Ironman to Ironman
It has been way too long since I have posted on here. The most significant race since my last post was Ironman Louisville on August 30. I think the main reason I didn't post anything immediately after and kept putting it off was because I was more than a little disappointed with myself for my performance.
In racing, you put yourself out there. Especially with an Ironman, which are usually only done once or twice a year, there is a lot of build-up. People know I'm doing it, and that I'm excited and serious about it. For Ironman Louisville, this built up in my own mind significant expectation. I really wanted to do well, be at the top of my age group, and if not qualify for Kona (world champs, have to be top 3 in age group), then at least be pretty close behind the kids that did. I told myself this, and told other people this.It didn't happen. In fact, I was way, way off. It wasn't from lack of training or preparation, it was an error in execution. As Christopher McDougall put it in Born to Run, long distance racing is "a series of binary decisions." To eat or not to eat, drink water or gatorade, push a little harder or back off a bit, try to keep up with someone passing me, or hold back. They are influenced by feedback you can get from yourself by asking questions like "is my stomach full?", "am i thirsty?", "how are my muscles, any cramping?". You end up with a decision matrix, where a feeling (or lack thereof) results in an action.For me, I had a serious error in my decision matrix. I have experienced during racing before hyponatremia, where there is not enough sodium in my bloodstream, reducing the body's ability to bring liquids from the stomach to the rest of the body. The simple solution is salt pills. Replenish your salt supply, and your body starts functioning better pretty quickly.
In Louisville, probably about 5 miles or so into the marathon, I my stomach was feeling pretty full, so I took salt pills. Over the next hour or so, it wasn't feeling a whole lot better, so I took more salt pills. I had read about professional athletes taking as many as 10 pills (400 mg sodium) per hour, so didn't think I could over-do it, and figured that I would just sweat out any excess. By the half-way point in the run, I had taken probably 30 pills, and was feeling pretty awful. Eating or drinking anything, including water, only made me feel worse, so I stopped, hoping I had enough energy left to get me to the finish line. This worked fine until about mile 20 or so, though I was slowing down a bit, I was still running and on track for a decent overall time.Now as I learned later (from a doctor in the medical tent while she was putting an IV in me), as the sodium balance between inside your stomach wall and outside your stomach wall builds, water tends to go to where the salt is. Tons of salt in my stomach drew the water from the rest of my body into my stomach, causing dehydration and, well, digestive issues.I was managing this until probably mile 22 or so, when I completely ran out of energy and was force to walk, slowly. You can see in the run splits how this played out:
The last couple miles were terrible. I was taken away from the finish line in a wheel chair, given two IV bags at the medical tent, then curled into a ball in the hotel and passed out for a few hours.Probably the most disappointing thing about the day was that I had worked quite hard to build a lot of fitness, but didn't really get to use it. This brings us to the new goal for Ironman Florida, tomorrow. I want to have a strong, even split race, where I run the whole way and finish strong at the end. I'm not trying to qualify, win the age group, or anything. I just want to have a well executed race. I will be eating a lot less throughout, and taking it a bit easier the whole way, with the goal of feeling good 8 hours in at the start of the second half of the marathon, and running strong the whole way. While my fitness was probably higher in August, hopefully it will be my execution (and refined decision matrix) tomorrow that makes the difference.From Panama City, Florida, thanks for reading.
In racing, you put yourself out there. Especially with an Ironman, which are usually only done once or twice a year, there is a lot of build-up. People know I'm doing it, and that I'm excited and serious about it. For Ironman Louisville, this built up in my own mind significant expectation. I really wanted to do well, be at the top of my age group, and if not qualify for Kona (world champs, have to be top 3 in age group), then at least be pretty close behind the kids that did. I told myself this, and told other people this.It didn't happen. In fact, I was way, way off. It wasn't from lack of training or preparation, it was an error in execution. As Christopher McDougall put it in Born to Run, long distance racing is "a series of binary decisions." To eat or not to eat, drink water or gatorade, push a little harder or back off a bit, try to keep up with someone passing me, or hold back. They are influenced by feedback you can get from yourself by asking questions like "is my stomach full?", "am i thirsty?", "how are my muscles, any cramping?". You end up with a decision matrix, where a feeling (or lack thereof) results in an action.For me, I had a serious error in my decision matrix. I have experienced during racing before hyponatremia, where there is not enough sodium in my bloodstream, reducing the body's ability to bring liquids from the stomach to the rest of the body. The simple solution is salt pills. Replenish your salt supply, and your body starts functioning better pretty quickly.
| FIRST RUN SEGMENT | 3.38 mi. (25:02) | 7:24/mile | |
| SECOND RUN SEGMENT | 8.25 mi. (40:30) | 8:18/mile | |
| THIRD RUN SEGMENT | 13.1 mi. (43:40) | 9:00/mile | |
| FOURTH RUN SEGMENT | 15.33 mi. (21:27) | 9:37/mile | |
| FIFTH RUN SEGMENT | 20.19 mi. (56:08) | 11:33/mile | |
| SIXTH RUN SEGMENT | 25.04 mi. (1:24:51) | 17:29/mile | |
| FINAL RUN SEGMENT | 26.2 mi. (24:09) | 20:49/mile | |
| TOTAL RUN | 26.2 mi. (4:55:47) | 11:17/mile |
The last couple miles were terrible. I was taken away from the finish line in a wheel chair, given two IV bags at the medical tent, then curled into a ball in the hotel and passed out for a few hours.Probably the most disappointing thing about the day was that I had worked quite hard to build a lot of fitness, but didn't really get to use it. This brings us to the new goal for Ironman Florida, tomorrow. I want to have a strong, even split race, where I run the whole way and finish strong at the end. I'm not trying to qualify, win the age group, or anything. I just want to have a well executed race. I will be eating a lot less throughout, and taking it a bit easier the whole way, with the goal of feeling good 8 hours in at the start of the second half of the marathon, and running strong the whole way. While my fitness was probably higher in August, hopefully it will be my execution (and refined decision matrix) tomorrow that makes the difference.From Panama City, Florida, thanks for reading.
