Todd M. IMCDA race report

[t.mellinger]

Sorry this is a bit long, after reading about some of the bad days people had, i kind of feel bad about posting this, maybe there's a few things in here that might help someone else. Nutrition and Lessons included at the end..

IMCDA 2008 Race Report:

I had one goal for this race, get a kona slot. This was ironman #12 for me, I’ve tried a lot of things in the past but never quite made it. Never really been slow, but never fast enough. Luckily, I came upon EN and the wisdom of training with a power meter entered my brain. For those that don’t like the details, I executed my race exactly as planned, finished 60th overall(including 18 pros in front of me), finished 9th in my age group, had a fantastic race, smiled the entire time, and never had a “low” point in the race. Bike and Run pacing were amazingly consistent, more on that below.. Oh yeh, and I got that Kona spot!

Stats: Swim 1:01:00 ; Bike 5:24:27 ; Run 3:38:27 OA: 10:10:03

Swim:
I originally entered the beach with the idea of starting to the far right which was what the EN Coaches had planned. As I started drifting right I noticed a lot of people were lined up to the right, I also noticed the area directly in front of the buoys was unusually bare, I made the decision to try the straight shot right down the buoy line, this turned out to be a great decision. The water was cold, ~ 59, I wore a neoprene cap and a full wetsuit, that seemed perfect for me. The gun went off and I went with the flow, traffic seemed unusually low as I hit the first turn, its usually a bit more hectic but hoped I placed myself right. I came out of the first loop at 29:30, feeling pretty good, jumped back in the water and found some great feet, a great big guy who swam straight, finally, the perfect draft. I spent the next half hour concentrating on his feet, I followed him the entire second lap, it was great..
Time 1:01:00, Division 9/332 102 overall(including pros)

T1:
Threw on my helmet, picked up my shoes and ran to my bike, put my shoes on near bike exit: Time 3:32

Bike:
Bike plan was to do 200-205Watts first half, 205-210Watts second half.. At 157lbs, I estimated this would give me a 5:20-5:25 on this course. Heading out of town was tough keeping the power in check, every time I looked, I was too high, I adjusted. As I approached the turn around I noticed I was pretty far up front, much further than I normally was, I realized I had a great swim. I caught up with Coach Rich around 2 hours, a few choice words with him and I stepped back and re-evaluated my effort, I knew I should not be passing him. The SRM power meter doesn’t have TSS or Pnorm, just Pavg which was reading 190W which sounded about right. I checked my calories burned for the first 2 hours and it showed I was indeed a little hot, I backed off a bit and tried to maintain < 210W till the end. Per EN style, few crazy guys passed me first loop, only to be re-passed on the second loop. I finished the bike feeling great, it was easy, things were going well and I knew it..
BIKE NUTRITION:
Calorie intake for me ~ 320Cal/hr which was a reduction for me this year. First 2 hours were 2 bottles of infinit at 320Calories each. 2 gu’s/banana till the special needs(mile 63). I picked up 2 more bottles of infinit, milky way, and my mountain dew. Drank about 1/3 of my Dew before it was ejected off the back(oops). By mile 85 I had finished my milky way and both bottles and I was hungry, I mean really hungry. I probably lost 200 calories when I lost my Dew, I took a gu and about half a bottle of Gatorade(why did I do that, just gave me gas), but it was enough to calm the stomach. I wanted to stay on the hungry side, stomach empty, good sign.. Last 10 miles, nothing but water..

Bike Stats: Div Place 18/332; 76 overall; 5:24:27 20.7 mph
FT ~ 275Watts(didn’t get a real test in before race time, estimate, could be 280), 157lbs
Pavg=193W, Pnorm=208W, VI 1.08, TSS 309

Loop 1: 2:41:15 TSS 155; Pnorm 209W; VI 1.08
Loop 2: 2:43:12 TSS 154; Pnorm 207W; VI 1.08
Yeh, now that’s nice! Thank you power meter!

Entire workout (193 watts):
Duration: 5:25:36 (28:09:00)
Work: 3770 kJ
TSS: 309.4 (intensity factor 0.755)
Norm Power: 208
VI: 1.08
Pw:HR: 0.76%
Pa:HR: -1.43%
Distance: 112.194 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 863 193 watts
Heart Rate: 0 182 144 bpm
Cadence: 29 113 90 rpm
Speed: 0 43.9 20.7 mph
Pace 1:22 0:00 2:54 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 1488 183 lb-in

I was shooting for a TSS ~ 300, little high but that’s ok, I still had a good run..

