going in, i had taken roughly most of 2014 off. i was busy with other aspects of life and didn't prioritize racing as much. i missed it, but i didn't regret it. 2015 was my year, at least that's what i would tell myself. i didn't know much about maryland, i knew it was a fast course looking at times of teammates who did it in 2014 and was pretty confident i could break 10 hours if i just put the time in.
st croix 70.3 2015
after st croix i came home and really had to re-evaluate where my strength and weaknesses were. i always knew i had to put in the time to swim. but i really wanted to improve my bike and run. so i put in the most volume there. all in all, i put in a solid 12 weeks of training, 3 weeks was "ok" training and 3 weeks was junk d/t the race postponement etc.
by the time it was time to leave boston, i had already put in 8 centuries, following 5 of them with runs of 3-8 miles. in my previous four 140.6 races i had not put in a single ride of 100 miles. so i was feeling pretty confident. i drove down with john yen and the whole way we were keeping up with the weather etc. i was pretty nervous that the race would be cancelled, but i was just hoping we would catch a break. then, right when we got out of jersey john just sank. he said the race was being cancelled. there wasn't much more to say or do. we just turned around and headed home. the ride back was sad. i felt more for john than anything. he sacrificed a whole year, spending less time with his family and it was all being taken away.
i got home and the first thing i did was put my bike on the trainer. my gut said something would happen. either the race gets postponed for 10/17 or i was going to sign up for b2b and race that. for the first time in my life i train for a race and it gets canceled. go figure, right?
the next 2 weeks were grim. it was hard to focus, i developed plantar fascitis around oct 4th and it kept worsening. by the sat prior to the race i did a 5 mile run and i couldn't walk after. i was on a heavy dose of anti inflammatory and icing daily. even up to the morning of the race my foot was sore. at this point, i didn't even care. i was just happy the race was going on.
race morning i wake up at 4:15am and i do my morning ritual. we stayed as a group of 15+ at a house we rented a few minutes outside of cambridge. it was nice, we all worked together and all did our own thing at the same time.
once i got to the race i pumped up my tires and worked my way over to the changing tent. it was a brisk morning (low 40's with a light wind) so i decided to change into my wetsuit at the mens transition tent. afterwards i made my way to the swim start (by this time i had already lost mike and john). by the time i got there i bumped into mike, then janos. the wind started picking up but i was in a crowd of 50+ people and had not given it much though. roughly 10-15 minutes (i think) prior to the race starting there was an announcement stating that the swim would be shortened d/t the 30mph winds (there was a small craft advisory, thus making it unsafe for the kayaks and small boats to offer support). the swim was now 1.2 miles. there was a lot of booing, a lot of sad faces for the first timers who were now afraid they were not "ironman" upon completion. roughly 10 minutes later the winds died down to 20mph and the swim was lengthened to 3000m, roughly 1.9 miles. there were some cheers. to me, it didn't matter. i suck at swimming 1.2 vs 1.9, i'm going to suffer.
swim: 1:02:07
i seeded myself in the 1:20-1:30 with 5-6 teammates, it was comforting having them around. i'm probably more of a 1:20 swimmer, but i get a bit of confidence swimming past others vs being passed nonstop in the swim. the first thing i noticed was that the water was choppy, but not as bad as i expected. no worse than wisconsin in 2013, which i thought was the worst swim ever. it was a 2 loop rectangular swim. the outwards portion was directly into the sunlight, which worsened on the 2nd loop. it took me about 10 minutes but i was able to find my rhythm and swim to the turn around. that's when things started to get rough. coming back the chop worsened, i had expected it to lighten up since (no idea why, perhaps lying to myself to make the swim tolerable). i sucked down a few gulps of water but decided it was time to HTFU (harden the fuck up, for all you non triathletes reading) and just go. by the time i was about to finish the first loop i came into pretty shallow water and decided to stand up, walk a few yards and just mentally recover. low and behold, i bump into my teammate terry, who then asks me where to turn. it was funny. i pointed her in what i thought was the correct direction (luckily, it was) and off i went. the 2nd loop was no better. the chop worsened and i really had to dig deep mentally to stay focused. i came out of the water, not knowing my time, other than the fact that it was slow since there were not a lot of bikes left in t1 (which is pretty normal for me to experience).
t1: 0:09:02
OMG, what a shit show. i knew it was going to be a cold day, so i packed towels to dry my tri shorts with and i didn't wear a top under the wetsuit to expedite the process. i got to T1 and the volunteer literally told me there was no room, change outside if i could. of course, i didn't believe him (the 10 athletes changing at the doorway should been a dead giveaway), so i ran in, only to get 5 feet, turn around and come back out. i emptied my bag out and toweled off the best i could. i stuffed a plastic bag in front of my junk and put on my kiwami kona full sleeve zipup with the help of the volunteer. even though i towel dried myself, it still took the both of us quite some time to get the shirt on. the transition times for this race was inflated. there were no bike grabbers/catchers so we had to run the whole transition ourselves. no big deal, such is life. on the way out from transition there was a group of 8-10 folks running out of the shoot to the bike mount line. i was running faster than everyone so i decided to pull right to go around people. this guy in front of me suddenly turns right, stops and kisses his wife in front of my. i stopped as fast as i could to avoid going all macca on his rear derailleur, instead my front wheel catches and the bike falls down and my brand new rear hydration system BREAKS COMPLETELY OFF. great... off to a wonderful start. someone at the gate cheering said forget it man, you got this, go kill it! i picked up the cage, took the bottle out and just ran to the mount line. i mount my bike, stuff the bottle in my tri shorts and start putting out some watts cus i was annoyed.
