Post 184 - Ironman UK brief summary

There will be a long story to come, but to cut the long story short, I finally qualified for Kona.

Everything (finally) went as well as it could have done in the months before, in the build-up, during the race weekend, and during the race itself.

I had the race that justified everything that has gone into it over so many years now.

I'm going to Kona!

Relief, finally.

A long time coming...

They give you a Hawaiian floral "lei",
a Hawaiian beer and a small medal...

Post 183 - My Ironman history - not great reading

Not great reading indeed...

To qualify for Kona (the Ironman world championships in Kona, Hawaii), it's not about your finishing time. It's about where you place in your age group. When I started doing Ironman triathlons, qualification "slots" might have gone to 6th, 7th or even 8th in an age group.

Now, because the Ironman corporation (recently bought by a Chinese company for a fortune) exists, arguably, as a profit-making corporate machine, they have a lot more races, but still the same total number of slots for Hawaii, spread more thinly around all the extra races. So, slots might only go to 3rd or 4th in an age group.

But you never know in advance. You can look at previous results, and who qualified, and make an educated guess as to what sort of time you might need. With the new bike course this year, I can't do that because there are no previous times to go on. You can't even be sure how many slots will be in the age group. And some slots might roll down (for example if the guy who finished 2nd doesn't want his slot for whatever reason, it will "roll down"). You never know how far it will roll down, if it rolls at all.

Also, if there is one 73 year old woman who finishes, she will be entitled to a slot for the F70-74 age group. If she declines it, and there's no-one else in her age group for it to roll to, it will be allocated to a different age group which proportionally has the most people in it.

You could turn up one year and find that you qualify with 10:30. And the following year on the same course, 9:45 might not even be good enough to qualify. 

Ironman UK 2011 (pre-London/pre-having money, trained while teaching in Korea) – done on entry-level cheap bike, didn’t have a clue, 11th in age group, good enough to plant the seed but ran out of money and couldn’t afford to try again.

Ironman UK 2013 – now working in London, got a new expensive bike (3 years to pay it off), was winning my age group with 10 miles left to run, started explosive vomiting and diarrhoea with no warning. Likely food poisoning from the hotel. Collapsed, game over, ambulance etc.

Ironman Wales 2013 – a few weeks later, not fully recovered, got beaten to a pulp in the swim and took on a lot of seawater. Finished 5th in age group. 5th got a slot at Ironman UK a few weeks previously. But slots only went to 4th in Wales. Some slots “roll down”, because some people decline their slots for whatever reason – already qualified a a previous race, for example. Usually a handful of slots roll down. Went to the awards ceremony. No slots rolled down. Absolutely gutted.

Ironman UK 2014 – I moved up to a tougher age group (M30-34). I trained hard and was very fit, far better than in 2013 (2013 100 mile time trial in 4:14, 2014 same 100 time trial in 3:59), so a similar 15-20 minute improvement in bike time in the Ironman would have seen me mix it with the pros. 2 weeks before the race, had a sports massage which resulted in hospitalisation for 3 nights with horrendous leg infections/sepsis. Nearly died. Went to the race anyway, probably shouldn't have bothered. Had nothing. DNF (Did Not Finish).

Ironman Wales 2014 – not fully recovered (same as for Ironman Wales 2013), went in desperation more than anything to try to salvage something to show for all the work done, I faded halfway through the marathon when I was in 6th. 6th would have done it. I couldn’t hang on, was just ruined. Another sickener was that I turned 30 years old more than 2 months AFTER Ironman Wales 2014, but their very strange rules mean that you race in the age group of the age you are at the end of the calendar year. So I was 29 years old when I raced Ironman Wales 2014. Had I been in the M25-29 age group in this race, my finishing position would have seen me qualify.

Ironman UK 2015 – went through the 7-month build-up again, was optimistic going into the race. Apocalyptic monsoon conditions, freezing cold, windy. I was frozen, even before I got in the water, frozen on the bike, and my power output was terrible. Could not get going. Bad circulation in my frozen hands meant I couldn’t feed myself nor drink, nor control the bike or brake or change gear (all essential…) This sounds like excuses, I’m not making excuses, it wasn’t my day, but I’m skinny and don’t go well in the cold (6 feet 1 and only 63kg for this race, I was "too skinny" for the conditions). I usually train indoors in 25-30 degree heat, I go well in warm conditions, not in cold.

Ironman Wales 2015 – trying to salvage my season (familiar story), didn’t feel well the week before the race (people were ill in the office and it cracked me up), ended up violently vomiting my guts up so badly it was bloody in the swim, hanging off a lifeguard canoe, got frozen, got hauled into a lifeboat and brought ashore, game over.

