Ironman Cozumel Race Report

This race was tacked on to my schedule late – I needed closure on my season after the asthma issues at Tahoe.  Don knew I needed it and told me to go find another Ironman Monday morning right after Tahoe - -I still had all the pent up energy you have before the race—despite Tahoe being a long day—it really was not taxing and I was still itching to go the next day.   So after some investigation of the options I settled on Cozumel – it gave me 9 weeks to sharpen up after Tahoe—and a week in Mexico at the beginning of December had no downside.  Two things we did this trip to make it stress free was to use TriBike Transport for my bike and we booked our hotel and ground package with Endurance Sports Travel (EST).  Both were great decisions.  Ken Glah really does a great job of making your trip stress free—they met us at the airport and had all the transportation arrangements made (hour drive to the ferry, ferry ride to Cozumel and then short drive to the resort)—we just had to do what they said.  There they took care of all transportation for the entire week and other logistics.  They also had an ART therapist on staff that was included in our package - -I definitely took advantage of it.  I would definitely use these guys again for an international Ironman.

We arrived in Cozumel Wednesday evening before the race.  About all we had time for was getting settled in and having some dinner.  Thursday morning I turned the alarm off and just slept until I woke up - -which was too late to make it to the group swim—no big deal.  We took the shuttle into town just before lunch to do packet pick up - -They did the best job of packet pick up for an Ironman I have ever seen – we were in and out of there in probably about 15 minutes.  Grabbed the next shuttle and headed back to the resort for lunch.   The next great thing EST did for us - -pick up our bikes from TriBike Transport – so rather than having to get it at the race site it was delivered right to the hotel.  Got it a bit after lunch and headed out for a tune up ride.  I probably should start mentioning the weather – for Cozumel it was kind of cold (low-mid 70’s) and WINDY – not just the wind that you expect there but the storm front kind.  We had rain off and on Thursday through Saturday with the continued high winds.  Friday morning there was supposed to be a practice swim on the race course.  IM cancelled it.  The harbormaster had a small craft warning in effect and no boats were allowed out on the ocean.  Friday am we did a group swim out in front of the hotel—staying close to shore.  The current was really strong—but boy was it fun when you turned around and headed with it.  Everybody kept watching the weather for race day—the front was supposed to pass and things calm down by Sunday morning.

The practice swim was once again cancelled Saturday morning – it looked a little better out on the water but the harbormaster was still not letting any boats out.  Late Saturday morning I jumped on my bike to ride up to T1 and get my stuff checked in.  It was about a 3 mile ride—just a nice distance to loosen up the legs.  At this race they also assign everyone a check in time for your bike between 11 and 5 - -it was really nice—no long line to get into transition.  Got my bike dropped off and walked transition a couple of times.  T1 is in a really funky shaped parking lot with lots of little aisles—really easy to get lost in.  I had a pretty straightforward location.  Every year before this year you also dropped your T2 bag in T1 and the race transported the bags to T2 (in town about 6 miles away)—but not this year—they even told us we were dropping the bags there in the pre-race briefing.  Well—took the shuttle back to the resort and went in and told Ken what was going on since I was one of the earliest bike drop off times.  EST does it again - -they gathered all our T2 bags and took them into town for us and we could just go put our feet up for the rest of the afternoon.

Dinner time rolls around – I run into Michael Lovato (he was announcing, not racing this year).  He informs me that they are changing the swim course due to the still too strong currents—he didn’t have any details yet - -but at least we had the heads up to go looking for info a little later in the evening.  Turns out that they shortened the swim course to 3.1km and made it point to point—with the portion with the really strong current going in the direction of the current.  I know they had troubles last year with many people not making the swim cut-off because they could not swim against the current – apparently that section of the coast had even stronger current this year.  So race morning was changed to check in at T1 and get everything ready and then jump on a bus for a short ride down the coast to the new swim start location.  I assume that they had limited choices of locations where they could launch 2500 swimmers into the water and this was as close as they could get to full distance.  Cozumel knows how to move a lot of people quickly—I assume from the fact that they are a major cruise ship port—and the bussing was flawless.

