swim, bike, run ... it'l be fun!

It's a bit long

The leadup:
Packing and travel was all hastle free; we flew to munich and drove down to Klagenfurt. In the past I’ve lost my appetite, or felt ill after eating in the run up to important things, and it just didn’t happen for this – not even the meal the day before the race, or breakfast that morning. Last year before the half ironman my stomach churned up a right storm all morning of the race, and I don’t think I held down much in the week running up to my PhD viva. I kept thinking of it as just a swim, a bike and a run. And the run isn’t a marathon, sure its just 4 x 10k. Some positive tunes on the ipod and it seemed to keep the nerves in check. We had a reccie of the bike course in the car, and the road was smooooooth. Jumped into the lake for a swim and it was toasty. At the race briefing they told us the water temperature was on the mark to call it as either wetsuit/non-wetsuit, and they decided to allow wetsuits. Drat, I’d actually do better without it at this stage I think! I hadn’t run in over a week after pulling something in my leg; this was playing on my mind, but either it was going to go to plan or it wasn’t. Im here now, no dropping out

Clothing and transition setup:
I wore tri shorts and a tri top for the entire race. I had my bike shoes in the bag for T1, wore socks on the bike and had a replacement pair for the run (thanks for the tip Tunney). I had a normal race belt with one number on it for the bike, and used a high-5 gel fuel belt for the run with the second number. I wasn’t using the nutrition on the course for fuelling as I usually start gagging on powerpar gels after 2-3 of them (they only made their new flavours that were being used on the course available a few weeks before the race, so I didn’t fancy risking it). I had small bottles of sunscreen in each transition bag, and a tub of Vaseline for the chaffing zone in T2 before heading out onto the run. I’d expected to feel restricted on the run, or a bit sore off the bike, but tri clothes are definitely the way to go.

Swim:
There was something very surreal about standing on the beach before the swim start, hearing the Austrian national anthem, and the announcements that the race would start in 5minutes…. 1minute… 30seconds… The marshals let us into the water with 1minute to go, to wade out to the start. I don’t know that I actually heard the start called, but it coincided with a huge roar and a lot of cheesey music. I was surprised that it wasn’t the crazy frenzy that it looks like in the videos, sure there were a few knocks but nothing terrible – all swim starts in Ireland have been worse.

The swim course was 1500m straight to the first turn, a few hundred metres across to the second, and then a straight line back to the canal, where the final 800m of the swim was battled out. I’d started in the middle of the pack on the right side of the swim, and found myself swimming wide on the right. I’d to keep swimming back into the group, and only picked up the occasional draft. I planned to swim super-easy until the first turn, and was convinced I was going slow when I failed to pick up any draft. Worked hard for the second section into the canal, I’d heard it was hard to overtake once you got in there so planned to make up time and get a good place by the time I was in the canal, and then coast up with the group. The canal was amazing, lined with people cheering and ringing bells.



I was out of the swim before I knew it, and had to ask someone what time we did as I’d forgotten to start my watch. 1’04 he said. Happy days! I was convinced I hadn’t even been swimming enough to hit 2’00/100m pace.

T1:
Not much to say here, Grabbed my T1 bag, slapped on suncream, glasses, socks, shoes, helmet and ran to the bike. We’d pumped the tyres that morning (I found out the day before that you let some air out to avoid them popping in the heat the evening before!) and added our drinks/gels.

Bike:
Two laps of a 90k circuit, with a few fun hills. The entire course was well supported, but especially on the uphills. I’d decided for the first lap I was not allowed over 30k/hr average, this was as good as I could reasonably hold for the entire course so I absolutely could not go over it for the first lap, which was hard to stick to but I’m glad I did! Spent a lot of the first lap being overtaken by people with fancy bikes (affectionately known as people with more cash than time in the pool ), and saw a few people become the victim of their tubeless tyres. The Iron-ladies hill was brilliant, where they singled out any women they saw and turned the tunes up louder and started cheering them on. The entire course was interspersed with people out having BBQs and drinking in the sun. The folk in Klagenfurt know how to put up with their roads being closed

I got in off the first lap and legs were OK, but a little tired. Its downhill for the last 15k or so to the turning point at transition and I think id pushed a little too hard, so eased off a little to let them come right. Shortly out onto the second lap and I was taking a gel out of my bento-box and I managed to hit the only pothole on the course. Gels went flying. Disaster. Had to stop, get off the bike, run back and collect my nutrition for the second lap of the course (after waititng for an age for a clear spell so it was safe to go out on the road). What a muppet. Was more careful after that, but hung onto the average of 30k/hr. Only other disaster was shortly after an aid station taking a gulp of water for the top to pop off the bottle leaving me with a bottle and no lid. Beware of drinks bottles that don’t have a screw top. I was far enough away from the other aid stations that I didn’t want to waste it, so topped up my other bottle and downed the rest. A few kilometers out from the end of the bike I dropped into an easy gear and started spinning the legs a bit. It was starting to warm up now, so I threw some water out of my bottles over my back to cool down; until now the day had been pretty nice and not too warm.

