From the first time I heard about this race I was really excited. Mainly because I have not done much on this end of town, hence my excitement for the Legacy Trail.

Race Morning: Wife and Kiddo to bed earlyish and I thought I would be able to do the same but for some reason I did not sleep well. Woke up around 5 to shower, eat, and get heading towards the race. I wanted to get there around 6 to give myself some time to set up. I was really surprised at all the folks who registered for this race and it was really hopping when I arrived a bit before six. Got unloaded, body marked, timing chip, and headed for the racks. Transition racks are a lot like airplanes, people bring way too big of a bag on the airplane and take up way too much space. There were supposed to be 11 bikes on the rack and when I got to the rack there were three bikes way too spread out on one half and then 6 of us on the other. Got folks to move their stuff and things were fine.

I got talking to a bunch of folks and ended up forgetting to do some preventative maintenance where the trisuit rubbs. Oh well, it worked out ok.

Swim: I listed a time of 7 mins but figured if there was room I could swim about 30 -40 seconds faster. I was seeded 51 but when the race official started letting folks reseed themselves I knew the swim was gonna be a cluster. I got in the water and had lots of room for the first hundred or so but from about then on out it I was just drafting a guy that would not let me pass and then it became about three or four people a head of me who were all in a no passing line for about the last 150. Oh well. Got out of the water and headed to T1.

T1: went fast, was a bit cramped between the bikes.

Bike: I was really excited to start the bike portion since I am riding my new road bike. I did the LTH test last weekend and was really impressed with my fitness and the new bike fit. I knew this course would be flat and fast so I was ready. Was a bit nervous about the shoes because I have switched from the LOOK cleats to Zero SPDs but I clicked in fine and hit the bricks.

I was really excited to pass folks. In maysville I came out of the water 11 and ended the bike at 31. This was much different, I got to pass a good amount of people and only got passed once. I stayed in the drops most of the race and stayed in the big papa ring for most of the ride. The bumpy road (can’t remember the name) really took a tole on my nether region but it was short and I just moved around a bit. There was a goodish headwind coming back towards ironworks pike.

Came in off the bike and into T2 strong.

T2: good fast transition, racked the bike, off with the helmet and shoes, on with the runners, grab the hat and belt and off to the races.

Run: I was less than excited to hear we were gonna be on the grass again. This is 3 for 3 for grass runs this year in the tri season. When I ran cross country it was not a problem because you got used to the strides and had ankle strength. now it is more difficult for me. I stayed strong and made it to the road. I decided to go a head and do a run walk but 30 secs every mile. I wish I would not have done this because I felt strong and did not need it but I still decided to stick to my plan. Hit the first mile at 8:15, second at 8:26 (with :30 walking), and mile 1.1 at 8:55 with :30 walking at the two mile mark. Took in some h2o on the course. Some in me and some over me. I felt like I finished the run strong and I felt smooth and strong for the whole race.

Results, I was super excited to see I had moved up in the age group. usually I am right around 50% but this race I was 6/21.

I really wish I would not have walked because I think I could have finished roughly around 4/21 in the ag but I could have moved up about 10 spots in the overall.

I thought the race was great and there are few complaints. I am glad we did not have to run on the main driveway because that would have been too tight, so I understand why we were in the grass. My only complaint is I would have liked for the seeding to have remained the same and avoid all the confusion and folks moving up.

I think this race has great potential in the future. I would like to see a longer bike and run portion since there is the space for it.

Here are my details off my watch, the HFP results for me are a bit wonky.

Swim 7:43 (out of pool)
T1: 1:17 (out of pool)
Bike: 40:43 20.6mph
T2: 45
Run: 25:33 8:15 mph

[note]: Jessica originally posted this report on her tumblr blog, you can go here to find it. [end note]

Well, I will finally write down my thoughts regarding the Lexington Half before I forget it all. Forgetting it is not that likely though.

I have been training for this half since mid December. On every run I have visualized running the Lexington Half and finishing well. I was so excited for this race! I woke up at 6 and met up with my brother a half hour later. I ate a bagel and a banana for breakfast so I thought that was good for a race breakfast. My brother and I headed over to Fasig Tipton… and met a huge line of traffic. I work downtown so I’m used to traffic but it really worked up my anxiety. This was my first big race, I had only done one 5k before this. I started freaking out a little bit. So I called Nikki and she gave me a pep talk. She told me to be conservative in the beginning and to not worry about getting there.

The race time was delayed due to the traffic but that was a good thing for us. When Chris and I lined up to start I saw Brad, he trains with Gary and Nikki too. I gave Chris some Luna Moon gummies and even though they are for women Chris was glad I thought of him when I bought stuff for the race. The gun went off and we were running!

I hit my first mile at the 12 min mark almost to the second. This was a good pace for me in the beginning and I planned to keep it up for the first five miles or so. I was amazed at how I was able to keep my pace, sometimes I think I fluctuate too much. I hit mile 2 at 24 min and it kept going. Chris stayed with me the entire time. We saw Gary while going up Newtown Pike, it was exciting to hear someone call my name! Once we entered the horse park the view got to be so pretty and the rain didn’t bother me so much. I really started to enjoy the run. We saw the first people passing us on their way back to Fasig Tipton and I cheered for them! It was so cool to see someone running so fast! I started telling Chris, “We’ll see Nikki soon, we will!” I didn’t know how fast she would be going or even her goal for the race but I knew I would see her before the course split in the middle of the park. I saw her and yelled at her. I was happy I spotted her, she looked great running and I had confidence in what I was doing once I saw her.

Around the 6 mile mark there were porta potties set up and Chris said he had to go and that he would catch up. Once I got a little past the halfway mark and close to the 7 mile marker I knew he would not. I teared up a little because I was tired and I didn’t want to run alone. I didn’t bring an ipod or anything so this was my longest run on my own without music. There were nice people running near me but I didn’t feel like talking. I just focused on my pace.

