 1 and that
was going great. I would walk through the aid stations taking only
water and cola, hoping my stomach would settle at some point. I had GU
brew with me on my fuel belt, but when I tried to drink that it made
my want to throw up, so I gave up on that. I walked up the really big
hill, and ran down the other side to the turn around. Walked back up
again and ran down. I was doing really great on my first lap and hit
the 1/2 way point at 3 hours, which is what was hoping for. I stopped
at special needs and had my sweet tea and walked and drank that for a
while, and put my payday bar in my pocket in case I wanted it later.
The tea actually settled my stomach a bit, so that was good. By the
time I got mile 15 my body really hurt, and when I would run my head
made my neck and shoulders feel like it weighed 30lbs. So I started
walking more and running less. By mile 17 I was only walking. This was
ok with me, because to be honest I am not the greatest runner, and I
wasn't really sure how much running I would be able to do anyway. So I
was happy with how much running I actually did. I had seen Kris Parks
all day on the bike and the run. Always sometime after a turn around,
there she would be only a ways back, and I kept wondering when she
would catch me. Well she did at the last turn around I was going up
the hill and she was running down, and I told her "come and get me
Kris" and she finally did at mile 21! There was only one point on the
run where my body just wanted to stop already. It was at mile 23, and
my body was screaming at me to just sit down and stop moving already,
but of course that was not an option, so I just kept trucking along. I
got past mile 25 and not long after there was Amit waiting for me. He
walked with me up to the turn onto Sherman Ave and the finish, and
convinced me to start running again. Then I saw  Kelly and coach
Kristen and Jan and Caroline taking photos and cheering me in. I
couldn't believe how many people were still out there cheering us all
on. It was just amazing. I started running down the chute of people
and it was like I was being carried across the finish line by all the
cheering and music. Right before I crossed I heard Mike say "Lea
Kirdatt you are an Ironman" and it was just amazing! I am pretty sure
I had the biggest smile ever on my face, and to be honest I have never
been so proud of myself for setting a goal and completing it. 

Total -15:48:21

After crossing the finish line, my "catcher" walked me over to get my
finisher shirt, and get my photo taken. I had a slice of pizza (that I
managed to choke down) and a bottle of water. I then found Kelly and
Amit and we went off to watch the rest of the TTT team cross the
finish. It was an awesome day and I got back to the hotel took a quick
shower and crashed!

Monday after the race Amit and I decided to explore northern Idaho a
bit, mostly by car, and went out to Sandypoint and Kellogg and got to
see some amazing scenery along the way. MN doesn't have anything like
that, so it was a lot of fun to see. We had dinner with the whole gang
on Monday night. All the athletes and their support crew (except Brian
and Emily who left Monday afternoon). The only bad point of the whole
trip was the device at the Bonsai Bistro. If you are ever in Coeur
d'Alene do not eat the this place. The food wad good, but not worth
the wait or the horrible service we received.
Tuesday we packed up all out stuff and headed back to MN

The volunteers at this race were amazing and so upbeat and friendly
all day long. I really can't think of anything that I would change at
this point. I had a plan, and I executed it. I didn't bike as fast as
I thought I would, but I came off the bike feeling good and able to
run. I had so much fun, and it was great doing a race with so many
teammates also doing their first ironman. We had a great group of
friends to help us and cheer us on and that really made a huge
difference. It was a beautiful course and a perfect 1st Ironman day.

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the knowledge and advice shared on this thread. It was also great to meet some of you at the swims and athlete dinner.

Special thanks to flyboy and the great volunteers in the med tent post race, and the catchers who made sure I didn't hit the ground post finish line.

My goal was to just finish, which I did in 16:25. The swim was tough, although suprisingly the cold didn't bother me after the initial shock, I couldn't seem to sight and swim straight at all. Think I added an extra .1-.15 miles to my swim with all the zig-zigs I did. Out in 1:47 I think.

Bike was tough, and I hadn't ridden more than 75 miles at a time prior to the race. Walked up the hill for 1/8 mile on second lap trying to save quads for the "run". Just very tired of riding by mile 80, but stuck it out. Had to loosen shoes twice due to "hot foot".

Proabably walked 22 miles out of the marathon, including 98% of the first lap. Stomach shutdown by mile 9 and unable to eat or drink anything after that. Kept rinsing my mouth out with water. Tried 2 oz. of perform at mile 16, went maybe a hundred yards and had a nice lake view between episodes of puking my guts out. Back to rinsing and spitting. Super dark out on the road on final quarter of marathon, but so tired of being out there, started heel-toe shuffle-jog to just get the damn thing over with. Both feet with super bad blisters had me clenching my teeth. If it had been a hot day, doubt I could have started the second lap due to dehydration.

