Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 161)

Here's a video of the swim start that my honey/tri-sherpa extraordinaire took.  Pretty awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZODXvyo6_Xc

Re: to Josh -

I know your post wasn't specifically directed at me, but I'll write my perspective on it.

The problems I described in my last post were things I knew and accepted coming into this race.  I trained on the schedule my time would allow, and to maximize my gains I almost completely avoided swimming last year.  I knew that would cause me to fatigue and hurt my bike/run.

But... but!  I took something like 30 mins off my bike and an hour off my run from last year's race.

*Could* I have prepared better?  Sure... and lost my job.  I have no regrets and I'll continue to plan training according to which areas I can improve the most.

Ashley's video was very telling. Certainly have a look at it.Thanks to Luke for getting such great footage. We look like we are marching to our deaths!

Josh and Fred make solid points. The critical self analysis is necessary to learn what changes must be incorporated for future IM training. I hate/like suffering through it all as a necessary component so that I will get hungry again and come back ready to fix the areas that need to be fixed in training and racing.

Bottom line for me, several errors need to be attended to. I think you have to look at everything, race day and in training.

The one thing I missed in training was a long OW swim + long bike day.  It's tough to do in the northwest with a June race, though.  That would've given me a better feel for my power target.

check this out:

http://coeurdalene.kxly.com/news/community-spirit/making-new-friends-ford-ironman-coeur-d-alene/49893

While I'm very grateful I was able to finish the race, I definitely would like to enjoy the experience more the next time by hopefully avoiding some of the issues I had at CDA. I look like death warmed over in my finisher picture, and that is a very accurate portrayal of how I felt. I would love to get your input and to that purpose I ask:

1. What is the best way to prevent the GI distress I felt coming out of T2? Took in water, Perpeteum and a couple of bananas on the bike and stomach felt OK. I was barely able to get anything (liquid or solid) down the first 9 miles of the run without feeling sick (belched a lot), and then had to just give up trying. When I did try to get some Perform down after mile 16, puked it right up.

2. How to practice OWS techniques, when basically all training laps done in a pool? Due to the chop, I decided Saturday during a practice swim that I would have to go to 2 stroke, breathe on one side technique while watching other people obviously more comfortable in water stroking it out. I had spent all my time, on 3 stroke alternate breathing as prescribed by just about everything I read. Those practice swims really saved my bacon.

3. I was trying to follow the Ironfit "intermediate plan" during the first half of my traing, but illness and work-travel basically cut me back to the "just finish" equivalent, which I fell short of in actual hours. There are only very short bricks in the plan. This seems to be a fair amount of disagreement on whether to brick at all, and if you do then short bricks like this don't seem to be all that useful. Comments?

 Again, thanks for your wisdom.

Even though I was kind of in and out on this thread, I appreciated reading everybody's opinions.  It was certainly helpful in various ways.

Personally, I had a fantastic day.  I'm still riding the high, and also taking a look at the day to see where I can improve.  I posted my race report if you're so inclined to read it.  But it was truly an amazing day.  And for my first Ironman, I'll take it. 

(IMCDA Finish.jpg)

Another note on race nutrition.  I decided early on in the bike to consume calories when I felt like it.  I made sure to drink more than I wanted, but I ate Powerbars when I was hungry, took a couple Gu's when I wanted some caffeine, ate some pretzels when I needed salt, and drank a bit of Coke on the run.  All in all I figure I consumed somewhere around 1000 cal for the whole race.  That's an average of 75 calories an hour.

I never once felt like I was bonking and my GI system for the most part was fine (a fine line was walked on the run between feeling alright and nausea).  I am not advocating this approach for everyone, just giving my n=1 experience.  In training, I had practiced with anything from no nutrition on some of my long runs, to upwards of 200 calories per hour on a few bike rides.  I almost always felt better on long days with less.  Granted, I'm only about 125 pounds, but even accounting for that it's lower than most numbers I have seen mentioned.  Anyone with more knowledge in this area have any thoughts?

