Race Report 2: Ironman Lake Placid

It's hard to believe that my biggest event of 2010 is over and done with. It always seems so odd how I can wake up on the morning of an Ironman with such a daunting task ahead and somehow it is over before you realize it. Not to say that you don't do a whole lot of suffering, but at some point you're just done. Maybe that's a good allegory for this race report... should you choose to read the whole thing you, the reader, will probably suffer through a whole schlew of boring details but, at some distant point in the distant future, you will come to the end. (Of course, if you want to spare yourself the reading, jump to the race day details or just check out the pictures.)

But, before I get into any of it, I want to thank my extensive support that got me through the hardest/lowest points of training and racing.

First off, I owe my training breakthroughs and race success to my coach Alex McDonald. There's a long road ahead of me as I try to get faster and more consistent, but I really believe that the significant changes in my abilities and just my day-to-day energy and happiness are in large part due to his fantastic guidance.

I am very fortunate to have three great sponsors this year, Toga!/Gotham bike shops, Brooks Running and Rudy Project. They sell awesome gear and I'm very fortunate to have their support.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to my training buddies, especially Adam, Dave, Ryan and Rusty, for keeping me on track and motivated throughout the season. I'd even venture to say that this year's Ironman build was fun!

Posie, my girlfriend, was understanding, supportive and loving throughout the whole year (as she always is) and gave me the motivation and pep talks I needed to keep up the training day-in and day-out.

I need to thank all of my friends for keeping me laughing throughout this whole process (see: jokes about Cam in lycra, jokes about Cam and "are you sure you want to eat that?" / "you look a little fat today, budday!", jokes about Cam and his inability to do "real sports" but being very "good at exercising," etc.).

And finally, I need to thank my parents for taking an interest in my racing and being as supportive as they can. I know that my competing in Ironman is incredibly nerve-wracking and tough for them and to talk to them on the phone just before the cannon went off was really, really important to me.


Lead-up:
The build-up to race week this year was tough as always, but great training variety went a long way towards keeping me sane and getting me through the final weeks. I got to do a number of big rides up to Cold Springs with my buddy Rusty and put in a solid effort at a fantastic training camp up in Lake Placid put on by Personal Best Multisport Coaching.

Race Week:
As always, race week was a little more stressful and hectic than expected. I made more than my fair share of stops at Toga!/Gotham getting all setup with some new Specialized Mondo Open Tubulars and ultra-lite butyl tubes. My buddy Ryan is the king of training- and racing-related research and he suggested that I try out some new tires and tubes with my race wheels to reduce my rolling resistance. His point--and one that I am now sold on--is that it's a shame to spend so much time and energy training and to get some ultra fast race wheels just to waste 5 to 10 Watts by using crappy tires.

I was all ready to go Wednesday evening and the next morning, Ryan and I were underway on our way up to the race. The drive was pretty painless and we cruised into Placid with enough time to drive some of the bike course and take a quick jog.

The Adirondacks in the background. Lots of climbing ahead of me...

That evening, we got all setup in our beautiful house in Jay, NY that we were sharing with a third friend, Adam. It was really nice to be well-outside of Lake Placid so that we could avoid the "Iron Craze" that accompanies race week. Picture 3,000 athletes who are all stressed out and pent up with energy from taper, milling about a small upstate New York town sporting M-Dot tattoos, Ironman hats and compression garments to boot. Our house was comfortable and secluded and had a fantastic kitchen. I got to enjoy an interesting selection of DVDs they had on hand (e.g. Fire Proof) and take some time to thoroughly prep my bike.

Our house, 79 Cascade Lane, Jay, NY.

Nice kitchen inside the house. Important for big pre-race meals.

Back patio.

Ryan's cleaned up P3.

My cleaned up P2 all ready to go.

On the advice of Alex, I have made it a practice to have my biggest pre-race meal the morning before the race. And when I say "biggest," I mean huge. Alex to his athletes: "Eat until you feel sick and then eat some more." The theory is that if you can top off your glycogen stores nice and early and then snack throughout the day, you'll be able to sleep better and be hungry enough race morning to get down a fairly large breakfast. The alternative: traditional huge carbo-loading the night before tends to leave you bloated before bed and makes it nearly impossible to get anything down at 3:30 the next morning.

So... I sat myself down and plowed through pancakes, waffles, bagels and orange juice. I ate quickly and with focus, figuring that the faster I got it down the less likely I was to get full and stop eating "prematurely."

