Ironman Frankfurt Race Report

As always time seems to pass quickly, it has been a while since I have posted with my last post being my Ironman Lanzarote race report. Since then I have been busy with life, work and training and another race. Before I get into the race report I am thrilled to share that Laura my wife and I are expecting our first baby in December!

I can also confirm that I have now got 2 Ironman races for the 2014 year lined up. Ironman Austria on the 29th June and the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October! So 2014 is going to be a big year for me in a couple of areas of my life!

So in the short turn around time of 7/8 weeks I recovered from Ironman Lanzarote and prepared for Ironman Frankfurt.

Ironman Frankfurt

Ironman Frankfurt was on the 7th July, I'll come straight out with it and say it was a disappointing race for me. Leading into the race I felt good and was pleased with my training since Ironman Lanzarote. In Lanzarote I had a poor bike split and reviewed all things relating to this. A subtle 2mm height adjustment to the saddle and a switch in aerobar extensions helped me increase my comfort and power on the bike. A few more high intensity sessions brought back my confidence and confirmed to me that my bike in Lanzarote was simply an 'off day' with the weakness I experienced most likely being a function of the over consumption of electrolytes leading into the race. Running was also going well, I posted a couple of solid long runs between 34-36km at Ironman race pace with low heart rates and a feeling of comfort throughout. Confidence was high leading into Frankfurt.

I arrived with my wife in Frankfurt on Thursday 4th July, it was a very easy journey, a quick flight with BA into Frankfurt airport and a short 15-20 minute taxi ride to the hotel, easy. On arriving I had a nap as it was an early start, later in the afternoon I walked into Frankfurt centre and got registered, this is when it became apparent just how hot it was. It was in the high 20's and the heat felt like it had come from no where.  It was not that hot in the U.K in the days leading up although at the time of writing this high 20's now feels typical.

Sebastien, Marino, Pete & Mike Reilly (the voice of Ironman)

After registering and getting sorted I relaxed with the wife by the river and generally chilled out.  In the evening I built my bike and installed a fresh pair of tubulars onto my bike wheels. On Friday morning I had a short test ride to check everything was working well with the bike, which it was, and a 5km jog on the race course, I felt good although it certainly was hot on the run. The rest of the day was lazy and my wife and I took the opportunity to look around some of the many local shops. In the evening we had the pre event dinner which was awesome, lots of triathlon stars around including Chris McCormack, Marino Vanhoenacker, Pete Jacobs, Sebastien Kienle and Eneko Lanos.

Meeting Andreas

Saturday was check-in day. On route to the coach to take us to the swim start where transition one was located I went via the Raelert lounge at the expo where Andreas Raelert was signing autographs following his win at Ironman Austria.  It was great to meet him and he was a really nice guy who took the time to chat.

I got my bike racked efficiently, I did the usual walk of transition picking markers to identify my bike location etc. I took the opportunity of being at the swim start to have a practice swim. The water was a lovely temperature, clean and calm so I was looking forward to the swim having great conditions.

On race morning I got up at the usual 04.45, had my race breakfast taking care not to over eat like I did in Lanzarote, after breakfast I set about getting organised. Laura and I took a bus to the race start, it was a quiet atmosphere on the bus, there was not much speaking going on, lots of ipods and focused faces!

On arrival at the race start I finished off prepping my bike. I then proceeded to put the wetsuit on and get down to the swim start for a practice swim. I had a good warm up swim, loosening the shoulders off and opening out the lungs. As the race start neared I positioned myself at the front ready for the cannon.

T1

I got off to a good start with very little contact but at about 500m I got boxed in by a few swimmers which made it slow going as I was getting contact from each side and the rear, I could not quite get round the swimmer in front either and I was conscious an extreme effort to get round would pull to much energy out of me so I kept steady and sucked it up. At the first turn buoy I managed to break free from this and get some open water. I swam okay and exit'd the water on the hour feeling good, a solid transition with no mistakes saw me on my bike quickly. I got into a good rhythm on the bike and started to hold the pace I was aiming for even though their was headwind early on which was different to a previous year where there was a tailwind.

