January Snapshot//Triathlon Database Updated

So January is in the books.  The biggest contextual factor I had to deal with this month is a minor surgical procedure I had that unfortunately led to an incision cite infection that I've had to manage for the last couple of weeks.  It's getting better with the antibiotics I'm taking but it definitely has put a crimp in my training a bit.  Obviously, no swimming but I had planned to take January off anyways but I also had to curtail quite a bit the running I planned to do.  None-the-less, Jan 2020 is pretty similar to Jan 2019 training wise:


                    2020               2019

Swim             0              4,000 yards
Bike             1,245         1,160 miles
Run              48.5            59.5 miles
PT                6:02           5:35
Time            89:33         86:59

I've put a lot of my bike effort in on Zwift where I have just about completed the first 4 (of 10 weeks) of a FTP build.  This is much higher intensity that I did last year.  In fact, I didn't hit this intensity until April last year, and even then, not as much as I'm doing now.  My FTP appears to be around 250 watts, which is certainly fine for this time of the year.

I hope to get a green light soon from my surgeon to ramp up my swim and with that my run as well.

-------

On a different front, I used some of my down time to update and begin to upgrade my Triathlon Race Database.  This is a pretty comprehensive record of key personal and competitive stats for the 157 triathlons I have entered (and 156 I have finished) since 2001.  To give you a sense of what I mean by comprehensive, here is a screenshot of a part of the main database:

This is obviously way over the top as far as the ratio of data/quality of the triathlete goes, but I've always been partial to data and analysis.  Anyways, I've begun a bit of analysis to characterize my 19 year triathlon journey and will be posting a bit on this during the month of February.  To kick things off, I'd thought I'd post a basic summary census of these 156 completed triathlons:

The top of this spreadsheet breaks down the 156 races by distance and year.  I grouped my 1 race in 2001 with the 7 in 2002 and have grouped all of my post 2015 "comeback" races in the 2016-2019 column.  A few observations:

-70% of my triathlons have been "Sprints"

-A bit more than 25% have been long course with 25 Half-IMs and 15 Full IMs

-The Olympic distance appears to be my least favorite as I've done just 7 of them--less than 5%

-The most races in a year has been 14, which happened in four separate years

-After my initial race in 2001, I've managed to race at least 7 times a year up to my back problems in 2015, which led to my taking that whole year off.

-Since 2015, I've raced just 10 times--only twice in 2019.  However, I look to do 5+ this year with Kona obviously being my prime focus.

The bottom of the spreadsheet shows the locations of my races.  Observations:

-Just about half of my races have been in New Jersey

-Delaware and Virginia account for another 20% combined

-I've raced in 18 different states through the years

-About 95% of my races have been in the US

-I've raced 7 times internationally but not since 2013 when I did the Mont Tremblant 70.3

One last observation is the timing of my races.  I've raced in 9 of the 12 months with (not surprisingly) the bulk of the races between May and September:

January          0

February        0

March            5

April             15

May              28

June              29

July               26

August          20

September    20

October         5

November     8

December      0

My 15 Ironman races are decidedly skewed towards the back half of the year:

July                2

August           1

September      2

October          3

November      7

This year I'm looking at possibly racing as early as April,  but certainly by June (Eagleman70.3) and of-course, I'm planning on adding to my October IM count this year as well.

More (lots more) in the days ahead....

2020 Goals

You can see them at the top of my blog.

They are as follows:

1. Have fun training hard during the year
2. Have a good race at Kona
3. Get my Zwift Tron bike

Fun/Train hard

As I've recounted below, 2019 was a return to "normal" training wise after the struggles I've had physically since 2015.  I put in the most hours of training that I ever had in 2019 and really enjoyed it.  I stayed generally healthy and motivated throughout the year and was able to hit my mountaineering and triathlon goals.  It was especially gratifying to do so by executing against a well defined training and racing plan.

