Toughman Alabama

Wow!  Been a while since my last post from IM Wisconsin.  But while I have not posted much, I have been training hard and have actually lost a good bit of weight.  And did my 1st race of the season this past weekend - Toughman Alabama!  A half "iron" distance (70.3 miles) race in nearby Pell City.  Total time was 6:51, way off my PR from 2 years ago at Augusta.  Details from each leg below. 

Going into this race, I had not trained specifically for it nor did I do any kind of taper as would normally be done for a race this long.  I am in the middle of training for IM Chattanooga and this race was more or less a long training day.  Given that, I did not expect my times to be that great and I was a bit nervous going in.

The Friday before the race I worked a normal day but left a couple of hours early so I could drive to Pell City to pick up my race packet.  I also dropped off my bike in transitions so I would not have to mess with it Saturday morning.  Kourey let me borrow his Zipp 808's which was quite nice.  After dropping off the bike, I headed back home to relax with the fam.

For dinner, I went with the "all liquid" diet again like I have done in the past.  It consisted of 1 Naked Juice, 1 bottle of sports drink, 1/2 bottle of chocolate milk, and 1/2 bottle of POM juice.  The next morning my breakfast was a bowl of apple sauce with protein powder mixed in.  I did forget the banana but in the end, it didn't matter.

I woke up at 4am and had the breakfast mentioned above, got my gear and headed up to Pell City.  I got there a little after 5am and proceeded to get my nutrition bottles set up.  I had 1hr Infinit in a Speedfill up front and a 2hr bottle on my downtube.  I did not carry anything else on the bike - used the bottle drops to get my water.  I carried a Fuel Belt for the run that had two 1.5hr bottles of Infinit.

SWIM

The swim was a wave start and I was in a group that started out at 640am.  It was a straight out swim where we turned back at a sharp angle towards the transition area.  1.2 miles and I was pathetically slow at 1 hour 4 mins.  While it was very uneventful, it was the worst, slowest swim I have ever done.  I have not trained that hard for my swim this year, but honestly, I never really have.  I suppose I could have pushed a bit harder, but at the end, I felt pretty good physically.  I ran up to transitions and got ready for my bike.

T1

Nothing really special.  I wore my tri-shorts all day, so I didn't have to change anything.  I put on my heart rate monitor, shirt, helmet, glasses, shoes, and headed to the bike mount.  Nothing else to really report.

BIKE

I had not been on the bike course, so I was unsure of what to expect.  My legs were not feeling that great, so I didn't really push too hard the entire way.  I wanted so bad to be able to run the entire run course, I just didn't want to push it.  In hindsight, I probably could have gone harder b/c I felt pretty decent on the run.

Having Kourey's Zipps was awesome!   I've never ridden with wheels like that and it was fun!  The course, for me, was quite challenging. Lots of hills, some very steep.  While I have lost a ton of weight, I am still a "big guy", so hills are more challenging for me than the skinny folks.  But nonetheless, I thought it was a fun course and the volunteers were great!  My nutrition plan worked perfectly and I had no issues.

I dropped my chain 3 times on the bike and also stopped for a few mins to help someone who was changing a flat tube.  Not sure the total time I lost doing all this, but I would guess less than 10 mins.  My total time was 3:09, way off my PR from Augusta in 2012 of 2:51.  But considering the hills and extra stops, I am somewhat pleased.  I do feel I left some on the table by not going as hard as I could have.  Live and learn, I suppose.

T2

Again, nothing special - I just dropped off the bike, got my Fuel Belt and running shoes, and changed sunglasses.  Then headed out for the run.

RUN

The run, like the bike, was full of hills.  There were a few stretches of flat - but those were in the direct sunlight, so they were HOT!  At least many of the hills had stretches of shade.  I finished in (for me) a respectable 2:31 just a few mins off my PR.  And with tons more hills and heat than in that race.  I started the run going as slow as I could knowing I would need my legs at the end if I didn't want to walk.  That, combined with going easy on the bike helped me in running the whole way - well - except for at the aid stations where I did walk and a few of the hills.  I purposely chose to walk some of the steeper hills because I didn't think I should crush up them only to cause myself to walk the flats later. 

Again, not a lot to repot.  The aid stations were great, volunteers awesome, course challenging but fun.  My nutrition worked well so I think I have my plan for Chatty.

