Ironman World Championships Race review

Okay - warning first, this is a long post and it could have been a lot longer! 

As always time seems to be flying by, I suppose that is a good sign I am really enjoying life - which I certainly am! I have been busy though, since my last post prior to Ironman Austria in June I have moved house, changed jobs and I have tried hard to balance being a Dad and Husband who is involved and present alongside Ironman training. This has meant I have had very few spare minutes and as you can probably imagine some compromises have had to be made.

Since my last post I have raced Ironman Austria and the Ironman World Championships in Kona. This review will predominantly focus on Kona but I will mention my Ironman Austria race and build up to Kona.

Ironman Austria was at the back end of June and it was my second time doing the race, I previously raced it in 2010. My lead up to Austria was okay. I experienced my usual dip in swim times as bike and run training load increased over April and May but a few open water swim races confirmed my swim was pretty much where it had been in previous years – around the 60min mark for 3.8km. I also believe I have somewhat improved my ‘kicktastic tendency’ having improved my arm turnover and body rotation so whilst I may not be moving faster I believe I am more efficient. My cycling was pretty minimal; for the most part it consisted of three cycles per week, a recovery spin on Monday, one interval session in the week and a long ride on Saturday. My cycling volume really has taken a hit. Prior to having Betsy (my child) I was able to get two to three quality 2 hour turbo sessions in each week after work. Since having Betsy though I have had two main challenges: Less sleep – this has meant when I get home from work I have been tired and have somewhat ‘wimped out’ of doing turbo sessions. Additionally I mostly leave for work before Betsy is up so my only chance to get to see her is in the evenings and frankly seeing Betsy has been my priority. It is certainly not an easy choice to go and bust yourself through a tough turbo session when you are tired and wanting to see your baby! Some weeks where I was at home in the morning or home early in the evening I did get the odd session in but it was far from the consistent quality I have achieved in the past. My running consistency was very good though and I got in a very consistent pattern with my long runs on Sunday and some shorter runs in the week. I did feel more fatigue than previous years on my runs though but I put this down to the reduced sleep and cycling volume resulting in less recovered legs!

Ironman Austria rolled round quickly and I found myself on the start line in reasonable shape.

The swim: Out of the 16 Ironman's I have done this was without doubt the worst swim start I have ever had! I got absolutely battered. My feet were consistently pushed under and I was knocked from both sides, at one point I was ‘head locked’ and ducked. I am not sure it was intentional, I think it was more a case of the swimmers arm who was next to me wrapping around my neck by accident. Either way it was rough and I was forced underwater for some time resulting in me swallowing a lot of water, I struggled to breathe and lost my composure. It was the first time I would say I experienced panic emotions in a swim! It took a good 20-30mins of self talk and a wide line to find some open water before I fully regained composure and got back to racing. I exited the swim in 1 hour and was satisfied with that considering.

The Bike: It was a long T1 but it went smooth and I got out on the bike all organised. This was my first race with a power meter and my target wattage was 180-190watts around 2.7-2.8 watts per kg. I held this pace comfortably initially. Quite a few riders flew off and my instinct told me I could have gone after them but I stuck to my target power with the goal of saving myself for a better run. After about 40km packs were forming on the bike and it was a draft fest. Lines of riders would go past and I literally had to free wheel to keep legal distance. On a couple of occasions I expended a lot of energy to get round big packs exerting a lot of power to do so only to have them pass back 2-3km further up the road where my power would drop as I had to free wheel again to keep legal distance from the draft zone. It was very difficult to keep an even power output. Some steep hills and fast descents in the later stages of the loop also challenged my ability to keep my power up and even. I did not do a very good job of holding target power. My average watts slowly crept down and ended up being an average of 176 with a variability of 9% - tut tut! My ride time was 5.11 and I was not happy with this as my previous time in 2010 was 5.02. Including Austria I have only ever done 3 Ironmans twice but this was the only time where on the 2^nd attempt my bike time was slower! 

Run: As I got off the bike and started to run I did feel good and thought maybe a more conservative bike may have left me in a better position for a decent run. I planned to do a 4km run, 45s walk strategy. (walk every other aid station). Target pace was 4.55 – 5.05 (around a 3.30 marathon). My first 16km was pretty much at this pace but at the dreaded half way point in the marathon I could feel the quad fatigue creeping up and I tried to combat this with some stretching and caffeine gels but to no avail. In fact I suffered from some cramping and challenged breathing which I believe was caffeine related. I am very sensitive to caffeine and think I overdid it. Anyhow by 25km I was crushed mentally and physically to shuffling between each aid station bringing me home in a 4 hour marathon and a finish time around 10.20. I was disappointed with this race. Despite my training volume being reduced and generally more fatigue day to day I had had some good sessions leading into the race that showed promise so I was hoping for more.

