Ironman Mont Tremblant
Sunday, Aug 18, 2019
It is always difficult to blog after finishing an Ironman. It is such a completely exhausting experience in so many aspects - mentally, emotionally and physically. I’m unsure of how to start.
I just watched the IMMT race recap video on Ironman’s Facebook page: (https://www.facebook.com/IRONMANMontTremblant/videos/2553036451578367/UzpfSTc5NDU5NTMxODoxMDE2MjE5MzgzNDQ4MDMxOQ/)
so I’ll start with their theme of how doing an Ironman is a very individual sport but nobody gets there alone. And its very true. There were a lot of long lonely training days, but I didn’t always do it alone. While I’m self coached and do not belong to a training club, there are a few people who have helped along the way this time and made sure I got to the starting line fit, healthy and happy.
This year a new friend, Sasha, joined me on a few long weekend rides up in Angus Glen, and I have to thank Carolynne for unwittingly, dragging me up that bloody hell of a hill in Milton at Tremaine/Steeles on what was supposed to be a fast and flat training ride for Welland. I’m sure I’m a better cyclist for it.
And while not actually training partners, my friends Mark and Shauna, have always provided me with a safe haven while in Mont Tremblant, that makes my race week so much calmer. Your home in La Conception is truly a warm and beautiful place. Thank you everybody. Merci beaucoup mon amis.
This year, 2019, I came into Ironman Mont Tremblant with much valuable experience that I gained back in 2017, when it was my first time doing an Ironman. I was a little less star struck, more focussed and knew where the hell I was going this time. I arrived earlier, stuck to my taper plan but still had time to swim the lake, bike the hills of Duplessis and nail a shake out run on the course. I felt good, nervous of course, but in a healthy respectful way you should be before attempting to swim bike run 140.6 miles (225km).
In 2017, I finished the course in 13:53:42, and my goal for 2019 was to simply beat that time. I took 2018 to focus on the weaker aspects of my performance. I wanted to become a better swimmer and cyclist. I always felt good about my running ability, for those who know me, running is the strongest of my 3 events and I felt if I swam and biked better I’d have more energy to lay down the marathon I knew I was capable of doing. I am a Boston and Chicago qualifier after all, however, living up to that speed in an Ironman has proven difficult.
I made some good training gains in 2018 doing a couple half-irons and was ready to face a full iron again in 2019.
This year I seeded myself at the 1:25:00 swim start. I knew I was going to beat my previous time of 1:33:24. I worked hard on my swim in the time since, and I knew if I had a good warm up and stayed calm and form focussed I would nail it. The nice thing about this race is that there is a rolling swim start, meaning its a much calmer and orderly roll out, 5 racers every 5 seconds so you have more space. Unlike the mass age group swim start which is choppy chaos. I like this swim start and I stayed calm the entire time. The air conditions were cool and overcast and my goggles fogged up pretty bad
but thankfully there were lots of pink and yellow fluorescent swims caps, and yellow and orange buoys around me so it wasn’t too hard to point myself in the right direction.
I know I’m doing well when I hear music in my head when I’m doing my endurance cardio. This morning ‘Humble’ by Kendrick Lamar was playing in my mind during the swim. I’m not sure why. I told myself to be more aggressive on this course because I was better trained and familiar with the lay out, but perhaps it was a subtle reminder to not get carried away, stick to what you did in your training, pay attention to my arm position and don’t get overconfident. Be humble. Either way it was good. I came out of the water in 1:25:29 (just 29sec off my goal time) for the 3.8km swim. Eight minutes faster than last time I raced Lac Tremblant (pacing 2:13/100m instead of the previous 2:27/100m). It was a good start to a long day.
Out of the water I used the wonderful wetsuit strippers again and ran (not walked) into T1 and managed to take my transition time down from 9:55 to 8:46. Faster again. Things were looking good.
Now out onto the bike. This is always the part of the course that I find the most difficult. I’m not a strong cyclist but with the purchase of a new TT bike and a commitment to staying in aero position longer, along with more hill training this year, I was going to push harder to see what I could do.
However, my aggressive attitude landed me my first ever drafting penalty about 25km into the bike course. An official on a bike snuck up on me and busted me. Oh well. Be humble. The music stopped as I pulled into the bright yellow penalty tent to serve my 5min punishment. Not how I wanted to be faster on the bike. lol! All I could do was sit and think. No eating, drinking or port a potties here. Just breathe I was told.
After serving my time, I pushed on and new songs popped into my head. One of the aid stations played ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ by Justin Timberlake and that stayed with me for most of highway 117, until I reached Duplessis and I resurrected my own song from 2017 ‘I Love Hills!’ for the brutal climb up to the top (356m). I was out of my seat singing about how much I loved hills and how lucky I was to be there climbing. One guy next to me created his own verse about how he loved his granny gear on his bike. It is nice to inspire others in our moments of suffering. You feel the pain a little less when you sing and smile, and then its all downhill from there. Until you have to do your second lap...
