Ironman Coeur d’Alene • June 2007
Jenny T

Training

I’d had a few setbacks in training – but who doesn’t? Even reading reports on the elites of our sport, who are able to dedicate themselves to training full time, they get setbacks, so I identified early on that such things are always going to be there and the test is how you deal with them. At the time of registration for the event I had been living in Canada for just under a year and looked set to finish my Canadian air traffic control training in Fall 06. So I was anticipating a more settled and predictable work pattern by summer 07 and the IM CdA race. That didn’t go according to plan and I ended up having to start again from scratch in Jan 07, with work training coming to a peak right now at the time of the race and the pressure really building. It’s been an incredibly stressful time at work, at this point my qualification and in turn our remaining in Canada, is still not guaranteed.

Additionally, I was ill through the spring and missed the initial build to my major training bricks. I ran my main training race at California IM 70.3 at the end of March suffering the tail end of a cold, and hoped that I could get away with it. Unfortunately, I just precipitated a secondary infection of bronchitis and sinusitis that was very slow to mend, even after antibiotics and I still do not feel that my breathing is quite right yet. I had around 3 weeks off training completely and although Pete did not say so in as many words, there came a point where I picked up the impression that it was time to get back in the flow or miss the race. So I got back into training, the big bricks and long runs still induced wheezing and I seemed to be producing an unnatural amount of gunk. This worried me, I went back to the Dr who prescribed an inhaler because I still had some lung damage and hypersensitivity from the bronchitis, but it had no perceptible effect.

Training in Alberta is the pits, but in hindsight it did me good. It’s windy more often than not, you can take your wind either in the Rocky foothills, which is scenic, but the road quality is poor and the drivers, mostly of trucks and pick ups, are aggressive. Or to the east the prairies start, the grades are low but endless and the wind is unbroken by terrain, the roads run monotonously straight and for hours, it’s demoralizing. Drivers here treat cyclists as though they shouldn’t be on the roads and they like to come within an inch or two with their horns blaring or someone leans out of a passenger side window and yells in your ear – it’s so unnecessary and makes me jump out of my skin. Since I’m a shift worker I don’t fit in very well with regular training groups, so I have done 100% of my training alone on the roads and trails, with my IronMate, best mate, support, centre of my world and husband John, playing tech and nutrition support along the routes (as well as domestic, moral and emotional support full time). I did attend tri swim sessions whenever I could, but for the last 4 months or so a combination of shift work and having different training needs (prescribed by Pete), resulted in my doing all of my later swim training alone too. Whilst that makes training time pass more slowly, and sometimes it’s hard to get going, it’s good for mental strength when race day comes along.

We visited CdA and watched the IM race last year and thought that it looked great. We loved the town an the people were friendly and welcoming. I signed up there and then for this year’s race. The bike course was changed this year. Instead of routing west through Post Falls, it went north to Hayden Lake, a beautiful, if rather hilly, area. A friend counted 18 hills over 23 miles on each leg of the bike course in the Hayden Lake portion. The swim was an unchanged 2 laps in the lake and the run, also unchanged, ran through town and along the lakeside to a turn around towards the top of the only significant climb on the run course.

Race day

Swim

Race day blew in with a stiff breeze from the south. As the direction was right along the full length of the lake (several miles) before it reached us, it whipped up a few waves along the way. I didn’t know that a lake could have such waves….although really it was only surface chop, there was no swell to it, which I have been accustomed to in the seas around England. The organisers were concerned and offered us the option of doing a duathlon instead, or even to have a go and turn back if we wanted. It was a no-brainer, I didn’t even have to think about it, there was no way that I had come this far to give in at the first challenge. I was incredibly nervous before the race, but I always am, so that’s normal for me. But once I went over the timing mat onto the beach to muster for the start I felt quite calm. I went in the water and dived under a few times to get used to it, I just wanted to get on with it, the wait seemed eternal. Eventually we got underway and it wasn’t too bad at all. I normally go to the outside of the course for the start, to stay away from the crowd, but the wind and waves had a tendency to drift us to the right (outbound), so I switched to the inside (left side). I think that was a good move, it wasn’t too bad. I ended up right on each yellow buoy going out, there was an inevitable crowd at the turning buoys at the end, but apart from that I stayed pretty much out of trouble. There are always a few kicks, stray elbows and dunkings, but this was no worse than any other race, and better than many. I found that it was possible to get into a rhythm with the chop and I quite enjoyed the swim. I’ve never been fast in the water, but I did feel strong and not threatened by the situation. I completed the first lap in 41 mins, so I was optimistic for around 1hr 22 for the swim, but my navigation was not so good going out on the second lap. The swimmers had spaced out a little and sighting was difficult over the waves. I’m aware that I zig-zagged first wide to the right (outside the course) then to the left (inside the course) which is what I believe cost me the time which brought my overall swim time down to 1 hr 28 mins.

