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Ironman Lanzarote 2013 (3rd weekend in May?)
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That's bloody insane talk about money grabbing gits!
If you qualify for Kona do you get a free entry?
no Razor..........if you qualify at the race you have to be there at the awards do the next day with the money to enter......i seem to remember it used to be about £600 but someone can correct me .if you don't pay up then it is rolled down immediately to the next person on the age group....
You are all phenomenal and I am awestruck
PIRATES ROCK!
Congrats Barley
Yayyy - Pirates take Lanza ( at last
) - well done each & every one of you. Hope Ruta66 is still in one piece....
Where are these race reports?! They won't write themselves! Hehehehe
It goes up each year, last year I paid around £430 sterling. The race fee is the easy bit, well done Barley ????
Awesome work everyone. Wow. Slag - I salute you for even contemplating it, let alone getting to the start line. And if a race is going to beat you, it might as well be the toughest of them all.
Recover well, all.
thanks Rose.i probably heard 600 euros or dollars or something
Race Report - best done pissed I recon
oh and its a long one - as usual
Background
So I am back in Lanza
. Last year I was entered in IM Lanza, Outlaw then IM Wales. All was good - I had a cracking 5 months training, then I did a training camp in Lanza in late feb 2012. I broke.
An old rugby injury then 5 years progressive run volume do not mix. A ruptured (stretched) cruciate, torn and trimmed meniscal cartilage, degenerative cartilage damageon to the end of the femur (arthritis) mean I can't run fast any more.
So I survived IM Lanza 2012 (11:15 ish) with a 1:10 swim, 6:02 bike, and a 3:47 marathon, based on the volume of run training over winter
Outlaw got cancelled, IM Wales got deferred, I had an arthroscopy, bought a power meter and some ebay deep section wheels, and here I am again
Its ExtravaLanza!!!!
I came out here again in March for the same early season training camp, (EveryDay Training), but this time I did the minimum running – just as well as I had run 3 easy run/walks since November. I was fast on the bike but somewhat lacking in endurance as I essentially blew on day 4 out of 6...... oh well...
So training continued, with some reasonable swim volume, (twice a week), bike commuting 4 days a week, (an hour each way), a regular 3-5 hour weekend rides building to 6.5 on a couple of occaisons. Add regular spin classes (does anyone else do back to back sessions?) and some interval sets and things were progressing well.
The running was limited to 1-2 easy 30 min runs for the last 8 weeks... However I was bike fit, and its only a marathon.......
I got here early had a couple of big rides the weekend ahead of the race. The top of the island was lovely, (sunshine light winds, lovely climbs, I ate in a cafe in haria and discovered their 'sporting' sandwich
. Loved it
A couple of days later I did the south part of the island..... in a full on headwind. omg. Any fast down hill was either into 20 mph winds so you needed to peddle full on to increase speed (else you slowed down) or had vicious side winds so 50-70 kph descents became somewhat hairy as you wobbled 4 foot left or right..... you dont get a lot of time to correct at that speed.....
The flats into the wind were just brutal – at climbing intensity just to go along a flat road...
The hills were therefore a bit slower. You just need the sheer power / brute bike strength to make any headway, otherwise you are going very very slowly.
Then you get to the return part of the loop – down hill with a massive tailwind – yahoo!!!!!!
I had instructions to ride the flats at 220-240w, with a cap of 280w – that felt low on the first climb, but nice on the 10th – so that was the bike plan sorted.
I decide to be mismatched and use the missus's 30mm SRAM front wheel and an 80mm HED rear, rather than my 60mm HED front. A wise decision
Treated Jason the Argonaut to some new white bar tape.
swam the loop 3-4 times – however my longest swim of the year was 3k..... hmmm
so pirates arrive, we chat, drink, eat and all is calm..... And the weather gets a bit crappier
Brain / Expectations
Some patchy swimming, solid progressive biking and negligable running – 1:15 swim, 6 ish bike, (weather dependant) and a dnf at worst or hopefully a 5:30 hour run/walk. I had been walking 100m and running 400m using an autolap on my run watch to try to delay the meltdown. I would be overjoyed with a sub 5 hr marathon or a total under 13:00
I wanted to have a easy swim, crank the bike then survive th
Race day.
