Ironman Cozumel and 2014

Ironman Cozumel 2014

So here I am having my best ever start to a race, pb swim, up there on the bike, and feeling good, then technical problems start. I thought, this can’t be happening.

nervous but feeling ready, with Geoff, race morning.

I’m not one for writing reports soon  after races, but this time I purposely decided to leave it a while and let some frustration pass. I was a bit down after the experience in Cozumel. The place itself is pleasant, the people are friendly, but it was the first time I DNF’d in an Ironman and it felt very strange. I thought I’d get back to London and back to work and let the negativity leave naturally. My friends Geoff and Caoimhe were out there and that helped me a lot before and after the race. Since I got back Sarah and I have been doing normal social stuff, having a few drinks and catching up with some people. It’s been a nice few weeks. 

 The race in Cozumel was going well. It’s a current assisted swim, so that helps, but I had been working hard at the CSCSC masters class, and had seen some good splits in the pool in recent months.

in form, with a pb swim split

This is the swim I felt I should have had in Kona. I found some good feet early on, after a lot of pushing and shoving to get the front right corner (the current was pushing us in to shore on our left, so I thought right side was safer). There can be a very strong current in Cozumel, and Alan had said swim draft is less effective with a strong tail current, so just to find some space and get a good start. But on race morning the wind and current had died, so I decided in these conditions drafting was back on.

The guy I chased was just slightly faster than me, and seemed to know where he was going, so I stayed on him like a magnet. A few times when we were passing earlier waves he surged to get around people, and I almost lost him, but I always managed to find him again when the bubbles cleared. When I seen 53:08 coming out of the water I thought I was on for a good day :-) 

fighting big headwinds on east side

At the start of the bike we were flying along, low power, and high speed though I was seeing a fairly high hr, maybe the heat was at work. Anyway I settled in and found a couple of similar pace guys for the head wind. They knew what they were about, and stayed legal, however I dropped my head a few times when we were going through some traffic, and lost concentration, next I knew the 2 guys were gone. I didn’t want to risk the higher watts yet to chase them down, so thought I’d let them go and find them on the 3^rd lap.

I never would see them again, because 10k in to the 2^nd lap (of 3), the gears started playing up. I hit a pothole in the road, and the back derailleur froze. This is protection mode where the rear dr separates the solenoid to avoid damage. Problem was I couldn’t see the control unit light while moving, I didn’t want to stop so I was trying to adjust it and reset it at 25mph.

At one point I got it to reset, but it went through the gears and stopped in 1^st, the lightest gear. Now, on a mountain climb this would not have been a problem, but IM Cozumel is pancake flat (the highest point on the island is 14m!!), and I would soon be getting a big tail wind. So I stopped several times to try get the gears shifting again. No luck. I tried myself for quite a while, before stopping with aid station mechanics. We spent about 30mins trying all combinations to kick it back in to life. Nothing.

It was a strange experience withdrawing from the race, but really I had no choice. The last 110k in 1^st gear on a flat course didn’t make any sense, so I handed in my notice and got a ride with the police back to town. The cop looked at me funny when I told him I wanted a ride to town, he asked me a lot of questions first: name, country, race number etc, I assume just in case I was trying to set a very fast 20k split and rejoin the race from town :-)

I then when to a restaurant for some ‘normal’ food. Sitting there was quite difficult, it was a bit surreal, hearing the race commentary, and here I was sitting in a restaurant out of the race. It felt like a bad dream. Some people seeing me in race gear realised I had withdrawn, they were kind with words but I was in a different place, my head was in the clouds. Some other people looked at me funny, I assume they thought I had finished already, I don’t speak Spanish but I think they were saying ‘look at the head on this show off eejit’.

I spent a week’s holiday and a fair chunk of cash to get out there, and it means I have to reschedule my race options for 2015. Not that I assumed qualification, but looking at the results, it should have been fairly straight forward to get the slot.

Watching the race was an experience in itself, it was hot and I seen from the outside just how long and crazy our sport is. A lot of very fast people looking not very fast as they suffered on the latter stages of the event.

On reflection I could have done some things different, but it’s done and I have to move on. The negatives are obvious; but at least one positive is that I swam well. So considering I ran well in Kona, I just need to sort out a good bike performance and we’ll be there :-) 

As Alan says the fitness built over the past few seasons, and even with breaks here and there, a good bulk of that fitness (and ability to get fit) carry’s over. That means I am certainly not starting from scratch, I will take a short break before hitting it again. At the moment South Africa is a strong candidate, as I still want to do Roth, but Alan may not be so keen on that, we have been fighting over that one for 5 years :-)

Reflection on 2014

2014 was a funny year for me, I started out well in January but then bust my Achilles in Spain. I managed to hold enough fitness to qualify in Melbourne in March, and then started a long build to Kona. I had to fight along the way with food intolerances after a stomach bug in February. That battle still goes on, but now I know much more about it, and have learned how to work with it. With Alan and Kinga keeping me right, I got to Kona with my highest ever fitness figures wrt CTL and Vo2. Kona itself was an akward day, apart from a crash and puncture, I felt sluggish in the swim and bike sections. Alan’s calculations say I only reached 80% of my back home power on race day due to heat and time zone acclimation. If I make it back there, I’ll be going 2 weeks ahead this time.

With 2015 training starting soon through the possibility of South Africa, I’m hoping to have a better start to the season than last year. My motivation is still very good, I’m not totally sure why, but I assume it won’t last forever so in the meantime I’ll be busting myself the best I can for another year.

