Eagleman race report. LONG
My goal was a podium spot, finished 1st 60-64 age group.
Swim, 77-degree water so no wetsuit, horrible time, 50 minutes (25th of 50) 10 minutes slower than predicted, see below.
T1 very quick only struggle was getting my Aero Sleeves on
Bike, for the first 5 minutes or so of self-flagellation about the swim, I had a moment of clarity I said to myself head down and go, you don’t know but everyone else might have had a poor swim. Stuck to my plan, hitting my power goals for each 20-minute lap. I took in about 90 grams of Precision Gel every 20 minutes, one caffeinated gel at two-hour mark, one eight-ounce Pepsi at Mile 30, 1000mg tab of Electrolytes in front bottle, started with one, added one at each of the two aid stations I stopped at. 2:34 21.8 (4th of 50)
T2 Eagleman has a long transition, but stuck with the slow is smooth, smooth is fast mentality. I wore the Saucony Endorphin Pro Elites, they go on so much easier than my Endorphin Pro 2s. I had three Precision Gels and one Precision caffeine gel in a sandwich bag each with a electrolyte pill painters taped to it, a small The Feed run bottle in the rear pocket of my Zoot Kit. I stopped quickly at the first aid station filled the sandwich bag with Ice and shoved in kit. One gel and pill every 20 minutes. Tried to start the run slowly, but I still ran a little faster pace than I should have. At the end of the first loop, I saw my friend/Pro Clarice Chastang who was screaming that I was in second place, that motivated me to keep pushing the second loop. I refilled the ice bag at either the 7th or 8th mile. My pace did drop a little, but I kept running and only walked two aid stations and to take in the last gel and pill. At mile 12 I saw another friend and Clarice’s coaching partner Haley who told me to empty the tank as I was in 1st. Finished strong (1:43 1st of 47) beat 2nd place by 9+ minutes
Post race. I found out everyone else has had sub-par swims. Haley does sub 1 hour IM Swims, at Kona last year only a handful of the pro women beat her swim time was 31 minutes so that made me feel a little better about the swim. Lesson Learned, no matter what happens, stick to your plan and race your race. Waived the Worlds slot, cost of airfare, time of year, lack of accommodations. Spain 2025!!
Next up, Ironman Maryland. I know what I need to work on for the swim, I have a plan to refine my fueling strategy on the bike and need to work on running slower coming off the bike, run slow to run faster.
So this week has been a bit of a disaster. I’m 3 weeks out from my A race and I’ve caught covid. I’ve not been mega ill - had symptoms for 3 days and I appear to be on the mend - but I’m worried that trying to do too much, too soon (i.e. an Ironman in 3 weeks) may not be a wise decision. That’s assuming I’m even capable of doing it. The first time I caught covid it killed my fitness - I basically couldn’t run for months. I will try to do some light training later in the week and see how my body reacts, but any thoughts on whether going ahead with the big one is a good idea?
Got a bit of payback on Coeur d’Alene after my DNF last year. Meh swim, shortened to 500 m due to the high winds; pretty scary bike leg for the same reason; but did my fastest run in a 70.3 to date (1:46:22) and my stomach cooperated for once. A good day, all things considered.
I readily admit that I’m probably more covid-cautious than most, but personally, I’d skip. I skipped Ironman 70.3 Boulder two weeks ago and I didn’t even get covid, just got exposed a week out and didn’t want to risk getting sick while stuck alone in a hotel room, or worse, racing while infected and doing more harm to my body (not to mention infecting other people). My thought is that there’s always gonna be another race, but not if I do long-term damage to my body from racing or training before being fully recovered, and I know enough people who have dealt with long covid symptoms for months to make me not want to even entertain the possibility.
That said, any chance you can defer or get a refund? Having purchased the active.com refund insurance and booking a refundable hotel room made the Boulder decision a no-brainer for me, to be honest.
I like the medal design this year. I live in cda but happened to be out of town this weekend but saw it was gonna be pretty windy so not surprised that the swim got shortened. Nice job on the run
Thanks guys, I appreciate your thoughts. If at all possible I’m going to go ahead with the race. This is actually a deferred place from covid-effected 2020 so not possible to defer further or transfer - basically it’s use it or lose it. I’m also viewing this as my last Ironman as I don’t think I’ve got the energy, time or motivation to train for another one, so I really want to be able to see it through rather than throw 9 months of work down the drain.
My symptoms have now gone and I did a light cycle and swim yesterday, which both felt ok. I will attempt a run at the weekend, which will be the big test as my run is what really regressed the first time I had covid. But a positive sign is that my HR seems normal so far, both resting and when doing the light cycle. Missing my final big weekend of training and doing absolutely nothing for a week will have an effect on my fitness so I am reframing my goal to just finish the race rather than go for a particular time. Hopefully I still have enough to get through it. I will report back!
If you show this two pictures to the average person and ask who has the body type of a faster/better athlete, 10/10 would say the second guy is better. That on itself is insane!
Sure. But he is not thin nor muscular in the traditional sense of the word.
He doesnt have what most would called a perfect endurance body, or what would people would expect to see from one of the best right now.
It’s a good thing, and I hope through tri and other sports we start to see more variety in top athletes less of what they imagined a hundred years ago to be the perfect aesthetic.
It extends to technique too, look at the running styles of the top three men at 70.3 Mont tremblant. (The last fifteen minutes is great racing too)
Thanks. Test run went ok, I did a very easy 5km and felt fine and actually had decent pace. I then did a 100km/7km brick yesterday. Bike part was fine, run was not a disaster but my HR was definitely higher than normal. Had to run pretty slow to keep it in Z2. I also felt totally knackered this morning. I think I am mostly ok but my body hasn’t fully recovered yet so I’m finding things a little harder than I normally would. I have nearly two more weeks to recover though so will not push things too hard. I’m definitely now aiming to finish the race rather than get close to a PB!
Aim to finish each session feeling good, not bushed. If that means walking out a run, fine. Recovery is the most important step, and IMHO you won’t be gaining or gaining as much while that is still ongoing,
If you can feel fresh on race day you may outperform…
Almost forgot to post this month’s roll call, I didn’t even realize it’s July already. It’s gonna be a busy month, with nine people racing (including a mini-TR meetup at Ironman 70.3 Swansea). How did everyone’s June go?
Raced the Grand Teton Half Marathon, got a PR (1:37:09.6) and finished fourth in the male masters category.
Got a new bike, which I love.
Raced Ironman Coeur d’Alene, went pretty well all things considered.
Lowlights:
Had to cancel Ironman 70.3 Boulder at the last minute.
Lost a week of training while dealing with covid at home (but at least I didn’t get it).
Life shit making it hard to find the motivation to train.
This month I’m doing a trail running race just for funsies and I’m hoping to pick up my full-distance plan in earnest. With less than eight weeks until my A race, my focus is getting miles under my feet, lots of miles in aero on the new bike, get some (a lot of) heat adaptations and do… whatever I can with my swim.
