The Las Vegas 70.3 World Championship event, which included 1,800 athletes from over 55 different countries & each state in the United States represented was one of most challenging courses on the Ironman Circuit. I attribute this to the:
1. Extremely Challenging 56 mile bike course: Which took place around Lake Mead in the Nevada desert & covered gains of 2,600 ft elevation. I compare the bike course to a Syracuse 70.3(2012) & Muskoka 70.3(2010), but a bit harder given the weather conditions & course setup. The worst part of the course was the climb back to transition 2, which covered about 13 miles, that started with large climbs out of Lake Mead Park, into a long slow grind over the last 5 miles.
2. The extreme weather conditions: Not only was the temperature a bit higher than normal over 100 degrees, but the swim in Lake Las Vegas started with 83 degree water temperatures leaving athletes open to overheating from the start. The entire course exposed each athlete providing no shade from the sun, ending with a 13.1 mile run on hot residential blacktop, while making hydration a huge part of success. The heat (even dry) was radiating off the ground, which was especially felt during the bike.
Race Morning:
The convenience of the hotel room being lakeside, right next to the transition area makes for a less stressful morning. I woke around 3 a.m. to get some bfast in me.( pb and banana sandwich.), pounded a couple glasses of water, and then went back to bed for about 20 min.
Good tip: Always arrive to the transition at least 1 hour earlier than the race start. Regardless of whether or not you think you have everything under control and organized.
Problem 1: I showed up race morning to 1000's of ants swarming on my bike and in the nutrition box I have attached to the seat post was filled with ants. I wasn't the only one with this problem & it took some time to clean everything off!
Problem 2: The buckle of my Garmin watch broke off a week before the race, making it impossible to secure the watch around my wrist. I used shoe string to secure the watch, & on race day a plastic zipp tie. 30 min. before race started the zipp tie completely broke. Anxiety kicked thinking I may have to race without a speed/time/heart rate etc. I made it to the bike support to only find a 20 minute line for service. I wound up cutting & really pissing off the bike mechanic. I only needed a zip tie though. Finally got it on with a sharp plastic edge sticking into my wrist.
-Make time to wait in line for a bike pump.
Race morning at a championship race is fairly different than a normal race. The crowd of 1,800 athletes & more than usual spectator group/media made it very exciting. You could just feel a difference, you knew every athlete belonged in this race & worked very hard to get there. The moment I walked by Craig Alexander/Joe Gambles on the way into transition I knew this shit was real.
Swim: 33:27
This was a horrible swim, which set the tone for the rest of my day. This was a non-wetsuit event since the water temperature was above 82 degrees. Non-wetsuit races are typically slower since you don't get the buoyancy & need to work a little harder to keep your body level. With a wetsuit you also have more time to focus on your technique/stroke, since your body is floating. Athletes tend to wear legal speed suits that are very thin for non-wetsuit events.
I made two mistakes in this race that cost me some time:
The first mistake was probably not renting or borrowing a speed-suit. The mistake that really killed me was wearing my tri top in the water. Never do this! This was the same advice that I was given from a buddy during my Florida race, when I actual listened and swam shirt-less. In Vegas, once I jumped in the water for my 2 minute warmup I realized that water was coming into the top from my chest. Each stroke I took I could feel water filling my top, which created a drag. This really gave me some anxiety and frustration before even starting the race!
In Lake Las Vegas we had about a 150 meters space from entering the water to the start line. The swim over to the start line was your warmup!(Not your ideal 15 min warmup) Each age group started in 5 minute intervals. The 30-34 age group entered the water about 10 minutes early & then it was all treading water until the start of our wave. Very different than a beach start or mid body start where you can use the ground for leverage, we were treading for about 6-7 minutes & once the gun went off had to create momentum from our stroke. I ultimately got caught behind some weaker swimmers, elbows were flying & I felt my heart rate strap fall from my chest down to my waist. Once I get behind & have a bad start It usually doesn't end well. This is exactly what happened, a lonely swim with no one to pace off of. Coming out of the water I was just disappointed in seeing that time.
Bike: 2:46
Right out of T1 you are instantly climbing for a good couple of miles onto the main road that leads you into Lake Mead National Park. Here is a chance to try and spin your legs for a warmup, but the climb makes it tough. About 5 miles into the bike you begin to decend into lake mead national park. Here is where the Mojave Desert,Sun, big climbs and big decents & wind happened. Every large decent was followed by a big uphill or vice versa. The extra weight I was carrying didn't help up those climbs. At 7:45 a.m. it was over 90 degrees and rising & your body slowly felt like it was cooking. The scenery was pretty much just desert, cactus, dried out ravines that were once rivers, red rocks etc. The bike course led you 24 miles out and back through the park & out towards Henderson for the last 8 miles. Nutrition and hydration was very key to this race as your sweat quickly evaporates in the dry climate of the desert. After about 30 miles it started to get increasing hot using every aid station to squeeze water over my head to cool down. It's always cool to see the lead pack of Professionals heading back for the last 20 miles or so of the bike. Soon enough, my bad attitude was wondering how I was going to run 13 miles after this. At around mile 45 the speed began to get a lot slower due to the big climb back out of the park and the last miles into residential towns to transition 2. As a result of a big hilly course I had max speeds of 44 mph with minimum speeds of 14 mph. The last miles of the bike seemed like forever & I finished around 10 minutes off my goal time for the bike.
