Ironman Lake Placid Race Report

Training for Ironman

Completing an Ironman triathlon takes time, commitment, and discipline. For most people, it is not a race that can be done without a tremendous amount of preparation. Sure there is all the swimming, biking, and running. That part is probably pretty obvious to anyone. However there is more to it than that. At least in my experience.

Long rides and runs need to be planned and coordinated. All your chores need to be scheduled around workouts. Laundry is a constant for everyone but when you are training every day, sometimes twice, there is extra "special" laundry; technical gear that requires special detergent to cut down on bacteria and the stink that comes with it. There are extra trips to the stores to buy "nutrition" which is what we call the food/liquids that are ingested while training and racing. There is gear to be bought, shoes to wear out requiring additional trips to see your favorite shoe guy. I like Tom at 3Sports in Short Pump. 

Beyond the gear, there is gear maintenance which, if not paid attention to, can cost you dearly down the road. While I never had much of a social life outside of my immediate family, some people actually like to go out and do stuff. Training for an Ironman can put a damper on weekend jaunts with friends or staying up late to do, well-just about anything. Throw in monthly massages with your favorite massage therapist (I go to Sara at Hands On Wellness MT), downloading and uploading data, routes, cue sheets. Driving to meet up with teammates to run, bike, and swim. Keeping motivated by reading online blogs, books, and journals, etc. When training for Ironman, training 9 to 15 hours a week is really only part of the picture.

Uh OH. Problem!

I wanted to mention all of the above to frame my recent experience training and racing Ironman Lake Placid. Imagine 6 plus months of all the things I mentioned above. I was doing it all, following my training plan diligently. Then a few weeks before the race, I started having problems. First, my foot started bothering me. I had recently bought new shoes off the internet and shortly thereafter started getting pain in the bottom of my foot. I sort of thought I was being punished for not going to see my regular shoe guy. So I immediately went to see him and got new shoes. He did not think my shoes were necessarily the problem but obliged me and we found a different model that seemed to work for me. 

Luckily, I have a teammate who is a not only a super accomplished Ironman but she is also a super awesome physical therapist. Let's face it, she is just super awesome period. She gave me some tips on how to deal with my foot problem which included stretching and rolling my foot over a frozen water bottle. Being the diligent patient that I am, I followed her advice and got the issue under control enough to finish out my long runs. But that was not the end of my issues. 

Training in Richmond during the summer is always hot and humid. We had some particularly humid weather on the last big weekend of training before the race. We had a hot ride on Saturday and I felt like I did not have enough hydration. I did my best to rehydrate after the 65 mile hot ride so I would be prepared for my run the next morning. On Sunday, I met up with four of my favorite training partners and we did our long run. After our 2.5 hour soupy run, I went straight to the pool. My swim went well and was uneventful. After my 3000 yards in the pool, I jumped out of the pool onto the deck. As soon as I kicked off the bottom off the pool, my right calf seized up. I was writhing in pain on the pool deck, grunting and moaning as if someone had broken my leg. The pain was agonizing. No one seemed to notice though. The elderly people at the JCC just kept swimming their 50 stroke laps. As I rolled around trying to think of something to alleviate the pain, I managed to glance up at the lifeguard. She had no expression on her face and just looked at me like one might look at a Van Gogh painting. Finally, I jammed my foot into the wall and managed to stretch it out enough that the cramp started to subside. When I stopped moaning and rolling around on the deck, I looked over at the life guard again. Same expression. She was just sitting there looking at me. I made my way over to my stuff and started drying off and getting dressed. Just as I was leaving, the lifeguard was relieved by another young person. She came over and said to me, "do you get cramps often?" She then went on to lecture me about hydration, magnesium supplements, and yoga. Gee. Thanks.

After that episode, my calf was stiffer than a Charlie Sheen cocktail. Walking was uncomfortable and running was off the list of approved activities. I spent the next couple of days skipping workouts and not really doing much. That Thursday, I did go to the Thursday team cycling workout. My calf hurt but after cycling a bit, it did loosen up a little. I thought there might be hope for me yet.

Because of my foot and calf problem, that last long run the previous weekend ended up being my final run before heading to Lake Placid. My plan was to skip running until the race day. I had run enough and running is one of my strengths, running off the bike even more so.

