Race Coverage

Happy? Yes. Satisfied? No...

Friday, 30 September 2016 23:10

By Chris Stevens

IRONMAN WISCONSIN RACE REPORT - Ironman Wisconsin 2016 was the culmination of many things personal for me. Back in 2006 at only 28 years old my competitive running days were over. I had a badly herniated disk, severe nerve damage down my right leg and surgery in an attempt to reduce some of the damage. To this day I have nerve issues in my right leg and atrophy in my right calf. I continued to dabble in running a bit because it was in my blood. Any other endurance sport just didn’t seem appealing. I had run competitively since middle school, through college and didn’t know anything else. My run career highlights are 9:33 steeplechase, 1:15 half marathon, 16:13 road 5K.

During the summer of 2011 my wife Amy who was also an injured runner decided to dabble in triathlon. She got us ...

a membership to our local fitness “Centre” and wanted to get me in the pool. I was a terrible swimmer that hadn’t swam other than to survive. I had swimming lessons as a kid for a few years, but was always the last one done with laps. But I swam and quickly advanced to my first triathlon a month later and was hooked. Like most triathletes this put Ironman on my mind though is seemed like an impossible task at the time. I did my first and only Half Ironman in June of 2012. Shortly after that due to continued back issues I sold my triathlon equipment during the spring 2013 and continued only on my road bike. I never did completely forget the faint dream of a full distance triathlon.

While riding I did continue to swim a bit. Just a couple times / week for a half hour or so at a time. I also began a more consistent core and posterior chain strengthening routine. It took perhaps a year before I noticed a difference, and though it’s never perfect my back did indeed feel stronger and better. It felt good enough to purchase another triathlon bike in the fall of 2013. Due to some incredible bike fitness I entered a sprint tri the next August and won the race not having run for 2 years. Again the spark of hope for a full distance tri came back. I was now a very strong triathlon cyclist. It was time to bring back the run!

2015 came and I ran through the winter just a bit. My once a week 5 miler became 2 times, then 3 times. I won a sprint tri early summer with fantastic bike fitness and mediocre run fitness. I sprinkled in a few bike races and even won Cat 5 General Classification in my first major stage race. Unfortunately I had another setback and developed IT band syndrome late summer and did not finish another TRI in 2015. However, I did go spectate and cheer for a friend at IM Wisconsin and that was the last straw. I was hooked and assumed a little time off to heal the IT band and I’d be all set and strong for 2016!

Unfortunately on October 10^th 2016 I was in an accident and had a compound fracture tibia and fibula in my right leg. It was a mess. The VERY FIRST THING I thought of as my leg broke was that I had just signed up for an Ironman. How was I going to swim, bike, and run a marathon? I had surgery and had a titanium rod driven into my tibia and set with 4 screws. Pain and more pain. Very stressful for my entire family as they selflessly pitched in to help. It was a tough time for me.

Having a surgeon that’s also a triathlete is a big help! Believe it or not just before Thanksgiving I was back in the pool. Even flicking my foot caused tremendous pain. But I swam the best I could. Just after Thanksgiving I was soft pedaling the bike. I couldn’t even clip in and out with the bad leg, but I was riding. I had to leave my shoe clipped to the bike and the Velcro very loose to accommodate a very swollen foot. Feb 6^th was my first run and it HURT. I couldn’t even imagine making it through an Ironman at that point. But I kept at it and by May even though it still hurt to run I was actually gaining some run fitness.

Unfortunately there were still 3 pretty major setbacks to occur. The first was with the ramping back up of running approaching only 20 miles per week came the return of IT band syndrome. I couldn’t believe it. I had done strengthening, rolling, physical therapy, and lots of research. I couldn’t beat it. But it didn’t prevent me from running. It only limited my running. The end of May I had the screws removed from my leg. This caused lots of running pain again and was a couple week setback. I purposely timed it that way before the final big push to the race. It was a setback nonetheless, but possibly a small needed rest for the IT band. My final longish run of 10 miles occurred early in August due to the IT band getting sore enough to eliminate long runs. At that point I was near 30 miles per week and thought it better to go into the race a bit under-trained on the run vs. not able to run at all due to a locked up IT band.