Pre race porridge + raisins, coffee, 10 minute walk to the start, and phaff time
Borrow a pump off those nice COLTs to inflate the tyres, (I had put some cont GP4000s on especially – they are nice!), put bike bottles on (1 of torq go go juice, 1 of high 5 zero, and a 500ml bottle of 10 banana high 5 gels + some water in a mount between the aero bars.....
put the garmin on the bike...... maltloaf in bento box,
wetsuite on, etc
Swim.
Nice warmup, swimming out to the first bouy 100 m out – feels so easy. Back in, have a gel then queue up at about the 1:15 part of the field, (the arch indicating a 1:10 self seeded swim time was 10m ahead of me...). It get busy, but the rain means that this year I can have a piss and not be noticed
Felt relaxed – its only an IM afterall... however several tearful ladies made it easy to remember this was gonna be a big day......
Then off we go and we (eventually) get to the water. Swimming in PdC is lovely – blue seas, fishes, just 1800 odd people in the way..... The swim was nice though – not a lot of contact, generally lots of room, and the self seeding works a treat – no one swimming over you from behind, and people in front generally going fast enough too....
I just remember hoping I don't get a stray foot in the eye – this is the easy bit before it gets hard so don't go mad and just stay safe...
out of the first lap in 33 ish.... ! (I was swimming 35+ in practice) and back in and repeat – only its less crowded, more fish and finally some consistent feet to follow.
Swim 1:06:02. - its a fast swim because of the current on the out part of the loop, but the swim coaching I had a year or 2 ago has finally sunk in and I now have a semblance of a 'catch' – free speed
T1 – out the water, run to the showers taking the wetsuite half off, leave my head under the water for 20 seconds to clear the salt out of my hair (ok off the head), then trot to the back racks, get my bag and into the change tent – Its carnage. However I run to the far right handside, find a free sun longer and a nice Man Tri volunteer to smear me up with sun tan lotion. I empty my bike bag on the floor (a la Rosie) and start sorting my shit out. Get rid of the sand on the feat, pirate bike top on, maltloaf in rear pocket, socks / bike shoes on, helmet, gloves, oh – smear some chamois crème in various locations (appologising to the nice helper as I go) – then repack with wetsiuite, etc and off we go. Run to the exit, dumping the bag then trot up the bastard carpet covered sandy slope to the bike pound. Grab a cup of water from a helper, (for my sandy feet but I drunk it), then run 50 yards to find my bike.
Pleasantly surprised to see my neibhours are not on the bike yet
T1 time – 07:11 – its a long transition
Bike
Yay!!! play time!
hmm it was wet. Wtf this is Lanza. Trundled out of PdC keeping things easy, then on to the bypass and looked left across to the rest of the island. It was heavy, grey clouds and the volcanoes were above the cloud layer.... hmm
Had a chat to a brit, and we compared notes of the weather to what we had trained in – wet, windy, but hey its warm here – bring it on!!!! The Spanish looked less happy
So climb up to Yaiza (the first climb) on my power threshhold – all is good – then the garmin beeps and says 'unkown device – press ok to continue – I do so then 20 seconds later get another alert saying 'device is attached to the incorrect port' or some such shit. Excellent. Then it goes bonkers and gives me a status screen in tiny writing, followed by a circle and rainbow patterns....
WTF!!!!
Nice expensive power meter (and hr) – all now useless. AGGGGHJHH
hit power off / on, while doing 50 kph, and it comes back...... for 30 seconds. And does it all over again - piece of shit
spend the remains of the race turning the bastard thing off and on so much I started to get a blister on my thumb.
It eventually settled down a bit after 2-3 hours – apparently water proof gamin 800s are not waterproof and you should by a silicon cover for use in bad weather. *sigh * - it almost ended up being thrown into the lava fields
so on with the bike – it was pretty crap, windy weather, but the winds were typical rather than anything extreme or unusual. People were unhappy trying to corner / slow on carbon rims, and they had a whale of a time in the exposed x-winds. I just peddled harder
- good choice with the wheels – thanks ShuffleB
had a 3 minute wee in el gofo porto loo, ate malt loaf, power bars, bananas, fought to go down hill to la santa and famara, climbed haria, (that seemed easy) led a whole bunch down the switchbacks as I knew the course and they didn't, then up to the mirador. Again that seemed ok as the wind lessened.
However in reality its due to good pacing with a power meter. My hr sat at 150-155 no matter what I was doing, (easy spin or medium effort up the hills) but the power meter showed instantly (ok in 3s) if I was going too hard. As soon as the reading hit 300w I backed off / went down a gear and let everyone else by. Then hit the flat, get up to 220w as soon as possible, and overtake all those who just came past...... By haria people were flagging on the hills, and I started passing people on the climbs as they were cooked.