As an aside:  is it weird that I'm already itchy to get back to training?  How long is everyone planning to recover?  I'm going on a backpacking trip this weekend with a few friends including an Army officer buddy, so I expect to be thoroughly drilled into the ground

mrwrite - I think I can safely say we are ALL super impressed with your training and your result.  You were so consistent on your logs through the last few months -- probably gave Slayer a run for his money.  We all know how hard it is to prepare for IM distance.  Doing that work AND losing a ton of weight is nothing short of amazing.

Let me reiterate that it was not directed at anyone specifically.  My own CdA wasn't what I had hoped... I DNSed long before June 26, and as I've stated it was 100% the right decision for me based on other things happening in my life.  For someone else who has to make compromises in training but still shows up on race day, I have no judgment whatsoever.  Like I said, I was writing to the people who trained their heart out but felt their races didn't come together.

If any of you think I'm being overly harsh please go read it again with all the disclaimers.  I specifically warned before I wrote that post that it wasn't meant for everyone on here, but only the people who wanted some tough love.  I think if you look at what I've said *in general* on this thread I've been very congratulatory, encouraging, supportive, etc.  I also admitted that I've bombed more races than I've nailed, and considering how many times I preached about gearing and pacing and the like, I think it's hard to say I don't respect the race. 

I agree with Fred, but do have a follow up question.  Had you practiced your nutrition in training?  For me, sports drinks with protein in them guarantee eventual GI distress during prolonged exercise.

As for bricks... my personal view is that you're better off having two quality workouts separated by recovery, but that they are often necessary from a scheduling standpoint.  I'm actually a fan of the "reverse brick" where you run and then bike.  Allows you to run on fresh legs whereas I get nervous about running on bike-tired legs from an injury prevention standpoint.  I've never seen any compelling evidence that brick workout does anything special physiologically (teach yourself to run on tired legs or that sort of thing).  For some (particularly newbies) there may be psychological benefit, and I'm fine with that.

Scott - sorry if my post offended you or came across harsh.  I specifically mentioned poor reaction to cold water as something you can't control.  But I'm willing to bet the farm that there are people who misexecuted their bike based on their actual fitness and blew up who are convinced it was the cold water, or the IM Perform Drink, etc.

I actually have no problem with that, but want to encourage people who really want to make an improvement to not look ONLY (or even first) to outside forces.

Holy crap.  You and I went back and forth on the bike all day.  You edged ahead of me the last part of the ride and I think on first part of the run.  I caught you near the 2/3rds part of the run.  I only remember you because of your cool muscle suit.  Congrats.  You and I were within 10 minutes of each other.  I did 10:50.  I had the red KSwiss top.   

RADICAL Vid Nerdjock, thanks for sharing!!!

Dang...some posts in the last two pages that are nothing but a big downer.   

Here...let me gloat a bit to bring the enthusiasm back up. 

Personally I'm just totally stoked on what I accomplished on sunday.  12:23 in my first IM, first race longer than an OLY, first bike ride longer than 106 miles and first run longer than 20 miles.  I had no nutrition issues, never suffered from the cold or crowds  during the swim.   I have nary a hot spot on my feet, and other than a left big toenail that is about to jump ship, my body already feels about 90% recovered.  I feel like I could go for an easy run right now with no problems.  I did have to buy some compression sleeves for my poor legs which after 1300 miles of driving, are ballooned up like crazy.

My only regrets:

1.  Not paying closer attention to my little brothers first IM time.   Had I known it was 12:22, I would have made sure I shaved 2 minutes off my time just for the chance to gloat a little bit.

2.  I figured out that my 4 stops to pee on the bike cost me the 14 minutes I went over a nice even 6 hour bike.   My computer stops when the bike stops, and it read 6:01 for the ride (I rode a 6:14).  No big deal, but I think I took in too much liquid....but its better than too little.