Nutrition on the bike course was only water for the first 20mins, then equivalent of a gel every 20mins (with one powerbar replacing two gels, and one bottle of sports drinks replacing two gels for a bit of variety). All went to plan, with caffeinated gel as every third gel.

T2:
I stopped and unclipped from the bike; I didn’t fancy leaving the shoes on the bike and botching the dismount after 180k. Racked the bike and found my T2 bag, into the tent and got changed. A volunteer did my suncream while I got on my fresh socks and shoes, changed race belt and put on my watch (transferred the garmin from the bike to a wrist-strap). All set, out for a run! Just 4x10k to go, and I’m feeling good!

Run:
Onto the course, and my legs felt good. I wanted to take it easy for the first 20k (certainly no faster than training pace of 5min/km) and push hard then. The course was two laps, with the finish in the middle and 10k loops on either side of it, making it convenient to break into 5k sections. My nutrition plan was water only for the first 20mins, then a gel every 30mins with whatever else I felt like after the first half. After the second gel I threw that out the window because the gels weren’t sitting the same way they did in training, so started using the iso drink on the course, which stayed down a lot better. Plan was also to walk through any aid station where I took on a drink. So far everything was on for well under 11hrs as I was holding just over 5min/km (truth be told if I was able to hold my training pace I was aiming for 10’30, ignoring transitions, if I could push the run in the second half), but then it started to fall apart. The run pace for ‘easy’ was dropping after about 1hr45 into the run; ok, so maybe I’ll revert to the plan of just getting under 11hrs, which is still achievable at this pace. The last few km till 30k were starting to feel hard, I pulled in for a toilet break in a bush and trying to start back running was agony – This has happened in training before (years ago), where the outside of my knees are simply seized and its incredibly painful to walk let alone run, but if you can push through it the agony stops and it just stays as being a bit stiff. It took a lot of work to get from walking to running, but the pace never came back. While the rest of the run was being done mentally as ‘5k’, the remainder after 30k was all running/walking from one km to the next. If I stopped to walk, I had to start running as soon as I passed the next aid station. I was watching sub 11 disappear every time I stopped to walk. Stupid knees. Everytime I stopped to walk I was overtaken by people, and every time I started running I started to overtake people again. Eventually it was just a couple of km to the finish and I managed to pick up the pace a bit, and somehow was sprinting for the final km. Not the run I had planned, but at least I managed to hit the next fall-back goal of under 4hrs for the marathon (part of my plan B if things didn’t go to plan). They had sponges on the course which were great, you'd survive without them on the day we had but if it was hotter I can imagine they'd really come into their own. As it was I threw a couple under my tritop each time the previous ones had dried out! The other thing I discovered is how nice coke is on a run!

Overall:
I’m happy, I finished, and with a respectable time. I wanted to do this and not chase the cutoffs; I wanted an OK bike time (which I think I got), and I wanted a good swim and run. I’m really happy with the swim, and tbh pretty gutted at the run. I didn’t come in under 11hrs, and I keep looking at the slow transitions which added up to 15mins (!!!), and the sections where I walked on the marathon. Nothing wrong with either, but that wasn’t what I trained to do or planned to do, so I’m annoyed I did it. After the race I had a bit to eat, a quick rub-down in the finishers area and then we headed back to the finish line to drink beer and cheer until midnight. What an amazing place the finishline is, it was totally electric and I knew I'd have to be back for another ironman.

Putting all this in perspective is easy. I saw someones leg propped up against a chair in T1, and I cheered for them on the run course late in the night when I was moving my bike from transition and there was nobody else still supporting on the run course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsILvg769hg . That guy is the ironman.

What’s next?
That’s the big question. Another IM to set things right, but for the rest of this year I’m not too sure, and what the next big new thing is… well, I have an idea, just no plan for it yet

Felt brilliant for the week after the IM and then either it all caught up with me or I caught a bug, as I've been a bit lethargic ever since. Back swimming almost immediately and really enjoying it but one or two sessions just fell apart and I couldn't even manage to hang onto my real easy pace for 100s. First 30min run yesterday since austria which was fun, but the left knee started to complain then so took a recovery day today

It's feeling like a right struggle to get going again! Yesterday was the first hard day of training in a long time, running intervals in the morning and a hard swim in the evening and I'm knackered today. Everyone else seems to be so fast, I'm barely hanging on