Friday before leaving for Lake Placid, I took our bikes to RBS to have my fit adjusted and to get Melissa's bike tweaked a bit. She was not racing but wanted to ride with us some while we checked out the course. While at RBS, I decided to get new cleats. Mine had worn way down and Craig thought it was probably dangerous for me to race in them. So Julie installed new cleats on my shoes and I got back up on the trainer. Craig said everything looked good so I was on my way.

The following day, we did one last ride. About 1 hour into the 2 hour ride, I noticed my right knee started bothering me. I did not think much of it. After the ride, I got cleaned up and we packed up the car and headed North.

Our trip to Lake Placid had two parts. First we stopped in Philly to visit with Melissa's sister and family. They graciously put us up in their spacious and comfy house and fed us nicely. While hanging around the house, I noticed my knee was pretty bad and that walking up and down the stairs was painful. Hmmm. Not good right? After a few text messages with my favorite PT who I mentioned above, I put two and two together. My new cleats were causing me issues with my knee. I texted Craig from RBS who did my bike fit. He immediately called me and we talked about my issue. He told me to raise up my seat just a hair and then try to spin super easy on the bike. So I did that. I did not notice any additional pain but it was hard to tell if the pain was going to get worse or not with the new configuration. I spoke with my coach and she told me to take 600mg of Advil 3 times a day. And while this is 3 times the recommended dose, my training partners said that was what doctors recommend to patients with bad inflammation. Again, I am a good patient so I complied.

During our few days in Philly, my knee pain would go away sometimes but then sometimes it would return. I was not too happy about this turn of events. First my foot, then my calf, and now my knee. Not a good way to end a pretty successful run of training. Did I mention I was not happy? I decided I would just have to keep taking the Advil up until the race and hope for the best.

The second part of our drive to Lake Placid was uneventful which is always nice. We made good time and were the third party to arrive out the house we were sharing with teammates. The house was beautiful, large, and it had a hot tub. My plan was to use the healing properties of hot water to help with my knee issue. I did several sessions over the next couple of days trying to heal up.

The Race

On race morning, I woke up at 2:30. I had planned to get up at 3:30 but since I was up, I went ahead and started the pre-race rituals. I made my egg sandwich, drank my smoothie, ate some bananas, and jammed some tunes. I lubed up my whole body and the seams in my tri shorts. I cannot emphasize the importance of this last action. I was going to be swimming, biking, and running for 13 hours or so in the same shorts which would be wet from rain, sweat, and---well, let's say 'other' for now. Chafing was extremely likely and I wanted to minimize the burning as much as possible. I was glad for the extra time in the morning as I did not feel rushed and was able to relax pretty well. I was extremely psyched to be racing and was only slightly worried about my knee, calf, and foot issue.

We walked down with our special needs bags and dropped them off in their designated area. Then it was one more porta potty stop before making our way down to the lake to don our wetsuits and go for a warm up swim. Here is a picture of Meredith, Jon, and I before jumping into the water.

 

 Swim Warm-Ups

For this race, Ironman decided that they would try their new rolling start. So after our warm up, we got into our designated corrals. They wanted us to self seed ourselves so that we would be swimming with people who swam at the same pace. The theory behind this idea is that slow swimmers are less likely to be run over by faster swimmers and everyone can have a safer swim. I seeded myself in the 1:11 to 1:20 group. If I had a good race, I thought I could go 1:15. Here is a picture showing the start of the race. This was well before the gun went off so it was not quite as crowded as it would get a few minutes later.

There was the usual nervousness before the race as we stood in the corrals. I tried to stay relaxed and soak up the excitement all around me. Two of my teammates stood with me and we joked and tried not to get too anxious. After all, Ironman swims can be chaotic and downright dangerous. Besides trying to swim 2.4 miles in a straight line as fast as possible, you have to also be ready to defend yourself against the claws of swimmers behind you and from the kicking feet of people in front and beside you. The video below demonstrates the way some people feel during a mass start.



When the gun went off, we made our way gradually up to the swim start arch. As soon as we crossed the timing mat, I darted into the water. I ran a little diagonal into the water away from the buoy line. The buoy line has a white cable on the bottom of the lake. In a perfect world, we could all just swim on top of that cable. The lake is relatively clear and the cable is visible the whole time you are swimming. The cable acts as a sort of lane line to keep you swimming straight without having to lift your head up to site nearly as much as you normally would have to in an open water race. But when 3,000 people jump into the lake at the same time and they all want to ride the cable, chaos ensues. I decided to avoid that and was successful at finding some open water about 15 feet to the left of the cable. Sure I had to occasionally move away from some crowds, push back against some people with my elbows, swerve to go around people hung up on each other, but overall, I just did my thing. I swam and swam and swam. Before I knew it, I was around the turns and heading back toward the dock. I swam up to the beach, jumped out of the water and then, since this is a two-loop race, I jumped back in the water for my second loop.