Finally back to Sherman and let hill carry me down to finish. Hear Mike reilly say " .... Kentucky...", but not my name. Wonderful volunteers catch me and keep me from falling down as I get my picture taken. To the med tent for more vomiting and then some Zofran, which works wonders after 20 minutes. Able to leave and watch count down to midnight. Pickup bags and hobble to car,  hit 24 hour Walgreens for some Gatorade. then a shower and bed. Only sleep 5 hours?

Thanks again to everyone. Very sorry about the problems many people had out there Sunday. With our third child due in February, I knew it would probably be a long time before I could have another go at 140.6, so I was pretty much do or die.

In the med tent, while dizzy and nauseated, was thinking one and done. Now thinking I give it another go with 2 years to train. This experience has taught me to expect more from myself, both as an athlete and a person in general. Hope to keep in touch.

Can you link the full video? 

Thought this was a cool pic, the family caught me coming back into town on the second loop of the bike....almost done but I had to stop and get a hug from my little big man....  Cost me a few minutes, but was sure worth the time!

(Logan and Dad.jpg)

awesome photo ^^^!

Ive had some time to process my race and while I think I met my goal of having the best day I could on the day, I definitely think I came up short on the numbers game for where my fitness was. So I wax and wane between happy with BEING an Ironman again, and frustrated/disappointed that my race revealed that I was inadequately able to respond to the conditions to a certain degree.

I think there is are some obvious factors to explain my lesser performance than I was capable of and wanted to run it by the group. Bear in mind, I cramped up along both rib cages around mile 70 of the bike and it did not dissipate the rest of the way. I also had some hammy lock ups at the end of the bike and early in the run making matters worse.

1. the average temp for the bike was close to 71 degrees. If I recall correctly, the air temp on the car thermometer was 38-39 when we left the rental to head over to transition on race day. 71 being average means I spent a lot of time with a jacket on in the heat thus sweating more than I expected. The clear solution would have been to take more salts and fluids. However, i think my brain was in denial about the heat because of the cold swim and air temp.

2. the hills were steeper on the bike than they were in the car tour with Flyboy and Leah etc. In the car, they looked like similar hills to the ones I hit in Ga. when I actually rode them for the first time on race day, I was shocked at how steep they were. I think a compact would have served me better and a better familiarity with them on bike would have helped too.

3. The run was not "flat as a pancake" as I expected. Those hills on the way to the turnaround really were dastardly for any distance runner, especially during an IM mary. Again, I needed to train more hills when running. This was told to me by a couple of folks but I did not think that the run hills would be that nasty.

4. I wonder about changing bikes with 1.5 mos out. Probably not the best call, and I knew better but figured what the heck.

5. I am not really comfortable in choppy cold water, but who is? However, combine the cold, the chop emanating from the mass, and the mass itself, andthe first 750 yards were killer for me. Thankfully I found a rhythm.

All in all, I have lots of great memories, but I did want to throw this out there. Alot of you expected a better performance out of Slayer based on volume totals alone. As I said to 15step on this thread some time ago, when he was upset, its not the volume, its what you do on race day that matters. This was not my best race day and I hope to learn from it. Thinking no more IMs until late 2012 which limits me somewhat. Mrs. Slayer and the kids deserve me around more for a good while.

Slayer - I was in the same boat on several of the things Matt mentioned:

I was surprised how many people I saw wearing long sleeves on the bike.  I stayed sleeveless but then again I live and train in crappy weather here in the northwest.  So I can handle a chill much better than hot.  I did see one guy strip his jacket and drop it INTO his bike special needs bag... something I hadn't thought of before.

The first 56 I was at 151AP / 164NP, exactly where I wanted to be.  2nd half I was at 127AP / 143NP.  To me the hills were a non-factor - that course is flatter than what I train on.  A combo of swim fatigue and poor digestion caught up with me.

The best thing I can say about my ride is that I clobbered people on the descents.  I knew the course and I know how far I can push my bike into turns while keeping good aero position.  I was able to get in only 10 mins slower than Matt's bike time even with my problems.

Btw... I don't think the splits I saw on Race Day Tracker were quite accurate.  It was giving me a 3:09 / 3:00 for the 1st/2nd half... there's no way.  My bike computer had me at 2:55 and 3:12 which is more in line with my 20 watt dropoff.

Edit: air temp at race start was about 40.  My computer shows 57 degrees when I started the bike, and 81 degrees when I finished, if anyone's curious how much it warmed up

Tough love time.  This post is not for those of you who are celebrating, who just finished your first IM, or who crashed a bike or got hypothermic or whatever.  This is for the folks who trained their hearts out but then didn't have it on race day, and are now left with questions and struggling to feel good about their experience.  Just a warning that I'm not going to be kind or encouraging or soft pedal anythign in the text below.  If you have thin skin, read no further. 

