Ironman Coeur D'Alene Race Report

Ironman Coeur D'Alene race report: an unexpected and welcome surprise.
Despite all the hype about ironman CDA's weather, we have done this twice now and each time it has been 108F and 95F temp with abundant sunshine.
The swim started early this year at 6am, so we were up and at them by 4am. I slept surprisingly well and have worked hard on pre-race and race day chimp brain for the last 6 months and it seems to have paid off.
Got in the water to the promise of no wind, thus no chop. Complete tosh. Despite no wind, there was plenty of chop. Fortunately, the swim is my stronger discipline and it doesn't bother me. It is the clearest of lakes (30ft vis at least) and with a temp of 70F at beachside, the swim was brilliant for me. Came out in 1hr 07min which is slower than I would have ideally liked, but for the effort, quite pleased.

My least favourite part: The Bike. With 1,553m of climbing, this course is a challenge. Long climbs, but equally long descents and with some good enough areas to time trial, does make it a fun course. However, my chimp brain hates the long bike and convinces itself that death will be imminent and why oh why would anyone want to bike this long. 3/4s of the way round I had a sobering experience. No more than a few hundred yards ahead me, at the bottom of the descent, another racer of cleaned out by a car. Bike and him, sadly thrown high in to the air. As we all hit the brakes, I was thankful to see him awake, despite in pain, and I hear he is okay. However, with that experience, I quickly righted the brain shipwreck and got a hold of myself. Gave myself a proverbial slap in the face and started to bike. I would have liked to come in under 7hrs, but knocking off 45mins from the last time I biked this course, I was amazed to see 7hr04mins on the clock. However, as I entered transition, I wondered whether a run was even possible.

With the promise of no more biking and some great race support, the legs began to move and move they did. The run is 3 loops and reasonably flat, with some rolling. The town really embraces this race and every corner provides an opportunity to cool down. My nutrition was being absorbed well. They say never trust a fart in an ironman. Well, I did and was fortunate ;). Upon the realization that hammer was not going to work today, I switched to my emergency gels which did the trick. Combined with coke and normal on course food, the energy levels were kept up.

I awaited the bonk that never came and then outbound on the final lap my wonderful wife stated "I would need to burn some matches to take it under 13". I couldn't imagine what she was talking about, as I felt that was long since forgotten. (I wasn't looking at my watch, that much). Then Vincent mumbled something to me when I stopped to chat and with him sending me off running, I thought "hmmm".

As the wheels hadn't fallen off for some reason, I pushed on, raising the pace, when I heard someone shout out the time to another racer. 6:37pm. I thought he must be wrong, but he wasn't. That was all I needed to really grab the last 3 miles by the scruff of the neck. I ended up running the last 10k faster than my first and was elated to cross the line in 12:48. To be this is perspective for coach Rob's fine efforts with us, my previous best finish was 13hr55. The last time I ran this course, my finish was 14hr34. That's a 1hr 45min improvement. Massive!

I learned that biking well, so that you can run even better is the key. I learned that I am still not mentally there for biking, but can now see that I can bike better than I think I can. I learned that I really can run off the bike, despite my self doubt. Additionally, I learned that you should never promise to not do an ironman again during the bike leg :)

This was an amazing experience for me personally and there was plenty of emotion across the finish line. I am still in disbelief today. Thank you to the group and coach for such great support. I better start to work on convincing my wife to do another.

Good luck to us all

 ALL PHOTOS CREDIT TO MITCH BOWERS OF IMAGEWERX PHOTOGRAPHY

Overtraining and tapering

It is this time of year when iron distance triathletes come to love and hate. We love the idea that tapering is just around the corner, but we come to loathe the final push in the training.

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The body is tired. The mind is fatigued. Yet, there is huge motivation at the knowledge that the end is but a few weeks away. The threat is to be so motivated that you ignore your body calling out for a change in the schedule or a reduction in the load. 

Many will argue that at this point you are fit enough to race the longest day and that it really doesn't matter what you do, no amount of physical fitness can be gained. There is an element of psychological fitness yet to be achieved, whether it's from the strength that it takes to walk away from a session when you know your body isn't ready for it, or from the power of knowing you can finish a long swim without a wetsuit to guide you. Whichever the case, there are still goals to be achieved and training session to be accomplished. 

Admittedly, racing a half iron distance race 4 weeks from Ironman was not ideal. It required and continues to require a smart and thoughtful approach as to how you recover and train immediately following the race. It was always unlikely that I possessed the self restraint to dial the run intensity back during the 3rd leg of Sunday's race. Perhaps a little naive of me to think I would. The race went very well and a significant improvement on a personal best was achieved. However, now 8 days post race, it is apparent that there was a price to be paid. Having awoken to high fatigue after good nights sleep 2 days in a row, it became very apparent that time off of training was what the doctor was ordering. Stepping away was the right move and enjoying a trip with my wife was the right medicine. A long run was on the menu for yesterday and was completed. However, it became quite apparent that the legs still had a way to go to achieve full race recovery. The second half of the run felt like the second half of the Ironman marathon. That said, a lot was accomplished during this tough effort. I learned that despite tired muscles, I could still maintain pace and be consistent, which is a key element to a good iron distance run. Simply put, it's who slows down the least. The mental boost I received from yesterday, I believe, will far outweigh the cost of extra recovery today. With my trusty lovely lady biking beside me, it was the toughest of runs, with the most satisfying results. 

The next few days sees a bit of adjustment needed. Volume needs to be dialed down to a recovery level, with a new order of a 3 week taper towards Ironman CDA. This is the 2nd best part of iron distance training (1st one is the finishing line). Knowing that short 3 or 2 hr rides are merely a week away is enough to drag any overstrained triathlete out of the mire. It's the most fun we will have since last December! Can't wait. 

The next week will also be spent figuring out the enjoyable parts of race week. Lodging, BBQs, socializing and enjoyment. 

I just can't wait to arrive and absorb all the fun energy that surrounds race week. I used to fear it. Now, it's time to embrace it. The first few times you get the emails with the athlete guide, within which is the course info, a sudden surge is felt within you as the realization kicks in that soon you will be out there on that imaginary red line, racing the longest day. 

Here's a link to that imaginary line. 

Ironman Coeur d'Alene Map

https://goo.gl/maps/zZccMA2WrL72

And here's a fun finishing pic. Look at that time!

Good luck to us all!