Ironman 70.3 Ireland 2011

A tough day out in Galway...


If only I knew what was ahead!


It’s good to have a tough race now and then. When planning goes well, and the race execution is at or just below projected effort, it can often feel quite good out there, I don’t mean easy but because you are kind of programmed for the effort ahead, it often doesn’t feel that difficult. Austria for me was actually one of my ‘easier’ races. Galway was a toughie of the kind that hardens you mentally and physically and sets up some future motivation for when the going gets tough.

I was excited to race an Ironman event at home, and for the most part I think they got it right. The weather played a part in the difficulty of the race but there was great character shown out there by finishers, many of them first timers! I haven’t suffered this much in a race since Germany 2009.

Race morning was windy and cold, so much to the joy of many athletes including myself they shortened the swim to a reported 750m (it turned out to be over 1km), but with the waves it felt a lot longer. The fastest pro time was 14mins so it seems everyone had a hard time dealing with the current and choppy ocean.

I got a good start at the front of the largest wave but it was so rough that it was impossible to tell which direction you were going forget about drafting or following others. I swallowed a lot of saltwater but as it was a short swim I was never going to suffer for too long out there. The beach exit was easy on the feet but then started the very long run out through T1, I think it was about 800m from swim exit to leaving the transition, this included a long run on bare concrete, having dodgy calves this was a scary 5mins for me.

I got out on the bike to a very lonely road, there seemed to be very few cyclists around, I had somehow come out of the water high up in my wave. I’m usually away back in the pack so was surprised to see so few cyclists on the road. The first section was rolling and had a coarse surface but without potholes. My power has been up in recent weeks, and I noticed it fairly high at the start of the bike without me pushing too hard. There was some wind and the small rolling sections normally raises the power a bit. At Barna we turned right and inland towards the main out and back section, the terrain was hilly and uneven but I felt comfortable and power and HR was fairly stable. When we turned on the main out and back though, I didn’t seem to be making much ground on the guys ahead, my power and HR were quite high, but I was slow at reeling in the leaders. Energy levels felt fine but I didn’t seem to be getting a lot of speed for my input. There was a few guys up near the front with me and we were pacing together staying within 50-100m of each other. At the turning point my normalised power output was around 270w and I thought it would be easy to keep it there as there was now a healthy head wind for the return leg. The rain never ceased on the bike section, it made it difficult to stay warm and I really struggled with lack of dexterity. Opening gels, bean packs and changing gears became a challenge.

The start of a very cold bike ride!

With about 20k to go I pulled away from the other guys in my age group, but coming in to town I didn’t feel like I had any real sting and my power was starting to drop. The transition again being so long it felt like an eternity getting to the run bags. I had to get assistance opening my helmet strap as my fingers were not working at all.

Early on the run I felt great, but I think this was just adrenaline as it was not long before things turned on me. I managed the 1^st lap of 3 at a good pace, but early on the 2^nd lap I started to feel weird and my legs just stopped working. From about 10k in I could have stopped and lay down and slept on the road, my legs felt like lead and I didn’t feel like taking more energy on. I had no bounce at all and it really became a case of survival.

 Even as I slowed down to a low pace it was a struggle to keep moving. As I faced in to the wind on the last 4k, I started to get blurred vision, my HR went to near maximum and I felt so weak I slowed to a jog pace, fighting to avoid walking. The last 1km to the finish line felt like a 10k and I had no control over my movement, it was as if I was watching myself in a video from outside my own body. Coming over the line I felt as if I had just completed a full ironman, it’s a long time since I had a proper bonk in a race. It was a sobering experience and even now 2 days on I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. I’m glad I finished but I’m a little frustrated with not knowing exactly what went wrong.

Dying on my feet!

I may have been a bit low on energy as I did not take on a huge amount during the race, it may have been the effort on the return leg of the bike where I was fighting the wind alone for most of it. But even then I did not put out a crazy amount of power and my HR was actually fairly normal for a 70.3 effort. I think it could have just been fatigue from a stressful week at work and very little sleep in the 2 days before the race. I was supposed to taper down from 21 to 12hrs but I only managed around 4-5hrs in total last week as I could not get the sessions fitted in around work, this is different from the heavy taper I did for Austria so maybe the slow twitch muscles went to sleep on me. Perhaps I was just expecting too much for my current fitness level. I’ll be chatting with Alan over the next few days to get his opinion on what may have happened.

I had been struggling to get back to fitness after Austria so I guess this will do no harm as a very tough training session, but running will have to wait as my calves are bruised up now. Nothing injured though and my foot surgery never bothered me at all during the race.

It was nice to race at home and even though the weather was atrocious, it is great that we are now hosting our own M dot event and it all went without mishap. There are some issues they need to address for next year, mainly the length of transition, but in general it was well run and they organised it very well considering the number of athletes participating.

Tough day for everyone and some great results out there, namely Matt and Lucy who had outstanding races. If the dates work next year it would be good to try again.

Splits:

Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	total
19.46	5.21	2.29.03	3.37	1.26.33	4.24.37

Age group pos: 1^st

Overall pos: 19th