Run: 1:40 ( 7:45 pace)
The course was pretty boring with a 3 loop event. It takes you downhill for the first mile then uphill for 2 miles the downhill for 1. All the downhills and uphills were a gradual climb or decent. The hardest thing about the course was the 100 degree heat. The hills weren't very tough from what I had been racing previous.
My mental state was horrible going into T2 even with no nutritional issues!! I took my time in the change tent. My first mile read 6:42, but mostly downhill & a given to run fast. I quickly began to slow down off pace & give up at mile 2. I told myself immediately I was going to just try and enjoy myself and not keep pace. This strategy seemed great, but I soon found out it was equally as painful running slower with negative thoughts.(Just more time on your feet)
This is the only race I had thrown in the towel & for some reason didn't feel bad doing so. I met a couple people on the race course during loop one, whiched passed some time. During the second loop I seemed to pick up the pace a bit & had times where I would want to run hard and then times where I just slowed down. I sprinted the last mile around 5:56 to end what was a brutally hot day. The only positive from a little less effort was that for the first time ever I had an appetite after the race & I was able to communicate with others. I usually go hard to where I can't eat for hours and I need a lot of time alone laying down to recup. I was about 26 minutes off my goal for this race, I had the worst swim and run I have ever had in three years of doing triathlon, but overall learned some good lessons. Time: 5:06 Overall 370 something/ 1776
"There are periods to focus, and periods to let loose a bit. Many times its the periods you let loose that motivate you to focus"
Heading home from Las Vegas I had time to reflect upon a very exciting/long race season & a busy summer. Looking at the positives, I had a chance to travel down to Florida in May to race against Lance Armstrong, Syracuse/Montauk in June, & head out West to Las Vegas to participate in a World Championship race, while completing my 1st Ironman in my own backyard in August. On top of all the races, there were countless weddings/bachelor parties(Puerto Rico/NYC) that were in the mix & also a visit to Arizona to see my nephew. Balancing all these activites takes planning & one thing I needed to focus on in 2012 was making other activities (outside of triathlon) just as much a top priority, even though I was putting more time into training. Understanding that it was ok to take a day off here in there from training & my schedule had to be flexible in order to make everything work in my life. I did the best I could from this standpoint, but I am still learning this balance as it is the most important aspect of being able to train.
2012 Accomplishment Review:
-Syracuse 70.3: This target race was executed as good as it could after a Puerto Rico bachelor party. At this time, my mind was calm & positive, I was strong, my fitness/health were peaking and I showed I belong with the best in my age group in Syracuse. I swam the best I ever had (29:09), biked a solid 2:30 on hilly course, & finished with a 1:30 run, which was the hardest half marathon course I had ever ran in all 7 Half Ironman races over the course of 3 years. I finished Overall 45/1045 & 6th of 112 in my age group qualifying me for the World Championships in Las Vegas.
-Mighty Montauk Triathlon: Two weeks before Syracuse, despite a horrible swim start, I finished with the 2nd fastest Run split @ Mighty Montauk Olympic Triathlon (38:16) against a stacked olympic distance field finishing 7th of 526. I had never felt so good running a hilly 10k before averaging just around 6:10 per mile while proving my bike speed was getting faster keeping up with the top group. My goal is to go well below 6 minute miles next year for the 10k.
- Florida 70.3: Showed I can run just as good as most amateurs (1:27: 3rd fastest run split) in the 90 degree heat, while realizing there is still room for huge improvements. Age Group: 7/176 Overall: 51/1773
With all these positive moments, I still think about my struggles and where I went wrong towards the end of the season. I picked up Lava Magazine on my flight home & had a chance to read Matt Dixon's( Pro Triathlete Coach) article about body/mind recovery to gain strength through mid-season rests.
Matt Dixon-"I have seen many cases where athletes preparing for the final key races of their season were just desperate for it to be over. They were carrying fatigue, injury & mental exhaustion to the starting line, and had created barriers to achieving their best results. This is often a result of being unwilling to take a little step back earlier in the season to allow a little rejuvenation and respite. These athletes end up with massive loss of fitness and negative changes to body composition and health."
Going into a race,(especially of a 70.3 or 140.6 distance) the amount of energy you need not just phsically, but mentally is huge! Concentrating and keeping pace for 4-5 hours requires a very positive/strong mental state mind. Right before the gun goes off on raceday you know there is an extremely long day ahead of you that will take 100% of your concentration to do well. You may be relaxed and confident in your capabilities or you could have a bunch of negative thoughts swirling through your head. Positive energy is needed to do well at any event and if your mind is focused on negative thoughts, then you will get negative results. This same theory goes for mostly any sport, but especially for individual sports such as MMA & most of the olympic events you see. If you have a bad day there is no teammate to pick you up. Once your mind wanders, it can force you out of your current state, resulting in a downhill spiral of negative thoughts. If your swimming, swim in the moment until you get on the bike. When your working hard on the bike, keep focus on that specific mile & don't let your mind get ahead to the run. Going into a race healthy (mentally positive, excited, phsyically strong) will help you stay away from these negative pitfalls.
This is an piece of an article by Jesse Kropelnicki (Pro Triathlete/Coach) on a Mentally Unfit Athlete vs Mentally Fit Athlete:
"Task relevance considers an athlete’s mindset while training and/or racing. Athletes who are able to focus their full attention on task relevant items, be they training or racing, are constantly reminding themselves of things such as “I will stay focused on the bike, and peddle at 90rpm” and “I will run this hill strong, keeping my eyes on my target”. These are signs of a mentally fit athlete because, despite any outside distractions, they are able to concentrate only on the task at hand.