I plan to do the same again in 2020 leading up to the center piece of my 2020 year at the IM World Championships in Kona on 10/10/20.  I don't have any major climbing goals for the year and really look to narrow my focus on triathlon and see if I can't continue to "roll back the years" a bit in 2020.

Kona

I've had the privilege of racing at Kona three times in 2010, 2012 and 2014.  I learned a lot there but one of the most important lessons was the conditions are unpredictable, variable, and can dramatically impact one's finishing time and performance (especially for someone as challenged by heat and humidity as I am).  Thus, I've stated my race goal as having a "good" race.  This is squishy of course but when I get there I 'll have a good sense of what I'm capable of doing and combined with the actual conditions on race day, I'll be able to judge if I had a "good" race or not.

However, at this point in the year I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a "good" race at Kona for me in 2020 is to set a new PR for Kona.  Find below my history at Kona and my early target for Kona 2020:

Several observations on the above:

1. I've never been very fast at Kona.  This is driven by 3 main things: a. my lack of talent; b. I don't race well at that distance in those conditions; 3. I've never really approached Kona as a full on hammer-fest but rather as a victory lap of sorts--an experience to be enjoyed.  With respect to the 2020 race, all three factors (especially the 3rd) will once again be very much in play.

2. I've narrowly missed swimming sub 80 and indeed swam 76 in the official practice swim in 2014, so I think my goal of 79 minutes this year is quite reasonable.

3. My run goal, especially given the running rally I made down the stretch in 2019 (and my solid run at IMAZ19) I believe is doable, although it will require me getting off the bike in reasonably strong shape, as was my focus in 2019.

4. The crux of this challenge will be hitting the bike goal which is almost 30 minutes faster than my PR there.  This is a big goal and a necessary one given the liabilities of my bad knee and poor run today.  There isn't really a sound basis to set such an improvement and if its really, really windy (as it was in 10,12, and 14) I'll probably have no chance. I'll probably need some help from Mother Nature.

Still, my "Bike Monster" strategy in 2019 led to a relatively easy 5:34 at IMAZ and with Bike Monster 2020 already underway (did over 300 miles last week) my thought is what the heck--let's give it a shot!

Prior to Kona, I plan on racing several times (I'll publish a calendar shortly) and notably I plan to return to Eagleman70.3 this year in June.  I raced Eagleman four consecutive years from 2005 to 2008, which was during the timeframe when I was the fastest triathlete I was ever able to be.  For 2020, I've set a "mini-goal" (by that I mean, it's part of my Kona "good" race goal--a means to that end) of beating my last time at Eagleman time back in 2008--12 years ago.  I'd take a fair amount of satisfaction in my 62 year old self beating my 50 year old time that year.

Similar to the above for Kona, here is my Eagleman history and my target for 2020:

More on this later as we get closer to the June race.

Zwift Tron bike

If you do Zwift you know what the Tron bike is.  I won't go into details other than to say you need to accumulate over 164,000 vertical feet of climbing to earn it.  I'm happy to say I did so earlier this month after about 24 months on Zwift (I mostly ride Zwift in the winter).

Onward and Upward!

2020 Training Plan and 1 week in

OK, here we are, off to the races in 2020!  I'm excited for the new decade, but not that excited that I'm now living in my 8th separate decade--well I am excited that I'm living but not so much about being so old...

In any event--here is a summary of my 2020 training plan (at 50,000 feet):

I just finished my first week of the new decade:

291 miles on the bike (I've done 3 of the Zwift FTP build workouts so far)

8 miles run

21:35 total time (about 3 hours of PT)

Last year the first week looked like this:

1,000 yds swim

260 bike

16 miles run

20:46

Pretty similar weeks for the most part (absent the running this year) and that's a good thing.  I think my training really worked well last year and the plan above is designed for the most part to mimic last year.

Onward and Upward!

