Ironman Canada Crash Report 09/01/2009
I was confident heading into Ironman Canada on Sunday. I had been racing great this season and my training has been fantastic. Probably in the best shape since college. I had a great plan was ready to post a great time. I slept well the night before the race. Went out for a 10 minute jog just before 4am to wake the body up and then had a little breakfast before getting showered and dressed and then walking down to the start. I got my bike tires inflated and my nutrition on my bike hit the porta-potty line which was only about 25 minutes and then got into my wetsuit and headed to the beach. I've been swimming well this year in training and in my other races. I positioned myself just off to the left of the main buoy line in the front row. At the start I got off fast but despite this with 2600 people all going the same place things still got a little physical for the first mile to the first turn. After the first turn I locked into a group of about 10 people and we swam as a group to the finish. I had a great swim, swimming 1:01:07 which was my fastest IM swim split by 4 minutes. In two years I've taken 15 minutes off my IM swim time which is huge. I was out of the water in 221st place and really happy and feeling great. Off on the bike I eased out of transition and got into my rhythm quickly. The first 40 miles of this ride is fast and my plan was to really hold back until I got over Richter Pass. Every few minutes I kept telling myself to back-off, back-off, back-off. I rode a really easy effort but was still just flying. I hit the 40 mile mark at the bottom of Richter Pass with an average of 25.6 mph and I went through the 56 mile mark in 2:22. Just after halfway my stomach staged a revolt, it had been bothering me for about 10 miles but at this point I started to throw-up (ala Norman Stadler in Kona). I continued to try and get nutrition, hydration and electrolytes down but it wasn't working. I was simply hurting at this point. At the out and back section of the course I had to stop at two different aid station porta-potties. As I headed up Yellow Lake which is a Tour De France style section with crowds all over the roads rooting the athletes on I decided that I'd finish the bike but I wasn't going to run. I didn't have anything to prove to anyone or myself by suffering through 26 miles of upset stomach in all likelihood walking most of the marathon in the 90 degree heat and forest fire smoke. I made it over Yellow Lake and descended well into Penticton (I still would have come off the bike in about 6:25). Then about 2 miles from the transition I was coming up to an intersection still going about 25 mph and I went over a steel plate covering a valve or something and my back wheel slipped out to the left and my bike shot right 4 feet into the curb, my front wheel hit the curb and knocked the bike out from under me and I flew off the bike through the air. In that instance I saw that I was going to hit a light pole. I was flying through the air with the pole heading towards my chest and mid section. In that instance I tucked my body a bit and my body rotated a bit and I hit the pole glancing off my ribs and took the direct hit on both thighs and my arm and fell to the ground. I feel really lucky that I didn't hit my head or chest directly into the pole as I probably wouldn’t be writing this if I had. There was a family there watching and a police officer as it was an intersection so they immediately called for a ambulance. I was assessing how badly I was hurt pretty quickly I figured nothing was broken. As I was lying on the ground the kid who was there with his family picked up my bike and was holding it for me, I politely informed him I wasn’t going to be riding it anymore today and he looked at me and said “that was epic”. The ambulance arrived within a couple minutes but pretty funny they parked right in the bike course and I had to tell them to move the ambulance back around the corner. They did a quick assessment to check if anything was broken checked my head and then loaded me on the stretcher and gurney and took me (and my bike) to the medical tent at the transition zone. I was hurting at this point because my legs were starting to cramp not from the crash but from the bike ride. They admitted me and did their triage assessment. The medical tent hadn't really gotten busy yet so it was pretty much just me and about 30 doctors and nurses. They got me in and sitting down and got ice on my legs and cleaned my few cuts and scratches and got me some electrolytes and took my vitals. After about 40 minutes I felt better and got up to try and hobble around. I was getting dizzy so they decided that was due to my stomach problems I was dehydrated so they took me in for an IV. At this point I was on my 4th doctor and would have to give the information and details of the crash over and over again. After two bags of saline they took me over to have a massage therapist to work on my legs a bit. So after 4 hours in the medical tent I started the long slow walk back to my hotel. After a shower, some food and phone calls to family, girlfriend and coach I walked back to the finish to get my bike and transition bags only to have everyone I passed say “congratulations” which I just politely and