T1

Leaving the beach, picking up transition bag and getting to the change tent were fine, but on arrival at the change tent it was so packed that I could barely get through the door. I did get in and find a space, but I felt a little held up by the process. Once through the tent getting out onto the bike course was fine. I felt energetic, my legs felt great and I was glad to be underway.

Bike

Setting off on the bike I had to remind myself that it was going to be a long day. Riding felt easy and I was exuberant. The first hill on the way down to the turnaround at Higgins Point was almost a non-event, I was surprised to find at the top that I was still on my big chain ring, it didn’t feel like it. I forced myself to focus and settle into my heart rate plan, keeping my effort in zone 2 almost all of the time…I couldn’t keep it there on the bigger hills, but I tried to stay calm and pace myself, finding a rhythm that I could maintain for each hill. I had marked my bottles of e-Load in half-hour increments so that I could see that I was keeping to an even intake rate. I had 2 bottles mounted behind my saddle. I also had my aero bottle between my aero bars up front for water. I noticed that I got though my first bottle of e-load ahead of time, but I didn’t worry about that because I had not drunk anything (except lake water unintentionally) for the first 1 hr 30 of swim plus 30 mins or so before the start. I threw away the first empty bottle as I went though an aid station and then a few minutes later reached for my second bottle, all I felt was an empty cage! I know I didn’t kick it off when I mounted up because I didn’t touch anything I felt as though I cleared my saddle by a foot. A guy coming past me saw me reaching for the empty cage and offered me a bottle of Gatorade straight away, that was very kind and demonstrates the great camaraderie that you get on these events, but I declined anyway because I can’t stomach Gatorade (he said neither could he and he couldn’t give it away!). The timing of this was perfect, it meant that my bike was light weight for the climbs, I had spare e-Caps (electrolytes) and gels so with water that I picked up at the next aid station I could easily compensate for the lost bottle. So I enjoyed the hills and wondered why I hadn’t planned it that way! Time passed quickly for the northern part of the ride through Hayden Lake. There were hills and changes of direction to keep the course stimulating. Time only started to drag on the long straight run back into town which was also into wind. Passing though town again gave me a real lift as I picked John out for the first time, with his England flag.

Early on the second lap at the Higgins Point turnaround I picked up my special needs bag with 2 fresh bottles of e-Load. I had also made liners for my bento box each containing 2 ½ Power Bars, cut into sixths. I had mixed up the flavours and worked out that I needed 1/6 Power bar every 15 mins together with my e-Load to get my 60g carbs per hour. I also had 1 e-Cap per hour in there. So I discarded the old liner, popped a new filled one in, slapped on some more Chamois Butt’r and set off on lap 2. Second lap was much like the first except that I was more prepared for the wind on the way back, I stayed down on my aero bars and tried to cheat the wind, I noticed that I passed quite a few people who looked pretty tired. I was looking forward to seeing John again and to getting off the bike. The ride took me 6 hrs 31 mins, although I originally had something quicker in mind, I had to be pleased with my time considering the hills and the wind.

T2

My second visit to the change tent was much less busy and I had the luxury of a helper who got all of the things out of my bag and packed away the things I had taken off. I had opted to change my shorts because I have found in training that running in proper cycling shorts leads to chaffing around the edges of the padding. I also usually use elastic laces for races up to half IM, but I had found in training that for longer runs they sometimes got a bit out of position over the top of my foot and the irritation was cumulative, so I was back in traditional laces. After a liberal smothering with Bodyglide and sunblock I was out onto the run course.

Run

I set off on the marathon feeling like I normally would after 18 miles of running, thinking what a stupid thing this was to do. My knees were sore already, would they hold up ‘til the end? The backs of my legs were already tight, this is going to be hell. But I soon managed to break that mind set. I replaced the negative thoughts with the theme music from Match of the Day (a British soccer program, it’s a high cadence tune), to induce a higher, lighter cadence and settled down to something that I thought I could maintain indefinitely. From 10 mins into the run for the next hour and a half I kept a fair pace of somewhere between 9 min 30 and 10 min miles. At the end of the first lap I knew that I could be on for a 12 hr 40 finish. But by then my digestive system had already began to break down in stages. At first I couldn’t take in any more e-Load. I started to feel sick. Initially though I was able to overcome it because I got involved with running with someone else. I had been aware of another pair of feet running just behind me for a while, not coming past. I thought it was someone who I’d had a bit of banter with when he saw a friend going the other way and told him that it was not far to the turnaround, I said "liar!"…he said he had to say that (it wasn’t true). Anyway, following an aid station which I had walked though I was slow to get running gain and he said "come on, I need you to start running again – you are running a great pace for me". So I set off running again and he settled down on my shoulder again. I felt like I had a job to do now and it took my mind off my own problems. We only exchanged very few words, but we kept each other going. When I heard his footsteps disappear behind me I turned around and called him to get back on board, which he did. We stayed together for 5 or 6 miles, but eventually he dropped off.

