Disclaimer – this is fairly lengthy. And goes into more than just the race. You have been warned…
Wow! What a
race! I must say, I am both excited by
the finish, but disappointed as well. I
had time goals that I did not make – but after reading below, you will
hopefully have a full understanding of why.
Also, I must say a big “Congrats” to my racing/training buddy, Kourey,
who raced his heart out and finished as well – beat me by 8 minutes in
fact! So – I have more work to do if I
am to beat him at Augusta. Also,
“Congrats” to my fellow Endurance Nation brethren who finished – Matt, William,
Stephanie, and Randy with Matt and William earning spots to the Vegas 70.3
World Championships! Awesome!!
Anyway – back to my story.
The raw stats are as follows:
Total Time = 7:28; Swim = 1:00; Bike = 3:23; Run = 2:57. Details of each leg, of course, are below. Before that, however, I must point out that
prior to the race, we were all hoping for a wetsuit legal race. Meaning temps 76.1 degrees and below. The temp was hovering so close to the cut off
all week we literally didn’t know what the reading would be until race
morning. So I packed the wetsuit just in
case. When we arrived, we learned the
temp was 76.8 degrees meaning no wetsuit.
And being a fairly weak swimmer, this was the 1st mental
challenge I had to overcome. Next was
the wind – my goodness! It was frickin’
WINDY!!! This caused the water to be
extra choppy (sure would have been nice to have that wetsuit). And made the bike portion quite challenging
and often, very scary! And the run was –
well – HOT! I looked up the temperature
after we were done and it appears Lawrence set a record for the day with a 94
degree high. No shade either. Needless to say, for a newbie to this
distance and a guy wanting to set a PR (Personal Record) at this race, there
were a lot of mental obstacles to overcome!
The training mantra of EN (you will hear a LOT about that below),
knowing everyone was dealing with the same things, and the recent addition of
mental fitness to my daily routines all helped to get through it. (Plug here:
check out http://www.mental-fitness-challenge.com/ for more information
on the mental fitness stuff!)
Nutrition wise, I woke at 1:30am and had approximately 3
scoops (495 calories) of protein shake with water and went back to bed. At 4am I had a cup of applesauce with a scoop
of protein powder, banana, and 1 piece of toast with peanut butter. I think this set me up fairly well for the
day.
The Swim (1:00)
Before the swim started, I downed 2 Gu’s. And Wow!
Tough swim. My goal for the swim
was 45 mins – but VERY choppy water and no wetsuit made for a slower than
desired result. I know of at least 8
professional athletes who did not finish the swim. And have heard up to 60 total who
didn’t. So, although the swim was slower
than I had hoped, I am glad I finished.
And honestly, I felt great during the swim. Some lessons from EN are that you should only
focus on your “box”, or what you can control.
I could not control the chop, other swimmers, or anything outside of
me. So I focused on my stroke form, my
sighting, my breathing, and pretty much counted my strokes the entire
time. This allowed me to NOT focus on
the chop, the occasional gulps of water, or the other athletes grabbing my
ankles at times. And with the
conditions, I actually felt calm and relaxed and somewhat enjoyed the
swim. Well – maybe not enjoyed – but at
least didn’t really mind it.
The swim was an out and back where we started in waves based
on age/gender. To start, we had to swim
maybe 30 yards to the 1st buoy and tread water until the horn went
off. I stayed in the back of my group as
I knew I would be slower than most. That
kept me from others for a while until the next group caught me where I ended up
swimming with them for the rest of the time.
We went out, turned in a counterclockwise direction, swam parallel to
the docks for a bit and then turned back towards to docks to finish. Total distance was 1.2 miles. When it was over, we ran up a slight hill
into T1 (transition 1) to get our bikes.
Because of no wetsuit, I swam with only my tri shorts, so I had to put
on my shirt, don the rest of my bike gear, and then headed out on my 56 mile
bike journey.
The Bike (3:23)
Nutrition wise, I think I overate a bit. I had planned on taking in 250 calories per
hour, but ended up taking in 300 per hour.
Because I use Gu for my calories, and each pack has 100 cals each, it
was just easier to remember to take one every 20 mins. But later in the run, my stomach seemed to
shut down making me think I over did the calories. I’ll have to figure that out for next
time. Also, I took in 1 sodium pill (Salt
Stick) every 30 mins which seemed to work well.