I hit the 9 mile mark around 1:45. I thought to myself, “45 minutes to run 4 miles, I can do that!” My confidence soared. I ran really well out of the horse park, one of the spectators yelled, “you look great!” Running down Iron Works was steady for me, not too bad. I saw Gary there again I think, he told me I was looking good and I knew I could complete the race at my goal of 2:30. I turned the corner and headed back down Newtown.

At the 12 mile mark I started to get really tired. The rain was stinging me and my body just wanted to walk. So I walked an extra minute. I was so bummed I couldn’t just keep going at my run 8 walk 2 plan but I needed the time to mentally prepare myself. I started to tell myself it would be OK if I didn’t get under 2:30 and I could feel myself slowing down. Then, I stopped walking and started running. I figured I had worked really hard to do this and I had to try. If I didn’t get under 2:30 at least I got my time running hard towards the finish. So I got to Fasig Tipton and ran hard. I don’t think I passed many people, so I might not have been going that fast but I was giving it all I could. I covered my watch and just ran. Once I crossed the finish line I felt so great and I looked down at my watch. It said 2:29. “What?” I couldn’t believe I had done it! I knew I could but actually standing there looking at my watch while my tag was being cut and actually looking at my medal was an incredible experience. I didn’t cry though because I was really dizzy haha.

I wanted to sit down but I promised my brother that whichever one of us finishes first will be there waiting for the other. So I stretched near the finish line. A couple minutes later I saw him, really running hard! I yelled and I was so proud of him too. I don’t know how he has been training for the event but he certainly did some hard work to finish so well. We got some food but I could only take one bite of everything and we drove home.

I’m already thinking of other events I can run. I think it helps my training if I have a date and event in mind. However, the Lexington Half will always be my first half and I probably won’t ever get the same feeling of accomplishment as I did here today. For the last 3 months I have told people I was going to do this and they looked impressed while on the inside I was nervous and not 100% confident. Running that last mile even though everything in me just wanted to take it easy is one of the best things I have ever done for myself.

I want to thank Gary and Nikki Ditsch (especially Nikki) for encouraging me to be a runner and for giving me the training tools I needed. If you want to know more about what they do click here. I think that the people organizing the Lexington Half did a great job, you should run it next year!

Image Courtesy of Peter v Cook

I blame the Kentucky men’s basketball team for my not running a 1:39 at the half marathon. So UK played West Virginia in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament the night before the half and LOST! Well, apparently this upset me so much that I didn’t fall asleep until 2am. That’s just not enough sleep when the wake up call is at 5am.

So I got up race morning and it had rained, but it was not raining as we drove to the start. It began raining slightly as we headed to the start, but nothing too bad. I love running local races with all my buddies. At the start, I lined up with Beth, Eric, Neeley, Elissa, Jill K, Jill H, Alan, and Mary. I had planned on starting the race with Beth, Eric, Jill K, Jill H, Neeley, and Elissa. We decided we’d start together and see how we felt. Beth had told me she would run the race with me at my pace. I don’t think I could have better friends. So around mile 3, the group around me was Beth, Eric, and Neeley. Then the skies opened up. We turned out of Fasig-Tipton to head out to the Kentucky Horse Park in a strong downpour and heavy winds. My pace team lined up in V formation with me in the apex. Spoiled little ducky? Yes! The heavy rain did not last long, but it continued to rain the rest of the race. We were holding around 7:33 pace to the horse park. I really wasn’t sure if I could hold that pace for the whole race. We decided to walk 30 seconds through every aid station which worked out well since they were about every other mile. I think we totaled 5 walks through the whole race.

As we got to the horse park I found myself only able to talk on the downhill and not feeling so great on the uphill. Nothing was too steep, but the park had some pretty good rollers. I was surprised how quickly we got there, did the loop and got out. I was thrilled to see Kristin and Kathryn cheering at the park. As we left the park I was still feeling pretty good, and I was definitely enjoying the company. I am considering hiring the Atnips for all of my race pacing. Around 10-11 I started to feel it. I watched Beth and Neeley float up the hills as I felt like I could barely drag up them. Only 2 miles to go, but I was falling off pace. I was just hoping I wouldn’t fall off too much. The straight road back in seemed like a long slight incline and the wind was again in my face. This didn’t make much sense to me because it seemed to be in my face on the way out. I tried to hang on to Beth and Neeley’s heels, but I was fading. I just kept concentrating on my form and keeping it together. One mile to go, and I was hurting, but it didn’t seem to take longer than any of the other miles as we entered Fasig-Tipton. Beth slowed down a bit to finish with me as Neeley kicked it in. She looked strong! I was so grateful for Beth’s encouraging words as I gave it my all towards the finish line. The finish was great! There were a lot of spectators and it honestly sounded like hundreds of people were yelling “Go Nikki!”. Maybe it was just one loud person, but it was great! I crossed the line happy and spent. I caught my breath and looked at my watch. 1:40:06. A new PR by over 3 minutes. I was hoping for 1:39, but I am pretty darn happy with 1:40.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get there!!! Especially thanks to all the volunteers for helping out in such horrible weather, and everyone who toughed it out to cheer for the runners. Congrats to all the runners! Everyone mentioned earlier had great great races. It was a wonderful race, and I highly recommend it to anyone local or not. Come run the Lexington Half Marathon!