OK—now for the race itself:

Swim –It was an in water start so about 5 min after the pro’s started I made my way into the water and swam out to where the start line was and positioned myself close to the front.  It was actually a fairly wide start line so it didn’t seem crowded at all.  I treaded water for a few minutes and then we were off.  The first part of the swim had very little current and I had done a pretty good job of positioning myself so I had space to swim pretty much right away.  The water was incredibly clear and probably only about 10-15 feet deep so you could see all the fish—definitely had to remind myself to focus on the race and not the pretty fish!  We were supposed to be swimming between the buoys and the shore but I kept finding myself just to the outside of the buoys.  About a 1000m into the swim we went by the outlet of a river- -you could feel the water and at this point we were definitely swimming into a current—though probably only for about 400m.  After that we got to the down-current portion of the swim—it really makes you feel like you have a long beautiful stroke and you glide along.  Since you can see the bottom you can really tell that you are moving fast.  Before I knew it I looked up and the dolphin pen was in front of me - -this was where we were getting out of the water - -I really wanted to just keep swimming it was so much fun!.   Pulled myself up onto the steps and up to the wharf – 44 minutes!  No way to judge if that was good or bad  (ends up it was good—second fastest swim in my AG and faster than some of the pros)

T1 was pretty quick as all I needed was socks, shoes and helmet.  I almost ran up the wrong row to my bike but realized it just as I was about to make the wrong turn.

Bike:  So this is a flat course but it is not an easy course.  Coming out of T1 you do a section of probably 10 or so miles with a slight tailwind and protected by the jungle.  Everybody was flying—I just worked to gradually settle into my goal power (160W) and let the speed be what it was—which was pretty fast—23-24mph.  Well the party is over when you hit the north tip of the island. You come out of the trees and start to ride right along the ocean.  This is the windy side of the island—and yup—we get to ride right into it.  It was strong this first lap but not horrible.  It is always difficult in headwind sections for pack to not form—this was no exception.  I got swallowed up by a pack about half way through and it took me a mile or so to dis-engage from them.  I will not cheat—but you could tell there were many people that were happy to sit in the pack until they got caught.  I did see numerous people sitting in penalty tents through the course of the day so they were calling some of the drafting.  The headwind section is about 10 miles long and it just gets windier the further south you go.  The little hut along the road that signals your turn inland is a very welcome sight.  The next section is straight across the middle of the island - -protected and very little wind and you can get back into a good groove.  As you start coming into town there are all kinds of locals hanging out along the course cheering.  You make a couple turns in town and then you are passing T2 - -this is a 3 lap bike so you get to go by here a couple times and get the lift of all the crowds cheering (the rest of the course is really in the middle of nowhere). Coming out of town you have to ride about 6 miles until you get back to where we started the bike.  I pass this point at 1:49 (39.5 miles)– that’s flying!  I am paying a lot of attention to sticking to my power and have been riding pretty steady.  As I get to the northern tip of the island again – wham—wall of wind hits me - -it is definitely windier for this second lap.  At this point I have been riding close to another lady – we have been hanging together for about 20 miles—making sure to stay far enough apart to not be drafting - -but its still nice to have someone there.  We put our heads down and resolve ourselves to 10 miles of hard work.  I have to say—I am keeping my power constant- -but fighting the wind takes more than just the power to the pedals—it saps your upper body as well so it is much more tiring.  About 2/3 through the windy section we are swallowed by another pack.  I let them go pretty quickly.  The lady I have been riding with did not have quite the same ethics I have and she merrily let herself tuck in and follow them.  I finish the windy section by myself and turn into town for the second time. The treat on the way across the island on this lap was that the skies opened on us and it rained really hard for about 5-10 minutes. Lap 2 was a little slow then lap 1 – by about 4 minutes - -all attributable to the stronger winds.  So guess what I am greeted with on lap 3?  Yup—even stronger winds.  At this point I am lapping people and feeling really sorry that they will have to go through this one more time—I am assuming that they probably missed the relatively calmer winds I had on lap 1.  Finally no packs on this last lap.  As I turn onto the last section across the island—less than 10 miles to go—I drop my power a bit to let the legs spin and recover a bit for the run.  At this point I am ready to get off the bike and I can feel some cramping in my left foot.  I try to wiggle it around the best I can.  T2 is a welcome sight—off the bike in 5:35 – super happy for this tough a course.  Another kudos to the race organizers – the entire bike course was completely closed to all vehicle traffic.

