The Short
I had a better day than I could possibly have imagined… until about mile 15 of the marathon, when the wheels came off. I knew I went too hard on the bike, but I didn’t realize how hard until after the race. I really wanted to go sub-6 hours on the bike, which I accomplished, but I think I did it at the expense of my run.
Also... I need to thank Laura for being such a trooper on race weekend. Both of the twins were sick, and she got stuck with caring for them a LOT more than I did, and she put up with my constant whining about catching the bug right before the race. Finally, she was also great in putting up with the training hours. I hope I wasn't the a-hole I was last time I did Ironman. Thanks, Sweetie!
Here’s a break-down of my splits. Notice the marathon split is longer than the bike split.
Swim: 1:12:59
T1: 8:49
Bike: 5:54:09
T2: 3:41
Run: 5:55:14
Total: 13:14:50
The Long
Swim (1:12:59)
For an Ironman swim start, Wisconsin is pretty tame if you plan it right. I was worried about panic attacks, which have plagued me sporadically since 2005. I never know when they’re going to hit, and they seem to be triggered, at least in part, by crowded swims. I tried to line up to the outside, and far enough back not to be too far into the melee. As in 2004, it worked out great. There was a lot of jostling through the first turn, but after that, it was pretty clear water.
I swam quite a bit less this year than I did in 2004 when I swam 1:10. I thought I might be able to match that time, but was expecting closer to 1:15. I swam right at about 1:13. I exited the water feeling pretty good, but had a hard time finding a free wetsuit stripper. Finally got the wet suit off headed up the helix into T1
T1 (8:49)
T1 at IM Moo is very long, and includes quite a bit of running. You have to run from the swim exit up the parking structure helix and then into the changing rooms at Monona Terrace. Then, you have run back the way you came and around into the parking lot where the bikes are racked and then all the way down the bike area to the bike exit. I shocks me that people can do this transition in less than 6 minutes. Last time it took me more than 10 minutes. This time, I got it done in just under 9 minutes.
Bike (5:54:09)
Although I couldn’t tell at the time, I think this part of my day set the stage for my later meltdown at mile 15 of the marathon. I felt terrific on the bike, and I knew (looking at real time, unequivocal evidence) that I was pushing too hard on the bike. But I just couldn’t seem to slow down and pace my effort, and my heart rate was spot on where I expected it.
I’ve been following a training plan (minus the run portions, due to injuries) created by Rich Strauss at Crucible Fitness (and now, Endurance Nation). I first read about Rich at TriNewbies Online a few years ago, and have continued to be a frequent reader of his articles. I recently joined the Endurance Nation online community, and felt that Rich’s guidance would be helpful at Moo. I even went to his pre-race speech, where he and Patrick preached over and over about slowing down the bike to set up a solid run. Alas, somewhere between that talk and the beginning of the bike, the Ricky Racer in me took over, and I decided I wanted to push the bike a little and just test this Endurance Nation “theory.” Besides, with my lack of run training, I wasn’t expecting to have a good marathon. Might as well have fun on the bike, right?
My original goal (and race rehearsals) told me that I should strive to keep my Normalized Power (NP) at about 200 watts. Because I have an Ergomo power meter on my bike, I can watch NP in real time and adjust my efforts to maintain a goal output. If only I’d done that. Heading out from the Terrace, I felt terrific. I was even able to hold my NP down to the levels I practiced in my race rehearsals. However, once we got out of the downtown area, the Ricky Racer in me came calling, and my NP crept up to about 215 watts.
I kept expecting to see Dan come zooming past me, but apparently, he did much better at sticking to Rich and Patrick’s bike plan than I did. Actually, I found out later that he was having some real comfort issues on the bike, and he couldn't stay aero for very long. When we got out to Verona, I knew I needed to slow down, and I felt like I was making an effort to do that. However, the constant hills on the course make it very hard to limit your power output, so even when I slowed it way down on the uphills, my power level didn’t drop off enough. Add into that some surges to try to avoid drafting, and it became virtually impossible to reel myself back in. The final nail in the coffin came toward the end of the first loop when we hit the big climbs on Old Sauk Pass, Timber Lane and Midtown Rd. With my size (6’4”, 190 lbs) and my gearing (50/34 12-25) there was no way I was going to climb those hills at less than about 300 watts, which is 25 watts above my functional threshold power (FTP). By the end of the second loop, my NP had climbed to 237 watts and my average power was 215 watts. I never did see him on the bike, but my last update was that he was about 10-12 minutes behind me. I decided to take it easy back into Madison, but the damage was already done, even though I didn’t know it yet.
On the way back to Madison, I took the left on Seyene road, and just about had my bike slide out from under me. I have no idea how I managed to stay upright, but only a short while later, while turning left onto Oregon road, a guy a couple of bikes ahead had his bike slide out from under him and went down hard! I think he was okay, but he probably had some nasty road rash. I got back to the Terrace, up the helix and handed off my bike to the volunteer. I still felt terrific, and was primed for a great marathon. My final power numbers were 231 watts NP, 206 average power and 141 bpm average heart rate. But the real telling numbers were my Training Stress Score (TSS), Intensity Factor (IF) and Variability Index (VI), which were 418, .841 and 1.12, respectively. This is a classic example of how not to ride the bike leg of an Ironman race in order to set yourself up for a good run.
