When I started this blog I had the best intentions of posting about my training and keeping up to date over the course of the adventure. Well everything that I was doing took a little more time and the blog was never thought of again.

Sorry this may take longer to read than it took me to finish the race!

Ironman Coeur D’Alene 2009

PreRace

Wednesday - Arrived into Spokane and after a 4 hour delay in San Francisco was happy that I was able to make it in. I hoped that this delay was the worst thing that was going to happen during the trip. After arrival no problems getting to Coeur D’Alene. I was able to drive around a little bit and check out where things were. It was something different to have sun light till after 9pm, my body was thoroughly confused about the time.

Thursday - morning I got up and headed over to the swim start to check out the swim and get in a quick lap. The course was set up short and was just a good opportunity to get in the water. I could not get in my house until 3pm so I was luckily able to hang out with John Stark during the day. We drove the bike course, got registered and picked up bikes. A group of us then went for a short bike ride to check everything out. After the bike ride I headed to the house to check it out and see my parents who had arrived in town. I grabbed a quick shower and went to the EN Dinner. This was a great opportunity to meet so many of the people who I only knew from the forums.

Friday - I went for another swim in the choppy but uneventful waters. They had the loop set up for the full course +/- and I did 1 loop and it felt fine. The plan was to do a short run and bike today but since it was raining all day I just hung around and did not risk crashing on the bike or getting my running shoes wet. The rest of my family came in the afternoon so it was nice to have them around to just hang out. I spent some time and laid out everything I thought I would need for tomorrow.

Saturday - I spent the morning packing up all my transition bags and getting my bike ready. This ended up taking much longer than I had planned. I should have spent more time on this Friday so I could have been less stressed about finishing things up on Saturday. I dropped my bike and my transition 1 and 2 bags off mid day and spent the rest of the day relaxing. My family went out for dinner and I stayed home and cooked my usual pre-game dinner of chicken and pasta (and remembered not to eat too much!)


Sunday - I was up at 4am and had a small breakfast of Bagel w/ PB, a banana, cup of coffee and a bottle of Gatorade. I took a quick shower to get warmed up and help wake up then finished packing up my special needs bags. Since there was a question of rain or not for the day I had a few extra items ready to add to my T1 and T2 bags if needed. The weather still looked “good” so I left all the cold/wet gear at home. My dad drove me downtown at about 5ish so I could get down there with plenty of time. I had plenty of time to get everything dropped off and situated.

The Race

Swim - I headed down onto the beach at about 6:40ish. I tend to overheat if I put my wetsuit on early so I was trying to balance getting really cold with out my suit on and too hot with it on. I placed myself about middle of the beach in the middle of the pack.

My plan was to let the first group go in than get going unless it looked too crazy then I would hold back and let it clear up a little bit. The most uncertain part of the whole race for me was the swim start. I have never participated in a mass start and have heard and read all the stories about getting beat up, swam over and almost drowned.

So when the gun went off the first group hit the water and everyone around me stood still. I saw a little gap into the water so I took the opportunity and went right in. The swim was crowded and I got bumped a few times but just took it easy and kept aware of the people around me. A few hundred yards in I knew I was swimming too fast but when I slowed down I could tell I was going to get swam over so I slowed a little but not as much as I wanted to. This is when I felt the zipper on my suit start to open a little. (I have a profile design suit that has the zipper that zips down from the top. I have always had some trouble with it opening a little bit but have always been able to reach around and zip it back down). As I reached back, and stopped stroking, to zip it I received a nice kick to the face and a pounding on the legs from behind. After zipping it back down I continued on, no problem. At the first buoy I started the turn way on the inside of the buoy, now that was full contact swimming. At that moment I felt my suit zipper coming up again but there was no way I could stop swimming here, then it happened, the entire zipper came undone…WTF! My suit immediately filled up like the staypuff marshmallow man. Many thoughts crossed my mind at this point, but none more than how do I get out of the way of these people while I get this issue addressed. I than proceeded to swim to the outside, for those of you that ran into a guy swimming 90degrees against you right after the turn now you know why. After I was out of the swimmers I could finally think about how the hell I was going to reclip my zipper and get it zipped while treading water. For those of you who have never used a suit that zips down think of starting the zipper on a jacket and having to thread your zipper for the jacket behind your neck while pulling the wetsuit full of water together. My only other option was to take the suit off and continue without it, which did not seem like a very good option. The only thing that saved me was the fact that I always zip my own suit, for some reason I never let others help me zip the suit up. I was luckily able to feel the zipper and was able to get the thing together on the first try and get it zipped. I left the zipper pull hanging down after that and had no more problems with the zipper coming up for the rest of the swim. On the second lap as I passed the turn around I was thinking about the zipper and figured that the zipper pull must be too short and when I extend on my glide it must pull the zipper up, so leaving it hang down will now be the standard for that suit. The second loop was uneventful I was able to find my pace by counting strokes and finished the swim feeling good heading into T1!

