Gary’s Fitness Blog

If you follow my twitter page (twitter.com/ditschfitness) then you’ll know the basics as Nikki sent some out during the race. This report will fill in my emotions and feelings for the race, but first the basic stats:

Great Illini Results -

swim: 1:17:48
t1: 2:00
bike: 6:00:40 (18.6mph)
t2: 1:14
run: 3:38:51 (8:21/mile)

total: 11:00:34

Swim - as the horn sounded things were a little rough in the beginning. I’m not sure if I was not anxious enough; therefore unprepared to get moving or if I just needed a little time to get into a rhythm? It didn’t take long though as I felt incredibly efficient in the water. I had zero kicking going on and felt like every pull was really getting some work done. I kept thinking to myself, “pull yourself through the tube.” Which is a visualization that my coach/professor at UNL shared with me when I was learning to swim.

My time ended up being around 5 minutes slower than last year at IMMOO, but that is what I expected. I didn’t swim one time from Sept 9, 2007 to June 9, 2008. And once I started swimming in June I made it to the pool only a couple times a week (a few weeks I got three swims in). The one thing I did do this year that gave me a little confidence that I could get out there was the Cave Run 1.5 mile swim that the YMCA put on at Cave Run Lake.

Bike - the bike training this past year was also not specific to Ironman. If you have been following my blog for awhile, then you’ll know that I just wanted to take a different approach this year. I didn’t want to train for any specific event, but try some races out, if I felt they were possible. (And you’ve seen what kind of brainstorming occurs when I don’t have events picked out!). That philosophy of training for this year left me with few specific race rides. In fact, I did zero race simulation rides this past year and only had one brick (bike/run) workout this year at all (last weekend with Jeff).

All that being said, you can imagine how pleased I felt to see that I rode 13 minutes faster this year than I did at IMMOO. I realize that you can’t compare different races and courses, but that is a positive that I’m going to take away from this race.

I actually felt really good most of the bike. There were periods that the wind had me moving at what felt like a turtle’s pace, but I just tried to push on. The biggest issue I had on the bike was my back. I did most of my rides on my road bike this year, in fact, I think the longest ride I did on my triathlon bike was 50 miles (again last weekend with Jeff). My gluts and lower back were in pain pretty much the whole time, but with the wind I didn’t want to stand too much. Occasionally I would stand and just spend a couple minutes in my big chain ring and ride hard standing up to relieve some tension.

The other positive that I’m taking away from this ride is that I even split the 2 loops. I rode 3:00 on the first loop and 3:00 on the second loop. Can’t be bummed about that.

The one lesson that I’ll take away from this is that I need to learn to ride the bike faster. I was the only athlete in the top 10 that rode under 19mph. (The top two rode 22mph or over!) Training to ride faster and learning how to race that way would leave a lot less work to do on the run for me.

Run - The run training was very similar to my bike training. I did nothing specific, but I also never stopped running through out the year. The one thing that I always feel is true, if I run consistently, is that my run will not abandon me.

When I got to the run, I felt really good and started out pretty quick. My leg turnover was good and my pace was too fast but at a comfortable effort (6:40ish). As I approached the first aid station I asked for coke or gatorade. They said they had, “water and ecaps”. SH*T. That was my first thought. I had some egel’s with me, but my stomach was not willing to take any more of those. So I took some water and used a couple of my Succeed Salt Tabs.

As my usual plan of action, I walked 30 seconds at every mile.

As I approached the second aid station, I asked the same question. Again they had nothing but water and ecaps. I saw a pattern here and was getting nervous. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to run the marathon if all I had to use for aid was ice water and salt tabs.

On the return section of the first lap (we ran 4 laps) they finally had some coke available at mile 5. I took a can of coke and was able to drink a couple drinks. My stomach was pretty messed up at this point, but even more scary was that I was starting to feel really dizzy, my fingers tingled and I felt light-headed. If you listened to my last podcast (hydration and the role of sodium) then you’ll understand where my thoughts were going. I started to say some multiplication tables to myself, hoping that the answers wouldn’t allude me: “1 + 1 = 2, 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 4 = 8″ … ok, you’re not there yet.

Around mile 7, I thought it was over. I stopped at the aid station and began to sweat heavily. I started to dry heave pretty heavily but couldn’t get anything to come up. My head was spinning and my legs felt like jello. To be honest, it felt like I had been at the bar a little to long on a Nebraska Football Game day. The aid station workers were standing there not sure what to do, they asked if I as alright, when I said “no”. He turned around and walked away like “oh boy… that isn’t good”. They offered me some bananas, but that wasn’t going to happen, so I asked for some coke again. At this point all I really wanted was a ride back to the start. Without different aid on the course I was worried that I couldn’t get what I needed to recover at any point. I also wasn’t excited about putting myself in a place to risk my health and ruin my chance of riding my bike this week and doing the marathon next weekend.  I guess the one positive about the several minutes that I stood there (I’m guess 5 to 6 minutes), was that despite the violent dry heaving, I didn’t actually puke fluids up.  Had I began to lose fluids with every attempt (which I saw happen to one guy), I’m not sure I would have been able to get moving again.