Heart break hill

I cycled strong but held back a touch as I was keen to have a good run. On the bike there was lots of drafting going on, a staggering amount of cheating, however the draft busters were working hard to control this and many riders which tried to sit on my back wheel got penalties. There are 3 key hills in Frankfurt with the last being Heart break hill, this is a cool hill as the crowds come in close and give it a tour de france style atmosphere. I passed 90km at pretty much bang on 2hrs 30mins. The next 90km took me 2hrs 38min so my total bike time was 5hrs 8mins. Interestingly as part of an analysis of my splits I compared my bike time to a top female pro athlete, Kristen Moeller. At Lanzarote Kristen rode a 5hr 31min bike split, I rode a 5hr 59min, meaning she kicked my arse by 28mins! If you have read my Lanzarote race report you will know I had a shocker on the bike, this data confirms I had a shocker in Lanzarote as in Frankfurt Kristen rode 5hrs 3mins and I rode 5hrs 8mins leaving only a 5min gap between us! Coming into transition two I felt good, I had taken all of my nutrition and was pleased with my accumulative time at this point. I was now starting to focus for the run. I had a slow transition two as my transition bag was not in the place it was supposed to be. I did not rack my own bag as you have to hand them in at transition one for the organisers to hang for you, not something they had done well in my case! After a few yells a kind volunteer found my bag and I headed to the tent for a quick change.

Coming out of T2

When I hit the run course I felt really good and my legs had some spring in them. My main concern at this point was the heat, it was beating down. I decided to run at my target pace anyhow. For the first 12km I run pretty much at the pace I wanted, at around 12km my stomach started to cramp and I nipped into a portaloo as the discomfort was affecting my pace. After the brief stop I struggled to get back into a rhythm and was starting to suffer, I tried to rally myself mentally but the body would not respond so I kept pushing on hoping that things may come good but they did not. The heat started to get to me, my stomach kept cramping and my legs all of sudden really started to feel it, my paced slowed and with each passing km I was losing time. There were a lot more portaloo stops on the way to a very scrappy 4hrs 10mins marathon. To be honest I was in so much discomfort I was just pleased to finish!  On the way up the finish chute I was pretty dizzy and was swaying somewhat. Once over the line I became very disappointed with my run. I worked hard this year to improve my run, in training I feel I have made progress, data certainly show this, however I did not manage to carry this run form into a race for 2013 a similar theme to 2012..........

Evaluation - so what did I learn?

To be honest I am still considering reasons for why I am not achieving my run potential. But an honest look in the mirror tells me it could be one or a combination of these reasons.

• Inappropriate training - need to consider volume, intensity and session adjustments
• High core temperature - I am a stocky guy, not your typical triathlete build so there is a good chance I may not be dissipating heat well thus my core temperature rises quickly influencing large performance drops.
• I am riding to hard on the bike and trashing myself. 
• My nutrition strategy is not working as well as it could, perhaps I need to get more energy in on both the bike and the run.

So I have some time now prior to my next Ironman in 2014 to find some answers that will help me plan and execute better races next year. Some things I am considering doing to help me find answers are....

• Begin to use power output for cycling so I can better understand how much the cycling is taking out of me and adjust my effort accordingly. Potentially a large cost here as power meters are not cheap!
• Book in for some tests in a climate chamber to better understand how my core temperature rises and ways I can try to influence better control of this.
• Review my run training and consult a coach for guidance
• Keep reviewing and testing nutrition strategies in training and consult with a coach for guidance. 

The rest of 2013 - whats next? 

Finish

With Frankfurt being my last scheduled Ironman for 2013 it has been a disappointing season, probably my worst since starting Ironman in 2006. My next scheduled Ironman is Austria on June 29th 2014, giving me a little under a year without a race. This will be the longest break I have had in the last 6 years. To be honest I think my body and mind may need it. Ironman's hurt, they cut deep into your physical and mental reserves and I think it will do me some good to build the reserves back up, particularly my mental reserves. Your mind remembers the pain of an Ironman long after the body has recovered from it. Andreas Raelert reminded me of this when I asked him how long he would take to recover from Ironman Austria, he sighed and said something to the effect of "two weeks physically, a lot longer mentality!"Your body will only let you punish it that deeply so many times in a given time period, each person will have their own tolerance level, I may have got close to mine in the last 3 years by asking my body to do 9 Ironman's along with numerous other races and the training it takes to do all this, for now, time to freshen up! With my first child on the way I have a few DIY duties to attend to! That said I will still be active and train, my training will simply have less structure, less intensity and more rest. I am off to France in August for a holiday and will get a fair bit of cycling in then. I am also doing the Alpine challenge cycle event in France in September, so this will keep me in good cycle shape. I have also entered a marathon in October and have around 10 weeks to get into shape for that. I have not run a fresh marathon since 2006 so it will be interesting to see how I go......