Ironman UK 2016 - forced myself through it all again, got back in shape again, did the 100 mile time trial in 3:58, even won the Bristol triathlon, was determined to finally do it. I knew the Bolton race inside out by now, my 5th time at IMUK. You've always been able to jump in off the pontoon and into water deep enough to swim (as you'd expect). This time the water was 2ft deep, and no warning (you couldn't see the bottom as it was so murky). I was at the front, jumped in (not even a jump, a step down off the pontoon as I've done many times before), hit rocks, fell over, smashed myself to pieces on the rocks, a few more behind did the same before people realised. There's a video of it on YouTube, it's painful to watch. Bled for 6 hours on the bike, rubbish bike time as I couldn't pedal properly, my knee was ruined, and couldn't run at all due to cut feet. DNF. I was lucky, some people broke bones. 10:39 qualified that day, I'd have been very confident that I could have done 10:39. Nothing will ever bring that chance round again.

Ironman Weymouth 2016 - the last chance, before London and the job and the house all came to an end and I packed it in and sold the bike. Couldn't train properly for it due to the injuries from the previous race, and couldn't really race properly. 3rd out of the water but bikers who overtook me in the first 20-30 miles of the bike, how they can go that fast up hills is crazy. There are some very strong bikers out there. Couldn't really race on the bike and in the run due to the injuries. I’ve heard that doping is more common than you would like to think in Ironman/triathlon racing, perhaps more so among age-groupers because there's not much, if any, testing. 

Ironman Edinburgh 70.3 2017 – Moved to Edinburgh, sold the bike, then along came the new Edinburgh race. Did zero running training in the 8 weeks before due to a torn calf. And did very little swimming and cycling in comparison to previously. Also did it on a cheap road bike rather than a proper triathlon bike. Did it for a laugh more than anything. But anyway. Had a really competitive swim, a really competitive bike, but couldn't bluff the run. If I'd been able to do any sort of running training I am confident I would have qualified. I missed qualifying by one second.

Ironman Weymouth 70.3 2017 - Thought if I actually trained for this I would qualify. And with 75 qualifying slots and a course I knew from last year, I was really confident. On a training week in rural Ireland, crashed on a blind corner on gravel - unbelievable, a resurfaced road and they finished it with a stretch of 20m of gravel an inch deep, because it was a blind corner I was on it before I could react, and because I was banking round the corner, my wheels went. Dislocated shoulder, broken hand, hips and knee smashed, cut to shreds. So no Weymouth.

Ironman Edinburgh 70.3 2018 - Bought a new (second hand) triathlon bike, worked up the courage to get back on it after the crash, and trained seriously. Did some shorter races in the build-up, won a few of them. Was confident going into it. It was a boiling hot day and I didn’t drink enough on the bike (in the shorter races I did in the build-up there was no need to worry about hydration and nutrition on the race – a gulp of water and a gel was enough). So I started the run dehydrated and got horrific cramps throughout and ended up with a truly terrible run time. I qualified for the world championships in South Africa by default but took no satisfaction from it.

Ironman 70.3 world championships 2018, South Africa – injured my Achilles and was unable to do any running training for weeks/months. Was in a terrible frame of mind, about the trip and the race. My front brake caliper broke halfway round the bike course, so I was standing at the side of the road with a front brake hanging off, no way to fix it, and a “run” coming up that I hadn’t trained for and had no idea if my Achilles would allow me to complete it – I was in a bad mood. On-course mechanics improvised to fix the brake and I got to the run. I had a miracle of a run – one of my best runs ever and one of the top runs on the day. It was a miracle. Had I not had the brake issue, and had I been able to do some running training, I could have placed very competitively. Another case of what if, what if, what if. I’m sick of expensive, time consuming what-ifs.

Ironman UK 2019 – Trying again at the full distance. Learned quite a bit from South Africa – reduce the training load, trust in your ability, do a shorter build-up, got a better bike, better helmet, better nutrition/hydration strategy and products. All well and good in theory but I have to survive another build-up, not get injured, get the training done, not get sick, survive a duck/swan-shit infested swim, a dangerous bike course and a tough run course, and hope for good weather (I’m in trouble if it’s wet or cold as I’m very lean compared to others), and hope to get through the day well, and hope for a bit of luck with the qualification slot allocation. Could be setting myself up for another big disastrous disappointment here, but there we go. I still believe, and have always believed in the potential that I have, and I believe I can deliver on that, and if I do, I believe I can achieve a good result. I've got to roll the dice again and accept whatever comes - all I can do (and have done) is the best I can to get to the start line in the best shape possible.

