School of Cross – Elite Men –
Hop ‘n Hurl – Expert Men –
Hop ‘n Hurl – Women –
Hop ‘n Hurl – Elite Men –
There are more photos in the Cyclocross 2009 Gallery
Cyclocross is a sport that has a couple really defining attributes. That’s nothing special, every sport has defining attributes. The thing that makes it different is that it’s mostly the loosely associated attributes or that make it great, the barebones aspects of cyclocross racing aren’t all that exciting. The sport of cyclocross is the result of a set of decisions that independently don’t create something amazing, but together the maybe unexpected ramifications create something really great.
Here are the basics:
The fast guys are really good – did I say that already? here’s some proof from the World cup races last year:
Why choose to take up the sport? It’s not likely because you think that you really enjoy 1 hour threshold or near-threshold efforts on the bike. It’s not because the idea of jumping onto the seat of your bike at a full run is super appealing to you.
In fact that’s probably the most off putting aspect for many first-timers. The fact that other people are doing it however, and having fun, is a likely reason I think most people start. There is no secret, the sport really looks fun because the people racing are having fun. It’s also time limited, only happening for a couple weeks each year, and there’s an urgency not to miss out. Perhaps a few esoteric reasons too; the handling skills gained in cross are valuable to bring onto the road (and even triathlon) and the top end speed is something that can be added at the end of a season to a solid base developed for other forms of racing. Cyclocross is meant to be hard, and that’s an appealing reason to start too, it’s a heck of a challenge but I’ll get to that later. Ultimately though I think the apparent disorganization and chaos of a race makes for a good time, and as with all sports, it’s about fun times. Here’s someone’s story about what made ‘cross appealing:
We walked around the course with our coffees and I was getting stoked. Then we got the the first run up. There was a plank at the bottom of steep hill. This was something that clearly nobody would be able to ride. Riders would be forced to get off their bike, run over the barrier, and then remount at the base of an impossibly steep run up. People were crowded all around and cheering and yelling and cowbelling. At this point the tail end of the Masters A racers were coming though, and well, they certainly weren’t making it look easy. Everyone was struggling.
Then Barry Wicks came though like a cool breeze, bunny hopped the barrier and rode his bike up the hill. A man on the hill with an enormous cowbell chased him and screamed in his face, over and over again:
I CAN SEE YOU!
I can see you, I can see you, I can see you! That didn’t make any sense to me, but I loved it. I would later realize that shouting the most obvious shit is the best way to heckle your pals.
Turns out it was Bruce from River City Bicycles doing the yelling. It was that scene right there that did it for me, that made me want to try cyclocross: Bruce yelling in Barry’s face, and Barry riding the hill with an ear to ear smile.
Brian NoLastName – 2009
Others have described Cyclocross as “You make a bike race as stupid as possible, but it’s still a race, so people do it. And then you rationalize that, like, it’s so stupid that it must be fun”. I agree that the concept works for some people but I don’t think that’s how you’d sell the idea to a bunch of athletes who are actually looking for a physical challenge, which ‘cross is in spades, but perhaps the sheer stupidity is part of the reason for some folks. For the people who want to go out and race ‘cross, what most of them are really relishing when the whistle blows to start the race is that this is really really hard. The courses are laid out to prevent rhythm, just when your heart-rate is getting out of control there’s a hill to really add some nails to your coffin and bury you if you’re not careful. Just when your legs are tired from a long section in soft grass there will be a corner that really requires you to slow down and re-accelerate out of it to remind you that your legs are really tired. When your hands are starting to ache from all the jittering and shaking after riding over some really uneven terrain you’ll have to hop off your bike and grab the top tube of your bike with a serious grip to pick it up and run over the barriers, yeilding a big ache in the knuckles. When you think you’ll get to run up some speed down a big hill there will be a U-turn at the bottom, or maybe even a double barrier dismount to prevent you from reaping the benefits of the climb you just did. The changing pattern isn’t something that can be practiced as it’s different from week to week, the ability to change pace, position and focus is the underlying key, while at all times keeping the effort level high. Cyclocross happens in the autumn and early winter. For Edmonton that’s September to November; for Belgium and the rest of northern Europe, where this great sport began, it’s more of a November to February sport. The result is the potential of miserable weather. Why is that a good thing? Well, it makes things hard! Cold and wet sap determination. It makes the win go to the toughest competitor out there. If it’s hard, why do I love it? Probably for some of the same reasons that I’m signed up to tackle Ironman in August.