"Conversely, the mentally unfit athlete tends to get distracted by outside stimuli, thus focusing on task- irrelevant items. Thoughts that fall along the lines of “If I don’t perform well, I am going to disappoint my family and friends,” and “If I don’t place in the top-10, my sponsors are going to drop me.” The difference in mindsets is quite clear, and it’s not too difficult to see the impacts of each. While a focus on task-relevant items will not necessary lead to physical success, it will certainly put the athlete in a position to fully capitalize on their fitness. By the same token, the toll of focusing on task-irrelevant items can take the wind right out of an athlete’s fitness sails with too much mental energy spent on why something can’t be done rather than why it can."
Mental exhaustion was the barrier I created to limit me from achieving top results in Vegas. I didn't have time to give my body a mid-season rest it needed, since right after the Syracuse 70.3 I had 6 weeks until the full Ironman. Right after IMNY I had 4 weeks until Vegas. I had lost that motivation & drive that had given me a chance to race as good as I did in Syracuse. The mentally-fit attitude I brought to Syracuse, which tells me I am going to hold "x pace" for 13.1 miles & do everything I can to hold it was gone. This slowly brought on my mentally-unfit attitude, when one minor thing went wrong during a race I panicked & easily convinced myself to slow down. With loss of motivation and mental exhaustion came some weight gain. I had gained about 5-7 pounds from 155 to 160 going into Las Vegas. My workouts weren't as satisfying. My speed was ok, but I had trouble focusing on my long weekend workouts. I even was hoping for a flat tire 5 miles into the Vegas bike course to use as an excuse for not finished or doing well.
At the end of the day, you should be excited to race and train! If your a triathlete looking to add races and more volume to next year, I would recommend to plan at least a 2-3 week mid- season rest while incorporating some lighter training to rest your body/mind. Raceday should be thought of as a bonus to training where you display the work you had put in previous months. Once training/racing becomes a chore instead of a passion that's when you need to take a step back & naturally let your competitive spirit rebuild and eventually your body/mind will tell you when your ready to get back to training!
The two factors of my struggles this year were mental fitness and race day nutrition. It's these personal experiences that you can grow from & give you something to figure out going into next year. Qualifying for Las Vegas was the main goal of the 2012 season & I nailed it. I am glad to have gotten a chance to race there & finish what I committed to.
2013 Steps to Progress:
1. Bike fit: I never had a chance to get a bike fit last year. It probably wasn't a smart idea to avoid this as I have heard a bike fit is one of the best $200 you can spend to improve speed/position & avoid any injuires from improper form.
2. Find a Coach: I have used several great triathlete resources around me for advice the past 3 years & even hired a great coach for a couple of months, who raced and had some really valuable insite that lead me to great results in 2011. Financially it is expensive, but in 2013 in order to step up a level I will need a full-time coach to plan all of my workouts & give me guidance on a weekly basis. There are so many things in Triathlon to learn & figure out & I feel I have gotten as far as I can without a coach.
3. Power Meter for Cycling: One of the most difficult tasks in cycling is to measure progress in training. You have several factors that can affect a bike workout; weather conditions (wind, elevation ), heart rate (variable) & it's very easy to cheat a workout. In a perfect world I could do the exact same bike route with a heart monitor in the exact same weather conditions and then analyze my speed/time and heart rate & see if I have gotten faster. This is unrealistic as weather conditions/heart rate are always variable & most cyclist are biking more than location during the year. A power meter measures your power in terms of watts. So regardless if you are in a headwind/or tailwind your wattage doesn't lie. When you finish a workout with a powermeter you have that wattage you can analyze & you can plan workouts to keep to a certain power number. Right now, the only measure I have is a heart rate.
2013 Race Plan:
1. I think a 15-18 hour training week is too much time to balance with a full-time job. So Im thinking more like a 10-13 hour week.
2. The past 3 years I have been racing all different types from sprints to the full Ironman this year. I never had time to really excel at one distance the way I would like. I think with time constraints focusing on the Olympic distance races and mixing in one to two half ironmans will be a good fit. I will most likely add a Syracuse 70.3 or a Timberman 70.3 to the race schedule. I want to get a good 3-4 olympic events in & a couple sprint events. I look forward to the shorter races where you can go all out, have less of a recovery, & even more importantly have more free time to do normal things.
3. Will plan at least 1 or 2 half marathons early in the year, maybe a couple late season 5k's. Goal of going well below 1:20. & going sub 17 min for the 5k.
4. Goal of qualifying for Team USA for USAT nationals.
This may be the longest blog ever, but bare with me as this race was the accumulation of many months/years training & was by far the best/worst day of my life in sports. Before I go into the report I want to share info about how this race came about & the amount of detail & training I was putting in.
After coming off a huge high in my journey as a triathlete @ Syracuse 70.3 in June by qualifying for the 70.3 Worlds (My 6th Half Iron/2nd Full season as triathlete), I knew there was limited time for rest. My first Ironman was 8/11, this only gave me a solid 3 weeks after a short recovery to build up for raceday. I planned my 2012 season very differently than the previous two years beginning the season with an early season Half Ironman & mixing in an olympic race. This would judge early season fitness, hopefully bring confidence in my run/bike strength & I would go into Syracuse 70.3 ready to push the limits. This strategy had it's negatives though, I had gone 5 hard months of consistency week in and week out(15-18 hr weeks + full time job), in addition to a larger volume from November-Late February, which caused my body to break down & some workouts become hard to focus. It's always healthy to take a mid-season break for a week or two to clear your head, but I didn't plan well enough to factor one in.