T2 is again reasonably quick as I really only need to change my shoes and shove some nutrition into my back pocket.  I did stop to use the port-a-potty – which if you count as sort of still part of the bike is pee #2 since after the swim.

Run:  OK it sounds like everything is going great, but really it isn’t—OK, it was going really great but I made a couple of nutrition errors on the bike.  Actually they weren’t really errors as much as mis-calculations.  I actually followed my nutrition plan exactly—problem is that the plan wasn’t right.  I was hydrated, had enough calories – but I did not have enough electrolytes—I was taking salt tabs but now I know that it definitely was not enough.  So as I started to run that cramp in my left foot was still there—every step felt like a little knife in the bottom of my foot.  I stopped a few times in the first 3 miles to stretch and massage it.  Finally at about mile 3 it went away.  I carried on.  The run is 3 out and back loops with lots of people along the entire course (more concentrated at the turn around by the finish line of course).  I put on a good face finishing lap 1 but as I headed out onto lap 2 I started to get dizzy and had tunnel vision—I know this is not a good sign so I stopped and walked—and worked at getting nutrition and especially electrolytes in at every aid station.  I walked for at least 2 miles.  Shortly before the far turn around I started to put some slow jogging back in.  At mile 10 I also decided that it was time for a serious jolt - -and started drinking Pepsi (I usually try to wait until mile 18 just in case the carbonation bothers my stomach).  I grabbed my special needs bag just after the turn around—which had another flask of EFS liquidshot (which is also really high in electrolytes).  By the end of lap 2 I was beginning to feel a bit better.   I resolved that I was going to try to run lap 3 except for aid stations.  My run was not very fast at this point - -but I was running.  Somewhere, several times during these tough parts it rained – not just a sprinkle but real tropical rain.  The streets of Cozumel were not engineered for drainage so we have several lakes (water was about 6 inches deep) that there was no way around—so everybody had soaking wet shoes.  When I his mile 24 I resolved it was finish line or bust—no more aid stations, just running all the way to the finish line.  It was a great feeling coming back knowing that it was just a few more minutes and I would be done.  I had a big grin on my face when I took the right lane to the finish line rather than the left that headed back for another loop.  The finish line was alive as usual and that feeling of crossing the line of an Ironman just does not get old.  Don was right there which was awesome!  Not my best marathon 5:10 but I gave it all I had and was happy how I dealt with adversity when it happened.  Overall time—11:41 and good enough for 4^th in my AG—which is my highest finish so far.

Once again—the 4^th discipline of triathlon, nutrition proved to be an issue.  This is the first IM I have done in a hot, humid climate and really had no data to go on to figure out how much electrolyte I needed—I now have an answer—what I figured was not enough.  I will definitely be making adjustments next time I race in this type of climate

Despite the issues I feel good about my race and Don is happy that I am tired and happy—I will be much easier to live with now.  The next few weeks I will be putting my feet up and plotting the 2014 plan.  I know I got the season right - -I am tired and feeling ready for a rest but also excited to think about what is in store for next year.

Cheated: Ironman Lake Tahoe

I am finally ready to write this race report -- such that it will be.  It has taken me the entire week to figure out just what it is I feel about this race.  I finally figured it out--cheated.

So let me give you the quick race recap:  The Tahoe course is beautiful and extremely difficult -- the bike has somewhere in the neighborhood of 7000 ft climbing and of course the entire race takes place between 6200 and 7300 ft elevation.  The run, advertised as flat -- is not really flat -- though I guess if you compare it to the bike--its pretty flat.   The swim is one of the most beautiful swims I have ever done.  So all the makings of a epic course and day.