Maybe it’s the mud, or the bruises, maybe the beer, or the loose semblance of camaraderie. I think what it boils down to is that I feel more alive during a cross race than at just about any other time. Cyclocross is the most intense hour of effort, pain and joy I have ever encountered. I’m attracted to cross because I can put everything I’ve got on the line for 60 minutes, come out of it totally exhausted, covered in rain, mud and grime, perhaps with a trickle of blood running down somewhere, craving ibuprofen, blowing mud out of my nostrils, placing top 30 if I’m lucky, and loving every minute of it.
Kelly Hobkirk – 2008
Unlike road-racing where team-tactics play a huge role in competition, cyclocross is more of an individual sport. Co-operation on the course is a definite possibility but more often than not it’s co-operation with riders from another team. The main role of team-members is cheering when they’re not racing and maybe snapping some photos, that’s it. In that sense, everyone is on the same team. The pre-race course inspection and post-race random shenanigans are shared amongst the entirety of those assembled at the race. The event of cyclocross lasts more than the length of the race, it lasts the entire duration of the time spent at the park. Things like this would not at all be considered to be out of the ordinary:
One of the best things about cyclocross is the attitude. Gone is the testosterone-induced yelling and uber-competitiveness. Everyone seems to respect each other, no matter how talented or strong or skilled they are. Everyone cheers for everyone.
Kelly Hobkirk – 2008
The Cyclocross season began last weekend with the kickoff race in Red-Deer and this weekend was the first double-header weekend of the year. I raced on both Saturday and Sunday… and hopefully will be doing so for the rest of the races for the next six weeks until the provincial championship.
I slapped knobby tyres back on my bike the same day I returned from my excursion to Penticton and have been going hard at it for four solid weeks… so much in fact that I haven’t had runners on in 40 days, and counting. I’ll get back at the running at least on an occasional basis before the end of the cross season but taking a break is just fine with me too. I’ve needed to dedicate focus to the cycling though to prepare properly for cyclocross season. All summer I’ve been working on developing a giant 12 cylinder diesel engine for triathlon time trial riding. It also happened to work alright for powering me through a giant and somewhat ridiculous bike trip across BC. Anyhow, that big diesel engine isn’t going to get me anywhere in cyclocross so I needed to try and add on some substantial top end speed. I also felt like my ability to generate some significant power was definitely there, but I didn’t have the ability to do my max power, recover and do it again and again and again. That results in a limited potential for racing well at cyclocross.
- The Training -
The prescription is somewhat obvious, I need to do intensity in my training at a level that I haven’t done in a long time. That means putting together some race effort work, meaning threshold efforts, and intervals that bring me slightly above threshold and then trying to quickly recover below threshold before punching it back up again and recovering again. They’re hard workouts but fortunately they’re short. I’ve been able to structure the triathlon-club workouts that I’m coaching during this period of the training season to serve two purposes, the adaptation and skills sort of work that’s necessary for people who are just starting out as well as allowing me to sit on that stationary bike and go stupid-hard during those intervals at the same time as other people are just getting used to turning the pedals for an entire hour. I’ve also been doing Wednesday night lessons, taught by a previous provincial champion with a pretty good group of riders from Edmonton, we’ve got a full range of beginner through amazing there which gives me the big benefit of riding on some good cyclist’s wheels and allowing me to learn, learn and learn. I’ve also been racing on Tuesday nights at an informal race series with a twoonie entry fee which serves to provide a good long warmup, about half an hour of serious work at race-effort and then a long cool down ride home from the park. Those three sessions each week plus racing or skills based riding on the weekends has the makings of a HUGE bike focus. It’s fun though and I’m getting better. Hopefully the big diesel engine comes back without too much effort after November.