After I took the coke I started walking again. In the end, I think my ego and anger pushed me forward. Looking back, I am happy that I didn’t DNF at that point, but I’m not sure that being propelled by ego and anger is the place I want to be in life, even during a race.

After I got my mind settled down, I began running again. I’m not sure how it happened, but I actually ran ok once I was running. My body was still chilled (in the sun). I craved water, but everytime I tried to drink any I felt like I would throw it up.

Around mile 18, I finally got a bottle of Gatorade Endurance. Magic. While my pace was decreasing to 8:30/mile pace, my thoughts finally cleared up. I didn’t have the “lost in space” feeling as bad and that gave me confidence to try and push home and at least try and break the 11 hour mark.

It didn’t happen. As you can see above, I missed it by 34 seconds. 34 seconds is a tough pill to swallow after 11 hours.

Final Thougts:

I feel pretty darn happy as I come away from this race. It is 12 minutes faster than I went at IMMOO last year and while it’s difficult to compare courses, I’m happy with the way things turned out. While I am a little bummed about how my run ended up, it was still the 2nd or 3rd fastest of the day (I think the 2nd fastest on the results page is a relay team?). And I guess when I am at the point that running 3:38:51 for the marathon in a Iron-distance race is a bummer, I have more to be thankful for than I have reason to complain.

Now — learn how to swim and bike!

I also learned that you need to be very aware of the race course nutrition. The Great Illini website said this:

“The 26.2 mile run course will be divided into 4 6.55 mile loops. Competitors will have the opportunity to access their run course special needs bags every 6.55 miles. There will be aide stations and porta-johns every mile of the run course. The aide stations will be stocked with fruit, Hammer Gels, E-Caps, water, Heed energy drink and much more.”

I knew that I would need Gatorade Endurance and Coke to get me through the run.  I should have had Nikki’s Fuel Belt full of Endurance and used it, with some extra bottles for the fuel belt at the special needs bag.

That is why we do races like this, to practice and learn.  The great thing about this race is that usually I have a year to sit around and think about what happened before I get another shot.  This time I get to ride my bike around Illinois and Indiana for a week and then give the marathon another go around at the Lake City Marathon!

I can’t wait for Ironman Louisville next year though!

Yesterday (7/29/07) I completed my second race simulation ride, this time I included a short transition run following the ride to drive home the idea about pacing mistakes (if I was going to make them).

If you have not read the summary of my first simulation ride, go review it first and see the mistakes that I was trying to address this time: Race Sim and Nutrition - 2007 #1.

The Stats:

Lap 1 - 36.2 miles, 2:17:29, 120bpm ave, 152bpm max
Lap 2 - 36.2 miles, 2:09:18, 128bpm ave, 158bpm max
Lap 3 - 36.2 miles, 2:06:19, 134bpm ave, 158bpm max
t run - 2.5 miles, 20:01, 158bpm ave, 169bpm max

Lap Descriptions:

Lap 1 - I ended up going really easy to begin with which was similar to my first lap the first time I did this workout. One of the major differences this time around is that I really focused on keeping a limit on my heart rate peaks. This lap I was trying to keep it down below 145bpm, as you can see it crept up on a hill climb once so it ended up maxing out at 152bpm. This change in the peak “limit” seemed to slow my overall pace down quite a bit, but it was worth it by the end of the ride, from my analysis.

Hour 1 - 20oz regular gatorade, water. Hour 2 - 3 egel’s, water. 575kcals total.

Lap 2 - I changed the peak limit on this lap to 150bpm, but was very concious about keeping things as steady as possible during the flat areas (not many of those). At times it required backing off on the longer climbs quite a bit as I noticed the heart rate responding (increasing) quicker. This could have been due to the heat / temperature. The ride didn’t feel much harder than the first lap, but you can observe the changes in effort by keeping the focus on being steady.

Hour 3 - 20oz regular gatorade, water. Hour 4 - 3 egel’s, water. 575kcals total.

Lap 3 - My hope was to decend each lap, but unlike the first attempt at this workout I kept the cap on the efforts for this lap too. In other words, I still didn’t allow myself to “push it” through the hills and climbs. I kept the peak at 155bpm (or tried). The entire loop felt very comfortable and the major difference was that I could actually take in all the calories I wanted. Again this lap I focused on keeping everything as steady as possible. You can see a little increase in the heart rates, especially the averages. By this time in the day it was getting pretty warm (mid 80’s) so I think some of that increase was in response to my body trying to remain cool.

Transition (before lap 3) - 80% of Iced Honey Bun - appox 400kcals

Hour 5 - 20oz Mt. Dew, water. Hour 6 - 1 egel. 400kcals total.

Total Kcal Consumption:

575 + 575 + 400 + 400 = 1950kcals

1950kcals / 6.5 (approx) hours = 300kcals per hour.

