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2015-10-30 7:57 PM

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Subject: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)
Just finished my first Ironman and had a few issues I thought I would share for the newbie like me looking for answers.

First off I didn't train a whole lot for this event which I'm sure made it that much harder. So I guess for lesson number 1 would be to take it seriously. Ironman is no joke. Im not saying you have to be fully committed to be able to do one however, your body will thank you for it.

The swim was a no wet suit swim and for me this would be the first triathlon I didn't use a wetsuit. Not a big issue for me because I don't rely on one however, I did see and hear a few people who were quite anxious because they couldn't use their wetsuit. So I would recommend not becoming dependant on a wetsuit. Another issue I had were my goggles. I basically swam about 1-2 Km four times a week and thats it before taking the ironman challenge. I didn't struggle at all on the swim however I've never worn my goggles longer than 1 maybe 2 km at a time. They really bothered me around the 2km point. It felt like they were digging into my brain. Lesson learned here...Not so tight and actually maybe swim 4km before actually taking on the ironman.The water was fairly choppy or at least I thought it was for my swim abilities. If I could take anything out of the swim it was the fact that the chop makes it intimidating however, once you get going its not that hard. Only issue I had because of the chop was sighting buoy's every now and then. I did manage to swim the fastest I've ever swam before. This could of been because of the salt water or the fact that I was swimming in an ocean and had the constant thoughts of sharks in my head lol.. No joke i thought about it often lol.. Im use to swimming in lakes up north here in Canada so sharks are never an issue lol.

Off to the bike where most of my problems started..

Very hot day and I did swallow a fair bit of salt water so maybe this could be the reason to some of my problems. I took my time getting onto the main part of the bike portion. Lots of traffic and saw two people with flat tires before 2KM in. I find people get in the moment and start hammering away not even looking at the pot holes around them. So Im happy with my patience getting into my groove.

40km point into the race I had my pace where i wanted it to be. Felt good and strong. I drank 750ml water every 10KM. It's all i could get my hands on at aid stations without stopping. Then around the 60KM i shut down. I was done. Heat killed me and I was exhausted. I felt bloated in my stomach yet very thirsty. So I don't really know why. I was taking in gels like i planned too and I was drinking lots of fluids. I couldn't figure out why I was shutting down like this and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

once I hit the 90Km point i started getting muscle cramps in my right leg. Never got them in training and never want them again. I got about 15 muscle cramps for the last 90 km which i think is probably a lot. I was still bloated and still thirsty. I brought two bottles of fluid mixed with sugars for fuel and couldn't even touch them. the taste of them made me want to get sick so I was definitely not taking in the proper fuel at this point. My special needs bag consisted of Advil, tylenol, chaffing creme and two more bottles of fluid with sugars.. If i could change this it would have had more sunblock, and a buffet. I saw one guy pull out a bag of salt and vinegar chips out of his special needs bag. I wanted them so bad. After the race the next day i went to go buy a bag thats how bad i wanted them. Mexico doesn't seem to be too fancy on the salt and vinegar chips so i still couldn't get any. When i landed in Calgary for my connecting flight to Ottawa i ate 6 bags. Im actually eating a bag right now lol.. Any advice on muscle cramps would be awesome too. Oh almost forgot. I also used a Garmin 910XT during the competitor. Fully charged when i started and died at the 113KM part of the race. Thought it would last me the whole race and i was very wrong. I depend on a lot of information on that watch so i definitely recomend having a watch for the bike portion and another watch for the run portion. Unless I'm wrong here and somehow my watch might be faulty. Regardless feedback on this would be awesome.

I had a goal time when i first got to Los Cabos. Within the first 4 hours of the race I was now just hoping to finish it. The sun really did its damage on me. I had to stop almost at every aid station and just drown myself with water bottles to cool me off. I was so happy to get off the bike.

Run transition was awesome. I loved sitting down and being off the bike. I applied more sunblock and went to put on my shoes. I did pack a pair of socks. They were rolled into a ball when i took them out of my drawer at home. I placed them in my shoes and put them in my try bag in Mexico. Well when i unrolled the socks I only had one lol. Lesson here is to actually check to make sure two socks are actually rolled into the ball. Silly mistake and I rocked a marathon with no socks. Never done that before and my feet are showing because of it.