This time around I managed an average overall speed of 25.2km/h on the hilly bike course, with a max speed of 66.4km/h going down Duplessis. Overall it took me 7:12:08 (including my drafting penalty, ugh). I ended up only doing the bike course 10min faster this year, which was not as much as I hoped for but it is what it is, obviously I need to work both harder and smarter for next time.
On to T2... this time I understood that the transition zone volunteers were there to take your bike and rack it for you, so I did not resist them, saving me a few previous moments. It was pretty funny in 2017 when I fought the volunteer who was only trying to help me. Guess I missed that in the athlete’s briefing. Not this time though! I moved through T2 15 seconds faster - 4:50 down to 4:35.
I think I had my cycling cleats on too tight, boy were my feet aching, it was so good to get them off and into the heavenly comfort of my runners. After a quick port a potty stop, I was off and running ready to knock off this third discipline - the marathon.
I remember from 2017 feeling completely overwhelmed at the start of the marathon. I was so tired and had so far to go. The thought of running 42.2km was just so overwhelming, my pace sucked and I had to rethink how I was going to approach it.
This year, I had anticipated this feeling and knew that I was going to take it simply one kilometre at a time. I was going to run 1km 42x. And that works for me. Everybody has their own way. I celebrated each and every km. I was even more mentally stronger in 2019 and I started out on the marathon much more optimistic, it makes a big difference when you have the right attitude going into an endurance competition. This point in the day is more mental than physical believe me.
I have to admit, the bout of tendinitis I struggled through in the spring was in the back of my mind, but my hip was pain free for the entire run, including the hills. Of course, I had the usual ‘I’ve been pushing hard all day aches and pains’, but no tendinopathy pain in my right hip/glute. That was a huge relief. But I have to wonder how much faster I could have run if I spent more time on my run training leading up to this event. But you could drive yourself mad thinking like that...
Anytime I started thinking about how tired I was I would always pass by another person who seemed to be carrying a bigger burden than me and that quickly gave me a reality check. There was a fireman doing the marathon in full kit, including jacket, hat and compressed air cylinder. There was also a member of the armed forces doing the run in full kit. I called out for them to stay strong, gave them a fist pump, and re-focussed my own efforts. Stop complaining I told myself. Keep running. I still have another lap to go.
There were a few moments on the run where I struggled but these were not mental struggles, but more fuel related. I decided to start fuelling with coke at the 14km mark, a little earlier than I had planned (7km earlier actually). I usually start after the 21km halfway mark, but I felt more fatigued than I expected and thought why not start now? But I ended up taking too much coke in short a period of time. It wasn’t flattened enough and I struggled with gas pain. I had to take 2 port a potty stops and worked my way through the issue. But it cost me time. I should have stuck to the GU gels and liquid base endurance drink and then switch to the coke after the 21k mark as I had planned. Lesson learned.
Anyway, I still ran a faster marathon than last time. I felt mentally stronger and learned you can have too much of a good thing.
I pushed harder on the run this year. I know I’m not going to have my fastest run off a 180km hilly bike course, but I felt I could do better than the 4:43:23 marathon I did in 2017. Upon reflection of that race, I felt I ran conservatively due to the simple fact that I worried about even finishing. Maybe bonking or hitting the proverbial wall, something like that I suppose. This year I knew I was capable of finishing an Ironman and I wanted to push myself harder than before. Instead of an average pace of 6:43/km in 2017, I managed to hold a 6:31/km pace and shaved 8min off the run finishing in 4:35:39. Its not another BQ but hey, I’ll take it for today.
Overall I finished in a time of 13:26:36, almost 30min faster than my last Ironman performance. I raised my age group ranking from 33/66 (50th percentile) to 48/118 (40th percentile), and gender position from 262/500 (52.4 percentile) up to 263/618 (42.6 percentile).
So what are my overall feelings about this Ironman?
I’m glad I did it the second time. I didn’t want to be a one and done kind of Ironman. To me, doing something once might just be a fluke. If you can do it again, and maybe even do it better than before, its more special. Which it was for me.
I wanted to know that I could go back and do it faster the second time. While it was faster, I wish it was a little faster than it was. Maybe there will have to be a third time.
But for now I’ll be recovering for the next couple weeks. Lots of naps, food and very easy workouts. I also find I need to mentally recover as much as physically. I often feel a little depressed after a big event and need to be kind to myself. With all the time and effort of the last 8 months putting everything I had into this training, a gap in your life hits you hard post-race. I’ve already finished reading a book and settled into a few movies. I’m just listening to myself and being kind. I highly recommend taking it easy to all the other finishers and thinking about all aspects of your recovery, mental and physical. At least until we take on our next challenges, whatever they might be. As the Ironman motto says: Anything is Possible!
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