Volume through August 20th, 2012:
2012 totals
Bike:
169h 02m 16s - 3309.74 Mi
Run:
89h 23m 36s - 739.59 Mi
Swim:
52h 26m 17s - 166750 Yd
VS.
2011 totals
Bike:
133h 08m 49s - 2657.53 Mi
Run:
85h 22m 29s - 674.73 Mi
Swim:
48h 39m 49s - 145250 Yd
The Ironman distance was a complete unknown for me. You can train as hard as anyone, but nothing prepares you fully for what you experience on raceday. Ironman raceday experience is like no other & part of success during the biggest endurance event on the planet is just showing up and finishing it. The odds are that something will go wrong on raceday, whether it be nutrition, flat tire, over exertion, you can bet that it's a total learning experience. I was excited to race, but also a bit nervous as the days drew closer to the race.
Bike Training: From July-early August I had put in some huge rides (around 5 over 100 miles) & a peak bike of 112 up to West Point, which covered 7,000ft + of elevation gain, 105 mile rides up Bear Mountain over 7,800 ft Elevation gain, mixed with a couple easier 115 mile rides in Montauk, New York. In addition to a long weekend ride, my Tues/Thurs weekday bike workouts would range from 1:45 - 2hours up to the tapanzee bridge. I was avg up around 210 miles on some weeks & you would be suprised that my volume is low compared to most of the competitive guys. I ride on heart rate (hopefully will incorporate Power Meter in 2013) & I found the most challenging aspect of the longer workouts were mental focus/Nutrition for 6 plus hrs on the bike. These longer rides would take their toll and towards the end I would lose objectives in each workout & had trouble getting my heart rate up and my efforts to where they should be.
The Half Iron distance became my comfort where I was only biking for 2:30 minutes during a race, so once hour 3 rolled through on a long 6 hour training ride, I became a bit lost on my nutrition intake. The week leading up to IMNY was frusterating as I was having a hard time planning my race day nutrition, which only meant I wasn't prepared for the full race-day nutrition plan that was supposed to be already figured out in training.
Swimming I kept to 2 workouts per week on Tues/Thurs morning and got volumes up to 4500 meters per workout with mains sets including 6x500 or 3x800,2x400 or 3x 100,200 300 400 and speed days including 200 meter intervals. Weekly volume 7,000- 9,000 meters.
My run volume went from avg 30 miles in May/June to mid 40's in July per week. I had a couple 17 miles runs with my longest of 21 miles/2:31 minutes/7:13 pace on the New York Ironman course. On my long runs I kept Heart rate ranging from high 130's to begin, mid 140's for most of the run, & let it drift in the low 150's towards the last 4-5 miles. I would avg roughly 7:10-7:20 on these runs. I was extremely confident with my run preparation & there is nothing I could have done differently regarding workout structure. I practically lived on the imny run course for months prior to raceday, but I missed one important factor that would erase all those challenging workouts I put in, which I will get into later.
My volume from July training:
July's totals:
Bike:
38h 48m - 748.7 Mi
Run:
19h 32m 40s - 164.89 Mi
Swim:
11h 07m 21s - 36200 Yd
Raceday:
Wakeup: 2:30 a.m.- Pb and fruit sandwich with a shake consisting of supergreens, fish oil, vega protein, banana, blueberry, coconut oil. Supplement I take daily included Ubiquinol(heart health), astaxanthin (antioxidant), mercola MultiVitamins.
4:00 a.m.- 1 hour Ferry ride from Weehawken (About 1.5 miles from my apartment) to the race Transition area for last minute setup.
Uncle & I pre-race in Transition
5:00 a.m. - 6:10 a.m.- Running around transition, waiting online 20 min for a bike pump, the tech support line was too long and I failed to fix back tire that was rubbing on my break. Got a last minute porto-potty break in, not realizing I would be seeing a lot more of it later on.
6:15 a.m. : Ferry to Swim Start: I was one of the last on the Ferry line since all the bike issues I was having, but managed to cut about 2,200 people & found a couple local guys Scotty Duprex & Julian Setain to roll with before the ferries departed.
Transition area Race Morning
6:50 Pro Athlete start 7:00 Age Group Time Trial Start: The slow ferry ride to the swim start made the nerves/adrenaline flow as 4 Ferries (600 Athletes in each) got a first hand look on the whole swim course right before plunging into the Hudson. All of the age group athletes got a chance to see the Profesional swim start along with amputees, triathletes swimming without any legs or any with limb loss. This was an unbelievable sight & truly remarkable that these people can swim with no limbs & some athletes were even competing blind.
SWIM: 44:17
View of Swim Start as Athletes enter water
As soon as the ferries docked to the swim barge all athletes then walked down a ramp & plunged into the Hudson to start their 140.6 mile Journey. As you may have heard, the huge news story days prior to the race was millions of Gallons of sewage spilled 20 miles north of the GWB in the Hudson River. The speculation was that the swim could potentially be cancelled, but luckily Ironman worked with the BPU & all the water testing drew positive results of the water being clean enough for the swim. The story was actually a huge help for Ironman, since every news channel was covering the sewage/Ironman swim story leading up to the race & your average joe watching t.v. at night was most likely informed about the race.
