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Ironman Mallorca Sep 2014
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Zico you had a terrific race, but to go into any race ' expecting ' to qualify is nuts.
Anyway re the rules mentioned above ;
5. Drafting is forbidden. The minimum distance between two cyclists is 10 m, starting from the end of the back wheel of the athlete in front to the front end of the front wheel of the athlete in back. A passing maneuver must be completed within 30 seconds. During a passing maneuver, a minimum sideways distance of 2 m must be observed. The athlete who was overtaken must take care to establish the minimum distance again by falling back.
Drafting is suspended:
- Steep uphill sections,
- Tight turns,
- At the aid stations.
Originally from: http://m.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman/mallorca/athletes/rules-regulations.aspx#ixzz3EvqOA7NE
My interpretation of this is that in order to overtake an athlete in front, the overtaker must first pull out 2metres to the side ( ie get fully into the wind ) then begin the overtake..ie during the passing manouver a minimum sideways distance of 2m.0 -
There is nothing more frustrating than holding your power and some guy pulls in front of u and u have to drop back and your power drops off... Then he slows down and u have to surge to get past and put daylight ... Only for him to surge himself a few km later and fook your no's up again. Tri newbie i cant get my head around an Irish guy on a roadie rolling up beside u. He must have been doing some wheel sucking !!!0
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Having looked at the data on speed and wattage for a number of people.
Those figures don't back the statement "its a tough bike course".0 -
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Having looked at the data on speed and wattage for a number of people.
Those figures don't back the statement "its a tough bike course".
Surely speed and wattage wouldn't take into account the conditions (i.e. temperature) which have a role to play in determining whether its a tough course in terms of a triathlon.....0 -
Surely speed and wattage wouldn't take into account the conditions (i.e. temperature) which have a role to play in determining whether its a tough course in terms of a triathlon.....
Lifting from Fazz's as closest, Just on bike
Min temp 17
Avg temp 25
Max temp 32
From my Austria 2010
Min 21
Avg 27
Max 37
From Frankfurt 2014
Min 17
Avg 29
Max 380 -
road surface for 10-15k with more potholes than on the average Irish highway. The potholes filled with tar that had completely melted. This section was on narrow roads and quite technical. A long technical decent prior to this point and the final 30 k into a strong headwind all reduced the speed. I would say a middle of the pack course. Not as hard as Wales, Lanzo but defo harder than some of the faster ones that you mentioned. Its my understanding that warmer conditions can produce faster times. I think the wind will be the deciding factor on this course as it builds throughout the day.0
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road surface for 10-15k with more potholes than on the average Irish highway. The potholes filled with tar that had completely melted. This section was on narrow roads and quite technical. A long technical decent prior to this point and the final 30 k into a strong headwind all reduced the speed. I would say a middle of the pack course. Not as hard as Wales, Lanzo but defo harder than some of the faster ones that you mentioned. Its my understanding that warmer conditions can produce faster times. I think the wind will be the deciding factor on this course as it builds throughout the day.
Interesting then that people are getting such speeds from such relatively low wattages.0 -
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Interesting then that people are getting such speeds from such relatively low wattage.
Too many variables to come out with a statement such as that.
On a long sustained climb BM has also got something to do with it. I know a long sustained climb doesn't suit my 78kg frame. Like in the lost sheep I am stuck to the road once the 62/3 kg riders hit the climbs. They can sustain far higher average speeds on those style courses.
I have also looked at 100's of IM power files and I have saw far quicker average speeds off lower power outputs than what have being mentioned in this post. They have also posted far quicker times. I know of a 73 kg rider who biked 215 watts average for a 4:50 bike in Austria. Another thing you are not taking into account is Cda or aerodynamic drag.
Its funny I actually saw quite a few bikers fully decked out in skinsuits/socks and in quite aggressive positions at the weekend and on the other hand road bikers with zero aero gear just latched on.