END

As I came down the finisher's shoot, the end was more of a relief than exciting.  I was just ready to be done - my heart was not really into this race.  I am glad I did it because it confirmed my nutrition plan is good and I did learn a couple of things.  I also gained some confidence on my run, but am a bit worried about the bike. 

After the race, I got my hat and medal and went to sit for a bit under some tents that had cold water spraying all over.  It felt good.  I then went to get my bike from transition, collected my gear, dumped them in the car, changed clothes and went to eat something.  I had post race pizza and a Coke.  I saw a few folks and said "HI", then headed home.

Overall, I am somewhat pleased with the race.  But there are a lot of opportunities to get faster/do better for Chattanooga.  I have 6 weeks left before that - but only 4 "real" training weeks because of the 2 week taper.  So I have to double down and hit it HARD if I want to improve any.

And, that, my friends is my race report.  Have a groovy day!!

Ironman Wisconsin

Wow!  It has certainly been a while since my last post!  Lots of work travel, life, a couple of bike crashes, blah blah blah.  Anyway - on to more important things...

I started this blog in 2011 with hopes of going from "couch" to becoming an "Ironman".  This race - IM Wisconsin -  is the culmination of that effort!  When I started this blog, I wasn't really starting from the couch - I had done a couple of sprint distance tri's and a couple of half marathons.  But the thought of doing an actual full Ironman was daunting and seemed to be out of reach.  One can only dream, right??  And sometimes, dreams do come true!

I signed up for IM Wisconsin the day registration opened last year with high hopes and expectations.  I was in the middle of training for what was to become a great Augusta 70.3 race and was feeling very good.  After Augusta, I took some time off, then started training pretty hard in the outseason.  Then in January, things started to change - I had to give up my membership to Endurance Nation, work travel went up, and my desire to train went down, and I gained some weight.

I won't bore you with all the details, but let's just say that this year was less than optimal as far as nutrition and training were concerned.  I never really lost the weight I had gained and my training was way off.  Granted, I did train hard for this race and put in a lot of time.  But not nearly the time I had hoped or expected - and certainly not enough to have raced a competitive race.  Going in, my goal was to just finish within the time limit.  When I signed up, my "BHAG" goal was sub-12 hours.

THE DRIVE UP:

Going into the weekend, I had become super excited and quite nervous!  I was traveling alone, but found a lot of support and encouragement from other competitors I had met on Facebook and even got to meet some of them.  That really helped a lot - and the support from friends and family back home was incredible!!

I started the drive up to Madison on the Thursday before the race.  I left Alabaster at around 7:30am and got to Madison around 9pm.  I got caught in Birmingham rush hour which delayed actually getting out of town.  I then cruised up I-65 and made my first stop in Clarksville, TN, just past Nashville.  I gassed up, got some Chick-fil-a and got back on the road.

Shortly after Clarksville, I hit heavy road construction in Paducah, KY.  I probably lost at least 45 mins stitting in traffic there.  Once past that, I headed into Illinois, which, honestly - sucked!!  The max speed in IL is only 65 and about every 10-20 miles, the speed drops to 55 or 45 because of construction.  This continued for almost the entire way up Illinois.  When I reached Champagne, I stopped again for gas and dinner at Subway - and then got the hell out of IL!!

 The only cool thing about Illinois was there were a ton of huge windmills on the sides of the road.  I've never seen so many and that was pretty neat.


It was dark by the time I got to Wisconsin and I was getting tired of driving - so I just kept plugging away until I got to the hotel. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Middleton, WI, about 9 miles from downtown where all the festivities were.  Once I got to the hotel, I unloaded my stuff, watched some football, and went to bed.

FRIDAY:

I got up at around 630am Friday morning and went and did a quick easy 25min run on the hotel treadmill.  I then had an omelet and toast for breakfast and headed to Monona Terrace for athlete check in.  Check in opened at 9am and I got there at around 9:10am.  I would have been sooner but I typed the wrong address into my GPS and went to the wrong side of the lake (I am very directionally challenged!).  I then had a hard time finding parking.


Once inside the hotel, finding registration was easy, although took a while.  I wasn't very late, but the lines were somewhat long by then.  It took a little less than an hour to get through the lines.  The volunteers were very friendly and very helpful!

Our "goody bag" consisted of a back pack, license plate frame, a poster, a luggage tag, and a bunch of other miscellaneous junk.  We also got our 5 race bags (morning clothes, bike, run, bike special needs, run special needs).