- Cutting my teeth -
The first Tuesday night race I competed in I was absolutely slaughtered by the competition in the B category. I was dropped by the lead pack off the start and I felt like I couldn’t push the pace anywhere to try and regain ground. It was actually pretty humbling, I had no ability to go when I tried to tell my legs to go. The next weekend though we were off to Red-Deer for my first race in the provincial series and after taking an easy day prior I felt pretty good at the start line. I felt like when I wanted to go I could really go, which was a fantastic feeling. I rode reserved for the first 3 of 6 laps, staying with the leading group of 6 but refused to make any effort at the front. I tried to run as easily as I could through the sand but found that my heartrate was absolutely skyrocketing when I hopped back on the bike. I had lost my chain three times already by the time I tried to make an attack on the fifth lap, but had lost it at convenient points where it didn’t take any time to get it back on. I made an attack with the tailwind on my fifth lap and had put in a decent gap until I dropped the chain on a really bumpy descent and wound up having to dismount, re-chain the bike and start from a standstill at the bottom of a hill. Such is life I said to myself, I obvious hadn’t installed my chain-keeper properly when I switched from 2 rings to a single ring up front. I was now back in fourth place and really had to push hard to try and bring back the leader. The course was too short however, and he picked up the pace on the last half lap to stay away for the win. I was about 5 seconds back in second and third was about equally distant behind me.
- The ‘W’ -
The next Tuesday night race was a sweet one indeed. A relatively flat and winding course with one power climb and a fast descent. I started out slow, anticipating that I’d likely wind up about 10th place again and let about 20 people ahead of me off the start, slotted myself in the train and then started to get to work. I found quite quickly that I was alright at maintaining momentum where some others were not and as a result I was pretty quick on the flats, quicker than all the guys in front of me. I slowly picked them off, one or two at a time, until I was chasing people who were quite clearly faster than me. I was OK with that and just sat on their wheels and tried to keep the effort level high I had no idea who was from my race and who was from the race ahead of me, so was content to just ride. Into the finish I descended the hill near one guy and decided I’d try to race him for what I though was probably fifth place. I nabbed the win with a half wheel length on the line. It turns out that was for first place! Now I’m kicked out of the B category and have to race with the fast guys for the rest of the season, that means tough work!
- Wow this is tough -
Weekend #2 of ‘cross racing started on Saturday morning with the ‘School of Cross’ on a very technical course in my opinion. The mountain bike guys didn’t call it technical, just curvy, and that’s probably true. It wasn’t super technical but it did have some tricky bits and the corners were all very sharp. The result of this was that many many short accelerations were required on each lap and they really sapped my energy. Contrary to the previous week where I felt strong and fast, this week’s race I felt miserable and tired after only the first of five laps. My heartrate was above 180 bpm every time I looked at it and I felt like I was riding extremely slow. I wasn’t going all that slow though, I was actually doing very well. I started relatively well and got into the course in 5th position but the first three were getting away and it took me some time and a few tries to finally get around 4th place and try to reel them in. By that time the had formed a gap that I couldn’t cross and it was too long to pace off of them. This was less than ideal and probably contributed to me feeling like I was doing terribly. Second place got rope in his derailleur and had to pull out and by the last lap I could tell that the new Second place was fading and fourth place was gaining. I really pushed to the finish but wasn’t all that close to catching second but did hold off the charging fourth place guy for a podium position. All in all, a very difficult race and after a collapsing under a tree to catch my breath I think I could even decide that it was fun.