2019 Year In Review

And so another year (and decade) comes to an end.  Among other things, this serves as a trigger to look back on the past year (mostly) and decade (a little bit, for context) with respect to triathlon and adventure.  This is a narrow perspective, in that it's on me (well it is my blog) and I'll stay focused on my training and events and not comment on life more broadly....Here goes:

Overall

2019 in sum was a very successful and rewarding year for me.  My two major goals were to train for and have a successful alpine expedition to Bolivia in May and to train for and execute an excellent Ironman and qualify for Kona 2020 in November.  Both of these goals were effectively achieved.

I was also able to stay relatively healthy and injury free (which is no small thing at 62 years of age) and set new training milestones along the way.

I put a lot into this year.  I think I had a more effective and accurate view of what I can and can't do this year than ever before and as a result was able to translate that into executing against my plan and goals for the year.  This was perhaps the most rewarding thing about the year!

Bolivia

The first 4+ months of the year were principally focused on getting my body ready to climb 3 specific mountains in Bolivia.  I was additionally, building up my triathlon training so that after Bolivia (beginning of June), I could hit the ground running (and swimming and biking) and get ready for my Ironman in the fall.

I did a huge amount of walking/trekking/climbing/stair master, etc. in preparation for the expedition.   Two highlights here were 11 major treks in Shenandoah National and my 30+ mile circumnavigation of Manhattan.

In May, Anders and I enjoyed a very successful and enjoyable two weeks in Bolivia.  On the first climb I successfully reached the summit of Tarija (17,000 ft+) and Anders additionally bagged the nearby, and more technically difficult summit of Pequeno Alpamayo.

We then travelled to Huyana Potosi (19,974 feet), which is a classic glaciated and at times pretty steep climb and both successfully submitted.  It was a particularly challenging day for me, one where I had to rely on Anders and Andy (our guide) pretty heavily.  Immensely rewarding as well!

Our original plan was to seek a third summit climb to Sajama but when we arrived at the base we saw 80+mph winds at the summit and no one climbing into what would clearly be life threatening conditions.

Overall, we returned safe, had a great time, and achieved our climbing objectives--nailed our three priorities and added to an already large bag of epic adventure experiences!

Triathlon

The headline goal for 2019 was to qualify for Kona at (originally Barcelona) IMAZ in late November.  Along the way, I entered just one other triathlon this year and was able to achieve an important personal milestone as I won my Age Group in a triathlon for the 50th time of my triathlon career.

Anders and I were coming off of IM DNFs (his at IM Texas and mine at IMFL--this later the first triathlon I had DNF'ed at).  At one level, our first objective here was to just finish.  Beyond that, we had both sacrificed a great deal and trained very hard and we were hoping to have a race that was consistent with the fitness we believed we had developed.  But make no mistake about it, given that I'm in the home stretch as far as my IM racing days go, we wanted to both KQ and race together as a father and son at Kona in 2020.

As you know, we were both able to achieve all three as we basically both executed our race plans pretty much as planned.  Extremely rewarding, and of-course Kona 2020 will by our primary focus for 2020!

Training

In some respects, my ability to consistently train at high volumes and with appropriate intensity was the biggest story of 2019.  As you might recall, my back/nerve problems in 2015 basically caused me to have to take 2015 off from climbing and triathlon (and caused me to think about if I had reached the end of this phase of my life).  I tentatively got back into training in 2016, decided to "sorta" go for another IM in 2017 and this ultimately led to my biggest training year ever in 2019.  You can see that in this chart below, which shows my annual  training hours from 2011 (labelled 1) to 2019 (9)...(2015 is understated because I didn't record a bunch of my training after my back problems and before I decided to get back into things in late 2015):

As you can see, in 2019 I surpassed 1,200 hours for the first time.  This means I averaged over 100 hours of training per month, 23+ hours/week, and over 3 hours per day!  The 1,200 hours were also 17% higher than my previous annual high.  That I was able to do this with no significant injuries along the way, I think is a testament to a reasonable plan, high expectations, and the fact I've been doing this now for nearly 20 years.  (this is not to say I didn't have aches and pains along the way--lots of those and one minor bike crash/separated shoulder).

