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Fight for every second… Ironman St George Race Report 5/7/2011 Ironman St George would be my debut Ironman of 2011, and my debut Ironman after my FAI surgery (see previous post). I had a bit of bad luck in New Orleans with a flat tire blowout crash, but still finished the day with a solid effort and my run split was right where I wanted it. The proof of my fitness was there, but the result was not what I wanted. With some aggressive rehab with road rash, I was able to make a nearly complete recovery before St. George, only one deep wound remaining on my right ankle. I was ready to race, and excited to test my new weapon, the run. I drove to St George on Wednesday morning with my swim training partner, Sean Bourne. I did all the driving since I was counting on Sean to drive home. We did a short swim in the morning before leaving then packed up the mini-van and left. We made it to St. George in time for s short 30 min spin before dark. I was tired from a long day of travel but still feeling good. Thursday evening, my wife, Ashley, and coach, Cliff English, arrived and Sean made the trip to the airport to pick them up. Thursday’s workouts included just a short open water swim and a short 3 mile run. Friday, my only workout was a 30 min bike, and a good deal of that was spent checking out this ridiculous area on the course where we had to ride on a bike trail with a hairpin turn. I checked my bike and gear into transition on Friday (no easy task since transitions were 24 miles apart), then went home to cook my pre-race meal. Race morning started with a 4:15 wake-up call followed by the usual Ironman Breakfast of Ensure and a bagel. I had Cliff drop me off at T2 to take the bus to the swim start; it was nice to not worry about the driving. The swim start was calm for me since I started out wide for clear water. I quickly and easily made it to the front of the swim and was comfortably swimming with the leaders. I was nervous that Mathias Hecht was going to let a gap open up, so I jockeyed with him for position a bit, but he was comfortably in control so I was fine, but I just wanted to make sure. I exited the water 4th, in the lead pack of 4. It was just where I wanted to be, maximizing my speed while minimizing my effort. Swim split was 49:18. I was first out of transition and onto the bike. I felt awesome and was in the perfect position. I started the bike focused on my power, committing not to ride too hard too early. Patience would be the key today. I was passed by Mathias and Paul Ambrose early on the bike and just let them go since they were riding faster than I wanted to push for the entire 112 mile bike leg. I stayed about 2 min behind them for the first lap of the bike, and was caught by Maik Twelsiek and Ben Hoffman (about 3 min behind out of the water). I completed the first lap of the bike close to Ben. I was struggling with my stomach at this point, and I passed on the opportunity to get my special needs bag since I wasn’t consuming calories well. Ben kept a steady distance in front me through about mile 85 when I started vomiting my water and food. I just couldn’t push hard on the bike, and not being able to keep down the calories was killing me. Some age grouper got a first-hand look at my projectile vomiting and just looked over at me and said, “keep fighting, man!” words to live by for the rest of the race. In some aspects I was glad to vomit because it gave my stomach some temporary relief but I also knew I was losing valuable calories and water on a hot day. My body was telling me it wanted to rid itself of something inside my stomach, and I would just have to listen to my body. Shortly after the projectile vomiting I was caught by Michael Weiss, last year’s champion. I stayed close to him for the next 20 miles until he eventually pulled over and dropped out of the race. We were not riding very hard and I was losing time to the leaders every mile. I just couldn’t push the watts on the bike like I wanted. I was still confident in my run, but knew I would have my work cut out for me with such a big deficit from the bike. My bike split was 4:49:25 (5th fastest on the day but 13 minutes slower than Maiki). I had some work to do on the run. I took out of transition (after taking the time to put on my CEP compression socks) and hit two 6:30 miles on the uphill section. My stomach was hurting but I was convincing myself to run through the pain. Since my calories on the bike were limited to only 700 (and who knows how many of those came back up), I was already in a major calorie deficit for the day. I was going to run this entire marathon on coke and water (and Red Bull in my special needs bag). I was in 5th place on the run, but once I started running the steep 8% hill for 1200m, I was passed by Mike Aigroz. My stomach was killing me; I could hardly stand up straight. I stopped and walked a few times, I stopped and keeled over a few times. I was thinking of dropping out of the race. I needed points for Kona, and clearly I was not on track to earn any points. I was thinking of Ironman Texas in a couple weeks with double the points as St George. Matt Lieto passed me in the Ironmanlive race vehicle and told me to keep going, to get moving. I started running again and while my next mile was 8:20, I was still moving. After mile 5 I was feeling slightly better and after mile 6, I was on a mission, to run down as many people as possible. I had some serious work to do, because since coming out on the run course I had managed to lose even more time to everyone in front of me. I started clipping off 6:15 miles and was feeling great and very focused and determined. I know a huge part of Ironman racing is managing highs and lows, so I felt I came through some serious low points, and now just needed to manage feeling good. In other words, I needed to stay patient and not try to make up all the time as quickly as possible. The marathon is a long run, and I had a ton of time and distance yet to cover. Patience would be key. By mile 23 I had moved from 6th place to third. First and second were out of reach, but I did my best to get back into the race. This was the hardest fought podium finish in any of my Ironman races (now I have 5 consecutive North American Ironman Podium finishes, 2x3rd place, 3x2nd place). Anyone can race hard when they feel good, I forced myself to race hard today when my body was shutting down. The race was fought one step at a time, and most importantly I never gave up (even though I felt like it several times). I kept thinking about Mark Allen saying, “An Ironman is never over until you cross the finish line.” That was case in St. George and that is always the case. I crossed the finish line in 3rd today, but I learned some great things about myself. I struggled to race like I wanted to, I kept believing things would get better, even when I knew I was out of reach to win the race, I dug as deep as I could to finish on the podium. Some days it is the small victories that count. Oh yeah, I had a run PR on the most difficult Ironman run course in the world with a 2:58:02. Better days are coming, I am sure of that!