Here is another race report that I got after our team went to New Orleans to do the Mardi Gras Rock-N-Roll Marathon and Half Marathon.  Here’s Elissa’s break down:
++++

What a weekend!  Since we live in Lexington and didn’t want to pay another $200 a night at the Seelbach, Gary and I decided to drive up on Friday to check in, and drive back Friday night.  We saved money, but it led to a stressful Saturday morning for me. I didn’t get to the Gatorade swim like I wanted to.  After a little bit of an emotional meltdown Gary and I got on our bikes to spin out the legs a bit.  I’m pretty lucky to have such a forgiving and patient husband.  After a little ride and a little run I was feeling much better.  We got our bikes checked in, grabbed some food and headed to the hotel to pack our special needs bags and put our feet up for the rest of the evening.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling well rested but really nervous.  We had decided that with the time trial start being first come first serve we would not worry about where in the line we ended up.  As we were walking to the end of the line we ran into Ron Shashy who I had swam with a few weeks prior at the YMCA open water swim at Cave Run Lake.  He promptly placed me in line in front of him in hopes of catching a ride on my draft for the swim, not that he needed it one bit. It didn’t seem like the others in line minded that we jumped in (at least I hope they didn’t).  The race started and I was surprised at how quickly we made our way down to the water and started.  I jumped in and lost Ron immediately.  So much for our master plan.  The swim course is 1/3 out against the current and 2/3 back in with the current.  I took it easy going out, and felt really good.  I checked my watch after the turn around and it read under 22 min which I was happy with since my effort low and it was supposed to be against the current.  As soon as I turned around I swam a little wide towards the middle of the river to try to catch the current some.  After a few minutes I started feeling really nauseous.  The more I swam the more nauseous I felt.  The more nauseous I felt the angrier I got.  I could not believe I was getting sick in the swim!  I had never DNF’d a race and it was going to happen after the swim, are you kidding me?!? Nine months of training and I’m not even going to get on my bike?!? I went through hot and cold spells, tried not to throw up in the water, and what seemed like forever, floated back in to the shore.  I made it up the stairs out of the water and walked to transition.  I saw Jeff and Neeley and told them I wasn’t feeling well.  Jeff said “you’ll be fine!” which is maybe what I needed to hear.  I decided to keep walking and see how I felt.  Surprisingly the more I walked the better I felt.  I got my transition bag, sat down and started to put my shoes and helmet on.  I was feeling so much better – I couldn’t believe it!  The river had been a little choppy and since the nausea disappeared almost immediately once I hit land I am assuming it was just motion sickness.  I’ve never had that happen before, but it sure felt good to be sitting on my bike.  I swam about 5-8 min slower than I thought I was going to, but at this point I was just glad the nausea was gone.

The crowd at transition was incredible and I was starting to feel a lot better about my race.  I turned my Garmin on before I got on my bike and I was happy to see my heart rate below 150.  Gary and I had decided a few days before on a HR cap of 150 for at least the first 87 miles.  I thought this was going to be a lot harder than it actually was.  The first part of the bike is the most challenging and the biggest hill is in the first 20 miles or so.  However, so is the longest descent.  I kept my cadence high up the hills, and tried to take full advantage of the down hills.  I knew the first part of the ride would be the slowest, and the mph read around 17 for a long time.  I had been hoping for 17.5 overall for the day.  I stayed with my plan of a 150 HR cap and convinced myself that feeling good was much more important than going fast.  Gary passed me on the out and back part of the course.  It was really nice to see be able to see him for a little bit.  After some exchanged words of encouragement, he was off.  The course was beautiful once we got out of town.  The gorgeous rolling landscape almost made me forget that I was racing.  I was really enjoying the ride.  Lagrange was so awesome.  The crowd was so uplifting and loud!  We went through the town twice and both times I felt like someone in the crowd handed me a new pair of legs.  Throughout the ride I saw my average increase to 17.5.  This made me happy, especially because I felt so great.  I got to mile 87 and since I was on pace and feeling great, I decided to continue at the same effort.  I had thought about pushing a little harder, but I kept thinking that the more I save now the more I will have for the run.  The last 25 miles or so of the course are pretty flat, and downhill.  All I wanted to do was keep my 17.5mph average and finish feeling good.  Then something happened that I did not anticipate.  I had feared a headwind for the last 25 miles like we had when we rode the course a few months earlier.  So even with the fast road, the wind made it so my effort had to increase to keep pace.  However, we had no headwind!  I kept my effort the same, and watched as the numbers crept up to 17.6, 17.7…all the way to 18.0.  I got off the bike in 6:13.  I couldn’t have been happier.

I took my time through transition, and figured out what I needed to do on the run to do a sub 12 hour Ironman.  All I needed to do was a 4:28 marathon!  I could do that!  I had planned on trying for a 9:30-9:45 min/mile pace, but since I had so much of a buffer from the bike I decided to go for 10 min/mile pace for the first half and really enjoy the race.  I came out of transition and saw my girls, Kirstin and Jill.  They were so motivating!  It was really hard to slow myself down to a 10 min mile for the first 4-5 miles. I kept falling into a 9:15-9:30 pace.  I felt so good, but I knew I needed to conserve.  The run course was a blast, especially around town.  Once you got farther out on the out and back it was pretty quiet and a little tough to stay motivated.  Coming back in to town on the first loop was great.  Seeing the girls gave me just the spark I needed.  The turn around on the first loop is right by the finish line which is kind of tough, but I was feeling so good I honestly didn’t care too much.  I worked on keeping my heart rate in the 140s and at a 9:45-10 min mile I was right around 139-141 the whole time.  I enjoyed seeing everyone on the run course.  I saw Royden first, then eventually saw almost everyone, Gary, Tyson, Rodney, Paula, Saori, Alan.  It was great, and everyone looked so good.  On my way back to town just after mile 20 I got to see Beth for a bit and she gave me some great motivation.  I was pretty sure I was going to make it, but I know that in a marathon, especially an Ironman, it’s not over until it’s over.  I kept on pace, allowing myself to walk a little extra at each aid station.  I felt really good that I never had to walk except at the aid stations.  It was probably the best I have ever felt during a marathon.  It actually went by pretty fast.  Once I got to mile 23 I started to hurt.  I was grateful the hurt/fatigue held off until then.  By that time I didn’t even care, I was almost done!  As I came back into town it was hard to hold my excitement in.  The crowd, the girls, 4^th Street…it was extraordinary.  The only thing I regret about my finish is how quickly it was over.  I sort of wish I had taken my time coming down the finish line.  I still can’t believe I broke 12 hours!  To top it all off, Mike Reilly, the ‘voice of Ironman’ was there, and as I came down the finish line I heard his voice, “Nikki Ditsch from Lexington, Kentucky…YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I just love hearing those words.