My swim shows a similar pattern over this nine year period with over 280,000 yards in 2019.  While this is a relatively modest amount by real swimming standards, and quite short of my personal high water marks, it was a fairly significant commitment to swimming, especially since it was concentrated in essentially a 5-6 month period:

2019 was the year of "Bike Monster", essentially an extreme focus on bike riding as a triathlon training strategy, that Anders proposed while we were in Bolivia.   During the summer, I was sometimes exceeding 400 miles during 7-day stretches and did 10 pretty high quality 100+ mile rides.  As a result, I had my best year biking in probably 7-8 years and hit 12,343 miles for the year.  In addition to exceeding 1,000 miles/month on average, it works out to 237 miles/week and was my largest bike volume ever:

For the run (or in my case run/trek/climb/walk), the big investment in getting ready for Bolivia early in the year led to a significant up-tick in my run volume.  Although I didn't get back to my pre-back  injury days, in terms of volume and especially in terms of intensity, 2019 was a very solid year for me and in-fact as the calendar turned to the fall, I was running as well as a I have been able to since 2015--very satisfying for me:

Lastly, I continued to increase my investment in non-SBR training (mostly weights and stretching PT type activities) and reached 70 hours this past year:

So, all-in-all, a very successful and rewarding year by any reasonable set of standards.  It fills me with pride and an eagerness to spin the wheel again in 2020.  Check back in a few days for what the plan for 2020 is!

Onward and Upward!

IMAZ 2019 Race Report

Ironman Arizona
11/24/19

Introduction

This is intended to be a summary of my 15th IM from my perspective as it unfolded.  I flew out to Tempe on 11/20 with Judy and we met Anders and did the usual pre-race stuff before our race.  We were both trying to rebound from prior IM DNFs and hoped to also qualify for Kona 2020. We felt Anders needed to target 9:50-10:00 and I was shooting for 13:00-13:30.  We felt if we were able to hit these goals that we would have a reasonable chance of both qualifying.  The weather on race day was pretty near ideal.  The water was 61 degrees, which while cold, is relatively good for IMAZ.  The temp ranged from about 50 degrees at the start to the low to mid 70s in the mid afternoon.  It wasn't humid at all, with the dew point hovering around 40 degrees.  The bike was surprisingly windy (15-20+ mph) and a dead head wind up the Beeline Highway.  This wind caused the bike times to be slower.  All-in-all, a great day for an IM--I'd certainly take these conditions any day!

Anders and I with a sky-diving buddy of his before the start:

The Swim

My prior IM swim times have ranged from 66 minutes (IMFL07) to 85 minutes (IMGER10) with my average time being around 79 minutes.  My training indicated I should be able to comfortably swim 75 minutes plus or minus a few.  I had previously swam 78:20 (2011), 84:13 (2012), and 79:35 (2017) in my prior IMAZ appearances.  I've always had trouble on this course and seem to figure out a way to swim a lot of extra yardage.  While I hoped to swim near 75 minutes, my actual target was 76-79  minutes, and I was prepared to be OK with it, if I was worse than that.

Anders and I were in the first group of 5 that entered the water and I saw Anders surge ahead and so he was actually leading the whole race for a few moments.  It was still dark and I had trouble seeing the first turn buoy, which looked to be about 100 yards off.   The water was cold and I had a bit of the cold water shock reflex and felt my heart rate rapidly elevate.  This was a concern given the high initial stress of a cold water IM swim.  I  tried to swim easy as a result.

This was the first year of a new course layout and it involved two quick right hand turns (my blind side as I'm a left-side breather).  As I approached the first buoy I began to get bumped into by faster swimmers as I was constraining my pace.  This created further anxiety and I felt like my heart was pretty much pegged at it's max.

I made the 2nd buoy and could see the crowds were now migrating towards me and the left side buoy line that defined the next 1500+ yards.  I was  becoming concerned and decided I needed to get to a relatively calm place and get my heart rate down.  I looked to my right and was excited to see a gap opening up just behind me and to my right.  I immediately went through it and quickly found myself in the relatively calm water between the start (we were now heading east after starting to the west) and the left side course buoys.