quietly replied “thanks”, it was just too much to explain. It was not the way I wanted to end my day but better on a day where things weren't going well than on a day when things are going well. Now two days later I’m very sore and not moving much at all as stairs, sitting, standing walking, curbs and getting into and out of bed is a major undertaking, but glad it wasn’t worse. I’m already plotting for my next race. For the record my bike fared much better than I did. A few little scratches on the wheel and handlebar. Thanks for all the support and well wishes and I'll be back to race another day. ****Below are a few pictures from the trip****  My bike is race ready  Race bags and gear is all organized and laid out  T1 bags  Swim start the day before the race. Lake Okanagan  A bit of the aftermath of the crash. Notice the nice detail from the light pole in my contusion.  Another contusion on my bicep. The Great White North... Eh? 08/26/2009
Packing all the stuff for my trip to IMC has slowly been refined and confined from five rooms in my house to two, soon it should all be contained in my foyer and living room and then I have to delicately and strategically load it in my car. In an effort to help the environment, reduce the chance of a search of my car (not that I have anything to hide), and force me to not pack everything and anything I might possible need I'm going to drive my Mini (clubman that is) up north. The decision of what to drive (I know a luxury most people don't have and one that I probably shouldn't) is not taken lightly nor is it an easy decision. It's like every single decision that goes into packing for the Ironman from the smallest of things to the big things. Things to consider when considering what car to drive up north. Bike inside the car saved from wind, rain and the smash of bugs or strapped to the roof exposed to the elements. Passing efficiency let's be clear it's a 7 hour drive and if I can shave 15 minutes off that I'm going to, god forbid I get stuck behind an Okanagan farmer (nice people but slow drivers) on one of those north eastern Washington roads that passes for a highway, Mini wins (heck 70 to 100 in 2 seconds). I'll digress for a minute for non Ironman racers we've been waiting months for this event patiently training away and so we're anxious to get there and want to get there as quickly as possilbe, hell I'm showing great restraint in having not left for Canada on Wednesday. The funny part is everything leading up to an Ironman race cannon is one big slow line. Wait in line to register, in line to eat at the reception dinner, in line to check in at my hotel, in line to cross the border, in line to purchase race logo clothing we really don't need, in line to get my tires pumped on race morning, in line to pee on race morning and finally in line to get into the water so we can finally get going. Where was I? Oh yeah, I need to decide which tools to take in my bike tool box since I only know what half of them do so I took those that I don't know anything about out of the box, it didn't make more space in the car but I was able to get more other stuff in the box thus reducing the clutter in the car. I have to decide which camera(s) to bring and how many the fact is I'll probably only use one of them so I'll bring 4. I need to decide which clothes to bring, both for looking fancy around town and looking fancy and keeping cool or warm on race day (down to two relatively small bags. How many helments, how many spare tires, how much nutrition (for training, pre-race, during the race), how many pairs of run shoes, how many pairs of bike shoes, swim googles, mirrored, clear, tinted, which race wheels disc or 1080 or 606... this is the mind of an Ironman in the week before race day it would make most people dizzy but for an Ironman athlete it keeps your mind busy in the week leading up to the race and keeps your demons and doubts at bay. Things not too think (and fret) about, the weather, your race number (#976 has a nice ring to it), the training you didn't do, the nagging aches and pains, what other people are doing. So what's the point Ironman athleletes are generally a nuerotic, compulsive, list obsessed bunch but really I'm just trying to keep my mind off the race until it's time to race.....12 hours until the strategic packing of the car begins. Tapering 08/18/2009
I hate tapering. My body always starts to get cranky when I start my taper, my body seems sore, and by the end of the taper I'm anxious and ready to bust down the gates. Tapering is a pretty individualistic thing but for me it's about a slow reduction in volume and intensity. So for exampe three weeeks ago I put in 21 hrs of training, two weeks ago I put in 19 hours and last week I put in 13 hours which was the beginning of the taper. I still did some hard efforts including a longish run on Saturday with hard tempo. This one of those confident booster runs, 15 miles the first hour at low end aerobic effort (for me it was sub 140 bpm HR and around 7:20 mile pace then crank it up for the last 45 minutes which I was holding 6:35/mile pace at 158 bpm. My race threshold HR for the marathon in the ironman is right around 161 bpm anymore than that and I'm cooking the engine. So what does all this tell me? If I'm having a good day, good