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break and recharging for another good year. If you’re not sure what to do differently this winter, here are a few ideas from the boss: http://www.endurancecorner.com/Alan_Couzens/basic_limiters?utm_content=buffer0ae14&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I have a few things to fix myself, I’m enjoying the break, but the work starts again soon.

Thanks as always to my great sponsors Kinga, ChampionsSystem, Vita Coco. Good luck to all for 2015!

Ironman Hawaii 2014 Race Report

This being my 5^th time on the big island, I should know what I’m doing by now. For many elements of the race I do, the less variable logistical elements that is. For the race itself the conditions are never the same. The only thing guaranteed is wind, heat and humidity. When and where those things will present themselves is an unknown, and it can change within minutes on race day. This year the swim was choppy and swells caught out anyone coming in beyond the 1hr mark. I swam very conservatively; I was going by feel based on output from the Hola swim a week earlier. I had swum then in speedos with jetlag and come out in 1:01. So thought I could do same on race day, like last year, catch a good draft and stay in contention. I got to the turn around in 28, so was really happy and thought I was going to cruise back in under the hour. As the hour approached and I still couldn’t see the shore, I became frustrated and knew the swells had pushed us out. I was getting sea sick in the last 10mins so I was trying hard to stay positive. When I seen the time at swim exit I knew I was on an upward struggle.

 Out on the bike I seen a lot of athletes coming down Palani and knew I had my work cut out. When I started out to the first turn around, the legs were not responding, low power, high hr and a general feeling of lacklustre. That didn’t improve much out on the Queen K, and instead of getting away strong with some decent watts, I was already low on the average power that I had discussed with Alan. These numbers I had held in race sims in the previous weeks and months before travelling, but the legs were just not playing ball. I got to the turn around in Hawi and still felt very ordinary, the watts were still a bit low on planned average and hr a little high.

Just after the turn around I slowed down on the right side by special needs to fix a problem with my shoe, someone from behind must have been riding with their head down and hit me full speed, it knocked my bottles and nutrition off and the back wheel took a large shunt, but I somehow managed to stay on the bike. The poor sod (eejit) behind came off in a clatter but the special needs guys all ran to their help. I was left with a scobing back wheel and eventually had to stop to fix it, I realigned the wheels and moved the brakes, which helped but the wheel started again rubbing and I knew something was not right. Just after the main decent of Hawi, the scrobing got worse and the tyre blew, it seemed the impact had pushed the tyre off the rim and the tube came out and blew. At home and in training I am usually fast at changing tyres, but the situation stressed me and I panicked a bit. I spent ages just getting the accessories out of the bag, they were taped up so hard I think I had not realistically planned to be using them! It was the first time I had punctured in an Ironman. When I started back I had lost some ambition to be fast on the day. I was low on race plan but thought I’d hold some respectable pace to town as I had some friends and family shouting me on. I went through the motions but thought I could still run well if I had no more mishaps on the bike.

When I started out on the run I felt fresh, but I always do out on Ali’i. It is the way back to town and up Palani that tells you how you’re really feeling. I was badly traumatised from Palani last year where I stopped and almost didn’t start again. This year was very different, I was holding 4:15/k pace and it felt easy. I had been running well in training and did many long run sims at a higher pace than this, so my confidence grew as the run went on. I may have had a bad swim and bike on the day, but my numbers (mainly CTL and Vo2) were higher than they’d ever been so logic would have had it that I should be able to hold this pace even in the heat. Still, this is an Ironman and often the performance of your brain and body separate on race day.As I passed more and more people struggling on the Queen K, my confidence grew and I started to up the pace from the energy lab for the last 8mile home. With about 5k to go I was still on 4:16/k pace and knew I had to maintain that to get under 3. I upped a little more and bashed my feet on the front of the shoes down Palani as I headed for the line.

I ran 2:58 and passed about 450 people on the marathon, but it was too late, at 9:37 it’s my slowest Ironman for some years, and the worst bike split in all my 10 Ironmans, but I was glad to have gained some running confidence back. This sport is cruel but no one ever asks us to do it, it owes us nothing, we do it for the challenge and Hawaii is always the biggest challenge of them all.

Now 2 weeks on, I am supposed to be racing Coz Mexico in 5 weeks, but I’ve picked up a bad cold on return to work, so we’ll test the numbers and form before deciding on that trip. It is a lot of time and money, and with just 3 slots, we need to be realistic about my chances before committing.

Alan and Kinga got me in the best shape of my life for this race, and Sarah really stabilises me when the work and training schedules get crazy. The 3month build to Kona was one of the busiest periods of my life. But once that horn goes, you are on your own. Support on the course gives you a lift, but your legs must do the work. During the race I hated the sport for a while, but as soon as I got over the line and was chatting with Ivan, I loved the sport again, and I can’t wait to get out there training and racing again. Owen Martin was also in great shape for the race, and had similar issues to me, but I hope we’ll be toeing the line again next year in top shape. kona #5 done and the fight goes on.

After chatting with Alan we think I was not fully acclimatised, this is the closest I had ever arrived on the island before the race (just one week out). The other theory I have is that Madam Pele found out I am an atheist, and punished me for it. I’ll say a few prayers to her next year ;-)

And now we move on to liars:  https://twitter.com/QuoteFrTed/status/413720553732972544

just kidding, that’s it! hopefully I'll be reporting from Mexico next month.

Thanks as always to my great sponsors, Champion System, VitaCoco, and Kinga at Soft Tissue Therapy. Thanks to Una and Denny for putting us up, and putting up with us for another year in beautiful Hawaii.

Final splits were:

S - 1:08

B – 5:22

R – 2:58

T – 9:37

(Position 27^th)

Until next time, Mahalo!

Aloha!