I signed up for Lake Placid Ironman shortly after finishing the half ironman. My friend Cathy was thinking of signing up and I was sure she would. I had the idea of doing an ironman someday but the idea still seemed crazy. It was a bit exciting to sign up for something crazy though, I was more willing to do things like that when I was young. I sort of think if I started running at 30 instead of almost 23, I probably would have process more logically in my running life. Maybe I won’t have gotten into ultras till way later.
While I started swimming before June, my training for the Ironman didn’t really start until the week before Eagleman where I used a few vacation days to get in some bike rides. I ended up with no open water training going into race day but I had spent more time in the pool than ever before. I still wasn’t doing 4k monster workouts that my beginner training plan said to do but I spent an hour three times a week in the pool. My bike training on weekdays mostly involved riding on the kissena velodrome for 1 to 1:30 hours 2x a week and then a 5ish hour long bike rides on the weekends. I struggled on the long bike rides to be honest, I never got fitted for my bike and I just didn’t have the time to experiment too much. I kept a 50 mile running week, I still had a monster 100 miler to finish only a month after the race. I did plenty of short bricks as well.
I poured a lot of time into training, 1:30 to 2 hours in the morning, getting up at 4:30 and about an hour in the evening. After about a month, however, it started catching up to me and I collapsed in the finger lakes 50 a little more than 3 weeks before the race. After that training went flat, I had to take a week off to recover and I still wasn’t feeling excited and motivated to train afterwards. Cycling was a drag and while I loved going on 30 to 50 mile bike rides with friends, I hated training for 50 miles. A week before the race I took part in the White Face Sky race. Only 25k long that gains 8000 feet. On paper it sounded logical, a short run that goes with taper but with enough elevation gain that starts my final preparations for UTMB. The race went well till the second alpine loop. That’s when my hiking muscles were taxed and I slowed down tremendously. My quads however were strong or so I thought. The following week leading to the race my quads were very sore. This race might have been the single biggest mess up going into the race.
I picked my friend Yin up in Manhattan drove to Lake Placid. Yin pretty much slept the whole way over. I initially had my google maps on avoiding tolls so it took me on an unfamiliar route which I eventually took it off around Lake George to save some time. It didn’t seem like it took much longer avoiding traffic but I made a wrong turn and at the point I just wanted to get there sooner. The only bib pickup was on Thursday and Friday, which was a big shock to our group and probably one of the reasons why I won’t ever do one again, it just seems like a huge waste of a vacation day to me (compare that to UTMB that even has bib pickup day of the race). I checked other locations and it was even worse for Maryland Ironman where you had to pay extra to have the bib mailed to you and still had to check in on Friday. Bib pickup was exactly like the two Ironman 70.3 in Lake Placid. We picked up our Ironman bags from the Ironman store where Cathy heavy debated buying something but also didn’t want to jinx it buying it before the race. Afterwards we did a swim on the swim course. I didn’t venture pass the first buoy, despite having swam here so much, the fear of open water still rang in me. We then washed and cleaned our bikes, mostly with the help of Jackie. Then the group stressed about what to put on the transition drop bags. Unlike the half ironmans, the full had a changing tent that you had to go through with and a volunteer would get you your transition bag. You have two transition bags, swim to bike and bike to run. You also get a warm bag where you could put slippers, maybe a jacket if cold on your way to mirror lake for the swim portion.
The next day we did a shakeout bike ride. Immediately my quads burned on the bike but the pain got manageable in a bit and I didn’t worry too much. The run portion of the brick shakeout went okay. Next was dropping off our bags and bike at the Ironman village. A man explained the drop bag situation. Even though we were required to drop our bags now, we still had access to them tomorrow and could still make small adjustments. However, without a transition area you did not have a place to put your air pump. You had to give the pump to someone not racing if you wanted to fill up the day of the race or try to borrow from someone else racing. It’s definitely not an ideal situation. The rest of the day was just relaxing for us. We were staying in Keene and the others decided to go to a dinner in Lake Placid with some Trilife club. It was a lost of an hour, 30 minutes each way which I didn’t want to deal with. I made some dinner and just watched TV for a bit.