 






After registration, I headed to the Endurance Nation Four Keys Talk to meet some folks and to hear the coaches give instruction on race execution and other key topics.  There were appx. 300 people there and the information was fantastic!!  After the talk, I collected a few "BOOM!!!" tattos that I wore on race day.



After the talk, I went to Subway for lunch, went back to the expo and took a bunch of pictures while waiting until the 2pm athlete briefing.  Saw some people I knew, shopped a little, and then went to the briefing.  Basically I tried to soak up everything I could while I was there.

 

After that, I went back to the car and returned to my hotel.  I unloaded my bags, took it easy for a bit and made a grocery list.  After chilling for a bit, I headed to REI for arm warmers (for the run because the weather forecast was for chilly weather at night on race day) and then the grocery store for my liquid dinner on Saturday.  I also grabbed some Diet Coke and water, then headed back to the hotel to load the fridge.


After the fridge was loaded, I then headed back downtown to try and meet some of the Facebook people, but could not find a parking spot.  All lots were either full or would not take dollar bills (I had no coins), and the street spots were all full.  After about 20 mins of driving around, I eventually gave up and went back to the hotel where I ordered room service and watched TV.  That might have been the best option anyway because I had been on my feet all day anyway and I could feel it in my legs.  Saturday was to be a very light day of activity.

SATURDAY:

On Saturday, I tried sleeping late, but woke up at 4am and had a hard time getting back to sleep.  Then again at 6am - finally up at 730am.  Got dressed and headed down for breakfast which consisted of a 3 egg omelet, a waffle and syrup.  Oh - and coffee - lots of coffee.  After breakfast, I packed the bike and bike and run bags and took everything to the car for bike check in.  I was on the road by 9:15am and in line for bike check in about 10 mins early.

Bike check in was quick and easy - they even took a picture of my bike before I rolled it into transition.  While waiting in line, I met a couple from Kansas who had raced KS 70.3 in 2012 when I did - that was when the wind was crazy and the lake was choppy!  We swapped stories about that race which helped pass the time while in line.

After racking my bike, I took my bags to their rooms, took more pictures, then went back to the car.  I didn't want to stay too long and get all jazzed up with the energy - I needed to get calm to keep myself from freaking out!

Once at the hotel, I chilled until lunchtime.  At Augusta last year, I found that the Club on a Sub at Firehouse Subs was the perfect "last meal" before the race - after this last meal, I would be on liquid nutrition until after the race.  So I aimed to duplicate that experience.  I found a Firehouse nearby and went to have my large Club on a Sub, baked lays, and Diet Coke.  And then headed back to the hotel for some R&R.

I basically did nothing the rest of the day.  Watched college football, kept up with Facebook, and watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix.  Since the Club on a Sub was my last solid food, my afternoon and evening food selections were all liquid.  As I watched Georgia dismantle South Carolina, I sipped on a sports drink.  I then had 1 bottle of Naked Juice protein drink, some chocolate milk, and some pomegranate juice.  I also had 1 beer from the hotel bar, packed my special needs bags and morning clothes bag and was in bed by 9pm.  Again, following the same routine from Augusta last year which worked so well.

RACE MORNING:

I set the alarm for 1am and 330am because I wanted to eat twice during the night.  At 1am, I had another Naked Juice protein drink and prompty went back to sleep.  And I actually had no trouble getting back to sleep!  At 330, I shot up and had 1 cup of applesauce with protein powder mixed in and 1 banana.  Ok - I guess technically the banana is solid, but it worked out well.

My nutrition plan for the race was two separate formulas of Infinit Nutrition.  I packed two 3hr bottles for the bike and four 1.5hr flasks for the run.  Both formulas are custom made from Infinit - the bike has 300 calories/hr, more complex carbohydrates, electrolytes, a little protein and no caffeine.  The run formula has 245 cals/hr, less complex carbs, electrolytes, no protein, and with caffeine. 

The athlete guide said there would be parking a couple of miles away from Monona Terrace at a $6 fee with shuttle buses.  I was not interested in that, so I wanted to make sure I got there in time to get a downtown parking spot.  I left as soon as I got dressed and grabbed the bags and headed to Monona Terrace.  I easily found a good spot in a parking garage, carried my special needs bags to the designated drop site and went to check on my bike.

I got there before transition opened, so I went and made sure I could find my bike and run bags then waited for transition to open.  Once opened, I got in line for body marking, then went to check on the bike.  I also put my nutrition bottles on and made sure I had air in my tires.  Thanks to my bike neighbor for letting me borrow your pump!!  I then went back inside, found a spot to chill and just sat for a while.

