Triathlon: Ironman Florida Race Report

Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 03:44 PM

Coach Steve Bentley gives it his all despite a busy fall work schedule....

Gooooooood Morning. Two days after IM and as predicted I'm more sore in
my legs now than I was right after the race (which is saying something as
they were pretty sore after the race) but my head is a little less so. After
almost 20 years of racing in triathlons I'm still amazed at what you can
still learn about yourself during the course of training for and racing in
Ironman triathlons. I find I'm always trying to coach/teach people how to
do things better and no doubt by the time I've finished writing this
report you'll learn a few more things about your own prep for tris.

To begin with I'm not happy with my time. Keep in mind that it's all
relative to what you're use to. Last time I raced here in 2002 I went
9:21. The day went well but nothing spectacular. This time I wanted to work
hard through the whole race and see where that got me. I was gunning for sub 1
hour for the swim, sub 5 hours for the bike, sub 3 hours for the run. I
knew the run was going to be the hard one and the most important one to go
fast on. As it turned out I went 1:04 for the swim, 5:01 for the bike and
about 3:30 for the run.

I haven't looked at any results but those are the numbers I'm getting back from people. Total time of 9:44, 13th in my age group of about 450 and missed a Hawaii spot by about 8 seconds.

The lead up to this race was what I expected. I don't do a lot of swim
training as I would MUCH rather coach and work on training plans that head
to the pool early in the morning. I won't tell you how much swimming I
did but it was enough to hopefully get me that close to an hour swim. I hate
mixing it up with people on the swim and would much rather start wide, get
into my own groove and then move into the fray. I decided to start off to
the right (outside) side of the beach start. Unfortunately I didn't take
into account the direction of the waves and as I started to move back into
the swim course I was working against the waves and all that seemed to
take forever to get through. I think I was 33" for the first loop and just
over 30" for the second. Saw a couple of people I knew out in the swim so I
was excited about that.

About 4 weeks before the race I was in Tennessee at a Juice Plus
conference and that was the Wednesday to Saturday of what was supposed to be my biggest week of training leading up to the race. As an aside, Juice Plus is an amazing product. One of only two products I actively promote to people.
If you want more info on it just ask and I'll be happy to let you know
more, or go to the Juice Plus link on my website. Instead it was 4 days
completely off training. No worries though as I had a couple of really
good weeks under my belt leading up to the conference. I was looking forward
to hooking up with a cyclist I coach in Tennessee and a friend of his for a
hard few hours of riding in the Tennessee hills.

I had a great bike from LaBicicletta, a prototype Carbon Fiber Kuota K-Factor. Very nice ride. As usual Heath Cockburn set me up beautifully on the bike and it was feeling great. About 2 hours into a 4 hour slugfest with Marshall and his friend Stephen we were nearing the tail end of another hard extended pull at
about 40kph when I looked up just in time to see the shoulder end and I found
myself skipping over the grass. I was pretty relaxed about the whole thing
and was just navigating my re-entry to the road when the whole front end
of my bike dropped out from beneath me as the front wheel got way too
friendly with the ditch hidden in the grass. I didn't have any time to think about
what to do next as I was vaulted over the handle bars doing something
between 35-40 kph landing on about the only padded area of my body.

Yeah, my butt. I don't know how many cartwheels I did. It only felt like one
but Marshall says I looked like a limp little ragdoll bouncing down the grass
ditch. I only remember seeing the bike flying through the air and landing
about 50feet down into a field of long grass. Water bottles were
everywhere. Ok so now I'm pissed. I've been sitting on my butt for 4 days, was in the middle of a great ride that I really wanted to get in to finish off my
prep for IM and here I am sitting on my butt again wondering what just
happened, and then wondering what I broke (me or the bike) right before my race.

Stood up, pulled the grass and mud out of my shorts and wiggled and
twisted everything until I was convinced I was fine (which I was) then went over
to find the bike. Absolutely no damage whatsoever to the bike. The front
wheel on the other hand was a mess. Stephen and Marshall took off to go
get Stephen's car and I stretched on the side of the road. Got bored with
that and decided to see if I could straighten the wheel out. The rim had a
crack in it but the tire was not punctured so I took the skewer out, jumped up
and down on the rim till it straightened out a bit, took the front brake right
off the bike and popped the wheel back in. It just barely made it around
without touching the fork.