That is a respectable amount of calorie consumption. I had set a goal of 350 kcals per hour, but for no other reason than intuition (i.e. nothing scientific about the 350 number).

Transition Run:

The great thing about this ride opposed to the first attempt was that I felt strong when the ride was over. I got off my bike, threw on my shoes and visor, changed shorts and was off on a short run. My plan was to run 10 minutes out and back. My cadence was quick and comfortable, my heart rate was sitting just over 150bpm, I walked 30 secs at the 11 minute mark (as always) and it all seemed to be going well.

The one thing that I really noticed once I started the run, that I hadn’t noticed so much on the bike, was the heat. The temperature felt hot and the sun was beating down on me… good lesson. I should have used the salt tablets on the bike as I usually do, even though it didn’t seem “necessary”.

All-in-all, a great day!

Last Sunday (7/15/07) was my first race simulation ride (in 2007) as I prepare for Ironman Wisconsin. The ride was a workout that I took from Gordo’s bike workouts within his “Coaching Ironman Athlete’s” document. The specific’s of my workout were:

Lap 1 - 36.2 miles, 2:10:18, 125bpm ave, 159bpm max
Lap 2 - 36.2 miles, 2:03:58, 134bpm ave, 165bpm max
Lap 3 - 36.2 miles, 2:01:47, 135bpm ave, 169bpm max

Lap 1 description: made sure to ride what I thought felt “easy”, used my hr monitor to keep it in check too, tried to not let hr spike on climbs/hills. Nutrition: 3 egel’s, 1 bottle of xtra strength gatorade (1 bottle = 200kcals), 2 salt tabs, 2 bottles of h2o.

Lap 2 description: rode a little harder but never felt like I was pushing it, as the Gordo workout says, I tried to ride at Ironman effort/pace, let myself ride a little bit harder on the hills. Nutrition: 4 egel’s, 1 bottle of xtra strength gatorade, 2 salt tabs (I use salt stick), 2 bottles of h2o.

In transition: ate a honey bun.

Lap 3 description: rode the loop backwards, primarily to see Nikki and check on her and b/c Jeff couldn’t ride entire loop again. Tried to push and “work” the hills. It didn’t feel easy, but as you can tell from my results, my body didn’t seem to react much differently… (more later on this, see: fatigue below). It was very difficult to eat any calories! I felt like burping or vomiting for about 20 miles of the 36. (I think a really good perspective on this was written by Jeff Shilt, MD titled, “Tips to help prevent Gastrointestinal Breakdown“)

What I Learned about Nutrition last year:

So I don’t repeat too many things, I’ll share two posts I wrote last August in my attempt to straighten out nutritional plans for the Runovia Triathlon:

1. Figuring out a racing nutritional plan #1 - 8/6/2006

2. Racing nutritional plan #2 - 8/15/2006

Here were the highlights of those lessons:

- eat more than you might think you need (in most cases)
- monitor fluid intake; h2o and sports drink
- drink early in ride
- eat early in ride
- comfort food is good when used wisely (re: Ale 8 and oatmeal cream pies)
- move back and forth between sports drink and food by the hour

My current thoughts based upon this past workout; I forgot about the concept of moving from gel’s one hour to sports drink the next. I will definately try that option again b/c eating seven egel’s in 4 hours was easy to do, but left me feeling like I was unable to eat more. The other issue I feel I had was using the extra strength (not too much extra) gatorade. I’ll just use the regular strength gatorade.

A major lesson for me on this ride was that the extra spikes in intensity / heart rate changed my ability to digest the calories I was taking in. - (really go read the post by Jeff Shilt, MD)

A couple changes that I have made are changing from oatmeal cream pies to honey buns. The pies seemed too sweat and actually became hard to eat, while the honey buns go down really quick and are packed with calories… (the jumbo’s are over 500kcals and they take about 20 seconds to get down!). The second change is using gel flasks. It seems a whole lot easier to manage than using so many packets.

Fatigue.

So this race simulation ride came at the end of my biggest (duration wise, not counting Brevets) week of training this year. I could definately feel it in my legs and noticed it in my heart rates. The highest my heart rate climbed to was 169bpm on the third lap. This was while I was pushing as hard as I felt possible at a couple points, once during a climb and once at the end trying to fly home and go under 2 hours.

In a normal rested state, my heart rates will easily reach the upper 180’s and stay in the 160’s for several hours. (Running they’ll stay in the 170’s for hours.) An example of this was during our 300km Brevet from Atlanta back in May, when we hit a climb in Alabama my heart rate got up to 186bpm and stayed above 180bpm for a good 20 minutes. All of this shows me that there is probably a level of fatigue setting in. (Other signs show this too.)

So yesterday (7/17/07) and today I’m taking it easy, trying to put down a little of that fatigue and come back to have a big training cycle Wednesday through Sunday. While the extra day (today) of less training was unexpected, I hope the rebound will be quicker and I won’t end up overtrained.