That perfect race never happens.
I finished IMAZ 2019 with a time of 11:26:49, swim 1:20:30, bike 5:32:31, run 4:21:51. Missing my A goal of 11:00, got the B goal of 11:30, PR’d 58 minutes.
The swim
I thought I should finish around 1:10, but it was 1:20, and it was 5 min slower than my PR time. Checking on the data, I think I didn’t train enough on the endurance. All the time I was focusing on techniques, speeds. Most training was under 500yd. I came to the race with 1:40min/100yd on 500s cruise speed, and 1:30 on 100s. It was all good, but endurance is still important.
I used to be a consistent panicking swimmer, panicked on 2 of my 3 triathlon races. This time I figured it out, it was because I was afraid of cold water, and too excited at the start. So I forced myself into the very cold Gull Park (<60F) water several weekends, simulating race start again and again, until I started to hope for cold water. It was 64 degrees on race morning.
The dream is sub 1, someday maybe. It will be very difficult. I don’t know how to get there, how to structure a training plan together, or whether my age still opens a window. I will need a coach.
The bike.
The bike was very successful. I self coached, and PR’ed for more than an hour. I think there are about 20 minutes came from the faster IMAZ course (compared to my previous two races in IMSR), 10 min goes to the better wheels thanks to my friend Michael, 10 min because I felt good on the day and pushed hard, then there are about 20 minutes for real ability improvement. I came to the race with FTP of 241 watts. As for the goal of 11h, most coaches recommend a normalized power (NP) between 71%-75% to set up a good run, which is 171-181watts.
I went with the lower number, NP of 171w, knowing that I’m still a weak cyclist. The bike course was a 3 loop out and back, mostly flat, with highway pavement quality, it was indeed a 65mph highway playground! Out town onto Beeline road, there is a 1-2% uphill with headwind near the last 5 miles, before the turn around point. I ducked down very low, and hold about 15mph pace, then at the turn around, with smooth downhill and tailwind, I quickly speeded to above 30mph. It was a thrilling experience, I’m glad I can finally trust my bike. On the 3rd loop turn around, at about 93 mi, I took my first sugar based nutrition, a SIS gel, and got a boost. I remember Dave Scott used to say, if you feel really good on the last 30 miles on the bike, you should allow yourself to push. I felt really really good, so I pushed, after the 5mi downhill, keeping about 25mph into the flat session for the last 10 miles. I got an average 20.23mph speed, even better than I planned.
The run.
Ironman crushed a lot of dreams, with its unforgiving marathon. It’s honest time, any small weakness will be enlarged and thrown back in your face. One of my dreams was to finish a 4 hour Ironman marathon, which I failed twice. This time I trained well. Bouncing back from a long time injury, I had a consistent 5 month solid, structured training log. I got the speed, the strength, and the endurance. To build the mental part, I even tested a brick run off a full 112 mile bike at race power, feeling quite easy for a few miles under 8min pace. I was very confident to break 4 this time. But once again, it did not happen.
It hit me at the start, on the first steps off the bike – my left glute doesn’t fire. It felt like an IT band injury, although there wasn’t any hint of ITB issue during the training. Actually during my entire running history, this leg never complained. It’s my 10th year since I started running, I gathered a pretty complete collection of all running injuries, all in the right leg. The left leg was reliable – if I must pick only 2 things to trust in this mercurial world, it was love, and my left leg – that kind of reliable.
Now thinking back on the reasons, it most likely came from T1, when the wetsuit peeler asked me to sit down, I “sit down” too fast, landed on my left butt heavily on something. When I stood up, I could already detect something went wrong, painful while running the half mile to T1. But I was in denial mode. To feel pain that early in an Ironman race isn’t an option, so I turned it off.
They say the Ironman counts by how many times you can recover during the race. I believed if I warm up a few miles, the sudden pain will suddenly disappear, I will rise from the ashes – it’s Tempe near Phoenix, you want to believe that. Before the race I told myself, no matter how well you prepared, at some point Ironman will ask you the same question: do you want to quit now? I prepared many reasons to answer the big NO, but you know, those reasons never stand in the real race situation. I won’t drop off, that’s ironed to my runner’s mind. but I wanted so much to walk the marathon. It’s an ITB issue, what can you do about it? Then I saw a small board standing very low at the side of the road, nobody was holding it. On the board it reads: I regret that run.
No, I don’t regret it, now I can say that. I gave everything Ironman asked that day. Although it was disheartening to know I had a lot more to give but he wasn’t interested. I had enough glycogen left in the tank, my legs felt strong. But I could only land on a certain angle, with a distorted form. Holding back all the desires to accelerate, the marathon felt ridiculously long. I did feel tired around 15 mile, and became mentally weaker, dropping the pace even though the pain was less by then. I started red bull at 18mile, coke at 19 mile, felt good again, picked up the pace a little, which was too late. In the end, I was only able to make a 4 min marathon PR, once again, missing the long time IM marathon goal by a big margin of 21 minutes.
It was getting dark early in the winter, and I’m getting old. The lights just turned on when I arrived at the finish line. I heard Mike Reilly’s voice, I heard my name. The truth is, I’m not an Iron-fan anymore. I didn’t feel much emotion, or sense of accomplishment. I just wanted to go home. I still love the sports, still love the training process, the lifestyle. I still hope someday I can run down the sun in a late winter evening, and get home before dark.