This was a huge relief and I started to slowly breaststroke and take deep breaths to try to calm my HR down.  I had these crazy thoughts about quitting but soon got things under control and began giving myself a reassuring pep-talk.  Soon my HR fell to what felt like a more normal range and I started swimming freestyle again, albeit it with a very easy effort.  After a couple of minutes of this, I felt my body coming "on-line" and I began to swim with my normal long-distance effort and the initial crises was behind me.

Due in-part to this I chose to swim a ways away from the buoy line throughout the swim.  This led to a longer swim, but no more drama.  I just didn't realize at the time, how much longer I was swimming.  My early splits were encouraging as I went through the mile in 30:03, which is a 72-minute pace.

However, as the swim progressed I became increasingly aware  that I was swimming a much longer course than the prescribed 4,200 yards and that I was likely to have another comparatively poor swim here at IMAZ.  I shrugged it off and actually laughed--for some reason, this swim has my number!

I finally exited the swimming in my slowest IM swim time of 86:34 (86:26 on my watch).  Indeed, I ended up swimming a mind-boggling 4,802 yards (an extra 14%!).  I'm baffled, but that's what the data says.  I ended up swimming the 4,200 yard equivalent of 75:43, as I definitely slowed after 3,000 yards.

Here is a summary of my swim stats and my 500 yard splits:

Here are a couple of pics before the start.  Given my expression, I must have sensed the challenges I was about to face:

It took a long time but I was very relieved to exit the water!

Transition One

The new swim course also created a new T1 flow.  Notably we had to run what was billed as 0.4 miles from the swim exit, along some carpeting to the start of T1.  After exiting the water, my wetsuit was expertly stripped off by some helpful volunteers and I started my jog carrying my wetsuit. I did not feel very good as my heart worked hard to redistribute blood now that I was upright and weight bearing again.  I was hacking (my two-week cold was still present and would bother me later in the day) a bit and processing in my head how my race plan might need to be adjusted with the long swim.  I decided to stay on my plan and just see how I felt once I got rolling on the bike.

By the time I had executed everything I needed to do in T1, I had run 0.64 miles and took 12:11 according to my clock and officially T2 was 11:58, which was my second slowest T1 (Tahoe13 was over 13 minutes due to the cold weather and all the layers I had to put on there).  Once exiting the changing tent, I walked all the way to my bike as I was struggling to slip my gloves on over my cold wet hands.  Finally, I got my bike and I was off, looking to get back on pace as I was 10 minutes behind my race plan.

The Bike

The bike at IMAZ is been the same for this, the 4th time that I have raced it.  It's comprised of 3 approximately 18.8 out and backs.  The last half of each out and back is on the Beeline Highway, which is climbing (or descending) throughout, although, never very steep.  In fact, there is about 2,500 feet of climbing on the course and while certainly not flat, it's neither hilly nor technical.

The wind, as mentioned earlier, was much stronger than expected and since it was blowing out of the East, it was a dead-on headwind up the Beeline hill and generally in our face for most of the outbound section of each loop.  I wanted to ride 1:50/1:55/2:00 for the three laps to average at least 19.5 mph and my overall target range for the bike was 5:36-5:45.

Tactically, I was fully prepared for the relatively slow speeds on the way out of town.  I kept asking myself if I was pushing to hard as the easiest mistake to make on this course is to overcook the first outbound leg.  I weaved out through town on the first out and back and as soon as I hit Beeline about 9 miles in I could feel the wind--much stronger than forecasted.   The several flags I saw were horizontal. I just absorbed this information and reminded myself to be patient on the climb.  I was really beginning to feel normal post swim and the temp, at around 50-55 degrees was ideal.

