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Ironman Lake Placid
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Ironman Lake Placid - TriathlonFull Ironman
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 Swim
Comments: BOOM! I don't start swimming immediately - instead, I tread water just a bit longer and watch the explosion of bodies go off around me with U2's "Beautiful Day" in the background. As I am so close to Mirror Lake Drive the crowd is crazy loud. I begin swimming, and unlike last year when I got mauled, it does not seem as if anyone is around me at all. At about 500 yards though, I start getting a lot of contact from the left - I take a long look, and it is like a wall of thrashing racers to my left, but tons of clear water to my right. I move back over about 10 yards and is all clear again. Mirror Lake actually has a lot of space, but it seems that most racers want to be in the same place at the same time. I round the turn and still stay wide right, angling in just enough to get a straight shot at swim exit. When I come out of the water, the clock shows 34:23 (43:23, actually, but they have not yet reset it from the pro start). Sweet - already 6 minutes faster tan last year. Around the dock, and back out for the second loop. This time I cut to the inside of the sighting buoys and swim with the magic cable to my right. I have a good group to swim with, and take it nice and easy, really stretching out and bilateral breathing the whole way. The swim is actually kinda pleasant, but over before I know it, with some of the roughest contact of the day coming at the very end on the way to the mat. First Lap: 34:23 Second Lap: 36:26 What would you do differently?: I am not really sure - While I think I did cadillac the second loop a bit, but I don't think the couple of extra minutes I could have gained would have really been worth it. In shorter races my HR is usually completely jacked when I come out of the water - probably not the best strategy in an IM.  Transition 1
Comments: I am up, out of the water, goggles, cap and wetsuit top all coming off in one practiced motion. I run all the way to T1, getting carried on by the screaming crowd. I stop just before coming into the oval, and step quickly out of my bib john. I grab my bike bag and am into the transition tent. As I am in a good 10 minutes earlier than last year, it is not nearly the chaos, but it is still pretty jammed up at the entrance. I dart to the exit where there is plenty of room, slip on my helmet and shoes and cram a couple of of stinger waffles in my pocket. I am off to grab my bike and a volunteer brings me the wrong one - I laugh and tell him thanks, but run anad grab mine instead. He is shouting "sorry, sorry, sorry!" But I tell him not to worry - it really is no big deal. There is no crowd at the mount line, and now I am almost 15 minutes ahead of my time last year. What would you do differently?: I still think this could be a good bit faster - I need to get it automatic like in short races.  Bike
Comments: Out of town, probably a little too hot, but the crowds make it tough to go easy. The first bit of work starts after the horse grounds though, and as I am sitting on my prescribed power, my HR is absolutely through the roof and I am passing people like crazy up the first climb. Something is wrong as I am about to come unglued by the effort. After about 10 minutes of this I decide to lay back a bit and get my HR back under control, but in order to do so my watts go way low. "huh," I think to myself. I get my HR down into Z3 and hold it there to the top of the Keene descent. On the first part of the descent, I do a recalibration, but when I hit the flat before the major downhill run into Keene, it is obvious that the power meter is simply not working. While still on the plateau I just switch off my power data fields and don't worry about it for the rest of the ride.  Cruising down the Keene descent. Through the flatter part of the bike I keep my HR in my steady state zone (roughly zone 3) through the Au Sable Forks out-and-back. This is where I realize we are going to have a little bit of weather on the course as I am moving pretty quickly due to a tailwind.  The flats between Upper Jay and Jay - I LOVE this part of the course! The course is crowded, but there are far fewer draft packs this year than last, but that may simply be because I am out on the course faster than last year. I do get swallowed up by one sizable peloton just before Jay, but the Draft Marshals are out in force and bust them up pretty quickly. There are a number of folks that are acting kinda pissed about it, but if you are not ready to push the pace a bit this is really a difficult part of the course not to get bunched up in a pack. I actually love this section as you can really use all the swimmers to move up quickly, so long as you are willing to get on it a bit and work the sling shot. This part of the course is where all out pursuit riding pays off. The hills are coming though, and that pretty much busts everyone up for good. At the uphill turn in Jay heading toward Wilmington, I lift the pace just a bit more and hold tempo effort (low zone 4) to the top of the Bears. On the climb, the wind is right in our face, but it is really not a big deal as we are climbing. Like everyone says, getting to the top of the Bears is a lot of fun - the crowd is snugged up tight to the course as tight as they can be and simply going mad. It only gets better as you turn through town, and before I know it I am around the Oval and racing out of town, going so fast I catch a bit of air on the sharp descent behind the high school - Wha-hoo! On the climb