Reflection over a couple of weeks of recovery pre Kona build lead me to conclude I needed to remove caffeine out of my race nutrition and significantly reduce it on a day to day basis as I believe it was acting as a ‘band aid’ to combat my tiredness. I also decided to increase my focus on the bike as no doubt my lack of fitness in this area was not just causing my bike times to suffer but was also hurting my 'weak link' - the run!

Kona build went well and weather was very accommodating at the weekends for long rides. I banked four 200km rides each time achieving slightly better wattage with one ride averaging 192watts after a 5km swim. For a non-competition solo ride I was pleased with that and it was the best ride I had logged with a power meter so I felt good progress was being made. As would be expected, increased bike volume and intensity meant increased fatigue in the legs for running and some of my longer runs took more out of me than I wanted and fatigued stayed with me through the best part of the week. I can't remember a time I have recovered so slow from workouts but I tried to reassure myself I was getting key sessions done and the other sessions were less important. At the end of August/Early September the house move took place and there were two weeks where sleep and recovery were very poor. Mid September I paid the price and went down sick for a day which is extremely rare for me. I felt ‘flue like’ being shaky and weak with temperature fluctuations, I also developed a sore throat and was coughing up phlem. Basically I had to cancel the weekend and a few extra days of training. The time off my legs probably did them good and my last long run (36km) prior to the race went very well and I held 3.30 marathon pace the day after a 150km ride. This gave me some confidence I had improved my fitness since Austria. 

Kona: I arrived in Kona on Monday October 6^th and was immediately shocked by the heat and humidity and realized that in an ideal world I would have come out a week earlier to acclimatise. A serious age group podium contender certainly would have been out earlier but I wanted some time in Hawaii after the race with the family and two weeks was the maximum I could have. I stayed at Waikoloa beach resort about 30 miles or so from Kona along the Queen K. The resort was beautiful and great for training. My first training ride on the Queen K was up to Kawaihae and part way up Hawi. I had two further shocks. 1. How the heat reflects of the road magnifying what is already an intense heat and 2. How gusts of wind could come out of no where and ‘unnerve’ you on the way down from Hawi. I did a couple of reps down a small section of Hawi to try and get used to the wind. It is pretty scary when you are travelling at 60km/h plus on a bike and get smacked by a strong crosswind! No doubt on race day there would be some very good bike handlers that would embrace this and make it look easy! I hoped to be one of them!

The week leading up to the race consisted of some swims in the beautiful waters, a couple more shorter bikes to orientate and acclimatize and some short runs in the heat. The key was to try and shake of any travel fatigue and get rested and aware of the course.

I loved training on the island, it really is all about the ironman the week leading up to the race. Athletes are everywhere including the pro’s. It was very inspiring and somewhat intimidating to be in such an environment.

Swim: I got into the water about 10mins prior to the age group male start and got a spot in the center about 3 back from front. I had a ‘crazy’ American next to me shouting out things like 'this is what dreams are made of’ ‘time to get it on’ which I found quite funny and settling, judging by the grey focused faces of many around me I guessed they didn’t. When the cannon went off I braced for contact but I didn’t get any! I must have been very lucky as I was surrounded by swimmers yet I had about a meters space in each direction. I swam hard but conservative and got a few drafts, I believe I held a good line with the buoys after drifting in from the centre. I spent most of the first 1500m chuffed to bits with the little contact I had and simply tried to enjoy what is an epic swim. I got a small amount of contact at the turnaround but nothing major. It was further out that I really noticed the swell and chop but I thought I was swimming well, I had no
clue on time though, it seemed to be passing quick and I was hopeful of a good swim time. I had heard that Kona is about 5min slower than most typical lake Ironman swims so in my mind I was thinking I may get out about 1hour and 5mins but as it turns out I was 5 mins slower at 1hour 10mins. I thought I swam well so felt a bit impartial about my time. I thoroughly enjoyed the warm choppy waters and the incredible underwater view. Swimming up to the pier towards the swim exit steps felt surreal to me, I had seen it on so many DVD’s /ironman clips it was cool to actually be there.