Swim 1:11:30

T1 - Got my wetsuit stripped, also something new for me, and remembered to hold onto my shorts. Got my bag and headed into the tent. The tent was crowded when I got in and I almost took a seat in the middle of the crowd before I looked past and saw it was really empty at the exit so headed over, sat down got my shoes, glasses and helmet on. Off I went.

T1 5:20

Bike - Headed out on the course my cheering section was at the exit and was nice to hear everyone. I kept glued to the power meter watching the watts and everyone riding past me. On the way out of town a guy rode up next to me a asked if I was Patrick from Endurance Nation, “why yes I am” I replied. He proceeded to thank me for everything I did to prepare him for this race and how grateful he was. I was having trouble figuring out how I was so supportive of this guy when it hit me who he thought I was. He was already riding off into the sunset before I could clarify that I was just another student who happen to share the name (P if you get a email from a guy who talked to you on the bike you now know why).

My bike ride was uneventful. I am glad I dressed as I did with no arm warmers or anything else since temperature wise I was perfect. The first lap was more difficult than it should have been, as usual I rode too hard.
I had some trouble taking in enough nutrition since my gut did not feel great, I think too much of Lake CDA was riding with me. I finally stopped at a portapotty and than helped. I was happy to head back into town and was happy with my time. On the way back out I saw my family and that helped get me going again. The second loop felt quicker and I was riding fine but slightly slower. By half way through the second loop I was ready to be done with the bike. RnP did a ride by with positive comments and it was nice to see some familiar faces, unfortunately the only words that came to mind I will not repeat. At least that gave me something to think about for a while as the look on their faces as they rode away made me laugh (ya I know I am strange – Sorry again RnP). As a new power student I worked on trying to keep to my gears, but failed. I know I rode so much smarter than I ever would have w/o EN so that made me happy, but looking at my power file I know I need a lot more practice “smoothing the line”. I did keep my TSS under 300 which was a major accomplishment in my eyes since I was not even close on my two race rehearsals.

Power Data:

Duration: 6:20:01 (6:31:34)

Work: 3242kJ

TSS: 293.9 (intensity factor 0.695)

Norm Power: 176VI: 1.19

Distance: 106.538 mi

Min Max AvgPower: 0 455 148 watts

Cadence: 30 244 76 rpm

Speed: 0 43 16.7 mph

Pace 1:24 0:00 3:36 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 439 74 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 791 169 lb-in

Bike 6:30.51

T2 - Came into transition and saw the family again which was great! Got into the tent to get on shoes, visor, gel and was off. No problem!

T2 3:48

Run - I am not a runner and have never run more than the 16 miles I ran in my longest training run, but I came out of transition ready to run. All I could think about the last 20 miles of the bike was running.

I was actually excited since I felt I had energy for the run. It took a little time for the Garmin to start working and of course when it did I was running my 100m pace not my slow plus 30 pace. It took a little while to get that down, than I added walking to slow it down even more. I was moving forward but the mind was quickly coming to a dark place. WTF I’m not even close to mile 18 closer to mile 6. I was tapping into my 1 thing much earlier than I should have been.Somewhere in there John Stark came by and we spoke briefly he drilled into my head to focus and find the reset button. I also had a quick chat with Bill Russell about staying in the box and doing what I needed to do to keep running. I hope these guys know how taking a few moments from their day helped keep me going when I really needed it! Somewhere on the short out and back on my second loop, maybe when I stopped to use the portapotty, I was able to hit that reset button. I went from thinking I was headed for a death march on the second loop to I can run/walk this thing no problem. I felt better and ran my “race” walking the aid stations and hills and running most of the rest. I really found a happy place and was so excited to finish the race! Running along Lakeside that final time I saw my Mom, Dad and Sister once again and that was awesome. I knew I was only about a mile from the finish. Running down Sherman to the finish was one of the highlights of my life!!! I was in another world. My garmin shows that I was running a 6:30 pace at the end of the race, for at least 50’. I positioned myself perfectly so that the spotter would be able to get my number and I could hear Mike Reilly call me in. As loud as the finishers shoot was I only heard Patrick and Huntington Beach, but I knew that was me and that I was an Ironman.

