WARNING: Long Read, get a cup of coffee or a bottle of cerveza! RACE REPORT - Ironman Mallorca – Sept 27, 2014 SWIM – 1:20:05 T1 – 00:06:53 BIKE – 06:33:34 T2 – 00:05:12 RUN – 04:19:19 TOTAL – 12:25 I always question my level of fitness going into these big races. I know I followed a plan but I also know I skipped many of them due to work, minor injuries and personal commitments. In addition, I also discovered three weeks before the race that I plotted my run training incorrectly with my long runs (15 – 20 milers) happening way too early in the training season. I was not sure how I would perform in the marathon leg. To add to the worry, the organizers announced that the swim might not be wetsuit legal. But these worries were over-shadowed by my determination to do well. I have million of reasons to do my best and be smart on the race. I have my CARE family who have supported me throughout the training season to impress ☺ My friends at work who believes in me and who wants me to do great. My parents, Iron Brothers who were praying for my safety. Most of all, my family who has supported me throughout my journey. IronWife Nella has been the one to push me to get off my butt when I didn’t feel like swimming, biking or running. I got to Alcudia on Thursday, 2 days before the race and ahead of my family due to kids school obligations. I wish I had gotten there atleast a day or two earlier so I could just really absorb the energy of the place and relax. Thursday was registration, bike assembly and test swim. I met up with the Iron Couple Mike Bond and Amanda Carpo (Philippines) for the first time. Mike and I have common friends in CARE while Amanda and I are both representing the Philippines (2 of the 2600 athletes)…Mike and Amanda are both multi-Ironman finishers and most importantly, both are Kona finishers. What an honor to have met and raced with both! With limited time, I really had to project manage my Friday activities. I tested the bike for a quick spin, did another quick swim, and a 2 mile run which was the first in the week since I was nursing a foot pain after my last medium run. I started hydrating and acclimating to my nutrition as well. After the bike check-in, I had time to enjoy a quiet movie time in my hotel room while waiting for the family to arrive. I even had time to cook my race day breakfast (Filipino style corned beef hash, fried egg and garlic rice). Nella and Elise came around 7 PM and we headed out for the last carb load by the beach. Danielle was absent for the first time as she had a tennis competition which we wanted her to do. Hit the sack at 10 PM but woke up naturally around midnight and took a few sips of my EFS shot, then went back to shallow sleep. Race Day I had a couple of alarms set at 4:30 AM. Nella heated my breakfast and made me coffee. Had a successful business in the toilet (which is always good before a race) took a hot shower and off to T1. Bike Check: Because there is no special needs facilities, I had to carry all of my nutrition for the entire 180KM of riding. I ditched my flat kit bottle so I could use the back hydration setup for my extra coconut water. I had another full bottle of coconut water in my torpedo, two EFS shots diluted in water in my aero bontrager bottle and water in the fuelselage. I taped 6 Gus on the top tube and off I went. I decided at this time that I was going to leave my tri top in my bike bag as I wanted to feel comfy with my speed suit (a little tight with layers). Last stop at the loo and saw Mike who was all relaxed and ready to go (thanks for the TP:) I then started walking to the swim start where I was very happy to run into Elise and Nella. The nerves were at its best at this time so it was really great to see my Ironcrew! I wanted to get a quick dip so I did but when I got out of the water, I was shivering profusely (combination of cold air and nerves!). I ran around to shake it off and gave Nella and Elise the last kiss and hug before the start. Swim – 01:20:05 Having been caught in the washing machine craziness in Cebu, I planned to play it safe here. I positioned myself at the back of the pack towards the right, which put me closest to the buoy line. Gun went off at 7:35AM and the fun started. I started walking and jogging and then swimming when the water got deep enough to crawl. I stayed slightly inside the buoy line and kept my right side clear. Breathing on my left, I could see the craziness and the beautiful sunrise on my left. Kept a pretty relaxed and smooth swim, and tried to stay on a straight line as much as I could. I kept reminding myself about having fun and thinking about it as the safest and most fun training day. I was talking to God during this time and thanking Him for blessing me with health, fitness, family, work and friends that allowed me to be in the water at that time. First and second turn came and went. The turns were crowded and violent. Heart rate would go up during the turns but I was able to get it back down as