energy, body loose, hydrate well, fuel well on the bike and don't go anaerobic on the bike much I should have a good run in me. It won't be 6:35/mile pace but I don't think low 7's is out of the question. That's a lot of variables however. My bike power and endurance is there and my swim should be a good one based on my workouts and other races this season. This week I really back off the volume as I'll drop to 10-11 hours of total activity, while maintaining a bit of longer workouts (not really long) and some intensity workouts but these are much shorter than normal the goal being to keep the muscles firing and sharp. This was a problem at Kona last year. Next week will be much lower volume but it doesn't dry up as I'll still be doing workouts and keeping some short intensity in there. Most of all I'm getting really religious in my eating and hydrating the next two weeks. Other than that I'm picking up the last few things I need for the race, my bike is in the shop getting some much needed TLC so I hopefully don't have any problems on race day and I'm getting all of my race stuff laid out so I know I have everything I need and starting to glance at the forecast so I can get an indication of what the weather is going to be like on race day. The reality is that I like to race with as little as possible in my transition bags and on my bike. Just keep it simple. More updates to come with pictures hopefully. Big miles, Wind and Bears....Oh My!!! 08/10/2009
I'm in the final push to IMC. This past week was a big week, not my biggest in terms of volume or time but seriously big in terms of the combination of volume and intensity and just plain suffering. The week opened up on Tuesday with some hard running. 30 minute negative tempo, 10 min warmup, 30 minutes at a good clip of 6:49/mile pace then I heated it up for the same 4.4 miles I had just covered at 6:18/mile pace followed by a 10 minute cooldown. It was comfortable, that in and of itself is a little scary. Wednesday was a nice solid swim of 4K comprised primarily of 6 x 500 all of which were near my fastest ever for that distance. That was followed up later with a nice little 2 hour ride, nothing big just easy tempo. Thursday was another good solid run of a little over an hour with a bunch of fartleks. Another solid run. On Friday I headed south to Hood River. I arrived early and headed out on a nice little 5.5 hour ride. East I headed out past The Dalles, the wind was light, slightly overcast, feeling perfect. Up over the top of State Road. As I started down the crazy descent I noticed the wind had picked up, it was a white knuckle descent but just a tast of things to come. I headed out through The Dalles and onto 7 mile road before turning onto Emerson Loop. Cruising along at a flat section feeling great holding 28 mph, damn I feel good. After turning onto Kelly Cutoff I understood why I felt so good a few minutes earlier, as I headed west I came to a standstill. The wind was raging in my face, I was working huge effort and only moving at 6 mph (on the flats). Twice I was actually blown to a standstill by the gusts and twice blown off the road. Now I'm not the most sensible person and sometimes I just like to suffer well this is a bad combination as I came back I debated and headed out for another loop, just plain stupid. I realized the error of my way about halfway through the second loop. At the conclusion of the second loop I then realized that I still had 25 miles of riding directly into the teeth of the wind (I would only find out later that the reported average in The Dalles was 46 mph with gusts to into the 60's). It was pure suffering, the only time I've ever been scared on my bike, and much windier than anything Kona and the Queen K can throw at you. The only highlight was riding up to the Rowena Butte. Riding uphill (7%) grade as I turned around a switchback the wind was at my back, I going uphill at 14 mph, not pedaling.....sweet, but it only lasted for about 50 yards. I was cooked, fried and pretty much done and never wanting to get on the bike again. Saturday started off a little stiff but I headed out early for a nice little run. I ran a new route on Klickitat trail which goes along the Klickitat River. One of my best runs ever. The trail climbs at 1% for I don't know how long but I went 9 miles before turning around. It was beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. 18 miles of pure bliss. After a quick nap and food I headed out a nice little ride. I found a ride which is supposed to be good for windy days. The ride headed out towards Mt. Adams and started off climbing for the first 20 miles for 3000 feet (into the wind....sigh). The road was beautiful however, butter smooth and almost no cars. I was supposed to hit a turn off but never got to it as the road turned to gravel before I got to the turn, so I turned around to head back the way I came. After climbing for another 2000 feet I started my descent with a tailwind. It was a nice way to end a tough day, riding for 15 miles averaging 35 mph, probably the most fun I've ever had on the bike just flat out going fast with not much effort. When I was done though I was tired, dog tired. Sunday going to be another good ride effort. Again I found a new ride that again was supposed to be good on