Ironman Lanzarote 2013 (3rd weekend in May?)

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  • nah .. Lee. 131 *this* year, I suspect a few more overall but yes, a select few nonetheless!

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    Oh gosh, Lee, not ever. Oops. This year. I'm not sure how many male finishers there were, 1500/1600?

  • Chunk of the bike bit chopped off mid flow thanks to RW .. it cant have been that good  image

  • Aaaaaaaah! D'oh image Still awesome though, obviously not a lot of women do the race in general

  • Kept remembering bits that RW chopped off on the way home, namely the road to hell that was Nazaret ... like riding a pnematic drill on drawing pins, that was really really nasty!  Oh yes and enjoying the ride from the top of the mirrador del rio and then finding second wind to give it some wellie all the way home for the last 40k, must have got my nutrition sorted for once !!

  • I'm just reading back and catching up on the race reports. 

    Fantastic job Pirates! Well done. image

  • So here we go, another quick report for you…

     

    Pre- race

    When I first entered Lanza I was carrying a decent bit of fitness and was living in hope of building on that, however, after getting a job it quickly became apparent that training time would be limited to weekends only.

     

    While triathlon remains a hobby, which it will unless I can cut about 4 hours off my normal IM time, the battle for time will always quite rightly be won by work/life.

     

    Fast forward to just before the race and after average 48 hour weeks at work for the year to date we were looking at collecting a medal before midnight as the goal for the trip rather than a time.

     

    Race day – Swim

    As ever I know I’ll suffer from ‘other swimmer syndrome’ and so set off towards the back, all went well, no real biff and got into a decent rhythm quite quickly, it was then I had a minor problem, either it came apart of its own doing or it got pulled down, either way my zip was now undone and as there is a ‘special’ breakaway on the zip for ease in transition, there was no doing it back up in the water. I was tempted to ask for help after lap one but didn’t want to fall foul of the external help rule and get a DQ and so did approximately 3.7k with a bit of a rear water collection device, not ideal! All in all it made it a bit more hard work on my arms and there was a bunch of chaffing after about a lap and a half, the overall problem was that it was getting a bit chilly.

     

    Swim time 1h 45m

  • T1 was a tad slow but I was shivering which made getting the suit off and the new kit on. Having read in another report that people were pulled with possible hypothermia I was clearly a very brave chap!

     

    Bike

    As I strolled through transition it was obvious that this was a strong field as there weren’t many bikes at all. Once on the bike it was a good few km before I caught anyone, it was a chap called Oscar who seemed most upset that I’d overtaken him so he decoded to go on the attack up the first upslope, sadly for Oscar it wasn’t the greatest attack in the world and he was dispatched about 500m later never to be seen again. From then on it was the usual fare for a crap swimmer like me of picking people off on a fairly regular basis.

     

    It was a stunning course in terms of views, terrain and windy-ness and everything I’d hoped for, I’d mentioned to people the day before that I’d hoped it would be a typical Lanza day as far as the weather went but it was a case of being careful what you wish for as we headed downhill to La Santa at a ridiculously slow 14mph and this wasn’t freewheeling either.

     

    A few ‘challenging’ climbs to Teguise, Fire Mountain and Haria were great fun especially being told I was drafting up the final section to Haria at 4mph, dropping back would have involved a track stand and luckily the ref didn’t hear my comments back to them or I may have had a penalty for too. The icing on the cake was the Mirador climb and the view certainly didn’t disappoint, fortunately I was going slowly enough to be able to take it in, the photographer could have used a box brownie and still not blurred me to be fair.

     

    Nothing much else to report really apart from the utter joy that was the road to Nazaret, if there’s a worse road on any IM course I’d be surprised. Have to say I wasn’t overly impressed seeing the course follow a road towards Montagne Blanco with a few miles to go, my Spanish isn’t great but that seemed like a step too far from the organisers, luckily for them we soon turned away from there and instead back to PdC where I managed to get sight of Mr Funkin flying along on the run course, not long ‘til I’d join him, though the closest I’d get to flying was watching a number of Ryanair planes on their way to the airport at the far end of the run course.

     

    Bike time – 7h 12m – less than an hour slower than at Outlaw so not too shabby overall I guess

  • Run – or not

    The part of training which suffered the most was my run training, nothing more that 13 miles and a total of less than 50 miles meant that I was about to launch into a world of issues and pain.

     

    Definitely a walk/jog afternoon and evening, really appreciated the arrival of cups of soup put on by the San Antonio Hotel as opposed to the Red Bull or water or weak Powerbar drink at the aid stations. Considering the heat we were racing in and obvious loss of salts by so many athletes judging by the white streaks on kit I was surprised not to see anything salty available but I’m sure the organisers know best.