At some point, I had a Gu gel with some water while I was waiting.  At around 620am, I collected my morning clothes bag and headed down to the lake.  Once there, I made a pit stop at the porta-potty for my last deposit of the day, donned my wetsuit, and got into the water at around 6:45am.

I swam around a little bit to get warmed up, but mostly just floated while waiting.  I positioned myself near the front to the right of the ski ramp.  The cannon for the pro's went off at 6:50 and then our cannon went off at 7am.  It was on!!








Ok - race details.  All were obviously PR's since this was my first full Ironman.


Overall time:  16:27:45
Swim:  1:50:55
Bike:  7:37:12
Run:  6:36:55

THE SWIM:

When the cannon went off, I calmly started swimming and started counting strokes.  I knew it was going to be a long swim, so no sense in getting all frisky to start with.  Because of the winds (15-20mph from accounts I heard), the lake was fairly choppy which made the swim interesting.  Because of the experience I had at Kansas in 2012 (mentioned earlier), I knew what to expect and didn't freak out.  The main problem I had was that I couldn't see the buoy's very well.  Because I started so far to the right of them, it took me a while to get close to them - and once I did, I actually ran into one of them at one point.  A couple of time, I had to stop swimming so I could find the buoy - I wish they were taller or something.  Anyway, I kept plugging away until I finished.  Pretty uneventful swim.  I am fairly slow, but seem to be able to swim as long as I want without getting tired.  I had expected to finish between 1:40 and 2:00 - so I met my expectations exactly!

At this race, after getting out of the water, you have to run up a parking garage helix - referred to as simply "the helix" at the race.  I may have typed "run", but I actually walked up it after having someone help strip the wetsuit off.  Think of the circular ramps on some parking garages - yeah - that thing!  We went up that to the 4th floor where transition was.





T1:

I got to the swim-bike room, grabbed my bag and went to the changing room.  I took off my tri-shorts that I had worn under my wetsuit, put on bike shorts and my tri top - lubed up my "area", put on my socks/shoes, helmet, gloves, etc. and ran out to get my bike.  The volunteers were incredibily helpful during this entire process - from handing me my bag, helping me change and organize my stuff, putting my wetsuit back in my bike bag for me, to grabbing my bike from the rack.  Awesome!!

After getting my bike, I ran it to the mount line, mounted, and rode down the other helix to start my 112 mile bike ride.  Up to this point, I must confess, I had never ridden more than 86 miles or longer than 5.5 hours.  But I felt confident in being able to complete the ride. 

THE BIKE:

The Madison bike course is considered to be one of the tougher bike courses in the US Ironman circuit.  The course is hilly with a couple of challenging ones, and there are few opportunities to relax and just ride.  There are always things to do - change gears, turn, uphill, downhill, on and on.  That, plus the wind, made for a long day on the bike.  It is also considered a "lollipop" course because it goes out for 16 miles (the stick), has two 40 miles loops (the lollipop), and back 16 miles (the stick again).

I had predicted a bike split of 7:15 - 7:30 which wasn't very far off.  One of the major take aways from my time with EN was to not leave everything out on the bike.  So regardless of the conditions (hills, wind, etc), I tried to maintain a steady pedal stroke.  I don't have a power meter, but I tried keeping my HR and effort low.  I knew if I pushed for 112 miles, I would be dead on the run.

Given all that, I absolutely loved the bike course.  I used the stick part of the course to just settle in and get comfortable - enjoying the sights.  Once I hit the loops, I knew the hills would be coming up.  At around mile 20, I got a flat on my front tube.  No idea what happened - I don't recall hitting anything.  I pulled over, changed the tube in about 10 mins (I am slow, yes), and got back on my way.  I knew there was nothing I could do about that, so I tried not to let it bother me - I still had a lot of miles to cover and didn't want that messing with my head.

I eventually settled in to the ride and loved the presence on the course from the fans and volunteers!  Everyone was cheering and yelling encouraging things!  Loved the signs!  I felt really special - especially going up some of the tougher hills.  It felt like I was riding in the Tour de France with the crowds lining the streets, the costumes, cheering, running beside us!  It was awesome and really helped get up the hills!

Halfway through - right after starting the 2nd loop, I hit special needs and re-lubed my "area", got a new tube for my tires in case I got another flat, swapped nutrition bottles, and went on my way.  It felt good to stop for a little bit and stretch.