I kept my power pretty steady around 170 watts, which was my target Normalized Power for the ride.  I was passed on the Beeline by quite a few riders who were either stronger than I, or were making that overcooking mistake or both.  I was a bit alarmed when I hit the turnaround at 18.8 miles with an elapsed bike time of 65:53.  For a 1:50 lap, 55 minutes would be half so I was 10 minutes "slow".   It was hard for me to figure out if this OK or not (given the wind) but I was a little skeptical I could ride that same course back to town over ten minutes faster.  But that's what I had in mind.

Immediately, on the way back I could feel the combined impact of the wind and downhill and I soon hit 35mph.  Frankly, it was really fun!  I felt very comfy on my TT bike as I had ridden it pretty much exclusively for the last 4+ months.  I was passing people left and right and in fact would have gone even faster if I had a little bigger gear (my biggest was a 53/12) as I was spinning at 105-110 rpm  at 35 mph. 

I cranked all the way back into town and was pleased to do the return leg in 44:31 for a total first lap of 1:50:24.  I was thrilled with this and knew I had a very good ride going (at least at that point).  Here are what the first eight 5-mile  segments looked like data wise:

Miles 1-5

Speed: 19.0 mph

Avg Power: 160 watts

Norm Power: 163 watts

Cadence: 74 rpm

Heart Rate: 140 bpm

Miles 6-10

18.3 mph

170/171 watts

77 rpm

136 bpm

Miles 11-15

17.5 mph

166/168 watts

76 rpm

137 bpm

Miles 16-20

15.7 mph

174/178 watts

75 rpm

141 bpm

Miles 21-25

29.0 mph

145/153 watts

86 rpm

141 bpm

Miles 26-30

25.7 mph

164/168 watts

85 rpm

142 bpm

Miles 31-35

22.9 mph

169/170 watts

87 rpm

142 bpm

Miles 36-40

20.9 mph

170/175 watts

87 rpm

142 bpm

So for the first lap I ended up averaging 165 watts and 169 normalized watts with an average speed of  20.3 mph--pretty much right on my plan.  It's also interesting to look at my cadence.  Up to the start of the downhill I was well below my 80 rpm target but beginning with the down hill I got it going and stopped grinding in a too big gear.  I was pretty much able to spin at 80 rpm for the rest of the race.

From a competitive perspective, I had pulled ahead of my main Kona competitor (TV) by about 12 minutes at this point.  I wasn't aware of this, of course, but I was under the impression that I was back on my race plan after the slow swim/T1 and my prospects were looking up.

The next lap was similar although a bit slower and with lower power.  For this lap I went 1:53:18, which was a bit faster than my plan of 1:55.  This worked out to an average speed of 19.8mph.  My power averaged 162 watts with a Normalized Power of 166 watts, so about 3 watts (4%) less power on the second lap.

I felt really, really good on the bike.  I was hydrating and eating well (in fact I would pee about 10 times on the bike, but with good salt intake, I had no cramping during the whole race).  As I came through the turnaround on the second lap I heard Judy yelling and gave her the thumbs up.

Competitively, I put another 16 minutes on TV and now had a 28 minute lead for the Kona slot.

Miles 41-45

18.9 mph

166/168 watts

81 rpm

139 bpm

Miles 46-50

16.9 mph

164/165 watts

82 rpm

139 bpm

Miles 51-55

14.9 mph

166/167 watts

79 rpm

137 bpm

Miles 56-60

23.4 mph

159/164 watts

83 rpm

138 bpm

Miles 61-65

24.3 mph

161/163 watts

85 rpm

136 bpm

Miles 66-70

22.6 mph

159/163 watts

82 rpm

137 bpm

Miles 71-75

20.8 mph

167/171 watts

81 rpm

139 bpm

I headed out on the third lap feeling very good.  I felt like I could ride another lap like the last and I had a very good chance of biking 5:36 (20mph).  I noticed fairly early on the third lap that the wind had begun to die down and by the time I got to the Beeline my guess is it had been cut in half.  As a consequence, while my power was down a fair bit in this final lap, I actually rode the 3rd lap faster than the 2nd.  My time was 1:51:08, which translates into 20.2 mph.  My power for this lap was 158 watts average and 161 normalized.  The fact that I rode this lap faster with 5 less watts, illustrates how much of a penalty the wind created, especially during the first two laps.  Matt Hanson, who is Anders' coach estimated  that the wind created about a 10-minute penalty today.