The day before the race a storm rolled in and dropped rain and snow all over the course--luckily the storm blew through and we woke up race morning to dry conditions -- but the temperature was somewhere below freezing and was only forecast to get into the 50's at best.
We did everything we could to stay warm before the race -- putting our wetsuits on at the condo, down jackets, gloves, shoes etc.  I actually did a great job of staying warm all the way up to race start.  The lake was beautiful--with the water so much warmer than the air there was steam/fog on the lake with the sunrise coming up in the east.
Anyhow -- swim started as I expected- - took it super easy so that I could address my breathing since I did not do a warm up due to the air temperatures.  As usually in cold conditions it took my lungs about 800m to get into a rhythmn and then all was fine.  I really liked the new rolling swim start and had no issues with crowding the entire race.  Looking at the snow capped mountains on each breath was really beautiful.  Anyhow -- because of the slow start and the elevation (I was figuring it was going to cost me a few minutes on the swim) I came out of the water in 1:15  (I had been figuring 1:10)  Man was it cold once the sub freezing air hit you!  I got my bag and headed for the change tent - -still cold in there.  I did my best to change with frozen fingers.  I did a full clothing change--something I have never done in an IM--but the smart thing to do for this one.  By the time I started getting a decent amount of clothing on I was shivering uncontrollably.  I had planned on overdressing so that I would warm up quickly on the bike -I had 4 layers on my top.   I got out of there figuring the only way to warm up was to get biking and generate some heat.   Got my bike and headed out.   Well, as soon as I tried to go down in the aero position my lungs started to tighten up--not gasping from altitude -- but that horrible tightening of the chest that everybody with asthma knows.  I sat up and backed off the pace.  I was hoping that it would pass -- but I know after this many years of racing--once the asthma is triggered, the race is over.   I think I tried to pretend for the next 5-10 miles that what I felt in my chest was really just the altitude and the swim - and not the asthma.  By the time I got to Truckee I had warmed up quite a bit but the chest tightness was not going away.  Any time I tried to up the effort even a little bit it would start to tighten more--threatening a full on asthma attack.  I know from past experience that if I keep the effort low enough I can avoid the attack (i.e. bring in the ambulance) and keep going -- but I have to be very careful to not overdo it.   I was worried that I would not be able to get up the 2 big climbs on each lap.  I took shots of my rescue inhaler at the bottom of the climb--which seemed to help a bit for about 30-45 min (enough to get up the 2 hills).   So - -I was now in tourist mode, my race was over and now it was just about covering the rest of the miles so that I could be a finisher.  I changed my attitude and went into helpful mode - -every racer I was near that was struggling I made sure that I gave them encouraging words.  On the last climb up Brockaway I caught up to Cindy -- she was struggling so I stayed with her the whole climb to lend whatever strength I could so that she would make it (she did and had an awesome race!).  The run went much the same way--I was able to jog slowly while the sun was still up but when it went down and the temperature dropped, the lungs said no to the lower temperature and reduced me to a walk -- so I finished the race that way.

So this was the hardest IM out there -- I should be feeling great that I was able to finish when so many others couldn't.  But I don't feel great - I feel cheated.  Many of you know that I was "all in" this year.  I have been focused on being in the best shape of my life for this race--and I think I achieved that - -I was ready to take on this beautiful, difficult course and race it--not just finish it.  I was ready, I was strong.  My asthma took that away from me -- the race was over before I even got on the bike.  I respect the spirit of Ironman and everybody else racing too much to drop out when I am not having a good day but I am not feeling a huge sense of accomplishment for having finished.  I want my body to hurt the next day, feel fatigued for a couple weeks because I went out there and gave it everything I had- -regardless of the outcome.  I couldn't do that on Sunday.   Monday morning I got up - -not stiff one bit and feeling like I could easily go do a workout.  I had more fatigue after many of my prep workouts (they were indeed harder than the race ended up being).