I settled back to my rhythm. Back to the shore for the first loop which was 2.5 KM of the 3.8. I looked at my watch and it showed 51 minutes. Wow, that was fast. But then when I looked over to the end of loop 2, there were already loads of athletes finishing up (what???). Oh well. Back in the water and more talking to myself, praying and swimming. Then I was done! 1:18 on my watch, I felt like a millionaire at that time. Went through the showers dancing :) then saw my Iron Crew. Very happy to have beaten my old time by > 20 minutes. Told Nella that the next leg is for my buddy Ron! T1 – 00:06:53 Grabbed the bike bag, took my speed suit off, tried to put on my tri top, wow that hard-work with wet body (1 minute right there), helmet, flat kit and energy bars in my back pockets, hand carried my shoes and a long jog to my bike. Did a quick calibration of my bike computer successfully but my watch failed to calibrate and I needed to go. As I was mounting the bike I heard my name, “Dante Regalado from the Philippines…used to be overweight and now an Ironman”… I was LOL. Bike – 06:33:34 The bike was flat and fast at start. I immediately took my first Gu during the first few miles. I was religious in checking my power output which I wanted to be around 144 W (~65% FTP). The first few climbs came and went. I noticed that my NP was higher than target (averaging around 160W from mile 5 - 35) but I felt fine. As I was climbing around mile 12, I saw a group of 20 – 30 riders on the other side of the road in a peloton. They must have been going 40+ mph and drafting!!!. I was looking for the refs!!! I must have seen between 5- 10 similar sized groups. Even if the referees were allowing them, I wasn’t planning on getting into a group like that to draft as I was scared a single mis-calculation of one biker or myself would cause a massive pile up. Shortly before the halfway mark, my power meter readings and cadence all went to NIL on my garmin 810. It was a NOOO moment! I need power to pace…I don’t even look at my speed during a race. I stopped and re-seated the battery. I saw the light come on. Went to test it and still no power reading. I tried re-detecting it to no avail. After 4-5 minutes, I gave up and started riding. It dawned on me to check my watch and to my surprise, my 910 was registering power readings. I decided to restart my 810, and wah lah! It started picking up power again. That took 3 miles so I know my 810 is now off on distance. Caused me 5 + minutes! Go to the halfway mark at exactly 3 hours with the stop. I was happy with it…If I could keep the pace I will finish the bike in 6 hours. But I knew there was a crazy climb by mile 65. I was also on track with my nutrition…having a Gu every hour, energy bar, salt tabs every 1.5 hours and sipping my EFS, coconut and water in alternates, every 5 – 10 minutes. I finished one coconut water bottle by half way and have refilled my fuelselage with water from the aid stations. I also had half a banana 2 x in two different aid stations. The flat part came and I kept my power output steady but noticed my output was lower than target but I was still passing people…what? Maybe they burned their legs on the prior up-hills. I seized that opportunity to pass as many of them as I know they will catch me on the steepest part of the course. Strategy was no different than Wisconsin. Spin the hills keeping the power as close to the target as possible (144 W) which means really slow but then attack the descends. I felt the urge to use pee just before the start of the climb so I pulled over and took care of that (man I lost another 3 minutes right there:). The dreaded KM 120 came…the start of the steep climb. I stayed true to the spin strategy and let many people pass me. I told myself, I will catch them on the descent. That climb was long!!! I was climbing for almost 1.5 hours (17 miles and 1800 + ft of climbing)... Did manage to keep my power in check but that was just long and was thinking this could not be good for my run. The end finally came and it was time to hit the downhills! WRONG! Very technical switchbacks filled with riders…I had to slam on my breaks more than I wanted too and I never really was able to take full advantage of it. I took some risks passing some riders during the descent but that opportunity came far and few between. If I remember it right, it would be downhill from here on out, so I was hoping to recover more of the lost climbing time. There were more downhills as expected but the combination of bad bumpy roads (I was concerned about getting a flat) and headwind made the journey back to T2 a frustrating one. I decided to go below my target the last handful of miles to try to compensate for the high NPs earlier and get ready for the run. Finally saw the turn to T2 so I unstrapped and took my left foot out of the shoe, then turned right only to be surprised that the dismount was right there so I had no time to take my foot out of the right shoe. Split second