Jill's Ironman Arizona Race Report:
Watch me finish
Going into this year, I had originally planned to make IMAZ my “A” race. This all changed in late January, when a number of highly stressful situations impacted my ability to train consistently.
For the last several years I have had a basic week that has worked really well in my life. It was convenient and consistent and allowed me to get in quite a bit of training . In January of this year, I decided that I would no longer be a member of the Pro Club, working out in the early morning hours at the PRO club was a big part of my schedule. We had moved to Bridle Trails five years ago; to be closer to Mike’s work and to be closer to the Pro Club. It made it much more easy and convenient for me to get my workouts done, and I was able to start truly training for Iron distance racing. Leaving the PRO club completely disrupted my whole training schedule. Everything with my training program has changed and I have found I no longer have the routine that was such an important part of my life.
I now needed to find a new pool to swim at. I needed to find a place that had a treadmill and some other equipment that I use for my training and most importantly I had to find a way to fit my new schedule into my home life. So, over the past couple of months, I have been experimenting with different options, trying to recreate this basic week. I found the BAC swim program at noon. I found a new club. This has all been a bit of a challenge, because I have yet to figure out how to put this all together with my family life coaching and running the team. I found that I was able to keep up with the key workouts; the long runs and long rides and most of the swims, but there were far too many of the other workouts that I simply was not able to do in the month of Jan and Feb due to personal issues that I was dealing with I have not been consistent over the past 4 months. I would say with the exception of weeks 4,5,6 out from the race I trained the least I ever had for an IM
In Feb I started going to the Bellevue Aquatic Center Masters program coached by Scott Armstrong. Interesting I have fond out Scott at one time coached Tom Price and Brett Lorenzen. I had never been part of a Master’s Swim program before. I have truly enjoyed the camaraderie and the individuals who participate in this group, I actually look forward to going to my swim workouts this was something that I very much needed these last several months. Shortly after my first couple swims Scott wanted to know what my goals were, he really takes an interest in the swimmers there. He has helped me tremendously in the very short period I have worked with him and I am looking forward to working with him in the coming years.
I have had a power meter for almost a year, and it has never worked properly. I gave up on it many months ago .In Feb I decided to hire Lang Reynolds from Cycle U to help me figure out what the problem was with it and to coach me with it. I want to better understand how to train and race with power. Lang is managing my bike workout schedule. We still can’t get the Ergomo to work properly, so this has been a big source of frustration for both of us, which we hope to clear up soon. A month ago we had hoped to use IMAZ as a test however in the couple weeks before the race the power meter started showing numbers that didn’t make any sense at all so it was decided I wouldn’t even use it in the race.
My expectation coming into this race was to do the best I can given where I am at right now and just see what happens. My one goal for the race was to have a swim PR, this was the one aspect of training that I had felt had been the most consistent over the last couple months..
RACE DAY:
We got up at 3:15 and roused the kids. We headed down to Denny’s for breakfast. I decided to try something different for breakfast. I had French toast and eggs, with a coffee and a diet coke. I also had some endurolytes and about 20 ounces of water before the race.
The morning set up went quite smoothly. We ran into Shannon and Mark, but didn’t see Bruce before the race. I saw Lola Jacobson as I was walking out to put on my wetsuit. She looked really good, happy. I wished her well. I got my wetsuit on and got ready to go.
SWIM:
In my last four IM races I had opted to get fairly close the front; maybe 15-20 feet from the front on the inside, straight off the bouys. This time, I decided I would follow the strategy of my very first IM; get to the back of the pack, stay to the outside, and count 30 seconds after the cannon before starting. So, that’s what I did. This seemed to work very well… none of the hitting, kicking, crawling on me. There were two incidences of contact…. One in the first 300 yards where a guy grabbed me around my waist, pushed me underwater, and swam over me, not kidding ! At another point I was in a mix and found myself smashed into a group. A guy decided to ball up his fist and take a swing at me, glancing off my shoulder. I just relaxed and moved away. The plan was to take it out easy to the turn around then pick it up after that.