- Fun Fun Fun -
Day two of my first ‘cross double header was a course suited to my strengths. We built it the evening before at Goldbar park including what I’d consider three distinct sections. The first was a rather quick but curvy lap of the lower park, including some tricky sections that required very low speeds, but overall it was a matter of running corners as wide as possible and taking the line that allowed you to conserve the most speed. This fed directly into a climb with a mandatory dismount at the top and double barrier. This fed into a section of off camber riding and turns interspersed with short climbs. It went pretty quick but really required that attention was paid. I felt like I addressed this section well considering the technical bits are a weakness of mine. From there on out the course was a matter of pushing a big gear and cruising with your head down through a long gradual climb and a long and fast descent. At the end of the climb was a triple switchback uphill that was very tight. I insisted on building it like this and unfortunately it’s also likely the bit of the course that cost me a position on the podium but that’s getting ahead of myself. I took the race out slow and in 10th place, not wanting to go to hard right off the bat. After a half lap I started to increase my urgency and by the time I was through the first lap I was pushing hard in 5th place. I moved into third with a double pass just as I was passed by another young guy and fell to fourth. First place was off the front and looked to be pulling away and I think everyone had resigned themselves to the fact that the Juventus rider who had won the first two races and should have been upgraded by this point was likely going to win three in a row. The Pedalhead rider in second had faded badly the day before and I was expecting him to fade back as well so I worked hard to stay with third place and did so for the third lap. By lap four it was obvious that we were reeling in second place and made contact before the last climb up to the barriers. I pulled even with them here but ran slow to let the both go ahead. I didn’t need to lead into the wind on the next section, I wasn’t about to offer my huge draft to these guys. Up to the final zig-zag I decided I was going to run, which I had tested prior and experimented with once during the race. I was convinced that it was not any slower and prevented any chance of errors or overlapping of wheels in the tight section. It was probably the wrong choice however because by the time I was back on my bike I they had a tiny gap of maybe 5m. It was enough that I wasn’t poised to pass where I anticipated needed to pass and couldn’t push quite hard enough to get by them on the long fast downhill. It was about this point that I started to wonder why I was breathing at all, it felt really useless to pump air in and out of my lungs because it didn’t seem to be doing anything anyways. I took huge speed into the last climb and rode the descent on the wheel of third place. Unfortunately when we came to the line I was still a bike length back, the run in to the finish wasn’t long enough to permit a high speed acceleration, it was mostly a matter of maintaining as much speed from the downhill as possible. Fourth place. I fertilized the nearby bushes in true ‘hop ‘n hurl‘ fashion but felt alright within about 10 minutes, I was pretty happy with how I raced though and felt strong and worked hard… perhaps I could have stuck with the leader if I’d not have given away those 10 places off the start but I don’t deal well with really hard starts, so I know what I need to learn.
The day saw some fantastic racing in all categories and John Clarke took the win for Hardcore at our own race in the Expert Category as he now moves up to contend with the big guns with the Elites. I suppose the saving grace with a fourth place is that I am still 3 points shy of an upgrade and get to contend in the Dark Knight as well as the Oval Cross with the slower categories. Hopefully this increases the chances that someone from the Hardcore racing team can with a pig on Saturday night as we’ll be represented in all of the races. A win would be nice, but winning the pig I think is potentially more important. (A scavenger hunt on the course that involves beer for the winner… details to follow if the story turns out to be worth telling)
Youtube coverage of the Expert and Elite Mens’ races will follow pending a free lunch-hour at work to do some video editing. I snapped stills for the women as I was supposed to be marshaling in one area and the field spread out too much to make for exciting footage. Not that the race was unexciting.
Power testing on the bike for Triathlon Club begins this weekend. Here’s some inspiration:
I scammed this photo from Pez Cycling News because it’s imperative that you see it.
The big reason for the bike trip was to make my way out to Penticton to sign up for Ironman for 2010. That is now done and on August 29, 2010 I’ll embark on what I can almost guarantee will be the most challenging day of swimming, biking and running I’ve ever done. I’m really looking forward to it. This blog entry is mostly notes for myself for next year, not terribly stimulating reading, so if you read it and get to the end thinking ‘what a waste of my time’, then don’t complain because you’ve been warned.
I was stationed in OK falls for the 2009 edition of Ironman Canada to be the support crew for two friends who would be racing on Sunday morning. They had a lot of tasks to do associated with race preparation and when they weren’t busy it was important that I didn’t try to distract them too much from their most important task in the days prior to the race: relaxing and letting all the fatigue drain out of their muscles. Despite having ridden almost continuously during my waking hours for the past 7 days I still opted to get out and make the most of the excellent riding terrain by doing another ride. I really wanted to ride the IMC course while there so that I could mentally log it in my head in advance of actually heading out on the course. I found that it is a huge advantage to actually ride courses prior to racing on them. I didn’t used to think this was terribly important but this spring when I started to do more mountain biking I realized the importance. Knowing what is coming up and having done the corners before makes it so much easier to ride with confidence. That makes a huge difference in actual speed when the course is technical and the experience lets you ride faster… on a triathlon course it’s probably not going to make a huge time difference but the confidence that it adds is significant in my opinion. I have an excellent mental image of the ride and know where I’ll likely feel strong and where I’ll likely need to focus hard to ride efficiently. If you ask me it’s completely reasonable to suggest that pre-riding the course this year made me 5 minutes faster on it next year. If I could train there on all my training rides I think I’d gain another couple minutes just by getting so familiar with the pacing demands of this course, irrespective of fitness. At an Olympic or sprint distance race the difference is likely only a matter of a few seconds, because there is only one pace – HARD… but for IM I think this is likely a significant advantage because the pace is never hard.