Cool, I'm in business. I really wanted to get riding again before stiffening up; as after that ride I was to drive another 11 hours to go to Florida. After a few kms down the road though the wheel cracked a bit more, started making some funny sounds and then wobbled more than ever. Time to stop and wait for the ride. Went to the local YMCA for an easy swim after that to make sure all was ok.

Fortunately the wheel I wrecked was my training wheel and I wasn't using
my Zipp 404s which I was to race on. The ride in the race went great. I
wanted to go sub 5 hours depending on the conditions and after about 35km
I was averaging about 37-38 which would put me about 4:50 something. Caught
up to pretty boy Dave Ahrens before the turn as he predicted it would take me
that long to catch him. Coming across the top of the course though was
rough as it was a bit more of a head wind. I though If I could not lose
too much of my average speed across the top then I would make it back up or at
least be able to hold steady on the return. I was working really well
jumping from group to group across the top of the course and making up for
my deservedly slow swim when a really big pack of riders swarmed around
the 4-5 guys I seemed to be keeping pace with. I hung out of the way for a
few minutes off to the far right of the road and realized that I was hardly
working in this group.

Two marshals were there writing down numbers of people drafting but I just wanted to get out of there I dropped it down a couple of gears and accelerated through to the middle of the road to overtake everyone. Just as I was getting up to speed and topping out at about 45kph a guy pulls out in front of me. I yell at him as I swerve to the left and almost hit the yellow cats eye in the centre of the road. If I go right I hit the the guy who just pulled out in front of me. But if I
go left I hit the centre line. I opted for the centre line as the last thing
I wanted was to take out 50 riders all going 40kph down the highway. Well,
if my previous yell didn't just get the attention of the marshal just down
the road who turned around to see me hit the centre line. Dammit. He looks
at me and says "Penalty, you follow me". I can't believe this. I argued
briefly about avoiding an accident and that I wasn't telling him he was
wrong, but that I didn't actually cross the centre line and if I didn't
hit it I would have wiped everyone out. He told me to follow him till he
could pull over and he could give me a penalty.

So here I am riding along with this group not knowing if my race is over or not waiting for this marshal to find some space to pull over and what I'm thinking is going to be a disqualification from the race, which is normally automatic for a centre line violation. After about 7-8km he finally pulls over and tells me he's
just giving me a penalty, not a DQ as he thought about it. Thanks.

I worked pretty hard to try to get back to close to where I was before but
never could quite get back to the guys I was riding with and likely worked
a bit harder than I should have trying to do it. I was looking forward to
the tailwind that I thought was going to take me back across the course, but
that never materialized. As well the last 20km were wicked. Totally alone
trying desperately to come back under 5 hours. Right from 20km out I was
calculating how much time I had to get in under 5. Wow it was going to be
close. Before I made the turn with 20k to go though I was convinced we
would have a helping breeze and it would be an easy ride in. I should
have done that anyway as I bucked through the head winds working hard to get
back. I just missed my goal but worse likely wasted myself a bit for the
run. I still felt great though, just the quads getting cramped a bit if I
tried to stand up at all.

Hit the transition and popped some moleskin across the balls of my feet to
keep blisters away (worked like a dream). Hit the port a potty for my
first leak of the day since the nervousness at the swim start and took off on
the run. Passed a Canadian pro women Natasha Filliol heading out onto the
run. The pros started 15 minutes ahead so I was happy with this. Natasha is a
great runner so If I could stay near her I would be doing well. Clicked
through the first few miles in 6:32 to 6:48 pace and felt like everything
was in control. All I had to do was maintain that pace or even as slow as
7:15s and I would PB, although I would have to run like a demon to go
under 9.

In the first few miles sub 9 still wasn't out of the question but my
stride did start to slow a bit and by the end of the first loop I was down
to 7:30-7:40 pace. Blast. Ok, hang on. Keep using that Fuel Belt, you
didn't bring it for fun. Just keep running you *****. I won't tell you
everything else I yelled at myself out there but it wasn't pretty. At the
start of the second loop I realized I was getting a little low on fuel and
walked through the aid station right near the turnaround. Oh, wait, that
was the special needs area. Wow, was I out of it then. I was into the
zone of not really acknowledging anyone so I apologize if you cheered me on or
were in the race and yelled at me. By 13 miles I was sore and focused.