The problem, however, is that I only packed enough for the bike – so I
had NONE for the run! That came back to
hurt later in the day. I used empty Mentos containers to hold my salt pills and
some ibuprophen which I also took while on the bike at the halfway point. My back and hands were starting to bother me,
so the ib was helpful.
My goal for the bike was 3:00 based on my training and the
course elevation that was online.
However, that elevation said there would be appx. 1100 feet of climbing,
but in reality, my GPS says I did appx. 2600 feet of climbing. This, considering most training rides I do are
between 2000-2500 feet, would not have been a big deal. But the winds!! Oh my!!
Weather reports said the sustained winds for the day were between
16-20mph with gusts over 30mph. That made for some sssslllloooowwww and often
scary sections. But again, the EN
training got me through this tough spot.
What could I control? My HR (my
effort), my nutrition on the bike, my attitude, climbing hills smart, and sticking
with my plan. What could I NOT
control? The wind and how slow it would
make me, the hills themselves and racers pushing up them too hard, other racers
crashing, the heat. Based on the
conditions and the fact that I was able to stick with my plan, I feel good
about the bike portion of the race.
Still have improvements to make in my overall power output (speed), but
race execution wise, I am happy.
The bike started out simply enough – nice big hill at the
beginning and some rollers getting out of the park. Once out, the road somewhat leveled off, but
the wind was a bear! It was either
pushing directly against us or blowing at us sideways. And yes, at times (especially on the return
back to the park) it was pushing us. The
hardest for me mentally was during a stretch at miles 35 – 40. Nice rolling hills and a constant wind
blowing at our faces. My speed was a low
of around 5 mph and got up to as high as 30 on the downhills. But man!
That stretch was brutal. BUT –
when we turned around, the wind was at our backs for miles 40 – 43 (where we
turned onto another road where the wind was blowing at us sideways) and that
stretch was FUN! I was cruising 24 – 26 mph
for most of that. But then the fun
stopped and reality hit again as we turned and the wind was pushing us
sideways. The scariest part was the
downhills where we would hit 30 – 35 and a gust would just blow us over – or come
close to. Very difficult to keep the
bike upright and not wreck. I saw at
least 3 ambulances on course and numerous people sitting on the sides of the
road. Not fixing anything, just sitting
there. There were also a few who I saw
walking their bikes up one of the last hills at mile 50. That hill was tough – but if you had raced
properly it was manageable.
By racing properly, one of the things EN has taught me is to
NOT charge up hills and NOT push my heart rate up too high. Their manta is “there is no such thing as a
good bike with a poor run” and that kept going through my head. My goal was to keep my HR in the high Zone 2
based on my projected finish time so that meant trying to keep it in the high
150’s to low 160’s. I averaged 159 for
the entire ride and was very watchful of it during the hard stretches and the
hills to keep it low. As we re-entered
the park, most people seemed to slow way down – as in, I easily passed many. And the closer we got to the finish, the
slower people were going. And as we got
to the part where the runners were, some people almost seemed to stop! Come on, folks!! Giddy-up and go!! The race aint over yet!! Anyway, I managed to get around those folks, get into T2 and
rack my bike, put on my running shoes and hat and hit the road.
The Run (2:57)
Alright – the run is where I have mixed feelings about my
execution. I want to start by saying I
PR’d the run by 27 minutes from last year’s Augusta 70.3, so that is an
improvement. But… Let’s talk nutrition
first and get that out of the way. As
mentioned above, I ran out of salt pills, so I was a little freaked out which
got me out of my element. I allowed this
to affect my mind more than I had hoped which resulted in some poor decisions
during the run. I took water at every
aid station – and ice at most stations.
I used the ice to put inside my hat and to either hold in my hands or
dump down my pants. That was the
good. But because I had no sodium, I
ended up also trying IM Perform at one stop, Gu Chomps at another, and Coke at
another. This combined with over eating
on the bike ended up locking up my stomach and by the time I was at mile 6 or 7
I was pretty much done. In retrospect, I
should have again concentrated on what I could control and not what I couldn’t. At this point, I am not sure what I could
have done to get in the sodium, but I do know that what I did do didn’t
work. I’ll have to consider that a
little more before figuring that out.