Like I said before the peletons were all consuming and the riders that are on here are well capable of hitting those times/speeds without the hassle of peletons.
I think we should be more worried about the premeditated and organized drafting by the Spanish armada and we are only fooling ourselves if we think they hadn't bikers organized to bring their top men/women through the field.0 -
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If anything i would have said Fazzs power seems about right on that course if anything pace is a little slower for his return in power.
I am basing this on Fazz being the same small (sorry but you are a hobbit as well:)) and slight build as me and similar enough kit if not slightly in Ians favour.
That sort of power output of 207w/222w would have me hitting somewhere around 4.55 at a guess, i know course profile and different readings between PMs needs to be accounted for.
I am basing this off a 5.19 done on 161w ap/173w np http://tpks.ws/FySb
There will still be benefit to peoples times by riding legally.
EDIT to add: I am purely using Fazz as an example as he is the only one who has put up power file & nos0 -
I said in another post here that I expected to qualify for Kona from this race. Trinewbie said I was ‘nuts’ to think like this and maybe I was. Perhaps a lot of people would think it was extremely arrogant of me. But this year I’ve performed better in races, both running and triathlon, than I’d ever done before. Excluding professionals I can’t imagine there are too many other people who would have trained more than me. I know other people who have qualified for Kona and I was confident I could match their times. Since April IM Mallorca was my goal and no other race this year distracted from that. Similar to the Connemarathon I did 99% of my scheduled training sessions and I think this dedication is invariably rewarded. I would have predicted 9.15-9.20 before the race and I reckoned that would have been good enough. I know Ironman racing can be a long day and know a lot could potentially go wrong, but I had little fear of blowing up. I don’t find the distances daunting and there were enough signs in my training for me to be confident of delivering on the day. Arrogant or not it’s the mindset I adopted pre-race and one that I think is necessary if you want to perform to your potential.
I planned to qualify, I was good enough on the day to qualify, but at the end of the day I didn’t. If you want to find out why, read on. But I warn you it’s a long and possibly very boring report.
Swim
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this part of the race. With all 2,500 age groupers starting en masse, I was anticipating absolute mayhem. Standing on the sand ready to enter the water I was trying to steel myself for the chaos that was about to unfold. Wherever I started I knew it was going to be physical and I reasoned getting walloped closer to the front was going to be the same as getting walloped closer to the back. It was a running start and I got as close to the front as I could. When the gun went everybody took off. I thought I’d be running for longer, but water deep enough to swim in came soon enough and most got horizontal as soon as they could. Things were pretty chaotic for a long time. With so many with so many bodies all about, it gave me some sort of understanding of what fish in a fish farm must feel like. It was impossible to get into any sort of rhythm and there were a lot of bumps and thumps throughout the entire first lap. I didn’t think any of it was malicious though, just the inevitable result of putting two and a half thousand people into the water for a swim.
The buoys were easy sight and unlike a swim I’d done on the Thursday it was considerably easier to swim straight. The benefit of having so many in the water was plenty of feet to draft off. I was dragged along and conserved a lot of energy as a result.
The end of the first lap came quicker than I had anticipated and after this we had to get out of the water and run back in for a second shorter lap. When this happened I stood up and ran. Others around me were walking though, which I found a bit odd, considering the same people would have been clobbering each other in a fight for position only 10 seconds earlier.
After the quick Australian exit it was back in slightly less congested water. There were still plenty of people to draft off and it wasn’t until I turned a buoy that marked the point where we headed back to the beach that I was in relatively clear water. I had swum a small bit wide and had veered off to the left. This was really the only point in the swim where I had to increase my effort to get back on the feet of the swimmers who were swimming a straighter line. The effort was worth it and I was back into a relaxed stroke as soon as I was back on some feet.
My left calf started to cramp on the second lap and this early in the race it was worrying. I eased off with my kick and the sensation went away. The worry didn’t and it was a big concern that my calf would instantly seize up when the swim ended and the time came to stand.