The only notable event of the ride was I finally saw Anders for the first time  when he was at 103.25 miles and descending back into town.  He didn't see me, which is understandable given how fast he was going at that point.  I knew he had swum 68 minutes and with a faster transition I estimated he was about 50 minutes or so faster than me overall and about 30 or so on the bike.  While a great ride, I thought that Anders expected to go sub 4:50 and so would need to run about a 3:40 to get his Kona slot.  Soon I was on the downhill section and I focused my attention on getting all the way back to T2 in one piece.

Miles 76-80

20.6 mph

162/165 watts

80 rpm

140 bpm

Miles 81-85

18.4 mph

158/159 watts

80 rpm

139 bpm

Miles 86-90

16.2 mph

155/158 watts

79 rpm

140 bpm

Miles 91-95

16.6 mph

161/165 watts

78 rpm

139 bpm

Miles 96-100

26.7 mph

152/156 watts

82 rpm

136 bpm

Miles 101-105

24.6 mph

151/153 watts

80 rpm

136 bpm

Miles 106-110

21.9 mph

151/153 watts

80 rpm

140 bpm

Miles 111-112

21.9 mph

158/170 watts

77 rpm

142 bpm

I finished my bike with a total time of 5:34:29 (5:34:50  officially), which is 20.1mph on average and better than the fast end of my target range.  Very satisfying!  I ended up averaging 162 watts and my Normalized Power was 166 watts.  I had mentioned to Anders that I thought I had "lost" 5 watts over the last month or so with the cold weather and this seems borne out.   However, with my aero suit/helmet and go-fast tires/wheels combined with being able to ride in my aero position for the whole race (first time in a long time for that) I was still able to beat my target.  My  intensity factor was 0.66 (although this is based on an older and probably too high FTP).  My TSS was 244.3.   I averaged 80 rpm with an  average HR of 139 bpm--right on target.  My Garmin clocked only 1,962 feet of elevation gain vs. the 2,500+ that Ironman claims.

I continued to expand my lead for the Kona slot by another 21 minutes and hopped off my bike with a  solid 49 minute lead and a total elapsed time of 7:13:12, which was back within my race plan target range entering T2!  Truly an outstanding bike for me and while I didn't know how big a lead I had, I did know I had executed the bike ride that I had trained 5+ months for and I ran into T2 feeling like I was on it.  I definitely could have gone faster but given my race plan and the need to hold some in reserve for the run, I think I rode the right race.

Transition Two

Transition Two is a lot simpler and shorter.  As I ran towards my T2 bag I could tell my legs were in reasonably good shape and I should be able, at least at the start, to run close to my target.  I managed to change my clothes and down another HVMN Ketone Ester drink rather quickly.  I executed my transition well and was soon heading out of the tent. My T2 was officially 5:23, which was a couple of minutes faster than my race plan.  I exited T2 with a total elapsed time of 7:18:44 vs. my target of 7:06-7:21.   I had a 50 minute lead for the Kona slot. Life was good!

The Run

My target was 14 min/mile or 6:08:48.  My target range was 6:09-6:30.   I needed a 6:11 to go under 13:30, which is what I figured, before the race, that I needed to do to have a good shot at Kona.  As I ran out of T2 I was determined to do just that.  I immediately saw Judy and she told me Anders biked 5:05 and that he was on a 8 minute pace and pulling away from his key Kona competition.  Sweet!  I told her I had the ride of my life (which is a bit of an exaggeration) and headed out for the run.