The run went ok for the shape i was in.Never got any leg cramps thank god. heat was taking its toll on me, I really wasn't making a lot of sense when i was running and felt pretty dizzy. Again the heat gave me like heat stroke I'm sure. My family would talk to me during some portions of the run loop and they said my sentences didn't always add up. I get like this when i play golf without a hat on for 6 hours. Same idea. I did a walk/Run program for the run and honestly it felt good. It felt awesome when the sun went down and i had a pretty good pace going when i was actually running. I don't have much to say about the run except it would have been nice to have a watch, a bag of salt and vinegar chips in my special needs, and thats about it.

I think if i could take anything out of this experience it would be to possibly pay more attention to what climate your going to and prepare for that. Its like 2 degrees celsius when i left to Mexico and competed in about 40 plus heat. Stupid on my end. I think I need to read more up on Nutrition and come with a better game plan in that sense. Train ...Train....Train... I trained about ten hours a week for this competition and my body felt it.

after the competition i wasn't able to go outside for me than an hour without feeling sick. Drank my fluids in bed at the resort and watched "Storage wars" on A&E dubbed in Spanish. It was a very long and boring day lol. Next day i was fine and my muscles felt fine.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated or if there is something you read that you know could of been fixed please share the info with me. Im doing Ironman Muskoka next in 2016. I apologize for the grammar and punctuation, I have two young little kids making this post quite tricky lol.. Im sure some can relate.

Cheers



2015-10-30 8:43 PM
in reply to: zombie2212

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)

How many calories exactly were you eating per hour prior to the bloating feeling?  Did you test this amount in training?  How many calories did you consume the first 20-30 minutes of the bike?

 

2015-10-30 9:42 PM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)
I was taking in around 250 calories per hour. I did not eat anything for the first half hour on the bike. I hear people saying make sure you consume those calories you lost in the swim right away and i have heard to get into a groove before snacking out. I chose to wait a bit before snacking out. Might of been the wrong route to take. I also couldn't stand my sugared water i had behind my saddle. Too sweet and made me so thirsty after drinking it. Another mistake on my end. Everything I did on race day was what i was doing during training. no issues during training. Also did a half ironman with the same nutrition plan and it worked fine.

Edited by zombie2212 2015-10-30 9:44 PM
2015-10-30 10:25 PM
in reply to: zombie2212

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)
Caveat--I don't do full IM. But I do train and race in extreme heat/humidity most of the year, up to HIM.

It sounds like in addition to maybe inadequate training, some of your issues were due to failing to account for the impact that heat/humidity was going to have on your needs and ability to take in/keep down fluids and nutrition. Guessing that your HIM and longer training sessions might have been in cooler conditions? I don't really have an answer for you except that I've found there is a pretty big difference between what I need/want for a long run/ride in 90's with high humidity (SE Asia), and what I need/want with temps in the 60's (typical for Pacific Northwest). In general, the hotter it is, the more fluids I need, the less tolerant I am of sweet snacks and drinks, and the fewer calories I can keep down. I tend to do best when I err on the side of under-fueling a bit, and over-hydrating (as in having to pee on the run). It's particularly important to hydrate not only with water but mainly with electrolyte drink. Typically for a three-hour HIM length ride in those conditions, I will have one bottle of less diluted Nuun (one tablet in a 500 ml bottle), two bottles of more diluted solution (1/2 tablet in same or slightly smaller bottles), and one bottle of water (in my aerobottle), mainly for washing down solid nutrition. You might need more if you are slower or bigger (I'm about 115 pounds.) Nuun is sugar-free and the flavor I use (lemon-lime or lemonade) does not taste sweet, which helps me drink more. For iron distance in tropical climates, you might also look into using a salt stick or tablets. I haven't--somehow the sodium in Nuun and in the gu I use on the run seems enough as I haven't had cramping issues. For nutrition, I use mainly dark chocolate or energy bars on the bike, gu on the run. For a hot/humid IM I would definitely include some salty solid food on the bike.