Pro Triathletes start as Age Groupers watch from Ferry
I took a deep breathe prior to jumping off the barge, but once I jumped in I knew it would be a war! I began to warmup the arms the first 5 minutes and really focus on mechanics(I find it difficult to race without a 10 -15 min warmup swim so I used the first minutes as that warmup). I stayed towards the right of the buoys & focused on long strokes/pull since their was a strong current in our favor. I was in the 2nd ferry that unloaded and was thankfully suprised by the amount of room we had to swim, running into little congestion throughout the swim & navigating well if I needed to pass. I was cruising along the swim course flying past buoy markers, at one point I underestimated the current I smacked right into a large yellow buoy. The current was also pulling me out to the middle of the river, so I would often have to angle right.
Since I had never swam a 2.4 miler before I was swimming conservative, at a good pace, but made sure I wasn't over exerting myself. Another great factor was there were no turns on course, so sighting was easy & you never slowed momentum. I came out of the water & had a pretty good idea the swim times were going to be rediculously fast. Once I saw 44 minutes (16-18 min faster than a normal swim) I knew right away that the top age group guys would be well below 10 hours for the day. A 44 minute in a normal lake would be close to an Ironman record & the top pro broke the Ironman course record in 39-40 minutes. From exiting the water I walked to the changing tent & thought about sticking to my gameplan with sights set on a sub 10 hour Ironman & a top 10 age group finish.
BIKE: 5:36 Minutes
Considering there was no previous race times & I had little idea what would be a good time for the bike. I decided that a goal of 5:30 minutes was realistic, maybe a bit too conservative, in order to have a very good marathon run (sub 3:25) & that would put me well below 10 hours for the day. I could tell by the elevation that while the course wouldn't be flat, it didn't have any steep climbs, just a bunch or rollers. Training only a couple years on a bike I knew that the bike portion was also my weakest segment. So the idea of finishing strong & passing a bunch of people on the run, which was a strength was much more exciting than overasserting on the bike & not running up to my capability. I had also read countless articles on this specific subject to save your legs, as most people love to brag about their impressive ironman bike split only to walk the marathon. The bike was a 2 (54 mile loop) on the Palisades Parkway with a pretty steep couple miles of incline coming out of the transition area onto river road. I heard that it was the 1st or 2nd time the parkway ever closed, one time being on 9/11. The bike turned out to be pretty boring, first loop I went pretty slow and on the second loop the sun/humidity started to be felt since it was high 80's . I remained focused on nutrition and keeping my cadence well above 90 rpm. Some bike issues were getting me frusterated before the race even started with my brake rubbing my back zipp wheel the whole 112 miles & on the 2nd loop of the bike I had my chain come off 4 times. Not sure what the fix was, but more than anything it stopped some of my momemtum as I changed gears going up hills.
I even climbed some rollers in the small gear. I remained as hydrated on the first loop as possible front loading nutrition, which including 2 bottles of accelerade ( 3 scoops 360 cal each) with 2 salt pills per bottle. Sodium was roughly 950 mg per bottles in the first two hours & by hour 3 I picked up a third bottle in special needs. Other than the special bottles I switched in between water from the aid stations, bonk breakers 3.5-4.5 hr (which i switched up from powerbars after I ran out last month) and gels the last hour. I lost a couple of my salt tablets, which I take for extra sodium so I took an extra gel at an aid station around mile 95. I thought my nutrition was working well besides for a throwing up in my mouth and nose a couple of times. I peed 3x on the bike, which I evidently haven't mastered yet. I tried to pull it out, but couldn't steer safely so I just had to let it loose in my spandex and wash with some water. Looking at the garmin file below my heart rate was very low the majority of the bike. It had settled down from upper 140's and the first two hours to low 140's high 130's the next 3.5 hours. I am not positive how this compares to others, but I think I need to train in higher heart rate zones or put in a little more effort.
The last miles of the bike were mostly flat, but a bit tough considering the headwind. I felt really good going into the run. My legs were ready to rock my first marathon, my heart rate was very low & I was excited to show everyone what I could do.
I had no doubt in my mind I had done everything to conserve energy & set myself up for success on the marathon. I also really wanted to enjoy the run & have a good time. My gameplan was to run at least sub 3:30 marathon, while passing as many people as possible that got the best of me on the bike. I wanted to make every one of them pay by going out too hard on the bike & to prove my run was legit. Here's where the race gets really interesting. People always talk about when things go wrong during an Ironman. I have read & heard horror stories of the worst case scenarios involving athletes going out too hard early in the race to only suffer during the run. That wouldn't happen to me today as I smartly conserved for over 6.5 hours. Little did I know that one of the most important aspects of an Ironman, Nutrition, I neglected for weeks leading up to the race. While I need to still break down what I did wrong, I think avoidance & lack of a solid plan led to one of the worst experiences of my life while running my first marathon. From experience, I knew there are points in a race where your mind plays games & tells you to stop or go slower, in which you need to somehow ignore or you can let it get the best of you. I was used to these elements & had strategies to get past them, but I was not used to dealing with a complete stomach shutdown.
