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Following Mr. Fink to Copenhagen
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Finally the end of the road with mr fink - race report from challenge Copenhagen 2010
A few days out from the result my main feeling is still one of relief, what really struck me in the few days running up to the event and during the race itself was how much is down to good fortune on the day, ( weather, punctures, last minute injury) which is pretty daunting since you really have all of your eggs in once basket.
Arriving in Copenhagen on the Thursday night, the weather was shocking - torrential rain. One of the attractions of the race was that I reckoned we were less likely to get the serious heat which sometimes features in other big European races, but heavy rain would hardly help either.
There was 6 of us from the club taking part which meant for great support and my patient wife was in service as my chief supporter, motivator and logistician, she can now comfortably discuss transitions splits, heart rates and cadence with the best of them
The weather cleared up enough the next day to allow for a very pleasant swim in the swim course at Amager strand - a man made sea lake reclaimed in recent years by the clever Danes and an excellent swim location, good sighting off bridges over the lake and no chop to speak of. But by the afternoon before the race the rain was back, turning bike registration into a very unpleasant experience, later that evening some thunder and lightning kicked in. it seems that Copenhagen was having its worst rain in a long long time. Needless to say, none of this was good for the nerves and I had a whole bunch of little phantom leg niggles and didn’t get to sleep until 2am.
The next morning was bleak. I dutifully consumed about 900 calories and we splashed out on a taxi to the race start, it was still wet and was going to be a long day. You had to feel a bit sorry for the organisers trying to drum up enthusiasm on a gray morning with everyone standing in an inch or two of water. They had been up all night I would say, trying to deal with flooding on some parts of the bike and also they had to take apart the bike transition bag racking which had disintegrated in the rain overnight. :eek:
The swim
But the show went on - I was in the second last swim wave and once I got going, everything started to work out. The visibility wasn’t great but you cant really miss some huge bridges. I got some good drafts on the way out on the swim and then pushed on and worked my way through the previous wave of swimmers. The water was a bit gross probably due to the runoff but it didn’t seem to be affecting me. There was no clock that I could see at the timing mat but I knew I had done a good swim - it turned out to be just 5 seconds over an hour which I am delighted with (but if only I hadn’t stop to fix my swim hat twice….) I charged through transition forgetting my bike gloves and off onto wet roads into Copenhagen
The bike
The course runs through the city and then up the eastern coast road to the north before cutting cross country on some smaller roads and then back onto a dual carriageway to the city and repeating. Although the city roads were wet I felt fine and was really relaxed. I was not using a hrm but focused on keeping low exertion throughout. The sun started to come out and there was enough wind to keep you cool. After 20 minutes I started eating a third of a sports bar every 20minutes and drinking either water or high 5 every 10. At the 30k point I saw I was under an hour and really started to enjoy things. There was no climbing to speak of but enough rolling to put some manners on the boys with more cervelo than training. The cross country bit could have been in north county Dublin, winding crappy roads with lots of punctures but the rest of the surfaces were good., apart from a small cobbled section in one town which was pretty annoying.
I had arranged to meet with my wife and a danish relative of ours at the aid station at 100k for emergency supplies if necessary and when I met them I was in great form. My only concern now was avoiding a puncture and each time I to stopped to pee I checked my tire for any embedded stones but all was fine. The support on the course was amazing, and the marshalling really impressive, police, civil defence and marshals at each crossing, major commitment in terms of diverting traffic. And the weather kept getting better. You really could not complain about a thing.
The last few k back through town was a bit tedious but I felt ok and with a 5:46 time, I would not have dreamed of that a year ago. I rushed transition again though and forgot to reapply sunscreen.
The run
I had managed to reset my bike clock so wasn’t really sure of what time I had done but starting the run shouted out the my wife to ask what time it was - you could see her thinking ‘what, have you someplace to be ?’ I knew from her response that if I could just hold it together for the run I would be very happy with my overall time. The run course was up and down the harbour front for three laps, passing lots of the tourist attractions and again lots of great support. Things were fine until about 32 k at which point my stomach finally had enough liquid sugar and I started to feel very sick. The next 10k was a drag, I ran some, I walked some, eventually I strung together a 25min continuous run before having to walk a bit and then pulled it together for the final 2k. Crossing the line I just felt relieved and satisfied. At 4:16 I could not have any complaints., it meant an overall time of 11:13, way beyond my expectations. I had done the training but also knew I had been lucky. The course had been fast, the weather had worked out and my errors like rushing transitions had not come back to bite me.
Final thoughts
So mr fink managed to deliver the goods in the end. I know it might not be suitable for more experience athletes but for a novice I found most of it made sense. And at the end of the day, once you build up steadily to a 3k swim, a 3 hr run and a 6 hour bike with some runs off the long bikes you are probably going to get around. Of course to push into the fast times i imagine you need to get a bit more sophisticated but that was not the end of the pool i was paddling in anyway.
Most of all, it has felt great to actually be properly trained for an event - my training in the past has been all over the place, including for the marathons I have done. I will not do a major event again under trained. Passing guys on 4k of bike with compression socks on my 3 year old aluminium bike just feels too good to go at anything again half assed.
So thanks for all of the support and encouragement - keeping this log has helped to keep me honest and motivated on the training. Don’t think I will be doing another iron man, but maybe the etape next year ?
Good luck in your own races and training:).0 -
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thanks a lot hunger, it was such a relief in the end. i am not going to risk the marathon, I have had two dissapointments doing it and have sworn to not go near one again without serious training.
I will ask but i didnt hear any of the lads taking about using a spreadsheet version of the fink plan. if i was you i would have a look at joe friels book 'going long' as well - you can borrow mine if you want.
for the swim sessions over the winter - you could do worse that adding in some of the masters sessions in belvedere (7 to 8 in the am, 8pm on tuesday night, 12noon on saturday and 10 am on sunday) - tony and conor morris run these and will give you some pointers on your stroke.
might not see you til the awards night... 0
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