| Wisconsin | Louisville | CDA | Wisconsin | CDA | FLA | ||
| Date | Sep-07 | Aug-09 | Jun-10 | Sep-10 | Jun-11 | Nov-11 | |
| Finishers | 2206 | 2352 | 2096 | 2398 | 2187 | 2439 | |
| AG Finishers | 266 | 360 | 327 | 352 | 271 | 362 | |
| Swim | Time | 1:22:06 | 1:17:01 | 1:14:23 | 1:16:21 | 1:17:35 | 1:17:48 |
|
| OA | 1392 | 681 | 733 | 918 | 875 | 1319 |
|
| OA % | 63% | 29% | 35% | 38% | 40% | 54% |
|
| Div | 191 | 107 | 122 | 138 | 116 | 231 |
|
| Div % | 72% | 30% | 37% | 39% | 43% | 64% |
|
| T1 | 10:47 | 4:36 | 5:48 | 7:35 | 5:32 | 7:51 |
| Bike | Time | 6:44:32 | 5:44:47 | 5:55:46 | 5:41:03 | 5:33:27 | 5:19:26 |
|
| OA | 1336 | 459 | 638 | 309 | 254 | 219 |
|
| OA % | 61% | 20% | 30% | 13% | 12% | 9% |
|
| Div | 192 | 91 | 110 | 59 | 43 | 54 |
|
| Div % | 72% | 25% | 34% | 17% | 16% | 15% |
|
| T2 | 6:35 | 4:52 | 1:58 | 4:12 | 2:14 | 4:19 |
| Run | Time | 4:07:51 | 4:04:48 | DNF | 4:00:52 | 4:11:57 | 3:44:20 |
|
| OA | 457 | 482 |
| 278 | 454 | 182 |
|
| OA % | 21% | 20% |
| 12% | 21% | 7% |
|
| Div | 66 | 87 |
| 46 | 78 | 35 |
|
| Div % | 25% | 24% |
| 13% | 29% | 10% |
| OA | Time | 12:31:50 | 11:16:04 | DNF | 11:10:01 | 11:10:45 | 10:33:41 |
|
| OA | 868 | 397 |
| 260 | 319 | 207 |
|
| OA % | 39% | 17% |
| 11% | 15% | 8% |
|
| Div | 129 | 77 |
| 42 | 53 | 45 |
|
| Div % | 48% | 21% |
| 12% | 20% | 12% |
Each of these races has a story, but you can see the overall trend. A first experience at Wisconsin where I was happy to finish, then a year off from Ironman, then a more consistent effort to move up the age group, with, what I would suggest is perhaps slow progress, but progress nonetheless (my progress at half-IM was much quicker). Based on this high-level assessment, I am confident I have not neared my potential in an Ironman. However, I would say that I’ve done the best I could in each race, given that I am an average age-grouper with a family and a career.
More specifically, the swim trend is alarming in that I seem to be moving backwards. This off-season, I am hoping to do something more specific to address that, but we will see if it works out (time, budget, etc). The bike continues to improve, although it seems I have taken the large chunks out already and my placement in my AG may continue to rise slowly. With respect to the run, it is mixed, but in Florida this year, I did make the top 10% in my AG for a run split. However, in a reasonably competitive half-IM, my run splits are usually much higher than that, i.e. top 5 or 10 AG.
To get some more perspective, let’s look a little deeper at the numbers. Here are some plots of bike power, by each hour, in the races where I’ve had power available.
The most noticeable trend is that I faded in each of the previous 4 races. However, in FLA’11, I started very conservative and managed to sustain that effort. It is obviously a flat course so you can control your effort more and you are not forced to get over any hills, but it seems like I paced the ride pretty well in FLA and now need to keep working on raising the power up.
Based on my FTP, however, the power I rode in FLA still seems very conservative -- my IF in FLA was only 0.58 and TSS was only 178. That’s really low for an Ironman and I know I could have easily ridden harder. The question is what effect would that have had on my run. In previous IMs, I have ridden with IFs of 0.59 to 0.68. My Florida ride was on the low side and not surprisingly, I had my best run to date.
With respect to the run, I have faded in each of these races. Here are some plots of run pace pre 5K segment and cumulative pace per 5K segment. In Florida this year, I was able to hold off the fade longer and run quicker leading up to it -- I was still managing my approximate target pace through 18+ miles and have not made it that far before.
The one above is average pace in each 5K segment. The one below is the cumulative average pace as I made it through each 5K segment.
