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Do you have any advice?
Can of worms - opened...........
swim a little bit, runa little bit, bike a little bit, smoke a lot, eat a lot, drink a lot....;-)
I thought Barlos had done a fair bit of training this year ? Well compared to before TLD ?
Carl do you have such a thing as a training diary ?
Two main reasons I DNF'd at the Longest Day.
1) Pacing, I got carried away on the bike and raced hard the 1st 30 miles as was loving overtaking people. I averaged 18mph till the 1st feed station and shortly afterwards I gegan to bonked.
2) Nutrition, I didnt really know what I was doing nutrition wise, I was eating and drinking but not enough. I realised to late that I was underfueled and pretty soon afterwards the combination of bonking and feeling sick prevented me from eating enough to make up for it.
I had to stop about 8 times on the bike just, sometimes just to lie down as I was so dizzy I could hardly stay upright.
I pulled out 16 miles into the run after being told I had an hour to do the 3rd lap of 10k, and it was 2 hours till cut off. I could of finished but it would of taken me 4 hours and didnt want to cause trouble for the race crew.
Report
Longest Day 2004 - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run
Thanks for your support and the interest in my endeavour to complete an Ironman, below is the update on the days event and though it didnt go to plan im happy with the result.
I did not finish the event and withdrew at 8.30pm (14hrs 30mins) after about 16 miles of the Marathon. Not what I would have hoped for, but I can honestly say I am not at all disappointed as getting as close as I did was a major achievement. The gory details are below.
Swim (2.4 miles)
Arrived late at the swim start (one of last 7 people they were calling for but was good as I didn't have long to stand around worrying about the day that lay before me. Had been nervous about the swim for a few weeks as shoulder has been playing up so started off very steadily and found the going pretty easy. I was making good progress but then found my goggles kept steaming up and had to stop every other buoy to clear them, also had problems with them leaking. First lap was 28mins, end of second was 1:02 and finished strongly to exit water in around 1:33.
Transition 1
Went pretty smoothly and left after about 5 mins.
My plan for the run was to alternate between 8 mins run 2 mins walk and I felt pretty good (surprising good in fact given the problems id had on the bike). Never the less I'd messed up on my pacing earlier in the day and was determined not to repeat it again, I have experience of running a few marathons so had an idea how I would feel later.
I soon began to feel disheartened as despite sticking to my strategy the 1st out and back took me 1hr 20 mins (it didn't help knowing I was nearly last and seeing all the others with their collection of different colour wrist bands signifying laps completed, I had none and a long way left to go.
I don't know if the course was long but even in my state and the pace I was going at, I should have been sub 1hr 15 for the fist lap and was hoping for maybe 1.20, 1.25, 1.30 & 1.40 (just 10k each lap). A bit of mental arithmetic and the likelihood I would slow down told me I would really struggle for the cut off of 15hrs 30 mins.
The camaraderie on the run was great, lots of support and encouragement.
The second out and back was a little harder so I changed my pacing to 7.5 mins run 2.5 mins walk and more or less stuck to this but took 1hr 35mins. It was on this loop that I saw Daryl at the middle feedstation, he was glad to see me and admitted finding the later part of the run hard going but was on his last loop, I ran with him for a while chatting but had to stop to walk. Towards the end of the second loop I was resigned to the fact that a realistic time for my finish was going to be around 10pm to 10.30pm, and I was slowing with every mile.
At the end of loop I stopped to asked a marshall, then the Race Director about the cut off, hoping they would be flexible but not wanting to take advantage of the race crew and have them standing around waiting for me. On the other hand I half wanted to finish even if it took me till midnight and everyone had gone home. It was 7.20pm and I had 2 loops to do, I was told if I was not back by 8.20pm id be pulled out. I knew there was no way I could run a loop in 1hr but with my dream shattered I headed off maybe in the hope I could do get back at 8.40 and they'd be flexible (as im sure they would). At the start of the 3rd loop it all fell apart, whether it was a combination of fatigue or my willpower being destroyed by a unachievable deadline I lost all ability to run and within 1 mile couldn't even walk at 4 min mile pace. It took me 40 mins to reach the middle feedstation (2.5k approx) It was now 8pm. The state I was in and with 10 miles left to complete I would have taken many hours, perhaps till midnight and I would have done a lot of damage to my body. I had little choise but to withdraw..
It took me nearly an hour to limp back to T2, and to the continually ringing support and cheers of well done (despite having took my number off). This walk was never the lass a walk of pride and with my head held high. I had given 100% and more, that day wasn't the day I would complete my first Ironman but id driven my body on for nearly 15 hours. No winners finishers medal, but you don't need a medal to be a winner, and as I said at the start im not overly disappointed, ill be back to try again...
I did come back
In 2004 id trained as much as I have this year and as much as I did before IMCH.
That included a 90mile bike/10k run brick with Smithy and Golum and a 75 mile bike with Candy. I was fit enough, it was inexperience and over enthusiasm that let me down.
Bike (112 miles)
I felt good at the start of the bike which was the beginning of my downfall. I cycled like an idiot, completely abandoning my race strategy but with the idea that a few quick miles at the start would be something in the bank for later and then just got caught up in joy of eating up other riders up and must have passed 20 people in 1st hour. I arrived at Feed Station 2 around 09.28am which was way ahead of my estimated 10.00am and equated to 34 miles in 1:48 (approx) ave 18.3mph. I knew I was going to fast and had to slow down but still felt good.
