Race Report - Ironman Coeur d'Alene

This past weekend, was a busy one for Vitality Multisport athletes.

Karyn Hoffman finished her 5th Western States 100 miler. She overcame adversity throughout the race, including a nasty fall 25 miles in and continued to chug along; she is by far one of the toughest athletes I know finishing in just over 27 hours!

Sheila Leard, who just 9 months ago broke her pelvis in a bike crash finished Ironman Coeur d’Alene in spite of a cold, cold swim and a flat tire within the first few miles of the bike ride. She persisted and ran her way from 10th to 4th AG during the marathon!

Bernhard Sturm was back in Idaho for another shot at an Ironman race and also had a tough swim, having to flip over and do some back stroke early on. With 2340 people, it was a doozy of a start! He overcame his “near-panic-attack” and cruised to a 1:12 swim. He rode solid and steady and had a good first half-marathon. However, his gut started shutting down in the 2nd half and in spite of that, hung on for an 11:02 finish. Ironman is about how you respond to adversity and not how things go when it’s easy… great performances!

And with respect to my race, here are the lengthy details…

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Last year’s race in Idaho was my first DNF. A few days after that race, I decided to go ahead and register for 2011 so I could go back to Coeur d’Alene for some retribution. Meanwhile, time passes and I changed my plan to just half-IM races in the first half of the year and a late build-up to IM Florida. I wasn’t completely sure I was going to be ready for the mental investment that IM takes. The last few off-seasons, I had worked hard on swimming and biking, but this past off-season, I decided to do some running races. I ran a lot over the winter and had changed my season plan to include a marathon in March. I hadn’t run one hard in several years and wanted to see where my run fitness was these days. Meanwhile, back in January, I had started working with a new coach. After the marathon, we started layering on the swim and bike training and I was feeling pretty good on the bike. In late April, I did a training ride with a friend who was doing it and felt pretty good (in spite of the pouring rain that day)… then that night my wife says “you might as well do CDA too!” How’s that for supportive (she is truly incredible ;-) !!! So the wheels started turning. I was considering it and let my coach know I was already registered. His opinion was to go ahead and do it for the experience (rather emphatically ;-), so I decided to give it a shot and the decision was made at the end of April to do the race on June 26th. I had already planned on doing Auburn, then Kansas 3 weeks later, and now I was adding a full Ironman just 2 weeks after that. So the “gauntlet” would be 3 races in 5 weeks – “World’s Toughest” in Auburn on 5/22, Kansas 70.3 on 6/12, and IM CDA on 6/26!

From a preparation standpoint, I had done the early season marathon and had some good running “in the bank” but after 3/27, I had exactly 1 week of running over 30 miles. I was doing some good biking, through April and May, but not much long stuff: only two 5+ hour rides in April and 1 ride over Memorial day weekend of 6.5 hours with some good climbing. That was about it for long rides. I did bump up the swimming after the marathon, too, but only got 1 week over 10k yds and my average week was around 6K yds. By no means am I making excuses because I did have 2 very good half-IM races in May and June to get me ready. Racing is, of course, the best training! Here are plots of the details on my training build up into this race.

Mentally, I was approaching the race to go out, give it what I had on the day, and gain experience. Just to face the hard parts on the run course and improve how I respond. That lasted until a week or two prior to the race, when I did start having some expectations brewing. I ran a 1:28 half-marathon in Kansas so I figured I could have a decent marathon off-the-bike in Idaho. Well, there is the small detail of a 112 mile ride with 5K feet of vertical to contend with. I had also had a good race in Auburn and my TSS (training stress score) for that ride was in the neighborhood of 230. At that race I ran a 1:31 off the bike, so I figured if I kept the TSS down in CDA to the 230 range, I’d be good. Just keep the pace of the run slow and I could keep running. No problem, right!?

From a stress standpoint, the trip was very relaxed. Fortunately, my folks were watching our kids so Emily and I got to travel on our own to Idaho. It was very easy - just do my daily business, whether it was a short swim and ride or checking gear in and then relax and try to forget about the race. We even got to see a movie! Plus, Sheila Leard and Bernhard Sturm, 2 of the athletes I’ve been coaching, were also racing, so it was nice to be there with them.

We didn’t spend a lot of time at the expo as I wanted to stay out of the craziness, but we did indulge in listening to the pros at the press conference and my wife managed to get this picture with Julie Dibens (who went on to win the women’s race and set a new course record).

We also saw other stellar athletes including Craig Alexander, who has 2 of the last 3 IM World Championships, and Maik Twelsiek who is another incredible athlete with 2 IM titles. Craig Alexander would win the men’s race with a 2:46 run and Maik Twelsiek set a new bike course record with a 4:29.