Now I am trying to figure out what to do -- there is definitely a feeling of unfinished business.  My body is still waiting for the challenge that is supposed to come after you taper (i.e. the tiger is still pacing in the cage).  The rain is falling in Portland - this means mud.  I will be racing cyclocross this weekend in my favorite conditions (the muddier the better).  I hope that it will take some of the edge off - but both physically and mentally, I am looking for the IM like challenge and I am not sure where I am going to get it.

XTerra West Championships

Flew down Thursday night so that we could get out and pre-ride the course prior to race day Saturday.  Got the pleasure of finally meeting Wendy Jenson in person.  We have been Facebook and iamTri friends for several years now, but have never ended up in the same city at the same time.  She got talked into doing the sprint version of the race by her coach – and has not been on her mountain bike in years.  We were able to meet her on Friday morning to do the pre-ride and give her a crash course in mountain biking skills.  She was pretty nervous at the beginning of the ride and kept swearing at her coach for getting her into this.  

 By the end of the ride she had relaxed and gotten the hang of it and was looking forward to the race.   What was apparent from our pre-ride was that the conditions out on the course were much more difficult than previous years.  I guess they have had some heavy rains down here and that made the trail much more rutted and exposed a lot more loose rock.  In a couple of the washes, the rain washed down a lot of sand and gravel so these were really deep tire sucking sand/gravel bogs—there is one wash that you ride for almost a mile—yup, deep stuff the entire way.

This year they changed the race schedule – the sprint race started at 8:30 and we didn’t start until 10:30.  Oh goody – forecasted high 90 and we were going to get to race right through the heat of the day.

I was doing a lot of experimenting with this race (I know, nothing new on race day – but this was not a key race for me so a good chance to try some of this stuff out when it doesn’t really matter).  After listening to Chris Bagg’s nutrition talk, I decided I would give his nutrition regimen a try and see how it worked out.  My during race nutrition, at least for the shorter races is not much different than he recommended, but my day before and morning of nutrition was a lot different.  So Friday, I did what felt like eating all the time, mainly carbs, big breakfast, little dinner.  Saturday morning I did the big bowl of applesauce.

Race morning we got up at a leisurely 7 am, fiddled around for a bit and then took our stuff down to transition to get a good bike spot (our hotel room was less than 100 yds. from transition—awesome!).  We found Wendy and wished her luck and then watched the start of the sprint race.  Then it was back to our room to eat some more and generally lounge around until it was time to warm up.

Water temperature was reported at 58 - -but it really didn’t feel that cold—I guess having the air temperature already approaching 80 helped.  We jumped in about 10 min before our start to get warmed up.   Just before race start the wind really started to blow—they actually had to take down the inflatable arch at the swim exit or they would have lost it.  The swim was pretty uneventful – I found a pretty good pair of feet to follow most of the way to the first turn buoy.  After the second buoy we were swimming into the waves—a little choppy but not too bad—though pretty sure it slowed everyone down a bit.  Got out of the water in 25:56 - -not as fast as I usually like to be, but all the swim times seemed to be a little slower—I guess because of the wind.

I seem to be really bad at Xterra transitions and this one was no different-maybe one day I will figure it out.  I was just about on my way out on the bike when Don arrived—which is about normal.  I took off on the bike.  The start of the ride is about a mile on pavement up a gentle grade until you get to the entrance to the trails.  I used this to get the legs spinning and ready for what was to come.  Once you enter the trails you drop down a short hill and then start a huge long climb—I would say it’s not that steep, but everything is relative—you still end up in your littlest gear for most of it—but you knew you could keep going as opposed to most of the rest of the hills where you are in your smallest gear and praying that you don’t spin out, hit a rock or have your legs give out before the top  (all of which happen).  The course is 2 loops with the first half of each loop being a series of really hard climbs and a couple of tricky descents with the mile of super sandy wash thrown in as the only flat section.  The second half of the loop is a little easier with less difficult hills and a really fun section of twisty single track along the edge of the lake.  So I get about 30 min into the first loop and look down to take my first gel and find out that somewhere during all the bumpy sections 3 of my 4 gels have been jettisoned.  Well, adapt and overcome.  I took the only gel that was remaining.  When I got to the feed station I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade rather than straight water as I was planning—figured that would make up for 1 of the lost gels.  