All week I had played around with the numbers and I figured that everything had to be perfect for me to go under 12 hours.  Going 11:55 feels that much sweeter especially considering it wasn’t the perfect day (swim).  I have to admit, I still can’t help but smile when I think about that race.  What an amazing day!

Results:

Time: 11:55:24, Overall Place: 716, Division Place: 25

Swim time: 1:09:44, Overall Place: 323, Division Place: 17
T1: 5:58
Bike time: 6:13:43, Overall Place: 1102, Division Place: 24
T2 3:44
Run time: 4:22:14, Overall Place: 803, Division Place: 30

Here are the basic stats:

Overall Place: 204 / 2353
Age Group Place: 36 / 266
Overall Time: 10:42:15
Swim Overall Place: 579
Swim Time: 1:15:17
Swim Pace / 100 Meter: 1:57
Bike Overall Place: 592
Bike Time: 5:51:27
Bike Pace mph: 19.1
Run Overall Place: 84
Run Time: 3:27:10
Run Pace min/mile: 7:55

Pre Race

Nikki and I woke up early to get our nutrition in a few hours prior to the race start.  So we were up and I was drinking my bottles of Fortify at 4:15am.  I had a little coffee and my usual 3 trips to the bathroom.  I tried to lay in bed as much as I could, but I wasn’t resting well, so I decided to get up and moving a little earlier than I wanted.  We ended up leaving our hotel to make the walk down 4th street and to the Great Lawn around 5:30am.

It was interesting walking right by the finish line on 4th street on our way to the start.  Knowing that at some point during the day I would be running (hopefully) through the finish line that was so abandoned and empty was a little poetic.  I prayed that this feeling was a foreshadow to being a part of something great.  Not only for myself but for thousands of other athletes and family members that were on their own Ironman journey.  I had a little visualization of finishing strong.

We made it to the transition area at 6:00am and as soon as we walked into the area we heard them start calling out that the transition area would be closing in 15mins.  It was very comforting to see so many friends in the transition area that morning.  Jeff, Neely and Casey were all there to help us.  Tyson was there to prep his stuff too.

The amazing thing for me was that I never had too much anxiety the couple days prior to the race or on race morning.  I attribute a lot of that to taking the time to write out my last post: Perspective, Priorities and Racing Ironman Louisville.  When you are willing to take a step back, it can really change your approach to something as simple as a race.  I also think that seeing other people completely freaking out made it easier on me to realize that I didn’t want to spend my emotional energy in that way.

Swim

We ended up getting in the start line next to Ron Shashy.  He and Nikki swam the 2.0 mile open water swim at Cave Run together, so they were a pretty good match to try and stay together during the swim.  Once the race got started, it was amazing how fast people started moving.  I got my goggles on just in time to run on the deck to try and stay in line and jump off the dock. I thought that a time trial start would create less of a crowd in the water, but I had a lot more issues swimming around-into-over people during this swim than I did at Ironman Wisconsin in 2007.

The first segment of the swim is done against the current, but I’m not sure how much it slowed us down?  It didn’t feel like the current was too strong, but I was struggling to find a straight line to swim more than I was worried about the current.  Directions I was given by Gordo after the Cardinal Harbour Race in July were:

A – increase my Monday and Friday swims so that I was swimming 4400 meters during each workout

B – Float the swim at Ironman Louisville

I continued to think about that as I was headed out to the turn around.  Not too far from the turn around I saw other athletes walking in the water.  It seemed a little odd because the Ohio River is not a small river and it should be pretty deep where there where at.  Not too many seconds after that I hit a log in mid stroke that stopped me cold.  I guess they must have been walking across the log.

After the turn around I put myself as far out into the river as I felt comfortable and could maintain my bearings.  The swim back in was fairly uneventful.  I tried to catch a few people’s feet but that wasn’t working out too well, so I used random feet from time to time, as long as I felt like I wasn’t working too hard to stay there.

T1

As I exited the water, I saw that my swim time was 1:15.  Not exactly the start to the race that I was hoping.  I thought that 1:10 to 1:15 was reasonable depending on the water conditions, so at least I was within range of what I thought was acceptable.

Jeff and Neely were again in the transition area.  As I ran my bike out to the mount line, Jeff yelled “Nikki’s about 3mins ahead of you.  She needs some encouragement!”  This was a piece of good/bad news for me to know.  The fact that I was within 3mins of Nikki coming out of T1 was either really good news for me, or fairly bad news for Nikki.  I chose to make it good news for me… thinking that it must have been a tough swim for everyone.  (BTW, Nikki swam 1:09. I’ll let her tell her story).

Bike

The bike starts out on a very flat section of the course.  Nikki and I talked on Saturday about using the terrain as a way to get our effort levels where we needed them to be, opposed to getting caught up in the race and start thinking about riding “fast”.  One sign that I knew things were going my way was when I looked at my heart rate and saw that it was below 150bpm.  This was such a good sign to see because at Cardinal Harbour I spent a lot of time on the bike trying to get my effort levels under control.

Knowing that my efforts were in order, I worked on getting comfortable and drank some water to clear out the Ohio River’s deisel fuel taste.  I also started paying attention to the power meter (that I had thanks to Alan Hawse) to cross check if my heart rates were providing the same feedback that the wattage was saying, it did.

After you get out of Louisville and onto Hwy 42 the terrain starts to become more rolling.  You are also very early in the ride when you start to encounter these hills, which can bring about bad things if you don’t have discipline and stay under control during this segment.  One of the advantages that I had was that I had been in many discussions about how to approach the race day with my athletes and Nikki prior to the race.  It was interesting to see how all the things we talked about not doing, I saw hundreds of athletes doing.

I’ll admit that it is very difficult to slow myself down climbing hills so much all the time.  Being such a light weight guy (136 pounds 2 days prior to race day), it’s pretty easy to climb some hills.  But I continued to cross-check my heart rate monitor and the power meter to keep things under a “lid”.  What was the lid?