Breakfast of champions.

I spent the rest of Saturday doing a final check of my gear and a quick run-through of the swim, bike and run.

Race Day:
Three Ironmans later, I think I finally have race morning down pat. Up at 3:30 sharp. Lights on. Eat 1000Cal right away to get digestion out of the way: toasted bagels with maple syrup, Ultragen, Pre Race (i.e. crack) and some coffee to wash it all down. Walk around outside for 5 minutes to wake up and get the blood flowing. Grab the bags and off to the race site.

Weather was cool and overcast--provided it stayed reasonably dry, these were perfect conditions for a heavy sweater like me.

When I reached transition, I did a quick check of my bike setup, put my nutrition bottles in my bags and then headed off to swim start. Making my way down to Mirror Lake, I bumped into my Aunt Marg--she was at the race to cheer on her son Rob--and got a good luck hug which calmed my nerves somewhat.

This year, the race was capped at 3,000 athletes--about 25% more than in years past--and you could definitely tell. The beach and water were completely swamped with neoprene laden men and women. Once we were allowed in the water, I did a quick warmup and made my way to the very front of the pack. Alex has really pushed me to be more aggressive at the beginning of the swim--easier to be passed than to waste energy passing--so I really committed myself to it this time around.

Ominous clouds before the swim start. It would later end up raining while I was in the water.

Three thousand people making their way into the water.

Me, entering the water. Not sure exactly what I'm smiling about... I have 140.6 miles ahead of me.

The front pack just before the cannon.

Swim (1:03):
The cannon went off with little warning and we were off. I hammered pretty hard for the first 500 and definitely fought my way through arms and legs to get in a decent position. The water at Lake Placid is cool and clear and there's an awesome guide rope all the way along the course. This made for a nice open-water experience where I could focus more on my stroke and less on sighting. All that said, I still got the shit kicked out of me pretty badly and definitely had moments where I had to kick guys off as they tried to swim on top of me. I made it through the first 1.2mi loop in about 33 minutes which was a little slower than I had wanted. I upped the pace a bit on the second loop and was out of the water around 1:03. About 4 minutes off my goal but not awful.

The human cement mixer starts mixing.

Cement mixer from a distance.

Neat overhead shot of the field as it navigates the outer two buoys.

Coming out of the water, the wetsuit stripper had trouble (as always) get my suit off around my feet. I wasted a good minute of transition right there. After finally getting my legs free, I moved through transition as quickly as possible but still spent about 6 minutes getting everything done. Not horrible, but I really need to work on moving more quickly through T1 and am strongly considering making some cuts and adjustments to my wetsuit to facilitate a faster stripping.

Exiting the water.

As usual, looking awful coming out of the water.

Bike (5:37):
First off, this bike course is hilly and going into it, I knew that keeping a good handle on my power would be crucial to having a decent ride and solid run. So, I was obviously very shaken when my power meter wouldn't turn on at the beginning of the bike. Apparently, the amount of rain that fell while I was swimming had short-circuited two pins on my computer and tricked into thinking it was tethered to a PC, which made it completely useless. I panicked for 30 seconds, knowing how hard it is to regulate exertion on climbs when you don't know your power. Luckily, I remembered that my Garmin watch also had an ANT+ power meter built in so I fiddled with it for a few minutes as I rode and got it to pick up my hub's signal. First disaster averted.

In my mind, the bike course can be broken down into 5 sections: 2 loops each of

• small but steady climb out of Lake Placid
• fast, winding, somewhat sketchy descent (I think I was booking 50mph at some points)
• section of reasonably flat riding with a few rollers
• steep climb and descent
• long (just under 10 mile) and steady climb back into Lake Placid

All of it: breathtaking.

The course was lined with rivers and streams.


The route out of town at the beginning of the bike ride.

The first loop of the ride went well and I stuck around 75% of threshold. For the first time ever, I really managed to stay focused for almost all of the ride. I paid attention to staying tight and aero, disciplining myself to only drink and eat when I was upright climbing hills. I tried to keep light and relaxed in my shoulders and focused on cadence and smooth power.

About to start 50mph descent. Trying to stay as aero as possible while still maintaining one hand on the break.

Partway through the second loop (around mile 90) I started to feel really pretty crappy and I had trouble keeping my power above 67% or 68% save for when I hit hills. The wind also picked up considerably. From past experience, I know that I always tend to hit my deepest emotional low of the whole race at this point in the ride. So I just plugged along, knowing the run would come soon.