Symptoms followed from what I remember:
Mile 1-4 - Pace around 7:57 min starting off and trending upward. About 45 seconds off of goal race pace of 7:20 & off my inital pace of 7:00-7:10. Once I reached flat ground at the top of the steep hill coming out of transition, my stomach immediately felt bloated. I used a fuelbelt that contained some concentrated gels, so I sipped from that & I had some water. (I had a couple gels during my long runs, but never concentrated 5 gels before) I usually ran with accelerade electrolyte, but had none on race day. My stomach still wasn't digesting and thats when I starting throwing up liquids in my mouth and out my nose around mile 4. My stomach felt like I just ate a huge meal! I kept drinking a little water/coke and was keeping cool throwing ice in my tri top. I was actually walking aid stations this early in the race hoping that I can ease the stomach. My heart rate was low, but was artificially spiking up as the ice I put in my top was raising it, so I just went off an easy run feel to start the first loop.
Mile-5-9: My bloated stomach turned to gas, which almost seemed a bit relief, but still couldn't find a way to feel better. At mile 9 or so was when it really hit me. Full on Diarehhea stomach shutdown. Just imagine your worst case of the runs and having to run 26 miles. By now I was contemplating how I would finish let alone get below an 8 minute mile. I refused to walk & knew I had to finish since all my family/friends were supporting me. Aid stations were running out of ice, which was the only thing that felt good & water/coke was getting warm. I heard other athletes talking and enjoying themselves, which made me really discouraged of how completely different my mind was.
Mile 9-16: At mile 13 (end of 2nd loop/Almost out of the park) I reached for my special needs bag only to find hot coca-cola and some hot water in my flasks(should've freezed them overnight). I had my fuelbelt still on with no fuel. At about that time I was less focused on nutrition & more focused on getting to the next porto-potty. After a 3rd portopotty break I made my trek out of the Palisades park, which was another mile or so. At this point I knew I was in the heart of suffering with more to go & I recollect being depressed without any control of my emotions. Meanwhile, the fans were unbelievable throughout the run & I even passed signs individually marked with GTC tri members names. Although, I really couldn't acknowledge the support & connect with the crowd, I think my body and spirit rose up a notch with hearing words of encouragement. My stomach was taking a toll on my body as I stumbled up the biggest hill on the course about 1 mile, heading my way up & down steep stairs and onto the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.
My heart rate through out the run was very low @ high 130's into the low 140's the first 16 miles, my legs weren't weak, but I couldn't focus on running smooth. The last 10 miles my heart rate was in the high 120's, which was far off of what I was expecting to be at around mid 140's to mid 150's going into the last miles. Each step I took for the next 10 miles was intense pain. In the photo crossing the GWB tongue out, body drained.
Mile 17- 24: I stopped at almost every potto-potty I could see & heading over the GWB. By this time, I didn't even acknowledge that all my nutrition I took in was coming out of me & I still felt too bloated to take in more fluids. This was a process that started to serverly dehydrate my system. Getting to the New York side was pretty awesome & I knew I was closer to my family at the Finish line, but looking at my watch I was now in 10 minute mile range and still continue stomach problems. Fans support got crazy on the NY side as the New Yorkers would not only cheer for you, but curse at you for motivation. I had clearly realized I wasn't even close to being a top finisher and not even close to a top 10 in my age. I was calculating in my head how long I had until finish 8 miles 10.5 min mile pace= 1:24minutes. I was thinking to myself on how I was going to take this pain for another hour plus run. I had no experience running an 11 minute mile so the last 7 miles were the slowest & most painful miles I have ever ran. My dreams of going sub 10 hours were crushed, but knew I had a chance for below 11 hours.
I zombie jogged past all the hispanics in the new york parks as they were listening to music, bbq'ing, drinking etc. What a difference of worlds we were in and only a couple feet away from each other. I was just saying in mind head "These people have no f'in idea!", that's when I found the first new york porto-potty to sitdown in. The porto-potty experience got more difficult to get in and out of as the race went on. Sitting down and getting back up took it's tool and by the last few bathrooms I needed a full effort to stand up. I finally got so frustrated with carrying my fuel belt, so I left it in the bathroom about 5 miles from the finish knowing that I didn't have any drinks or nutrition on the belt anyway. I rolled up my tri top to relieve stomach pressure since the slightest bit of pressure was sensitive. Fan support was got even better heading into the last 5 miles.
MILES 22-24 were all zig zags in the park with some small hills. I hit up 1-2 more portopottys along the way, which were usually right before aid stations. I really had no shame at this point. People both fans and volunteers knew I was in bad shape blowing up each bathroom I came across, but I was in survival mode at this point.
Once I hit the mile 24 marker I knew I was close. I began to pick up the pace, which I think was around 9:30 or so going into the last mile. I soon began to hear the music and a crowd. Turning the corner there it was! The huge blue finish line with the Ironman Logo on it. I finally got a huge andrenaline rush, sprinted as hard as possible into the finish coral. I turned to the crowd on the left and saw my whole family while doing a back micheal jackson esk without the slide back walk. I have no idea where this energy came as I was so delirious, it was unexplainable. I slowly walked through the finish line with my hands raised wondering whether this was some sick dream or the real thing.
Overall Time: 10:38 Age Group: 34/272 Overall: 167/2021
I never imagined that this day would turn out the way it did & even though it didn't go as planned I think the amount of suffering I endured made the finish much more enjoyable, truly appreciating all the other finishers & most importantly cherishing the family/friends that support me. It's one of those experience you need to endure to know how it feels & now I know why people walk around with that rediculous looking M dot on their calves. I haven't shed tears in a while, but I was an emotional wreck after. I couldn't hold it in if i tried.
Amazing Raceday Video By Ironman recapping the day
Post Race:
My day unfortunately wasn't over yet & things began to get worse after running a torturous 4:10 min marathon. Soon after laying down for about 30 minutes, hugging every1 & letting them take pictures of me like I was some experiment, I felt stomach pains again. I usually don't have an appetite for hours after a race & especially didn't have an appetite after this one so I began to try and drink some gatorade.