bike: 5:20:55
luckily i set my garmin 520 with alerts, every time i went over 250 watts it would beep. i knew the bike course was flat, so i really had no reason to spike over 250 watts, not even to pass. on a flat ride with no wind i can comfortably hold 25mph with under 250 watts. the ride coming out of t1 was quite fast. i felt the wind was to my back for the first 10ish mile. i was passing groups of people. i must say, the drafting was bad, but not as bad and blatant as the out and back portion of placid, or the long single file lines of wisconsin out of t1 and def not as bad as the monster packs of cozumel. what i saw were packs of 5-6 riders, spaced about 2-3 bike lengths apart. for me, it was really annoying because it meant i had to put out more watts for longer to pass them. but one by one i did. there were a few folks that just sucked in general. 1) the guy in the orange (custom neon orange with yellow) trek project 1. he was literally wheel sucking his friend. i just looked at him and shook my head as i passed them. then there were the folks who tried to latch onto my wheel when i passed the group. meh, big no no. i would bury myself before i let anyone latch on to me. just not my style. it's not that i'm a super strong cyclist, it's just i don't like strangers riding so close to me. on top of that there was a lot of soft pedaling, folks riding on the passing lane sitting up and eating. about 25 miles into the bike the winds started to get really strong, it shifted from a head wind, to cross wind, back to head wind. it really felt unrelenting. it took me some time, but i slowly caught all my teammates 1 at a time. i was surprised how long it took me to catch them, but we all seeded ourselves differently at the swim, so that was expected. with it being so cold my nutrition was a bit off. i was relying on liquid nutrition, but i really had to pee a lot drinking so much, so i decided to stop for my special needs bag and pick up the 500 calories i had there. which helped me finish the 2nd loop. i noticed my NP going from 145 to 144, to 142, then finishing with 140. some of it was because i was getting tired, but mostly i was saving my legs for the run, i realized that i had already spent a lot of energy keeping from falling off the bike with the cross winds (123lbs race day with catalyst wheel cover and easton ecaero 90 fronts) so i wanted to conserve a few extra bit of juice for the run. when i finished the 2nd loop there was a left turn to finish the last 10 miles, the wind on this section was rough, probably the strongest of the day, but i was just happy to finish. i think i had a pretty good split. there were 2 guys drafting off this stronger cyclist and i didn't want them to latch onto me so i put down some watts and blew by them (the guy doing the pulling gave me some kudos, which was nice). coming into t2 i was worried about my plantar fascitis, but it hadn't bothered me at all on the bike so i decided to just go for it and see when my foot would blow up).
ironman maryland strava bike profile
dave yelling at me to turn around for a photo, the best i could do without stopping.
lots of folks sitting pretty close behind me all race
i racked my bike, ran into t2 tent and started changing. i took a second to gather myself, but pretty much could have gone a minute faster at best. it was a long transition, at least 90 seconds was running through the damn thing.
run: 3:51:29
my goal was to run a marathon PR. lots of people said it was not possible, but i did it for my half iron a few months back. i still think i have it in me, next year, for sure. i knew i had to hit 8 mins flat for a 3:27, but i also knew that the bike was so windy that i didn't have a 3:27 in me. i decided to go out at 8:10's and turn it up at 20 miles. the first mile was slower than expected, my HR monitor would not sync so i was running and trying to sync it. i gave up, then went back at it (i'm glad i did). i saw some teammates at special needs, it was nice to have then cheering me on. they asked how my foot was and not long after i felt the first twinge, it lasted a half mile and never came back. i was holding between 8 and 8:20's for a good portion of the run. i saw my teammate jason at 43 minutes into the run course. he runs a 2:43 open marathon and as expected (by everyone on the team, including myself) i thought he was going to catch me. i figured, 43 mins in, i'm at mile 5, he has 21 miles to catch me, that's very likely going to happen. i ran by my team tent and was told i had 24 minutes on him. the words out of my mouth were, oh man, he's definitely going to catch me. but i was encouraged to race hard and off i went. i'm not really competitive with others, especially teammates. mostly just pushing myself hard (or at board games really). i was still able to hold a sub 8:30 pace into mile 17 but that's when the wheels started falling off. it was a bit of everything. my GI was a bit off, i was really really cold as the wind picked up. i didn't realize how cold i was until the 3rd lap. i put a trashbag over myself and ran with that for 2-3 miles. at this time i was walking the water stops to make sure i took in some chips, cola, and chicken stock (god, i love that stuff). at the last mile, i passed a guy in my age group. i generally don't like to charge into the finish line, but he passed me again and i decided to keep up with him. unfortunately, he started running faster and faster. i decided to let him go the final 10 meters on his own, it might have been his first, so i didn't want to ruin his photo. i knew that i was probably ahead of him as i seeded myself pretty far back at the swim start. (i was correct, i had him by a few minutes).