I had it in my head that I should leave the hotel in OK falls at around 8:30 pm so I’d be on the middle section of the course at the same time of day as I would be for race day. But being lazy in the morning was more important and so I took my sweet time to get out there, meaning I’d ride a bit more in the heat of the afternoon instead. I rode from the Penticton Beach down along Shaha and then up the short climb over McClean Creek and the fast curvy descent into OK Falls the previous afternoon. The start is just fine, quick and fast, the first climb is short enough that even though I probably won’t ride it in as controlled a manner as I probably should it’s not going to take a big toll on myself. The road is winding and the surface is less than ideal so it’s likely that the traffic on the course will cause some trouble here. I figure that if I can swim 70 minutes I’ll have had a good go of it, that would put 800 people ahead of me. Add only a couple minutes to that and I’ll have a thousand people ahead of me. It’s clear that I’m planning on hopping out of the water when the pack of triathletes will be at it’s thickest. The point all that is: by the time I’m at McClean Creek Road people will be settled in on their bikes and riding predictably and I’ll likely be ready to make some serious passes, maybe a hundred on this climb alone. I have reason to believe that I’ll be riding at a steady+ pace or high zone three here, getting through some of this crowd is going to probably help calm me down, it’s early in the course, not a long hill, and adrenaline is guaranteed to be high.
The roll south from OK Falls to Osoyoos was not dead flat like everyone describes. There were plenty of short rises along the way, I felt like they make this section of the course quite dangerous, not because they put you in any danger, but they offer a relentless barrage of opportunities to go hard for 30 seconds. If the mentality through this section is not well controlled it is completely possible that I get caught up with the huge number of cyclists who I’ll be tearing down the road with and just muscle my way up all those little hills. Deadpan flat would be fast and in one way would be dangerous because I’d feel like I had a significant advantage to push a big gear and use my momentum to my advantage, but this terrain is likely worse because each potential effort is effort is less than a minute, and each can be justified alone, but added together they present an opportunity to shatter your ability to run that afternoon. The key for this section is patience, probably the most here out of the entire course.
Once through Osoyoos, Richter Pass is exactly like everyone describes. It comes in four stages, each being about the same grade with either a downhill roll or flat stretch between them. There is tons and tons of room on the road here and taking the climb easy is no problem. Likely ride each section seated and finishing out of the saddle before trying to get aero and crank the speed back up on the flat sections interspersing the climb. Descending this pass is fantastic, it’s a straight shot down the back and 80 kph is basically guaranteed in the aero position with deep wheels. Immediately out of this descent the infamous rollers begin and they’re what makes this bike course hard. Again, the opportunity to go hard here is dangerously readily available; luckily each hill is long enough that you’re not likely to do so (hammer) accidentally. I’ll be doing the same drills all spring and summer that I did this year to improve my efficiency on the rollers. Seated climb into standing climb, get aero on the top and get up to speed, soft pedal the downhill in a big gear and recover, ride through the gears on the beginning of the ascent making sure I don’t push any of them too hard and settle in on the climb at a moderate pace. This is a tough section to ride and saying that I’m going to actually take it easy here is impossible, or I’m just lying. Taking this section actually easy means you’ll be here all day. I do need to try and take it as easy as possible though. That means I really have to work on riding rollers for the 2010 season, it needs to become a strength of mine. I am great at riding blazing fast on the flats already at 80rpm for hours at a time but I need to continue to develop my skills on the short climbs at variable cadence. I don’t need to get fast on the equivalent of the Great White North Half Ironman course, I need to get efficient on the IMC course.