I actually have the opposite issue. For two of the three HIM I've done, the race was in much more temperate conditions than I'd trained in. I didn't "bonk" and had a strong finish in both, but felt pretty hungry toward the end with the same amount of food as for my tropical training/races. (I was eating a bunch of pretzels and fruit from the aid stations on the run in the first one, and had two bagels with peanut butter and a quad latte shortly after the other!) I was also really over hydrated and had to pee several times in my first HIM; for the third one, I end up taking way more water on board than I actually drank, and still had to pee on the run. I would really have to do more long runs/rides in the US to work things out, I guess.
2015-10-31 8:38 AM
in reply to: zombie2212

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)
I've only done one IM but it was successful and I achieved my goal of 12.5 hours. Here are my thoughts based on your report:

Swim: It's definitely important to get some longer swims done during your training. Not being dependent on a wetsuit is also key!

Bike: Don't know what your bike volume looked like in training, but I think it's important to have several long rides in, and I benefited from a couple of those being IM distance in my training. I am believer in the idea that a "strong bike" is the key to a successful IM.

Run: Run/ Walk is a great way to race an IM. I'd planned a 1 minute walk every half mile of the run, but I felt so good I wound up running to each aid station and then walking through each of those. My run time was 4:25 which is on par with most of my stand alone marathons!

Nutrition: During my longer training blocks, I paid attention to what "sounded" good. For the IM, I threw a few of those things in my special needs bags and it definitely paid off. Halfway through the bike, I grabbed a package of Nutter Butters out of my SN bag and stuffed them in my back pocket. At about mile 80 I wasn't feeling so good and couldn't stomach the Gatorade anymore. I ate those cookies and within about 15 minutes, I felt good again. During the run, I drank a very small cup of Coke and took two cups of ice water at most of the aid stations. Drank one cup of ice water, and put the other over my head. Kept me cool throughout the race. While I'd planned on drinking coke during the run, I didn't expect to drink as much as I did. I was a little nervous about overdoing it with the caffeine, but it didn't seem to upset my gut too much.

Congratulations on your first IM! Best of luck on your next!
2015-10-31 10:22 AM
in reply to: tedjohn

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)

Simply put, you didn't train properly.  What does this mean?  You didn't swim enough to know your equiptment.  You didn't try you race foods/pace in race conditions (or as close as you can get).  And if you are cramping you exceeded your fitness, so either you paced poorly or didn't train enough.  Respect the distance next time and learn those lessons so they don't happen again.

There is a point of exertion where you can absorb calories/water at a certain rate.  Train at that level and figure out what you can absorb.  On race day it is KEY to stick to this so you don't get off the bike full of food.  I wouldn't have used sugar water because that sounds really gross, had you tried that out in training?



2015-10-31 10:49 AM
in reply to: dmiller5

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)

I agree with Dave.  Neither one of us have been known to mince words so the bottom line is you were undertrained, didn't properly practice your nutrition, and didn't adjust your pacing to account for the heat.

You can't fake your way through an Ironman.

2015-10-31 1:57 PM
in reply to: GMAN 19030

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)

I tend to agree with the other guys that you probably biked too hard... or at least didn't back off enough, given the hot conditions.  But I'll add a couple things -

I think you were *smart* to avoid pushing calories right away on the bike.  Some people are ok doing this (I even drink something in T1).  But considering you drank some salt water, it was a good idea to give yourself time to settle down.

Also, for hot races - sometimes on the bike, it helps to just grab water at an aid station and douse yourself.

 

But anyhow, don't get too down on yourself.  I've done a lot of these, but I only felt like I really nailed my pacing on maybe 2 of them.  You learn something at every race and it takes experience and adjustment to improve.

2015-10-31 7:11 PM
in reply to: zombie2212


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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)

Regarding your watch, I have a 910xt that is 2 or 3 years old. I've been using it very consistently since I got it. I raced with it earlier this month and it ran out in the 17-18 hour range. I'm not sure how long you've had yours, but it may be worthwhile to reach out to customer service since I am pretty sure it should last longer.
2015-11-01 12:18 AM
in reply to: zombie2212

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)
From now on every time I see salt vinegar chips, I will think of you
Mary
2015-11-01 9:37 AM
in reply to: spudone

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Subject: RE: First Ironman and the lessons learned (Los Cobos)

Originally posted by spudone

I tend to agree with the other guys that you probably biked too hard... or at least didn't back off enough, given the hot conditions. 

He swam too hard as well.

To quote "I did manage to swim the fastest I've ever swam before."

If the words swam my fastest or biked my fastest are ever used in an Ironman race report, it's always followed by reports of a terrible run.

You do not want to set a swim or bike PR during an IM race.



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