Ironman Western Australia | 2015

After the solo trip to Austria, Ironman W.A was going to be a family holiday, so Em, Finn, Fraser and I headed to Perth for the 2015 Ironman Western Australia.

I had pretty low expectations leading into this race, the goal was to run the marathon, breaking my previous habit of walking through every 2nd aid station whilst taking on fluids.  The fact I have been able to record a respectable 9:43 using this approach hasn’t been all that bad, but I needed to break through the mental barrier and Bussleton was the perfect place.

Why, Bussleton is renown for producing quick times on the bike and run, so I knew I was never going to threaten the leaders in my age group for a Kona slot.  I did intend though to practice strategies planned with my Coach (intellitri), fine tuning things before Ironman Australia in May.

We arrived in Perth on Wednesday of race week and as part of the holiday, we had organised an Apollo Campervan.  If you are going the campervan route, make sure you allow plenty of time with Apollo, we waited close to 2 hours to get the van so naturally, we all were a little truly over it by the time we got going.  Arriving at Bussleton, our first stop was the World Famous Bussleton Jetty. It was awesome, looked longer than I thought and to think in 3 days time, I was going to be swimming around it.

We checked into our accommodation (the Shack), simple but clean and close to the beach.  They even had a specialized bike pump which was in much better shape than my silca pump, so that was certainly going to be accompanying me to transition.  I assembled the Cervelo, which thankfully arrived with no damage from the flight, so a big thanks to Virgin Australia for taking care of things.

My trusty enviro bik box survived another trip but I must admit, its seen better days.  I did take the advice from various online forums and wrapped the frame in various sections of Insulation tube that I purchased from Clark Rubber, these wrapped nicely around the frame and were secured with cable ties. I removed the peddles, seat and handlebars, securing them to the top frame, protected by more insulation rubber. Finally, the box was filled with a heap of bubble wrap to ensure it had the best chance of arriving in one piece.

 

Pre Race

With the P2 assembled (looks awesome), I was off for an easy ride to make sure I had put it back together properly and ensure everything was tight and secure.  In my past 3 races and in most training rides, I have launched drink bottles from my rear seat holders, sometimes I would hear them it the ground, but most times, I would only realize the bottle had gone when I needed a drink.  So after too much research I went with an, Elite Skekane Bottle System , purchased through cell bikes.

There was a lot of positive feedback on the x-lab systems and gorila cages, but I was not about to spend over $80 on a single drink bottle holder.  So to accompany the Sketane, I went for the specialized rib cage which had a lot of positive reviews online and some quick tests in store showed it held the bottles well.  I also read that riders in the Paris Roubaix stick an adhesive sand paper to their cage to grip the bottles further but I didn’t go that far. I will write a separate review in the future on my hydration system as I also went with a between the arms (BTW) system and modified the Sketane for a shorter, more horizontal position. The short ride went well though, the bike felt great and I didn’t loose any drink bottles

Friday morning, we checked in at Ironman registration, going through the usual check in procedure. I have to say the volunteers were exceptionally welcoming, they even gave Finn a couple of Ironman tattoos.  With registration complete, it was time for a swim at the Jetty.  The water was super clear with heaps of small fish and even a few sting rays passing through, pretty cool.  My stroke was feeling good and has certainly progressed since Austria, I’m feeling a lot stronger through the entire stroke courtesy of a regular set of swim drills.

Saturday, less than 24hours till race start. I did a lite run to finish my race week prep along the foreshore.  Bussleton would have to have the best bike paths, these following the beach from Bussleton down to Dunnsborough so even if not racing, its a great spot for training or just relaxing.  With the run complete, it was time to relax and think of anything other than the race the next day, whats for breakfast was a good starting point.

After lunch, I prepared my bike and run bags, making sure I had everything planned.  I always take my time when doing this, placing everything in order, race start, bike transition and run transition.  There ends up being a lot of gear when you lay it all out.

