2011: Ironman Hawaii

10:58

The race was insane!

Swim: I started in the second row with Adrienne and Cam Knuth. As the cannon went off, the chaos started. It took me just under 30 minutes to get to the turnaround. The whole time I was battered, kicked in the face (causing a small laceration underneath my eye), and felt I like I might drown about 20 times. It was really scary. The swim experience alone made me realize that I don't think I'm coming back to do this race again. Unlike the two practice swims before hand, the salty taste did not overcome my taste sense. (This trip was the first time I swam in the ocean and I battled some sea-sickness and salt-water taste.)

T1: I took my time. I happened to sit down across from Madison, WI Mike Lavery. He commented to me that the swim was brutal. I agreed.

Bike: The week before the back was feeling better than it had for a long time. However, when I shaved my legs the night before the race in the tub, I re-aggravated my left SI joint. Race morning I woke up and it was really stiff and vunerable. I was noticeablely worried. At the race site, I happened to find the ART docs and they worked it over and I got it adjusted. It made it feel significantly better.

I took the first 10 miles easy. Dennis Melowski & Steve Chapin soon passed me. I kept the watts around 200. My pre-race watt target was 180-200 watts. Given my lack of training, I was realistic about it.





I rode about 85% of it upright trying to manage the back discomfort. I had a lot of discomfort in the right glut.

I had to white-knuckle it up to Hawi the winds were that bad.

At 110.5 miles, I got a flat tire by hitting a road reflector on the side of the road. It tore open the sidewall of my front wheel. The hole looked bad and was going to be surprised if PitStop fixed it. It did not. Then I got to work removing the razor blade taped to my frame and cut the tire off. Shortly after that, race support showed up and they put the tire on for me. After I inflated, I rode the last bit in.

Adrienne was about 10-15 minutes ahead of me I suspected.

T2: Again, I took my time. The run around the pier was long. The legs felt great because of the easy bike effort.

Run: I took off at a manageable pace, 7:30s. The first five miles were just fine. I walked every aid station.



I put in a few strong efforts to see if I was going to be okay and I was. Pre-race I had determined that I wanted to run the first 13 miles and run-walk it in.



I saw Adrienne way ahead of me on the first out and back on Alii Drive. But when I came to mile 8, I saw Adrienne walking. She massaging/stretching her right abdomen. We chatted and we both decided to walk-run the rest of the race together.



I had one stop to the porty-potty as we ran up Palani drive to the Queen K. From there we ran and walked until we got out of the Natural Energy lab. At that point, I figured out that if we kept running the last 4-5 miles, we'd crack 11:00. We ran around 8's for the last 3-4-5 miles.









On Alii drive, we grasped each other's hand and walked across the finish.



Post Race: All that Gu, Powerade, and Coke made me sick to my stomach. I went into medical to make sure I was alright. About 15 minutes later they discharged me, but when I went outside and over to the medal and finisher pickup, I puked four times.



After being escorted back to medical, I got an IV.

In summary, Ironman Hawaii is much harder than Ironman Wisconsin. The weather conditions plus the level of competition make it hard to do well. I am happy to have finished the race since my year has been tough from an exhausting work schedule and a bad back. Others seem to love the race, such as Dennis Melowski, but I think Ironman Wisconsin continues to be my favorite. If I do another Ironman, I'll stick to my hometown race.

Mahalo!

Hurt

Low back pain has finally caught up to me. I went into 70.3 Racine with a lot of back pain yet managed to keep it under control. I vaguely recall riding with Brunold a few weeks prior to the race and that I never rode aero because the back wouldn't allow it.

After Racine, I went on an aggressive work trip covering a lot of real estate via plane and car. On the final day, I sat down in a Caribou Coffee shop in Minneapolis causing a strong dull pain in my left lower back. It felt like somebody stabbed me. It took me 10 minutes before I could get up and walk out. I slightly panicked because I wasn't sure if I could handle my flight home two hours later. After gripping the area and finding some ice it calmed down.

Nevertheless, this would begin my bout with back pain for the next seven weeks. There were times where it was good, but I continually aggravated it by trying to ride the bike. Big no, no! It usually went like this: run a bit, swim a bit during the week, then attempt to ride the bike on the weekend.

Today, I made the call to stop biking. I'll still run and swim as best I can because those activities don't seem to cause aggravations.

Interestingly, because I never let the problem heal I eventually injured most of the components in the lower back: left SI joint, right SI joint, lower lumbar spine. It also meant I got to experience the differences in those pain patterns: pain with walking, pain without walking, pain while sitting, no pain with sitting.

Kona is a few weeks a way and at this point, I'm just going to rest the back for three weeks, show up in Hawaii and do the best I can with a healthy back and untrained biking legs.

IM 70.3 Racine

4:31
S-27 B-2:21 R-1:37
4th AG
30th OA

Decent race. Training since American Triple T was nearly non-existent for a month and then I started to pick it up to about 8+ hours a week. I was happy to see I could still be fast without much training.

The heat was a big issue on the run. I went into the race with a "just finish" attitude. When I got off the bike, I had a slight side stitch and it was hot. I let the legs carry me to mile one and whatever the pace was, I predetermined to hold it to the end. Once I crested the hill and strolled up to the first aid station and mile marker, my watch said 7:30 so I stuck with it until the end.

Next race is likely Hawaii.

Grumblings from the Readership

I've received a fair amount of email traffic regarding my last post. Interestingly, none of the traffic comes in the "comment section", just via personal email. In the future, feel free to comment there.

Like all addictions, fellow addicts never want to see a buddy quit. Leaving this so called sport has been hard. I initially felt compelled to sell everything and take up painting, but I stopped short at the bike. I had a few nibbles, but push come to shove, I couldn't do it. That must mean something. Training the last few days has been unstructured and I figure I'll stick to that until whenever. "Fun" is slowly creeping back in.

Again

...I'd do it again if I could.

For Sale

This is the list of items for sale. All reasonable offers considered.

American Triple T

pla·teau/plaˈtō/
Verb: Reach a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Have I improved?

American Triple T has taught me the answer is no. Four years of doing the same race and I have seen little to no changes in my time. Time to move on. In the past I thought it was a fitness booster. Wrong. Do elite marathoners participate in 50 -100 mile running races, i.e. ultramarathons to get ready for the big 26.2 race? No. I missed the boat on this one: Specificity in Training matters.

The realization really hit me at the start this race weekend. If you can't beat the guys in the first race, you're not going to beat then in next, or the next, or the next. Part of my ongoing problem is finding the correct training stress to overcome my handicaps. The first issue is the side-stitch. Insane S-B-R efforts are the only time I get them, something that happens at my Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. So, at a race like Triple T, that is a major problem. The second issue is continual improvement. Rarely, some of the faster athletes come back to this race and one or two of them go from finishing behind me in years past to beating me. This was the case this year. It was humbling. Finding the formula to being faster has been tough. Between friends' experiences and my own, it seems like nobody has it completely figured out. The results show it. Great duathlete, but DNFs at IM; Great HIM'er, DNFs at IM; Great TTT'er, mediocre at everything else; Sometimes good, rarely great, otherwise miserable. In many ways, I'm all of those things and so are we all.

I was talking it over with my dad. Both he and I are fans of the movie Chariots of Fire and applicable to the stage I'm entering. Athletic pursuits are a young-man's fancy and once you hit your ceiling its time to move on and/or give back to the sport you love(d). Being a competitive triathlete is a selfish endeavor (the twice a day workouts, the five hour bike rides to name a few); to stick with the sport too long is bad for my overall personal development.