Post 182 - Ironman training week 11

With two weeks to go, it is time to taper. I like the taper, and I hate the taper. I like it because I have more time, more breathing space, less intensity. I hate it because you get very antsy and the body goes a bit haywire. With the reduced training load, it’s more difficult to sleep. It’s difficult to maintain discipline, and not to overeat. Everything feels weird and you ask yourself over and over again, why do I feel like I am getting sick? Why do I feel like I am injured? Why am I so lethargic? What is the weather forecast for race day looking like? It’s also Tour de France time, and so as in previous years, I can say “when the Tour is over, the Ironman will be over…”

I’ve been through it all before many times. I did feel like I had a bit of a sore throat coming on, but regular gargling with obscenely salty water seems to have helped. Despite what I might think, or what my body might be trying to fool me into believing, I don’t think I have any injuries. The weather actually looks like it might be acceptable on race day. I’ve done everything I could in training with the time available. Being very critical, I would have liked one or two more higher-intensity/constant-intensity longer bike rides, but I have done the work. I haven’t missed a single session. I’m not in bad shape. I’ve been as dedicated as possible. I’ve done what I think I need to do. Most of the preparation is done.

Tesco has done well out of me recently. I go about once a week. The most recent couple of visits set me back over £100 each time. Ridiculous. I remember (probably 25 years ago) helping my mum out with the weekly shop, for a family of 6, and it costing £60-odd quid... times change...

If you'd told me 4 months ago I’d be in this position at this time, I’d probably have taken it. I just need to survive the next two weeks and keep it all together. It seems a short build-up, writing "week 11", with only one week to go. It was intentionally a shorter build-up this year to try to keep me fresher, but it has been longer than 11-12 weeks. I'd been training before that with one eye on the Ironman, but with other events in the mix (10K race in 32:17 and Scottish duathlon - 5th overall), so it has maybe been around a 4-month build up.

I did an easy two-hour turbo on Tuesday. An easy spin over to Arthur’s Seat on Wednesday. There was unusually heavy traffic. I asked a policeman what was going on – the Queen’s Garden Party. Great. It was dangerous to cycle in such traffic but the policeman said I could go up the wrong way round Arthur’s Seat on the closed road, which was good. An easy 35 minute run on Thursday. Toned down the core work, stretching, squatting and weights. Nothing more to gain now. I was a bit disappointed that I was bleeding under my toenail after the run, so maybe I will wear socks that have more padding on the toes. I will visit the podiatrist again to get my feet, toes and nails tidied up and hopefully that will help.

I did an easy swim on Friday, trying out different pairs of goggles. Finally I made a decision – I will use my trusty, well-used pair (they seem to leak the least) and hope that the strap doesn’t break – the older they are, the more likely it is that the strap will snap. I hope it’ll give me one more hour…

I visited the physio one last time. He gave me a Tour de France magazine to read during the massage. I thought I was tolerating the massage a bit better, without too much squirming or grunting. But he said he had planned to give me the magazine to distract me, and was going easy. Oh well. Hopefully these regular massage sessions will have helped. The flexibility at work has been really useful, with the ability to work at home from time to time, to fit in the swims when the pool is quiet, to fit in the podiatrist and physio appointments.

Wall art at the physio. Quirky and quite cool

I did some short single-leg turbo drills on Friday evening, and decided I still wasn’t happy with the gears, they are clunking a bit in the low gears. I need all the gears, including the low gears on the hilly course, to be perfect. So I decided the following morning I’d take the bike to an out-of-town bike shop and get someone to have a look at it, and then take it for an easy two hour spin.

The gears were duly looked at and tweaked and unfortunately still clunking a bit (not badly, but I want them to be perfect), so it was recommended that the mechanic would try to adjust the existing derailleur to fix it, and failing that, put a new derailleur on. At a cost of £100. Great. Plus a few days to wait for it to arrive. It’ll be ready on Tuesday. Putting a new derailleur on will mean breaking the (new, costly) chain, which will weaken it, so it may need another new chain.

I had hoped everything would be sorted by now and I would be able to “relax” a bit more. But at least it’s all under control and getting sorted, with time still available. With only an easy 2-hour Saturday bike ride done as part of my taper (as opposed to 6-9 hours followed by a run on previous Saturdays), I wasn’t tired and barely slept. The bagel-and-peanut-butter breakfast before the long sessions is working better than porridge and makes me feel less pukey, so that’ll be the race morning feed sorted.