Crash, Burn, when will I learn…? New Orleans 70.3 4/17/2011 New Orleans was the official start of my 2011 racing season and the day started off quite irregularly. The swim was cancelled to dangerously high winds and swells on the water. The athletes and organizers determined to change the format to a bike then run race with a time trial start on the bike with the pros starting 30 seconds apart. This type of race would really suit me well since I am one of the best time trialists in the sport. I started 9th (but wearing number 10, because Andy Potts, #1 was not there) and was 4:30 behind Terenzo Bozzone who started first. I was riding very well and felt awesome. The new Zipp bike was so smooth and fast. I managed to catch everyone in front of me except for Terenzo who at 53 miles was only :45 seconds in front of me. I was putting myself in perfect position. With only a couple of miles to go, I ran over a hardened concrete dropping from a nearby construction site and blew out the front tire on my bike. I had a tailwind and was riding at 32mph in my aerobars. I started to wobble then, BAM, I went down hard in a slide. I got up all bloody and frantic. I tried to repair the tire and change the tube but my attempt was futile. I got back on the bike and rode the carbon rim into transition, very slowly, but on edge the whole time because the bike is very unstable without a tire. I made it into T2, parked my bloody bike, and then headed out on the run. My wife, Ashley, saw me exit T2 onto the run and realized I cashed, she was a bit relieved to see me and know that I was fine and going to finish. I told her I was going to have a good run despite the crash. I wasn’t expecting to have such a great run. I ended up splitting 1:14:38 for the half marathon, easily my fastest 70.3 run split in the past 3 years. It felt awesome to know that I have my run back, and that my surgery was a success and I would be able to train and race without pain for the first time in years. The bad part was I crashed on my bike. I would need to tend to some serious road rash, make some repairs to my bike, and get ready to race IM St. George in 20 days. No time to waste, every day counts.
Back in the saddle again… March 18-20, 2011 Tucson Bicycle Classic March 18 marked an official return to competition milestone for me. I did a couple of cyclocross races after Kona last fall, but on November 10, I had the first of two surgeries during my offseason. I have been plagued with Femoral Acetabular Impingement (FAI) for some time, but it has only presented a problem to my training and racing for the past two years as I have been dealing with torn labrums in both my hip joints. Basically, any amount of hard running was crippling me and causing me agony on a regular basis, worse yet, it was altering my running mechanics. I tried to manage the pain and symptoms the past two years with cortisone injections, NSAIDs, and physical therapy, while trying to work on the root cause through a core exercise program to strengthen my hip flexors and help pull the femur away from the acetabulum (hip socket). I was racing a lighter Ironman schedule in 2010 so I could work on the rehab, but once I started the Ironman training for Kona, the pain was too much to take. I recall one particular day last September when I was completing a double run; I was at the trails by the Pima Community College Track in Tucson. I was grimacing through the pain; the pain became so much, tears started falling. I knew I had to take care of the problem and schedule a surgery. I was hoping I could schedule both hips at the same time, but that was not advised so I was going to have to schedule 2 surgeries 4 weeks apart. November 10 was the first date, and December 6 was the second date. I was going to use two surgeons because of the scheduling difficulties. I was attempting to get in to see Dr. Marc Philippon at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, CO . He is the world renowned expert on FAI, and has worked on superstar athletes such as Alex Rodriguez, Arnold Palmer, Kurt Warner, George St. Pierre, and many others. Dr. Phillipon is also very difficult to schedule with since he is in such demand. I ended up scheduling my first surgery with Dr. Steve Avilles in Des Moines. Dr. Avilles is also very familiar with FAI surgery, but performs about 25% of the FAI surgeries that Dr. Philippon performs. There were many advantages however, I would be having surgery less than 2 miles from my house, my sister, Jessica, is a nurse at the hospital where I would have surgery, and my Mom was around to help take care of me. The first surgery went very well and I was on crutches for 2 weeks, I was doing no rehab, just taking it easy. I needed a full rest period in the 4 weeks between surgeries. For my second surgery, I flew out to Vail with my mom and I rented a condo for us to stay in for the week. I had to stay in Vail for the week for the rehab program. The surgery took about twice as long in Vail and I was in traction for nearly 2 hours (I still can’t feel the top of my left foot from the nerve being stretched). The left hip was also worse than the right and needed more repair. I was in 10x more pain after this surgery than the first. I