Plugging away on the out-and-back.

At the time, I really questioned if I should be feeling as bad as I did and if that was a sign that I was in trouble for the run, and I made the conscious decision not to strive for 70% to 75% of threshold for the remainder of the ride.

I wrapped up the bike in about 5:35 having put down about 2300 Cal of EFS, EFS Liquid Shot and CarboPro and a good 6500mg of sodium (don't tell my GP). I hit T2 as fast as I could and spent about 5 minutes getting through transition and getting prepped for the run. Again, I need to shave time off here in the future.

Getting ready to jump off the bike as I head back into town.

Run (3:31):
All I can really say about the run was that it was relatively effortless. I cruised through the first number of downhill miles feeling good. Kurt, Alex's coach, was on the sidelines and yelled out "Lots of miles to go, keep it easy until 13." So I did just that.

Running out of town. Tsk, tsk, that's some nasty heel-toe action going on... although it may be due to the downhill.

Around mile 4, the 1st place male Ben Hoffman caught up with me. I knew that I was holding a decent pace when I managed to hold him off and then run alongside him for a good few minutes. The driver of the motorcycle clearing the way for Ben laughed to me "Great job you're going as fast as he is... except he's 13 miles ahead of you!" Thanks, buddy!

Ten yards ahead of the race leader or, more accurately, 13 miles behind. In fairness, pros get a 10-minute head start.

Throughout the run, I was lucky to get great crowd support. My Toga! kit was particularly exciting to the clusters of 50 year-old men who had camped out all day getting drunk while we raced. Everytime I passed, they'd start hollering "Toga! Toga! Toga!" as if John Bel himself was slogging it out.

On the run back into Placid, you hit two very big, big hills. First time around, they were definitely tough but didn't hit me nearly as hard as I had expected. Then, around mile 12, my gut really started yelling at me. Thankfully, I had gotten through my EFS liquid shot and a good amount of Gu and salt. For the rest of the run, I had pretty bad GI pain and had to give up 3 x 2 minutes at the portojohns along the way. Other than that, though, my legs felt good, so I tried to cruise 7:30/mi. Knowing I couldn't stomach food, I walked aid stations to get down some Coke and water and then got moving again. This run, walk/drink ended up working out to about 7:50/mi which was pretty solid.

Quick time/pace check.

The last 6 miles were tough. I knew they would be. I passed my coach's coach, Kurt Perham, and yelled out that I was hurting. His response: "Dude, you have 3 miles left. Suck it up!"

Headed back into town towards the final out-and-back was a remarkable experience. Never in my life have I experienced that type of energy. The crowd was so, so loud and overwhelming. As I passed Mile 25, I teared up a bit like I did in Arizona last year. My good friend Pete Curtin collapsed and subsequently died at the twenty-fifth mile of the Baltimore Marathon less than a year ago. Every time I run through this point in the marathon, I can't help but think of him.

With a steady charge, I finished the race on the skating track and hit the tape to finish dead on 10:23:00. As has become my habit, I stumbled for a few steps until the good folks volunteering at the finish line decided that I needed a little help walking to the cool-down area. At that point, I just enjoyed some lukewarm Coca Cola and some equally lukewarm pizza. Delicious.

Kicking around the oval.

Crossing the tape with my hands up like a dork. I guess it beats previous races where I'm looking down at my watch.

Take-aways:
All in all, my best ever: no major nutrition problems, good steady pacing and really good times given the course (I actually ran a 3:31 which is an Ironman marathon personal best despite the difficulty of the course). I feel like I left a good amount of energy out there on the course.

Despite feeling bad at the end of the ride, I think I should've pushed myself to maintain power. I knew I could handle it given my training and despite feeling crappy, I had no problem running off the bike. Likewise, I feel like I held back on the run for fear of blowing up. If I want to go faster, I think I need to start off a little hotter so that when I go to empty the tank, I hit the tape on empty.

I certainly need to work on getting my threshold up on the bike this coming year and continue to make efforts to bring my swim time down. I think my run is at a good place and will continue to get better... I just need to work on my ability to suffer when it comes to racing the marathon.

I am really, really proud of this result and, at the same time, I'm excited that I feel like I have the ability to get even faster. To paraphrase Alex: "the best feeling you can really ever have is to be incredibly proud but not satisfied with your result."

Well, time to enjoy my time off of training!