Just as I got running again after that break I felt a pull on my arm and I
turned to see Natasha . She told me she thought she was going to pass
out. Yikes. "Girl, I gots ta GO". Not that I really WANTED to start running
again, walking felt so good. We walked and talked for a minute or two
until she felt like she knew what to do at the next aid station to get
around the issue and then I took off. As much to catch up to people as to
get back into a groove. By now I was getting into survival mode as my
mile times were jumping around from 7:40 pace to about 8:15 pace. Just run
dammit. Oh god it hurt.

At mile 19 my right adductor went ballistic and seized up. Standing
wasn't doing anything, walking was making it worse, so I started running. That
didn't feel good at all. In my first IM in New Zealand it was my right
adductor that went and the only thing that got rid of it was running it
out. I was almost in tears running through the race photographers just after
that. At this stage I was thinking if I could keep moving well I would do
something between 9:30 and 9:45, depending on the adductor and anything
else that decided to get nasty. With a couple of miles to go I was closing in
on two guys in my age group who were from the same team and running together.

I caught them fairly quickly and decided to run behind them to the finish
and then go by them. Hmmm, what if someone catches the three of us and
then goes by us all, now I have three guys in front of me. So with a mile and
a bit to go I went by them but dammit if I couldn't shake them. The
adductor had been coming on in waves for the last 5 miles and I was doing
everything I could in that last mile to sprint for the finish after passing these
two. It's amazing how fast and hard a 9:39 mile can seem when you're in the
middle of it. I swear I was going way harder. With a mile to go I looked
at my watch and though ok if I can do sub 10" for this mile I'll be in
under 9:45. Well, don't these two guys come back at me with about 150m to go in
the race. Blast.

I was telling myself out there that One of those two guys had the final
qualifying spot to Hawaii and you better get in in front of them both or
you're not going. Well how true was that. 10 spots in the Mens 35-39 age
group. 1 spot rolled down and one of those two guys that finished just in
front of me took it. Rats.

Oh well. At the time going back to Hawaii was the last thing on my mind. Right now I want to get my running back to where I know it can and should be. Nothing for sure right now but I'm thinking the 30km Around the Bay in Hamilton next March, The Mississauga Marathon in May, Maybe do Muskoka in June to qualify for Florida and take another shot at that course again and race there with a bunch of friends and athletes that I hope signed up for next year. IM Florida is now the fastest filling IM course in the world, selling out in about 2 hours and 48 minutes.

Woulda coulda shoulda. So what can you learn from my experience.....

Swim:

First of all actually get in there and swim. Nothing like training.
However, TECHNIQUE work is the most important thing you can do. 95% of
all my swims were easy and focused on technique. You'll do way more for your
swimming if you focus on form rather than fitness. Get fit running and
biking. Also, if in the ocean, look at where the waves are coming from and make
sure you don't have to fight them to get back onto the course. I took a gel right before the swim start and again at the end of the first loop. That kept my energy level up throughout the race.

Bike:

Try not to get a penalty, it really throws off your rhythm. However, if
you do don't stress about it. Deal with it and move on.
Don't kill yourself to gain 2-3 minutes at the end of the bike when you
should be resting up for the run. I think the 2-3 minutes I gained trying
to unsuccessfully come in under 5 hours cost me way more during the run
later in the day. Learn what the draft zone is and work it. Don't try to get away from people just to be safe. Learn what 7 metres looks like and stay just outside that limit with a group of people that are a similar speed as what you want to
do. Don't draft, but don't waste energy physically and mentally doing the
whole ride on your own.

Run:

Don't try to eat too much on the run. Get your calories in on the bike
and then maintain on the run. Trying to get in too much on the run is hard
and will just stress you out when you can't do it. I may have been a little
under fuelled during the bike and into the run but my slower than desired
run time was likely due more to not having enough running under my belt
than fuelling issues per se. Hence the focus on running races next spring to
get the run back as a weapon.


Overall:

Don't get into conversations with people on the course. Talk to them
after the race. Ideally never stop moving in the race. Jog through aid stations and only stop when you absolutely have to. I can think of 5-7 minutes in the
marathon that I should have been moving more than I did. Likely more. If
I was 15" faster I would have moved from 13th in my age group to 5th. 25
minutes faster and I would have won it. Never, Never, Never give up. I
never gave up out there which is the only reason I'm happy with 9:44. But
there are some areas where I tactically could have been better. Both
before and during the race. Next time I'll be in the 40-44 age group and I'll be
lighting that up. Can't wait. Plan to go faster than ever.