Ironman Florida 2009

10:14:27. Res ipsa loquitur. Obviously I am very disappointed, but I think my time reflects well the training I did in the lead up to the race - more on that below. So I am not as disappointed as I was last year, even though my overall fitness level may have been better this year. Most of all, I was very happy to finish, and finish (relatively) strong.

SWIM

S: 1:08:00. No surprise here. It's about what I expected given the level of swimming I did - 5 or 6 weeks of swim training before the race wasn't going to cut it, but I knew that going in so I wasn't that upset when I got out of the water.

T1: 00:08:07!!! Absolutely atrocious. Nothing remarkable happened in T1; I was just very slow. I have no idea how it took me over 8 minutes to get through it. Then again, I didn't know how slow I went until after the race, so it didn't affect my mental state at all while I was racing.

BIKE

B: It took me about 45 minutes for my legs to open up, but once they did, I felt fantastic. My bike training this year was consistent and solid for the most part, though with one fatal flaw, which landed up, I think, ruining my whole race.

The first couple of hours of the bike, particularly on the Florida course, have been tough for me the last couple of years. Being a slow swimmer puts me in a terrible position once I get on the bike, and particularly because of the packs in Florida, it takes a concerted amount of effort to get by everyone. Lots of surges.

Unlike last year though, once I made my surges, none of the packs kept up with me and I never got swept up (until 100 miles into the ride), so I had some open roads where I was picking off literally hundreds of people (and tens and tens of packs) within the first hour and until the fourth hour.

(As an aside, if you have a moral issue with people drafting, don't do Florida. I personally don't care that people draft unless the drafting starts to affect my race, which it didn't this year. But I'd say the large majority of participants that I saw - and I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I were to say that > 60-70% of the people that I passed and 100% of the people that passed me - seemed to think that they were riding in the pro peloton.

I am proud of my bike time (even though I thought I'd be faster) and am highly suspicious of the majority of times posted in the results. If you are going for a Kona slot, I'd think twice about doing Florida; if you are racing for your own reasons or just competing against yourself, then the Florida course is fun and well organized - the drafting shouldn't be a problem).

I averaged 260 watts (269 normalized) for the first 3 hours with an average heart rate of 148bpm. (As a point of reference, I averaged 258w with an average heart rate of 162bpm at FL70.3 last May - so my biking fitness for this year's Ironman was very good). However, the wheels, so to speak, started to come off at about 3:30 into the ride. My back completely seized up around that point and from then on until the end of the bike ride, I struggled to produce any power whatsoever and struggled to push off during the run.

I see what happened as completely preventable and as a direct result of my training. While I had a lot of biking miles under my legs, my longest ride during my build was only 4+ hours, which I was nervous about and which turned out to be not long enough. It was within that 3-4 hour time span that my back acted up. Had I biked 6 hours in the aero position several times in training, I don't think I would have encountered the same problem.

Broken down by hour, my stats were as follows (my speedometer went in and out throughout ride due to poor magnet placing on my disk so distance and mph is slightly off):

Hour 0 - 1



Hour 1- 2



Hour 2 - 3



Hour 3 - 4



Hour 4 - 4:50



As the stats show, I wasn't having too much fun from 3:30 until the end of the ride (and unfortunately until the end of the race). Adding insult to injury, a huge pack, which I had worked hard to pass around the 40 mile marker, caught and flew past me at about the 100 mile marker. It was disheartening to say the least and I knew then that my dream of sub 10 for this race was likely over. TOTAL BIKE TIME: 4:50:16. Not outstanding, but good enough.

T2: 00:4:36. Less atrocious (relatively speaking). My transitions are obviously terrible. That comes from not practicing them and only doing 1 race per year, something I need to correct going forward.

RUN

R: I knew it was going to be a long day on the run course. If I couldn't push down on my pedals during the end of the bike, I was scared about being able to run. And unfortunately, I couldn't. I saw my parents out of transition and that gave me some adrenaline. But my marathon consisted of running 7:30-8's for a few miles and then walking. It wasn't fun. I saw my brother (who ran ahead so he could see me several times during the run) at mile 6. At that point, I had been averaging about 8:20's. He said I looked great, which motivated me to keep going, but I think secretly he knew I was struggling as he asked me if I had been walking and told me that I could slow down to make sub 10.

Once I got to the 11 mile marker, I was done. I could barely move. My back was killing, but I also think it was result of a lack of running fitness. My longest brick run off of a long bike was about 10 miles and it was then that I really started to hurt. I walked until mile 12 at which point I started to run again so my parents wouldn't see me walking where they were waiting for me at the halfway mark. Miles 13-18 were pure agony. For those 5-6 miles, I traded off running 8's for one mile and then walking for the second mile. At one of the aid stations, a very nice lady asked me if I needed anything; I asked for some advil and she said ok carry on, I'll bring it to you. I kept walking and 5 minutes later she pulled up to me in a full sprint with the Advil. (The volunteers and spectators were awesome).

I saw my brother again at mile 18. He told me that I needed 7:30s to hit sub 10. That wasn't going to happen. But I also wanted to finish strong and try to get under 4 hours for the marathon. Also didn't happen, but I did give everything I had, particularly from mile 22 until the end. Total Marathon Time: 4:03:28.

TAKEAWAYS

Despite not going sub 10, there are a lot of positives to take away from this race. First, I really feel like I am on the verge of going fast, even much faster than sub 10. This was the first Ironman that I have done where I felt like I was really racing. The other Ironmans that I have done have all been about survival.

Second, taking away my transition times, my swim, bike, run total time was actually faster this year than last year, despite my slower marathon time. And I placed higher in my age group and overall. The swim was much rougher and the bike much windier than last year too. So I think this year's 10:14 this was better than last year's 10:12.

Third, I know what I need to do to get better. Swim and run. I am going to dedicate myself to swimming as I have done to biking. While I used to the think the swim didn't matter, I now think that the swim completely sets the tone for my entire race. If I can get out of the water faster, I think my bike time and overall time will be much faster. This coming year will all be about the swim and run, though the run will take me longer to build up.

Fourth, while I only ran a 4+ hour marathon, I convinced myself that I can actually run in an Ironman. My 4:20-4:30 marathons of old used to be a result of lots of walking with steady efforts at 9-10+ min/miles sprinkled in. Now my 4 hour marathons are a result 7:30-8 min/miles sprinkled in with lots of walking. While the total times are similar, the efforts and fitness level required to achieve the latter are much different. Once I get my running miles up (I only started running 30+ miles six weeks out from the race), which I haven't been able to do for the last two years because of various injuries, I think I will be ok.

Fifth, it has been 2 days since the race and a day of traveling, and I have zero soreness or stiffness. This tells me that I have a good base going forward and that my rate of recovery has improved tremendously, which will help me as I train for next year's goal of sub 10.

Finally, based on this race, there is no doubt that I need to race more throughout the year. My race execution is terrible. My pain threshold during a race is terrible. And my ability to get into that extra gear during a race is terrible. No more 1-2 race seasons. I need to learn to race and that requires racing, whether it be a 5k or a half ironman. Furthermore, for the amount of training that I do, putting all my eggs in one basket is just a bad strategy.

Ironman is a frickin' tough sport and I am still learning what it takes to be good. But that's what I love about it. Here's to next year's training and racing. Cheers.