back out of town, my aductors start to cramp a bit, just like clockwork. On almost all of my long rides this summer this seemed to happen right around the 60 mile mark. No real worries - I know I don't need them to run... I simply am some electrolytes in me, and make a point to drink a bit more. Up to this point I haven't really been paying too much attention to my nutrition - I am just eating and drinking as I see fit. I am alternating grabbing a bottle of water and a bottle of perform at each aid station and that is plenty. I am adding another 100 calories via a gel about every hour, which is half what I did last year. I have been working this year to figure out just how many calories I need, rather than how many I can tolerate. I think I was spot-on this year, despite the cramps. I shake my legs out on the Keene descent, and then lay back just a bit on the flats, holding my HR at the top of endurance zone (low z3). This is where I really begin to pick folks up that seem to literally be going backwards - there is a lot of sitting up going on, especially on the return back into the wind. That just does not make sense to me; instead I just keep my head down and make as small a hole as possible.  Still feeling good on the second lap. On the final climb out of Wilmington rather than lifting the effort like I did on the first loop I instead just stick in low z3 as I begin thinking about the run. Even though this is the pace at which I have done all my long rides, I really wonder if I am going to have any legs at all as this has been a fairly hard effort. The wind has really picked up, and just like last year, there is a lot of suffering going on around me, but despite the effort I am feeling reasonably well. The only slight oddity is that I notice my feet feel kind of tired. Weird. Lap 1: 2:50:21 Lap 2: 3:00:17 30 mile split: 1:17:19 (23.28 mi/h) 56 mile split: 1:33:02 (16.77 mi/h) 86 mile split: 1:19:56 (22.52 mi/h) 112 miile split: 1:40:21 (15.55 mi/h) Total for 112 miles: 5:50:38 (19.17 mi/h) What would you do differently?: I had a couple of episodes with my power meter over the last three weeks leading up to the race where the same thing happened. But then I would go out on my next ride and it would be fine. I should have just sent it in to Quarq at the first sign of problems. As to the ride itself, I am not sure on this one either - I think I did fairly well. I lost the bulk of my time on the second loop ( 7 minutes) on the return trip into town from Au Sable Forks. I was hoping to have close to an even split on the bike, but I think it was still a good idea to lay back on the final climb since the run was going to be such an unknown for me. Also, one little thing is that I just wouldn't worry about taking any solid food with me - I never trained with it, and I just did not need it. I did grab one bit of banana by accident (I thought it was a gel) but other than that gels and perform were fine. Transition 2
Comments: The second time into town is every bit as good as the first. When I get to the back of the high school, I quickly slip out of my shoes, and just in time really - the dismount line comes up fast. A volunteer grabs my bike, but not before I can reset my computer, for what that is worth. Grab my bag, and run into the transition tent. This time there are not many folks there, and I get swarmed by volunteers. I thank them all but wave them off. Out of my helmet and into my shoes and as I grab my ziplock full of everything I need for the run I am off, just like that. Going out of the tent I grab a water to go. As I come out of the oval I dig my visor and sunglasses out and don them on the fly and stick a couple of more gels and my electrolytes in my pocket. Then I realize that I am still wearing my cycling gloves. "Really cool, Slick" I tell myself. In the garbage they go with my ziplock. Ah, well. What would you do differently?: Remember to take your cycling gloves off, dummy. While I could obviously go faster, this transition was pretty good for me.  Run
Comments: So now the race really starts for me. My longest runs for the past 8 weeks have only been 20 minutes, and that was only a couple of weeks before the race. Due to a knee injury (meniscus) I really did not think I was even going to be able to do the run until about 3 weeks prior. At that time I was pretty sure I was going to be walking, and honestly that did not interest me at all. I started the run without much of a plan, except that if my knee bugged me at all I was going to walk off the course with a DNF. I went in with a "do no harm" mentality. But surprisingly I seem to be running OK. The energy from the crowd coupled with the downhill pulls you along waaaaaay too fast, so I intentionally slow down for the first couple of miles. Turning onto River Road for the first time, I start to get settled in, and that is when I notice the balls of my feet are really sore. They soon begin to bug me enough that I seem to be running gingerly, but my legs, hips and even knee actually feel good other than my feet. Even though I am short striding to lessen the impact, I am really, really happy. At every aid station I grab a water and a couple of sponges on the fly - no need to walk. A lot of folks complained about the heat, but it felt fine to me: the humidity was really low and nothing like summer in Georgia. I see Todd coming back on River Road, and I do a quick calculation ay the turn - he is about 17 minutes up - yikes - he is killing it!  