With the gear bags sorted, it was back into town to check the bike into transition and  drop off the bike and run bags.  It was also a good time to do the customary walk in and around transition.  I was fairly comfortable with the layout and took a few photos on the phone for reference later.

Race Day

Bussleton was an early start, but due to the time difference between W.A and VIC time zones, it wasn’t an issue. I woke up at 3:45am, had a light breakfast and headed into Bussleton. Yep, no problems parking the motorhome at that time of the day.  Race start was at 5:50am so I had to get my sodium loading out of the way by 4:30am (90 mins prior to race start).

As I really dislike the loading, I thought I would put in a little less water so I could get it over and done with faster, seemed like a good idea at the time.  Unfortunately, this was a bad idea as my second and final skull ended up in an unsightly spew. Not ideal and and just what I didn’t need, now I felt nervous and sick. I applied my usual combination of lubricants and my new P20 SPF 50+ suncream with its claimed 10hour protection.

Feeling a little worse than I normally do before a race, I set off for transition, dropped off my run special needs bags and then proceeded to check my bike, drop  the drink bottles into the new holders and pump up my tyres (on the bike! 🙂 ) using that specialized pump from our accommodation – it worked a treat.

Finally, I clipped in my Garmin, turning it on and making sure that it had connected to my stages power meter as I’ve had some issues in training with the power meter not connecting with the Garmin.  No issues this time, so it was off to drop my gear bag and head to the start line.

The Swim (3.8km)

It was a mass start, but I quickly found a rhythm and a group that I was comfortably in.  It was fairly rough so I managed to take in some of the salt I lost during my pre race load – nice 😉 .  This didn’t make me feel better, but I seemed to be going OK, sticking with a strong group for the majority of the outbound leg.  At the turn, we headed straight into the wind and swell, probably the most exciting part of the swim.

I’m thankful to be blessed with strong swim credentials as it makes it easy in tough conditions.  Although, for some reason I started to loose ground on the group I was in.  During the swim, I put this down to my ill feeling, so I just stuck to a rhythm and pushed on, remnants of the old jetty footings becoming something for my mind to focus on as I progressed to the finish.

Swim complete (time 59:46, overall rank 46th), but as I found after an hour on the bike, I forgot to take my customary wetsuit wee prior to exiting the swim.

The Bike (180km)

A reasonable transition and I was off on the Bike with a tail wind for the first 20km.  I struggled for the first half of the bike (90km), not sure why,I just mentally wasn’t there.  I remember thinking after an hour that today was going to be a long day.  The bike felt great, but I was down on power, really struggling to get it up to the 260w I was hoping for.  On a positive note, my liquid nutriton was going down well.

At the end of lap 1, I had to stop and take the wee I should have taken during the swim and let me say that was a welcome relief.  Wasn’t there a finding confirming that busting for a wee was as dangerous as drink driving – surprised I managed finish the first lap.

After the pit stop, I felt like a new rider and set out in a much better mind set.  Before the first switch back, I had caught up those that had passed me whilst I was stopped and then proceeded to pick off riders.  I was feeling much better and holding 260w which given lap 1 was a real surprise.  I really felt I was flying, maybe I was just happy to not be busting for a wee.  I made good use of the aid stations, probably a little too much as I really don’t need to grab fluid at each one.  Anyhow, before I knew it, I was making my way back into town and finishing the bike leg.

Bike complete (time 4:58, overall rank 43rd) which was a PB, but as it was a flat course and on my new bike, I would have been disappointed had it not been a PB.  Also, no launched drink bottles.

The Run (42.2km)

Transition was as expected, its always great to get off the bike.  I wasn’t feeling too bad, so started out at 4:45 min/km pace to see how the legs were feeling.  This felt pretty comfortable for the first lap.  It was a 4 lap course and making it substantially easier was having Em, Finn, Fraser, Uncle John and Auntie Joan positioned half way, giving me much needed encouragement as I passed through each lap.  My running is never pretty and this race would be my worst run in a while.