T2: 2:14, 2 pairs of socks, Vaseline on the toes, throw on the garmin, out the door

Run: Goal < 3:45
My plan for the run was to run the first 5 miles no faster than 8:15, do a body check and decide if I should run faster.. As I came out I found it almost difficult to run that slow, but managed to keep it in check. I stopped at 1 mile to go to the bathroom, that was the last stop of the day. I caught coach rich around 4 miles or so and ran/chatted with him for a bit. He chatted some with me which was nice, but he was in his zone, he stopped to stretch and I kept on going. At 5 miles I decided to just keep on with the pace, staying between 8 and 8:30 at this point. Things were just feeling great, I was smiling, talking to the crowd, just having a great day and having fun. From the beginning my aid stations consisted of water, coke, water, sometimes orange, that was it. I had one gu midway thru the run but that was all, the coke calories and single gu seemed to be enough for me, that was great. Coach Patrick caught me around mile 14 or so looking smooth, Rich was still only maybe a minute back, looking good. I continued on with my pace without issues, hit mile 18 feeling pretty good, decided to maintain pace with no stops, would re-evaluate at mile 22. Hit mile 22 and things were still good, my pace hadn’t really changed since the beginning, my legs felt tired but ok, I decided to try and maintain my pace to mile 25, if anyone was around me at that point I’d consider digging deep, but no one was. At this point I had no idea what my overall time was nor did I know what my overall run time was, I was only looking at my mile splits, figured I was probably on track for a 3:45 run but didn’t really know. About 200 yards from the finish I finally saw the clock at 10:09 and was ecstatic, I new this time would get me that kona spot, I was suddenly filled with emotions, achieving a goal I’ve been driving towards for years, I knew I had finally done it. I shed a few tears that last 100 yards, for me, my wife/son who were not present, and my father who after an incredibly difficult year, would indeed be making a trip to Hawaii with me..

Run: 3:38:51; 8:22 pace Don’t have the numbers with me, second half was with in 1 minute of the first half

OA Time: 10:10:03 Div: 9/332: 60/~2100 overall, 18 pros in front of me too..

Nutrition:
• Day before: Drank lots of water, gatorade all day, into the night
o Breakfast: egg burrito, banana
o Lunch: Big pasta meal, chicken spaghetti, salad, bread (noon)
o Dinner: normal spaghetti dinner, no meat, bread (4:00pm)

• Race Day:
• 2:00am, 1.5 bottle adwala protein shake (~600 calories or so)
• 4:30am, egg burrito, oatmeal, banana,
• 5:30-6:15 1 bottle ½ strength infinit
• 6:30 1 gu, water till 6:50..

• Bike
-nothing for first 15 minutes, 2 bottles of 320calories each infinit, water supplemented as needed, ½ banana, 2 gu’s till aid station at mile 63
-special needs, picked up 2 more infinit bottles, milky way, mountain dew
Drank 1/3 of the dew before I lost it, oops
-finished all my food by mile 85, hungry, ate another gu, ½ bottle of Gatorade
-mile 100, only drank water. Stomach was empty when I reached T2
• Run
-water,coke,water at every aid station
-oranges when it felt good
-1 Gu around mile 8 That was it..

Lessons Learned:
-Use Calories burned as a cross check of effort on the bike.
-don’t question the numbers, race to plan
-be patient on the run, it will pay off
-power meter rules
-infinit is great, strive to be hungry, it worked for me, an empty stomach is a happy stomach..
-Most importantly, the tools/strategy of EN work. I PR’d by 28 minutes, I finally figured it out.. 

[marianne]

congrats on a great day for you! and on you accomplishing your goal and dream! m great to get to meet you as well.

[Erstegeiger]

28 minute PR That is awesome

Thanks for sharing and you should be really happy!

Best,

Drew

[Chris G]

Nice Job, congrats on the Kona spot!

[Nemo]

Todd;
That is one amazingly well executed race! This race report should definately go under the list of EN "DO's" for how to race an IM. You are proof of Rich and Patrick's point over these past few days that it's all about execution!

One quick question, your split times on the bike really are amazingly close. How was AvgPower for the first loop compared to the second loop?

PS- I'm packing now for a Half IM tomorrow, and all these race reports are giving me confidence to just be patient on the bike, even if my watts seem a bit puny to most.

[D.FOREMAN]

Todd,

Awesome work. Congratulations on grabbing that elusive spot.

An empty stomach is a happy stomach. True words of wisdom. 12 IM's obviously a wealth of knowledge gained through those. You can hear testaments all day but there is nothing like doing to learn.

Good Work!

Dodd

[Linda]

Todd! What a deserved payoff after so many years of hard work! That was a picture-perfect day. Thanks for sharing all your details--so valuable to all of us.

Ho'omaika'i 'ana on a great day, and that Kona slot. (That's congrats in Hawaiian.) We'll look forward to watching you train and race that big Kahuna!

[Mike Hedman]

Todd,

First off, on your reluctance to post... a) thanks for being sensitive, b) please don't be sensitive! This community is learning, and growing, by sharing failures and successes, mistakes and things that worked.

Obviously, your RR belongs in the success and things that worked category !

Well done on everything! You've earned a spot in the biggest race in triathlon - soak it in!!

Mike

[Blazer86]

Todd - great race. It was fun watching your splits during the day...Awesome! Congrats on perfect execution and on getting the Kona slot. Can't wait to track your times there!

[Brenda Gibson]

Todd,
Fantastic execution on race day, I'm so happy for you. You worked so hard for this to come together as it did and kept your eye focused on the ball the entire time.

I enjoyed meeting you at the EN dinner and hanging out after the swim on Friday before the Coaches talk. Thank you again for bringing those hand warmers, it was very sweet of you to remember that I was wishing I had some. Luckily, I have a nice layer of body fat that kept me fairly warm during the swim so I didn't end up needing them.

So, have you purchased airfare and booked your lodging reservations for Kona yet?

I'll look forward to hearing how your training goes in preparation for Kona. You are my idol!