Heading out on River Road - couldn't be better! On the way back into town I see Ken headed out - he is only 12 minutes back - double yikes! I keep on at the same effort, holding my HR in my base zone (low z2) . I see Molly and we give each other shout-outs - she is smiling and having a ball. Steady back uphill past the horse grounds, but I do allow my HR to rise enough to run up the steep hill into town. The Mirror Lake out and back seems way too long, but I see Todd again and now if my calculations are right he is only 15 minutes up. I have made up a little bit of time. Then I see Ken, and he is holding at 12 minutes back. Back out of town I see our cheering section and I slow just enough to ask how JT is doing - they tell me she is just coming in on the bike and looking good - SWEET! Out of town for the last loop, and I just decide to ignore my feet. I can do anything for 13 miles. I see Todd again on River Road and I have made up more time - at the turnaround I calculate that there is now only 12 minutes separating us. I start to push a bit, feathering my effort back and forth with little surges. I see Ken again - now he is at 13 minutes back. Then I see Jennifer for the first time during the race and she looks FANTASTIC! smiling, happy, and cheering me on - I slow down and tell her how much I love her, then we are off again. Next I see Molly, still smiling away, having a great time. Up into town, I hustle up the last steep hill - the crowd really loves it if you run this part, because hardly anyone does. On the out-and-back I see Todd one more time, and we are relatively close (6 minutes) but I have run out of space - if only the run was a 50k... ;^) Back to the oval, and thankfully I get directed to the right instead of the left, for that awesome final lap to the finish. I am two-for-two with Mike Reilly.  done done done. Time Check 01: 3.0 miles in 25:29 (8:29 pace) Time Check 02: 5.2 miles in 48:21 (9:17 pace) Time Check 03: 3.8 miles in 38:50 (10:13 pace) Time Check 04: 4.1 miles in 35:50 (8:44 pace) Time Check 05: 5.2 miles in 51:46 (9:57 pace) Time Check 06: 3.8 miles in 39:26 (10:22 pace) Time Check 07: 1.1 miles in 9:41 (8:48 pace) Total: 26.2 miles: 4:09:23 (9:31/mi pace) What would you do differently?: Not pull up lame in May, for starters. This run, albeit a lot slower than I panned for back in December, was the exact run I was trained for and able to do. I am happy with that. Post race
Warm down: Crossed the line, got my finishers t-shirt and hat, and a water. I found Todd (or did he find me?) we congratulated each other, and grabbed some chairs, waiting for Ken. 20 minutes later he comes in. I think we all crash just a bit - I know I sit with my head in my hands for at least 20 more minutes while we wait for the girls. At some point I got a coke. and it was really, really good. What limited your ability to perform faster: Back in December when I wrote my stretch goal down I said I wanted to do a 1:10 swim, a 5:45 bike, a 3:50 run, and 10 minute transitions. Except for the run, I was really, really close. All-in all I think I paced very well. A much as I doubted him, my coach was right - I can hold a pretty high-level effort without too much fade. I do wish I had been in run shape to push it harder. Surprisingly my aerobic and muscular fitness was there, but without the time on my feet they just could not take it. Before this race I thought I would be complaining about my "run fitness," but my only real limiter seemed to be more specific than that: I would say that "foot fitness" was about the only thing that slowed me down. I am cool with that. In all honesty it has been hard to get worked up to write a a race report this year for Lake Placid, as the whole day seemed, well, kinda "routine" for lack of a better way to describe it. There were no real surprises and it went off just as planned - just like in training. I suppose that is a good thing. I am very glad that I was able to complete the race and especially that I ran every step of the run, even though I was not able to push it at all. While my knee is nowhere near 100%, between my coach and my Doc's plan they kept me in the game all the way to the end, and I feel like I am in great shape to get completely healed up and go sub-eleven next year. And therein is the true quandary of racing the IM distance: it take a full year to get ready for it, and you only get one shot at it until the following year, and only if you are lucky. It was really exciting to see Jennifer come across the finish line - that was easily the highlight of my day. She is stone-cold awesome!  That's my girl!  The happy iron couple. Last updated: 2011-08-09 12:00 AM
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 2012-08-03 4:57 PM |
Master  2912    ...at home in The ATL |  Subject: Ironman Lake Placid |
| 2012-08-03 5:35 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
Veteran 671 Harrison, Oh | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Congratulations, Rusty! Awesome race report So glad I got to meet you (and Jennifer) at the practice swim! Tell her congratulations as well. What an awesome Iron Couple!! |
.| 2012-08-03 6:33 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Congrats to the both of you. Awesome RR. |
 2012-08-03 6:41 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Subject: ... This user's post has been ignored. |
| 2012-08-03 8:22 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Regular 847 Akron | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Rusty, so glad you got to race and complete it with a great time after all you went through. Congrats to both of you! |
| 2012-08-03 8:24 PM in reply to: #4346355 |
Elite 3495 SE | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Y'all rock! Awesome job all told. How the heck do you smile so much at an IM like that? |
| 2012-08-03 8:27 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