The 2nd loop was uneventful and because I was so slow, many of the fans had left - most likely to head back downtown to watch the run.  I felt very appreciative of the ones who did stick around and to the volunteers.

Upon completing the 2nd loop, I hitched a ride on the stick back to downtown.  On the 1st half of this section, I really felt the impact of the wind.  There were some fairly straight stretches on what seemed like flat roads, but the wind really seemed to push back.  I just plugged away until we changed directions and I seemed to find some speed again.  When I saw we were close, I started getting excited as I was very ready to be off that bike!  When we got back to Monona Terrace, we had to bike back up the helix to transition where we gave our bikes to someone to rack for us.

T2:

I ran into the bike-run room, grabbed my run bag and headed into the changing room.  I took off my bike shorts, shoes, sox, helmet, and glasses and a kindly volunteer helped me change.  I put on new shorts, new socks and my running shoes.  I also put on my race number and my Fuel belt which had 2 bottles of nutrition for the run.  Oh - and my running visor.  And I headed out on my way out of transition.  The run was two 13.1 mile loops.

THE RUN:

At this point, I have no recollection of the first couple of miles other than my right side felt like it was cramping.  I have no idea how I got out of transition and onto the road, which direction I went in or anything like that.  I just have a few flashes of images of being downtown for those 1st couple of miles.

I do remember making the decision that I would not be able to run the entire course.  With the lack of training, that was just not in the cards.  Because of that, I decided that if I ran "close" to half of every mile, I would make the time cut off with time to spare should something unexpected come up later.  Because "half of every mile" is hard to track, (my GPS watch battery was not going to last much longer than the bike portion, so I turned it off so I could have my watch for the run), I decided the easiest thing to keep up with would be to run for 5 minutes after every aid station.  There were aid stations at approximately every mile - and running for 5 minutes at approximately every mile would get me to the finish in time.  So that's what I did.  And when I walked, I walked as fast as I could - constantly calculating my pace in my head based on time and the mile markers.

Just as with the bike, the volunteers and fans during the run were absolutely amazing!!  At certain points, especially along State street, we just felt like rock stars!!  Just incredible - and it helped feeding off of their energy!!

One cool thing was that we got to run (or walk) on the University of Wisconsin football field - once for each loop.  That was neat getting to run on that carpeted field.

At the halfway point, near the capital, was the run special needs area.  I stopped and swapped nutrition bottles.  I carried 2 and had 2 more in my special needs bag.  I elected not to wear the arm warmers I had previously purchased because it wasn't that cool to me.  I also didn't change socks, which would come back to haunt me later.

After leaving special needs, I continued my "run 5 mins for each aid station" routine until about mile 16 or 18 - somewhere in there.  At around that time, I had done the calculations and knew that I was safe with finishing in time if I just continued to walk and stop running.  At that point of my day, my "run" wasn't much faster than my fast walk anyway, so I decided to stop running and just power walk the rest of the way.  Unless I slowed to a crawl, or just collapsed, I knew I would finish.  And with no time goals in mind, that was all I was intent on doing anyway.

Now, back to the socks.  One of the other reasons why I chose to stop running was because I was developing a blister on the bottom of my right foot.  I could tell my socks were wet and were rubbing on my foot - step after step, mile after mile - until the blister formed.  The walking didn't help much, but it was better than the running, I think.  By the time I did finish, the blister hurt like hell and was about the size of a silver dollar.  Shoulda' changed those socks to dry ones, I guess!

During the walking portions of the race, I met quite a few people who were in similar shape as me - I don't remember any of their names, but I enjoyed the company and the exchanges of encouragement.  Some areas of the run course are dark and desolate - and it was nice to have some company along those stretches.  As people came and went, the miles just kept piling up and I was getting closer to the finish.  I remember hitting the 23 mile mark and the lady I was walking with and I talked about how all we had left was a 5k - something that would have been considered a quick, easy run session during our training.  Just an easy 5k.  But this was one tough as hell 5k - especially with the blister and the slowing of our pace. 

THE FINISH:

Coming to the last mile, I realized I was indeed going to become an Ironman.  Barring some catastrophic event, it was going to actually happen and I started to get excited!  I wanted to run the chute towards the finish line, so as soon as I got to near the capital, I started my slow jog.  Coming down the chute was one of the most amazing and thrilling things of my life!  Being in the middle with the blue "Ironman" logos on the signs on each side - all of the fans screaming - and Mike Reilly in the middle of the lane near the finish waiting for me.  As I approached I heard the words I had waited over a hear to hear...  "Greg Babb.  You.  Are.  An Ironman!!"  As he and all of the spectators screamed it!!  Wow!!  Simply amazing - something I will never forget!!  Oh - and I then had about 10-20 more feet to run to get to the actual finish. 

