Florida

Well it has been 6 days since I completed Ironman Florida and now it is time to blog about it! Quick summary: Success! My goal was to break 15 hours and I did, 14:06. My secondary goal was to beat my wife’s best Ironman time and I did’t, she has a 13:33 from 2014 Mount Tremblant. That is going to be hard to beat but I think it’s doable. We plan on Tremblant next August…

On to the experience. Diane and I left on the 29th of October accompanied by great friends, Don and Sarah. Don’t think we could have made the trip nearly as successful without them. We took 2 days to drive down in my GMC Canyon packed full of bike and gear. Don did most of the driving which I think really helped me stay recovered for the race. We arrived in Panama City Beach on Wednesday and found the condo we rented was perfect, on the beach and walking distance to race site, nice! Vominator and go carts across the street LOL.

Swim. Due to temperatures and a closed pool, I wasn’t able to swim much about 2 months out from race. Once in PCB, I did a quick ocean swim on Thursday but the water was rough and my swim confidence was real low. Another ocean swim the next day in less rough seas helped greatly! My sleep before the race is usually shitty but this time not too bad. We were up at 4:30 and Don had coffee made and ready, nice! (Don liked to refer to himself and Sarah as “Iron Bitches”). They did all of the cooking and tidying up, so helpful. Walked to race site at about 5:15, put water bottles on bike and a jacket and towel in my bike bag. Oh and it was quite chilly, around 10C. I got organized and into my wetsuit (wetsuit legal race BTW) and slowly made it to the beach through a poorly planned choke point. The beach sand felt like snow on bare feet! This was a rolling start which means all age group athletes seed themselves according to probable swim times. Pros hit the water at 6:30 and age groupers started at 6:40. Due to my slow swimming, I seeded myself at 1:40 and didn’t get into the water till 7:14.

The swim. Once in the ocean, the water felt quite nice and warm. Traffic wasn’t too bad and I settled in. First lap was about 47 mins, slower than I would have liked but I pushed forward. During the second lap, I saw 3 jellyfish and a school of small fish, neat! Some people reported being stung but gladly I was not. Finally got out of the water with a time of 1:43, not too bad I guess. Jogged to the peelers, got quickly stripped, walked under the sprinklers, made sure my crotch was salt free, and went for my bike bag and the transition building. It took me 13 minutes which is way too long but I was shivering, forgot to put my bib shoulders up meaning I put my singlet on twice which is not easy when you are wet! I grabbed my bike and made my way to the “bike out”.

Bike. The IM Florida bike is a 1 loop 180 k course and basically flat. This means fast but affected by wind and boredom. I started out feeling great and strong. About 20k in, I noticed that I had blood all over my right hand and it was dripping onto my bike and right leg. I still don’t know what I did but there was no pain just blood. I actually started worrying about not having enough blood in my system to finish ha ha! It eventually stopped on it’s own and I forgot about it. Due to cold temperatures, I wore a windbreaker for the first 90k. After that it warmed up enough to go without it just arm warmers. My time at the 90k mark was 3:05 which I was happy with but made me think I was not going to end the bike under 6 hours. My bike goal was 6:20 or less. The second 90k were fricking awesome! It started with a bit of a headwind struggle to a turnaround point but once southbound, a tailwind kicked in and I was motoring baby! As my speed picked up and I passed biker after biker, I started thinking I could beat 6 hours. Well, to make a fast story faster, I biked in at 5:50, awesome! I was REALLY happy with my bike time but worried that I may have over done it and my run would suffer. This could be true…some might say, you be the judge after the run part coming up next!

Run. Better transition at 8 minutes but could still be better, I have work to do on this part of my race. I had a quick pee (first of the day) and went out onto the run course. I’ll start by saying that the run is easily the hardest part of Ironman. It’s the last thing you do and hardest on the body. The training plan that I followed leading up to this race is a computer program called “TriDot”. I’ve used it since last January and I believe it’s made me a better runner (and biker and maybe swimmer). After that incredible bike I think my adrenaline was elevated and I noticed I was running too fast. Really never saw that one coming! After a 6:30 kilometre I told myself to slow the f#ck down. I did and completed the first 21k in about 2:40, not as fast as I wanted but ok. The second half of the marathon is when shit gets real! Starting out on the second loop of the run I started to feel the pain of Ironman. You know it’s coming but are always saddened when it arrives and it does arrive. My legs began to get heavy but I was able to keep running. My pace slowly dropped off but I continued forward. At around 30k, I started fantasizing about how nice it would feel to walk. I decided to walk for one kilometre and see really how much slower I’d be. Turned out to be a bad idea! 11:30 ks just weren’t going to cut it so I began running again. Of course it got dark and cooled down again but I kept moving forward. I few times I was maddened that some athletes were walking faster than I was running but this an old complaint of mine. Finally, I was close enough to the finish to hear Mike Reilly calling “YOU ARE AN IRONMAN “. Now that’s motivation! I picked up the pace and brought it in. I think the finishing moment of an Ironman is why we do the race, why we train for months before the race, why we want to do it again. It’s hard to explain but it is one of best feelings I’ve ever experienced! I ran though the finish high-fiving spectators, smiling, and just taking in the moment. I heard Mike say my name (for the third time), received my Florida metal and space blanket, sipped some water, and went to find my people! Diane, Sarah, and Don were all right there taking in the moment with me and I was so very grateful for all their support!

Nutrition. Once again I completed this race as a LCHF athlete. This means I have transitioned my body to utilize fat as fuel much better than someone on a high carbohydrate diet. Being fat-adapted and having a flexible metabolism, I am able to burn my body fat much more efficiently. This is great because it means I need much fewer carbohydrates during the race. Just like I did in Lake Placid last year, I fuel before and during the race with UCAN Superstarch, amino acids, electrolytes, and water. This allowed me to ride through every aid station on the bike only taking a water bottle twice. It is way cool not needing to really slow down and just zip by all the stopped bikers. On the run I did the same but did take chicken broth twice as the temperatures cooled down and the broth was nice and warm.

That’s it…I’m very happy with this race! My fastest Ironman ever at 14:06. Again, I’m so grateful for my support team of Diane, Sarah, and Don who helped make this possible. I do have to say that I didn’t mind being the centre of attention at all and I loved that I got to meet Mike Reilly before the race! Thanks to all, see you again next August in Quebec!