Run 5:44

Total Time 13:35:51

I had 3 goals for my first Ironman. #1 was to finish the race, #2 was to have a smile on my face at the end & #3 was to finish under 14 hours. I am so proud to have accomplished my goals and will add this as a day I will never forget.

Well week one towards IMCDA has started, so much for time off. Tuesday’s bike ride is was the “first” day of training for IMCDA. WTF am I thinking? I have started a endurance nation 16 week off season training program. Does that make sense that the off season training is 16 weeks????? At least the hours are low 5-7 hrs per week. The basis of this plan is high intensity work over long slow work. I believe this is going to be key to my long term success since this is where I have failed in past. I have always been able to suck it up and go the shorter distance if that’s what you call the Olympic distance and 70.3 miles but stepping it up to 140.6 is going to be a long day any way you look at it. The last thing I want to do is spend 16 hours and 59minutes out there on race day. 17 hours is the cut off so If I spend more time out there than that……….lets not ever think about that.

From October 1, 2008

After the Nations triathlon I am taking a few weeks off from training and everything. I think it will be a good chance to get some things done at home and sped more time with the family. AYSO soccer season has started so we are looking forward to seeing the kids play ball!

From September 14, 2008

My ’08 triathlon season is officially in the books. The season started off with the California Ironman 70.3 race in Oceanside, CA. This was a good race and something that I trained hard for. I had a good swim and a decent bike, but the wheels feel off on the run (this will not be the last time you see this line). I finished and was extremely proud of myself, not so much about my time but that is was it is, and had a good day and finished with a smile and a tear on my face. I could even walk my bike up the hill to get back to our hotel and made it to dinner, I guess I didn’t leave it all out on the course. Brian Leach my neighbor and a sometime (when he feels like taking it down a notch) training partner also raced and had a good day.
The next race for me was the Newport Beach Sprint Triathlon. This was the first triathlon I ever did last year. I was ready to race after my Half Ironman training and beat my time by over 12 minutes coming in 10th place in my division, I did not say age group. Next year if I can still race Clydesdale I’ll be gunning for top 5. I think I’d rather not be a Clydesdale and race age group.
I than did the Huntington Beach Pier Swim. This is something Tracy has always wanted to do and I figured I would join her. She has done it and swears she will watch me next year with a Starbucks, but I have something to prove since I was very disappointed in my showing at this race.
We than headed up to San Francisco for the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim. We made it a family trip and I think everyone had a good time. Although being really nervous the swim was fantastic and I look forward to doing this race again someday.
After those races I found three races that I thought would be fun. Unfortunately they ending up being lumped together in a three week block, o’well. The first race was the 2.4 mile Waikiki Rough Water Swim in Waikiki, HI. I flew out on Saturday and prepped for the race Monday morning. This race was an adventure, holy smokes was it a lot of swimming. The currents were much stronger than expected and the swim took longer than expected. They say the tide switches every other year so I guess I need to try it again next year J when the current is going towards the finish. I flew out Monday night on the red eye and headed into work from the airport on Tuesday morning. I don’t think I earned my keep Tuesday.
My next race was Sunday, the LA Triathlon. This was my key race last year and I again beat my time by 10 minutes over last year. They changed the bike course this year and that was disappointing. I really enjoyed riding down Hollywood Blvd last year. Again I ran like $hit.
Jack and I flew out to DC on Wednesday to end the season on Sunday with the Nations Triathlon in Washington DC. This was a great race and so much fun to have my parents and, my son, Jack cheering me on. Riding and Running through DC was great fun. The heat & humidity was brutal on the run so once again a $hitty run, but a great race overall.
This year has provided me with lots of encouragement and self pride. I know I need to figure out the run and work hard on it in the off season. I have seen a podiatrist and he thinks he may have the cure for my numb feet, at what it’s costing it better be the cure. If it works it will be a good start to overcome my horrible running. Other than that I think hard work is going to be needed to start running well.