Ironman Lake Placid Race Report

Ironman Lake Placid 2005


My 3 goals for this race were:
1 – Swim strong
2 – Ride smart
3 – Run every step

First off, I felt much better coming into this race than I did going into Ironman NZ in March. I was rested, I was stronger, and my running was going well. About 30 days out I was going to pull the plug on my race season, as I was in the dumper after I raced the Auburn ½ IM – not sure what it was, but I wasn’t feeling myself. My main goal six weeks out was to get to the start line in shape enough not to embarrass myself and to enjoy the day. I wanted to ‘want’ to be out there, something that had eluded me at IMNZ and then later at Auburn ½ IM. Considering where I was on May 30th, I feel pretty good about my performance. It was the slowest of my Ironmans with the exception of my 1993 race (11:46 first attempt). I would like to use the excuse that I am getting older and that is the reason I am slowing down but when my swimming is getting faster each year and my running is getting faster at the longer distances, I can’t really blame it on age, now can I? In some ways I think I have lost the ability to suffer on the bike, and if that’s the case then I need to get that back in the next off season.

Leading into the race my swimming was about the same as IMNZ, but my biking was still going poorly, for reasons unbeknownst to me.

This was the first Ironman that my parents got to watch and also my brother Kevin and my nephew and niece, Drew and Kaitlyn, got to see. This was Melanie’s 4th Ironman to watch and I can tell she is getting the itch to do one, which is nice to see. Next time I attend an Ironman, I think it might be Melanie who is racing with me being the Iron Sherpa instead of vice versa.

So – race week was all good, I was feeling good, rested, unstressed etc. Nothing to report that was of any consequence.

Race morning I lined up for the swim about 2/3 off to the right of the start line. My plan was to angle in slowly and get on the underwater cable by the first turn, about 1,00 yard away. I swam hard from the gun and had clear water for about 100 meters. The guy next to me who had sprinted out in front was now right in front of me and I just sat on his feet and drafted, at a pretty leisurely pace. Somehow my wetsuit was pulled too low or something as I was getting cramping in my lower abdomen (in my personals) and I had a tough time pulling with my left arm. The same thing happened at IM Canada in 2002, except that was much worse. I managed the pain, stayed in the draft, and just got pulled along. I stood up to run back in and this part was difficult, so I had to walk the turn around – I looked at my watch, and it had never started but my watch said 7:31 AM so I knew I was close to target (59:00-1:02). I got on the underwater cable this time and just stayed there and didn’t pick up my head the whole way. I cruised the 2nd loop; nothing to report and when I crossed the mat I was 1:01:04 so I easily went under 30:00 for the 2nd loop. I ran to T2 – put on arm warmers, shoes, helmet, glasses and headed out.

Onto the bike we headed downhill and then we climbed for a good portion. I was determined to follow my watts on my Power Tap (PT) – knowing that would give me some good feedback. My heart rate wasn’t coming up yet, but I don’t worry about that as I usually don’t race with HRM and its just ‘noise’ on race day. I worry about how I ‘feel’ – and now I had the instant information provided by the PT to tell me exactly how I was doing relative to how I ‘should’ be doing. The first 40 miles I let lots of people go by and this took a lot of discipline but when I looked at the PT and saw the watts I was pushing, I knew I was making the right decision. At about 2.5 hours I decided to push the pace up and I did so passing many people on the 6 mile climb back to town. I didn’t have to stand and just spun up the last few hills at about 90-100 RPMS. I kept pushing the pace for a bit, and this time I would look at the PT and I ignored the watts, as I kept thinking I had to make up time. I knew my bike split was going to be slow otherwise. So I kept picking it up until about mile 86 when I started to not be able to get my HR or my watts up. I backed off here and just re-grouped. I knew if I kept pushing the pace, I would be in real trouble on the run. I sat up and drank most of my nutrition and kept taking extra endurolytes as I could tell the temps were rising. I was feeling much better by the last 6 miles into town and I cruised this again, only slightly slower than the first time. I sat up at the top of the climb and stretched my back, my legs, and shoulders. Once I hit T2, I was thinking this was going to be a very tough run.

