Ironman Florida 2015 (aka Time to Put Up or Shut Up)

Well, it's been five months since IMFL, and life has kept me busy; but I really did want to come back and tell my IMFL 2015 story. I will borrow heavily from my report made to my coach and advisor which was written not long after the race. As I left off in a previous report, IMTX 2015 did not as well as hoped and I had higher hopes for IMFL.

The previous weekend, indeed the entire week, had been such a whirlwind that I don't know where to begin. Let's start with early race morning....

I woke about 3:15 am and started pre-race morning preparation, to include breakfast and electrolytes.  Even after breakfast I would continue to take in calories and electrolytes slowly in liquid form until about 15 minutes before the start. I also took some salt stick capsules around that time as well.

The swim didn't look good with 8 foot or more waves at the start and rolling waves in the middle areas that affected me, too. It seemed I was almost always close to people and making adjustments around them. I tried not to use too much energy just to counter other people and tried to concentrate on stroke and my line. My first lap was 41:40 and I was happy with that. I had more trouble with people in the second loop and tried to not let it bother me. After the last turn I picked up my pace a bit and worked on going hard for the last 3/4 of the final straightaway back to the shore. I stumbled a bit getting out of the water and took in some ocean water. As I made my way to the wetsuit strippers I was starting to cough, heave and puke enough that they offered to call medical but I passed on the offer. As an ironic twist of events, an old training partner and I were coming out of the water together on the last loop. :-) Loop 2 time was 47:59 and the total swim time was 1:29:39, which is my fastest IM swim.

Given how I felt, I went a little slow through T-1 and hoped to right myself, as I really did not want my race to end that early. I got my bag, found a seat, got prepared, peed and got my bike and got going. T-1 time was 12:48. Slower than I would have liked but I am glad I took the time to settle myself out.

I started the bike with the main goal being to FOLLOW THE PLAN, with a specific heart rate goal +/-2 beats. That proved to be tough for the first 15-20 minutes. As I recall, it was somewhere in that 15-20 minute range before I ever got my heart rate down to even the +2 beats over that target. I kept things on the easier effort side and eventually my heart rate began to come down. For the next 5-10 minutes, my heart rate also seemed to climb easier but then seemed to settle down. Around this time my stomach seemed to be settling out, too. Over the first 5 miles split, of actual data, my avg speed was 17.7 mph (felt slower) and Avg HR was 9 beats high. After that whenever my heart rate went over the range, I made the effort to let it come down through some form of easier effort. That easier effort might have been shifting to an easier gear, pedaling a bit slower or coasting depending on circumstances. As the miles went on I realized I got stronger, and the miles kept coming and going. I had my Garmin on a screen only showing heart rate and total time for the bike, so I didn't know my speed or total mileage, with the exception of seeing the mile markers each 10 miles and mentally doing the math to divide that against the time. The middle third of the course had some interesting hills and I kept noticing I was passing far more people than passed me. When I came to special needs area I felt I was fully on plan and comfortable and I just moved to the left a bit and blew through the area (safely). I got some moderate rain around miles 65-75 but that as all I saw of the rain.  As the ride continued I worked had to stay on my mantra of "Stay Positive", "HR Avg", "Nutrition Plan" and repeat. I saw several fellow OutRival Racing team riders out there and gave them each a supportive word as I passed them. Generally, I slightly negative split the bike course. I think there was a bit of a tailwind between miles 80-95/100 range but there was a good headwind and some crosswinds the last 12 miles. I did captured 5 mile split data for the bike. It seems that miles 85-100 were my fastest 5 mile sets at 20.4, 20.6 and 20.2 mph, each at Avg HR at the bottom of my goal range. In the last 12 miles, I did slow a bit to work on keeping my heart rate down. I averaged around 17.1 mph over that period with and a slightly high heart rate over that period. I thought I was slower than I really was and just had trouble moving my heart rate slower other than when I coasted to lower it. Overall, my bike split was 6:02:55, and I did have to use some self control to not push the later miles just to keep it under 6 hours for the sake of being under 6 hours. This was easily my fastest bike in any IM.
I suppose I can best sum up my riding as saying that I successfully avoided being my own worst enemy by following the plan.

As I came through T-2, I worked to be a bit faster through transition than before. I also noted that I got off the bike feeling ready to run, which was amazing. As everyone else was walking around I was trotting through transition and trying to get out and run! T-2 time was 9:23.

