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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

2010 Ironman Austria

Click here to access album Ironman Austria
Overall Time : 10:45
Swim: 1hr 12m
T1: 3m
Bike: 5:35 (splits: 2:42, 2:53)
T2: 4m
Run: 3:50 (splits: 1:50, 2:00)

Thank you!
Of course, I can't do this sport w/out the incredible support of my lovely wife, Sandy. Thanks for putting up w/ my crazy training and travel schedule! Also, my friends and family for encouraging and supporting my ridiculous hobby.

Accomplishments & Things Learned:
1. Eat/Drink by feel (but have a general plan) - It was probably about 90 degrees by the time we hit the run. I felt like my head was going to explode as some points on the bike. After a 30 min thunderstorm, the ground was steaming. For how hard I was going and the conditions, you have to be flexible w/ nutrition. I had a general plan, but started relying on liquids and salt more and measured how I felt accordingly.
2. Race the conditions and not for a time - It was helpful to have some time expectations, but when I knew I wasn't going to hit those times, I didn't give up. Just keep pushing for towards those goals, but stay focused on the present. I stayed realistic by the end of the bike and focused on a successful run. I finished strong and shaved 8 min overall from last year.
3. Dig deep and focus when it counts - At each Ironman and race, there is always a point where you realize why you train. In Ironman, everything you do is to help you push at miles 13-21 during the marathon. Pace goes down, you feel horrible,and you want to stop. I kept telling myself that "focus - this is why you train, for this moment, embrace it."Just focus on working hard to each rest stop and you'll be fine. Trust yourself and your training.
4. Coca-Cola is delicious! Drink it earlier on the run - When I hit mile 21, I thought coke wouldn't hurt since I was getting so tired and lethargic. I sipped on coke w/ some water at each stop and my pace/energy increased immensely. But once you start, you can't stop. Each rest stop, I had some cola and I was sprinting by the end. Should've started earlier.

Swim
1hr 12 min
I didn't realize the race had started. They told the competitors to start going into the water and all of a sudden everyone started swimming. Good thing we scouted the course the prior days, there is a canal which everyone doesn't sight correctly. I took a good line and stayed relaxed. There was the normal swim washing machine for the 1st half. 2nd half was fairly smooth until the canal (about 800m until the end) which is narrow and your hand scraps the bottom for some really shallow areas. I thought I could have done 1:05-1:10, but not too disappointed b/c I felt fresh enough to sprint the transition and picked up time there.

Bike
5hr 35min (splits: 2:42, 2:53)
Came on the bike and didn't take too long to warm up, tried to stay calm b/c I was so excited to get moving. Danger is the first 20km or so is relatively flat/downhill so you really go hard. Took me about 30km to really start feeling better, then hit the first big hill and stayed relaxed while everyone started passing me. There are 2 pretty big climbs w/ a lot of steady descents where you pick up a lot of speed (2 loops). There is a section b/t the hills that's a false flat where you think it's flat, but it's really slightly uphill. I struggled on this portion for about 15 min. By the end of the 1st loop the heat really picked up and I remember thinking my head was going to explode in my helmet! It was probably hitting high 80's w/ some humidity. After I hit the 1st half marker, I knew it would be tough to get significantly under 5:30 so I kept calm and save my legs for the run. Once I hit the last big hill on the 2nd lap, about 30 min of thunder storms came down. It felt great, but it became pretty dangerous on the downhills. Carbon brake pads aren't really made for rain. When the rain stopped, the ground was steaming b/c of the heat -- yes, it was getting that warm. Once I hit transition, I saw my time and felt relatively ok. My lower back was pretty tired and uncomfortable, so I tried to slowly warm up on the start of the run.
Nutrition
Hour
1: small cliff bar, some drink mix, water/nuun, salt tab, gel
2: cliff shot bloks, some drink mix, water/nuun, salt tab, gel
3. small cliff bar, some drink mix, water/nuun, salt tab, gel
4: cliff shot bloks, some drink mix, water/nuun, salt tab
5. cliff shot bloks

Run
3:50 (splits: 1:50, 2:00)
Started the run w/ lower back tightness and thought it would quickly go away, but it took a good 3-4 miles before I started feeling ok. Thought my pace was a bit too fast at the beginning so held back a little. Then, just fell into a comfortable pace and told myself to take the speed while it lasted. The heat really started coming on in the exposed/less shady areas. Might've hit close to 90+ degrees. I was thinking of not stopping at ad stations, but decided to walk through and take in anything I felt like. It worked pretty well as I kept moving through the stations fairly quickly dumping as much water on myself as possible. First half of the marathon felt pretty good, but I knew mile 14-21 would be tough (it's always like that during IM). Once I hit 14, I tried to dig down and kept telling myself "focus - this is why you train, for this moment, embrace it." My pace slowed down a bit during these miles and once I hit the 20 mile mark, I started to sip on coca cola which made me wake up and pushed me to start semi-sprinting the last miles. Not sure if I just wanted to get it over with or I was pushing hard until the end.
Nutrition
Hour
1: Half a gel, sports drink, water
2: Half a gel, bananas, watermelon, coke, water
3: Bananas, watermelon, oranges, coke, water


Training
Definitely focused on quality and recovery this year versus any other. On average, I trained about 25% less per week versus last year (12 hour/week vs. 9 hour/week) and did a faster time on a harder course. On top of that, from Jan-July 2010, I spent over 40 days travelling for work! Travelling kills the rhythm of training, but it also provides opportunities to think creatively about getting sessions done. For example, I got a chance to ride 50-60 miles throughout Marin county w/ the SF Mission cycle club which was awesome! I got to run for miles along the coast of Nice, France and Los Gatos, CA. Definitely breaks up the monotony of training.


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