So how did it progress.  My goal heading into Busso was to run the Marathon and I was really confident of doing this, but I never thought I was going to have to grind it out as much as I did. From Lap 1, my pace started to fall away, dropping to 5:15 min/km after 2 hours and then finishing up around 5:40 min/km for the last hour.  I managed to not walk the aid stations – shut-up legs!.  Both Quads were killing me, mainly down the side, similiar symptoms to my last couple of training runs post riding the new bike.  I actually started to run with my eyes shut on the straight sections, I wasn’t quite in a zen state, but it helped break up the sections between aid stations.

What did surprise me was dropping my cups of ice that I collected at the aid stations.  For some reason, I would collect a cup of ice and be happily munching when I suddenly dropped the cup. Oh well, not far till the next aid station I thought.  I subsequently dropped a further 5 cups of ice that really started to frustrate me. What was I doing.  After probably 2 hours, I then started to feel pins and needles in my fingers, not significant but did make me wonder. Anyhow, I pressed on and the last lap couldn’t come sooner.

The Finish

I hadn’t walked throughout the run, didn’t have any cramps, and apart from dropping cups of ice and the pins and needles, I hobbled around the course, albeit with a pained look on my face.

With around 2km to go, I was passed by an athlete in my category who asked if I wanted to race to the finish.  Maybe I didn’t look as bad as I felt or he just wanted to finish me off.  I advised him I was done, and let him go, but the competitor in me wasn’t going to let that happen, no matter how bad I felt.  I lifted enough to stay in contact, giving me a chance to challenge up the finish chute.  I’m proud to say that I managed to catch, pass and cross the finish line, gaining back the place I lost 2km back. With the Ironman roll down, you never know when you might get a slot and that one place could be all the difference.

 

Run Complete (time 3:46, overall rank 66th).  Total time – 9:53 (overall rank 66th, category rank 13th).  I was my usual emotional wreck upon crossing the finish line, probably more so than normal given I had Em and the boys finally at the finish line, this coupled with my Uncle John and Auntie Joan making it a memorable finish line experience.  I’m sure people think its my first race given the reaction I experience when I’m done, but hey, you invest a lot of time and effort just to get to an Ironman.

 

Wrap Up

So it wasn’t a PB, but was there abouts.  It was my first negative split on the bike, Lap 1 (236watts avg), Lap 2 (245watts). The ripped wetsuit can’t have been of benefit, but given I could comfortably fit my hand through the hole leads me to think it was a mini sea anchor.

Although my sodium load mishap didn’t help, I was mentally off for the first 3 hours, so I certainly would have gained from some focused mental visualisation the night prior. Maybe I enjoyed the company of Uncle John and Aunty Joan a little too much.

As for the run leg, I certainly have some work to do adjusting to the new bike which in turn will transfer to a better Bike/Run transition.  I am going to have to stick with the sodium loading at the concentration used previously.  In speaking with Mark, he mentioned that dropping the cups of ice and tingling fingers were typical symptoms of an electrolyte inbalance, this we could put down to the unsuccessful sodium load.  I didn’t cramp though.

So what next. I’m 13 months from the end of myproject40 and although I know I can make it to Kona, the stress of balancing family, work and life around trainnng have reached a point where I have seriously considered giving things a rest, stepping away from what I love.  But deep down, stepping away would be quiting,so I have to find a way to make it work.  As I keep saying to Em, I train at 5:00am when you are all asleep and weekends only become compromised during the last 4 weeks leading upto a race.

But to be honest, having Finn and Fraser of the age where they could cheer me on reminds me that Ironman truly promotes a healthy lifestyle, both physically and mentally and has taught me so much about myself. Although I’m sure I could instill the benefits of physical activity in an easier, less time consuming sport, we’ve got 13 months to reach my goal and that will be a significant achievement for us all to celebrate and hopefully be one of my legacy’s to the boys active and healthy future.