The final setback began about 3 weeks out from the race. I strained my quad a bit on a long ride and fought through it figuring it was just a tight muscle. I went another hard week on it which made it worse and with 15 days to race day took a calculated risk to get through one more 5 hour ride / short run. The next day I could barely walk. Going up and down stairs was impossible. But I had a full 2 weeks to recover to race day. I basically took the final 2 weeks completely off running and biking and it worked as I could feel the quad finally healed up about 2 days before the race. My calculated risk had given me the confidence completing that last long workout 2 weeks prior, but would all the time off leave me feeling flat for race day?

Race weekend came and I had developed a cold mid-week. I was healthy and hadn’t had so much as a sniffle all year until this. I got to Madison, took care of business checking in, a short swim, drove the course, and attended a mandatory meeting. No extra activity for me. I was very well rested, but with a chest cold. It was here. Time to go take care of business.

Based on research and other athlete accomplishments / etc, I figured on a great day with great weather a super race for me would be 9:45. Roughly 1:10 swim, 5 flat bike, 3:25 marathon. Was this realistic for a first timer? Maybe not, but I wasn’t there to finish. I was going to compete as long as possible. I was confident in swim fitness, bike fitness, and nutrition. The run was a bit iffy, but I knew others that had run well on sub-par run fitness. My mentality is “I’m here to win.” Respect everyone. Fear no one.

The early Sunday morning came and I got up to get about 1000 calories down a few hours before the start. The start area was crowded, but I got the bike and nutrition ready and took care of other business before finding a spot to relax. Before I knew it I was in my wetsuit floating next to the ski ramp.

Swim: 1:09:11.

When the cannon sounded it was full contact swimming. I would never consider myself an aggressive swimmer as I’d never purposely make contact, but this was brutal. I was trying to relax, but I’d get hit from the side, the other side, rear, and hit feet up ahead. I had nowhere to go and felt like I was constantly shuffled back. It felt like I was constantly moving backwards for the first 2 miles. At the end of the long back stretch I finally got myself out in clear water until the finish. I hardly kick if at all and still had some cramping in my legs during the swim. I’m not sure if it was from reacting to all the contact or sighting more than usual due to the contact and somewhat choppy water. I never felt tired, but just wasn’t relaxed. With about 100 yards to go I purposely backed off to try to get ready for the run through T1.

T1: 8:02.

I have no idea how I can be roughly 3 minutes slower than the competitive guys in T1. I got my suit stripped. Ran up the helix, ran to T1 bags, walked through the bags but had to wait just a few secs for my bag. My helper struggled through my stuff a bit, but I only had helmet and shoes. And I was off. A quick pee and I ran the rest of the entire way to the mount line. As I handed my bike to a volunteer and tried to get my shoes on my right quad LOCKED. I bet I spent 30 seconds waiting for that to relax before hopping on and heading out to the course. Yikes. First sign of a potentially iffy day?

Bike for show: 5:02:17, 3^rd overall.

First I want to make something clear. All my data shows that my effort was LOWER than it should have been by a considerable amount. All my IM pace training rides were at least +10 watts more than race day. I had my FTP set in my computer at -30 watts compared to my road bike FTP and backed that up with many hard rides on the TT bike. If anything my TT bike FTP is conservative. My IF at the beginning of the ride was .69 and by the end was .68. I had planned to ride about .70-.73. My 3 parameters to watch were speed, power, and heart rate. Generally my long bike / run bricks I ride high 130’s heart rate. This ride I struggled to keep it below mid 140’s. I was more often in the high 140’s. Therefore I kept the wattage lower, while watching speed and staying competitive. I felt strong, but again had some weird niggles and cramps in places I’d never cramped. Like from my knee all the way through my groin. Yikes. But I felt strong and better the longer I rode. Holding power was never an issue the entire 112 miles. I took in 1700 calories, about 5 bottles, and never had any sort of GI issue on the bike. But that dang HR was just high on LOW watts. I really like the course. I passed almost 400 riders and was passed countless times uphill even by the front guys. Then I’d repass in the flats or tucked on the downhills. I thought folks being passed were for the most part safe. I came across a nasty wreck about mile 102 where a guy had just hit a car. I may have been the next rider past and I went through that intersection about 35 mph so would have hated to hit a car at that speed! I spent just under 27 minutes coasting and had a top speed of over 51mph. COOL!