Craig Alexander before the race

Anyway, race morning finally came. I went about my business getting things going – made my breakfast and we headed to the race. Got there and transition was already buzzing… the vibe at these events is incredible on race morning: a huge amount of nervous energy! I pumped up my tires, put my nutrition on my bike, and then we looked for Sheila. We found her over at the band shell and got ready together. Here’s a shot of us on race morning.

Me and Sheila race morning

Here's a shot of Emily and me (no, Emily was not planning on robbing a 7/11)

I decided to use a different start strategy this year since I got pummeled last year. I know there is no secret to it; you always get in the mess, but I figured I would at least try to minimize it. I made my way toward the beach with my wife, gave her a kiss, then moved on down there. I kept going far to the right. My plan was to start wide right about middle depth. I made my way over there and then saw Emily again who had snuck her way into an awesome spot at the edge of the beach so we got to sit together to wait for the start.

Coming up to sit with Emily

Mass swim start

And wouldn’t you know, it wasn’t as horrible as last year! Sure, there is incidental contact, but I actually had a tiny bit of room every now and again. That is until you hit the turn buoys. When you have 2300+ people converging on one point, it gets pretty crowded. Just tried to make it around without incident. The swim went by fairly quickly except that I did have some cramps in both calves. This is a common problem for me and I think it just comes from being horizontal for so long. They came and went and I didn’t really have to do anything (i.e. stop and stretch them). However, my right calf was a bit sore coming out of the water.

The water was cold and a lot of people were having trouble, but the cold didn’t bother me much at all. I had to take my time getting my make shift arm warmers on, but other than that, I was fine. And for the record, my make-shift arm warmers were great – we had bought a 75 cent pair of tights from Kmart and cut them up. I even left a thumb hole and a hole for my Garmin to poke through (wish I had thought to take a picture). Worked awesome! (thx to my wife for the idea ;-) Coming through transition, saw my wife, and then headed out on my bike.

Sheila starting the ride

My plan for the ride was to take it easy the first hour, but not be a complete slave to the numbers. Keeping it under 200 watts the first hour and then settling into a rhythm around 210 watts for the remainder of the ride. I was hoping my HR would be in the high 130s or low 140s, but alas, it was in the mid 140s most of the ride. However, from a perceived exertion standpoint, it felt very easy. Everything seemed fine so I rolled with it. I felt pretty good and the sun was out, so the first part of the ride was quite nice. It was a little crowded, but I gradually made my way through the masses. My friend Bart caught me a few minutes into the ride so we rode together for a while. After the out and back on Lake CDA drive, I headed north towards the hills. I was going to ride the hills moderately trying to prevent any large power spikes over 300 as best I could. I continued along with my nutrition plan (1100 calorie bottle of EFS with CarboPro and one 400-cal flask of EFS liquid shot) sipping my bottle every 15 minutes and taking a hit of the liquid shot every 45 minutes. I broke the ride down into 45 minute segments to help facilitate this. It worked pretty well… I did make an effort to front-load the calories early in the bike and had been through about half my bottle after about 40-45 miles. It seemed to be going down easily and I only had to pee once in that time, so I knew the additional sodium was helping (or at least that’s the theory). I kept motoring and came back to town where I saw Emily again. She got this shot of me on the bike.

I ended up doing the first loop in 2:41. The second loop was OK – it definitely had thinned out and there were not nearly as many people. About 65 miles in, I caught up with Bernhard who told me he had a rough swim. He wished me luck and I rode on. Meanwhile he was lurking back behind me ;-) I felt pretty good at this effort level all the way through about 90 miles, at which point I started feeling it in my legs. Ironically, this is about the distance of ride that I had done in training. It was about this point that Bernhard caught me and passed me and rode away. On the way back to transition, he put about a minute or two into me. It was in that last 20 miles of the ride when I knew my legs were going to be tired for that run. I attempted to focus on being positive, knowing that I had ridden very hard in Auburn with 6K feet of climbing in that race and still had a great run. I just went on faith that I could do the same here.

It’s flat for the last 10 miles back into town and they really dragged on. My neck was tired and I was ready to get off the bike. My 2nd loop ended up being a 2:52 so I was 11 minutes slower. Didn’t know that at the time, but I knew I was pretty tired. Coming off the bike felt good… I went through transition smoothly, changed socks, got my shoes on, grabbed my hat and took off. I saw Emily again at that point and she told me Bernhard was only a minute or two ahead. It turns out Bart was behind me by about another minute (or less). I started running and just got my head in the game.