The morning of the race, Cathy and I left first. We wanted to get a spot in the closer parking lot and then take the shuttle. I ended up confusing parking lots and not getting the closest shuttle. Oaf, too early in the morning. Anyway got to the start, put wet suit off and dropped the running drop bag that was to be accessed after the first loop. The bike portion also had a drop bag for after the first loop but I decided I would carry everything with me. Critical to my nutrition strategy was the spring energy speednut gels. These gels had 250 calories to them so I didn’t need to carry as much food or worry about grabbing bananas at aid stations. For the swim I had an extra pair of goggles and a gel in the chest area of my wetsuit. I heard from the group that it is possible for someone to hit you and your goggles to break. The gel was to take after the completion of the first lap. After the first lap, you get out of the water and move a little to close the U shape. There is a water station in between. I took a gel before the race started and planned to take gel before the second lap. I was terrified of cramping during the swim, something that happened the last time I was here in the Ironman 70.3 that past fall. This time I had a good breakfast and two gels so hoped it was enough! Two QDR members who I wasn’t expecting at the race wished me good luck with help get some courage in me.
I started with the last wave of swimmers, around the 2 hour mark. It was a friendly group and we made a little bit of small talk before starting. The swim started off great. I quickly got over my fears and got into a groove. About halfway through the first lap, some of the people that started much earlier started passing. Not too much of a problem. 3/4s of the way however, swarms of people were pushing through. This caused to veer left off course for quite a bit. It was a brawl in there. First loop finished with some scratches on my neck but that’s lucky the worst of it. I took the gel as planned. The second loop was empty and quiet. I wondered if I was going to make the time cutoff. I stuck to the groove. This was the first time in open water that I didn’t have to breath after each stroke. I still could only breath off one side but could comfortably breath every 4 strokes. About halfway through I caught up to a few people. I then tried racing them and went back and forth with a few. The swim ended up going smoothly, no cramps and I made it through with some nice even splits.
Next was the run to transition which was pretty uneventful. I grabbed my own drop bag, changed and ended up grabbing my own bike. Think the volunteer missed a number of my bib and was looking at the wrong place. The bike ride started off okay. I was in good speed and it felt comfortable. However after about 30 miles I started struggling mentally and physically. The miles felt long and I could feel it in the quads. The last 10 miles, mostly uphill were a huge struggle and I got looped by many people. I ended up not making the 1:30 pm cutoff for the bike course by 13 minutes. To be honest I was relieved to have not made it. Another loop would have been hell and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to make the final bike cutoff.
Afterwards I hung out with David and Jenny and cheered for the rest of the group. We had food and all. It was pretty relaxing. I had concerns about the recovery from the Ironman in relation to my UTMB race but guess that’s over. I definitely think Whiteface was the major reason for the quads burning out in the race. The finish line of the Ironman was fairly amazing. I could see why people are attracted to the race, you feel like a VIP for the day (unless you don’t make a time cutoff, then you’re just in the way). The strength of the even is their ability to draw out volunteers (probably more of a community thing - the area gets a lot of money from the outdoors).
The smart thing was to not train for both a hundred miler and an ironman but that's just how timing went. I wanted to race with friends and this was the year my friends were doing it. It doesn't seem like they would be doing it again and the cost of an ironman is crazy high. I'm not looking at it again, I had the experience and I could understand why it attracts some people but I could get a similar experience in ultra trail races for much cheaper and much more scenic and that's what attracts me more. I want to be in mountains, up high in them, not the roads that pass through the valleys around them. The race however was useful in getting me to figure out what I really want out of the endurance route I been pursing.
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Sunday, July 7, 2019
The road to UTMB - Chapter 5 - Finger Lakes 50
One minute I’m feeling great, on track for a huge 50 minute PR. Perhaps even my first sub 10 hour in the 50 mile distance. I’m easily keeping up with a huge pack of runners, maybe even with the mid pack of the 50kers. I checked the competition of my age group on ultrasignup and while I’m not clearly on the top, I have twice the race results than any of my peers. 26 results there vs the 13 I saw in the 50 mile group. Maybe I’ll win my age group (probably no award for it but still would feel nice). Then, all of sudden my IT band on my left leg flares up. I try to ignore it, hoping it would fade away but it lingers. Eventually I have to stop to attempt to stretch it out. I bend my left leg toward my butt but it hurts the farther up I go. In a moment I went from having what felt like would be my best 50 miler to a long day.
The Finger Lakes was my 4 th Ultra of the year in my build up to UTMB. It was supposed to be my longest run, a confidence booster towards the race. I had done two 50 milers in the early spring and a 50k two weeks ago where I got a massive PR. That 50k was followed by series of PRs in short distances further boosting my confidence in my abilities. It’s been a lackluster year compared to last year where I was PRing like crazy and getting them fairly easily. This year I have been fighting for each PR pretty hard and barely getting a few.