So over the mirador, and weeee! - a 15 k decent with a tail wind. Again knowing the course was briliant as I know the 2-3 corners where you need to brake, the others you dont need to back off. However I passed on person who didn't brake when he needed to.....I heard the ambulance got to him in 10 mins though......
then its a tailwind home for 20 k slightly uphill along a wide busy road – time to really crank it. Last year I felt fried by this point – today I felt good and trucked along at about 40 kph, catching a few, but there were some other faster people out as well who I then tagged all the way home.
Headwind climb back towards Teguise was a little reminder of the earlier part og the day, but the crappy road from Nazaret seemed easier the faster you go
All done then, with a bit more tail wind climbing / down hill rolling, then off left to Conil and its time to crack it at full power up the hill before another 10k of fast decending down the donkey track and then back into PdC. Sprinted along the main drag overtaking a couple of people who were obviously conserving thi
T2
handed json over to a handy volunteer, grabbed the bag and into the change tent to find my same handy sun screen helper. I was white by the time she finished. Again kit on the floor, new socks on, trainers, change into a monaco, garmin watch on, pirate buff on and away we go for another 200m to the start of the run – 06:57. Can't believe its almost slower than T1.
Run
Started the garmin as I run under the arch – and had't the heart to start walking, so ran 100yds up then started by 100m walk, 400m run. I think was the first person walking on the course so I was a novelty to lots of supporters – however I had to explain I was getting value for money, or its a long day, or I am about to run again in 20m.
Special thanks have got to go to the COLT tri club – Holgs has trained them well in the art of supporting – I suspect they are better than the pirates now
so I make it out to the first turn around, and make it back. Then on to the last 2 laps, and things start to get hard.... really hard. You can blag a half marathon off a few 5 k runs and excessive bike training, but not a marathon.
My ankles really started complaining, my feet had had enough, and 'Go Pirate' was met with 'sorry, there is no more go in this pirate'. The knee just gave me a few niggles, but has been fine – I just ran out of run endurance. It got hard to just start running again and when I did it was so slow. No run form what so ever by then
My times for the 5k(ish) to/from the turnaround were
I think thats pretty clear
however, I was still running, I had not broken, and so had nothing to complain about – except the pain, I just wanted it to be over.
Then I was at the turnaround, and heading home. It did not get easier, but I was happy thinking I am not coming back here again*.
So put on a bit of an effort for the final run in and I was done with a 4:34 marathon, and 11:45 overall.
I was stunned I had done it this fast, and seemingly without (too) much damage.
Aftermath – crap food, beer, icecream, walk home with too much kit up a very steep hill, food, beer and supporting. And more food.
This became a test to see whether I was capable, or still actuall wanted to do IM with lower expectations. Well I loved it, and just need to find a way to make the run as less painful as possible.
I am looking forward to outlaw, 2014 and 2015
Brilliant report OC, loved reading it.
Well done , hope you're recovering ok.
OC - Great report and well done for getting through the run it must have hurt.
OC great stuff
well done OC..amazing....
Well done Barley!
OC - was wondering how you got on with your running. It didn't seem to do you any harm, and you got a good time. I guess that shows the power of the PM on the bike.
Well done OC ... great report
Thank you so much for sharing that OC - I cannot believe you pulled a 4.34 marathon out of that training - amazing mental strength. Fantastic achievement.
Well done everyone and nice report OC, looking forward to seeing everyone elses reports.
Awesome effort OC!
Great report OC, did you win the sandbagger award?
do we know who won the shields? or are they not up till Challenge henley?
Ace report OC, though you should definitely be on for sandbagger extraordinaire with your gammy knee. I'm minus an ACL and some menicus in one knee, but sadly i'm ACTUALLY slow with it*, hehehehe. Sounds like you had the perfect bike leg, which got you through the run. Well done
Oh and the asterisk - is that to say you're doing Lanza next year too?
*actually my running sloth can't really be blamed on my knee! I'm just fat and lazy
Great report OC - made it really come alive
Great report OC!! now give that knee a rest!! Please!!
My understanding is that the Shields will be up for grabs at Henley! Well lets just say I've still got mine from last year sitting pride of place (after my alarm clock it's the first thing I see most mornings)!!
Fab report OC! Well done you x