For your reading pleasure I plan on making this report a lot shorter than last year’s.

If you have any questions or want to find out other details, you can always post your questions or send me an email. 

Thursday

Ø      Angus (also of Team RF) and I arrived in Lake Placid at 3:30 pm, and it was pouring rain.

Ø      Got our race kits. I weighed in at 170 lbs.

Ø      The rain nixed my plans to do a 90-minute ride.

Ø      Had a nice dinner of awesome sandwiches from Simply Gourmet. 

Friday

Ø      At 9:20 am, I jumped into Mirror Lake for my first swim of the year. It was a comfortable 21- minute dip. My rhythm felt good, practiced my sighting and I felt all set for race day.

Ø      It was raining on and off all day. Angus and I managed to squeeze in a 15-minute ride. We cut it short due to a dark storm approaching. I had my bike all prepped (cleaned, lubed, etc.) and was not going to do it all over again.

Ø      Went to the Welcome Dinner. The regular sort of stuff and a decent spread. Lasagna, Cheese Ravioli, BBQ ¼ chicken, pasta salad, regular salad, brownies, Gatorade and water.

Ø      Caught a flick, Chuck & Larry (Adam Sandler). Lots of laughs. The only problem was that I now had the stupid James Blunt song in my head – if you see the movie you will know what I mean. 

Saturday

Ø      Checked in my Bike and Transition Bags bright and early (the line ups get crazy later). I saw Lisa Regan and had a nice chat.

Ø      Had some lunch, and then had a 4 pm hang out session with some pals to celebrate the culmination of our training to get to race day. I broke with tradition (no alcohol at least one week before the race) and had 2 beers.

Ø      After a dinner of a footlong turkey sub, I did a final weigh in of 179 lbs. What!!! So much for carefully watching what I ate the last few days. But I was drinking lots of fluid that I hopefully what all that weight was. 

Sunday

Ø      Did my usual 2 cans of Boost at 3 am, and another at the final wake-up at 5:15 am.

Ø      Got to transition at 6:15 am (the town was packed, I’ve never parked that far away from the oval before). Pumped tires, put nutrition on bike and in transition bags, had a Starbuck Double Shot Espresso, hit the Porta-potty one last time and Angus and I made the trek up to the lake.

Goal: Use this as a long training day to dial in my nutrition, pace, and HR for Ironman Canada and hopefully finish in daylight.

Swim:

Ø      The crowd was awesome. There was an estimated 15 000 spectators surrounding Mirror Lake for the start of the race. After the US Anthem, they pumped us up with some Ozzy, and sent us off with the cannon and played U2’s Beautiful Day. I stayed back on the beach to suck in the incredible sight and let the swim start madness subside a bit.

Ø      The first lap was slow (45 minutes). I swam wide to avoid lots of breaststrokers, sidestrokers, backstrokers, etc. On the second lap I hugged the line but doing so means traffic. I found a big Clydesdale dude to follow and we were making great progress. It felt much faster than the first lap and I had thoughts of negative splitting. However, with 1 km to go the zipper on my wetsuit opened, I started going slower, and then started sinking. I spent a lot of wasted time trying to zip it back up but ditched that attempt because I was using a lot of energy just trying to stay afloat. So I let the wetsuit fill with water and found a way to plug away with a heavy freestyle stroke right to the end. Came out in 1:32 (I was expecting 1:40 plus).

T1:

Ø      I changed outside the tent to stay away from the madness inside. Could have been faster but I made sure to secure my transition bag to ensure no lost equipment.

Bike:

Ø      The plan was to ride the first loop easy and keep the heart rate no higher than 145 bpm. I completed the first 90 km in 3:15 and feeling good. I was looking forward to letting loose a little bit on the second loop, allowing myself to ride at a heart rate no higher than 155 bpm. Everything was going well until the 150 km mark. I was climbing the hill at Hazelton and my right thigh cramped badly. I clipped out, dismounted the bike, drank some Infinit, stretched and waited out the cramp. After a few minutes I started back up the hill again and the cramp returned as I approached the top. I clipped out again but this time I did some one-legged pedaling while shaking out my right leg. The cramp eventually went away but I now dialed back my heart rate to the high 140’s because the higher intensity seemed to be bringing on the cramps. I continued fuelling, hydrating and keeping things steady for the rest of the loop, and finished it in 3:22. I was fairly happy with only a 7-minute difference from first loop to second. Especially after taking 2 breaks (cramps and pee break/back stretch).

T2:

Ø      Did a total change of clothes and was done in 3 minutes. But I decided to take some extra time to visit the facilities and slap tons of Vaseline on all my chaffing areas.

Run:

Ø      The sun was out in full force with no cloud relief, so the run was nice and toasty. I checked my skin and I was already caked with a film of salt from the bike ride. The mission was to keep a heart rate of 150-155 bpm for the entire run and try to make sure I kept hydrated, fueled and took in my electrolytes. I did the first 21 km loop in 2:18. I was maintaining 10-minute miles but lost a few seconds at each aid station (better to be fueled than to totally bonk and walking later). These aid station walks were a bit longer in the second loop as things got tougher. I started on cola and water from the 30 km mark (I was done with sipping concentrated Infinit at that point) because I was dehydrated and fuelling was not as important at that point in the race. I tried to maintain my goal HR zones but I could feel the onset of cramps if I did so I lowered the HR to the high 140’s and maintained it right to the finish line. I crossed the line in 13:13:48, my best time at Lake Placid. Considering I trained right through to race day (no full fledged taper since my goal is to go sub 13 at Ironman Canada) I was happy with what I did. I can only hope that this is a sign of good things to come on August 26. 

The stats:

Swim – 1:32:59

T1 – 7:12

Bike – 6:37:20 (3:14:59/3:22:21)

T2 – 6:27

Run – 4:49:50 (2:18:55/2:30:55)

Total – 13:13:48

Kudos and post race thoughts:

Ø      Lisa Regan on a kick butt Ironman debut. No major meltdown on the run and she looked strong all day. You kept me running out there, congrats on the 13:03.

Ø      Rick Choy. Way to keep pushing out there despite not feeling all that great.

Ø      Angus Kim. Nice job on finishing on just 7 days of training. We must get started on that book idea. And thanks for playing a huge role in making me gain 10 lbs from Thursday to Saturday night. There is no way I will go out and eat with you before Ironman Canada.

Ø      Much love to Lana and Michelle who were out cheering all day and dealing with our nonsense for 4 days. You are a crucial part of the A & R Ironman Team.

Ø      The “Avalanche” – thanks for your company and getting me out for those long rides.

Ø      You always learn something at an Ironman and I am glad I learned how to swim with an open water logged wetsuit. This something that you should practice. It spooked me out for a while but now I know how to swim in such a situation. I read on a forum that some kayakers (those watching us during the swim) saw athletes intentionally punch others and pulling their wetsuit zippers. Crazy stuff.

Ø      Yes, my right shoulder dislocated once again during the swim. It finally went back to normal (somewhat) by Thursday. This is why I don’t do any swim training.

Up next:

Ø      Rest. Rest. Rest. Then start a 3-week training block for my “A” race – Ironman Canada.

Ø      Before that though I’ll be racing at Cobourg and Toronto duathlons.