Heart Rate – 155bpm.  I did a great job all day of not getting over this cap.  I don’t ever remember a time that I saw it over this level.  I rode between 144 and 148bpm pretty much all day.  There were brief periods that my heart rate dropped below this while I descended but it bounced back.

Watts – 210 to 220.  I was told that I should consider having a “FIRM” cap of 210 on the bike.  So when I saw the watts go over 200 I took notice, when I saw it go over 210 I would back off a little, if I saw it over 220 I did everything I could to get it back down.  Here’s the link to my trainingpeaks account the powertap file from the bike ride: Gary’s IMLou Bike

After riding about 75 miles I decided to look at my average pace to see how things were going.  It said, 18.7mph.  Bummer!  But I knew that I was riding my race and the speed was what it was.  The one thing I also knew was that I felt really good still and felt much better than I did last year at the Great Illini and at Ironman Wisconsin.  The boost to my bike came after the last turn onto Hwy 42.  There must of been a good tailwind because at the same heart rates and watt output I was flying.  It also felt nice to actually pass a few cyclists, opposed to the normal routine of watching people come by and dissappear into the distance.

Power Summary:

First Half – 158watts
Second Half – 156watts
VI – 1.08

I really like this bike course.  I also really appreciate the effort and time I have spent to learn how to descend more comfortably.  If we could find a course that was all uphill, I might enjoy Ironman even more.  The only thing about the loops that were not appealing was the big Ironman painted in the road with a large “don’t” sign painted over it.  Apparently someone doesn’t appreciate the bike traffic.

The other thing that made me nervous on the bike were all the flats.  Just after the second turn onto Hwy 42 that leads you back to Louisville (about 33 miles left), there were a ton of flats.  It made me nervous because I had a hell of a time getting the tires on the Zipps earlier in the week and I knew if I had to do it on the road, already fatigued, I might not get it done.  I have heard people say there were tacks on the road, but I can not confirm or deny that information.  If there were tacks, I guess I was just a lucky guy.

T2

Again a pretty quick and uneventful transition.  The only difference this year was that I changed out of my tri shorts and put on my RaceReady running shorts so that I could carry gels in the pockets.

Run

The great thing about being able to run well and using a conservative race strategy is that you get to the run and feel excited about what lies ahead.  As I started running, I was pretty confident that it was going to be a good day.  The weather was perfect and my legs had no sign of fatigue.

But this good feeling also made me think back to the Great Illini last year and Cardinal Harbour six weeks prior.  In both situations I had some pretty serious break downs on the run.  So even though I felt great and was moving past some athletes pretty quickly, I kept a constant look at my heart rate monitor.

I had an early cap of 160bpm on the run.  Even with this cap, I went through the first mile in 6:58.  “Yikes, that’s too fast!”  So for the next couple miles I really backed off the effort and my heart rate was sitting in the 150 to 155bpm range.  The second mile was even faster – Huh?  I’m pretty sure that the mile markers early on were not properly placed?

By now, many people know that I’m a big believer in the run:walk method (Episode 172).  And I had a plan to run:walk this marathon – so I did.  Here was the final plan:

first 10k : walk 30sec every other aid station
second 10k : walk 30sec every aid station
third 10k : walk 40sec every aid station
fourth 10k : walk 40sec every aid station or until I felt confident to rip to the finish

That’s also what I did.  I’m pretty proud of how well I stuck to the plan early on in the run because everything felt so easy.  I did allow my heart rate cap move up to 165bpm once I started walking every aid station.  What I noticed was this:

1. The longer the run went on the less my heart rate dropped during the walk portion

2. The middle of the run my heart rate would get back up to the cap pretty quick

3. The last 10k I didn’t have to worry about the heart rate cap, because I needed to work pretty hard to push it up to 160bpm… but it was possible, which wasn’t the case at Ironman Wisconsin.

4.  I walked only at the aid stations.  At Ironman Wisconsin and Great Illini, I used a run:walk method, but by the end of the run I was fatigued enough that I either had to walk longer during the aid stations (GI) or take more walk breaks (IMMoo).

Here are my run splits:
FIRST RUN SEGMENT -  3.38 mi. (22:47),  6:44/mile  (again, there’s no way this is right)
SECOND RUN SEGMENT - 8.25 mi. (37:10),  7:37/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT - 13.1 mi. (38:38) 7:57/mile
FOURTH RUN SEGMENT -  15.33 mi. (18:17) 8:11/mile
FIFTH RUN SEGMENT - 20.19 mi. (40:17) 8:17/mile
SIXTH RUN SEGMENT - 25.04 mi. (40:32) 8:21/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT - 26.2 mi. (9:29) 8:10/mile

Again the run was where I gained on a lot of people.  I came off the bike in 500th place and finished in 204th place.  Being able to run well at the end of the Ironman is a good feeling, but I still believe that there’s more in my run.  Doing the Ironman Run under 3:15 is something I feel is very doable.

Final analysis:

I love the Ironman distance.  Triathlon is a lot of fun, but Ironman is what I really enjoy.  Maybe because it allows me to never really get good at the swim/bike portions and still do ok.  I have no idea when I’ll be able to do another Ironman, but I found myself looking at the 2010 schedule the other day.  Maybe 2011 or 2012?

What do I need to do in order to continue improve my ability to race with people faster than me?  I have been told:

My hunch is that in terms of your development from here you could benefit from a run focus. For a smaller athlete there is even more upside to devoting energy to the run. However, at the paces you’re running now, you’re probably getting to that point that pure running fitness may be limiting your ability to ‘hold back’ for the marathon. While it is tempting to assess your splits in relation to the rest of your AG, it makes more sense to assess relative to others with similar body type. Generally it pays to play to your strengths.

And

The swim will be a key part of getting you up into the Top 20 in the AG.

The interesting thing as I look at people in front of me (203 of them), only 4 of those 203 people had a bike split that was slower than mine and even those times were close to mine.  I guess this just means I need to continue to improve across the board – swim, bike and run.