I immediately got carried to another porto-potty located 1/4 mile from the finish. Sorry for the intense details, but it is here that I released everything I had in me. I completely drained myself of fluids continously for about 5-10 min. I came out about 10 minutes later with my mom and brother wondering what the heck i was doing in there & got help back to the finish area. I immediately became light headed & dizzy, shortness of breath, which is when I realized something was wrong and notified a volunteer.
They carried me to the med tent & sat me down on the stretcher bed. There were about 50 other athletes in the med tent, which looked something out of a war scene. I didn't realize the severity/trauma of what your body goes through and how many people would have issues after the race. I had about 2 nurses & a doctor around me. My temperature had dropped to about 91 degrees and I began shivering uncontrollably, which is when they put these tin foil blankets on me.
Between sipping on chicken broth(sodium) & focusing on breathing I was just trying to be patient & let the dizzyness subside. For another 30-1 hr or so the dizzyness didn't go away, which is when I started to really worry. All of these feelings brought me back to 2005 when I had a seizure on the last mile of a 18 mile race & was in the ICU for 4 days, where I suffered from extreme dehydration because of the heat and not hydrating properly. I'll save that story for another day, but I was extremely worried about what I was feeling and whether or not I would make it out of the tent alive..
I then got transferred to another bed and they hooked me up to and IV with 2 bags of fluid & gave me oxygen mask to facilitate better breathing. I had felt like my stomach was caving in & kept on asking the doctors to re-assure me I would make it out ok. At this point it was gettin dark outside, when the doctor told me I could take a third bag a fluid on the IV, but then if I still felt bad they would need to call an ambulance. Once I was done with the second bag and noticed pressure closing in my behind, & I started getting a strong urge to pee, which I hadn't felt all day! Anything different was a good sign & immediately went to the porto-potty, this time with a good feeling I didnt have to sit down! I started coming around and felt a little more in tune with my surrounding. I still never felt 100%, but finally took the walk outside to go home with my brother and mom about 3-4 hours after I finished. Im really fortunate to get to that med tent and honestly felt without that medical staff I wouldn't be here today.
I find out later Gastro Distress is one of the leading causes of DNF( did not finish) in triathlons and especially Ironman Races. The winner Jordan Rapp, who raced a 8:10 had prior issues with the same problem I had, which caused him to drop out of an Ironman. That makes me feel somewhat better that it even happens to the best of them. If I ever commit to racing another Ironman I will come prepared & have every aspect of the race covered. I took about a week off after the race to rest/indulge in every type of food I possibly could. This included all the best; Lobster, fish tacos, sushi, pizza, Calamari, pasta, and so many more. I will train these next 10 days hard, detox from alcohol/food coma in preparation for the 70.3 World Championships in Lake Las Vegas 9/9/12, which is the distance I have been really dedicated to. It seems a bit too soon to be racing, but I hope to get a couple good workouts in before the race. The field of competitors are the best in the world, with a course is as hilly/hard as it gets. I will most likely stop racing this year after Vegas, but if I feel good I would love to come back for a 3rd year at MightyMan Half Ironman Montauk 9/30 & try to win it after placing 4th overall last year. That race is definitely a favorite of mine.
Thanks to Pearl Izumi for motivating me to train harder, CBT, & family/friends for their support. This truly was an unforgettable day!
I now have an odd appreciation for Mondays, even though mondays you usually associate mostly with starting another long work week. I appreciate Mondays because it's my only rest day & a quick break from my final week of intense training. So today is all about recovery & resting the body enough to keep on pushing forward...
26 days until Ironman NY & I am really getting to a point in training that is mentally/physically beyond what I have ever experienced. I have never pushed my body to this extent in my entire life & during long training runs start doubting what it's going to take to run a good marathon after the 112 mile bike. I have worked up 2 weeks ago from 15 hour per week training to a little over 18 hours a week. The swim workouts get 30 minutes longer, the run workouts get hours longer and I feel that I have spent more time on my bike the past months than I have driving my jeep, which is true. A little over 200 miles on the bike per week & now averaging in the low 40's running, with a good 6 miles swimming. I hope to have enough energy left to get me through this week & get to the starting line aug 11th fully recovered and ready to roll. The finish line can't come soon enough.
Saturday I drove up to Syracuse on a mission to get a qualifying spot for the Las Vegas World Championships @ Syracuse 70.3. It was very important to me to validate all this time and sacrifice I have been putting into training. This was also my main race of the season.
I drove up solo & was feeling great after a suprise visit from my brother/wife and their new baby, who had been in New Jersey for a couple days. After I had registered months back, I found out that Ironman was giving out 100 vegas slots instead of 50 for certain Ironman events & Syracuse 70.3 was one of them. Regardless of how many slots were available I really wanted to try for a top 3 finish in my age group(considering there's usually only 2/3 slots per group). There's always uncertainty with how you can place as you never know what kind of talent will show up on race day.(usually its very good)
I was meeting 2 members of my Pearl Izumi Triathlon team, Joe McMahon (who coached me and still provides great insite) & Carrie Slavinksi, both well experienced/talented athletes who would arrive later in the day. After a 4 hour drive I arrived at the race site early to make sure I got in a good 30 min bike ride with a 2 mile race-paced run off the bike & check to see everything was working well. The swim course was closed to swimmers, but managed to get in a good 20 minute swim half way around the lake where there was no authority.
