Diary of an Ironman Rockstar

September 13 2009 is marks my 9th Ironman race, and the 4th time that I’ve competed here in Madison Wisconsin. I really dig this course and the spectators are out of this world. For the first time since 2005, I have a couple of team mates to keep me company (Ian and Doug). Doug is super well prepared for an iron-virgin, but he needs to save and channel all of his nervous energy into the race on Sunday.

Pre-race is consumed with the mandatory pre-race swim and bike course preview. We all ride a 30 minute stretch of the course to keep the legs firing. I can barely keep up to Doug. This boy can really make a bike go! Ian is no slouch on a bike either.

I am big on race planning, strategizing, and goal setting. This time around my race plan has swim, bike, run and overall time goals. I also have a goal that is non performance specific. This goal is called “Enjoy the Journey”. I want to have some fun in my 10 plus hours out there. At my last Ironman, I was not hitting my time goals, and once I realized that I slid into a mental funk that precluded me from having any more fun that day. I am determined not to let that happen this time!

My race mantra is “Strong at the Finish” and I build my race plan on some strategies to make that happen. Most times, the toughest, slowest part of the race is in the second half of the run. I structured my day, and my training, to get to that second half of the run with as much strength left in me as possible.

Swim start was more interesting than ever. I plan to go out hard for the first few hundred metres, and then settle into a good draft. After 50 metres that plan changes. A fellow racer swims across me at a right angle, straight over my torso, totally submerging me and I take in a lot of water. I figure that she got freaked out at the swim start, and is heading for shore. After a couple of minutes of coughing, I am good to go, but all of the fast feet have now disappeared. I emerge from the mosh pit in 1 hour 10 minutes; well there goes the first goal of the day out of the window.

T1 goes well, but there has to be a good 1km of running here, as evidenced my middle of the pack 7 minute T1 time. I climb onto the bike and head down the 6 story tall spiral parking lot ramp. It is a bit dizzying.

Now I am onto the best and most fun part of the day. Rock star time, otherwise known as the bike leg. A couple of years ago, a spectator called me a rock star of this bike course, and I still love that designation. With all of the spectators out on this course, I still feel like a star, especially on the climbs. There are lots of interesting costumes this year. A guy in a Bananna Suit? A hairy and rather burly guy in a cheerleaders outfit? The crowd noise and encouragement sure goes a long way, even if it is a bit of a freak show.

My bike mantra was “Ride to Run”, so my key for the bike was to go as fast as possible, while setting up the conditions to have a good run. That means not going too hard on the climbs, and getting enough nutrition. This race I decided to simplify my nutrition plan. I am still a big fan of INFINIT nutrition, and find my custom energy drink from them to be excellent. The problem is it is a bit tough to carry enough liquid calories of INFINIT to last the entire bike ride. So this time I had ~700 calories of Infinit on my bike (2 hours worth), then I would switch to the Gatorade endurance that they had on the course. I had done some of my training and race simulations using the Gatorade, so I was sure that it would work for me. Since the Gatorade is a bit light on calories, I was going to supplement with a gel flask (500 calories of gel). The gel flask spout broke off, when I first used it, covering me in a sticky mess. Yuck! Out goes the gel flask and I am onto plan B- semi solid Cliff shot blocks. They work real well, and I get to T2 feeling ok with energy.

Race day was kind of hot for what we had been acclimatised to, so I took in extra salt to bump my sodium intake up to ~700mg/hour. Pre-race I weaned myself off of caffeine for ~2 weeks so that it would give be a good charge on race day. I used 2 Motivator capsules ( Sportsquest product) at breakfast and 1 more at hour 4 of the bike, and had a good pick me up to prepare for the run.

T2 was very quiet, compared to the mayhem that was T1. I was in ~ 600th place after the swim, and was up to ~200th place after the bike. Game on! Run time. Here my race plan keys for success were: ease into pace in first 2 miles (don’t go out too fast), take my walk breaks starting from the start of the marathon (10 minutes run & 45 sec FAST walking), and do everything I can to be ready for race to start around mile 16 of the marathon.

For the run, I wore my swimming tempo trainer, set to beep to give me a run cadence of ~180 steps/minute. I turned it on for the first few km to calibrate my tempo, then periodically during the race for a few minutes at a time to make sure my cadence was still reasonable. For nutrition, I tried something completely different. In past races I had relied on energy gel/Gatorade/Coke on the run. Unfortunately, that stuff is not palatable for me by that point, plus it is hard to ensure the calorie ingestion rate is optimal (200 to 250cal/hour for me on the run). This time I used PowerBar Gel Bites every 10 minutes. They were not sickeningly sweet, and required mimimal chewing to get down. 2 of these chews washed down with water every time I took a walk break sure seemed to do the trick! By lap 2 I switched to Clif Bar Shot Blocks (a similar product) for a flavour change. 2 Endurolyte capsules per hour fulfilled my salt requirements (~500mg/hour total).

There is one hill per run loop. This year I power-walked the steeper sections to keep my heart rate under control. As soon as the hill flattened out, I picked it up right back into a good run, and made up a lot of time by being able to run well on the downhill section. I was smoking along on the run, when I got an unusual compliment from a spectator. Normally they tell me lame lies like “You are looking good”, but this guys says “Man, you’re running like a superhero”. Now I knew this too was a lie, but I sure liked the sound of it! So now I bike like a rockstar and run like a superhero. Rock star Superhero- how good is that?

I completed lap 1 in ~ 1 hour 47 minutes, and felt pleased that my goal of a sub 3:40 run (PB) was in grasp. I had a tough time between miles 14 and 17, and my walk breaks stretched to 1 minute long. I tried my best to stay positive and in the moment, and just kept on concentrating on aspects of my running form for a few minutes each (cadence, body lean, foot strike, arm swing, relaxed shoulders …). After I summited the hill for the last time, I picked up my pace. This was at mile 19, and my race had begun. From here on in my race would depend on not slowing down. I stuck to the walk breaks, and kept passing people. On one section there were a couple of Bag Pipers serenading us, and they were happy to play Amazing Grace for me. I felt like there was a wee bit of Kincardine helping me along! I dug deep all of the way to the finish, managing to run/walk a 5 min/km pace the rest of the way.

I crossed the finish line in 10hr 26 minutes, an 11 minute personal best, and managed a 4 minute PB on the run. I had moved up from 200th place off of the bike to 102nd place (75th amateur) overall after the run, but only ended up 19th in my age group. The Kona slots are fewer and fewer every year, and the competition for those spots gets tougher. Maybe some year I’ll get a shot.

Highlight of the day was to watch Doug cross the finish line in his first Ironman. He looked very strong at the finish. My hat goes off to Karen, Doug’s wife, who had to put up with (and worry about) Ian, Doug and me all week. It is a long day for the athletes, but it must seem way longer to the spectators who wait hours on end just to see a passing glimpse of their athletes.

Post race, we all headed back to the Great Dane brew pub for a local beer, and to swap war stories. Just to set the record straight, this superhero had two whole “Big Boy” pints, contrary to what Doug says.

Train hard- race smart!

Mike