T2 (3:41)
Not much to say here. I just got into the changing room, got the helmet off and my socks and show on, and was out the door. I was nearly a minute faster this time than in 2004 when I left T2 in 4:34.
Run (5:55:14)
As I started the run, was feeling so good it was almost scary. I haven’t trained the run much this year because of nagging injuries. I was feeling healthy by race day, though, and I thought I could manage a 5 hour marathon. When I hit the course, I just settled into a 10 min/mi pace figuring I’d slow down over the course of the marathon, but that I might be able to pull off my goal. My heart rate was right where I wanted it, which was around 140 bpm and solidly in my Zone 1 range. I was just jogging along and feeling great. In fact, I was already composing my race report with props to Rich for the awesome training plan, which really whipped me into bike shape in a hurry.
My feet started hurting after mile 2, but I decided to suck it up and just try not to think about it. I got a few boosts of energy when I’d see Laura and the boys, my mom, or Matt, Shauna and Mason. They were all cheering me on, and I think were amazed at the day I was having. I really thought I was going to beat my 12:27 from 2004, and I knew that I might even have a shot at going sub-12. I still kept expecting Dan to be running me down any minute, but every time I asked where he was, he seemed to be falling a little further behind.
By mile 12 I could tell I wasn’t digesting food very well, so I backed off the cola and Gatorade and switched only to water. After making the turn at mile 13.1, I got another energy boost, and felt pretty good. I was going to PR on a LOT less training than I did three years ago. I passed Dan coming in on his first lap at about my mile 14.5. I was feeling pretty good and told him to pick it up and “come get me!”
By mile 15, I was walking, because the indigestion/heart burn was so bad I wanted to puke. Unfortunately, I can’t make myself puke. It just has to happen. Dan caught up to me at about mile 17 and convinced me to start running again. We ran/walked with another guy named Bruce, who had helped get Dan from mile 9 to 17. When we saw Mason on State St., he asked what was wrong, and I told him I wasn’t digesting anything. I could tell from his look that he knew I was in for a long 9 mile death march.
By mile 20, I knew I would be walking most of the rest of the way. At an aid station, Dan told Bruce to go on and he stayed with me so we could finish together. At the mile 22 aid station I decided I needed to eat something. I hadn’t had any calories for about 5 miles, and I was feeling woozy, and had absolutely no energy. I grabbed a banana and had some chicken broth in addition to some water. About halfway into mile 23, I got to watch that food come up again and empty onto the grass.
I sure felt better, but I still had no energy. We jogged a little, but mostly walked until we got to the last mile. Then, we jogged around the capital and into the finish chute.
Although I said I wasn’t going to do it, once it became clear Dan and I would be finishing together, I decided I wanted to carry my sons across the line, so when we saw Mason at 2 miles to go, we had him call Laura to get Will and Alex ready. Out of respect for the rules laid out by NAS at the athlete meeting, we decided to have Dan carry one of the twins, and I’d carry the other. That way, we wouldn’t be in violation of the one family member per finisher rule. It was also cool to have us, as identical twins, carrying my twins across the line.
I looked behind us, saw someone coming to finish, so we let him pass, and then crossed the line with boys in hand. It was one of the nicest moments I can remember, and despite how some people feel about having non-competing family cross with you, I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it. Having family cross with you can be done respectfully to other racers. I hope most others wo decided to cross with family respected rules and their fellow competitors, too, although I did see one guy ahead of me with two children in tow. I suspect that this practice will soon be banned, as I know that most type-A's like triathletes will take a mile if you give them an inch. That just makes me all the more glad that I decided to cross the line with them this time.
One of the best parts of the day was getting to take this picture:
All in all, we had a really great time.
I really have to thank my wife, Laura, for all her sacrifices. Not only did she have to put up with all the training time, she had to do it with very young twin boys at home. She was fantastic, and I did my best to minimize the very heavy burden I know that I placed on her. I hope I did a good job. The other thing she deserves major kudos for is taking the lion's share of caring for the boys on race weekend. This is particularly true because they were both sick and had horribly bad diahrea. Laura... you were wonderful. Thank you so much.
Epilogue
I was pleased with the race. I had no overall finish time goals going into this race, but I did want to break 6 hours on the bike, which I did. I had a lot of fun, but I won't do another Ironman or iron distance race next year. I hope Silverman is still around in 2009 or 2010, I think that would be a fun one to tackle, and maybe I'll set my sights on that... or the one that's supposed to show up in Denver in 2009. It was a great time! I think next time, I'll work on riding within my capabilities and try to put together a solid 3-discipline race. Hope all of you who participated had a great time, and congratulations to the finishers
