Ironman 140.6 Amsterdam (Challenge)

Well, it’s hard to get annoyed or sad about today’s race as my pacing, nutrition and race positioning was spot on where I wanted it to be due to the weather circumstances…  …but if there’s one thing I learned from my last season’s mistakes or achievements was to not take races to heart.

Things go right and things go wrong…. Last year I already achieved what I really wanted to do in the long distance. My 9h47m finish in Barcelona already set my mind to peace with the big sub 10h monster so this year it was particularly difficult to find some sort of a target or a motivation.

At the start of the year I thought it’d be nice to try to get closer to the 9h30m or even try to break it.

Unfortunately, Last April I had an Achilles injury which left me out without being able to do proper speed training until practically 2 weeks before my Ironman 70.3 in Dublin in August and even after that I also had a couple of terrible weeks where I couldn’t even rest my foot on the ground (1^st week of September).

Before that I also had to cancel 3 Triathlon races (an Ironman 70.3, an Olympic and a sprint), 2 Duathlons, 1 aquathon and a few TT sessions with the club.

With all that in mind, I decided to still come here to Amsterdam and go long (Ironman 140.6). I didn’t really mind what the outcomes would be as long as I knew I left everything I had on the field… and fortunately this was the case today.

Yes, I’m going home with a DNF and a pat on the back instead of a finisher’s medal and a T-shirt but I know this is the best I could’ve done today.

By having stayed on the ground, I think I would’ve seriously damaged my Achilles too much to the point of no recovery.

I know I don’t want to go long again but I also want that I still want to compete in more Ironman 70.3’s in the years to come… so having thrown the towel today (even though it’s not a nice feeling) it was the right thing to do.

Swim: It's ok, it's only the start...

The swim went fine… water was around 17degrees and not very choppy. The buoys were clearly visible and it was a very good swim course.

I started at the front and kept there pretty much the entire race splashing around sometimes with a few lads and some times on my own.

At the 1.9k mark, I checked my watch (29mins), which it would more or less mirror what I was expecting to see. A bit slow but such is life!

My second lap was even a bit slower but at least I go to break the hour, which is okish for the amount of time that I spent in the pool this year.

Bike: They have wind turbines for a reason!

Once I got on the bike, I started pushing the watts controlling the bike, which seemed to be a bit of a job due to the strong winds (here in The Netherlands they call them gentle breeze).

It was all-fine until the 18^th km where we had the wind on our right-front shoulder until the 40-41^st km… then, we turned again and we had full-on headwind until the 70^th km…  it was pretty hardcore … we knew it was 20-30km more with the wind sitting on our right-back corner and then again another miserable loop of 60kms with the wind on our heads.

The course is VERY FLAT…. I don’t think there’s any other course out there in the world as flat as this one….  According to my Garmin I was on a TT position for 5h10m and only standing up 10mins (which includes the water stations).

But don’t fool yourself (in case you’re thinking of doing this race) … the course is based on cycling paths, cobble stone streets, speed bumps, cow gates, farmers roads,  and even when you’re on the “main road” this is not the usual crystal-smooth pavement. The road surface was made up of some sort of a red-mixed stones put together.

I was incredibly disappointed by this fact…. But such is life and the pavement and strong winds are there for everyone.

My Achilles started giving out a bit as I was pushing on the second lap against the wind but nothing major though.

I managed to be in control and stay in the front 7^th or 8^th (AG) during the long distance Dutch Championships which is not bad if you think about it. (Everyone’s so tall in this land – I looked like my wee girl with her tiny bike next to these dudes with their very high saddles).

I dealt with my nutrition brilliantly and I started overtaking a lot of cyclists in the last 15kms of the bike. Felt very strong and with a lot of hunger for the marathon’s miles!

T2: Not good news

I got off the bike and I noticed that I couldn’t rest my left foot on the ground.  I limped from the dismount line until the Transition area but the pain was unbearable so I started hopping with my right foot while holding the bike and finding my number to rack it.

The entire ankle was hurting, it wasn’t the Achilles alone… as a matter of fact the Achilles was the less of my worries there.

I’ve never felt this way before during training so it’s was all new news to me. Eventually I drop the bike off and hopped into the changing tent where I sat down, massage my foot quickly and off I went on my run.

Run: Oh, oh.

The running shoe must have absorbed part of the shock as I was able to run without limping anymore.

I set myself to my usual 4:35 pace (which is too fast but I always do the same for the first 2kms) and I kept in under control (4:40) during the first 7 mins.