My IT band flared up two days ago, on July 4th, towards mile 40 of my 45ish mile bike ride. Despite resting the rest of that day and taking Friday off it didn’t fully heal by race morning. I shrugged it off and figured that after my muscles warm up, it’ll go away. I also started waking up with heel pain on my leg foot but it went away after a minute or so of walking so I thought nothing of it. Just some stiffness.
I ran the race two years ago where there was a torrential downpour as a training run for my first hundred miler. I dropped down to the 50k due to how crazy the weather was. I also ran it with no sleep, driving straight to the race after having hung out. I got met Akira who also ran the race through strava and we had communicated here and there about ultras and races. Akira was also running it this year as a tuneup for Twisted Branch 100k.
I woke up the morning of the race at midnight, the race started at 6:30 and I wanted to get there 5:45ish to do bib pickup, bathroom and warmup. I ended up leaving a bit later than expected and got there at 6 am. I originally had the Friday off and was planning to get there the day before but a sudden meeting Friday morning cancelled that. I still got to leave the office at around 3 pm so I was able to get some sleep in. With a 4.5 hour drive however, it wasn’t an ideal situation. For breakfast, I prefer eating 3 hours before the race so I ate some bread and peanut butter on the drive over. I wasn’t able to find any of my gels but I saw that the description of the race said that they had fully stocked aid stations. I interpreted that as including gels, though I did notice there was no nutrition sponsor.
I parked my car on the side of the road, changed into race gear and got bib pickup. There were only 3 porter-potties and a sizeable line so I wasn’t able to go to the bathroom before race. I briefly met Akira on the bathroom line before I decided I didn’t want to start the race late. I also was not able warmup but I figured that with 50 miles, I had plenty of time. The 50k and 50 milers went off together so I wanted to be cautious that I wasn’t running too fast I positioned myself mid-pack. I saw a couple of Dashing Whippets jerseys in the start. I learned of the race from a Brooklyn Trail Runners meetup event post (note, I ended up never running with the group).
The race started off without fanfare. We ran on a road for a little bit before breaking into single-track. I held back the effort level, it’s going to be a long day. The 50 miler consisted of three 16.5 mile loops with one .5 baby loop. My original plan was to average 13 minutes a mile the first loop, then 12 minutes a mile, and finally finish with 11 minutes a mile. However, I felt great in the first few miles despite holding back so much and found myself close to the 11 minutes a mile pace. The idea of achieving a massive PR in the 50 miler quickly took over my mind. The sub 10 in the 50 miler has been my goal since getting a 10:40 in the Cayuga trails 50 in my last ultra in 2018 (North Face SF got cancelled). This course was much easier in terms of elevation gain and there were good chunks on road which would lead to faster miles.
There ended up being no gels in the aid stations so I decided to eat peanut butter sandwiches (about a quarter of one each time) and drink up on Gatorade to get my calories. Theory wise it sounded like it could suffice but I know my body works best with gels. It was a super humid day. Within thirty minutes of running I looked like I took a dip in a lake from all the sweat. Despite the IT band problems I finished the first loop, 16.5 miles fairly well. I started struggling in the second loop. Akira caught up and another man - Paul I think. We ran together for a good chunk of the loop. Paul talked a bit about how NYC has a stranglehold on the Catskills, where he was from, due to it being where the city gets their water from. Eventually my IT band flared up and I lost both of them. It got so bad that I had to walk the last 3 miles in. Part of the course was on dirt road due to trail closure and I still wasn’t able to jog. I got looped by first place female doing the 50 miler. At this race, you have the option on race day to drop down from 50 miles to 50k which I did. I was still one of the last to finish the 50k and did worse than two years ago where I had no sleep and despite being so much fitter now. The course was also easier this year due to the trail closure which eliminated one of the hills. Afterwards I met with Akira and it was nice to talk with him a bit. I recall a woman asking me if I was okay and I responded that I was good. Another racer asked if I started cramping on, he saw me stop to stretch early on. Great community!
The race highlighted something I should have seen beforehand. I am willing to put the time into Ironman training and ultra marathon training simultaneously, something like 2.5 to 3 hours a day. However, after a month, it looks like I ended up over training. Perhaps it is possible but building a base for the Ironman training over a few months might have been a better, smarter approach.