Good thing I love to do all three (well… swimming is a part time love).

One thing that is good about writing a race report is that you can go back and review what your thoughts were and how things turned out in the end. In 2007, I did the MedExpress Mountaineer Triathlon to check  my fitness as I got into my final days of Ironman Wisconsin training. A very similar situation to what I did this past weekend with the Cardinal Harbour Triathlon. Here’s a quote from my Mountaineer report:

The race went as well as I could have expected. After all, I did have a personal best at the half iron-distance (4:58:56). I also knew that the bulk of my training over the past 18 months has not been focused on having half-iron speed, it has been focused on having Ironman endurance.

I’ll be honest and say that I walked away Saturday morning with a little concern about how my cycling is coming around. My expectations this year were to finally focus on becoming a more capable cyclist and have dramatic improvements. After the race Saturday I was questioning what needs to happen to finally get that improvement?  I see some improvements in my training but I still seem to lose a lot of race time out on the bike leg.

Looking at my after race thoughts from the Mountaineer allows me feel a lot better. Why? Because I understood back then that half iron speed doesn’t always push out to Ironman performance. (That’s a whole topic itself.) I also know that by using the knowledge I gained from the Mountaineer, I trained appropriately the final period going into IMMoo and had a great race.

So let’s get to all the race details this Saturday:

Pre – Race: The race was in Louisville, so I decided to just wake up early and drive over.  The transition and check in didn’t start until 6:30am and the race didn’t start until 8:00am, so I didn’t have to wake up much earlier than normal.  I had all my gear ready to go and was up at 4:00am and out the door by 4:30.

Once at the race, I was pretty relaxed.  The nice thing about these races is that they don’t have an incredible sense of pressure and feel more like a fun event (which isn’t that what they are all suppose to feel like? Ton of very serious folks in our sport!).  I think that feeling probably comes from Todd and Cynthia Heady (the race directors) and their approach to hosting an event.  They are actually the people who put on the first Iron Distance triathlon I ever did back in 2006, the Runovia Triathlon.

One thing that I did notice quickly though was that the race brought in a lot more people this year than it did last year (it sold out with 300 triathletes).  And there were some fast folks lining up to start, including Max Longree, last year’s Ironman Louisville winner.

The swim: I had borrowed a skin suit to wear and practice with in preparation for the IMLou swim, but the water temperature was 77 degrees on race morning.  While I wanted to practice wearing the skin suit, I decided that the wetsuit was a better choice because I already give up enough in the water.  The swim was in the Ohio River, so it was nice to get a feel for how the current might impact the swim.  It was pretty amazing to feel the difference.  Swimming out (which I was later told was against the current) felt like a tremendous struggle.  Luckily I didn’t completely freak out or kill myself trying to “make up” what seemed to be a lot of lost time.

Once we turned around and headed back to the dock, it was not nearly the struggle and it felt like I flew back in.  I think this is a good sign looking towards Louisville as the swim is mostly downstream, with only a portion against the current to begin.

My average heart rate for the swim was 160bpm.  That’s pretty high as I normally like to swim around the 140 to 145bpm range to remain comfortable.  I was a little anxious and excited to get the race started according to my heart rate too.  When I looked at it just before we took off, it read 142bpm (and I was treading water).

Lesson for Ironman Louisville:  Easy is probably a little above steady effort at the beginning of the swim when I’m all jacked up about the race.  Anything that feels at or just above steady effort, is likely a huge mistake and may come back to haunt me, because if it feels a little above steady – it is probably closer to lactate threshold with all the other hormones mixed in.

swim time: 36:08

The bike: I knew coming out of T1 that I would need to settle things down on the bike.  So I started out fairly easy, got my feet into my shoes and just rode for a few miles.  Even riding easy I was passing a few people here and there.  As I turned off Rose Island Road and onto Hwy 42, I looked at my heart rate and saw it was around 170bpm.

That first little bit of Hwy 42 had a decent little climb, so I really backed off my perceived effort and just tried to be steady.  My heart rate obviously didn’t come down much as I rode up the climb, so I decided to make an attempt to get into a “comfort zone” that would allow me to ride better the second half of the bike.

That comfort zone turned out to be around 160 to 163bpm.  On the climbs it would creep up to 165bpm and it would drop pretty quick on the downhills.  The course was on some of the same roads that Ironman Louisville is on, so it was nice to be on them in a race situation.  While there is nothing significant to the climbs, there are very few completely flat sections.  A lot of rolling hills, but unlike Ironman Wisconsin, the rolling hills allow you to maintain your momentum and there is little technical aspects to the riding. It took me around 15 miles to completely get into that comfort zone, which is a lesson I think I’ll carry forward.

The middle 25 miles of the bike was pretty uneventful.  The one thing that I’m very proud of myself for is my descending ability.  I mentioned after the American Triple T that my descending ability really cost me a lot of time on the bike.  It came up again during our training camp the last weekend of June, so I’ve made a significant attempt to improve that ability.  Interestingly enough, those improvements have not come from spending time descending on my bike, but from my effort to re-frame my mental imagery related to descending on my bike.  This work has paid off!  I won’t go into details about that right now because I’m almost finished with another blog post to share those ideas.

The last section of the bike (once we tuned back onto Hwy 42 and headed home) I decided to give myself permission to ride a little “uncomfortable”.  What I found was that by riding just a little uncomfortable, I was able ride quite a bit faster (and I believe we had a little head wind heading home?).  I also realized that what felt “uncomfortable” the last 16 miles was just about what felt easy/comfortable those first 5 miles on the bike.  Another lesson noted.

Lessons for Ironman Louisville:  15 miles is too long to mess around getting under control.  That is approximately 45mins of time that could be used to hydrate, fuel and just be smart.  Digging a deficit that early in the bike could make miles 80 to 112 feel really rough, not to mention the run.