windy days. It was definitly better wind-wise but the ride was anything but easy, it climbed for the first 30 miles, nearly 5000 ft of climbing in total. The ride went onto the approach of Mt. Hood. I finally turned onto a fire road called Wathum Lake Road and then onto Branch Lake Road. It became clear early this road didn't see a lot of traffic as there was debris all over the road and a few weeds growing in the cracks. At one point I looked up and the road just continued to climb straight up for what seemed like ever. The ride as bit eerie as I was very alone climbing through the forest on the deserted road. I finally rounded a bend in the road and I suddenly wasn't alone, rumbling down the road towards me about 100 feet in front of me as a huge black bear. I began yelling "go home bear" and waving my arm, only later did it dawn on me that telling the bear to go home probably didn't make much sense to the bear since he was home. The bear reared up on his hind legs looked at me for moment, then in a single instant motion he turned and began galloping up the road and into the woods. I was glad he ran away because with the speed that bear was running I would have been toast if he decided I was lunch. I rode past where he went into the woods and continued checking over my shoulder to make sure the bear hadn't had a change of heart. Just about the time my HR had come back to reasonable level I looked up the road and what do I see....another bear, this one was much smaller just as scared of me. That was the highlight of the weekend. Needless to say it was a tough week and a hard weekend of training, but I'll put those hard efforts in the bank for three weeks from now. Just 250 miles on the bike and 40 miles of running and a little swimming. This coming week will be some pretty serious swim volume and still as solid volume week but the taper is underway. Big Volume, Intensity and Heat 08/03/2009
I'm in the home stretch to IMC and this past week was a big one. I knew going in there was lots of volume, big intensity and the forecast was for some of the hottest weather Seattle has ever seen. The week started off innocently enough, just a nice little 2 hr ride. It was warm but not sweltering yet. The ride included some time riding 75% and 85% of TT effort. In the end it was a good ride to just get the legs warmed up for the rest of the week. Tuesday we ramped things up a bit with a nice little 3500 yd swim in the morning with lots of drills and some short pacing intervals. Things started to really get tough later in the day when I headed out for my negative tempo run. Basically for this one you warmup, then run at a mod/hard effort for 25 minutes, turnaround and cover the same distance you just ran in 25 minutes at a hard effort. These are tough regardless but as I started the run at 6:00 pm it was 95 degrees. It wasn't as fast as I normally run these but intensity was there given the heat with an average for the whole run around 7 minutes per mile. This would just be a hint of the rest of the week. Wednesday was a simple day. Another 2 hour ride, only a little twist ride 26 miles at full time trial effort. Pretty much this ride is ride as hard as you can hold for 26 miles, again normally a hard workout but as I cruised through Redmond towards the Snoqualmie Valley the temp was 104 degrees at 6:30pm. The temps were as hot as my legs. I had a great TT ride with an average of 23.6 mph for the 26 miles. Thursday was another short day. Just a one hour run with fartleks (short hard effort) in 96 degree heat. I was really happy how my body was handling the heat, my HR was up a bit not it wasn't spiking or blowing the roof off from the heat which helps with my confidence if it's hot at IMC. Friday as a swim/run brick. Another 3500 yard swim workout this time mod/hard 300 as in 9 of them all at even pace. Immediately after off for another 1+ hour run again the temp was in the 90's. This is my taper day before "big" Saturday. Saturday was supposed to be swim, bike, run brick day but as I hadn't slept well with the heat all week I pushed the swim off to Sunday and just did the bike/run workouts. This was enough believe me. I started the ride at 7:30am. The call for the day was hills and pickup the effort in the 2nd half of the ride. I did a double loop ride hitting 5 hills each loop none were really what I'd consider climbs as the longest was probably 2 miles but they were steep and at the start of the bike it was 70 degrees and humid. It was a great ride I rode hard focusing on nailing the hills and rode them all in the big ring except one (it's 15% in spots). In the end I rode 106 miles in 5:45. Immediately off the bike and out for a run. 40 minutes of easy running. I felt great on the whole run as was clicking off the miles at near 7 minute mile pace. Sunday was not going to be any easier just 2:15 minutes of running. This is my low aerobic run but anytime you're running for 2+ hours it's a tough day. The legs were a little stiff for the first 20 minutes then loosened right up and had one of the best long runs I've had in a long time. It was humid and still warm but not sweltering. 