Ironman Florida Race Report

I had been planning to set some time aside to sit down and write out a very detailed race report. However, I now prefer to keep it short(er). To be honest, I actually don't remember much of the race. And as I am sitting here now--two days after the race--I have absolutely zero soreness and zero stiffness (I did not have any soreness or stiffness yesterday either).

The fact that I don't remember much of the race and that my body is not sore tells me that my body was prepared to race; my mind wasn't. I do not believe I raced to my potential. I know I had a better race in me at the same fitness level. So rather than dwelling on what could have been, I am now ready to pick up my training again and move forward. I am going to start training again tomorrow.

I woke up on race morning an hour early after only about 3 hours of sleep. I was very excited to get going. However, I was not nervous at all. I found that to be a bit odd considering how much I had invested in this one day. On the one hand, I think it was good that I was relaxed; on the other hand, and in retrospect, I think I
was much too relaxed. I should have been much more pumped up. Instead, I felt like I was just going through the motions.

After I woke up, I first ate breakfast. Two bagels, both with cottage cheese, a Cliff Bar, a Cliff Builders bar, and a banana. I then ate another bagel. I also drank lots of water, Gatorade, and a Red Bull. I then took a shower.

One hour later though, I was still completely full. I ate way too much. I had never eaten that much before a big workout. And now, right before the race, my stomach was completely bloated and I was having trouble walking. I was literally praying that I would have to go to the bathroom before the race to empty out my stomach. Eating too much was the first mistake I made. I shouldn't have changed things up that morning. I finally did make it to the bathroom, but I couldn't get rid of my bloated stomach. And I never really did throughout the day.

After going down to transition to check my bike and transition bags, I went back upstairs to the hotel room to change into my wetsuit. I made it out to the beach about 15 minutes before the the start. Even down by the beach, I was much too relaxed. Here was race day, the biggest day of the year for me, the day that I had put everything into, and I yet I was struggling to pump myself up. I was either too confident, or I was treating it much too much like another training day. I am not sure which one, but either way, I wish I had been a little less relaxed and a little more pumped.

15 minutes later, the gun finally went off. I started out the 2 lap swim not feeling that comfortable. I just didn't feel like had much energy. Furthermore, I was getting punched and kicked quite a bit. That is to be expected. But for some reason, I just let it get to me. Rather than settling into a groove, I was just getting frustrated. I kept trying to get it together, but never could. I only have myself to blame for that. It is frickin' Ironman. What did I expect?

I finally finished the first lap and looked at my watch. It said almost 35 minutes. I was really upset with that, and was actually a little bit shocked. I knew I was taking it easy, but I didn't realize I was taking it THAT easy. So I was determined to swim harder during the second lap, which I did. Now that I have seen the swimming race splits, I am pleased to know that I am one of the few participants that negative split the swim, even if only by a few seconds. Just about everyone else swam a few minutes slower during the loop. So that tells me I just did not execute properly and probably did not expend enough energy during the fist lap. TOTAL SWIM: 1:08:57.

I made it through transition ok and then got on the bike. However, within the first few moments of the ride, I noticed that my Powermeter wasn't working. I had no watts, HR, time, mph, or cadence readings. Nothing worked. Having trained to race on data, whether HR or power, I stopped again. It took me several minutes (probably about 3-5) to get the computer working, though I never did get it working entirely. I had no mph reading for the entire race. Furthermore, I was not sure if it was working properly (which I'll come back to).

Once I got going again, I started out by pushing 260 watts (272np) at a HR of 152bpm for the first 56 minutes. My legs felt very heavy and I still felt like I had no energy. But I was determined to sit on 260 thinking that based on my training, my legs would eventually come around.

56 minutes into my ride, I suddenly got swept up by the Tour de Florida (i.e., by at least 50 cyclists all at once). (As an aside, while some have very strong opinions about it, I have never had a problem with drafters before as it tends not to impact my race. I race for myself. If others want to draft so be it; that is their choice. And they will know their result is a result of drafting).