Fuel on bike: 3 bottles of Infinite (275 kcals/bottle, 500mg sodium/bottle)

bike time: 2:47:54, 20.0 mph / average heart rate 161bpm, max heart rate 176bpm

The run: I’m often confident in my run, so I decided to just get settled into the run early and run the loops.  I knew that I would run:walk, but decided to be agressive in my approach and only walk 20seconds per loop.

I started out wanting to get my cadence and turnover established, so I paid a lot of attention to the sound of my feet.  I also did a few rounds of footstep counting to help me get things established.  I basically just count each footstep for 15 strides and then repeat that for 3 or 4 rounds.  How do I know the number of beats per minute?  I don’t know exactly, but I have a “feel” for what is right.  I guess it is one thing I’ve carried over from all those years of percussion and marching band.

Once I got things established and I made it to the first loop, I checked in on my heart rate – 177bpm!  Yikes.  What should I do?  I never train at these intensities and I still had 11 to 12 miles to go.  “Just go” is what came out.  It was nice to feel so strong and despite the high heart rate, I felt really comfortable.  I had carried a bottle of coke with me to the first aid station (b/c they didn’t have any on the course) so I drank a little more and dropped it off at the water stop.

Out on the loops (we did 3 loops) you really got to see a lot of people so that was nice.  I tried to pick out some of the guys that I knew where up a lap on me and tried to either: A – make up a little ground on them or B – hang even with them.  The one person that I really paid attention to that first lap was Max Longree, I lost some ground to him. (ok, more than some ground).

As I turned off the last loop and headed back to the finish, I was pretty excited to see that there wasn’t a train of folks up the road.  But it also left no one for me to try and catch.  That was a good thing because I felt like the wheels were slowing down.  Around 11.5 to 12 miles the wheels just about stopped!  There were only 2 guys that passed me on the entire run and they both happened in this section of the race.  I assumed that they were both in my age group, but it didn’t matter because I couldn’t lift my effort at all to hang.  It was over as far as my output was considered.  The nice thing about my running is that I’ve been in enough situations where it’s been over and still been able to manage something.  In fact, a lot of my racing in 2008 was done to purposefully make mistakes on the run.  (Which left me dry heaving my soul out at the Great Illini where I still managed a 3:38 and second best run of the day.)

The really tough part about this run was the last 3/4 of a mile was on some pretty thick grass.  As hard as I would try, I couldn’t lift my feet high enough to clear my feet.  It was miserable!  I ended up giving 2 minutes of time back to the age grouper who pasted me at 11.5 (Brian Teller, nice guy from WV).

Lessons for Ironman Louisville:  I am really excited to see how well I ran for 11.5 miles.  There weren’t any mile markers so I couldn’t fully tell you what my paces were at the beginning versus the end, but I’m guessing I went out not much over 6min/mile pace.  And that last mile was probably 8:30 to 9:00.  Multiply that mistake by 14.7 miles and you get 40mins to 1.5 hours of run time problems.  IF you’re lucky that equals 40mins to 1.5 hours added to your run, if you are not lucky and the heat is there you might be looking at 2 to 4 hours of humility.

run time: 1:26:52,  6:38/mile, 175bpm ave heart rate, 187bpm max heart rate (to be fair, I think the course was a little short?)

Final Thoughts: So this weekend I found out what my “top end” is for long distance triathlon.  One way to use the numbers I obtained was to use my average heart rates from the disciplines as caps for my effort at Ironman.  This would put my cap for the bike at 161bpm and my cap for the run at 175bpm.  Looking at those numbers as objectively as I can, I think they are a bit high.  I know that trying to run over 170bpm at any point during the marathon outside the last quarter mile (or closer) might be playing with fire.

From training, I would think that my bike effort should be sitting in the mid 140’s with a cap of 155bpm, hitting >160bpm should be a sign to really watch my motivations and thought process.  I feel like the run should be around 150 to 160bpm, with the first half of the marathon close to 150 and pushing it up near 160 for the 3rd 10k.

So how much time / pacing / speed do I lose by going from my top end to my bottom end?  Well, the great news is I’m not “losing” all that much.  I did an 80 mile ride on the IMLou course the week prior to this race and with an average heart rate of 145bpm I was about 1.5 mph slower than this race.  There were some factors that influenced that ride some, including a riding partner that I rode with, traffic lights and 2 short water stops.

On the run, I don’t fall much either.  I’ve been bench marking my 145bpm and 160bpm paces over my last several run tests.  I had a run test on Tuesday (July, 14th) and in the 85 degree heat I ran approximately 7:20/mile on the UK track.

Granted my training ride and my run test were not done in a race setting and neither of them were done after a swim, but they are benchmarks that I can begin to use as I set up my Ironman Louisville race strategy.

We are 6 weeks out.  Feels good to feel this good!

[note: if you want to see our pictures of the event, you'll have to come on over to my facebook page - Gary's Facebook]

It would probably be a good idea to begin by describing what events make up the American Triple T weekend.

1. Friday Evening Prologue: 250m swim, 5mile bike, 1mile run
2. Saturday Morning Individual Time Trial: 1500m swim, 40k bike, 6.55mile run
3. Saturday Afternoon Team Triathlon: 40k bike, 1500m swim, 6.55mile run
4. Sunday Team Time Trial (Half Iron): 1.2mile swim, 55.5mile bike, 13.1mile run

Looking at the different races and the distances over the entire weekend it can be a little intimidating, but in all honesty it isn’t the distances that you soon find out is the challenging part of this event. The two biggest challenges that were faced over the weekend were:

A – The terrain.
B – The intensity of the early races and the impact upon the Sunday race.

The Terrain:
It says on the website to be prepared for a tough weekend of cycling. I knew others that had completed the weekend or had just done the Sunday half iron distance race and they said to be prepared for the climbing on the bike. While respectful, it didn’t worry me too much because I have always felt steady through hills. In fact, I often feel better at climbing than I do at descending (fear factor?).

What seems to be under appreciated was the difficulty of the run course. The run course was challenging due to the terrain change, but also because it was on trail. The trail was also not exactly what I expected. I guess I anticipated a more groomed trail that allowed for better footing (more on this later).