Soon after this people started to stand up, this signalled the end of the 3.8k course, but the water was still deep enough to swim in, so I kept on swimming. I wasn’t really making or losing ground on anybody and started to swing my arms more frantically. One of the guys beside me must have thought I didn’t realise I could stand up and tipped me on the head to let me know where we were. I usually swim for as long as I can and only stand when swimming is no longer possible. After an IM swim I didn’t think I was going to lose much , if any, time by standing up now. It might also have been considered rude had I not acknowledged the guy who had tipped me on the head by standing up.
With that I stood up and thankfully wasn’t beset with any cramps. I wasn’t wearing a watch and asked the same guy what time he had for the swim. He replied ‘1.02’ and I had to do a double take because for a non-wetsuit swim it was way faster than I had been expecting. He confirmed that it was 1.02 and enquired if I thought it was fast. I told him it was ‘very fast for me’, thanked him, picked up the pace and headed for transition psyching myself up for the cycle ahead.
Time; 1.03.05
T1
We’d been told at the briefing that this was the longest transition at any Ironman event in the world. I thought I detected a hint of pride when they told us this, which I would regard as a peculiar thing to be proud of. But whatever their feelings about it, it certainly was a long transition.
I was wearing cycling shoes instead of tri shoes and with three straps to fasten I didn’t want to be faffing about with them on the bike. I’d left them in my cycling gear bag, instead of clipped into my pedals. I put them on along with socks in the changing tent and ran to my bike with them, my helmet, gloves and sunglasses on. I collected my bike and made my way out of the longest Ironman transition in the world as fast as my cycling shoes would allow.
Time; 5.27 Race Time; 1.08.32
Cycle
I’d been tossing it about in my mind in the weeks before the race about what approach I’d take on the bike. I’d ridden 180km in 4.45 on the N11 three weeks previously, but I’d done it by pushing a hard gear throughout and I wasn’t sure if this would be a sensible approach to take on race day. Once I arrived in Mallorca I decided that this was going to be an all or nothing effort. I knew I was capable of making big time gains on the bike and felt if I held back I risked leaving a lot of time out there. Time I wouldn’t be able to claw back on the run no matter how fast I ran.
I started the cycle determined to put in a fast time and was pushing hard right from the very off. With one mass start the numbers out on the road were huge and bunching was inevitable. Others here have said they had to surge to get away from the pelotons that had formed; well my whole cycle was one big surge.
I don’t use and have never used a power meter and was only going off perceived effort. Anybody I saw in front of me I felt I could pass and was constantly passing people until I got to the hill after 120km. I’d passed Fazz at about the 110km mark and was surprised that I had caught him so early. It made me think I might have been working too hard, but I thought there was no point backing off at this stage and kept putting the power down.
When I saw a sign telling me the climb was coming, for the first time I switched down to the small ring and rode up the climb at a steady pace. As I was in the small ring the climb was probably taking less energy than the previous 120km had. Two people passed me on the climb and got away. This was the first time this had happened all day, but I carried on pedalling at my own comfortable pace and let them go.
Apart from these two I made up a few places on this climb passing among others a female pro who I was pretty sure was Eimear Mullan. And a look back at the bike splits seems to confirm this. After seeing her I knew I must be getting close enough to the business end of the proceedings in my AG and was happy enough that my kamikaze approach to the race was starting to pay dividends.
The summit of the climb came soon enough after I passed Eimear and the subsequent descent saw her and many others overtake me. Sitting on the brakes I was descending like a little girl and I lost a lot of time on this part of the course. I wasn’t prepared to take even the slightest chance and told myself the time lost probably wasn’t as bad as it seemed and that I’d caught all these people once and I could catch them again once the road levelled out.
I got down off the mountain in one piece and despite the sissy-like approach I took to descending, it was over quickly enough. I wasn’t immediately able to put the hammer down again, a combination of twisty roads, passing through villages with blind turns and poor surface meant I was holding back a small bit. At some point around 150km into the cycle I decided it was safe enough to once more adopt the hell for leather approach.