ended up spending the night in the hospital, but I was also on an exercise bike an hour after surgery in the recovery room, vomiting as I pedaled ever so lightly. Fun times! The next morning I was released from the hospital only to move straight to PT where I had two daily appointments with Lindsay Winninger and Mark Ryan. I started and finished each session with 10-15 min on the exercise bike. I had a very intense physical therapy routine of at least 3 hours daily. I left Vail on crutches but with a wealth of knowledge about how the best athletes in the world have rehabbed from the same surgery. I went back home and trusted my daily physical therapy to a good friend and triathlete, Dave Freeseman of Rock Valley Physical Therapy. I got married 6 weeks after surgery so I wanted to be able to walk without crutches and dance at my wedding. I got my wish and had a beautiful wedding, and great honeymoon in Maui. I did have one minor setback with the rehab while on the honeymoon, but hey you can’t expect a guy to completely abstain from using his hips on his honeymoon. I came home and rested a week then headed to Tucson for the start of my season. I had to take baby steps, and while I wanted to be more aggressive it was nice to have Coach Cliff English pulling the reins on me. I went through the gradual return to run and competition format and about 12 weeks post surgery I was nearly 100%, and feeling awesome. Still Cliff wanted me to wait another week (coach knows best), and start the season in New Orleans so we could have some extra recovery after some really big training. In the meantime, I was able to squeeze in a bike race at the Tucson Bicycle Classic. I was racing with a CAT 3 license I was given back in 2005 while at the Olympic Training Center. I have only done a handful of bike races and never enough to upgrade from CAT 3. My goal for the TBC was to win the CAT 3 GC category and upgrade to CAT 2 so I could race with my new cycling team, Velosport Iowa, American Equity. Day 1 of the TBC was Friday evening and it was a short 3 mile TT on the McCain Loop (something I ride weekly). I was confident I could win the TT and put myself in position to win the GC. I was a bit overconfident in my time trialing ability on the day. I didn’t get any rest from my regular training and I went into the race very tired. It showed on my results, I was only able to hold 387 watts for the 8 min effort (something I regularly better in training rides). It was all I had on the day, and it put me in second place only fractions of a second off the lead. This put me in a hole and meant if I wanted to win I was going to have to break away in either the road race of the circuit race. It looked like the circuit race would be my best chance. Day 2 of the TBC was a 60 mile road race on part of the “shootout” group ride course. I knew the roads well, but the course provided very little room for a breakaway since there was a huge downhill on each of the three 20 mile loops. I still went in to the race with something to prove and vowed to make sure if someone was going to win, they would have to suffer for a while to win. I did just that, and pulled for a solid 20 miles of the 60 mile race and then again the last 10 miles to make sure the finish pace was hot and I wouldn’t have a chance of being gapped at the finish for a time spread. I lead out a guy, Thomas Jones, from New Mexico and he finished 3rd in the sprint, I was 12th but no time gap. Just what I needed. I would enter the final day of racing still in second place less than a second behind the leader. Day 3 was the circuit race and it was literally in my backyard, only a short 2 mile ride to the start line. Doesn’t get much more convenient than that! The course was a 6 mile loop over rolling hills. I had a plan to attack for a breakaway immediately after the lap 3 sprint prime for a small time bonus. The day consisted of 7 laps on the circuit and a total of 39 miles. If I was going to break away at lap 3, I would need to say away for 24 miles. I was committed and it happened just as I dreamed. Thomas Jones was right there with me on the break and helped give me recovery periods so I could continue to push the pace. We were almost ruined on the breakaway when the Pro /1 field caught us and sat up to ride easy, luckily it didn’t last long and we were able to keep pushing. I made a deal with Thomas that if he went with me on the breakaway, I would give him the stage win. It was a good deal for both of us, I needed someone to share the workload, and he could use a stage win. I would take the GC for the weekend if we stayed away. We did just that, and I stayed true to my word, giving Thomas the stage win while I took second right behind him giving me the GC win for the stage race. I would now have enough points to upgrade to CAT 2 and race with my fellow American Equity/ Velosport teammates over Memorial Day in Iowa. It was a great training weekend for me, and I had no rest from the usual triathlon training and kept up my swim and run training over the weekend. This weekend should prove to be a huge fitness boost. I won $30 in prize money for the weekend, better than a kick in the teeth.
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