T2: 4:24….UGH….

Again lots of free time lost to the competitive guys. I recall feeling a bit tired coming into T2, but I was 6+ hours into an Ironman so probably shouldn’t feel perfect right? Still not 100% sure how I can give up nearly 2 minutes to my competition? Peeing only took 20 seconds! Good grief.

Run / walk: 4:24: LOL

I’ve done three 5-6 hour rides with 45 minute runs afterward. All at +10 more watts than the race. All fresh as a rose after the ride. Fresh as in I struggle mightily to go over 7:20 / mile holding back with all my willpower. When I left T2 Sunday I could tell the legs didn’t feel the same. Instead 7:50 pace felt like a little work. I was still trying to stay competitive as long as possible. I knew the fast runners would slowly come past and they did. But I also caught a few guys early on that were already blown. I walked each aid station to get the HR down and take water / coke. My nutrition felt great and I was still peeing. Both good. At 5 miles or at the bottom of Observatory I saw my wife and told her not to worry, but it was likely going to turn into a walk. I told her I was in good spirits and felt good, but my legs just felt like they were done. What an odd feeling. I made it to special needs on almost exactly 3:30 marathon pace. I changed socks and lubed up a bit and probably wasted more free time! At 15 miles I was told I was sitting 11^th overall, but it was run / walk time. I went from walking every aid station to walking every half mile to walk 3 minutes, run 3 minutes to walk 5 minutes, run 1 minute! The IT band finally struck at mile 17. Ouch, but not terrible. At mile 21 when I tried to run my OTHER IT band let loose. So 2 painful IT bands. Again I saw friends / family and told them I was fine. I was done being competitive back about mile 17 so I was enjoying myself walking it in. There were times of discomfort, but I was overall very comfortable. My run legs were just “done.” My body physically felt great, but just those select few muscle groups had checked out. A very odd feeling! Back on State Street I enjoyed the walk and the crowd and a free beer on the way in. I made sure to thank all the volunteers the last few miles and stayed in good spirits. The only time I got a bit unhappy was in the chute. Here I was finishing my first IM and I wasn’t competitive. That was tough to take. But seeing family and friends in the chute made me quickly forget that I sucked a bit.

Post-race thoughts:

First the swim must have taken too much out of me. I do not think I swam too hard. I think I lacked the specific training to get tossed around, dunked, kicked, elbowed, pushed, pulled / etc. I did not train for that and therefore burned matches I did not plan on burning. How would one train for that? In my opinion lots of kicking in the pool. And lots of practice doing extra sighting. In my lake training I have it easy. Perch Lake is almost always calm. I never kick and only sight as necessary as nobody is there beating me up forcing me to make adjustments.

There was nothing I could do about being sick. How much or little that took out of me I’ll never know, but I do know for sure it didn’t help me go faster. Especially on a day that takes everything you have.

Lastly before the race I figured I’d be competitive near the front on the bike. I was hoping for a top 10 bike split or so arriving in T2 in the top 25. I did not realize I could be off target wattage by 10+ watts or roughly ½ mph and still be at the very pointy front end of the field and arrive at T2 right at the front of the race! I’ve often thought that I can ride with just about any age grouper in triathlon and IM Wisconsin confirmed that. I was out ridden by one age grouper (barely) and one professional. That will be taken under consideration in the future assuming similar fitness. I now know I can go out and vastly under ride and save my legs for a hopefully very fast run. Nail the run, nail the Ironman.

So for now the journey ends. Am I happy? Yes. Am I satisfied with the result? Absolutely not. But I’m an Ironman and I finished within a year of a major injury and finished with a titanium rod in my leg! It’s been lots of work, but lots of fun and I’m not sure I’d change much if I had to do it all again.