trying to get my hrm to connect
i think this was heading into the final loop. i'm guessing it was around 21 miles, as you can see. i was hurting.
still with half decent form here
trying to finish strong
ironman maryland marathon strava profile
when i finished i saw and hugged my sister, made my way over the the food and changing tent and got into some comfy clothes. general consensus by everyone in the tent was that the winds were brutal (granted, some of them were big guys, so i felt they were exaggerating slightly, typical triathletes though, lol). i made my way over to my team tent and waited for teammates. as the night grew on, it got colder and colder. i pulled the plug and headed back to the house to shower. i spent the 6 hours after the race in GI distress. too much gu/sugar ratio :-/. the team made it back. we high fived all around and spent the next 2-3 hours into 1am talking about the race. it was truly special.
my goal coming into this race was sub 10 hours. after consulting ST and being humbled, i set my time on sub 10:30, which i eventually did (barely). i still believe on a normal wind day (7mph is cambridge, MD average on oct 3rd) i would have gone low 10's. but it is what it is. i have no gripes. i'm not upset at the guy who stopped to hug his wife, nor am i upset at all the folks who soft pedaled in the passing line, nor of the folks who tried to latch onto my wheel. the reality is that if i want to avoid those folks, i need to learn how to swim faster and more confident. there is no way in hell i can get to kona if i don't improve my swim.
i'm really grateful for all the support i had this year.
to my family, who never understands why i do this, but always supports me. my mother who texted me the night prior and said "sorry i can't be there honey, good luck at your game tomorrow", followed by a bunch of random emojis (seriously, it's not a game mom, it's a damn race for the 1000th time!). to my sister who traveled from dc and was out there with her bf for 10+ hours, then sherpa'ing me home.
to my team: trifury i joined in 2006, not having a single idea what to do. i was that young whipper snapper that you all took under your wing. special thanks to dave tyler. your commitment to the team is incredible. kudos to claire, so happy to made it down, you are such a strong person. to the everyone else on the team. we may not be the fastest team, we may not have the coolest bikes, or the fanciest of equipment but this team embodies team/family like no other. i couldn't imagine being a part of another team. dave, you better work on that lifetime membership fee for me!
to my drink maple friends: thank you for all those great rides in the middle of the summer. because of you guys, i had more centuries this year than i have had in my previous 8 years of triathlon. my 5:20 bike split was a credit to you guys.
to my breakaway computraining friends: thank you for all those great rides. sharon johnson, caroline, tom kinneman and janos. it is always humbling riding with you guys. really helps me realize how much more i have to improve on the bike!
to my housemates julia and matthias: thank you for putting up with my shit EVERYWHERE in the house. my stanky bike shoes floating around, my loud tv and music when i'm on the trainer. my nutrition/gu/powder etc EVERYWHERE. for watching my dog all those days i'm out training, all those weekends i'm traveling to race. (that goes for all my tufts dog walkers as well, you guys are the bomb!)
to brad callow: who sent me one of the most inspiring e-mails prior to my race. i would post it, but between all your fruity drinks and the e-mail you'll have a hard time convincing anyone in the world you were hetero (because no straight man can write something that nice). even maddy couldn't save you this time.
to all my friends: thank you for putting up with me not showing up to social events, falling asleep at 10pm, waking everyone up at 6am. thank you for following me to new york to ride in the daks, thank you for going to maine for my birthday, just so i can do an ftp test on cadillac mountain. thank you for being so supportive all the time.
riding up cadillac mountain twice on my 31st birthday, dragging everyone up with me :-)
to my slowtwitch family: asking a question on st is the most humbling and educational thing at the same time. i have learned so much. i don't post/read enough to know who is who just yet. but there are a few folks who have really helped me understand how to race better. thank you for all your support and sharing of knowledge.
st folks reminding me how not fast i am
last but not least. thanks to mike posanka and john yen. it's been a long year, i watched you guys train starting last year and it has been a pleasure sharing this experience with you. i couldn't be happier and more proud. you guys were the best training partners a guy could ask for. just serious enough, but no too serious. thanks for all the good laughs. john, i'm still going to punch you in the dick if i ever see you ride on the bull horns when you should be in aero, that's a promise.
Now it's time to sit back, relax for a few days, then get back into climbing. the cold weather is here and it's perfect for outdoor bouldering to build up some strength prior to ice climbing season. don't worry though, this year i'm committed to swimming twice a week, running 3 miles hard before every single gym climbing session and riding on the trainer 3-4x per week. no off season for me this year! IMMT and IMChoo next season. goal is sub 10:15 for IMMT and sub 9:50 for IMChoo!
Great read! It was nice to share some of this with you.
ReplyDeletethe pleasure was all mine john! you are such a trooper, way to kill it. JOHN, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!!
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