In T2, I took my time, changed my jersey, body glided my feet, and even put on 2nd skin on the sides of my big toes to avoid blisters as long as I could. I hit the ground running and right away my legs felt great. I gave Melanie a quick kiss on the way by and I waved to my parents, my brother and my niece and nephew. I was on my way. I had a cramp in my left hammy right away but I popped an endurolyte and some Gatorade at the first few aid stations, and it never bothered me the rest of the day. I went through mile 1 around 7:15, mile 2 around 7:45 and mile 3 at about 7:30 – so I hit mile 3 at 22:30 – a bit quick but much of it was down hill and I was taking it easy. I felt very smooth and I kept up the effort. I carried a bottle of HEED with me and just kept sipping it every 3-4 minutes. The water at the aid stations was already hot, as was the Gatorade. I ran with the HEED until about mile 7 or 8 and then ditched it at an aid station. I ran well up the hills back into town and even back out until mile 18 – the only other time I looked at my watch – and I was running 8:08 pace but I could feel that switch had been turned on where I was slowing down and nothing was going to help me except Coke at this point. But, when I hit the aid stations, they were all out. No more coke. I think I had coke at maybe 3 aid stations. I know a lot of people depend on coke in a race and I am sure many people had to deal with the same thing. At this point, my body felt good, my breathing was labored but the only issue was the pain in my quads with every step. Anyway, people kept coming back to me the whole run even though I was struggling at this point. A little better pacing on the bike would have paid off here. Even if I had backed off 5 minutes on the bike, I think I could run in the 3:30s – so lesson learned on that account. I ended up having a hard time getting up the last few miles in town. I just kept my head down and my feet turning over. On the way back to the finish I tried pushing as hard as I could as I knew I would be close to 11 hours – but as soon as I pushed hard I was starting to see things go gray and a little fuzzy so I backed off – no need to NOT finish just to pick up a minute or so. So, I just kept the feet turning over, and slowed down only to let a guy in front of me pick up his son and run across with him. After I finished, I was toast. I got a massage, and had some pizza and coke and felt a little better.

I hit the swim goal, missed out on the bike goal, and absolutely nailed the run goal of running every step. That was a great feeling to be able to do that – not to say I did it, but b/c as it gets harder and harder, it gets easier to walk and I wouldn’t give in to that this time around like I did at my last 2 Ironman races.

Splits:
Swim: 1:01:04 (2nd best out of 7 Ironmans)
Bike: 2:53:58 for 56 miles and 3:09:37 for 2nd 56 miles
Total Bike: 6:03 (2nd worst out of 7 Ironmans)
Run: 1:43 for 13.1 miles and 2:03 for 2nd 13.1 miles
Total Run: 3:47 (2nd best out of 7 Ironmans)
Finish Time: 11:01:13

I got off the bike in 360th place and finished 209 – so I passed 151 people on the run.

Things that worked:
*Nutrition was dead on. I took in less calories than in the past. I used two bottles on the frame – each containing 430 calories of Sustained Energy and HEED. I stopped at Special Needs to get my other 2 bottles. I kept an empty aero bottle on the bike and dumped water in it at each aid station so I would have water when I needed it. I did one Endurolyte every hour on the bike. I also ate 1 power bar on the bike. On the run, I just managed aid station to aid station. I took in calories at each station, sometimes pretzels, sometimes Gatorade. It depended on the timing and how my stomach was feeling.

*Long runs that I did at altitude helped out a ton. The long downhill running helped a lot and the run consistency as well.

Things I need to do better:
*Being a short course athlete who excels at the sprint and Olympic Distance, I would say my biggest limiter is finding the time to ride the miles necessary to put up a 5:20-5:30 bike split on a course like Lake Placid.

*Learn to ride the watts better. Maybe a lighter bike would help me too – but for now I am sticking with what I have as it’s comfortable and it allows me to run well off the bike.

The future: It will be a while before I even think about doing another IM. The next 18 months I will focus on spending time with my wife and working on growing D3 to the next level. I do plan on racing some ½ IMs next year, maybe a marathon later this year, and I’ll definitely be working on bringing my bike power up, and run times down.

Thanks for your support in my preps for this race! You are all wonderful people who have helped me get to many finish lines! Special thanks goes out to my parents for driving the 6 hours to LP and to my to my brother who drove 9 hours to get there.

Until next time, keep your priorities in order and love the people around you like there is no tomorrow; because when it comes down to it, there really isn’t. J

All my Best,
Mike