That said, here goes:

If you have a race that is less than what you wanted, there are two places to look:

1) race day [mis]execution - you guys are focusing on this and I think that's smart.  Things like gearing, pacing, nutrition, etc.  In general, though, it sounds like most folks were pretty smart about this on this thread (good, because we preached it for months leading up to the race). 

However, I DON'T think hills on the bike/run are to blame for most folks that were trained well.  Someone who biked a couple thousand miles in prep for this race can ride any hill, regardless of what hills they had to train on.  The key is power output... and that's all about gearing and pacing.  With the right gears, any hill on the course can be ridden at whatever your goal wattage should have been.  That should take no more out of you than riding on a flat at the same wattage.  However, if it felt like you couldn't hit the right numbers, I'd look at part 2 of the equation. 

2) preparation (training) and taper - as we've discussed a million times on here, there is no single right way for everyone.  But you can assume there is a best way for you, personally... and perhaps a poor performance on race day means you missed it.  Just to be honest, as I watched a few logs leading up to the race there was some stuff in there that made me nervous.  I keep my mouth shut about that stuff since I'm not anyone's coach and lots of what I was nervous about was apparently prescribed by a coach.  But still you should wonder what it means if your best performances came in training and not in the race, and you can't identify any real execution mistakes in your race. 

Hard to talk specifics without a long and careful look at totality of training, athlete history, B-races during prep, taper, etc... but don't forget the "what would I do different in training" part of the equation.  It's very possible to arrive at IM overtrained, burned out, over tapered, inadequately tapered, not fully recovered from your last race or epic workout, fightin injury of sickness that could have been avoided with a slightly more conservative approach, etc.  It's just a reality with so many folks in this thread that some of you made the mistake of trying to squeeze that last little bit of fitness into your training and ironically it cost you (instead of benefitted you) on race day.  Sometimes that grapsed-for fitness is on top of an already incredibly fit race machine that would have been fine without that last long run, last big brick, etc.  Other times it's desperate for fitness because my training wasn't what I hoped in months prior due to X, Y, and Z.  Finding that balance is so hard, but both of those (what I call "icing" fitness or "ketchup" fitness) usually end up hurting race day performance.  Just to be honest I saw some people people being way too aggressive way too late in the game for my conservative training philosophies.

Yeah I'm the guy who advocated in late 2010 some training methodologies that many people scoffed at as impractical, a recipe for overtraining, etc.  But I'm still calling myself conservative because I advocated for what seemed insane EARLY in training.  The mistake that is all to easy to make is to wait too late to get there (usually because we don't start early enough, and sometimes because we did start early enough but then get dragged along by the momentum of that insanity past the sweet spot).

Just thinking out loud.  Sorry if this is harsh... you were warned.

The only way your race is a real waste is if you fail to use it to identify the stuff above, and go repeat the same mistakes next time.  Getting it right when you've gotten it wrong before is far more rewarding than stumbling onto it the first time.  Yeah I know... so says the guy who ran 10:20 in his first IM... but trust me that came after dozens of failures at smaller races and after I poured a ton of energy into become as self-aware as I could about training and racing.  Oh and let's not talk about the most disasterous race I've ever had -- the HIM after my IM, where I stupidly figured I was invincible because of all the IM training.  Anyway... it's all too easy to miss the mark, whether you've hit it before or not.  But usually (yeah, I said it), we need to look in the mirror if we end up saying (I wish that race had been 3 weeks ago when I did that huge brick and felt great."

Josh

PS - yes it's possible to just have a bad day... it can happen to anyone.  I'm not saying if you had a bad day it's your fault or that you necessarily screwed something up big time.  I'm just saying it's worth a humble and honest look to see if there's anything that could be adjusted.

Good stuff here.  As a first time IMer, I was a sponge over the last year listening to anyone and everyone that had an opinion or advice.  You, my coach, my many IM friends, forums, etc.  I tried really hard to filter the good advice from the not so good advice.  I had several people very worried about my plan (440 hours over 7 months), which was a combo of the Ironfit Competitive Plan and my personal NYC marathon plan.  I also did a tremendous amount of swimming and tough leg and stroke drills which I feel really added to my endurance.  Many people said I was wasting my time in the pool 3-4 hours a week for 7 months. 

I think my race was made with my fairly conservative taper of 3 weeks and 14,11,5 hours.  My friend who did CdA last year told me this was his biggest mistake.  Too little taper too late.  I came off a 24 hour week so it was a fairly steep drop for me.  I would say I was race ready one full week prior to race day.  Overtapered?  Maybe a little, but I will take that over not enough. 

I also think my pace strategy paid huge dividends.  My splits are really tight for a race this long.  The fact I ran a final 10k split that was 20 seconds per mile under my overall run average tells me I listened to my body and used my energy/power wisely.           

I don't do the same race twice, but I am looking at IM Canada and Lake Placid for 2012.  Anyone have comments on either? 

Awesome.  I'm jealous.  I'd love a picture like that with my boys.