The 2 loop run became a tale of two separate stories. Lap 1 was almost according to plan. I got a banana in transition and I followed nutrition plan pretty much on target through mile 9-10 range. After that I started to have a hard time with gels and stopped those while trying to take extra Gatorade Endurance. In that first lap, I only walked at aid stations or just after as I finished taking in nutrition. In the midst of the 14th mile I hit a dark point where I thought I couldn't run anymore. I resigned myself to needing to walk a mile to reset myself and go from there. After walking 3/10 of a mile I felt I should run and I ran to the next aid station. After that point I would walk the first 2/10 to 3/10 of each mile in addition to aid stations. That slowed my time but also kept me running longer than I thought I could. I felt like I was balancing on the blade of a knife but was able to find a balancing point. Knowing what my time was, I have to admit I knew where I was relative to my PR,  I also knew I could slow even more than I did and still PR but I wanted more than just barely getting a PR at this point.  Starting at mile 18-20 I started taking chicken broth for extra nutrition and at mile 22 I started taking Coke for extra sugar. For much of the back half of the run I felt like my mouth was drying and kept drinking water. Around mile 18 I felt that my fingers were slightly swelling, which usually indicates too much water too me, so I adjusted accordingly. I do feel like this was my best IM run from any of my 5 IM races, in addition to it being my fastest IM run by a few minutes over the 2012 time. The run time was 5:32:46.

Overall, this was a PR for me at 13:27:31, beating out my 13:41:06 from 2012 IMTX, and was also nearly 2 hours 20 minutes of improvement over last May's time of 15:46:27.

This race turned out to be a great success and I am glad I followed through after the way IMTX 2015 turned out. This race has also inspired me to look forward to my next IM goal of breaking 13 hours in 2017--something which I would have considered unbelievable after my first IM but I now think is very much possible.

Thanks for reading!

Continuing

It's been 9 months since I posted. I have a variety of excuses: I've been busy and haven't had the time is probably at the top of the list. In truth, it is also probably more complicated than that. Shortly after posting the last post back in February, I began training for my fourth Ironman race. It began with the hope that it would carry me forward towards reclaiming my lost fitness. A year before I skipped the race due to general health issues that looked more like burnout. A year before that I finished the race in 14:59 while coming back from serious injury 7 months earlier, which was a success as a comeback despite being much slower than the 13:41 time from the previous year.

The training for Ironman Texas 2015 never quite fulfilled the promise of the hope it had been born from. My weight went back over 200 lbs for the first time in several years and reached 212 lbs before ultimately coming down to the low to mid 190s for the race. Race day came with much hope but ultimately felt like a failure with a finish time of 15:46. Certainly there are those who failed that day who would have been happy to accept that time as their own, but to me it seemed a confirmation that I would never get back to the form of the 13:41 race and beyond--a feeling which seemed confirmed by another local race later that spring and early summer.

In late June I gave a lot of thought to whether or not I should do the Ironman Florida race on November 7, 2015, for which I had previously registered and planned to do with 20-30 local teammates. After giving thought to the prospect of IMFL and discussing with friends and family, I was encouraged to go head and train for the race.

Shortly after the decision to move forward, many distractions came forward related to work activities and it seemed that the training for IMFL was going to resemble the recent IMTX effort. However, I continued forward with the expectation that that I would pursue this as a fun race and be prepared to "retire" from the Ironman distance, and perhaps triathlon, if the race resulted in another long suffering day.

The first month of training was okay, but somewhat haphazard with more missed workouts than I cared for over work issues. In the second month things improved and picked up for me. What I didn't realize for another month after that, is that somehow, things began to come together. By the end of the third month of training, I was noticing the sings of progress that I had not noticed before. Over the weeks that followed I noticed a spring in my step and a sense of confidence was returning to me with respect for the upcoming race. Even with that returning confidence, I could not shake the feeling that I might be about to go through the disappointment of last May again. What I told myself was that my best self assessment was telling me that I should be able to run a sub-14 hour race, and go well under that if all went right, but I still had the nagging fear that this was all an illusion and a 15+ or 16+ hour race was in my immediate future. As race day came close, those two thoughts continued to battle inside my head.

In my next entry I will provide my race report and outline what happened, and tell which school of thought was correct.

Getting Back to Where I Once Belonged

After taking much of the last 12-18 months off from serious training, I have had great success in my career and enjoyed the extra time with my family. However, the attraction of regaining the level of fitness I had a few years ago is pulling me back to training --and also back to running and triathlon events.

I am not trying to seek a sub 20 minute 5K, a BQ marathon, a fourth USAT Nationals qualification or even a sub 12 hour Ironman. Those are all great goals, and perhaps they will hit my goal list again some day. However, for now I am happy to be able to be healthy enough to do these events for completion and enjoyment, which reminds me exactly of myself in 2007-2011. Those were great years for me and I look forward to reconnecting with that lost portion of my history.

Perhaps one day I will again approach the form and fitness I had starting in 2012, and maybe then I might choose to go after those more aggressive goals again. Or maybe not--and that would be just fine as well. :-)

The Comeback Trail

It has been a long time since I have even looked at this blog, much less written for it. Most of the last year has been affected by injury and personal turmoil. I plan for 2015 to be different and will be will to claw my way back to fitness, if that is what it takes. This year will be a full year for me and is already starting off with a bang. If any of my old readers are left, I hope you enjoy the ride.

Outlining my Goals for 2014

The positive things I have going for me as I enter 2014 are that I am pretty well rested and uninjured. The negative things I have against me are that my recent extended semi-rest period over the last two-ish months has let me lose a bit of overall fitness and get out of the regular habits I had established in my fitness program. Overall, I believe those positives are more powerful than those negatives. Looking past the immediate present, let's examine my goals for the new year.