After I left Feed Station 2 I started more gently and was going about 16mph still feeling great, then after no more than 5 miles I started to feel dizzy and light headed, this got worse and was soon followed by shivers, head & neck ache. I knew something was going wrong but tried to press on but my speed just dwindled to near 12mph and I felt like id got the flu. Within a few miles I decided to stop and take a break to see if that would help, stopped at a suitable spot (out of sight of riders as I had to lye down). After 10 mins of hearing lots of riders pass (many of whom I used so much effort to overtake) I knew I had to press on but was feeling a little better, the dizziness came and went and I had to stop another 2 or 3 times. My speed was still very low (ave 14mph) and I found that part of the course to be hard going especially as it seemed the fast section when I rode the course a few weeks before, that was probably accounted for by the wind blowing from another direction.
I eventually arrived at FS3 (67miles) around 12:40 (nearly 3.5 hours to do 33 miles), by this time I was feeling a little better. I think I was about 4th from last place and hadnt seen another rider for well over an hour. After leaving FS2 I was feeling more positive, though knew I would be way off my conservative estimate of a 7hr bike leg as had already taken 5 hours and still had nearly 45 miles to go. The dizziness came and went and I had to keep stopping. I was also now starting to struggle with a painful right knee which was sapping my power, I got to the stage of having 30 miles to do in 2hrs 20mins to beat the 10hr bike cut off, I mentally broke it down into 2 15 mile splits taking 1hr each with a 10 minute break in between (as I knew I wouldn't be able to make it non stop). In the last 15 miles I had a second wind and mysteriously as it arrived the dizziness all but disappeared and I but in a pretty good effort even over what was pretty hilly roads to arrive at T2 around 3.42pm (8hr 15mins bike leg, last 45 miles in around 3hr 15 mins).
Transition 2
At T2 I was feeling confident and knew I had around 5hrs 30 mins to do the Marathon, which was achievable but only just. I asked for my knee to be looked at but was soon told if I didn't start the run in 5 minutes I'd be pulled from the race, id spent all day fighting to carry on so had a quick massage and off I went.
Run 26.2 miles (4 loop out and back)
Ratbag - what are you doing round these parts ? The lure of Ironman calling you ?
3hr 50min
5hr 30min
6hr 30min
50 mins
5hr 50min
1hr 40min
2hr 00min
3hr 50min
3hr 50min
5hr 40min
7hr 00min
11hr 30min
10hr 00min
14hr 50min
15hr 40min
9hr 35min
9hr 30min
16hr 40min
17hr 00min
9hr 30min
50min
12hr 30min
17hr 30min
14hr 40min
10hr 50min
0
0
Ironman
1) Missed 5-6 weeks training May-June as I was unwell, that was after having an enforced 3 month lay-off October - December with gal stones and broken arm.
2) Wrongly assumed id not have to worry about the bike cut-off, then 5 things conspired to ruin my day.
a) Lack of training.
b) Lack of swim fitness and non wet suit swim left me fairly tired to begin with.
c) Lack of pacing, i.e. not being aware of what the cut-off actually was and making sure I achieved it.
d) Getting paranoid about not having any cigarettes and stopping to smoke for fear of them all getting wet (which they did), this also distracted me mentally.
e) No gorgeous girl offering me sexual favours.
suze - if you've done the training you can get round. just treat the race as a long training day. if you tell yourself you can, or tell yourself you can't, you're probably right
Nothing ive not said already.
1) Pacing, have a target and stick to it, but also have a back up plan if something goes wrong.
2) Nutrition.
3) Mental strength and determination, keep going at all costs. Its going to hurt, your going to get bored, at times your going to think you may not make it.
Keep moving & stay positive. Its well worth mentally rehersing how you may feel during parts of the race in negative circumstances and how you'll deal with it. Also worth reading the Mark Allen comments that Candy posted.
Enjoy yourself.
look at your watch and keep moving faster if applicable :-)
Smithy encouraged me, told me to keep going and that I could make it and that little ray of light got me going again.
We'll all go through bad (even terrible) spells in a race and the cut off can almost seem an impossible target but its important to remember how important your mind is and how it works. Its amazing (and how often) that 10 minutes after feeling like you want to curl up and die that how things can improve and you get a second/third/fourth wind.
From 2/3 distance on the bike and for the whole of the run its mind games.
Sorry to have hijacked the thread.
Short answer 'no'.
Longer answer...the event attracts me, i.e. the idea of doing another IM but I really can't put the training time in that is required and in spite of witnessing the burger boys blagging Lanza, it isn't a path I'd want to go down...
So unless Mrs RB gets a sudden urge to train for an IM or even a half then I can't see myself doing another...
It is a subject that comes up in our house from time to time...usually prompted by me mentioning the latest Pirate outing and / or tomfoolery...then Jo says 'why don't you do another one..?'...
But I really would like her to be involved a la Petal...that isn't going to happen...
She even thought I wanted to do Norseman!!!!
which reminds me............staff review in 10 mins..........later