Unfortunately, the pain around my ankle was too unbearable and as soon as I started the 2^nd loop I realized there was no way I would be able to finish the race.

I decided to see if I walked a bit maybe it would go away but the minute I stopped running and started to walk, my ankle shoot a very strong pain in the ankle that made me fall. That’s when I realized my race was over.

I got up, took my chip off and started to walk back to the headquarters.

The pain was actually worst walking than it had been the entire loop and as I write these lines, the Achilles is reminding me who’s wearing the trousers in this relationship! J

Ah well, as I said, it was only a race… this puts an end to a terrible season if it wasn’t for the Barcelona Marathon in March which is the only thing I take with pride this year.

Thank you all for your support and messages.

Ernest

Ironman 70.3 - Dublin 2015

My first Triathlon this year went pretty much as expected... no real surprises as per my recent training.

Prior to the race I wasn’t nervous at all which from my point of view, this is never a good sign: it means you don’t really give a crap about the race...   ...if anything I was only worried about the temperature of the water as it was my first open water of the season in IRL.

Swim:  

It was a rolling water start... so I stayed in the middle of the group before entering the water. Not a good strategy as I had to swim over 200 swim caps on my wave start... Silly mistake that frustrates everyone: myself and the swimmers that get overtaken so early in the race.

Half way through the swim, I already started passing tens of yellow hats (previous wave) every minute and I clearly positioned myself at the front of my wave.

I then swam in the wrong direction (I was following the previous wave swimmers rather that eyeing the buoys and I had missed a buoy so I had to go back about 100-150m to go around it... not a biggie but pretty annoying as I was leading the wave.

In the end I left the water 5^th of my wave and 38^th overall.

Bike:

Due to my recent Achilles injury I knew I hadn’t done many miles at a race pace lately, so I took it easy and decided to stay in control. I lowered the watts considerably and cruised along.

The race course even though is really flat (according to my Garmin 400m of elevation gain); it doesn’t really suit my non-existing cycling skills.  There are quite a lot of bends, T junctions, Speed bumps, sharp corners, etc...

It’s a shame as I kept loosing positions on the bike at every single corner.

The changing weather didn’t help either... we hardly had any head or tail wind. Most of it was coming from the side. This forced me to move from side to side every now and then as I was riding a disc.  Nothing major, but when it’s wet (it rained a couple of times while I was cycling) I freak out.

At the end, I clocked very similar watts as last year in Collinstown 70.3 but this time with a very disappointing speed average of 34,5km/h.

I lost quite a few positions (understandingly) to a 22^nd of my AG and 97^th overall.

Run:

My run strategy was simple: Keep on running at a pace you’re comfortable and can control throughout the race without jeopardizing my Achilles... and so I did; I started at the 4:30 pace and I maintained it practically for the first two laps (14kms) of the run course.

At the end of the 1^st lap, I saw my god old friend Matt Molloy just 400mts (about 2mins) ahead of me. I need to confess that going for him crossed my mind but I quickly abandoned the idea for two reasons:

1.        I didn’t want to injury trying to catch him.

2.       The lad is in some serious form this year ... even If I lowered my pace by 15secs, it would take me about 8kms to get to him and that would be assuming he was running at my speed. I would’ve been incredibly bollocks by the time I’d get to him and then I’d need to maintain whatever pace he would throw at me. No way!

I always love racing with Matt as we have a very similar level of fitness (obviously not today!) and we always finish so close from each other.

On the 3^rd lap, I struggled a bit with my pace so I slowed it down for 4kms. I also started to notice that my Achilles started to bother me again, so I took it on the chin and cruised at a slower pace.

Then at the 18^th km mark I went back to the original pace and finished the last km just above 4:00.

Not the fastest run I’ve ever done but very pleased with it as not only my Achilles held up like a champion but I also felt great throughout the run (specially the first 14kms which felt quite easy).

Finish:

I finished the race in 4h49m28s which is nowhere near my PB but happy enough due to the circumstances and the lack of speed training since mid April.

In the end, I finished 19^th on my Age Group (out of around 400 athletes) and 95^th overall  (out of 2,460 athletes)... so in the end it wasn’t that bad.

Legs feel very fresh as I write these lines, so tomorrow I’m back to my full Ironman training (with an easy 8-10k run, of course).  Not sure how I’m gonna double this distance.... Just the thought of it, makes me wonder why I signed up for another one.

Thank you all the supporters on the course... they definitely made the difference today!

Ernest