The Finger Lakes was my 4 th Ultra of the year in my build up to UTMB. It was supposed to be my longest run, a confidence booster towards the race. I had done two 50 milers in the early spring and a 50k two weeks ago where I got a massive PR. That 50k was followed by series of PRs in short distances further boosting my confidence in my abilities. It’s been a lackluster year compared to last year where I was PRing like crazy and getting them fairly easily. This year I have been fighting for each PR pretty hard and barely getting a few.
My IT band flared up two days ago, on July 4th, towards mile 40 of my 45ish mile bike ride. Despite resting the rest of that day and taking Friday off it didn’t fully heal by race morning. I shrugged it off and figured that after my muscles warm up, it’ll go away. I also started waking up with heel pain on my leg foot but it went away after a minute or so of walking so I thought nothing of it. Just some stiffness.
I ran the race two years ago where there was a torrential downpour as a training run for my first hundred miler. I dropped down to the 50k due to how crazy the weather was. I also ran it with no sleep, driving straight to the race after having hung out. I got met Akira who also ran the race through strava and we had communicated here and there about ultras and races. Akira was also running it this year as a tuneup for Twisted Branch 100k.
I woke up the morning of the race at midnight, the race started at 6:30 and I wanted to get there 5:45ish to do bib pickup, bathroom and warmup. I ended up leaving a bit later than expected and got there at 6 am. I originally had the Friday off and was planning to get there the day before but a sudden meeting Friday morning cancelled that. I still got to leave the office at around 3 pm so I was able to get some sleep in. With a 4.5 hour drive however, it wasn’t an ideal situation. For breakfast, I prefer eating 3 hours before the race so I ate some bread and peanut butter on the drive over. I wasn’t able to find any of my gels but I saw that the description of the race said that they had fully stocked aid stations. I interpreted that as including gels, though I did notice there was no nutrition sponsor.
I parked my car on the side of the road, changed into race gear and got bib pickup. There were only 3 porter-potties and a sizeable line so I wasn’t able to go to the bathroom before race. I briefly met Akira on the bathroom line before I decided I didn’t want to start the race late. I also was not able warmup but I figured that with 50 miles, I had plenty of time. The 50k and 50 milers went off together so I wanted to be cautious that I wasn’t running too fast I positioned myself mid-pack. I saw a couple of Dashing Whippets jerseys in the start. I learned of the race from a Brooklyn Trail Runners meetup event post (note, I ended up never running with the group).
The race started off without fanfare. We ran on a road for a little bit before breaking into single-track. I held back the effort level, it’s going to be a long day. The 50 miler consisted of three 16.5 mile loops with one .5 baby loop. My original plan was to average 13 minutes a mile the first loop, then 12 minutes a mile, and finally finish with 11 minutes a mile. However, I felt great in the first few miles despite holding back so much and found myself close to the 11 minutes a mile pace. The idea of achieving a massive PR in the 50 miler quickly took over my mind. The sub 10 in the 50 miler has been my goal since getting a 10:40 in the Cayuga trails 50 in my last ultra in 2018 (North Face SF got cancelled). This course was much easier in terms of elevation gain and there were good chunks on road which would lead to faster miles.
There ended up being no gels in the aid stations so I decided to eat peanut butter sandwiches (about a quarter of one each time) and drink up on Gatorade to get my calories. Theory wise it sounded like it could suffice but I know my body works best with gels. It was a super humid day. Within thirty minutes of running I looked like I took a dip in a lake from all the sweat. Despite the IT band problems I finished the first loop, 16.5 miles fairly well. I started struggling in the second loop. Akira caught up and another man - Paul I think. We ran together for a good chunk of the loop. Paul talked a bit about how NYC has a stranglehold on the Catskills, where he was from, due to it being where the city gets their water from. Eventually my IT band flared up and I lost both of them. It got so bad that I had to walk the last 3 miles in. Part of the course was on dirt road due to trail closure and I still wasn’t able to jog. I got looped by first place female doing the 50 miler. At this race, you have the option on race day to drop down from 50 miles to 50k which I did. I was still one of the last to finish the 50k and did worse than two years ago where I had no sleep and despite being so much fitter now. The course was also easier this year due to the trail closure which eliminated one of the hills. Afterwards I met with Akira and it was nice to talk with him a bit. I recall a woman asking me if I was okay and I responded that I was good. Another racer asked if I started cramping on, he saw me stop to stretch early on. Great community!
The race highlighted something I should have seen beforehand. I am willing to put the time into Ironman training and ultra marathon training simultaneously, something like 2.5 to 3 hours a day. However, after a month, it looks like I ended up over training. Perhaps it is possible but building a base for the Ironman training over a few months might have been a better, smarter approach.
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