Ironman Oceanside 70.3 Saturday March 27, 2010
Thursday 25th: Landed in LAX around 11 am and drove right to Oceanside to check out the expo and register for the event. Red flags were up on the beach so we skipped out on the ocean swim to test the 58 degree waters. Drove back to Marks in Newport Beach and put my bike together and relaxed. Had pasta with spicy sausage in it (probably not my best meal choice) I think I had not only seconds, but thirds as well as desert.
Slept for 8 plus hours, slept great.
Friday: breakfast was two large cups of coffee along with a peanut butter and strawberry jelly bagel with a banana. Went on a 20 easy ride followed by a 20 minutes easy run. Eric shipped his bike UPS and as of noon when we were planning on leaving, it had not arrived. Don’t ship your bike, use of use a bike box and take on the plane with you. Eric stayed behind and met us there later. We packed our night & tri bags (forgot my HR strap and borrowed one) and headed to Oceanside to check out the expo again and check into our local hotel right next to the start line. Travel lodge baby. Legs up for a while to relax and then out with the boys for dinner.
Early great pasta dinner with the guys at Rosina's. What a great place and full of amazing food, don't ask for the salt however. Stopped at local coffee shop on the way back to the room for morning coffee that we would heat in the microwave, good choice. Had a cup at night to see if I could get my gi tract moving, but no luck. Mixed up my nutrition for race day and cooled it in the fridge.
9 pm in bed and sleeping quickly after.
Saturday, race day:
Woke at 3 AM to drink my 3 small bottles of ensure and eat my Erin Bakers cookie along with my big cup of coffee. I then relaxed and slept till 4 AM and left at 4:30 to go to set up bike and transition station. Tried the bathroom, but no such luck before I left the hotel. After set up, I tried the porta-potty and just a little came out, blocked up and expecting that during the run I will stop for a good clearing and all will be fine. Why does this bathroom thing torment me before every race? I guess if it were not that, it would be something else. Oh to run a race without these issues, I would be so much better at the sport.
While setting up I drank a bottle of Heed to keep up my water and electrolytes. I have one more Heed on the bike and two bottles of perpetum each with @ 520 calories of carbs and some protein and ready to go. 300-400 calories per hour on the bike is the target intake.
Swim: 58 degree cold water that woke you up quick, started in early wave at 7am sharp. Swim felt great, I was not working hard and had a lot more to give. I just wanted to finish and be strong for the bike and run. At the ½ way mark and turn for home I decided to kick it into gear and within two strokes my left calf cramped. Once I realized I was not going to drown and that I could still stroke and kick with one leg, I was back headed to the dock at that slow comfortable pace. Leg started to feel better around the dock and there was no issue running from the water to my bike, so all was good. Finished with about 100% energy level and felt very strong. (need to do some heads up swimming for sighting, I slow a lot to look around and need confidence in my direction while under full stroke)
T1 felt good, great layout( might be a good place to down some GU next time) would be a goodtime to slam down some heed also that I don’t have to carry on the bike.
Bike: 56 miles of awesome views. Felt strong from the start. I kept seeing 220 -230 on the watts meter and was afraid to go to the next lower gear, next time I will try that. Hills were monsters, but I kept bike in low gear and stood half the time. I felt very strong on the climbs and not at all winded when I got to the top. Damn can you get some good speed on the down hills, 40 plus MPH without having to pedal much. Gotta love weighing 205 on the down hills. I started to feel gassy around mile 35 or so and knew I was in trouble. At mile 47 after the last downhill and just after the last aid station I stopped and used the porta-potty. 7-8 minutes later I emerged feeling better, I think I got it all out. This killed my killer bike split and there was only 10 miles left so no need to push hard. I rode around my target I think for the last 10 miles and felt great coming into T2.
T2; Legs felt a bit cramped on the bike when I tried to stretch them around 35 miles, but now they felt fine.T2 was smooth( race number came undone as I forgot the plastic things for the Fuelbelt) Once again some extra heed would be good at T’s. On my way out of T2 I stopped for another quick bathroom break and was off in good time.
Run: started off great and felt awesome. 4 minutes in my right thigh began to cramp and then my left. I stopped at the aid station for some drinks and was in more pain than I had ever been in. while bent over, my right hamstring cramped and I didn’t know what to do. Bending over made my thighs feel good, but standing made my hamstring feel better. I held on to a street sign pole for dear-life until the pain started to go away. The volunteers were awesome from what I can tell. It was all I could do not to pass out. I decided to go for a goofy looking walk. I was going to finish this race. About one mile into the run I had to go to the bathroom again and there was nowhere to go. I used the bathroom of someone’s beach house, there went another 8 minutes on the can. I am not sure it is safe to use that room yet, might want to let that air out for a week or so. At mile 2 I drank 2 cups of water and 2 of Gatorade and yes, I used the bathroom for the 3rd time. This time for only about 5 minutes (21 total so far, for those that are counting). I stopped at every aid station for water and Gatorade in the same amounts. One more porta-potty left on the course for me to use, so when in Rome I went yet again (5 minutes, maybe 4) all cleared out now, feel sick as a dog, dehydrated, crampy and surprised I have not thrown up yet. I have seen Eric in front of me and figured he was about 6-8 minutes ahead of me with 4 miles on the run to go. I got nothing left to chase him down and really don’t want run hard and make myself have to use the same porta twice ( I know what happened in there a while ago). I ran ¾ of the run and walked ¼ to keep from pooping myself, good call.
All the training since November has really paid off and I felt great before during and after the race and am sure I will come back strong in June when I take on Mooseman 70.3 in NH on June 6th and then Ashland Olympic on June 13th.
Ironman 70.3 oceanside : 6:06 finish with 3 miles walked and 25 minutes of potty time. Lots of lessons learned
1. clear myself out 2 days before a race. (prepare)
2. add electrolytes to race day program.(feed)
3. follow bike watts plan for stronger run legs. (follow the plan)
4.ride run course to know where bathrooms are. (know where your going)
5. make check list for travel, race day and T setup. (written plan)
6. warn readers of my poopy talk ahead of time, sorry that was my experience.