In previous races, starting the run, I have been at 7+ hours into the race. I was through 20 miles of the run quicker than I had been before. See the table below.
| Race | Through T2 | Through 20 miles of run | Last 10K |
| CDA ‘10 | 7:17 | 10:10 (DNF at 17.8) | N/A |
| Wisconsin ‘10 | 7:09 | 10:10 | 0:59:42 |
| CDA ‘11 | 6:58 | 10:12 | 0:58:54 |
| Florida ‘11 | 6:49 | 9:33 | 1:01:00 |
I still struggled through that last 10K, but I was to the start of it much earlier than before. After 3 seasons, it seems my capacity is good for about 9-9.5 hours and I really struggle past that. My belief is that it is mostly peripheral fatigue and my legs give out first. I just can’t seem to keep the HR up at that point. In the graph below, you can clearly see this effect as I ran about 20-25% of the marathon in Florida at a HR of 135 or below. The first ¾ of the marathon, I was tracking my HR to a goal of ~145-150. Once I got through 2.5 hours of running, I had a hard time stimulating my cardiovascular system and my legs were shot!
From a time standpoint, I was through the swim and bike and onto the run in 6:49. It took me another 2:43 to get through 20 miles of the run. That’s 9 hours and 32 minutes of work, but that only got me through 134.4 miles. So, to improve upon this, I can lengthen the time at which I can sustain this work rate or raise the rate at which I can work for 9.5 hours. I need to work on both of these!
My bike ride in Florida was very controlled and I rode at 20-25 watts lower than my original target. My norm power was 183 for a TSS of 178 (at least according to my FTP estimate of 315). That is very low for an IM ride. My original target was even conservative at an IF of 0.65, but as the ride unfolded, I decided to dial it back, keep my HR down intentionally, and lower my target power by ~20 watts. Even if my FTP estimate is high, which it likely is after going through some long, hard IM training, that TSS is still very low. I have done hilly half-IM rides of more TSS than that and have run really well off the bike -- a 1:31 run split in Auburn this year and a 1:33 at Wildflower 2010. I have also run a 1:28 off the bike in Kansas at the 70.3 there. But Ironman seems to be another story for me. The swim and bike still take too much out of me and I have a really tough time utilizing my running fitness. It should be my strength, but I still fade significantly.
AG placement is probably the thing I am most interested in improving and I was somewhat stagnant this year. In a competitive half-IM, I seem to be in the 10-20 range - 12th AG at Vineman 70.3 (2009), 19th at Wildflower (2010), 15th at Boulder 70.3 (2010) and 16th at Kansas 70.3 (2011 – also stopped to help my wife fix her flat tire). However, in an IM, I am only in the 40s AG with a 42 last year at Wisconsin and a 45 this year in Florida. I am somewhat disappointed with that, but I did hit some other milestones this time around – I ran the Florida marathon faster than I ran my first open marathon in 1999, which was a 3:48. It has taken awhile, but I am there. My next target will be 3:24, which I ran in the Chicago marathon in 2003. I am confident I can get there with consistent hard work. This is my 5th finish and really only the 3rd season of racing IM. I did my first in 2007, but I didn’t have any expectations and just wanted to finish. I took 2008 “off” from IM as my son was born that year, but then did Louisville in 2009 and have raced IM in 2010 and 2011. So I’m through 3 of the hypothesized “5 years” and still making progress (I think).
How do you work on this capacity, durability, and muscular endurance? Probably more of the same of what I’ve been doing the last few years. Consistent “2-a-days” with hard work on the swim, bike, and run. However, this off-season, I am thinking of a slightly different approach. I can’t do the same thing and expect different results, right!? I have done bigger weeks of swim volume before (big for me, anyway, given my time constraints) in the “off” season after 2009. I started making some improvements, but they seemed to disappear. This time around, I am considering some 1-on-1 swim coaching for several months. I am hoping I can make that work, because I think the combination of a coached, technique focus with increased volume can help. If I can cut just 5 or 10 more minutes off my swim, that will put me to that hard part of the race fresher and earlier and in a better position to maintain my work rate longer. My other approach is going to be continuing to work on bike strength with hard interval sets and muscular endurance rides. With respect to running, I’ll just be maintaining for a few months, but perhaps working in some speed for an early season 2012 half-marathon. Not sure on that one yet. Regardless, it is the process and the training I love and keeps me coming back for more.