Nevertheless, and back to my report, I became convinced that my Powermeter was wrong and that when I pulled over to fix it, I did not fix it properly. I thought to myself, and without having MPH as a reference, there is no way that I could get passed like that had I been averaging 260w. So I became determined to ride even harder. I made several surges trying to get past the group of riders that passed me, but as soon as I did, everyone just sat on my wheel. This went on for quite a bit. I became completely demoralized, not because I cared that anyone else was drafting, but because I couldn't get away and so thought I had no power in my legs on that day. And the truth is, I really didn't. Furthermore, making these surges, I think, further ruined my day. I was used to riding steady, and yet on race day I was making stupid surges, using up the little energy that I had had. I then lost it mentally and became content with sitting on an easy pace, around 200-210w. I am definitely disappointed in myself for doing that.

I don't remember much about hours 2-4 except for going easy and waiting for my legs to warm up. They finally did, but only at the 4 hour mark. By then it was too late to have a really strong ride. I picked up the power a little but not too much, thinking I might as well go for the best run I could. From the 4 hour mark on, I averaged 241 watts. My powermeter recorded 4:57 minutes of the ride. It says I averaged 233watts, less watts than my ride from last year. My np was outrageously high due to the surges I was making so that my VI was 1.40. My average HR was 139bpm. I trained to ride close to 156-160bpm. TOTAL BIKE: 5:02:01.


By the end of the ride, I was convinced that having ridden at such a low HR, I was poised to have an incredible run. It didn't turn out that way. As soon as I got off the bike, my legs felt the worst they had felt in any of the brick runs I had done throughout the year. I was bloated and I needed to go to the bathroom.

Nevertheless, I kept it going until I hit the end of mile 3. By then, my shins did not feel great, and I became concerned that they were going to flare up. They ultimately did not, but I used them as an excuse anyway to go to the bathroom and walk it out until mile 5. Again, I was weak mentally.

I then started running again. But I really did not feel good. I kept going until I hit mile 15 and mile 16. I was seriously lacking energy by this point. And so I stopped to walk, trying to get in calories through drinking Coke and Gatorade and eating Gummy Bears. The problem, however, was that I was still very bloated. So taking in more calories was only making things worse. I started to run again at mile 17 and ran through 18, but again lacked energy. I stopped to walk again at mile 19 to get in more calories. At that point, I knew sub 10 was not possible, yet I was determined to finish strong. And it was really the only part of the day that I was mentally strong. Miles 20-26 was my fastest run segment. TOTAL RUN: 3:51:02. Below are the splits again.


At the end of the day, I am pleased with the effort leading up to the race. I however don't think my race execution was that great. I was mentally weak throughout the day. And so that is something I need to work. Perhaps entering more races, perhaps some 70.3s would help.

Furthermore, and quite frankly, I just didn't have it that day. Perhaps I was not as fit as I thought I was, which certainly is a possibility. Some have commented that I screwed up my taper. That is also certainly a possibility and something I am thinking about. On the other hand, I also think that given that I did not taper much, the fact that I took three very easy days right before the race might have also cost me. I had never done that before in training. And I know from my past training that taking easy days--especially when doing nothing--tends to make my body shut down. So either I need more taper or if I am not going to taper, then I need to continue training more up until the race. I will work on those things this year to nail it for the next race.

I appreciate all of words of encouragement and support that I have received. It means a lot to me. I will continue to blog. I am convinced that I can get much better and that I can have a much better race. It took Macca 6 times to win Kona an yet his fitness was probably the same every year (he was even leading the race the first year). Same with Mark Allen and many others. I need to learn how to execute properly, figure out how to tap into my fitness on race day (which includes tapering correctly and being better mentally prepared for the race), and improve upon my fitness.

I am not sure which race I will do next. I am signed up for IMFL again next year. But as I said above, I will begin training again tomorrow and go from there.

Thanks for the support.