I was really glad that Shannon, Mark, Char, Jason and I decided to practice our swim pacing in our wetsuits in the BAC pool. Shannon, Mark and I put on our wetsuits and had Mike timed our 100’s, and then our 200’s and then a couple 500s. It was helpful because we were all going out too hard at first. It was so easy to go fast with our wetsuits on . Shannon and I were easily holding 1:!5-1:20s with our wetsuits …this felt slow and easy to us. We worked on slowing down and finding our pace that we knew based on tests that we should be holding. For both of us we knew this should be around 1:35-140 pace for an IM swim. So we kept practicing and slowing ourselves down, trying to internalize that pace. I think this was EXTREMEMLY helpful for all us and I will continue to do this practice with my athletes before races. I am certain that had I not done this I would have taken that first 500 out way too fast.
Throughout the swim I usually have a mantra that I keep saying to myself. At this race I tried to keep reminding myself “You’re swimming for an hour…relax… you’re swimming for an hour” I thought about how that felt in the pool..how really long that was . When I got to the turnaround I couldn’t believe how good I felt that first half felt so easy!. At that point, people were spread out and now I found that I could really focus on my form. I felt great. I did start to tire toward the end but it still felt nothing like what I had felt in my prior IM races. I knew I was going to come out of the water feeling good. When I got to the stairs I saw 1:10 on my watch. I was so excited!!! My time was 1:11:02 when I crossed the mat. This is almost 3 minutes faster than my best.
T1: The transition was fine. There was a wonderful volunteer helping me in the tent, and then I was off on the bike.
BIKE:
To be completely honest my heart was not in the rest of the race. I was committed to finishing and doing the best I could but I did not have that edge I feel I need to race really well in an IM. I felt as though I was just going through the motions.
The plan was to go easy on the first of three loops, and then increase my HR by 5 beats for each successive loop. I think this would have worked fine, except that the wind just kept getting harder and harder with each loop. Even with the wind, I never felt that I couldn’t go on, and definitely felt like I could have pushed a harder, I just chose not to…. especially on the first two loops. I’d never raced in wind like this, and thought it better to err on the side of caution and keep my HR at around AeT to AeT+5 and again I just didn’t; have that desire to really push it. At about the half-way point, I found that I was having a little trouble breathing… I have exercised-induced asthma, I have an inhaler but rarely use it… I realized that I did not have it in my bento box. Oh well!
For nutrition, I raised my calories from 250 to 300 per hour for this race. I also changed from using Endurolytes to Thermolytes. With the Thermolytes I needed to carry a lot fewer tablets. I took 4 Thermolytes per hour and 32 oz of fluid. I used Carbo Pro and E-load for my nutrition. In my special needs bag I had placed some salt and vinegar potato chips. These tasted really, really good!. My nutrition plan worked really well I felt good all day ..no boating or stomach upset. I never felt any big highs or lows…felt pretty much the same all day. I was really glad that I had put the Vaseline under my seat because my lips were getting very dry right from the start.
T2:
Again, I had a great volunteer helping me out. This time I decided not to wear my fuel belt as it had really bothered me in the past two races. I took some Carb-boom with me, and coke in a small water bottle.
RUN:My goal for the first 5 miles was to run 9:30s. For me, this is my AeT pace, plus 30 seconds. I had been to a long course seminar at the Olympic training center in Oct and Bobby Mcgee http://www.bobbymcgee.com/
had spoke of this walk run method and I decided to give it a try. In the past I had always run for the entire marathon. Paula Newby Fraser had done this for her races and it seemed to work for her so why not give it a try! The trick is to move very quickly and not to really walk you are doing more of a shuffle. For calories on the run I relied entirely on Coke. I did not use the gels I had with me. I was very focused on my nutrition, and made sure that I also was getting my four Thermolytes per hour in addition to water and Coke. I did not have any stomach or side stitch issues in this race (until I had the chicken broth at about mile 13… this made me very nauseous within minutes). I was still having difficulty breathing on the run and without my fuel belt, I realized again I didn’t have my inhaler with me. I remembered that I had put one in my special needs bag, so at Mile 13 I used it once, and carried it with me for the rest of the race. It helped some but my lungs still hurt.