Have I mentioned the wind yet??  When the wind kicked up, I was thinking, no big deal – you are going slowly enough on a mountain bike that the breeze should help with the heat but not affect your bike too much.  Well, I was wrong.  It was blowing so hard that it could pick you up and put you back down—not on the trail—not good given the extremely loose conditions.  You had to be super careful descending to be able to hold your line.  Even climbing the steep hills it was tough—when you front wheel was a bit unloaded it would grab it and try to push you off the trail.  About half way into the second loop I can over the top of a rise and saw some course marshals stopping some of the riders—I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  I caught up to them and was also stopped.  There was lady that crashed hard on the first loop---she had broken her femur.  Where we were they couldn’t get the ambulance in so they were trying to get a helicopter in to evacuate her.  While the helicopter was trying to land they stopped all the bikes.  The helicopter gave it 2 trys to come in and land—but couldn’t—the wind was blowing too hard.  Eventually they got her immobilized and loaded her into the back of a 4WD pickup to get her to a location the ambulance could get to.  All told I was held up for about 11 minutes.  The course marshal indicated that they would try to correct our finish times—they wrote the time on our race numbers—but as I see the results posted, no correction has been made.  I used the opportunity of the stop to fish into my camelback and grab the emergency gel I had stashed there - -so now I had made up for 2 of the 3 lost gels.  Remainder of the ride was uneventful.  The ride back down the paved road is usually a nice rest/spin to prep for the run – but today it was not—straight into the wind.  Total Bike time:  2:12:59

I did a better job at transition 2, taking a few extra seconds to take in some calories to make up for the lost gel.  Off onto the run—the legs complained but after about a mile they started to loosen up a bit.  So the first mile and a half the run is up – first in a wash and then the top half on a dirt road—this leads you to the trail system and we run part of the same course that we biked—including some of those hills that you couldn’t ride your bike up because they are so steep.  As I entered the trails I noticed that the woman ahead of me was in my AG—I knew that she had been stopped for the helicopter as I had—but she was stopped before me—so if they were correcting the times, just passing here wouldn’t be enough, I needed to gap her by close to a minute.  I slowly started to catch her.  She was great at keeping running—but I actually finally passed her on a really steep hill—she was running—and I was power hiking.  I guess I can hike pretty fast.  Now I wanted to push to get the gap.  There is one hill of particular note on the course—at close to mile 4—basically it is a really steep scree slope—the of course we go straight up—it was even difficult to walk up it—my calves were screaming by the time I got to the top.  The good news, this is the highest elevation for the whole run course so once you get there its mostly downhill—though not necessarily easy downhills, and of course a couple short nasty ups thrown in.  I made myself push as hard as I could to get that gap on the lady behind me—and it paid off—I crossed the finish line about a minute and a half ahead of her.  Total Run time 1:04:27

I was really happy with my race.  If I take the 11 minutes off for the helicopter stop I was about 4 minutes faster than last year - -But that doesn’t really show actually how big of an improvement it really was due to the conditions.  The pro’s were about 12 minutes slower than last year.  The lady that I passed, I have raced several times before and she has always been 15-20 minutes ahead of me.  With the time correction I was about a minute out of 3^rd place (she made it through before the helicopter stop)—this race was a stacked field in my AG – the first 3 women were 1,2,3 at the World Championships last year.

I also set a first for me – usually if I compare where I place in each sport – my swim is the strongest followed very closely by my bike and then my run is way in the distance.  In this race I was the 113^th fastest swimmer, the 177^th (uncorrected) fastest biker and the 112^th fastest runner.  I have never been a stronger runner than the other sports—I guess I should be looking for races with a brutally hard run.  I also had the 2^nd fastest run split in my AG

So, I guess my training is on track.  The training with my new bike coach, Kirk Whiteman and strength training with Scott Brown at Adapt seems to be definitely paying off, on both the bike and the run.