I did an easy 10km run on Sunday, and then forced myself to make a decision on which pair of shorts to use. Ideally I wanted a long pair to cover as much skin as possible. I’ve decided I can’t risk shaving my legs for aerodynamic purposes so close to race day in case I have skin trouble, so the next best thing is to cover as much skin as possible. So I will wear my green calf compression tubes on the bike, and a long pair of shorts, leaving only my knee exposed.

The trouble was, the longest pair of shorts were too tight and uncomfortable. I almost had decision-paralysis, as I had ordered quite a few pairs of shorts from the internet, in different sizes and styles, all but one of which will be returned. In the end, comfort won out and I went for the most comfortable pair. They were slightly shorter than I’d like, but a decent pair. It seems no-one likes the colour “jolly green”, because they were also the most heavily discounted, reduced from £70 to £25… Decision made, I packed up all the other pairs for return, and I won’t think about it again.

Really cool running shoes, really wanted to keep them, but they were too small.

Gutted to have had to return these...

I played around with a few other things too. I want to wear arm sleeves on the bike as it’ll be cool at 7am when I start the bike, and also to protect my arms from any sun. But it’s difficult to put the wetsuit on over them, they bunch up and make it painful to bend my arm (essential for swimming), so I will have to whip them on in transition (easier said than done on wet arms). I ordered some suncream-infused BodyGlide to stop the wetsuit chafing the back of my neck, and to hopefully prevent any sunburn (I am optimistic that the weather may actually be reasonable). I played around with where to store different things on the bike (bottles, gels, spares, CO2 cartridges for punctures, bars). I tried to work out a feeding and drinking strategy.

There’s a 3-and-a-half-hour video on YouTube of one lap of the bike course – someone put a camera on their bike and filmed it. I’ve watched it several times, and have noted the dangerous points of the course, and have been watching them repeatedly.

Video times for dangerous points on the lap Judge for yourself.

Saying that, the video doesn't do justice to how poor the road surfaces 

are, and how steep the descents are, and how much braking is needed...

Having repeatedly watched the video, hopefully I am well prepared. I know where I can go downhill fast, and where I need to be cautious. I can’t do anything about other riders so I will need to be careful of them, especially when lapping slower riders on the second lap. Quite a bit of the course is residential, and there are quite a few houses out on the countryside sections of the course as well. I can’t do anything about people/animals walking into the road or cars pulling out. I hope it’ll be OK.

Given my previous record, I'm almost expecting something to go catastrophically wrong. Sitting waiting for it to happen. Hopefully it won't. It's just another day. I keep telling myself I have it all under control. In previous years, there’s finally a feeling of relative calm and a relative absence of stress when I’m wetsuited up and standing in the queue to begin the swim. At that stage, nothing more can be done other than deliver the race as well as possible. I look forward to that moment again. That moment has potential. I was going to say I look forward to finishing, but there’s no potential in that moment, I may not get what I want, and may well just feel awful and like it was all a massive waste of time, effort and money all over again. But it might not be. And that’s why I am doing it again…

Training done was as follows:

Swim 1.55km, Bike 105 miles, Run 12 miles

Race day is only a few lines away...

Post 181 - Ironman training week 10

Supposedly an easy week of training, after two massive weeks.

Monday 24 June 2019:

A day of rest. Working on the bike, trying to get everything perfect. New cassette, new chain, debating what add-ons to include (aero tool box, how many bottle cages, how many spares), how wide to have the arm pads, sorting the brakes, wheels, everything has to be perfect. The bike is such a pain in the ass. Trip to the physio. He hates me. I hate him. Well, not really, but I lie there and squirm and grunt and hiss and groan and hate the entire hour, and he probably hates treating me. He keeps telling me I’m a wreck. Says he wants to video a treatment and put it on YouTube…

Tuesday:

An easy week, so another day of rest. I seemed to recover quite well from the big weeks. Had more work done on the bike – so handy to know someone who’s happy to come to the flat to do it. But the living room has turned into a complete mess of bike gear, tools, spares, boxes etc. Can’t wait to de-clutter it. 