I was passing people consistently once more, but it wasn’t until about the 160km mark that I repassed Eimear Mullan. This was approximately 25km from when she had left me behind on the descent which is a striking indication of how poorly I had descended. I was happy though that I had to be back roughly in the same position as I had been at the summit of the mountain.
I had a good idea that I must have been doing well, but looking back at the time checks on the bike course has told me more. After 113.2km I was 21st in my age group, and after 168.4km I was 19th. The latter time check included my pathetic descent which in all likelihood meant my position at the summit was even better. More tellingly though this retrospective study of bike splits shows that I was ahead of and cycling faster than the guy who eventually finished 4th in my age group.
It was a straight run to the finish from here and I kept pushing hard on the pedals and made up a few more places on the road back into Alcúdia. 180km ticked over on my cycle computer, I was expecting this and knew from the briefing yesterday that the total distance was supposed to be 181.5km.
Transition came into view and I switched the display on my computer to check what time I was on for. I was just under 5 hours and delighted with the time I managed to put down.
I then came to the final roundabout which was only 500m from transition and began visualising what I needed to do next. I approached the roundabout and there were no marshals to tell me where to go. We had already been through this roundabout earlier in the race. Only that time instead of going to transition we took another exit that brought us out to Port de Pollença. I wasn’t thinking about this at the time and I followed the only sign I could see on the roundabout that sent me out the road to Port de Pollença. I was moving away from the transition and was starting to think something wasn’t quite right. I asked marshals along the road was this the way to the finish, to which the replied ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ I thought it was possible there would be a turn soon enough and a road that would swing back to transition. I didn’t want to slow down, and despite this hoped for turn never materialising, I kept stubbornly pedalling onwards.
After 3 kilometres or so of cycling I just knew this couldn’t be right, I stopped beside the next marshals I saw and asked them where the hell the finish was and where was I supposed to go. With English not being their first language it was hard to explain the situation I was in. They signalled for me to keep going straight. I was on the verge of a total hissy fit at this point and I demanded they look at my computer which showed I had cycled well in excess of 180km. The reality of what had happened dawned on them then and they gestured for me to go back.
I cycled back shouting profanities at the top of my voice for the next few minutes. When I got back to Alcúdia and the roundabout at transition I had no idea how many places I had lost, but I knew the number must have been considerable. A look back at the results shows I dropped from 19th in my age group to 43rd.
Time; 5.11.21 Race Time; 6.19.53
T2
It was hard to think about what I needed to do here. I grabbed my run bag and ran into the changing tent. Some helpers were there to apply sunscreen and the like, but instead of asking for their help I moaned about poor signage, there being no marshals at the final roundabout, the other marshals telling me to go the wrong way, and me having to cycle an extra 6km. I don’t think somebody who spoke English would have understood my ranting and raving, and these Spanish helpers certainly didn’t. I realise they had absolutely nothing to do with any of the things that happened, but I had to let somebody know how frustrated I was. They politely said they didn’t have a clue what I was on about and with that I just asked one of them to apply sun cream to my shoulders and after a change of socks, and with my shoes on my feet and a cap on my head I exited transition to begin the run.
Time; 4.19 Race Time; 6.24.12
Run
I was absolutely livid and started the run pretty sure that my entire race had been completely fncked up. It was hard to hold back and the anger was making me run faster than I needed. I had put on a Garmin in T2 and I hoped this would help me keep my pace between 4.05-4.15/km.
The quick glances I took at my watch during the first three kilometres showed I was running well under 4 minute kilometres. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be too concerned about this, but for an IM marathon when my target was sub 3 I knew this was way too quick and that I’d have to back off or end up paying for it later on.
The sun and the heat were both pretty intense and I realised the importance of getting fluids and fuel on board. After running through the first aid station and just grabbing a cup of water I decided to walk the rest of the aid stations.