But at this point, I think my best bet would have been to just stick
with the water and ice and not try and compensate.
Now, for the actual run. After swimming in the choppy water, surviving
the wind on the bike, we were treated with record highs for Lawrence, KS with a
high of 94 degrees. And maybe 10 feet of
the 13.1 mile run course was shaded.
Yeah – it was HOT!! Oddly enough,
our spring and summer in Birmingham has been fairly mild, so I have not had the
opportunity to train much in the heat.
And I think this affected me as well.
My 1st
mile was way too fast! I could not run
slow enough right off the bike and ended up running around a 10 minute mile –
BAD! Based on my vDot, I was targeting a
12min mile for the 1st 3, so doing a 10 to the 1st aid
station probably hurt me later on. But
after walking the aid station, I was able to slow down and averaged 12’s for
the next two. But when it was time to
crank up the speed and hit my target of 11:30 pace for miles 3-13, I simply
could not. I steadily got slower and
slower – and ended up walking more than I had hoped during the last half of the
run. The good is that I did run a whole
lot more than at Augusta last year. The
bad, I screwed up my nutrition and allowed it to affect my mind and allowed
that to slow me down. And the heat
messed with my mind as well. So again,
mixed feelings about this performance.
One of the things the EN folks talk about for race execution
is that when things get tough, you need to have your “1 thing” – your inspiration
or your ‘why’ to help get us through when the pain and desire to stop gets high. For pushing ourselves to the limits and putting
ourselves inside that dark and painful place.
Well, I am still trying to figure that out. I was asked over the weekend why I did
triathlons. At first, it was just to see
if I could and it seemed like a natural progression from spin classes to
cycling and then triathlon. Now I know I
can do it. So why keep doing it? Well, I do enjoy it – love accomplishing
something many can’t or won’t do. And my
“BHAG” (Big Hairy A** Goal) is to qualify for Kona. But at this point of my journey, that is a
long way off and easy to dismiss when things get tough. And some could say that is unlikely based on
current performance. But – that is the
goal. So I have to figure this stuff out
b/c I do plan on achieving it.
The next ‘reasons’ would be so that my kids could see me,
their dad, finish something I have started and endure through tough challenges. But just finishing these things is an
accomplishment and not really something that can get me through the toughest of
times. They just see the medal and don’t
really understand the difference in ‘just finishing’ and ‘pushing to the limits’.
Another, and probably the most likely, is because I want to
see just how far I can push myself. How deep
and how painful I can go and still endure and fight and finish. I know I have more inside that I just need to
find. I’ve come a long way since last
year – and most of that has been since training with Endurance Nation. And with more training, more knowledge, and
more discipline I will keep finding more and more of it until I get there. And knowing I will not grow until I pass the
next test, I have to keep going. (Not
sure if what I am typing here makes sense to anyone other than me – hopefully it
does).
I know that what I experienced at Kansas in no way will be
close to what I will feel at a full Ironman – and not even close to what I will
feel on the day I do qualify for Kona. I
have to learn how to go deeper, learn how to focus, how to stay sharp when
things don’t go as planned, how to execute all portions of the race including
nutrition and transitions.
The Finish
As I ran (yes, I ran the end) towards the finish, I was
quite happy to my lovely wife there to greet me and put the medal over my
head. She was able to volunteer because
one of her brothers and sis-n-laws took the boys to the lake so she could stay
long enough to see me at the end. That
was pretty cool to have her put the medal on me. And after flashing the EN gang sign for a
finisher’s pic, I headed to the beer tent and – well – drank some water and
just sat. Not sure how folks drink beer
that quickly after laying it all out like that, but I couldn’t. Granted, I would later that night – but right
after? Nah!
Anyway – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Overall I am pleased but know that I have
much more to improve on for Augusta. I did
learn a lot that will help me in the future which is also good. I guess that’s the good thing about doing
multiple races per year – there is more opportunity to learn and then execute.
For those who have stayed with this story to the end, well,
thanks. I hope it wasn’t too dull. It is helpful to write this out to get it out
of my head and onto something I can refer to later. And with that, I bid you a good night and
farewell until next time!