I was so dazed at that point, I nearly forgot to raise my hands in celebration as I crossed.  I immediately was "caught" by 2 very kind volunteers who grabbed me, got me my medal, have me some chocolate milk, and walked me to the finisher picture area.

I continued to be out of it at this point and just went with the flow - and by looking at my finisher picture, that is evident. I think I was blinking, but you can still see the exhaustion in my face. 

AFTER THE RACE:

After the picture, I went to the food tent to sit - tried to have some pizza but nearly threw up.  Tried a Diet Coke because I had been craving one for hours, but that too almost made me throw up.  So I settled on water and just sat for a little while and listened to the other finishers behind me come through.  How exciting!!

I eventually got composed and made my way back to the transition area to collect my bags and bike.  I found my morning clothes bag and changed back into the clothes I had been wearing way back since before I put on my wetsuit.  I also texted Crystal to let her know I had finished and then went to get my bike.  I grabbed it, all of my bags, and hauled it back to the car.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was getting hungry, but because it was near midnight, nothing was open.  So I grabbed some food from the hotel pantry, heated it up in the microwave in the room and had a bit to eat.  After a refreshing shower, I collapsed in the bed and tried to sleep.

And that, my friends, was my Ironman Wisconsin experience!!  I again want to thank my family, friends, the race staff, volunteers, fans and spectators!!  This was truely a life changing experience!!

WHAT'S NEXT?:

My next adventure??  I can, without a shadow of doubt, will NEVER do another race or event this far out of shape.  This event has firmly planted in my mind that I will drop the weight and get in shape.  So after a week of "doing whatever the hell I want", I will begin the process of dropping the weight and getting healthier.  My goals for 2014:

- Mercedes Full Marathon in February - sub 5 hours is my goal.  I will mainly be doing marathon training over the winter with some very select, specialized bike riding just to maintain some bike fitness.  I know this is contrary to the EN philosophy of not doing a marathon, but it is just something I want to do - run a "real" marathon.

- A 70.3 race sometime in the late spring/early summer.  Perhaps Nola, Raleigh, or Kansas again.  I would like to do sub-6 hours again like I did at Augusta.

- Ironman Chattanooga. Yes, I will again go with a BHAG goal of sub 12 hours with more "realistic" goal of sub 13 hours.  After the weight loss and improving my running, plus the swim being in a river will set me up well to do much much better at Chattanooga!

Until next time...

AUGUSTA RACE REPORT

Geepers!  Can’t believe it’s been so long since I have posted anything.  BUT – now that Augusta is over, I want to give an accounting for what I felt was an outstanding race for me.  I felt great going in, had ‘stretch’ time goals that I met, and had a great time doing it. 

The raw data: 

Total Time: 5:58:02 (1:19:48 PR from same race last year)

Swim: 32:13 (1 min PR from same race last year)

Bike: 2:51:07 (17 min PR from same race last year)

Run: 2:25:35 (32 min PR from Kansas 70.3 this year)

Unlike Kansas, the conditions for the day were PERFECT!  Overcast, cool, and slightly misting near the end of the run.  And obviously, the current of the river helped a lot as well!  And these conditions, no doubt, had a hand in me being able to set these PR’s.  But in addition to that, the training and execution guidance of Endurance Nation along with fairly significant body composition improvements also contributed HUGELY to these time improvements.  I can’t say enough about EN and the coaching, guidance, and pure knowledge of everything from how to plan race nutrition, what works best to prevent nipple chaffing during the run, what to carry on the bike, encouragement and support from other members, and on and on and on.  Nothing quite like it!

So here goes… the day before the race, I had pancakes, syrup and some egg whites for breakfast.  I then picked up my training/racing buddy, Kourey to head out on our 5 hour car ride to Augusta from Birmingham.  Along the way, we stopped for a snack of gummy bear goodness to hold us over along the way.  