I planned on following the "Galloway method" right from the start--this entails mixing run/walk segments.  My plan was to mix 8:30 of running with 1:30 of walking every ten minutes as long as I could and then switch over to 4 run/1 walk after that.  I planned to get as much as 17 minutes ahead of 14min/mile pace by about 17 or so and then give back that banked time over the final 9 miles.  I should also point out here that for the first time I noticed the sun/heat.  It was only in the low 70s but at 2pm, it suddenly felt warm.

The first 4 miles or so are an out and back and I averaged about 11:20 with my HR at 140bpm, which seemed perfect to me.  I was running slightly faster than plan and feeling quite strong.  In fact I had actually increased my Kona lead to 56 minutes.  I saw Judy again and she updated me on Anders at the half-way point of the run.  He was looking good and running a sub 3:30 marathon pace at the half.

The next 4 miles saw me running about a minute per mile slower as I began to feel the stress of the day's efforts.  I went through 8 miles in 96 minutes.  TV had begun to run faster than I and he gained 3 minutes on me during the section, but was still 53 minutes behind.

If you look closely you can see my watch here is just recording my 10:47 1st mile:

 Around 9 miles or so I saw Anders coming the other way on his second lap--we exchanged encouragement.  I did some quick math and figured he was likely to go sub 10 and so had a real good chance of getting his Kona slot.   I'm began to feel a little dizzy and my feet felt a little tingly, which I didn't quite know how to interpret.  I decided that I needed to get my HR down to around 110bpm from the 130s it was in.  When I hit the 10th mile, which was up the only appreciable hill on the course, I decided to walk until my HR fell.  I had my first greater than 14 minute/mile (15:31) but I felt better and I started running again.  My new approach was to run until my HR hit 130 and then walk until it fell back to 110 or so.  I was able to sustain sub 14 minute miles this way.

Right around 11 miles for me and 24 for Anders, he caught me and lapped me.  I urged him to drive for the line and told him I thought the KQ was all his.  He ran strong all the way (never walking) to a 3:33 marathon and a 9:54 Ironman, and as we would learn the next day, a Kona slot.  Meanwhile, I kept plugging along and reached the half way point right around 2:50, which was pretty much spot on my race plan.  TV continued to narrow my lead, now at better than 2 minutes/mile and my lead was down to 41 minutes.  If I hold known this I would have definitely been a bit concerned.

I did the first out and back again and struggled through a couple of miles with more walking than running.  Still I figured if I could stay close to 15 for a while, I might rally later when it got a little cooler.  I went past transition again near 17 miles.  I was looking for Judy and Anders but they were not there.  I figured Judy was focusing on Anders, as she should be, and in any event, I had plenty to occupy myself with over the final 9 miles.

I kept plugging along, running for a couple of minutes and then walking for 45-60 seconds.  I was a little slow but I was beginning to feel better and I figured I could push a little bit over the last few miles and still go sub 13:30 overall.  I hit the mat at 21.1 with a total elapsed time of 12:11:06, which meant I needed to cover the last 5 or so miles in 79 minutes or better--just under 16 minus miles.   TV was slowing a bit as well as my lead was still at 39 minutes.

I rallied a bit down the stretch, especially mile 24 and soon enough I was in the finishing straight, comfortably under my target.  I hit the line with a total time of 13:23:55, having done my marathon in 6:05:12 (13:57/mile).  Both better than plan.  I secured the Kona slot, I would find out later, by about 33 minutes or so.  This turns out to be my fastest IM in 7 years (in IMAZ12 I was 7 seconds faster) and my 8th fastest overall--so this is my median IM result.  I think it was my best executed IM race in the sense I achieved pretty much what my body was capable of on this day.

Anders and Judy (and my cousin Matt) were there waiting for me and Anders put my finisher medal around my neck.  I felt a little dizzy given the sudden cessation of exercise and had to lean on Anders a bit but soon we took a bunch of pictures, grabbed our bikes and headed back to the hotel.

We both were able to execute the races we wanted and we both felt a great sense of both satisfaction and gratitude.  And we both have Kona to look forward to!

Onward and Upward!