After the rollers end the rest of the ride really plays to my strengths. There is a long and flat stretch all the way to Keremeos, the focus here is staying aero and likely pushing a big gear. Keeping it totally controlled I’ll be allowing myself to ride relatively fast contingent on the conditions that I am keeping up with nutrition and feeling like this is an easy effort. The out and back isn’t as flat as the first traverse of the valley but it’s generally flat. Many people get bored here according to reports. That’s not something I typically deal with while riding and if I stay focused here I can imagine that I’ll be riding my way past some more quick swimmers in this section especially if there is some wind to contend with that will make the non disciplined triathletes loose focus and perhaps get out of the aerobars.
The course leaves the valley it was in and heads up towards Yellow Lake. It’ll be dangerous to think of the climb having started as soon as the turn is made, it doesn’t. The grade isn’t flat anymore but it’s probably best to think of it as just a hillier section of the out and back until I pass the turnoff to the Green Mountain Road. At this point there is a climb on highway 3A that lasts three miles and it’s a real climb. To think of Keremeos to Yellow Lake as one long 20km ascent will absolutely shatter any positive thoughts you had going for you, the real climb is short and only 5% and I’m sure it’ll be loaded with spectators. Riding that 3 mile section at a moderate effort is A-OK but not the entire 20 km. I’ll maintain my out-and-back race plan through to the beginning of the steep section, stay focused and ride steady. Hitting the top of the short climb it’s time to load up my bottle cages with all the weight I can scavenge from the volunteers handing out gatorade and water because it’s a long fast descent. I’ll probably try to eat a pseudo-meal at this point in the ride. It’ll be sometime around noon and I have 25km or half an hour left to go on the ride. I’m thinking somewhere around 500-700 calories at this point including an entire bottle of gatorade and then follow it with just water on the run down to Penticton. It’s a stress free ride down that hill and I can give my digestive system some time to work. I’ll definitely run an 11 tooth ring here and it’s an easy cruise, low cadence, take it easy and have some fun.
What I learned about the Bike course on Saturday by riding it I feel like I learned about the run course on Sunday by watching it. That’s not to say I know everything there is to know, but I learned so much about Ironman running by watching this race that it felt like I was ready to give it a try. Looking at the faces on people leaving transition it seemed obvious who was headed out there with mostly just hope of running 26.2 miles, those who knew they were going to run 26.2 miles, and those who were already considering the possibilities of not finishing or walking a huge stretch of the run. The difference quite clearly was not who looked fresh and who looked tired, no-one looked fresh and everyone looked tired. Ironman marathon running has basically nothing to do with marathon running in my opinion. The only thing that’s the same is that you have to run for 26.2 miles. I learned basically that I am going to be starting that run feeling tired and that it wasn’t a matter of maybe getting 15 miles into the run and having to run 10 miles tired. Marathon running in my experience is all about 20 miles of warming up and taking it easy and then 10 kilometers of a real push through to the finish. I had guessed that maybe this would be the same deal except the hold-on section of the run would just be way longer. It’s not like that at all, not the first part nor the second part. Everyone was starting with the look of fatigue in their faces and no-one has the potential to jus run hard for 3+ hours. This was true for people getting off of their bikes after a 1 hour swim and 5 hour ride almost to the same extent as for people getting off their bikes after 90 minutes in the water and 7 or 8 hours on the bike, you start the marathon tired. This is a fact.