Once in Augusta, we went to the Athlete check in and picked up our race packets.  We then headed to bike transition to drop off our bikes before going to get some lunch which consisted of a 12” sub from Firehouse Subs (yum-o-la!).  After that, we had to go back to Athlete Check in because we both needed new race belts (his was broken, mine was still in Birmingham) – and hey, what better place to buy some gear than at the Ironman Expo!  We then went back to the grocery store for our evening meal and morning breakfast supplies before going on to the hotel.

Dinner consisted mainly of Naked Juice, chocolate milk and sports drink – nothing solid.  This was key to an “uneventful” morning and worked perfectly for both of us!  We also treated ourselves to 1 beer from the hotel bar to help calm us so that we could sleep.

On race day, we woke at 4:30am and I promptly had 1.5 cups applesauce with 2 scoops of protein powder plus 1 banana.  This was purposely less than Kansas, and worked well.  We left the hotel at 5am and drove towards the host hotel to grab a shuttle bus to transition. 

Once in transition, I set up my area, pumped up my tires, checked everything over, and we grabbed another bus to the swim start.  Because we were so rushed at Kansas, we planned on being extra early, so when we got to the swim start, we still had 1-1.5 hours to kill before starting.  So once there, we just chilled until ‘go time’.

THE SWIM:

I was in the 7:56am wave with the other old guys, but I got to wear a pink swim cap!  One thing to note, here, is that in prior races, I have found that I often get a little freaked out and panicky at the start of the swim.  Feel free to read some older posts about that – but suffice it to say that I have found a Xanax or 3 works wonders for this situation.  Sadly, I failed to pack any Xanax, so ….

At the start of the swim, I hung near the back as I always do because I am a slow swimmer and didn’t want to get in the way.  Once I started, I immediately had issues catching my breath.  I also found that my wetsuit felt like it was choking me.  This led to the 1^st of two full on panic attacks.  For both, I just stopped swimming, floated in my wetsuit, tried to stay out of the way (I was already in the back, so not very hard), and relaxed to catch my breath.  This seemed like an eternity to me on both occasions, but given that my swim time wasn’t too bad, it must not have been that long.  At one point during the 2^nd attack, I honestly thought my entire race was over as I began to look for a canoe to go hang on to.  I then said “F#$@ THAT!!”, forced my face into the water and just started swimming.  After a few minutes, I began to relax, remembered that I was supposed to count my strokes (thanks again EN) and just cruised along in my slow, but steady pace.

T1:

I came out of the water, jogged up the ramp, down the road, along the side of transition to the wetsuit strippers, plopped on the ground, and let the stripper do her magic!  Once freed of the wetsuit, I jogged to my bike, tried to get the grass off my feet, put on my shoes, donned my helmet and race belt (that fancy expensive one from the Expo) and headed out on the bike.  The only thing to note is that at this point of the race that I noticed my watch was not tracking correctly.  It had an error message displayed and I had no idea if any of the swim got captured.  It also would not let me do anything until I turned it off and back on which I did before starting it back for the bike portion.  I wasted time messing with this and am annoyed I let that happen.  

THE BIKE:

After getting my watch to work, I got settled in on the bike and felt GREAT!  I was wearing the EN Arm Coolers which actually made me a bit chilly the entire ride because it was overcast and fairly cool (70s, I think).  But after maybe 30 minutes, I noticed my watch had stopped – the timer had just stopped.  I restarted it, but am guessing as to how long it was down.  This happened again later in the ride, so my sense of time on the bike was completely off – I had no idea how I was doing in terms of time or pace and had to use the mile markers to determine my feeding schedule rather than time.

Speaking of feeding, I went into this race with an entirely different nutrition plan than in the past.  Prior to this, I used Gu and supplemented with salt sticks for sodium.  This time, however, I used 2 different formulas of Infinit – one for the bike, the other for the run.  The bike formula consisted of 300 cals, 412g sodium, 71g carbs, 3.42g protein, no caffeine per hour.  I switched to this Bike formula for all of my training rides that were longer than 2 hours after I got back from Kansas earlier this summer.  This worked perfectly for me in training and on race day!  No cramping, no hunger, no bonking, plenty of energy!  I will stick with this and only adjust as I lose more weight. 

I started the day with 1 hours’ worth of formula in my aero bottle and  a “2 hour bottle” on my down tube that I used to refill my aero bottle every hour.  I refilled the aero bottle prior to each aid station and used water from the station to top it off.  Again, this worked perfectly and I will continue this approach going forward.