Master 2490 Atlanta, Georgia Silver member | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid |
| 2012-08-03 8:27 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Master 1843 Roswell, GA | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Congrats to you and your girl! |
| 2012-08-04 7:33 AM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Veteran 945 South Windsor, CT | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid hmmmm so that's what happens when you're so extremely well prepared that injury to the knee doesn't even affect the race... everything becomes routine on race day and a solid performance is a given Well, I certainly hope to achieve some routine races one day. Congratulations to you Rusty, and to your IM wife. Well done. I still don't think we've seen your best race. With a solid season on the bike and (hopefully) no injuries that would preclude run training--sub 11 will be yours. Maybe you'll even have to work for it and won't have the energy to flash that magical smile to the camera. we'll see... |
| 2012-08-04 3:27 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
Pro 6191 | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid |
| 2012-08-05 8:22 AM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Expert 908 Niskayuna, New York | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Well done!! What a time for an injured runner as well. I'm sure you'll go sub 11:00 next year. |
| 2012-08-05 12:01 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Champion 19812 MA | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Congrats on well executed race. Love the details about your time before the race and the race itself. It brings back many happy memories. Interesting when IM race feels routine, and you executed as you had planned. Sweet to have your wife there racing with you. Are you both in for next year? |
| 2012-08-08 2:46 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Extreme Veteran 801 Ballston Spa, NY | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Awesome report my friend. It was a pleasure to meet you and congrats on a great race! Thanks for the shout out! |
| 2012-08-09 1:10 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Extreme Veteran 567 Rochester, NY | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Great Race report, It was a pleasure to get to know you over the past year. You have this race figured out now, so I would expect you to be sub 11 in 2013, which I'll be there to watch happen. Stay safe for 2013. |
| 2012-08-09 2:26 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Master 1411 Lexington, KY | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Executed like a pro! Nice racing Rusty. |
| 2012-08-09 4:54 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Elite 3140 | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid congrats...super time...I will be coming back to this report before my 2013 bid I was happy to hear your thoughts from someone who has done the race about the swim....as an outsider I never understood why anyone would start right away at the swim start unless they where trying to KQ and why everyone wants to be on the cable. |
| 2012-08-16 3:22 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Melon Presser 52116 | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Sorry, Rusty, it took me about as long to get to commenting as it took you to get to writing it The pictures are awesome. The gory details, I love. Thanks for taking me along on the journey. Big congrats to you for perfect execution of a race under less-than-perfect circumstances with the run, and a huge congrats to your IronJennifer! |
| 2012-08-17 3:30 PM in reply to: #4346241 |
| Elite 3779 Ontario | Subject: RE: Ironman Lake Placid Rusty - great race report and great race. Congrats on such a smoooth day! |
| General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
World Triathlon Corporation
82F / 28C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 234/2556
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 34/321
Reader's Digest Condensed Version
Finishing Time: 11:20:47
Wetsuit swim with lots of clear water, dysfunctional power meter so I just road by HR and RPE, A good bit of headwind on the bike, but not too bad, much better transitions than last year, but still not great, and an OK run despite not getting much running in for the entire summer. All in all this race seemed pretty routine - everything went according to plan.
The "more-detail-than-you care-to-know" version
My normal pre-race routine started about a week before the race (saturday) with a final longish but really easy ride of four hours and the start of a carb-restricted diet. Not really much different from our normal diet actually - I just make a point to cut out all the energy-dense, white stuff (bread, pasta, sugar) completely. I still eat all the "nutrient rich" carbs (fruits and vegetables) that I want. I continue this diet until Thursday morning at which time I start targeting the energy dense stuff. There is some research that shows that while our bodies are really good at maintaining a balance of all the stuff we need despite our best efforts, it is possible to get it to overshoot this balance for a few days if you start from a depleted state first. So in other words, if you deplete your energy stores you can then "over stack" your carbs for a brief period before your body begins to regulate them. I don't know if any of that is true, but at the very least I seem to suffer no ill-effect from it. The slightly tougher part is that I also cut out caffeine as well, simply because I know that it elevates my HR by about 10 BPM.
