This is our new Associate Coach Ryan Cain’s race report from IM Arizona this year, with a new PB time of 8:38!
IRONMAN ARIZONA – 8:38
Often when I write my race reports I try to come up with a theme or a slightly unique way of getting across how my day unfolded or I try to anyway. But with Ironman Arizona now in the books and a much needed week off afterwards, I think I will just go with a straight up account of how my race went. Who knows maybe there will be a thing or two of interest that pop up as I go.
In a nutshell, I am very pleased overall with my race, decent swim, good ride and slogged through a mediocre run, but in the process put together a respectable 8:38 Ironman PB. Even though it wasn’t the exact race I was hoping for, I went fast, got my ass handed to me and yet still came away smiling! Sometimes it’s the sum of all parts, not each part individually that make up a good day.
I swam reasonably well for me. I missed the pack that I should have been in, which was just a total bonehead/rookie move on my part. I lined up way off to the right in an attempt to get a nice firm start with clean water, also in an attempt to avoid the often ballistic speed of the pro men so often seen in races with this number of people. I was hoping to nail the tangent and hit the first turn right with the guys of big main pack. On my way out, I could see lots of smooth looking swim strokes to my right and I had clean water. I thought this was working perfectly I had avoided getting dropped from the word go and I didn’t exhaust myself trying to hold on… I thought that as we hit the first turn I would make my way into this group and ride the draft the rest of the way… however, as I hit the first turn buoy, I was solo. As we converged they somehow pulled ahead and I missed the train. This was frustrating as I realised I didn’t give myself enough credit on my swim fitness. With my lack of open water swimming in the last month or two, I figured I needed to outsmart the group whereas in hindsight I could have easily hung with them from the start. My solo effort was surely good enough to swim with a few of the contenders but alas I missed that train by not even starting in the station. Lesson learned! I still came out of the water in a decent 55 minutes!
Got out on the bike and felt great…the Trek Speed Concept was dialled in and ready, the boys at Bushtukah did a fabulous job this time around! I rode pretty aggressively off the start and throughout much of the way out on my first loop. I had averaged nearly 280 watts but didn’t really make up any ground to the front guys. Joseph Major went past me and I rode with him and another guy for a bit, but it was outside of what I knew I could hold watts wise so I backed off and let them go. I was pushing nearly 300 watts to stay within the same zip code as those guys…now they ended up riding 4:20 so it was no wonder I felt their pace was a bit rich for me. But I was also to check my ego and reminded myself that it was about what time you got to the finish, not what time you got out of the swim or off the bike. I settled into a good rhythm and rode well for the remainder of loop 1. Then got into the second loop and again let the watts drift a bit higher on the way out given the net uphill of the course (~260 watts), holding roughly 35-36km/hr but then hit the turn around and rode more like 44-45km/hr (240watts) coming home. Throughout the 2nd loop I was working with a couple of other guys and we rode pretty well and legal, or at least the guys I could see were. I felt like we might have been getting back some time to the lead pack. Yeah, we weren’t, but I thought we might have been and that optimism was good enough for me at that point. I took a longer pull at the front finishing off loop 2, but as I made the turn at ‘Hot Corner’ to start loop #3 there were no other dudes in sight, except for the multitude of AG athletes that we were overtaking. It was amazing to have that many people out on the course, and very few of them got in my way. Most were great at staying to the right and letting me go past. There were only 2 or 3 occasions that I had to brake and really wait to pass. I had more than enough room not to slipstream and ride legally. Once on the 3rd loop it was much of the same, lots of AG athletes, but unfortunately still I wasn’t catching many PRO Men. I settled in and rode my watts for the third loop and just tried to focus on having a good run. My lap splits were fairly consistent (lap 1 – 1:31/263watts, lap 2 – 131/248watts, lap 3 – 1:33/248watts) for a total of 4:37 and 256 watts.
I made a quick transition and got out on the run. I ran great from the start, was holding smooth sub 4min kms through 15 and everything felt great. My PE was awesome, I felt like I still had another gear to go to if needed, but I was just focusing on being relaxed and letting it come to me, staying in the moment. But once I hit an hour or so into the run things started to fade and I lost my 4min km pace and then immediately lost it mentally, then things basically came to a screeching halt. In the span of about 3-4km I went from feeling great and running very well to walking and not sure if I was going to finish. I ended up walking for a little under a mile or so. I came through half in roughly 1:31, so I had lost about 6 or 7 minutes in less than 5km. But at this point I saw my super supportive wife Lauren, who had some choice words for me as I slowly walked towards her. Those words will stay between her and I, but the bottom line is that she got me running again; albeit at a snail’s pace, considering how I started. But what I am most proud of is that I literally just slogged through the rest of the run at 7 minute miles, which for me was far off what I had done in training or expected come race day. I finished with a disappointing 3:02 marathon, but am proud of myself for finding something in me to keep moving forward no matter how bad I felt or how it was not going according to plan. Earlier this year I had a breakthrough 2:56 run at Ironman Lake Placid and given the flatter course in AZ and the fact that my run training had gone better in my build, I felt that I should’ve been able run closer to 2:52. In my eyes I was pretty far off that. But I am choosing to focus on the positives, like on a shitty run day I can still run a 3:02 marathon off the bike. I still PBed and still went 8:38… There are a lot of things to take forward and learn from, which is what makes any of us the consummate professionals that we are. We need to look at every obstacle and learn from it, take positives and come away better than when we went in.
Here is hoping that I will learn from this and come back even stronger. I know that not having a perfect race is definitely going to fuel my fire and keep me going over the winter!
As always I could not do any of this without my great sponsors, so thank you for my best season to date and I look forward to an even better 2014!
Huge shout outs to: Bushtukah, Trek, Saucony, PowerBar, TYR, NRG Performance Training, Doyle Homes, ScotiaMcLeod, Invesco
Cheers to little setbacks and moving forward…have a great off season! See you in 2 weeks…
First order of the off season…the famed TGW Beer Mile…