My run plan was very much the same as the recent half-IMs I had done: 30-minute segments. I jogged out of town and tried very much to keep things under control. I consciously slowed myself to try to run at 8 minute miles (or more) for the first 30 minutes. It took me the whole first 30 minutes to get my avg pace down (or up) to that level. Bart had passed me leaving town but I held back as much as possible to just stay within myself, knowing that it gets tough later on! I really held back on the 2nd 30 minutes also and made an effort to take in my calories and walk for 10 seconds every aid station. I was drinking mostly water at this point, but had some IM Perform, too. The 3rd 30 minutes came and I was still doing OK. I had made it up the hill to the turnaround and come back up the other side. Still chugging along. My pace was slowing towards the 8:30 range, but I was still running. I made it back to town to finish the first lap before the end of the 4th 30 minutes, but I knew that my pace continued to slow down. My HR was in the mid 140s still, but it was more and more of a struggle to keep the pace below 8:30. I ran the 1st half-marathon in x:xx. After I hit the turnaround, I saw Emily and took a short break. I kissed her and she wished me luck – I knew the tough part was ahead.

Me nearing the end of the 1st loop of the run

Bart finishing the 1st loop

Sheila finishing the 1st loop still smiling and looking great!

I was able to run for another 4 miles gradually slowing down. I had switched my nutrition plan to just cola by this time and had chucked my liquid shot. I just couldn’t get any more of that down. Once I got to mile 17, I lost mental focus and my “relaxed, calm, focused, strong” mantra was really tough to hang onto. It turned into: “dang, my legs are shot!” This is not good and was definitely the point where I lost control of my race. Then it turned into “I don’t care what my time is” and “I am only doing half-IMs from now on” and just plain “ughhh…” Obviously, I let my head go negative and I had a tough time bringing it back to the task at hand. I started walking at mile 17 and walked for about 14 minutes. It turns out Bart had stopped to hit the port-o-potty and I had passed him, but when I started walking he motored past me again. I told him to hang in there and keep going…. And then after a little pity party, I managed to gather myself and start running again. At least until I hit the hill for the 2nd time and decided another walk would feel good (Uggh again). I walked the whole hill for ~12 minutes. Once to the top, I started running again and made it to the turnaround point. On my way down the hill towards the turnaround, I saw Bernhard and wished him luck. After the turnaround, I did manage to keep running the rest of the way in. It was tough and not fast (marginally running) and not what I had hoped, but at least I was running. I had a hard time getting my HR elevated, but did manage to get it back to 139 for a while. The thought of getting under 11 hours slipped away and then I started doing the math to see if I could at least PR. I kept going, but still stopped at every aid station, but now for a count of 20 seconds. It got harder and harder to keep running, but I tried to keep focused on just to the next 30 minutes! The run through the neighborhoods again was a blur and small little inclines felt like mountains! But then, the turn onto Sherman avenue and a straight shot downhill to the finish!!! Wow, that felt great. Last year, I didn’t make it to that point, so I had finally gotten some retribution… it wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for, but it was what I had in me on the day.

Bernhard finishing!

Me finishing!

From a number standpoint, I had averaged 182 watts with a norm of 205, just a touch higher than Wisconsin last year. Also probably a touch high with respect to VI (put out too much effort on hills and norm power was too much higher than avg power). My power dropped from 189 avg 211 norm 1st half to 177 avg 199 norm in the 2nd half of the ride. I continue to struggle with holding power over the duration of the ride. Perhaps just a matter of pacing, but last year, I really held back in CDA and ended up feeling worse on the run. Go figure.

My run numbers (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95381522) were:

Time / Distance / Pace

30:08/3.72/08:05

30:00/3.51/08:32

30:16/3.51/08:37

31:42/3.42/09:15

30:20/3.15/09:37

30:01/1.71/17:34

30:16/3.07/09:51

40:35/4.22/09:37

From a nutrition standpoint, I feel like it was good overall, but does need a little tweaking. I had a gel before the swim and then went through all my calories on the bike and even had about 6-8 swigs of IM Perform beyond that. I estimate I consumed ~1550 calories in 5.5 hours and took in about 3000 mg Na. On the run, I had 2 small hits of my liquid shot, but then chucked it and stuck with Perform (sports drink) through the 1st half and then switched to cola for the 2nd half. Love that cola! I wish it would’ve been “real” Coke (it was Sam’s club cola), but it still tasted good! Not sure how many calories I took in on the run. About 500-600 I am guessing, but that’s just a guess – my run fueling strategy needs some work.

I am really proud of Sheila, who made it onto the "podium" in her AG, coming back from a crash, not running until February, and finishing an IM in June. Amazing. Here are some shots of her at the awards banquet.

Overall, I was 877th coming out of the water, rode to 307 on the bike, and fell back to 319 on the run. In my AG, I was 117th out of the water (out of 353), rode to 53rd on the bike, and stayed at 53rd for the finish. Not my highest placement, but a finish nonetheless! I learned a lot from this race, including the importance of pacing, the relative unimportance of the time you do the swim in, expectations are the enemy, and that I need to work on my mental toughness. I didn’t have a conventional IM build to this race, but had some good races to go from. I plan on taking a short break now and then starting to build again for Ironman Florida in November!

Cheers!