     

    Good to see some familiar faces out there and the usual fantastic support from the Pirate supporters by Route 66, imagine that, a Pirate supporters group making camp outside a bar…

     

    Eventually after my longest run leg ever it was down the carpet and “you are an Ironman” no matter how many times you cross the finish line it is still a very special feeling.

     

    Run time – 5h 42m

     

    Total time 15h 5m – a PW by 3 minutes

     

    Now it’s over

    Glad I didn’t pull out of the event or defer, great place to race or at least complete, I’m happy that I’ve got the medal but definitely feel there’s unfinished business on the island, but that’s for a few years time I reckon and for when I’m working for a different company.

     

    Congratulations to the finishers and commiserations to Slaggiat and Foggy, sorry it wasn’t to be this time around.

     

    As ever a huge thank you to the Pirate people both those racing and supporting, it makes a massive difference being part of such a great team. I saw a comment about Colt being better support, sorry but with so few people competing and even less partners/friends out there they did a bloody good job, so thank you again to Mrs F, Holly, Mini Pingu, Pop-up Schmunks (top effort), Happy Chap and Toucs, oh and as ever for putting up with a moody triathlete, Mrs Cupcake, wouldn’t be the same without your help.

     

    Next time apparently my time has to have an 11 in it, we shall see… image

  • Great reports Cupcake and Meldy.  It's always good to read how other people approached and 'enjoyed' the day.

  • Excellent reporting Cupcake!

  • Loving the reports guys. Makes me want to do something silly! image

    Funkin - for a hilly and windy course, that's an impressively low VI. Excellent discipline, and it shows in your result!

  • TheEngineer wrote (see)

    Funkin - for a hilly and windy course, that's an impressively low VI. Excellent discipline, and it shows in your result!

    What he said. Which PM do you use?

  • I've got a quarq.  Had it a few years.  Not used it properly for setting targets etc. in training sessions.  Mainly use it just to keep myself consistent and not to overpush on hills etc.

    Yeah, a 1.05 VI on that course I'm pretty happy with.  I was happy to let people stream past me going up hills knowing that their time would come!!

  • Only the 600 posts to catch upon. I will do my race report in the next few days but I made it image

    I followed a proper pirate training programe 5 minutes in the north sea was my only OW swim and a 85 mile cycle was the longest ride with recovery drinks of rum.
    Luckily I had done enough running and cross training, yet I foolishy tried the red bull and water all the way round the cycle which luckily got me round but too much fizzy made the run/walk a bit more interesting than planned.

  • ITB, you had positive attidue, atleast you did at the Shinfield 10km the week before. Good to see another local finisher!

    Thanks Funkin. I'm using power to train with, but not race; short racing is find is done by whether I'm almost puking or not. I must learn to run off the bike. image

    Always interested in hearing other's opinions and thoughts. 1.05 is hugely impressive.

     

  • I'm sure it's impressive ..... but what does 1.05 on a VI mean ?!

  • VI = Normalised Power divided by Average Power.

    Average power is easy.

    Normalised power is similar, but takes into account how hard you rode for each bit of your ride. If you sprint up a hill, then coast down the other side, you might average 200W, but if you'd ridden the hill at 200W and then pushed a big gear on the downhill (also at 200W) you'd have gone faster overall.

    VI is variability index - it's a measure of how much you deviated from your average power. If funkin had ridden really hard up the hills and not had anything left for the flats (were there any?! image) then his average power might have been the same, but he would be more tired because he's gone over his threshold and accumulated more fatigue. If he rode the entire thing at a constant power output, then the impact on the body is much lower. It's fundamentally about pacing yourself and getting the most speed out of your legs. VI of 1 is perfect, higher = more fluctuating. 

  • Glad you asked now Pingu??? image

  • I preferred the "My bikes white" conversation!

  • Really enjoyed the build up and banter from this one. You all knew what you were getting into and did it anyway - that's the very definition of courage - or of madness!

    Well done all. Super racing and reports. image

  • Iron Pingu wrote (see)

    I preferred the "My bikes white" conversation!

    How is the poorly bike anyways Pingu?

  • Does anyone else speak 'engineer'?? !!

  • image i was hoping for some pictures, maybe a graph or a pie chart at least...... mmmmm...pies.....mmmmm image

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    Rafi speaks bat, apparently, and also newt but he didn't mention speaking engineer. 

  • Afternoon all, Ferret BEng reporting for duty.  Today appears to be the start of sunburnt skin flaking off...

  • FerrousFerret wrote (see)

    Afternoon all, Ferret BEng reporting for duty.  Today appears to be the start of sunburnt skin flaking off...

    I have been moulting since yesterday image

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