1. Do at least one event for the sheer fun of doing it.
With the rise of various themed events there is an abundance of unusual themed events around and all I have to do for this items is complete one with nothing more than the idea of fun in mind.

2. Get back into effective training shape and PR for at least one running and one triathlon event.
I am not planning a race intensive schedule over this coming year, However I will give myself opportunity to complete a few triathlon and road races with an emphasis on optimal performance.

3. Volunteer for a major racing event.
I am truly indebted to the many volunteers that have assisted with the many races I have completed . It is more than time for me to return that favor and make myself the volunteer helping out the many racers.

4. Finish the year in shape to do the Disney Dopey Challenge in January 2015.
My schedule may not have allowed me to make the Dopey Challenge for 2014 but I am committing to be ready for 2015.

5. Remember to enjoy the process and share my training time with friends.
I think this item is pretty self-explanatory. I want to be able to enjoy my training time by sharing it with friends and teammates while I am also improving myself with training.

6. While I am trying to emphasize fitness and fun for the year, I'd be lying if I left this last item off the list: to find my way back to a podium finish again during the year.
2012 was a breakthrough year for me and I went from an athlete who was content to find personal improvement to one had his first three podium finishes in that year when I wasn't even close in previous years. In 2013, I managed to come back a few more podium finishes in spite of my injury recovery. While my races of choice might be different in many ways in 2014 than in past years, I would still like to find a podium finish among those races.

7. Finally, I need to do the hard work of curtailing my wayward diet and getting my weight back into the mid-170 range where I was before my October 2012 injuries.

My diet laziness has helped my add 10-15 pounds at times and I am still in the mid-180 pound range. I know from experience that I am stronger and healthier in the mid-170's.

Now that I have written these out, I will leave them posted and we can revisit them at the end of 2014 and see how I have done.

2013 Goals in Review

From the start, 2013 was never going to be the year I had hoped it would be. Coming off of serious late year injuries in 2012 may have made for rescaling of 2013 but I refused to let those injuries stop me from doing the things that I loved. Here is a summary of the goals I posted from myself in January and how I did in the efforts throughout the year.

1. Complete my third Ironman race on May 18, 2013.

I registered for this race last summer in the first moments that registration was open. In 2012 I set a PR of almost three hours from the year before and I was hoping to aim for cutting another hour or two off of that time. However, getting hit by a car and having surgery to reconstruct my collarbone led to serious doubt that I might even be able to do this race--certainly my surgeon told me it was possible but he didn't seem too confident until April came and my recovery continued to move forward. On May 18, 2013, I started and completed my third Ironman race. It wasn't the smashing PR that I would have originally liked but it was a glorious day to prove that I was still able to be able to complete this wonderful event.

 2.With no real idea how long my recovery will take I will forgo my general desire to PR every race and set a more realistic PR goal for 2013. In this case I will attempt to set a PR for at least one running event and one triathlon event.

For the most part, I never did get my 2013 race times to beat my 2012 race times. However, my PR time at the Olympic Distance triathlon was beaten at the USAT National Championship race in August. In addition, in the run portion of that race I beat my 10K PR time and ran 10K in under an hour for the first time in any race.

 3.Do at least one very unique race event. I'm not going to place too many restrictions on this, just something out of the ordinary.

Given the loose requirements for this, I am going to claim that it was accomplished by participating in a national championship race (I finished way in the back--but I was there!) last August.

 4. This year I hope to be more mindful of not letting my training schedule monopolize my overall schedule.

During this year's Ironman training I was able to keep more time set aside for my wife than in previous years. In addition, I learned to take more time off near holidays for my family.

 5. Find ways to be helpful to others in these sporting activities and follow through with helping them.

During 2013 I was able to continue my work with a group dedicated to helping junior high students run their first 5K race. I was also blessed this year to do may training activities with friends that I hadn't done much or training with in previous years. In some cases I was able to help advise them  as they worked towards their own Ironman races.


2013 managed to have its share of surprises for me, in mostly positive ways. I wasn't just able to return to racing but I even managed to find my way to 3 podium finishes in a few low profile races. I entered the year on little more than faith and hope but I finished the year knowing that I was strong enough for the challenges I faced. I'm not quite sure what goals I will have for 2014 but I will go into the year confident that I can overcome the obstacles life places in my way.

Catching Up

I've fallen behind in my race reports and want to catch up before finishing out the year.

Back in mid-November I did the Conroe Turkey Trot. This was the goal race for a group I volunteer with called Healthy Youth. For the past school semester our group has been working with junior high students to teach the to run a 5K and to also teach them healthy life habits. This was our third group and was once again a big success. During the 5K I ran with several of the students and kept them motivated. As I did this I finished my race in 24:42 and also finished first in my age group.

Early in December I completed a 20K trail run in Huntsville State Park in 2:20. This fell just short of a PR for me, but I ran this race for fun and not to be fast, which was perfectly fine with me.

Hopefully, now that I've caught up I can stay better on track with my blog in the future.