The Intensity:
One thing that I feel is my strength in Ironman racing is my ability to work within my ability early in the race, which allows me to use my potential at the end of the marathon. A skill that can be difficult to learn, but the one triathlon skill I feel I’ve developed. This weekend presented two situations that don’t allow this “go easy and build” strategy to be implemented well.

1. Teammates. I signed up to race the Triple T as a team. This meant that each race I was counted on to do well so that my teammate could also do well. This is a very different concept for many triathletes. I was also signed up with Jeff Buhr who is a better triathlete, better swimmer, better cyclist and better runner than I am. So not only did I have to hold up my end of the partnership, but during the team events, I knew I was going to have to push as hard (and smart) as I could while he could race a little below normal.

2. Race Design. As shown above the fast / quick races start the weekend and build into the half iron distance race. The interesting thing is that for the prologue I had an average heart rate of 181bpm which actually felt comfortable. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was lucky to be able to pick up my heart rate into the 160’s on the bike (I did hit 170bpm on the run). What feels easy early is often not easy, it’s just a function of being prepared to race and knowing that the race is going to be over soon. Even with the knowledge of 3 or 2 more races ahead, it’s difficult to control the urge to go fast.

My Races

Day 1 Prologue:
This race is a blast. It is very quick which makes me very nervous. This was actually my first triathlon shorter than a half iron distance race since July of 2003 (Tri America in Louisville). Despite the short swim, I still decided to wear my wetsuit, most did not.

Data: swim – 6:12, bike – 12:21, run – 5:54, total – 24:26
Heart Rates: hrave – 181bpm, hrmax – 195bpm (no splits)

Day 2 (Saturday) Race 1:
This was not a great race for our team. I got a flat about 17 or 18 miles into the bike which was frustrating for an Olympic distance race, especially because I had put a lot of effort into the bike already hoping to have a great race. It’s interesting what thoughts go through your head when you are faced with a situation like this. I thought about riding to ride and hope it wouldn’t go completely flat (it did, quickly). Then when I stopped I thought about putting a little air in and seeing if it was slow enough to get me back (I tried and it was way too fast). In the end, I found something that allowed me to keep my cool and remember that the weekend was a long event and that I just needed to finish this race. I found a little saying that really helped me get through this situation while I was changing the tire and after I got back on the bike (and was extremely worried it would flat again).

I kept saying to myself “Be Chrissie, not Norman!” , “Be Chrissie, not Norman!”

I also remembered back to Ironman Canada (2004?) when Gordo Byrn flatted towards the end of the bike and his response during that race and post race. It probably cost me 6 to 7 mins? I mistakenly dumped my bag on the ground costing me another minute or so picking up my co2’s, second spare and allen wrenches.

My teammate crashed during this race… it didn’t cause a lot of road rash but a lot of soreness.

The biggest mistake that I made during this race was not respecting the type of trail we had to run on. Disappointed with my bike, I went through T2 pretty quickly and chose to skip the socks. MISTAKE! The trail tore my feet up. It was a pretty rookie mistake.

Data: swim – 27:00, bike – 1:25:14 / 17.2mph, run – 43:55 / 6:43min/mile, total – 2:37:55
Heart Rates:
swim hrave – 152bpm, hrmax – 172bpm
bike hrave – 159bpm, hrmax – 179bpm (stopped for approx 6/7 mins with flat)
run hrave – 173bpm, hrmax – 184bpm

Day 2 (Saturday) Race 2:
I really need to learn to descend well on the bike. While it may not be wise to cannonball downhill some places on the course, I give up loads of momentum, time and speed because I am unable to descend at even an average level. It was really apparent during this race. My teammate was able to do this race after the morning crash, he ended up being a good motivator for me.

Data: bike – 1:14:32 / 20.0mph, swim – 29:09, run – 45:20 / 6:56mile/min, total – 2:32:18
Heart Rates:
bike hrave – 157bpm, hrmax – 177bpm
that’s all I got… didn’t get a lap after swim and didn’t stop watch after race?

Day 3 Half Iron Distance Race:
I did this race solo because my teammate decided that healing and being ready for Kansas70.3 was wiser. It took quite a bit of pressure off me. My race was an exemplar of what my racing strategy has always been. Steady swim (sadly this swim was pretty poor, not sure what happened because I didn’t feel terrible in the water?)

Bike steady – by this time of the weekend my body had definate limits. Pushing on the bike was limited and even when I would “work hard” my body wasn’t responding and heart rates weren’t climbing (fatigue). Needless to say I think I left all the “speed” in had in me for cycling on the course on Saturday. My climbing gears still allowed me to pass people (until they flew by me on the descents).

Run – My goal was to run under 1:40 for this half. I ran steady throughout the day and went 1:39:11. Very happy with that which gives me confidence. Surprisingly I have not been running as much as in the past .. I just feel confident running, which helps.

Data: swim – 36:30, bike – 3:17:27 / 16.9mph, 1:39:11 / 7:35min/mile, total – 5:35:24
Heart Rates:
total race – hrave – 147bpm, hrmax – 183bpm

I only got the total race and the time on my watch says 5:50, when my time was 5:35 – so it includes about 15mins of post race resting? I don’t remember when I stopped the heart rate monitor b/c I was so focused on running a specific pace on the run with my Timex watch taking laps at the loop.

Lessons to take to IMLOU:
1. swim, swim, swim (open water when possible)

2. bike (my longest ride this year was 4 hours with 2 at very easy, so I’m hoping this will come around these last 14 weeks.)

3. even when things seem like they are not going my way, the run rarely fails on me. that gives me a lot of confidence heading into a traditionally very hot/humid and slow marathon in Louisville.

Final Thoughts:
A great weekend that was probably more difficult than any Ironman I’ve done so far. It would compare mentally to the EndureChallenge that I created and finished last year, just do to the shear speed required to do the events. I can go all day… getting fast is the trick!