During the run, I didn’t feel terrible, I didn’t feel great either. As the day progressed, it became clear to me that I did not have enough miles in my legs to maintain the pace I wanted. With about 3 miles to go, I got passed by a women with the number 40 on her calf. I was so close to the finish, and this created some internal conflict for me. Mike had told me I was somewhere in the top 10 of my age group I wasn’t sure of my place, but I thought I might be near the top 5-7 based on the number of gals I had passed after seeing Mike. It’s really hard to tell with the three loop run because you don’t know if you’re passing someone who’s ahead of you or a lap behind you. My first thought was to let her go… but then I decided no I was not going to let her get away I was going to finish this race strong. My brain immediately started working on my strategy. When she passed me, she looked pretty strong. I wasn’t feeling great… my hips hurt and it was hard to keep the legs turning over.. I decided that I would pass her at the next aid station, to see if she was going to come with me. So I passed her, and then didn’t see her for another mile. Then, just past the last aid station, with about 1 mile to go, she passed me again very strong. I decided to get about 10 feet behind her and try to maintain that distance. This was hard she was running pretty well. My brain started wrestling with me, I was thinking I should just let her go, who wants a sprint to the finish? No! Then I thought ,”NO… I’ve worked just as hard as she has! I deserve this place! “
I knew that there would be a sharp left turn coming up in about a half mile. So I thought, if she’s concerned about me, she will look back to see where I am when she turns. I still wasn’t sure if she was on her final loop or her second loop. If she looked back II figured that this was a good sign she was on her last loop. So I started drifting to the far right as we approached the turn… way to the right so I would be out of her line of sight.. As expected, she turned to her left and looked back., she couldn’t see me. As we got to the bridge, she picked it up. So I thought…here we go! This was a big mental challenge for me. My body was just aching; but I had decided to stay with her. I was thinking, “Dang! This is going to be a sprint to the finish!”
So, just as the bridge started to go down, I took the lead. I ran by her and prepared for a hard run to the finish! Then just as I was turning for the finish line I saw both Alex and Stephen, who were waiting to run down the chute with me! I yelled “Come on! We’ve got to run fast!” (Alex was wearing flip flops). The boys ran hard with me and we crossed the line about a second ahead of my competitor. What was funny was Stephen had said to Mike …”What if mom is in a race to the finish?” He had seen this in a couple of my races this past year. Of course Mike assured him that wasn’t going to happen at this race….little did he know. J
About 15 min after the finish I started feeling very nauseous and continued to have a hard time breathing.. I was sitting near the finish when Shannon came across the line. We heard her name, and Mike met her and brought her to the group. She was really happy with her performance, especially given the conditions. Bruce had already crossed ahead of me. After a while, we left Shannon there to wait for Mark, and went to get my bike and bags. We ran into Bruce there, and he told us that had a great race. He was smiling and happy, and looked great. I, on the other hand, felt like I was going to throw up. Shortly after that, we saw both Shannon and Mark. Mark had beat the 13 hour mark. Although he had a tough run, he was also very happy with his race. He said he felt like the bike took a lot out of him. It was a tough day, and Team JFT2 performed well.
I was pretty sore after the race, and somewhat disappointed, though not surprised, at my finish. As we were walking (slowly) to the car, Stephen sensed my disappointment. He said ,”Mom you should be really happy with your swim it as a PR you can’t just think about yourself , you’re part of a team now and the team had a great day!” Then he said ,” “You know Mom , glass half full”.
He’s right. And that was highlight of my day; hearing that from my son. I am really proud of how everyone did, and how everyone was so supportive of each other throughout the whole week. I am looking forward to going to IMCdA and watching Michael, Char and Jason complete their first Ironman race! I am also looking forward to putting the disappointments, stress and frustration of the last several months behind me. I am focusing on getting my edge back, I intend to have it for IMC
To those of you who have been there for me the last several months …. I could not have done this without all of you. Your kind words and support have meant the world to me . THANKS!
Jill