decision to unclip my right foot. The bike started wobbling and somehow caught myself but not without doing leg split which was painful in my groin and somehow landing hard on my right foot. There was a volunteer in front of me who decided to not do anything and watch me scramble. I ended up with low average power of 135W for the entire 112 miles but the NP was right on the target 144W. That’s a VI of 1.066 which is not ideal (heard should be 1.05 or below, close to 1). I guess it was hard with those hills. T2 – 00:05:12 Planned to jog to rack my bike but my right foot and groin was sore from that near-fall. I had to walk it to the rack and to the tent. Tried to jog but couldn’t due to pain. I was thinking at point that my marathon is going to be pathetic. Quickly got my ziplock of Gu (x3), Dried Mangoes (which fueled me during my 20mi training run) and salt tabs (x2). I was planning to take them all during the run but was unsuccessful…More on this later. Hobbled out of T2 and saw Nella and Elise…I told them the bike was hard. Run – 04:19:19 I had an aspiration to do sub 9 min/mi and finish the marathon below 4 hours. This would have put me around 12 hours total. However as soon as I got out of T2, I knew it was going to be hard. Even though the first mile I had to pull back because my pace was swinging between 7:40 – 8:30 m/m, I needed it to be closer to 8:45 – 9 otherwise I know I will blow up. 1 mile done at 8:11 m/m. Mile 2 was where the porta potty was and the aid station so I had to burn up some precious minutes there. I wanted to skip this detail but decided I wont…The bowl was overflowing with everything you can think of. I had to do #1 and so I had to be a real tough IRONMAN in there. I wanted/needed to take a Gu but just the thought of putting it in my mouth was making me sick. I had 5 on the bike + EFS and other stuff so I am sick of the Gu-ey taste and consistency. Decided to skip it…took a salt pill and a few dried mango strips and kept running. Still trying to stay at sub 9 but it was starting to be more and more difficult. Got to the 2nd station and was relieved to be able to walk a few meters. I got ice and placed them in my hat and in my arm coolers (it was a HOT afternoon). I saw Nella and Elise twice in the first loop and was happy. My plan was to only walk at aid stations and I was able to stick to it. Loop 2 was a different story. BY the time I got to mile 10, I was totally deflated of energy. I now had to walk in between aid stations for a minute or so. I saw Nella at around mile 12 and she handed me my dry pair of shoes which we had planned since I know my feet will be drenched. I walked, run until I realized I hadn’t taken any Gu and was probably hitting the proverbial wall. I opened one up and pushed it down my throat with water and cola…I could feel it sticking around in my throat and not wanting to go down but eventually it did. My stomach was not in a good place at this time and I was just praying that it will not turn for the worst. After 20 minutes or so, I started feeling better (3rd loop), got a second wind and I was able to run from one aid station to another without stopping. Loop 4 came around and I could see the a small light at the end of the tunnel. BTW, I had to pass the finish line 4x and see people taking the victory lane which was kind of demoralizing. But the will persevered and finally it was my turn. I opened up the flag that Nella handed to me. I was expecting a big flag and was surprised how tiny it was – LOL. I zipped up my tri top. Happy there was still daylight. Waived at Nella and Elise who were screaming my name down the finishing chute. They didn’t call my name but oh well. Did my leap of success and I finished my 2nd Ironman in 12:25, 42 minutes faster than my first. A couple of takeaways for me that I think could have made a difference in my overall result. 1. Stick to the power plan throughout the race. I deviated and exceeded it by around 15 w for 35 miles. I think I paid for it 2. Need to figure out a different run nutrition as by the time I am done with the bike, I am sick of the same food. I think I could have run faster if I was able to stick to my run nutrition. Overall, nothing to complain. Great city, great race. Europeans are definitely very competitive and fit. My performance was good enough for top 51% of the 2100+ who started. Special thanks to Carlo and Andrew for all the tips and coaching offline. CARE, you guys are the best…You helped me train even when I am thousands of miles away. My parents and bros Iron Jun and Danny for the prayers and my wife Nella and kids Danielle and Elise for all the support day in and day out of the training and racing season. Love you guys! Last but not the least, the Heavenly Father, thank you for keeping me safe and strong during the season and the race! Next stop, #IMAustria with my Iron Brothers!
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 21:27:18 +0000
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