I had packed diluted flat Coke in my second Fuel Belt and I hoped that this would calm my stomach. For a while I thought that it had worked, but I was mistaken. Discomfort turned to pain. I made countless bathroom stops. I tried marching for a while, it seemed that the running impact was what was really hurting in my stomach and bowels. I didn’t seem to be alone walking, few people at this stage seemed to be running. During one of my running phases I picked up another guy who said he liked my pace, we ran together for a while, but I could not keep running and I had to let him go. I got though the last lap in a mix of running slowly, marching, walking and trotting to bathrooms. Inside the last mile though I could hear the crowd at the finish. As I turned down Sherman Avenue, saw the crowds and the Ironman finish arch I got an incredible lift. I spaced about 30m behind the guy in front of me and 30m ahead of the one behind. Checked that no-one was going to sprint past me, as they had done at California and settled down to enjoy the finish. I saw John on the right and felt elated for both of us that we’d done it. The run took me 5 hrs 2 mins.

What worked?

My support team – John was/is everything to me, with one exception – he didn’t try to coach me, he left that to Pete. John made it all possible for me in every way. He took other jobs from me at home to give me the time to train, he encouraged me to get through my training and occasionally had to push me out of the door, but he also kept an eye on my health and fatigue and reeled me in when he thought I was getting over trained or likely to make myself ill. He was there with practical help on my longer rides and runs with bottles and food, he scouted routes for me and threw me into a bin of cold water when I got home. He was and is my emotional support and my world would not revolve without him. He put up with me being tired and irritable, especially towards the end, he had to endure my self doubts and then me being as high as a kite. So a huge thanks to John.

Coach Pete – what can I say. A chance meeting at IM Canada in 2005, remote coaching by internet & e-mail. I have found it easy to put my faith in his training program and to trust his experience. Although we’ve only met on 3 fairly brief and busy occasions I feel as though we know each other well. He is like a family friend who is here in the house with us. When I have questions I get responses as fast as if he is always sitting at his computer. In the depths if last winter when things fell apart at work it would have been easy to stop training. If I didn’t have Pete’s guidance I wouldn’t have known what to do. I just did whatever he prescribed for the day, put one foot in front of another and got though it, in a bit of a daze, without having to think about it too much, because Pete was there to do that for me and to get me through what I needed to do.

No chafing – due to Chamois Butt’r and bodyglide.

The turbo trainer – so boring, but very effective. I’m sure that the long hours in our basement over the winter pushing out the miles with Spinnervals, Tour de France DVDs and old films went a long way to pushing out my bike endurance. For one thing there is no respite on the trainer, no free-wheeling downhill, for another it just makes being out on a real ride so much more interesting that time flies and riding outdoors seems so much easier. In fact our home gym set up as a whole was a significant advantage because I also used a treadmill at home and did the majority of my weight training at home over the winter. Getting into town 45 mins each way to do these things on top of a days work and training time would have been a lot harder.

Cross training – Cross country skiing in lieu of long runs in the winter got me out in the fresh air for CV fitness.

Overall I was strong - but not fast.

What didn’t work?

My stomach after 10 hrs – if the race had been 10 to 10 ½ hours I’d have been fine, but I hadn’t trained for that long (neither would I wish to). I feel that my nutrition gave me the energy that I needed. This wasn’t an energy issue, it was a GI distress issue. This is one thing that I have to research and sort out before my next big race. I’m planning on trying Infinit anyway, which will be custom made, I just couldn’t get switched over to it early enough on lead in to this race.

Living in Alberta – didn’t help. The training season is short. Although it’s possible to run outdoors in the winter it’s not very safe due to ice and snow. It’s virtually impossible to road ride in the winter which lasts right though to April/May. When the ice melts the roadsides are gritty and drivers the most aggressive and ignorant I have ever encountered anywhere. Pool access was also difficult, especially for long sessions. We have a great training facility here in Calgary but a lot of provincial competitions are held here for swimming, synchro-swimming, water polo & diving and the regulars just get pushed out of their way – it’s infuriating because I pay a fair whack for an annual membership.