On the second loop, I did manage to ride the cable for some of the first half of the course. It was cool. I felt fast as I watched the white cable below me swoosh by. After I rounded the turn to swim my final 800 meters back to shore, I took a slight knock to the goggles. My goggles started to leak for my right eye. This had happened once last year when racing and I had stopped to fix the goggles. This time however, I just pictured my coach demonstrating what she would have done if her goggles started leaking. She said she would just close that eye and keep swimming. So that is what I did. I just kept swimming and even kicked it up a notch. I was feeling great, my heart rate was under control, and I knew I was making good time. In the end, I ended up doing the 2.4 mile swim in 1:15. I was quite happy.

After getting out of the water, the wetsuit strippers yanked off my wetsuit and threw it on top of me. I had a big smile on my face because they did such a good job. No one can blame a long T1 time on the strippers, that is for sure. I was also smiling because I was having so much fun. People were cheering, I had just had a great swim, I felt prepared. I had totally forgotten about my knee issue and, at the moment, it was not bothering me one bit.

The run from the lake to T1 was about 800 meters. I jogged the whole way with just a slight sense of urgency but not too fast. I did not want to spike my heart rate too much this early in the race. After running into T1 and grabbing my bike bag, I made my way to the changing tents. Inside, I fumbled with my bag and had trouble getting it open. Finally, I got everything out and started gearing up for the long ride ahead of me. It took a while to get my shoes and socks on, my helmet, gloves and glasses on, my watch, my knee braces and my race number. I also had to get my pockets filled with all my nutrition (gel flask, two bananas, and about 4 honey stinger waffles).

Then it was off to get my bike. A kind volunteer grabbed my bike for me and brought it to me. I then ran it out of T1 and past the mount line. I have gotten fairly good at running in my bike shoes and made quick work of the little run. Once on my bike, there was a quick couple of downhills and sharp turns as we weaved our way out of town. In fact, we were told before the race to be very careful because the course would be narrow and steep at this point. They even had hay bales out to catch those riders who were going too fast to make the turns. After one or two turns, we approached a little drop off where the road went from sort of flat to a steep downhill. There was a volunteer waving at us to slow down and to watch the little lip in the road. I guess I was pretty excited because I bunny hopped the lip and garnered cheers from the crowd. When I landed, my water bottle shot out of my bottle cage. Oh well, I was over-hydrated anyway so I really did not care. Hopefully, I did not cause any other racers any problems.  Here is a picture of me starting the bike but before the bunny hop.

I won't go into too much play-by-play for the 112 mile bike ride. The bike course is gorgeous. There is a little climbing at the beginning and then a wicked fast descent. I passed at least 20 people as I screamed down the descent. Most of them would eventually catch up to me on the flats and the climbs but it was fun to streamline and let 'er rip. I got up to 46 miles an hour on one of the descents. Yep, that is pretty darn fast. It was a blast! The second half of the bike course does have a fair amount of climbing but my training had prepared me well and I did not feel like the climbing was all that difficult. At least on the first loop.

Overall the first loop was uneventful, in a good way. There were lots of people out on the course dressed up in funny costumes holding funny signs, shouting words of encouragement, and saying silly things. My goal on the bike this time around was to not stop. In my previous 140.6 last year, I had to stop and use the porta potty a few times on the bike. I was determined not to do that this time. In the end, the only time I stopped while on the bike was at my special needs stop where I picked up some nutrition out of my special needs bag. The volunteer opened a banana and a honey stinger waffle for me. I had not really planned on eating all that food at that particular moment but I rolled with it and shoved it all into my mouth. Here is a picture of me coming out of the special needs area. If you look closely, you can see my chipmunk cheeks full of banana and waffle.

I kicked it up a notch on some of the flat sections of the course on the second loop of the bike. I think I went faster on those sections. However, after about 5 hours on the bike, my climbing slowed down and became more of a march. I think I could have gone faster if I had some additional motivation, like fellow teammates for instance. But I was by myself and started to slow down a bit. I ended up finishing my second loop on the bike about 10 minutes slower than my first loop. Overall that is not so bad. I was pleased as I finished up on the bike. I was glad to be off of it and onto the run. So far, my knee was holding up well. Here are a couple of pictures of me after handing off my bike to a volunteer, grabbing my run bag, and running toward the changing tent. 