Bike: I got my gear and was out of T1 in around 5mins. Immediately on the bike I felt weak, I was hitting target wattage initially, but it felt significantly harder than on training rides, I thought it was to early to judge for sure and hoped I my legs would come good so I kept on the gas. Once up Palani hill and on the Queen K there was a tail wind on the way out and the first 40-50km up to Waikoloa was pretty quick but then the winds changed to a head wind and picked up and I was having to push 200 watts just to move around 20km/h! After a short fast descent at Kwaihae, it was time to ride the climb up Hawi. It was here I saw the pro’s coming down, they were hammering it and it was an inspiring lift seeing Kienle, Crowie, Marino, Raelert etc doing there thing. I rode up to Hawi very conservatively trying to keep the nutrition going in and the temperature down. The descent from Hawi was awesome, hair raising with the crosswinds but awesome. I was certainly glad I practiced in the crosswinds. There were long sections were I was moving over 55km/h and upto 70km/h and I didn’t need to put down big wattage to achieve this, I was able to stay under target. One 10km split was 13mins and some change! Once down from Hawi I started to suffer, the climb up to Kwaihae felt tough and I was grateful for a short section of tail wind back to Waikoloa however the remaining 50km was all into a strong headwind and things started to go wrong. All of a sudden I started to feel really hot and I was conscious I was getting sunburnt on my shoulders and arms. I think my sweat and ‘water pouring over the head’ must have removed my sunscreen. I struggled to keep my power up and the speed I was clocking was slow, I was leaking time and becoming a touch demoralized when I worked out my bike time would be around 5.40ish. I was aiming for more like 5.15-5.20 and at the time was very confused with my lack of bike power.

Run: T2 - I made sure T2 was steady. I gave myself a good talking to and had some good banter with the volunteer who help my transition. Feeling a bit of a lift I ran on out with a cap full of ice which gave me some welcome relief from the heat which I clearly was not handling well at all! My run strategy was adjusted from Austria to a 3km run 45s-1min walk. Being a stocky mesomorphic athlete overheating was a serious worry for me and my last 4 Ironmans have all resulted in me falling apart on the run so my confidence was low particularly as this was going to be the toughest course and conditions. I ran well with good composure holding 5minute k's for about 12km, confidence was building as I felt in control but then out of nowhere the wheels started to fall off. I all of a sudden felt even hotter than I was, my leg fatigue ramped up and if I am honest I mentally cracked, I hurt and I couldn’t find it within me to push any harder and I guess I emotionally settled on an aid station run/walk survival fest again! Bizzarely though I was enjoying myself, seeing all the landmarks, images and athletes from the DVD’s etc was great for me, it felt good just to be a part of it. I hit 21km just under 2hours and was on for a sub 4 hour marathon but then had to contend with the energy lab. About this time my adductors were getting very tight, not cramps, just tight and they were impeding my already limited capacity to move forward and they needed regular stretching. Coming out of the energy lab I was greeted by my wife and friend James Resor, who lives on the island and was actually the male lead runners pace bike. They were on a moped and able to give me words of encouragement. Their company was greatly appreciated and they motivated me to run the best part of the Queen K back to town. I got back to town as it was turning dark. I enjoyed my run down Palani hill and Ali drive and as always I got some adrenaline that gave me a bit of a kick. Running up the finishing chute was a fantastic experience and I got a good shout out from Mike Reily and a hand shake and chat with Andrew Messick, Ironman’s CEO. My run time was 4hours 29mins and my finish time 11hours 33mins, ironically within 2mins of the finish time of my very first Ironman in Western Australia!

Comparison of what you think you are capable with vs reality: My immediate post race reaction was very mixed, part of me was in awe of the event and feeling privileged to have been a part of the race. Part of me was proud of myself for setting a goal so long ago, chasing it and achieving it, yet part of me was frustrated and disappointed with my performance. Where did my power go on the bike? Why can’t I run to my potential? How could I have been so careless to have got so sunburnt? – which I haven't mentioned but man was I sunburnt! My last few Ironman's have seen me move backwards not forwards and that has been tough to take. I have an idea of what I believe I am capable of in my head yet in reality I have not achieved that in recent races. Am I kidding myself? Do I think I am better than I really am? Am I somewhat delusional? Quite possibly……

After the race: Once the race was done it was great to be able to go and meet my wife, daughter and parents. It was magical to be able to share the event with them. During the remaining time on the island a few drinks were enjoyed, some sight seeing was done and some general relaxing took place. The island of Hawaii is simply stunning. Dolphins, turtles and beautiful swimming spots are abundant as are lots of day trip adventures. I particularly enjoyed a trip to Waipioa valley waterfull and Mauna kea Volcano – thanks to my friends James and Sarah for this day, it was very special indeed.

What next? Well I am not quite sure. The really delusional side of me has had the thought of trying to get back to Hawaii and give it another go but given my wife and I would like a second child I cannot quite see how I could get myself in good enough shape in the next couple of years to even stand an outside chance of qualifying. The standard for qualification to Hawaii these days is ridiculously high. Consider that over 300+ of the Ironman marathons run in Hawaii were fast enough to qualify for the Boston marathon! That is obscene when you consider the swim and bike before, the course and conditions! Another option I have considered is to race some shorter races for a year or two and try to rebuild my body stronger, faster and leaner removing the mental drain that ironman racing can have. And the last option I am considering is picking one Ironman to do a year, a fast one and having a few cracks at getting a significant PB and running to my potential, this might just give me some serious satisfaction of achieving what I believe I can. I'll take some time to decide though and in the meantime enjoy some social time and getting stick into some overdue DIY duties in the new house.......

Thanks for reading