17 miles in 2:10 @ 138 bpm average. What did this tell me? If I'm having a good day, I can run a fast marathon off the bike since my HR race threshold on the run is around 160 bpm. I finished off the week back in the pool with another 3300 yards just 4 x 500 (first 3 were at even pace then ratchet up the pace for the last one. Whew....I survived and best of all felt great throughout the week. The totals for the week were 10,000 + yds in the pool, 180+ hard miles in the saddle and 50+ solid miles on the run. One more big week this week with a huge 3 day weekend of training which will include a very long run and upwards of 13 hours on the bike over 3 days. The weather is supposed to cool off so I'm headed south this weekend in search of some more warm temps. Just one more week then I start the long slow taper. I'm swimming well, riding well and running well. I may be fitter than I've ever been before. We'll see how it all comes together in 27 days. The Shift In Focus 07/23/2009
The last of my prep races are behind me after last weekends go at Vineman 70.3 and I'm really happy with where I am this season heading into the final push to Ironman Canada. I really ripped it up at Vineman posting a 4:36:06 final time good enough for 7th in my age group and personal bests at the bike and run at this race distance. That's two PR's at the 70.3 distance in two very tough races although I just can't quite crack the podium in my AG (finished 7th in both races). Given my history of Ironman times compared to my 70.3 times I have teh potential of a good one in me. So I'm putting the guys in my AG at IMC on notice, you better come ready to race. Continual Improvement 06/29/2009
It took me a solid 5-6 days to recover from the Boise 70.3 race. Not my normal recovery from a Half Ironman but then again I've never raced that fast or in such tough conditions. I finally started to feel good again the middle of last week. It was still a fairly light week from a volume and intensity standpoint but I had some really good training. I had a solid hard run mid-week with 30 minutes of running in the mid 6 minute range. I was throwning down some of my fastest short swim intervals ever and I had a great ride and a good run this weekend.  Larch Mountain Ride Profile I didn't think about it until I was about 2 miles from the top of the climb but I had ridden the entire ride in my big chain ring. My turnover wasn't fast but it was very consistent and smooth and the bike was really moving. A year ago or even a couple months ago there would have been no way I would have been able to ride in the big ring up a climb like this. Apparently this is a pretty popular ride as I passed about two dozen other riders on the climb and I was going much faster than most. The road was in really great condition and there were few cars. At the top I took a minute to refuel and then I was off for the bombing descent. This is the reward for alll the climbing and I love to descend. I really flying holding mid to upper 40 mph range. I had been passed by a rider descending while I was climbing about a mile from the top and about half way down from the top I came flying up behind him. He was down in the tuck position going fast and I flew by him and I think I spooked him a bit as it wasn't a slow roll by and I certainly don't think he expected to be caught and passed by anyone on a bike. I finished off ride back to the park on the interstate but I really didn't want to be on there and was rolling fast at 30mph average. I'm really feeling like my bike fitness is coming around. We'll see in a couple weeks at Vineman. After a night of a few margaritas at the little mexican restaurant in Stevenson and sleeping at the fairgrounds while the wind howled I got up and hit the road for a nice 1:40 run. This was along Highway 14 which wasn't too bad but there were a few sections where there wasn't a lot to shoulder thankfully there weren't a lot of cars. I felt pretty good after my long slow aerobic run. I'm looking forward to another couple of weeks of hard training before Vineman. I need to give a shoutout to James who is one of the athletes I coach who raced in some tough conditions at Buffalo Springs 70.3 this weekend. He had a pretty good race overall finishing up in 4:46. Best of all he's getting much more balanced in his race effort and it's paying off, I think he even had a half IM run PR of 1:39. Patience, hard work and consistency is a recipe for success. This coming week. Sunshine, lots of training, work, the beach, watching fireworks from the rooftop of the houseboat. Happy Independence Day holiday. Pictures from Boise 70.3 06/17/2009
Here are a few pics from the race in Boise this weekend.   Early miles of the bike  The state of the weather for the day!!!  Running hard at mile 8.  Finally at the line in 4:40:52 Boise Recovery 06/17/2009
I've been surprised by how sore I've been this week after racing in Boise on Saturday. Even today some 4 days after the race I'm still pretty sore. Normally I'm sore for a day or so after a half IM but this time I'm still feeling it. I think there were a couple of culprits this time. Headed east into the eye of the storm 06/09/2009
I'm off to Boise tomorrow evening for Saturday's Boise 70.3. I'll be stopping in Hood River tomorrow night and continuing on to Boise on Thursday. Looking forward to testing the legs for real this season. | Training Links
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