Wednesday:

So apparently now the bike is perfect. It was a nice evening. Over to Arthur’s seat to see how it goes, see how it handles. It’s a horrible bike to manoeuvre and ride along bumpy city roads in traffic. You’re always on edge on it. Not much enjoyment. I did 4 climbs, not 6 or 8 as usual, because it’s an easy week. I usually do this session on the road bike, which is light and nimble and climbs well. My legs felt good. I had my highest ever power average for the climb, on the fourth interval. 371 watts, for a very quick climb time of under 3:30. The bike is going well. My legs are decent. I wonder if I made the road bike as fast and light as possible, how close I could get to the King of the Mountains on Strava for the climb… probably not too far away. Did my core, stretching, squats and feet treatment. All seems to be good. 

Thursday:

A moderate run, down at the Meadows and Bruntsfield links hill. Again feeling reasonable. Limited myself to 50 minutes. It’s annoying that my heart rate monitor isn’t working, but a replacement is on the way. Did my weights and core work and feet treatment. Not much more than 2 weeks to go… I’ve been wondering about shaving my legs (I can’t believe I’ve even admitted that). An old study that was always seen as authoritative said there wasn’t much benefit in shaving, but modern specialists dug a bit deeper and found that this study was done in a really primitive wind tunnel with a single false leg. A new study with real people in an accurate wind tunnel shows a minute of gain over an hour. 5-6 minutes in the ironman. I take this with a pinch of salt (particularly as I’ll be doing a slow, twisty, hilly course which isn’t conducive to being super-aerodynamic), but there’s obviously something in it…

Friday:

Worked from home. Went to the podiatrist in the morning, had my feet treated. I cannot be dealing with painful (and I mean agonisingly debilitating pain) feet in the Ironman marathon, so I am doing all I can to make sure my feet are in good condition. Including spending £34 on 10 minutes of treatment at the podiatrist. Went for a lunchtime swim. Stupidly forgot my goggles. Managed to borrow a pair. They were terrible. Really cutting into my nose. But it was only a short swimming session. I did a 1500m time trial, in 24 minutes flat. Not a bad time, given that I’ve not done much speed work in the pool. I came second in the Selkirk standard triathlon last year with a 24:30 1500m swim, so I can’t complain about my swimming right now. Did single-leg drills on the turbo trainer. With the new chain and cassette, it was so quiet – proof that the new parts are making a difference. You don’t notice the deterioration in the old parts until you put new parts on.

Saturday:

I changed my plans for the day. Originally the entire week was meant to be easy, with the following week a bit tougher. But that would leave the tougher sessions with just a week to go until race day. So I decided I’d do the tougher weekend sessions this weekend, and have next weekend a bit easier. My legs felt good and well recovered from the two massive weeks. The weather looked OK. I wanted to do a continuous consistent bike effort. I’ve been training a lot on the hills, which means the efforts are on the uphill and you get recovery on the downhill. This time out, I wanted a flatter but more continuous effort. So I did nearly 80 miles in 4 hours flat on undulating roads (3600 feet of climbing). It felt good. My legs felt strong until the end. They had more to give. Key has been and will be making an easy start (160 watts for the first 5 miles, compared with 217 watts for the whole thing). If I’d done 217 for the first 5 miles, I’d have blown up.

I hadn’t planned to run off this bike, but I felt so good that I thought I’d go out and do one more run session off a tough bike. A 20 minute hilly run at sub-6 minute miling followed. I am feeling pretty good to be honest. I followed this with stretching, core work and weights. 

Lean and light after another big day, 61kg

Sunday:

Usually long run day, but with 2 weeks to go there’s no point in risking anything with a 20-miler. I thought an hour and 40 minutes would do, something like 13 miles, not too tough. I did a full dress rehearsal. I got out my leg compression tubes as well, thinking if I used them on the bike they would cover most of my hairy legs and mean I didn’t have to shave. It would be very risky to shave my legs at this stage, risking skin irritation or infection or such like. So I wanted to see how they’d feel on the run. They felt warm, but you can pull them down, this worked OK. So maybe that’s what I’ll do. 

The run went well. Deirdre came with me on the bike, nice to have some company as the long runs can be tedious. It was windy but I felt good. I have trained a lot on the hills and I actually feel better running up and down hills than I do on the flat. Which is good, as the ironman marathon will be hilly. I did 14 miles in 101 minutes, 7:15 per mile and was just cruising. I got home and forced myself to finish another week with the weights and stretching and squats and feet treatment.

Had a terrible haircut during the week, 

far too short on the back and sides. 

Don't want to get sunburned...

I’m in as good a position as I could have hoped with 2 weeks left. I just need to keep it all together for 2 more weeks. No injuries. No illness. And crossing fingers for good weather and a good day at IMUK.

Training done was as follows:

Swim 2.2km, Bike 115 miles, Run 24 miles