I managed to calm down as the kilometres rolled by and although I’d done a lot of damage to my hopes of a good time, I thought that if I could still run a sub 3 that might, just might get me back to where I was before I went wrong on the bike. I wasn’t sure where this would see me finish, but there was an opportunity to salvage something from the day.
I kept plodding along, slowing down at the aid stations to get sufficient water/coke/Red Bull on board. I took sponges at every aid station and shoved them down my shorts, under my cap, and down my top. My left leg was starting to cramp and although I got to the half-way point in about 1.28, I was slowing down and knew at that point that sub 3 was going to be a huge ask.
The heat really started to affect me on the second half and I was slower and slower going through the aid stations. I felt like vomiting at several points, but didn’t want to waste time lurching on the side of the road if nothing was coming up. Nothing came up and I kept running with a nauseous feeling in my gut. I couldn’t stomach a gel from this point and the bananas on offer were no more appealing. I was relying on coke and red bull to keep my energy stores topped up, but was sick of drinking as well.
Others said they found the 4½ lap affair motivating, but it wasn’t for me. It seemed to prolong the misery and to finally get the 4th and final coloured band which indicated the number of laps we had done was a phenomenal feeling of relief. Knowing I was on the home straight was great, but I couldn’t do a whole lot to pick up the pace. Sub 3 was out of the question for a long time and I just tried to pick off as many people as I could in the final 6km.
Here the coloured bands proved useful, as by looking at the number of bands the other runners had I knew exactly who I was racing against. With their numbers to the front though I didn’t know what age group these people were in, but the possibility they were in mine was motivation to keep going.
I passed the final aid station without stopping and think I caught two more runners who were also on their final lap between there and the finish line. Looking back at the results I see that over the entire run I made up 33 places in my age group and 160 places overall, which is a sad tale of what might have been. I crossed the line and immediately started complaining again about what had happened to me earlier on the bike. Then I ran out of the energy required to complain and checked into the medical tent.
Time; 3.04.13 Race Time; 9.28.25
Others might think I did an alright time, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. It doesn’t reflect my ability on the day and the most annoying thing about it all is that it was under my control. Had I fully recced the course, it wouldn’t have happened. That nearly hurts worst of all. There are positives I can take from the race, but right now it’s hard to look beyond the mistake I made. There’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that I would have finished 4th in my age group only for it. It was the difference between qualifying for Kona and not, which is sickening. After 5 months of giving my life over to training, I’ve lost a lot of motivation for the whole thing. It’s back to the drawing board for next season. I haven’t completely ruled out another qualifying attempt at Kona 2015, but it will be an expensive year if that’s what I do. I’ll take a few weeks to decide and when I cheer up let you know.0 -
A very difficult report to write I imagine. Thanks for writing it and clearing things up as it had obvious been that something hasn't gone right - be it in lead in or execution. Nothing that can be said that will make you feel better about it so I won't try.0
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A heartbreaking report. No marshals on that roundabout is a pretty big oversight. I know you're supposed to know the course but at the end of the bike you can be pretty disoriented. Such is ironman tho. A litany of things can go wrong.0
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2015 edition sold out straight away. Like the 70.3, it looks like it is going to be one of the more popular on the calendar. Hope they sort out the issues as it would be one I would consider (if I ever go long..... which wont be for a good while)0
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2015 edition sold out straight away. Like the 70.3, it looks like it is going to be one of the more popular on the calendar. Hope they sort out the issues as it would be one I would consider (if I ever go long..... which wont be for a good while)
Where did you see this? Their website still says 'opening soon'. They haven't even set a date yet?0 -
Where did you see this? Their website still says 'opening soon'. They haven't even set a date yet?
Their facebook page said it a minute ago. I see they have just amended it to add in "70.3" to the story. Sorry! They had put up a post this morning saying 100 spots left in the 70.3 so that obviously got them over the line today.0 -
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Opens for reg on thursday0
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Hopefully my IM debut
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