Once in the changing tent, I quickly put on my run shoes and shoved my riding gear into my run bag. In the mens changing tent, they had a little trough for going to the bathroom. It was convenient and there was no waiting. I took care of business and then applied some lube to my body where the seams of my shorts make contact. Again, this action was key. And then I was off onto the run.

The run starts on a downhill. I tried to relax so I would not go out too fast. I ended up running about 9:30-minute miles for the first two miles. I was feeling good but knew that it was going to be a long run and anything could happen.

After a few miles into my first loop, my stomach started acting up. This is not something I have had to deal with in the past. I think it was from all the bananas I had eaten on the bike. I ended up making two porta potty stops on the first loop. When I finished my first loop of the run, I looked down at my watch and it said 2:20. Not bad for my first loop.

While heading back out of town on my second loop, I did a little body check. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to let myself go a little faster. I was feeling better than I had on the first loop and it was now time to really push myself. I had a tad bit of stomach issues on the second loop resulting in one porta potty stop. It was funny, when I saw someone leave a porta potty, I sprinted ahead, bypassing the aid station so I could get in there before someone else. Some people thought I was really killing the run because I was going so fast. Really, it was just so I could get to the bathroom.

I had a routine for each aid station. Some people would stop running just shy of the aid station and start walking. I ran all the way up to the first volunteer at the aid station and would grab a cup of Perform before stopping. I would gulp that down followed by a cup of coke and then a water chaser. After a while, my water chaser became a mouth rinse more than anything because adding a whole cup of water after my Perform and Coke was too much liquid. After a few steps through the trash section of the aid station, I would begin running again.

Once I hit mile 20, I said to myself, "Just 10k to go." I knew I could do it in less than an hour. When I looked at my watch, I realized it was possible that I could run a sub 4:30 marathon. If I held up, that is. Knowing that helped me run even faster. I still walked two of the steeper hills coming back into town. But once I crested that final hill in town and was surrounded by cheers of the spectators, I really put it into a higher gear.  I really picked it up that last mile. People were yelling, music was blasting, and I was hauling. When I entered the Olympic oval and saw the crowds, I went even faster. In fact, I got up to 10.5 miles an hour for that last 200 meters. It was like track practice. I smiled and then put the hammer down. In the end, I ran a 4:25 marathon! I was stoked. My personal best stand alone marathon was 4:06. Granted, I did not know what I was doing back in 2007 and have come a long way with my training. But still, it was not a flat course and considering the hilly bike course, I was quite pleased with the run.

In the end my final time was 13:12:58. Somehow, I had even gone faster than all of my teammates. They all had faster bike splits than me. But my strong swim and even stronger run made my finishing time just slightly faster than them. I never thought that would happen. Here is a shot Bryan captured on his computer while watching from Richmond. Thanks Bryan. This is right after I crossed the finish and the "catchers" were escorting me away from the finish line. Ironman has so many great volunteers. They walked me over to the guy who would remove my chip. He looked me in the eye and said, "Don't move" and then took my chip off. I imagine some delirious finishers might accidentally kick the guy in the face so I think he was being extra careful.

I had a great time training for and racing this race. I have to thank lots of people for helping me achieve my goal. Thanks to Karen Holloway for being an excellent coach and setting me up for success. Thanks to my fellow Pro K teammates for all those great long bike rides and long runs. I could not have done it without you all. Thanks to Meredith for all her superior physical therapy advice. Without you, I would have not been able to bounce back from injury as quickly as I did. Thanks to Richmond Bicycle for keeping my bike going during all my training. Thanks to Jon for his continued advice throughout the year. His little suggestions made a big difference in my training. And special thanks to my number one supporter, my partner in crime, my loving wife Melissa. She is so supportive both physically and emotionally. I truly could not have done it without you!

I will be taking it easy for a little while. There is lots of neglected house work to attend to. Plus my body needs a little rest. I still seem to be hungry all the time. I am not sure if I will be doing any more races this year. I am not going to make any decisions about that for another week or two. I do know that in a few weeks I plan to sign up for another Ironman for next year. It was so fun, I have to do another. Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.