I'm most of the way through my Ironman build, and honestly I have been trying to come up with a theme or something meaningful to write about for a while now. But it has been just about exactly what I was expecting. Equal doses of amazing highs, feelings of accomplishment, finishing workouts I never thought I was capable of, unexpected PB's...and some of the lowest lows I've ever felt in training from extreme fatigue and lack of motivation, and wanting to quit triathlon forever. I guess if you've gone through the prep for an Ironman you understand, and if you haven't...well you just need to do it to know what I mean. It's hard to summarize but mostly I've just done a shit load of miles in the last 8 weeks.
Some of my hardest workouts were right at the start; long rides and runs that were barely longer than what I do to prep for a half. Which left me pretty unsure about how the whole build was going to go given that I was only at 60% of the distance. But my body slowly started to adapt and I was able to start dialling in my pacing, and taking my attention to nutrition (carbs, caffeine, sodium, protein & fat, mL of fluid) to a whole new level.
The turning point was a 100 mile ride I did in Muskoka - I had only done the distance once, in Florida with lots of friends and lots of snack stops. But this one was solo, with a few thousand feet of climbing and 100k at race pace. When I survived that one I started believing I could actually do this. Then 180k the next week didn't seem so bad, and 200k the week after just felt awesome to finish.
As I've said before, deciding to do an Ironman this year was more about the journey than the race itself. To fully commit to the process of focusing on one race, being relentless with controlling the variables and consistent with my training. Amanda has asked why I needed to do an Ironman to accomplish that, which is a fair question.
I guess the short answer is, because it scares the crap out of me! I can't imagine attempting the distance without feeling like I've turned over every stone in terms of my preparation...become as efficient in the water as possible, tweak my bike position, stay on top of core & physio...the list has been endless. And then I can take that experience to my training moving forward.
So far it has worked out the way I hoped and I've hit a new level of consistency and focus on my training. And I'm already looking forward to seeing how this experience will help me become a stronger and more consistent athlete at whatever distance I choose to focus on next year. Definitely not an Ironman!!
I guess all of that brings me to this weekend...
Lakeside Olympic:
Even though it's a small race - usually a fun low key way to end the season for local athletes - I had actually planned Lakeside all year as part of my prep for Louisville and had been looking forward to it for a while. It's getting late in the year and late in my season and I needed something to break up the grind and mix things up.
Not to mention the majority of my training miles have been endless laps of the bike course for it's nice quiet rolling roads and the ability to refuel easily on a multi-loop ride. So I literally know every hill, pothole and farm dog on the course. I was looking forward to racing hard on my home turf, and having so many awesome athletes and volunteers from Balance Point and LPC made it that much better.
Swim - 23:57
Besides stopping for a coffee and some breakfast on someone's dock during the swim, everything went great!
In all honesty, my open water swims have been a struggle for me for the better part of the last 18 months. I'm still trying to figure out why. I'm swimming PB's in the pool on 10k per week, and three days before the race I swam 3100m open water averaging 1:27/100. So maybe I was tired, maybe my sighting sucked, or maybe I was just sandbagging a bit too much.
There are so many variables in open water though, and at the end of the day my focus this year has been on exerting as little energy as possible getting through the swim. So I can't be too bummed when I don't see the times I'd like and know I am capable of. Long story short, I felt decent in the water but lost over 5 minutes to super swimmer Ben Sayles.
Bike - 1:01:56
The biggest story on the bike was the conditions. Despite the last few weeks being 30+ degrees day after day, race morning brought 8-10 degrees, 30km/h wind and even a bit of rain to make things interesting. Between that and a rolling course with some rough roads it wasn't going to be a fast ride. I was shivering all morning before the race, so I decided to throw on a full-zip bike jersey over my wet kit after the swim, along with neoprene toe warmers. A few extra seconds in transition were worth avoiding the risk of getting sick 4 weeks out from Louisville.
Action shot of...putting my shoes on
I felt good getting on the bike but with two hills and a turnaround in the first 3k I focused on getting my shoes on and getting warmed up before trying to wind things up. I also knew that the last 9k of the course is the most challenging and was going to be into a strong headwind, so my goal was to gradually build my effort throughout.
I decided not to look at my power data at all during the race since I wasn't sure how my legs were going to respond to high intensity, so I wanted to focus on staying smooth and aero throughout. I'm coming to find that while tracking my power in long course is a really beneficial tool to keep things in check, in short course I tend to just get frustrated with myself trying to get the numbers high enough. I'm sure I rode with a little higher variation than I normally would, but it worked out.
Through the first 10k into the wind I was moving well but I had absolutely nobody around to cue off of. So I just kept my head down and focused on bringing up my average speed through 15-30k on the fast section of the course. Ben was far enough up the road that I couldn't see him at all but I told myself that he was going to have to ride really well to not lose any time to me. Turned out we had almost identical bike splits.
I knew what to expect in the last 10k and my average speed dropped very little over the net uphill/headwind. I got off the bike confident in a good ride but realistic that I hadn't gotten any time back. I guess I won't be too concerned that my 39km/h average was my slowest of the year! I was heading out on the run 5 minutes back from the leader, and 5 minutes up on 3rd.
The usual bike dismount derp face
Run - 37:29
Similar to the bike, I decided not to run with a Garmin or even a watch. Given all the run miles I have in my legs I had equal chances of running a PB, or being completely empty and slogging through it. So I just went by feel not worrying about my pace.
Since the run is 95% on freshly graded gravel roads I opted for my trail flats that have some rock protection and a bit of extra grip. Considering how tech-geeky triathletes are, it amazes me that virtually everyone neglects equipment implications on things like running shoes, cold/wet weather gear (and their aerodynamics), goggle/sunglass tint etc. But that small decision made a big difference comfort-wise, and helped me get the fastest run split :)
I felt good getting going, which might be expected since my typical Saturday morning warmup is literally a 1500m swim and 40k bike. So when I felt some leg speed I decided to just go with it and commit to it.
The run was awesome with each aid station being covered by BTP club members, and one by Amanda's hilarious cousin and uncle. And despite the challenging course and strong headwind coming back in, the two-lap run was a lot of fun.
After the first lap I knew I wasn't going to be racing for the win but I was running pretty well and had a shot at my Oly-distance run PB of 37:13. I was fast again going out for lap 2, then the uphill and headwind coming back the second time killed my speed a bit. But I held on and was really happy with my run on tired legs, in those conditions.
My overall time was my 3rd best Olympic behind TTF and Montreal, both of which are such fast courses that they aren't even really comparable. Second and top age-grouper was good by me! Which is more than I could have hoped for in the middle of an Ironman build. I would have liked to swim faster but I executed a good race and gave myself a little more confidence in my fitness. And just like TTF earlier in the year, the good result at a shorter distance has given me a kick in the ass to want to get back to short course next year and get fast! I love racing, and racing hard. So as much as the Ironman build has been a great experience I'm not planning on doing another one anytime soon. I'm looking forward to changing things up next year and finally breaking that 2:00 barrier.
So all that's left now is one or two more big weekends then Louisville. On one hand I can't wait to get it over with and finally relax for a while. But on the other hand I still feel like I need to get more training in and keep building the miles. I'm starting to get the idea that I'll never feel 100% prepared before race day. So the goal for the next 3.5 weeks is don't get lazy, stay healthy and don't do anything stupid!