Taking lessons from my Florida 70.3 performance in May, in order to qualify for Vegas I knew I needed to really push the effort on the bike, in addition to swimming a couple minutes faster, while assuming I could run sub 1:30.
- I always think out my goals going into the next race, making sure they are realistic/difficult yet attainable.
- I write my goals for the race and break them down by each segment & times a couple days before the event.
-I can usually get a good idea by looking at previous years results and athletes times that I know or that I have raced against in the past, which are usually accurate if the course hasn't been changed from the year prior.
Swim:
Motivated and tired of putting in very horrible early season swim times I started strong from the sound of the gun. I lined up center middle and felt great as others in the group weren't as aggressive as I was used to, which gave me some room to distance myself in the first 200-300 yards. I immediately caught on a draft line of 2 swimmers who seemed to be holding a good pace. I made a huge effort to stay with them and if I had the chance I would go for the pass. When drafting you follow the bubbles and hope to stay within a bodies length or closer to the swimmer you are trying to follow. Meanwhile, you need to make sure they are guiding you properly & watch out & avoid any other triathletes (dead bodies) I like to call them, which are the slower swimmers from swim waves that started before you. 3/4 of the way through the race I was still drafting off the same two guys and pretty happy about the effort. I had a chance to pass, but smartly deciding to hold off as it may only save me a couple seconds as opposed to sitting back on their feet to save energy before I got out of the water. As you can see in the picture below I did a double take at my watch to realize I hit a personal best for a half iron swim going sub 30 minutes. Finally putting in a good swim to what my training was at!
Swim: 29:09
Bike:
I knew Syracuse would be hilly the first 13-15 miles and I had a clear advantage training in the hills of NY. From March-June Route 9W provides some challenging hills and is far different than the terrain of a super flat Florida course. This is where I was confident in my ability as opposed to racing many locals floridians at the Florida 70.3, who were used to a flat course & most likely had more early season outdoor training time. Still the bike was my weakest of the three segments & after looking at last year's results I was shooting for around a 2:32.
First 2 miles flat, and then begins what felt like a slow-motion first hour of non-stop hills. I drove the course the day before so I wasn't suprised, but feeling the hills on your bike as opposed to driving them is a whole different ball game. 40 minutes into the bike is where I usually warmup up and feel comfortable, but I started feeling sick and had a lack of energy. I was mentally trying to convince myself to give up and check out of the race, which doesn't happen to often this soon in a race. I kept pushing & as mile 30-35 approached the course began to pickup speed with many downhill sections. I clocked in one downhill at 48 mph, so we were cruisin! This is also the first race I got to experience a group of cheaters who caught up to me around mile 35. There was a pack of 4 guys from Panama with one lead man ( of course in my age group) drafting off of eachother, while really being reckless on their bikes cutting people off & blocking the road. These guys didn't seem to experienced and noticed they would pass me fast then slow down, which meant they really had no idea how to pace & were over working themselves. I knew that if they were cheating on the bike, they would probably crap out on the run so I wasn't worried to much about them. They actually helped me out, as I got pretty motivated & found another level to push past them on the bike to finish out the last 20 miles very strong, while keeping my heart rate in the high 140' to mid 150's. I came off the bike right in front of the eventual 5th place guy, who had a 2 min faster run than me & later found out was a 9:20 Ironman AZ finisher & finished 20th in the World at the 70.3 World Championships last year ag 30-34, quite impressive. He finished 3 minutes ahead of me overall.
Bike Time: 2:30:50
T2:
Was devastating. Lost a minute finding my bike as I forgot to practice my transition from bike to run before the race. I literally was running up and down rows to realize I went down the wrong row and was doing limbo to get under to the next.
Run: 1:30:50
A big reason I ran so well in Florida was my nutrition & adding 4 total salt caps to my two bottles. For some reason, I had underestimated how hot it was going to be In Syracuse(cut my salt cap intake in half to 2 caps) during the bike/run. The early morning it was cloudy and low 60's, but it was very humid and hot (85 plus) in the last parts of the bike and run. Coming off the bike I didn't feel as good, which could have been related to the lower salt intake, but I took into account the monster hills we had to run up & possibly the hilly bike course wore down my legs. I was really trying to hold a 6:30 pace, but soon realized that this plan wouldn't happen. At about mile 2 there was a solid mile of extreme hill with most people walking up. I kept the legs moving & made sure on the downhill I pushed hard. The run course was a two looper & I can't really complain other than it being a pretty tough course. I managed a 1:30 and change at roughly 6:50 per mile.
Overall: 4:35
I finished with a 4:35 time good for 6th/112 age group and 48/1045 inlcuding the 20-30 pros in the race. Qualifying for the World Championships in Las Vegas. Very excited to build on this race, looking forward to my first ironman in New york & 70.3 las vegas.
The Las Vegas 70.3 World Championship event, which included 1,800 athletes from over 55 different countries & each state in the United States represented was one of most challenging courses on the Ironman Circuit. I attribute this to the: 
This was a horrible swim, which set the tone for the rest of my day. This was a non-wetsuit event since the water temperature was above 82 degrees. Non-wetsuit races are typically slower since you don't get the buoyancy & need to work a little harder to keep your body level. With a wetsuit you also have more time to focus on your technique/stroke, since your body is floating. Athletes tend to wear legal speed suits that are very thin for non-wetsuit events.