Back to the ride – all I can say is: FAST!  There were definitely some very fast sections to this bike course.  Granted, there were some hills as well, but lots of flats and plenty of downhills!  That made for a very fun and exciting ride!  One thing that was concerning to me, however, was the lack of control people had with their bikes.  I saw a TON of people weaving all over the place and darting in and out of other riders.  Needless to say, it is a bit scary to have someone weave in front of you while you are approaching them at 35 mph going downhill.  I also noticed a lot of people coasting down the hills!?!  But since many of them crushed it going up the hill, I guess they were resting.  Anyway, I made up a lot of time on the downhills.

Because I don’t have a power meter, I use heart rate and RPE to determine my effort.  My “zone 3” pace is 151 – 158 bpm which I easily maintained for the duration of the ride.  Unlike last year where I hammered along for much of the ride, I maintained a steady, consistent effort regardless of hills, flats, or traffic.  This, I am certain, made a HUGE difference in how I felt on the run (thanks again, EN).

I was still feeling great as I got closer to the end.  I consciously pedaled a higher cadence in the last 10-15 miles just to help with the transition to the run.  Don’t know if that helped any, but I felt good, so I’ll keep doing it.  I came in “hot”, braked hard, and jumped off the bike.  

T2:

I ran to mount my bike, put on socks and shoes and had to replace my race number.  My number got torn and I knew it would not last for the entire run.  So I had to search my transition bag for my other race number to use.  At this point, I decided not to wear my newly purchased race belt for the run and use my Fuel Belt to hold my new number instead.  I had to use the Fuel Belt anyway because I was carrying my Run formula of Infinit nutrition.  This formula consisted of 245 cals, 406g sodium, 61g carbs, no protein, and added caffeine per hour.  Like the bike formula, I used this extensively for most workouts that were less than 2 hours and it worked perfectly!

THE RUN:

I had two “1.5 hour” bottles in my fuel belt that I knew would last long enough to get through the run, even if I blew up and it took 3 hours.  But I was feeling good and knew I wouldn’t take that long.

I started out and immediately noticed that my watch had lost GPS and was not tracking my pace.  UGH!  I fiddled with that for the 1^st mile or so and gave up.  I just used the mile markers and hit my “split” button at each marker to note my pace for each mile.  My goal was to hit an 11:00 per mile pace for the 1^st three miles then speed up to 10:30 per mile the rest of the way.  But based on my manual tracking, I was all over the place – as fast as 10:00 min miles to as slow as 11:55 min miles.  This seemed to coincide with how long I spent at each aid station (go figure).  Lesson learned – don’t spend so much time at the aid stations!  The clock doesn’t stop!!

In addition to manually calculating my pace per mile, I also watched my heart rate and it hovered around 164-166 the entire run.  This is a little higher than I would have liked, but my paces were a little slower than I wanted, so I just kept going.  I was so worried about not having enough left in the tank at the end that I wanted to do everything I could to keep a decent, steady pace going so that I wouldn’t have to walk.  And it worked!  This is the 1^st time I have EVER been able to run the entire 13.1 miles except for the walks at the aid stations.  Other than those, I ran every mile! 

The run was fairly uneventful in terms of the actual run.  But the crowd support was amazing!  It was like a huge party in downtown Augusta and I really got a boost every time we looped back towards part of the crowd.  Truly fantastic!

THE END:

As I neared the finish, I was able to make out the time at the finish line which I knew started 26 minutes before my swim wave started.  I crossed as the time was around 6:24 – so I knew I had finished in less than 6 hours.  Prior to the race, I had set my BHAG goal (Big Harry Audacious Goal) as sub 6 hours.  That, I felt, could be accomplished if everything went perfectly and I pulled off a 30 min swim, 3 hour bike, and 2.5hr run and fit in transitions somewhere.  My realistic goal was sub 6.5 hours.  So… I am ecstatic to have finished in 5:58.  Without the training support of Kourey, the materials inside Endurance Nation, and a supportive wife and kids, I could never have pulled this off!  But a year after doing this race and “just finishing” as a BOP-er (back of pack-er), it is damn nice to finish as a MOP-er (middle of the pack-er).  Next year…. FOP-er baby!!

And now – the season is officially over.  I am doing NOTHING for a week, and then will start to add in some alternate exercising for a while.  Perhaps take a BodyPump class.  Maybe yoga or tennis.  I’ll surely take my son mountain biking.  But I’ll lay off the swim/bike/run for a while. At least until November!  :)

Kansas Race Report

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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 3, so doing a 10 to the 1^st 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!