People who likely were going to end up walking looked in really rough shape, no surprises. The difference between people who look like they’re likely to be successful and those who are maybe going to be successful is all about efficiency and focus. Some people look to be running along in fine form but their faces just look like they’re shell shocked, they were looking scared, eyes wandering all over the place at the crowds, fiddling with their fuel belts. adjusting and re-adjusting their racing clothes. I think a lot of them have thoughts going through their heads like ‘the end of Skaha is a long ways away from here’… followed shortly by ‘oh man, that’s only halfway’. The people who looked like they were on track for success were focused and just running. Many of them had smiles on their faces and it seemed to me that their focus was down the road, not to the end of the valley, they were blocking out all of the unnecessary stimuli. When the first AG athletes started to come back into town they looked exactly the same as they did when they went out. Their motion was unbelievably efficient and their focus was identical to how they looked on the way out. These were the people who managed to hop off their bikes and do exactly the same thing for 3 and a bit hours. It wasn’t about starting out, running a ways and then pushing really hard to the finish, these guys started out and were consistent for 26.2 miles. They were successful because they didn’t have to slow down and that’s it. The guys who came back into town two or three hours after that likely weren’t lacking as good of a race plan or pacing or likely even fitness. What separated them was the fact that they did not have the durability in their legs to set out and do exactly the same thing for 3.5 hours, which was run at a reasonable, even and controlled pace. Running was hard from step one until they got to the finish chute, but the ‘hardness’ was all difficulty and never effort. Marathon running has an effort level that necessarily picks up at the end to hold that ‘best physical limitation’ pace through the finish, from my observations Ironman running has a mental effort level that necessarily picks up at the end to just keep going.
Nutrition for Ironman no longer seems terribly complicated. Nutrition for the bike in my opinion is all about keeping enough calories in my stomach that I am forcing my stomach to absorb as much fuel as it possibly can. This means eating as much as it takes to keep me on the edge of starting to get full. In my experience that’s 400-450 calories per hour, no problem. I’ll eat a bunch at the top of yellow lake and let my stomach work through that for the last half hour on the bike mostly because I know I’ll be doing more than 50 kph for much of the descent and am unlikely to eat well, I finish off without having depleted myself and not a full stomach, but likely still some food in there. Getting on the run it’s going to be so hot that I can likely drink and drink and drink. Lots of that is going to be coke and gatorade, some gels in the mix if I am also drinking water which at the moment I think is probably unlikely, I’ll just be chugging gatorade. Nutrition on the run is actually pretty simple once I realized that to be successful the goal is just to hang in there and not slow down. That formula means: do what it takes not to slow down, stay cool, drink, run, drink, run, eat if I can, drink, run, stay cool, run, run, run. I’ll easily be getting 300 calories per hour on the run just by drinking if it’s hot, there is nothing complicated here. This was a relief to observe, figuring out nutrition has been of great interest to me thus far during my triathlon involvement and it’s something I’m pretty good at. Also note that what I might think is actually really simple is not super straightforward, the point being though that fueling during Ironman is guaranteed not to be more complicated than anything I’ve done before which is what I was expecting. I thought I had a big learning curve and the answer is no. Now that I know this, I think the only thing more complicated than what I’ve already done is nutrition for RAAM. No plans are set yet!
Going fast at Ironman actually seems simpler than going fast at a half Ironman. At the half distance the idea is to try and shave off just enough of your speed at each event from their stand-alone PB times that when you put them together you get to the finish as fast as you can. That means that you have lots and lots of things in the balance. You’re going pretty hard on the bike so you’ll get stomach aches if you try to eat too much. You can deal with cramping on the run because you really stressed your muscles on the bike to move fast. At Ironman, you swim, then you go for a slow bike ride during which you have to stay focused on the task at hand but never need to move quickly, you can eat lots of whatever you want because you’re not going too hard. Then you get off the bike, you’re tired and you have a long ways to go. What makes you fast is that you start out of the gates doing what you can do for the entire run, likely by the time you’re a few aid stations in you’ve got your pattern down and you do exactly that for the rest of the day. The concept of performing at the edge of your physical capacity does not look to be a component of Ironman success whatsoever. Ironman success is based on consistency, durability, focus, determination, self control. On race day that’s about all you need, and lots of those things don’t require training, they require learning. The one training based component, also the thing that I think has the potential to make me relatively quick is durability. I don’t have durability for Ironman running yet, I’ve got Ironman durability on the bike but no humanly possible bike ride can make up for slowing down on the Marathon and needing to walk a few miles. I also recognize that the durability that I’ve developed is not heat-proof. I need an asbestos coated durability for Penticton. So that’s all I’ve got to do in training: learn how to be a durable runner. Then do some fun stuff in training (on the bike or on bike-run bricks) that forces me to come face to face with my ability to stay focused, my determination to complete hard workouts, and self control to stay reserved in my efforts. That’s the recipe, if it bakes a good cake, then this blog post might be more interesting than I had first guessed it might be.