I dropped our bikes and gear bags off on Monday with the guys from Podium Multisport For a pre-race cleaning and then transport to the Lake Placid. In the past I used TriBikeTransport who I highly reccomend, but when I found out that my favorite LBS would be transporting bikes up from Atlana in their team trailer I jumped on the opportunity.
For the entire week we had crazy afternoon thunderstorms roll through Atlanta. On Sunday evening we actually had an 80 foot tall mature white oak come down on our front porch, knocking out our power for 3 days in the process. Our flight out of Atlanta was on Wednesday afternoon, and it was storming like crazy as we prepared to head to the airport. Just as we were going out to load our remaining luggage, another one of our big oaks dropped a huge limb that went right through the windshield of my car, damaging the roof and hood pretty significantly as well. We were actually really lucky, because if it happened just a few minutes later both Jennifer and I could have been injured pretty badly. We got the limb out/off of the car and pulled it back under cover. As we were now late for the airport, we just jumped in JT's car and raced away, soaked to the bone.
We made it to the airport without further event, and arrived in Albany at about 11pm Wednesday evening. On Thursday we got up and had a huge breakfast (yea carbs!) then headed for the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid. We got in around 10:30am, dropped our bags, and went down to race check-in, where I got to meet Jeff Cornick, BT's BAMF of the year. If you haven't read his race report, then read it now - it is much more interesting than mine. On the way back, we picked up our bikes and grabbed some lunch. After that we went on a short little shake-down ride down the Bears and back into town via the run course.
On Friday we all went down to the Swim Start for the BT meet-up. It was really great to meet everyone, however briefly. I really wish we could have spent more time together in real life, as this bunch of folks made training for the past year so much fun.
Now that is a good looking group...
Instead of swimming with the group, I had my pre-race brick on the schedule, so I headed out for an hour ride out of town on the run course, then up the bears to Mirror Lake Drive where I made a U-turn and reversed my course back into town. I followed that up with an easy 30 minute t-run. All systems go... Friday night we go to the athlete's dinner not to eat, but just to see the motivational stuff. We left before the briefing to catch our 8:30pm dinner reservations.
On Saturday morning I am able to catch up with Tasr (James) for an easy swim. It was especially good to meet James as he has given me lots of good racing advice over the past couple of years on BT. We had a quick breakfast, then JT and I went down to register for 2013. Back at the inn, we sorted, packed, and re-packed our transition bags, then went to The Cottage for lunch. On the way there we stop by the lodge where JT's brothers surprise her - they flew in from Michigan to cheer us on. It was tough to keep it a secret for the past couple of weeks, but it was absolutely the best surprise she could have gotten.
After lunch we rode down to drop everything off in transition. All done except for the waiting.
After a light 7pm dinner at Jimmy's 21, we are in bed by 10pm and I get a pretty good night's sleep. Getting into town a day earlier than last year has really allowed for the last couple of days to be relaxing and fun.
Up at 4:30pm, and down to the hotel restaurant for a little breakfast. I always like a little protein before a long day, but they don't have any eggs, so I go for a couple of yogurts instead along with half a bagel, banana, and some tea. Not much of a breakfast, but I have learned over the past couple of years not to get too uptight about race-day nutrition. It seems that with enough fitness I have a lot more space to err, and if I am pacing properly it is easy enough to get on top of any nutritional issues I might have. I think I am really fortunate compared to many in this regard.
We all meet up at 5:15am and head to the oval for body marking and last minute prep: basically just pumping tires, making sure my drivetrain is in order, and calibrating the power meter. My calibration numbers are way off, but after several attempts they stay the same, so I hope it is in OK working order.
Our crew: Todd, Molly, Me, JT, & Ken - all marked and ready to go!
At 6:30 we head down to drop our Special Needs bags off. I don't really have much in mine: a spare tubular, Co2, and electrolytes in my bike bag, and some socks and a long sleeve shirt in my run bag as I have no idea how I will do on the run. I imagine that I could be walking a lot.
It is getting pretty close to the time for the pros to go off, and the only hiccup thus far is that I have not been able to do my morning business. Molly and I queue up at the porta potties that have the shortest line, and we get a great view of the pro start. But now our clock is ticking, and we still waiting in line. Business done, we are then running through the crowds along Mirror Lake Drive, "EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME! ATHLETES COMING THROUGH!" we are shouting - the crowds part and everyone is yelling at us to "GO! GO!"GO!" It is like the race has already started. We dash across the mat, and miraculously run right into JT. We hug and kiss, and good luck, and I love you, then we are off into the water. I swim quickly over to the far, far right and right up to the line, where I only tread water for about 30 seconds...